Somewhere South of Austin, TX.

9:30 PM

September 28, 1989

"I beg you," she pleaded, "Please... There is no one..."

"I can only tell, you insolent, little witch!" said She, "I can only pronounce who is dead and who is alive!"

"But there will be no other-" flash of Black Light silenced Katrina Pelki.

She was wearing a gown as light as a feather and darkest shade of red. Intricate patterns of dragons, stars, goblets, roses and candles were woven on the make-believe silk of the dress with black thread. The design looked like it was part of the fabric, because the thread matched the almost-s ilk of the red dress, in all but the color. It was almost as if the patterns were woven with the fabric. The gown was sleeveless, and the back was open all the way down to the back of the waist. Black elbow-high gloves covered the hands and arms of the beast that just killed the pregnant Katrina Pelki.

It was hard to tell what the girl on the ground was wearing but it looked like at prime time it used to be of high quality and suited for a gala. It was hard to recognize because the fabric was threadbare and torn and covered in blood of the victim.

She was still staring at the face of Katrina.

"Foolish," she muttered, "To die."

She picked up the train of her skirt that covered her legs, revealing five inch stilettos and a garter-like strap around her shin, which held almost two-foot long wand. It was black in color and very shiny, like it was covered in oil..The wand was very thin in diameter, a little thicker than an average number two pencil.

She bent over the victim's body and with the wand drew a line across the small of the woman's stomach, a little higher than an average Cesarean procedure. As soon as She stood up to her whole eight-feet, the Cesarean line began to tear apart. She smiled – inside twins were wrapped around each other. She directed her wand inside the corpse and mumbled a short spell. The two babies began to cru and rise up in the air, all the while straightening out and stretching revealing the human bodies aging – growing at a fantastic pace. When they were five feet off the ground, the boys could have passed for twenty year old men. Her smile vanished. With a flick of her wand She dropped the men on the ground where they shriveled up to resemble corpses of unborn babies, now dead.

She knew that her time was up. Nine months had she searched and searched to find the twins. How could they evade me for so long?! Her inner being asked, they can't be special at conception! That makes them indestructible! I can't go another minute, after these nine months of complete freedom, being someone else's slave. I absolutely CANNOT!

She looked at the corpses lying on the ground. She still had the image of the men in her mind - terrified but muted, and the mother! The mother was completely terrified. Nine months of this search, and the killing of the innocent. How many innocent! How many pure, that did not deserve dying in a fashion that they passed. And no one was responsible for these deaths except for Her. For her greed and ingratitude. She did not care for who lived or who died. She had wanted to secure her freedom.

I am so sorry.

She sighted, and with a turn disappeared.

Austin, TX

10:07 P.M.

September 28, 1989.

Sitting across the table was Cordelia Newitt blazing in a garb of orange and yellow silk. Cordelia somehow managed to dress the brightest and pull the look off flawlessly. She was beautiful, fifty year old witch with a passion for the fire element. "As I was telling the council the other day, we had to do something about Kerry Bryce... Have you sent the blazes she set in Kickapu? Defiantly magical and too close to that family of Norwelt… They let me take care of her. She is such a darling! She just never knew how to control her powers. Instead of punishing her, like Kingsley suggested, I helped her," Cordelia had always a lot to say, but she never rushed her words but poured them out carefully and very artistically, never too fast, never too slow.

"How is Kerry doing now?" Lilia felt dutiful to ask. Kerry seemed to be the only sane person in the area that did not stare at her or her stomach.

"Oh, much better! Those teachers at Brenham Institute! They are such a sorry bunch! Always have too much to say, but not about anything important!" Lilia smiled. She knew several BIMA professors, and privately agreed with Cordelia.

"Has anyone seen Katrina? She was suppose to come!" asked Matilda Bone, a friend of Cordelia's, who was sitting several spaces away chatting with Harold Bloomdale.

Katrina was in a way Lilia's body double. She was also young and also pregnant with twins, male twins in her case. Lilia worried about Katrina, even though Lilia was only several months senior to Katrina, Lilia felt appalled to put someone so young to protect her life. Several of Lilia's body doubles have already disappeared and only one dead corpse has been found. FBI was already involved, because homicide rates in Muggle population had significantly risen and pregnant women have been targeted the most: especially the ones who were pregnant with twins.

"I am starting to worry about Katrina, Rodney," whispered Lilia to her husband, who was sitting next to her, "and it makes me feel even worse because I keep thinking of Lena's mutilated body--"

"Do not worry about it! Everything will be better once the twins are born. You know that. It might sound insensitive, but there is little we can do for her. None of them had been put up to it. They all volunteered. Relax and breathe!" he whispered calmly. He didn't say this, but he, too, was worried. Any day, the twins will be born, and they will change Life, and, in some ways, Death, around them. They were the chosen ones, the only ones that will have the power to choose. Choose many things—how would you bring up kids like that? Such kids who were meant to do extraordinary things and perhaps change the whole race of wizards?

Upbeat song with a hint of blues began to play. The guests of the magical gala turned to the dance floor. The walls were draped with white cotton fabric and white Christmas lights were artistically pined to the walls. Everything else was achieved with magic. The sheets on the walls were sparkling like glitter, sparks of white light were floating in the air, and the ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky—a trick someone thought of to do, taking inspiration from a school in England. Even the long tables—which weren't tables at all, but table cloths that were enchanted to float like table tops, and the seats were enchanted in a very much the same way, so they were very comfortable to sit on. Lilia liked the "chairs" very much, since she could not dance due to her swollen ankles, she could at least bob around with the beat of the music. Rodney was sitting next to her contemplating life.

In many ways the gala was for his family: the accomplishments of Brandt dynasty. Until several years ago, the gala was actually named after their family. AS soon as Rodney married, and inherited all the titles that accompanied the position of the oldest son of the family he had changed the name to Charmed 13 Ball. Thus all of the original 13 Charmed families were represented and given credit for many of the accomplishments of the Charmed in whole. Rodney was only content at the moment. The name of the ball was the only thing he was allowed to change; he made little progress in every other aspect of Charmed law. If he could not change the society for the better, then why bother being a so-called "King"? He never sought out to rule, never. But leadership has always followed him where-ever he went: he was a Hogwarts Quidditch captain and the Head Boy, while doing the minimal amount of schooling at BIMA he was elected as the president of many school's societies and committees. Rodney never looked for power, but it had always sought him out; and since most of the time, Rodney believed that he was the best man for the job, so he gladly took the responsibilities handed to him.

Now, however, he wasn't so sure. If it took him two years to change a name of a ball, how long is it going to take to change other more important laws? Besides, Rodney didn't feel like he could do all that, and bring up two miracles (even with Lilia's help). He looked down at Lilia's stomach, to where his children lay. Suddenly, Lilia grabbed at her abdomen. Rodney looked up -- he could feel his wife's distress and pain, the emotions reached her face.

"I think my water just broke," Lilia gasped.