A/N: Thanks bunches to Chlollie, Draco's-Loyal-Longing, Moni, and lizardmomma for reviewing. Things start to pick up in this chapter, so I hope it is to everyone's satisfaction. Happy reading.

Chapter Three

Piper went to stand beside Prue by the Book and waited for Grams and Patty to begin.

"We heard about what happened to Phoebe," Grams started, pausing to see her granddaughters' reactions.

Prue waited for her to continue, wearing her poker face while Piper suppressed her impatience.

"We've been sent down here to guide you temporarily," Patty continued for Grams.

Piper stared at them for a moment before asking, "Guide us to what?"

"To your new destiny," Patty replied.

Prue and Piper exchanged exasperated looks. "The only destiny I want is to find Phoebe and put this whole mess behind us," Prue said angrily, crossing her arms.

Piper nodded in agreement.

"That's what we're trying to help you do, dear. But you won't be able to do it with a simple summoning spell and a couple of potions. You need the Power of Three," Grams interjected, raising her eyebrows and looking at Prue and Piper mysteriously.

Prue threw her hands in the air and gave her mother and grandmother a look that said, 'Are you serious?'

"How can we use the Power of Three when the third sister is missing?"

"By replacing her," Grams said simply, as though they should've known that all along.

"Replace her?" Piper looked at her mother in confusion, hoping she could clarify.

She did.

"I know it isn't an ideal solution, but if there is one thing you've learned by being witches, it's that everything happens for a reason. And this needs to happen, or else you might never see Phoebe again," Patty said softly, using the motherly tone that they both missed so much.

"But replace her with who? Another witch? I thought the Charmed Ones came from the Halliwell line," Piper stated, her eyebrows raised, waiting for one of the ghosts to go on.

Patty smiled lovingly at her middle daughter. "They do. And I think it's about time..." she looked to Penny for support, then turned back to her daughters, "...that you learned about Paige."

"Who is Paige?" Prue asked, thinking her mother was referring to a distant cousin or some other relative they would have otherwise not known about.

"My fourth daughter. And your half-sister," Patty said, holding her breath.

Piper's eyes opened wider. This couldn't be happening. They were playing a joke on them. They had to be. Phoebe was their mother's last child. How could there be another?

"What?" Prue asked in disbelief, looking from Patty to Grams, then back again.

"It happened after your father left, obviously. Sam and I grew closer as friends...then it became something more than that. We...well, a relationship blossomed, and I became pregnant," Patty explained.

"I don't remember you being pregnant after Phoebe. I think I would have noticed," Prue pointed out, laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

Patty shook her head sadly. "No, sweetie. You, along with your sisters, just thought I got a little fat. You had no idea I was pregnant, and after I gave birth to Paige, Sam and I took her to a local church. We asked the nun there to find a home for her, and that was the last time I ever saw her. By the time I got home, you didn't suspect a thing."

"So you gave her away?" Piper asked.

Patty nodded. "Sam and I had no choice. If the Elders ever found out that Sam and I had a child together, they might not have allowed you two and Phoebe to receive your powers. They might have denied you your destiny, and all the good you've done as witches wouldn't have happened. I couldn't take that chance, we,"she said, indicating herself and Grams, "couldn't let that happen."

Prue shook her head and Piper watched her, knowing she, like Piper, couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"So you guys lied to us our entire lives? You gave away our sister just because you were afraid that Piper, Phoebe, and I wouldn't be allowed to become the Charmed Ones? Don't you think that's a bit selfish?" Prue snapped.

Patty blushed, an impressive feat for a ghost. "Maybe, but what's done is done. And now that Phoebe is gone, the Elders are worried that Evil now has the upper hand. They need the Charmed Ones reconstituted and the balance restored."

"What makes you all think we're going to do this? What if we don't? What if we let the Charmed Ones stay broken forever?" Prue demanded, glaring at Grams and Patty with understandable anger.

Grams smiled sympathetically. "You won't, because then you would never see Phoebe again. Like it or not, this is your new destiny. Get angry at it, cry about it, but don't fight it."

"Just think about this if nothing else," Patty said, taking over for Grams, whose words had made Prue and Piper even more resistant than they already were. "The sooner you find Paige and get her to the Book with you, the sooner she will receive her powers and you can find Phoebe."

"I still don't see how replacing Phoebe with Paige is the only way to find her. Why can't we just go down to the Underworld and take her? Or use the 'To Call A Lost Witch' spell?" Piper said, speaking up again.

"Because Phoebe is too far gone. The call won't be strong enough," Grams replied, her voice softer this time.

Piper gulped then looked at her feet.

"Come, Patty. The rest is up to them," Grams said, and the sisters watched as their relatives disappeared in a swirl of bright white lights.

When Phoebe woke up, she was lying on her back on the ground of a different, much larger cave than the one they had previously been in. A black cotton blanket was draped across her.

A moment later she remembered the demon attack and the sword and feeling incredibly dizzy.

"Cole? Cole?" she called, finding that her voice was barely there.

No answer. She tried to sit up, her head throbbing as she did so. She wished desperately for an aspirin, but knew she would never find one down here.

"Cole?" she called again, a little stronger that time. "Cole, please answer me!"

Still there was no answer. Worried, she stood up and threw the blanket to the ground, raising her hand to her head, as the throbbing was only becoming worse.

She wanted to leave the cave, but knew she was too weak to fight should she run into any demons.

Then a thought occurred to her. What if Cole's been found? What if the Source was holding him against his will, waiting for Phoebe to come find him so that he could kill her?

Her head spun just thinking about it. She refused to believe that. Cole was too smart to get caught now. He must've been out finding food or water or something.

At the thought of food, Phoebe's stomach let out a loud grumble. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten. Two days at least. Phoebe thought about the manor and Piper, cooking some exotic dish in the kitchen. She thought about it so hardly that she could practically smell the aroma of pasta and garlic bread. It helped the hunger, but at the same time made it that much worse.

Then an unexpected wave of jealousy filled her being. Prue and Piper were probably eating breakfast, enjoying the fact that they didn't have to share.

But deep down in her heart, Phoebe knew that wasn't true. Still, she couldn't shake off that annoying negativity towards her older sisters. Why was she suddenly feeling this way? Was it the amount of time she had spent in the Underworld?

Before she could dwell on the thought anymore, Cole entered the cave, holding two bottles of water and four pieces of toast.

"You're up. Thank god, I was beginning to worry," Cole said, giving Phoebe a quick yet passionate kiss.

"You left me here alone? Cole, what's the matter with you?" Phoebe asked incredulously.

"I put a concealment charm on this cave. Only you and I can come in here," Cole explained impatiently. "I thought you might be hungry." He handed her two pieces of toast.

"This was the best you could find?" Phoebe asked with a hint of annoyance. She took the toast nonetheless and took a bite out of one piece.

"I didn't want to steal too much lest someone be suspicious, and I couldn't buy anything since we have no money. This was the best I could do," Cole said, and handed her one of the bottles of water.

Phoebe gulped down half the bottle in one sip, knowing it wasn't the smartest thing to do but not caring.

"Phoebe, you might want to slow down. We don't know when we'll get another opportunity for nourishment," Cole explained hesitantly, noticing the changes in Phoebe's behavior.

"I thought the whole point of us staying down here was to stay alive. We can't very well stay alive without food, Cole!" Phoebe pointed out, a little more harshly than she had intended.

"Yeah, well, the more I travel up, the more they'll sense me, and if they sense me we're as good as dead. C'mon Phoebe. I know it's hard, but we've got to stick together. We need to follow our plan and find a way to kill the Source," Cole said, leaning down to hug Phoebe, his anger forgotten.

Phoebe sighed and nodded into his shoulder, knowing he could feel it. Cole was right. Him traveling back and forth wasn't smart, and they needed to be smart if they expected to survive.

"Speaking of killing the Source, where did the Seer go?" Phoebe asked, although she didn't really care.

"She's with the Source. We need her to distract him while we set the plan in motion," Cole explained, leading them both to the far corner of the cave where Phoebe had woken up.

"And what is the plan, exactly?" Phoebe asked, finishing the first piece of toast.

"We're still figuring that part out. But it shouldn't be too hard to do that. After all, you're one of the Charmed Ones, and I'm a powerful demon. Together we might be strong enough to vanquish him, but we need to get him up there somehow. He's the most powerful down here. He's weakened when he goes up, that's why he sends demons to do his bidding," Cole explained.

It didn't sound like a plan to Phoebe, and she told Cole as much.

"I don't see how we can kill him by ourselves. We've needed the Power of Three to vanquish some of his most powerful demons. How can a witch and a demon do it alone?" she asked.

"If we can tap into the magic of your ancestors and mine, we might be able to draw enough power to vanquish him. But it's a long shot. That's why we need the Seer to distract him. We need the element of surprise," Cole replied.

Phoebe still wasn't convinced, but didn't tell Cole that. He was trying so hard to keep them both alive.

"This is the main reasons you need to stay strong, Phoebe. We need to vanquish the Source soon if we expect to succeed," Cole continued, touching Phoebe's shoulder gently.

"How soon?" Phoebe whispered.

"By the end of the week."

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Piper asked as she and Prue stood in front of a green door, the number 11 plastered in the center in chipped gold numbers.

"It was the address Darryl gave us," Prue answered, looking at the address on the paper then looking up at the door.

Immediately after Grams and Patty disappeared Prue had called their police friend Darryl Morris, expressing to him the importance of finding this Paige woman. Of course it hadn't been easy since all they had to go on was a first name, but Darryl had checked into the church that Patty had left the baby at, and just tracked her down from there.

"So this is where our half-sister lives. Sort of anti-climatic, isn't it?" Piper asked, looking around the hallway in disgust.

"Well, if we expect to replace Phoebe and reconstitute the Charmed Ones, she won't be living here for very long," Prue stated, though the look on her face indicated that she agreed whole-heartedly with Piper.

"Ready?" Prue asked.

"As ready as I'm ever going to get," Piper replied, and nodded to her older sister to knock on the door.

Prue knocked hardly on the door three times. A second later the door opened, revealing a woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She had shoulder-length jet black hair and pale skin. She reminded Prue of Snow White, and a little bit of herself. She has Mom's eyes, Prue thought to herself.

The woman looked at the women with confusion. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Prue snapped out of it, remembering why they were here. "Hi. My name is Prue Halliwell, and this is my sister Piper. Can we come in?"

The woman hesitated. "I don't think that's a good idea. I'm late for work."

"It'll only take a minute. Please," Prue promised, staring into the woman's eyes, hoping that she could express the urgency they felt.

"Okay, but make it quick. But whatever you're selling, I'm not buying," the woman said as she opened the door so Prue and Piper could enter.

"We're not here to sell you anything. We're here to tell you something about your family. Paige," Piper said once they were inside, earning a shocked look from the woman.

"How'd you know my name is Paige?" she asked, alarmed.

Prue gave her what she hoped to be a friendly smile. "Because we think you're our sister. Our long lost half-sister from our mother's side."

Paige looked baffled yet intrigued. "Do you know something about my mother?" she asked.

Piper nodded. "If you are who we think you are, then we can tell you all about her. But first, you need to come with us."

"Where?" Paige asked, back to looking suspicious.

Prue took her hand and led her to the door. "Back to the Halliwell manor. We need to show you something."