Author's Note: Thanks to BluCrayons for catching a few major errors in this chapter...that's what beta's are for though! Love ya, BluCrayons! Enjoy, everyone else!

Chapter 68: Sanctuary

"Please make yourselves comfortable," Irisi said as she led Micky and the others inside a large temple. Micky was still a little weak so he leaned on Mike a bit, but he wasn't in pain anymore. The temple was huge and beautifully adorned with artwork all done by hand. There were huge statues of the Egyptian Gods and Goddess, mostly Isis and there were several beautiful stone benches lining the walls. In the very center of the room was a large shallow pool filled with water. It glistened and sparkled, even though there was no sunlight striking it, and was lined all around with pillows and cushions.

"What is this place?" Davy asked walking in awe.

"Sanctuary," Irisi answered. "You are safe here. Rest for the night. Regain your strength. The waters are healing, so feel free to get in the pool. Isis always talks about how it frees her mind up." Micky noticed she looked directly at Piper with these last words as though trying to tell her something more before turning back to the rest of them. "Tomorrow we will set out and save our goddess."

"Thank you," Piper said. Irisi bowed in gratuity before she and the other women left down a side door to another part of the temple.

"Well that was interesting," Peter said as Mike lowered Micky onto the pillows near the pool.

"Can we trust them?" Mike asked Piper as he took a seat next to Micky. Peter and Davy followed suit, but Piper started pacing a little.

"I actually think we can," Piper said a little nervously though.

"You guys wanna fill me in on what the heck just happened?" Micky asked.

"Well, it would seem the scythe opened a broken portal," Peter answered.

"I'm not talking about that," Micky said. "I heard that part. I'm talking before that. In the bunker with you and the Devil."

"Micky, that was all an act," Piper said.

"You kissed him," Micky said flatly.

"I had to," Piper said. "You think I liked that? I still wanna throw up."

"Micky, she had to get him to let her go," Mike tried. "She had to make up some sob story and get him to think that she could be turned so that she could distract him. It was our only hope of getting us all out of that."

"It was pretty convincing," Davy said. "I'll give her that."

"That's because it wasn't really a sob story," Piper said. "What I said was true. I owe you that explanation. I'm sorry. Micky, you have to know the only thing I didn't mean was that I didn't care about you. I do. I love you so much and everything that happened in my past is in my past, but you guys should know what it was. He might use it against me now that he knows."

"I know you love me," Micky said. "I didn't question that."

"It seemed like you were," Piper said remorsefully.

"I just had no idea what was going on," Micky said. "I didn't know if he'd done something to you."

"No," Piper answered. "He didn't."

"So what exactly happened?" Mike asked. "You said your grandfather raped your grandmother and he was a demon. Does that make you part demon?"

"Yes," Piper answered. "But it doesn't change who I am. I have some demon blood in me, but it doesn't make me evil. I promise. My grandfather raped her and she died in childbirth. My great-grandmother tried to get revenge, but ended up taking my mother and hiding with her from him. She raised my mother to be a good witch. My mother met an amazing male witch and they married. A few years before I was born, they finally tracked down my grandfather and my father killed him. The trouble I got into in school was nothing more than normal teen rebellion. I dated a lot of bad boys, I stole some stuff, I thought I was pregnant a few times, I did drugs, but I cleaned up. My mother died of cancer about a year after I graduated high school and it was because of that, I changed my life. I am not the same girl I was in high school. A few years ago my father was killed by a demon and since then, I've devoted my life to saving as many innocent lives as I can."

"Wow," Peter said. "That's so sad."

"So you promise there's nothing wrong?" Micky asked. "No spell gone awry? All that was an act?"

"I promise," Piper said walking over to embrace and kiss him. "I love you, Micky. I just thought that since he said those things about me while we were on the Titanic...I thought maybe he would buy the distraction. And when he told me to kiss him, I almost lost it. I almost couldn't do it. But I saw how hurt you were and I couldn't let you get hurt any worse. I'm so sorry you had to see that. All of you."

"It's ok," Davy said. "We knew it was an act."

"I'm sorry I hurt you, Mike," Piper said.

"You didn't hurt me that bad," Mike said. "Not really. And you did what you had to. We may not be home, but at least we aren't in immediate danger anymore."

"So he was going to kill you with that scythe?" Micky asked.

"That's how the portal opens," Piper nodded.

"But it got messed up when you fought over it and brought us here?" Micky asked for clarification. He didn't even know how they ended up in that boat.

"Yes," Mike answered. "We landed in the middle of the desert. I think we all were pretty much knocked out for a bit. But Davy grabbed the scythe in the middle of a dust storm."

"That's when Irisi came," Piper finished. "She's the one who healed you. She healed all of us. The scythe cut my hand."

"Right," Micky said. "So she's a witch?"

"I guess," Piper said. "She said Isis gave her a gift. I don't really know what that means."

"Yeah, I thought gods were just demons," Davy said.

"They are," Piper said. "Demons and powerful witches. But they were more like precursors to witches. More powerful. And somewhat immoral. Like demons are today. They can live to be hundreds of years old."

"So is Irisi then like one of the first witches or something?" Davy asked.

"Possibly," Piper answered. "Probably, in fact."

"Ok, any ideas on how we're gonna save this goddess then?" Mike asked. "Hopefully we save her, and she can send us home."

"I don't know," Piper answered. "I think the first thing we should focus on is finding her."

"How are we gonna do that?" Peter asked.

"I don't know," Piper answered again. "Maybe I can try getting a vision or scry for her."

"Scry?" Micky asked.

"Magical way of locating things," Piper answered quickly deep in thought. "But I don't have a map of Egypt and I doubt one would be easy to find. And my visions don't always happen when I want them to. I can try and meditate, but I'm not sure it'll work."

"The water," Micky said.

"Huh?" Piper asked.

"Irisi looked directly at you when she said Isis used the water to clear her mind," Micky said. "I think that she meant something important by that."

"You want me to get in the water?" Piper asked.

"What could it hurt?" Micky asked. "Most you'll do is get wet."

"I've never seen water like this," Peter said looking at it in awe. "It's so sparkly." Piper looked at it hesitantly for a moment before dipping her hand in slowly.

"Well?" Micky asked.

"I can definitely feel power emanating from it," Piper said.

"Did you get a premonition?" Micky asked.

"No, but maybe I need to get further in," Piper said. "I just don't want to get my clothes wet."

"There's linen over there," Micky pointed over in the corner. "Just wrap yourself up in that. We'll close our eyes."

"Thank you," Piper said kissing him softly before getting up. Micky and the others closed their eyes until they heard the soft swish of the water. Micky looked at her walk waist deep into the water, the white linen cloth clinging around her waist. The water barely rippled around her. She reached the center of the pool and closed her eyes and they waited.

"What happened?" Davy asked when her eyes snapped open.

"I've never had a vision that clearly before," Piper said walking back towards them. Mike grabbed a towel nearby and wrapped it around her as she climbed out of the pool to sit back next to Micky. "I know where she is. I know what happened. And I know how to save her."

"How?" Mike asked. "Where is she?"

"She's in one of his temples south of here," Piper said. "He's using an enchanted stone to suck her powers. If we break into the temple and break the stone, we can break her out."

"We should break into teams then," Mike suggested. "One go after Isis, the other go after the stone."

"Irisi knows the area better than we do, so maybe she should go look for Isis," Piper said. "And I can break the stone giving Isis her powers back. It'll be well guarded, so I'll need you guys to come with me."

"Won't Isis be guarded, too?" Mike asked.

"Probably," Piper said. "Mike, you go with Irisi; the rest of you will go with me. Irisi has enough magic to fight off any guards with your help."

"Ok, why don't we all get some sleep," Mike agreed. "We'll need our energy and we've been through a lot over the past few days."

"How's your stomach?" Piper asked Micky as Peter and Davy set up the pillows into comfortable places to sleep.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Micky said lifting up his shirt to show Piper. "I feel a little weak, but I don't feel any pain anymore. She did a really good job." Mike inspected it, too, and was happy to see that there wasn't even a mark on his stomach.

"It looks perfect," Piper said giving his stomach a little poke. "That doesn't hurt?"

"Nope," Micky said. "What about you guys? What happened to you anyway, Mike? Your shoulder was bleeding."

"Fine," Mike said inspecting his shoulder. "I got shot, but I think the bullet only grazed me anyway."

"I wanna know what that stuff was," Piper said admiring her hand. "That was actually a pretty deep cut on my hand and I don't feel anything now. I've never seen anything that powerful."

"Well, we can ask her in the morning," Micky said. "For now, Mike's right. We need to sleep."

"Yeah, you still look a little pale," Peter said. Micky nodded and laid down on the pillows Davy had set up for him pulling Piper close to him. He knew she loved him with all her heart, but when she had kissed the Devil, he couldn't help feeling his heart explode. He was terrified that the Devil had done something to her and that he was going to lose her. Now he refused to let her go. He didn't care about her past or what small amount of blood may have been demonic; all he cared about was her and how perfect she was in that moment. She was smart, cunning, beautiful, and funny. And that was only the beginning of the list of qualities he loved about her.

She rested her hand on his stomach where his wound had been as though afraid it would come back. She then rested her head against his chest as though listening to his breathing to make sure it wouldn't stop. Micky didn't resist though. Whatever made her feel safer about him, too. As they fell asleep, he slowly ran his fingers through her soft hair until he felt her breathing slow as she finally fell asleep.