Up in the attic, the Armai'ach rested against a bookshelf, perfectly intact. A dozen broken potion bottles littered the floor around it. Now Belthazor was hurling energy balls at it to little success, but he looked like he was having a great time.

And, surprisingly, so was Prue. At some point she and Belthazor had become respectable and found glasses for their vodka, and she poured them each another shot. "I don't think you're doing anything to it," she shouted over the sound of the cracking energy.

"I think you're right," he said. Belthazor stopped and wiped his brow. He went over to Prue, tucked away on the attic couch, and grabbed his glass. "To keeping the bats in their caves, where they belong."

"Hear, hear," said Prue, before taking a long sip.

Belthazor drank as well. He chuckled at the look on her face as Prue swallowed. "Been awhile?"

"Too long," said Prue. She ran a finger around the rim of her glass. "What did you say to Leo before they escaped?"

"What did I say?" he repeated. "Nothing important. Typical demon bravado stuff, 'I'm gonna kill you so hard', you know."

"Actually, I don't," Prue said pointedly, looking into Belthazor's eyes. She hadn't noticed how blue they were until now. "It seemed like you two had history."

Belthazor snorted and took another sip. "We do, although it seems like I'm the only one who remembers it."

Prue winced. "That must make it worse." She hadn't really eaten dinner– typical– and the liquor was going right to her head. "What do I call you?"

"What?"

"Belthazor's a really long name. Do you have a nickname or something? Belty?"

He grimaced. "Never say that again." But then he hesitated, studying the vodka in his glass with the intensity of a chemist. "You can call me Cole."

"Cole? Where'd you get a name like that?"

"From my father," he said. "He was human."

Now he had Prue's attention. "You're half-human?"

"Yeah, don't spread it around. Doesn't exactly make you popular in the Underworld."

Prue crossed her arms. "Now you have to tell me how you know Leo."

Cole looked out the attic window, gripping his glass like a vice. "My mother was a demon. She fell in love with my father and lived as a mortal after I was born. Somehow she met Leo, who, I can only assume, talked her into supporting the Vampire Queen's coup against the Source. He probably told her that she'd be off the Source's radar and in the Queen's good graces, but it didn't end well."

"The Source killed her?"

Cole shook his head. "No. But he forced her to kill my father. Then he brought her back into the fold, made her one of his lieutenants, and forced her to start training me so I could enter his service one day." He took a long sip of his drink. "She probably would've preferred death, but the Source knew that."

"That's why you want revenge."

Cole nodded. "Yes."

"Leo killed my Grams and Piper; he basically killed Phoebe too." Prue's blue eyes started to shine. "When we destroy the tablet, let's go after Leo. You and me."

Cole's eyes glittered as well. "I thought you wanted to be the one to put the stake in his heart."

"I do," she admitted. "But I'll let you get in a few licks first."

"I'll take it," he said quickly. Cole raised his glass again. "To getting our revenge."

They clinked on it. "Cheers," said Prue.

There was a flicker; four white candles sitting in a cluster suddenly lit, and the ghost of Penny Halliwell appeared. "Prue!"

"Grams!" she said, rising to her feet. Prue suddenly felt like an idiot in her bedraggled hunter gear, doing shots with a literal demon. "What are you–"

"There's no time. Beware of Phoebe."

"What?"

"She means well, but– Prue, your mother and I haven't seen her in years, and they've been whispering into her ear this entire time!"

"What is she talking about?" said Cole.

All of a sudden, balls of blue appeared, clustering together in the attic. "I have to go, I'm sorry," said Penny. She vanished, the candles extinguishing themselves.

"Is that your Whitelighter?" asked Cole.

Prue shook her head. "I don't have one anymore."

The blue orbs dissipated, revealing… Prue collapsed back onto the couch. "Oh my God."

Paige and Phoebe dropped hands. Her baby sister, the one whom she had watched die on the parlor floor, walked towards her. "Hi, Prue," said Phoebe. "I'm sure you have a lot of things you'd like to say."

Prue's brain wasn't moving in time with her mouth. It took her a moment to even make a sound. "What the hell is going on? What are you doing with this girl?"

"Paige is our baby sister, Prue," said Phoebe. "A Halliwell."

Cole crossed his arms, keeping a reasonable distance from the family reunion. "Huh."

Phoebe explained: the Vampire Queen could not be allowed to rise. The Elders took this threat so seriously that they were willing to pool their collective magic to harness the power of All Hallows Eve when the walls between worlds was thinnest, and allow Phoebe to return to Earth. Their plan? For Phoebe and Paige to join together with Prue to activate the power of the Charmed Ones long enough to destroy the Armai'ach. "One night and one night only," Paige joked grimly.

Prue nodded a lot while Phoebe spoke. Her explanations were clear and concise, almost annoyingly so. Where was her passionate, petulant little sister? Beware of Phoebe were words that wouldn't easily leave Prue's head.

"So you already have the Armai'ach," said Phoebe. "Have you figured out a way to destroy it?"

Cole gestured to the broken potion bottles around the tablet. "Work in progress."

Phoebe looked him up and down. "Yes. Thank you, Belthazor, we'll take it from here."

"It's fine, Phoebe, he's been helping me," said Prue.

"And I'm not leaving until I can tell the Source that the tablet's destroyed," said Cole.

"We don't need a demon's help," said Phoebe.

Paige suddenly grabbed Prue's arm, hard enough to make her wince. "Where's Gary?" she asked. "Shouldn't he have gotten back here not long after Phoebe and I did?"

Smash!

The attic window shattered. A huge rock with a piece of paper tied to it crashed into the floor, sticking out of the floorboards. "Oh my God!" said Paige.

Phoebe went to the rock and removed the note. "'We have your witch'," she read out loud. "'You have two hours to trade him for the tablet, otherwise we're coming back to collect it ourselves'."

Gary: Prue's teacher, healer, chauffeur, stalwart companion, and only defense against crippling loneliness. And Leo and Piper had him.

Prue ran towards the window, where she saw a bat flying into the horizon. "You son of a bitch!" Prue screamed into the night. "I will find you and I will kill you!"

Piper was in their chambers when Leo returned. "What the hell is this?" he said, gesturing to the bed, where Gary lay asleep.

"My new child," she said. Piper chuckled to herself. "Prue's going to lose her mind."

"Damnit, Piper, the witch was supposed to be bait!"

"Prue doesn't know he's dead," said Piper. "It's not like we were going to trade him back anyway."

Leo growled under his breath. She wasn't wrong, but…

Gary stirred, moaning softly. Piper set the book aside and moved to the bed. "Hello," she said, taking one of Gary's hands. "Welcome to Čachtice."

Gary hardly moved; he looked back and forth between Piper and Leo with terrified eyes. "There's nothing to be afraid of," said Piper. "I know vampire hunters hate being turned. And I know all of that anger goes away as soon as they feed."

Gary gasped, bringing his hand to his mouth; his fangs popped out. "Someone's hungry," said Leo.

Leo, called the Queen. The ritual approaches, and my body needs preparation.

This is really not the time, he wanted to reply.

"Is she calling?" Piper said, catching the distant look in Leo's eye.

"Yes," he said through gritted teeth. "I'll be back soon."

"I know you will, sweetheart." Piper brushed Gary's shaggy hair out of his face. "While you do that, I'm going to help this one seal his transition."

"Don't go far," said Leo. "We leave for the manor–"

LEO!

"Coming!" he shouted before shape shifting and flying away.

Gary looked to Piper. She stood and extended a hand to him. "Come on. There's no time to waste."

He gazed at Piper in a way that made her question whether or not Gary could even hear her. But after a long moment he pulled himself to his feet, and followed her.

Prue stood at the Book of Shadows, eyeing the broken attic window before she read:

"Let the object of objection become but a dream,

As I cause the seen to be unseen."

Before Paige's eyes, the window repaired itself; the glass on the floor vanished. Paige sat on a couch, watching Prue turn back to Phoebe. Not too far away from her, Cole stood silently. He and Paige watched the Halliwells volley back and forth to one another like the Williams sisters. It gave her an idea as to what her sisters had been like as little girls.

"We can't wait any longer," said Prue. "The longer Gary's in Čachtice, the more likely it is that Leo and Piper get hungry and kill him before they can trade him back!"

"The Queen wants the Armai'ach, she's not going to do anything to jeopardize that," said Phoebe. She was pacing the attic, her hands tucked behind her back in a way that was almost monk-like. "If we become Charmed–"

"We'll have two baby witches running around with out-of-control powers," said Prue. "Besides, vampires are immune to them. They can't be frozen, they can't be… premonition'd to death. The powers could hurt more than they help."

"But with the Power of Three, we can cast a spell to destroy the Arma'iach, and then we can rescue Gary," said Phoebe. "The greater good must be served first."

"Are you kidding me, Phoebe?" said Prue. "What kind of spiritual lobotomy did they give you up there?"

"This isn't helpful," said Cole. He'd been standing near the couch by Paige, watching. "I suggest we–"

Cole yelped as flames rose from the attic floor, wrapping around his waist, and dragged him away. Paige leapt off the couch and tripped over a box, landing on the floor. "What was that?!"

"He was summoned by his demonic overlords," said Phoebe. "Nothing we need to worry about."

Cole was sucked into the Underworld and landed before the Source and his Seer breathless, on one knee. "An update, Belthazor," he said.

"My lord," he gasped, "I found the Armai'ach before the vampires could take it."

"Where is it? What have you been doing with it all this time?" asked the Source. Cole could feel the thunder of his voice in his bones.

"Working to destroy it– I didn't realize it was almost indestructible."

"Perhaps if you weren't enjoying your time with the witch so much, you would have already found a way to do so," said the Seer.

The Source's hood tilted towards the Seer. "What witch do you speak of?"

"I took an opportunity to make a deal and it worked," said Cole. "The witch and I had mutual goals, it was– happenstance."

The Seer smiled serenely. "In my line of work, Belthazor, I have come to learn that there is little that is truly 'happenstance'."

Cole didn't know what she was implying, but he didn't like it.

"Do what you must to destroy the artifact," said the Source. "The Vampire Queen must not rise!"

"Yes, my lord," said Cole, before shimmering away.

He wasn't out of the underworld when something grabbed Cole, like being snatched by the back of the neck. A powerful force dragged him down and threw him into an empty, dimly-lit corner.

Cole materialized on his back, looking up at the Seer. "Good evening, Belthazor."

"Seer," he said warily. "Enjoying your All Hallows so far?"

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him to his feet. "Bring me the Armai'ach," she said. "Whatever you do, do not destroy it."

It had been a long night already, and it wasn't over yet. "You want it?" asked Cole, confused. "For the Source?"

The Seer laughed, a fantastically musical sound. "In a way."

Cole had been in the underworld long enough to read through the lines. "You want to become the Source?"

"You have no idea the machinations I have made in time and space for this to occur." Cole swallowed hard; she was right. "The Armai'ach has several rituals on it. One of them is a spell not unlike the Hollow, but that doesn't corrupt the user. With it, I'll be able to steal the essence of the Source. You understand that I, too, have no desire to see the Queen rise: I do not wish to begin my reign at war. Do what you must to keep the Armai'ach out of her hands, but when morning comes, the tablet is mine. If you are able to do so, I have a reward for you."

Cole's head was spinning. "Reward?"

"I know where the Triad keeps your father's soul," said the Seer. "And for the Armai'ach, I am willing to make a trade."

Cole hesitated. "This is a trick."

"I can see why you would think that." The Seer's lips parted into a brittle smile. "But I have always been a woman of my word, can you deny that? Nevertheless. We shall see what the next few hours will bring."

The Seer released her hold on Cole; he shimmered out of the underworld and back to Halliwell manor, more uneasy than ever.