Paige woke up groggily. She was propped up against something hard and cold. As her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, Paige thought she was in a cave, until she saw the silver bars in the distance. She was in a cage.

"Hello?" Her voice was barely a croak. Paige's neck felt like it was on fire.

"Paige?" Across from her was Cole, battered and dusty. He wore a huge silver bracelet on each wrist, and they seemed to hum at a low frequency. Beside him was Prue, looking— not good. Paige wasn't sure she was even conscious. Her face was blossoming with bruises in various shades of green and purple. Her lips were puffy, and dripping with–

The smell of blood hit Paige like a bolt of lightning, making her mouth water. What the hell? she thought, before the memories of the rest of the evening came flooding back to her. Paige remembered Gary biting her. She ran her tongue over her teeth, and found fangs.

"No," she whimpered. Paige didn't want to cry, this was no time to cry, but if there was ever a reason to cry, becoming a vampire was one.

"Shut up," said Prue. It was hard to understand her through swollen lips. "If I had my powers–"

"Welcome, friends," a woman greeted them, her voice rich and warm to Paige's ears. A dark-haired woman in red robes approached the bars of their cage, flanked by Leo, Piper and Gary: the Vampire Queen. "I cannot share how much I appreciate you fetching the Armai'ach for me."

Prue made a low sound in her throat. The Queen turned her attention to her with a gloating smile. "Miss Halliwell. We finally meet. Do you know how many of my children you've killed over the years?"

Prue casually shrugged and immediately regretted it, biting back a moan as pain rippled through her broken arm. "No matter. I've found a way to make up for their loss," said the Queen. "The ritual requires a blood sacrifice. I think you'll do nicely.

"As for you," said the Queen, looking at Paige, "it's time to welcome you into the family."

The bars of the cage faded into nothingness. Gary moved to Paige and pulled her to her feet. He helped Paige past the cage's threshold, and the bars became opaque again. "We'll be back to prepare you for the ritual," the Queen said to Prue. "You'll need to be thoroughly cleansed." The Queen spun on her heel and left, with her clan right behind her.

Cole waited until the vampires were out of sight. "Can you stand?"

"I don't know," said Prue. "Maybe. Walking's definitely out."

"Even if you could walk, and we were able to get these bracelets off, and we broke through the bars of the cage, there's nowhere to walk to without running into a bunch of bats!" said Cole, his voice rising in frustration. He looked at the anti-magic bonds with such intensity, Prue thought he might try to chew them off. "What happened to Phoebe?"

"I don't know," said Prue. "I think Piper knocked her out. Can you knock out a dead person?"

Cole let out a short laugh. "I don't know."

"What happens now?" Prue puffed out her chest, tried to sit up as if she wasn't injured, but Cole moved to brace her against the rocky wall.

"You should rest."

"Rest? For what? To be sacrificed in a ritual that will bring Hell on Earth?"

"You should rest because you're a mortal with a bunch of broken bones, and I've got no way of protecting you from Leo and his goons."

Prue was in a lot of pain, but something flickered in her eyes. "Who needs you to protect me?"

Cole hesitated. "Is that… is that a joke? Are you trying to be funny?"

"No," she said. "Because if I laugh, I might die."

They both fell silent, before starting to laugh… until Prue started to wince and cry out in pain. Cole moved to Prue's right side so she could rest against him. Her head flopped onto his shoulder. "You're not going to die," he said. "Not tonight, at least."

Gary led Paige to Piper and Leo's bedroom. There was a teenage girl sitting on the bed, shaking and looking at the floor. Paige's mouth water when the girl's scent hit her. "All for you," said Gary.

The girl smelled so good, but– "Gary, this isn't you," said Paige. But he was already so different. His eyes were dark, hungry and restless; there was a touch of a smirk at his lips. And Paige felt different too: there was a power coursing inside of her urging her to drink the girl dry, then kiss the condescension off Gary's lips.

"It is now," he said. He pulled her into a long embrace. Paige tasted Gary's hunger for her, his heat. Her body sank into his kiss, pressing her body against his– until Gary pulled himself away. His fangs were visible. "Wow," he said, sounding breathless. Paige caught a glimpse of the shy, eager mortal he'd been only a few hours ago. He caressed Paige's cheek, before taking her gently by the shoulders, and turning her back towards the girl. "Feed."

Paige moved towards the girl if her body wasn't quite her own, like she was swimming through rough waters. Paige took her arm, feeling her pulse under her fingers, before biting into her.

Paige had stopped drinking before she went to college; she didn't like the person it turned her into. Unfortunately, she had loved the way booze felt: loosening her inhibitions, freeing herself from concerns, putting herself at the center of the universe. Somehow, drinking blood felt even better. Her heart slowed to a stop.

Gary had to pull her away from the girl. Her body flopped back onto the bed, lifeless. Paige looked at the corpse, tried to imagine her as a person… and failed. She was just scraps on a plate.

Paige turned back to Gary, her body screaming for more; of what, she didn't know. Gary pulled her into a long kiss, as the blood within her pulsed at her sire's touch.

Some time passed, Prue wasn't sure how long; long enough for her to start dozing through the pain. She woke with a start, as someone rapped their knuckles on the bars. "This is cute," said Piper. She was crouched down, hovering over and smirking at Prue and the dozing Belthazor. "Did you make a new friend?"

Prue could barely see Piper: one of her eyes was almost swollen shut. "What do you want?"

"Well, the Queen's going to eat you soon, and I thought maybe I should say goodbye." Piper's dark eyes were cruel, mocking. "Or good riddance. I haven't decided yet. It's the end of the era, you know– the end of the Halliwell line. Maybe even the end of San Francisco."

Prue knew what Piper was trying to do. Unfortunately, it was working. "Screw you," she said.

"That's what Leo's for," Piper said, in a singsong voice. "Did you know there was a time I used to be jealous of you? You had the perfect job, the perfect boyfriend– the perfect life, really, except for your screwed-up family. I don't blame you for trying to blow us off for Roger."

Prue tried to shake her head, but the pain was too much. "Piper, I never wanted–"

"Oh, spare me," she snarled. Piper's fangs extended as her eyes widened in rage. "You would have left me in the manor to rot, you and Phoebe both. Don't lie to me! If Leo hadn't taken me away that night, I'd still be following you around like a lost puppy."

That's not true, Prue wanted to say– but as she looked at Piper through her blurring vision, she lost the strength to do so. Maybe if Prue hadn't gone out with Roger that night; maybe if Prue hadn't fought with Phoebe, and teased Piper about her shyness; her family could still be alive. Where had the last four years gone? Had all of Prue's efforts been for nothing?

Piper's lips split into a grin as she watched Prue's face fall. "You finally get it. Your little sister is dead." She giggled as she stood to walk away. "And you're next."

Leo watched two of the Queen's handmaidens drag Prue out of her prison cell, screaming in agony. "Be careful, girls," he said with a less than sympathetic smile. "She's got a broken arm. Make sure you scrub her well for the ritual… no one knows when's the last time she showered."

"Damn you, Leo," said Cole. Standing at the bars of the cell, he banged his hands on them uselessly. A jolt of power sent him stumbling back a foot or two.

"I keep telling you people, it's already been done," he said. "When the Queen rises, it's going to be Hell on Earth, and you're going to get a front row seat for it."

Leo left Cole glowering. Transforming into a bat, he flew back to his chambers until some unknown power sent a low level fireball his way. Leo swooped out of its path and dropped to the floor, transforming again. "Who are you?"

"The one person who can help you," said the Seer, emerging from the shadows.

Leo squinted at her. "Aren't you one of the Source's Cassandra-types?"

The Seer nodded, her lips set in a thin line but eyes positively blazing. "I have stood by the Source's side for the last five hundred years. I have foreseen the rise of good and evil alike, and not for my own benefit. Now it is my time to rule."

"Leave me out of your underworld coup d'etat," he said, sneering. "I'm not interested."

"If I could, I would," she snapped, "but somehow you remain deeply involved in the affair. I probed far into the future to see if my plans would come to fruition– if I would finally take my place as the Source," said the Seer. "I will spare you the finer details, but it was the Charmed Ones who led to my ultimate demise. I decided, instead of taking the chance of battling them directly, I would make sure they never came to power. This was almost four years ago."

Leo thought this sounded familiar. "You're the one who told the Queen that the Charmed Ones were going to kill her. So she sent me–"

"Yes, she sent you to kill them! Turning a Charmed One into a vampire upended the balance of good and evil; it allowed the vampires to take over San Francisco, even while the Queen remains bound." The Seer lifted a hand to her brow. "I thought demons and warlocks were miserable to work with, but you– vampires maintain the worst parts of their humanity. You make decisions based on whomever's blood is in your veins that day."

"So what do you want from me, oracle? Besides insulting me to soothe your own bruised ego?"

"Look beyond the narrow confines of Čachtice and realize that I am offering you an opportunity here. I gave the Queen the anti-magic bonds to keep the witch and Belthazor out of the way, to keep them out of the way for our plan."

Leo narrowed his eyes at her. "What plan is this? What makes you think I can be convinced to help you?"

The Seer smiled, snakelike. "I know that you love Piper. But I also know that the Queen's rise presents… concerns for the two of you." Leo didn't want to know how she knew. "Lucky for you, I have a solution that should please both of us. Listen carefully…"