"Grams?" Prue asked.

"Prue? What's going on? And who are they?" She pointed at Xander and Cordelia.

"She may be related to us, Grams, as in another sister." Piper informed her.

"I, uh, I don't -."

"You know what, Grams?" Piper glared at her. "You were a lousy liar as a human and as a ghost, you're worse. You know something, spill!"

"How did you find out?" The ghostly image of Penny Halliwell asked.

Xander explained, the discovery that Cordelia had power, that she was adopted, the conversation with Sister Agnes. The baby blanket and Phoebe's vision.

"How did you find the girls?" She asked, puzzled.

"We moved next door to them a week and a half ago and there's been other little hints that maybe someone wants this to come out." Xander told her. "Prue and I getting a new job at the same, for instance. Me being a practitioner witch and a demon hunter and us ending up working together to deal with Grimlocks, which led to working together a few times this week. Which is what led to us finding Cordy's got powers of her own. I think someone wants us to know she's got a connection to the Halliwell's. Any chance it's you?"

"No, I would have preferred they never found out." She answered. "The consequences could be severe."

"You mean the whiteligher bosses?" Xander asked. "Because Sister Agnes' description indicates that at least one of her birth parents is a whiteligher."

"They're called the Elders."

"As pretentious a name as the Powers." Xander muttered.

"What do you know about the Powers?" Grams asked, puzzled. "They oversee the balance, humans rarely cross their radar."

"I successfully defied a prophecy from the Pergamon Codex and in the process apparently overwrite the Destiny of the Slayer, Buffy Summers and when I revived her, l created an imbalance because now there's two Slayers in existence." Xander shrugged. "So I'm cursed and the Powers insist it can't be undone."

"You're that Xander Harris?! Whooboy, you're a prefect example of why I'd prefer this never came out. I'm beyond either of those groups now, but the girls aren't and both of them could take exception to Cordelia's existence. At the very least they could strip all the girls of their powers, which is basically what we were afraid they'd do when we found out Patty was pregnant. The girls Destiny is to be most powerful good witches on Earth, the amount of good they can do against evil is incalculable. But if the Elders or the Powers feel Cordelia's existence causes more harm than good, they will act to prevent it."

"Why do they get any say?" Xander asked, frustrated.

"Someone has to oversee different areas, humans create different organization to oversee compliance with codes and laws and the supernatural world is no different. The Elders oversee whitelighers and good witches, as the Watchers Council oversee the Slayer. The Powers purview is the balance. The only beings higher than them are the gods and they rarely get involved nowadays."

"So she is our sister?" Phoebe asked. "And you hid her to keep her safe from the Elders because her father's a whitelighter?"

"Your mother's whitelighter actually. They weren't supposed to get involved, but they did and next thing you know, baby on the way."

"Yeah, I just recently found that out myself." Piper muttered.

"Oh, Piper." Grams sighed. "Love can kick you in the teeth just as much as anything else. But, to answer your question, no I don't know who might be trying to force this information out into the open."

"That would be me." A voice said and another figure stepped into the circle of candles.

"Mom?!" Three voices chorused.

"Hi, girls. Oh, Cordelia, I've wanted to talk to you for so long. When I died, I was finally able to see for myself how you were doing and then, to see you fighting evil, determined to help, with or without powers. I'm as proud of you as I am of your sisters."

"You've been watching over me? You love me?" Cordelia sounded like a little girl seeking her mother's approval and Xander wrapped an arm around her, giving her his support.

"Oh, very much. Letting you go was the hardest thing I ever did, but I thought it would keep you safe and it did, at least it didn't turn you evil. But, my God, I nearly died a second time when I realized you were living in Sunnydale, home of the world's largest Hellmouth. Xander's curse meant I had a chance of getting you out of that town. I made sure he saw the listing for the duplex next door and the ad for the job at Buckland's. I knew he'd fight to keep you safe, especially when he found out just why I arranged for you to meet your sisters."

"Why? What are hoping to accomplish?" Xander asked.

"Nothing less than saving her life, if not her soul. She's been marked by something, I don't know what, but I know it feels evil and she's in danger because of it. Whatever it is, it may take all of you to protect her from it. And I have no idea why it's marked her or when it'll move forward with whatever it's plans are."

On the other side of town Rodriguez moved forward with his own plans as he murdered his IA partner.