Eva led the sisters toward a village and the five of them stopped near a grove of trees at the edges of a property with a large house on it.
"Looks like our welcoming committee." Prue pointed at a group of men walking around.
"The witch hunters." Phoebe agreed
"Hunters of good witches maybe." Eva murmured. "They work for Ruth, they're after us. Beware the talismans." Eva pointed at the talismans, carved metal pieces hanging in the trees. "They've barred our way each time we try to rescue Charlotte."
"Oh, honey, those don't really pack much of a punch where we come from." Phoebe tried to tell her.
"The one Mark's mother had on her door did." Piper reminded her, referring to the ghost they'd helped when their powers had first been unbound.
"Yeah, but that was to keep out spirits." Phoebe insisted.
"No, you don't realize…" Eva tried to stop Phoebe and Prue as they moved forward only to be knocked back as a bright light shone out of the talismans. A bell sounded and the villagers started yelling and running around.
"Ooh, what the hell was that!" Phoebe exclaimed as Eva helped her up.
"The talismans." Piper informed her.
"No way talisman's have that much power!" Prue insisted.
"While they usually have power, they've never had that much before." Eva agreed. "But Ruth's using the magic of All Hallow's Eve." She glanced up at the sound of horses. "The guards are coming!"
"Alright, I've got him." Prue trued to use her power but nothing happened. "Oh, boy."
"What just happened?" Phoebe exclaimed. "What's the matter with your power?!"
"I don't know." She tried again. "Piper?"
Piper tried to freeze them but couldn't. The guards started shooting as Piper continued to try and freeze them but it still didn't work. "Something's very wrong!" She yelled.
"Use your powers!" Eva said frantically, as a bullet burned passed her arm.
"They're not working!" Prue said angrily. "I don't know why."
"We've got to get out of here!" Cordelia grabbed Eva. "Run!" The others were right behind them and they lost the guards in the woods again as an angry Eva marched back toward her coven.
Inside Ruth's house she watched the tableau play out though a window. She turned and walked over to a woman lying on a bed and in obvious pain, gripping her distended abdomen.
"It appears that your witch friend has brought others to try and rescue you again. Unfortunately, she's been wounded." The older woman gave a slight smile at Charlotte's pain, both physical and emotional. "She just won't give up trying to save you, but it's nearly too late, she's running out of time."
"I won't let you have my baby." Charlotte glared at the hateful witch.
"Oh, you won't have a choice. Especially since somebody very special has recently arrived to ensure it." She walked out of the room toward a man in a dark corner, who stepped out to greet her.
"How much longer, Ruth?" He asked.
"Soon. By nightfall perhaps. You imbued the talismans with great power. Care to share your secrets? Who are you? Where'd you come from? Pray tell."
Cole stepped further out of the dark corner "I've come from the future...to change it." He told her.
Back at the cave Eva was holding a cloth against the bullet burn on her arm.
"Eva, I'm sorry." Prue told her. "We had no idea our powers wouldn't work."
"Just leave us, go back where ever you came from. You're obviously powerless frauds."
"No, we're not." Cordelia took the cloth and held up her hand as it glowed and healed the wound while everyone stared. "Their powers come from their souls, mine come from my body. What none of you have bothered to consider is that their powers belonged to others in the family line before them. And you've brought us back in time. Those powers exist alright, but as part of the ancestors who were born in this time." The glow shut off as the wound finished healing.
"Protecting this baby is my destiny, I'm certain of it. How can we come this far just to fail?" Eva wondered.
"We're asking ourselves the same thing." Phoebe replied. "I guess we rely a little too much on our powers and need to think of alternatives."
"It's too bad Xander isn't here." Cordelia sat on a boulder. "He's really good at the alternative thing. No one else thought it was possible to defy prophecy, let alone successfully, but he did."
"Well, how would Xander handle this situation?" Prue asked.
"By coming up with an out of the box plan that involved multi lines of attack. So can we." Cordelia assured her sisters. "We just have to think like a vampire hunter turned witch with military knowledge in his head." She grinned. "How hard can it be?"
Back in the year 2000, a vampire hunter turned witch prepared to cast a spell that he was determined would reunite him with the love of his life.
'Chronos, he who gives his name to time itself
do not ignore my plea, search all time and see
Janus, guardian of the gate, the in-between places
do not ignore my plea, you who's two faces look to the
future and the past, bring us to a love that will last
Open now the way, that we may walk across time this day
I implore thee! I implore thee! I implore thee!'
Wind whipped the clothes and the hair or the four men as power built and energy swirled around them.
'I implore thee! I implore thee! I implore thee!'
A swirling vortex appeared before them and none of them hesitated to walk into it.
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A/N Original spell created by author. Basically, Xander asked a favor from those higher in the food chain than the Elders. Politely.😁
