A/N I'm going to acknowledge that this chapter is really dramatic, but it's a fictional type of fairy tale, like Paige's and dramatic is pretty much a prerequisite. As for who the good guys and bad guys are...well like many modern retellings of fairy tales, it kinda depends on which person's point of view you see the story through. Past Cordelia and Xander did things that could be considered evil, yes. But like Willow with her mind raping, they could justify their reasons for their actions.

######

The scene shifted and Cordelia and Xander both inhaled sharply as they realized something significant. "I'm pregnant!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Probably about as far along as Mom is right now!"

"I was going to be a Dad?" Xander sounded awed at the thought, as his past self entered the room Cordelia was in.

"They've breached the city." Past Xander said. "She's leading the assault."

"I hoped we were safe from her, but she found us anyway." Past Cordelia folded her hands over her pregnant belly. "I won't let her have our baby."

"The message she sent claims she wants to protect the baby from us." Past Xander said bitterly.

"And who will protect the baby from her?" Past Cordelia asked just as bitterly. "We are what she made us."

"I won't let her hurt either of you." Past Xander vowed. He kissed past Cordelia and held her for a brief, intense moment before pulling away and leaving.

The scene shifted and a stone faced past Cordelia stared at the broken and bloody body of past Xander. She touched her belly and spoke to the baby. "He gave his life to protect us. It wasn't enough and she's still coming. There's only one choice left to me. I won't let her have you, I swear it on your father's sacrifice."

The scene shifted and past Cordelia knelt in a circle.

It was Leo's turn to inhale sharply. "I recognize some of that paraphanalia, it's for dark rituals, forbidden ones."

"Forbidden?" Xander stared. "Some of those remind me of some of the things found in Mayor Wilkins office after he was stopped. The Watchers Council cleaned it out after disposing of the carcass. What was she doing?"

"I found you." A voice spoke behind past Cordelia. "Did you really think you can escape me? I taught you everything you know." An older woman stepped into the room, it was the woman seen earlier, teaching past Cordelia. Her face twisted as she took in the scene. "What do you think you're doing?" She hissed angrily.

"Two things." Past Cordelia answered. "Protecting my child and denying you the prize you seek. Neither she nor her power will ever be yours to control." Past Cordelia stood up and turned around to face the older woman. She was no longer pregnant.

"You killed your child to keep me from having her?!"

"I saved her from you." Past Cordelia looked exhausted, whatever she'd done had exhausted her, but she wasn't done fighting. She stepped out of the circle and objects around the room began to move and were flung toward the older woman, who managed to deflect them.

"You wouldn't kill her." The older woman stared at her one time protege. "Not after everything you've done to protect her. Where is she?"

"Beyond your reach, you old bitch." Past Cordelia snarled and used what was left of her power to attack the other woman. "One thing is needed to seal it, to ensure you can never find her."

"A sacrifice." The other woman glared. "Do you think to sacrifice me to protect her?"

"No, your death will simply be a bonus." Past Cordelia used the last thing she had access to as a weapon, the stone walls of the room the two women were in as she used her power to pull the stones from the walls and the ceiling began to shake as the supports fell away. "You taught us and we learned well. We learned terrible things and enjoyed our lessons, but we used what you taught us to escape from you as well."

"I found you, you couldn't escape from me!"

"Even now, we've all escaped you. I'll join him and you will never have our child!"

"Where is she?!" The other woman howled.

"Beyond your reach. Safe within another womb." The ceiling collapsed with a roar of stone, crushing the two women to death. The Magic viewer shut down.

"Okay, so that happened." Cordelia said flatly. "Political assassination, murder, black rituals and sacrifices. We apparently grew up being taught evil Magic and used it to escape her. The combination of the Source's Assassin and Mom being pregnant probably tripped a deja vu button in my soul. But what did past me do with the baby?!"

A good question with no immediate answer.

######

A/N Told you it was dramatic. In canon the Seer uses Magic and a dark ritual to transfer Phoebe's baby from Phoebe to herself, stealing him. I figured it might be possible to do the reverse, voluntarily transfer the child to another womb.