Fic: My Heart Nearer to Thee (13/15)
Title: My Heart Nearer to Thee
Rating: PG
Warnings: character death
Summary: When Phoebe's husband and son are abducted to a dangerous alternate universe, the sisters must travel across reality to save them.
*****
"Any suggestions on how we're going to stop our alternate selves?" Piper asked, overhearing Phoebe's comment. "Because I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to stop someone who can throw fire."
"Not to mention whatever nasty surprises your alternate self might have tucked up her sleeve," Phoebe remarked. "Really, Piper? The Source of All Evil?"
"Well," Piper muttered, "I have always been an overachiever." Sensing a pair of eyes boring into her back, she turned around to see Leo staring at her, a dumbfounded expression on his face. "Leo?" she prompted, when he didn't say anything.
"You're pregnant," he said, sounding stunned.
"Yeah," Piper said, softly, taking a guess as to what had him so flabbergasted. "Almost eight months. A girl. Prudence Melinda," she added, with a fond glance at her older sister.
"You're really an alternate version of my Piper?" Leo went on, quietly, and Piper nodded. "Then, this," Leo went on, "this is the life that we could have had?" Piper nodded, again, unable to speak in the face of the raw emotion coming from Leo. For his part, Leo looked like he was fighting back tears. "Are we happy?" he finally whispered, his voice hoarse.
"Deliriously," Piper told him, with a small smile.
"Not to break up this tender moment," Prue said, hesitantly, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group, "but Phoebe's right. We need to be thinking of a way to stop my sisters before they hurt anyone else."
"Well," Phoebe spoke up, "we can't kill them. I mean, I know they're evil, there's no argument there, but they're still human. They're still-"
"Us?" Piper finished for her, wryly, when Phoebe trailed off, awkwardly. "You're right, though," she went on. "We can't just kill them. Which kind of puts us right back on square one-"
"Maybe not," Prue interrupted her. "What about stripping their powers?"
"That could work," Piper said. "We've even got the right spell for it. Remember the one that we used, when Rex and Hannah were blackmailing us into giving up our powers?"
"Slight problem," Phoebe said, before Prue could say anything in reply, "how, exactly are we going to get the two of them to say the spell? They have to be the ones to relinquish their powers, remember?"
"I think we can help with that."
Piper turned around at the sound of Paige's voice, blinking in surprise at the misty figure making her way across the clouds to where they were standing. Then, she saw Henry at Paige's side, and she realized that she was looking at her sister's ghost. A shudder ran through her as she took in Paige standing before her, and she could see the same look on Phoebe's face, out of the corner of her eye.
Then, she looked over at Prue. Her older sister was staring at Paige and Henry in amazement, blinking back tears.
"You're really here," she whispered, her voice shaky, and Paige smiled at her.
"Did you really think that we would leave you?" she asked, quietly.
"We've been watching over you," Henry added, a fond smile on his face. "Ever since-"
"Ever since you died?" Prue interrupted him, and Piper was surprised to hear a bitter tone in her voice.
"Prue, that's not your fault," Paige said, and when Prue didn't look convinced, Paige crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her older sister. "Say it," she demanded.
"Say what?" Prue echoed, baffled.
"That it's not your fault," Paige told her, sternly. "Because it's not. You are not responsible for Henry and me dying."
"If I hadn't died," Prue said, undaunted by her younger sister's ire, "then you never would have been sacrificed. And Henry wouldn't have been killed."
"Their Prue died," Henry said, jabbing a finger over at Piper and Phoebe, "and they didn't go on a killing spree and take over the Underworld." Thinking about it for a moment, he looked over at Piper and Phoebe and added, "You didn't, right?"
"We didn't," Piper assured him, and Henry nodded in satisfaction.
"See?" he said to Prue. "Their sister died, and they didn't go crazy. So, your sisters going crazy is not your fault."
"How did you know about that?" Phoebe asked, curiously.
"We've been watching Prue," Henry reminded her. "We've been kind of keeping an eye on things, especially after the three of you popped into existence." Glancing over at Prue, he added, "Our deaths were not your fault."
"Maybe you're right," Prue admitted, reluctantly.
"I know I'm right," Paige was saying, but then she trailed off, looking into the distance.
"What's going on?" Henry asked, elbowing her gently in the side to get her attention.
"Someone's calling me," she said, a faraway look in her face.
"The Elders, again?" Henry asked, sounding concerned, but Paige shook her head, slowly.
"Someone else," she said, quietly, and then she kind of faded out of sight, her voice trailing back to them. "I'll be right back."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When the lights of their arrival faded, Paige stared around the destroyed penthouse in horror. The windows had been shattered, millions of tiny, glass shards littering the floor. The couch had exploded in clouds of stuffing. The coffee table had been broken cleanly down the middle, and the bowl she'd used to scry for Josh was melted and warped almost beyond recognition.
'What the hell happened here?' Paige thought, worriedly, tightening her grip on Josh's shoulder when the boy tried to move away from her.
"Where are my mom and dad?" he asked, in a small, scared voice.
"I don't know, sweetie," Paige admitted, giving the boy a hug when he pressed against her side. "But I'm going to find out."
She couldn't sense her sisters, which scared her. Ever since the Elders had assigned her as their secondary Whitelighter - at both her and Leo's insistence - she'd had a supernatural LoJack on Piper and Phoebe. She was always able to sense them, unless one of them was in the Underworld, or -
'Could they be in the Heavens?' Paige thought, casting an involuntary glance up toward the ceiling.
The Underworld was on another plane of existence, and it was that phase shift, combined with the dark magic that permeated the very air down in Hell, that kept her from sensing her charges. The Heavens worked the same way, existing on a different plane from Earth. The difference between Heaven and Hell, though, was that, being a Whitelighter, her magic harmonized with the Heavens, and she was able to distinguish between the Upper plane and her charges, even across the phase shift. It was actually a stronger sense by the way the Heavens enhanced her own magic, as it did for all Whitelighters.
But, her sisters' magic didn't resonate on the same frequency, so it was entirely possible that the magic of the Heavens was blocking her sisters, shielding them from her.
'Well,' Paige thought, as she looked around the demolished penthouse, 'I'm never going to find them just sitting here.'
"Come on," she said to Josh, giving him a reassuring smile when he glanced up at her. "We're going to go find your mom."
Josh just looked at her, confusion on his face. "Who are you?" he asked, sounding tired. "I know you're Paxton's mom, but, who else? Why were you looking for me?"
"Your mom," Paige told him, "is my sister. You're my nephew."
Josh looked like he was thinking about her words for a moment. "Does that mean," he finally ventured, "that Paxton is - was - my cousin?" When Paige nodded, he went on, "Do you think she knew?"
"I think she does, now," Paige reassured him.
"Do you think she went to heaven?" Josh asked, quietly.
"Yes," Paige said, immediately, even though she didn't know for sure.
She hoped - prayed - that her daughter's soul was somewhere safe; she was an Innocent, even after all her time in the Underworld. She'd risked her life to protect Josh, and she'd given up her life saving them. If there was any justice in the world, if Paige had earned any kind of favors with the Elders in her year and half as a witch -
'I just have to hope that they're as good, here, as they have been in my own world,' she thought, suppressing a sigh.
Glancing over at Josh, she gave the boy a brief smile, ruffling his hair. "Hey," she told him, "before we go find your parents, there's something you need to know."
"Okay," Josh said, cautiously, sounding wary.
"In this world," Paige said, "there's a woman who is an alternate version of your mom, but evil."
"The Seer," Josh told her, with a small nod. "She and her sister, the Source, rule the Underworld."
"Right," Paige agreed. "Well, your mom and I, we have another sister, Piper. And her alternate self, in this universe, is the Source. She looks exactly like her."
"There's someone out there who looks like the person who killed Paxton?" Josh asked.
Paige nodded. "Are you going to be okay with that?" she asked, carefully. "Seeing her, and knowing who she looks like?"
"They're not the same person, right?" Josh pressed.
"No," Paige hastened to reassure him. "No, Piper wanted to find you just as much as your mom did. You're family."
"I think I'll be okay with it," Josh finally told her, after a few moments of quiet deliberation. Giving her a concerned look, he went on, "What about you?"
"I think I'm going to be okay with it, too," Paige told him, touched by his worry. "Josh, about Pax-"
"I know you want to keep her a secret," Josh said, before she could finish her sentence. "Don't worry. I won't say anything."
"Okay, the psychic thing's a little weird," Paige decided, "but considering your mother, it's probably to be expected."
"Dad said I got my gifts from her," Josh told her, proudly. "I can't really read your mind, though. Mostly just emotions. Dad says it's called empathy."
"Well, come on, Empath," Paige teased him, gently. "Let's go home, huh?"
She wasn't entirely sure how to get up to the Upper plane on her own. The few times she'd gone, she'd been in either Leo's company, or her father's, and she'd been able to follow their orb trail. Alone, though - she didn't know this reality; there were no familiar magical signatures for her to hone in on. Which mean winging it, and that could be dangerous when it came to orbing.
But, there was no other safe place to go, and she was just going to have to risk it. If only 'risking it' didn't involve risking Josh, as well.
Paige pushed down the doubts that crowded her mind, taking a slow, deep breath to ease her shaking nerves. She wrapped her arms firmly around Josh, keeping him close so that she didn't run the risk of losing him. She focused everything, every fiber of her being on the white eternity. And then she orbed.
It wasn't up, like most people would think. It was more of a step sideways. Admittedly a big step, and not unlike orbing into Hell, when she really thought about it. But, where she felt a subtle revulsion rippling along her skin when she orbed into Hell, like her magic was screaming at her to keep away, orbing into the Heavens felt like being wrapped in a soft, well-worn bathrobe. It felt like coming home.
When the lights of her orb faded, she looked around the familiar surroundings. Beside her, Josh relaxed minutely as he looked at all the white, the tension slowly bleeding from his shoulders. When he stiffened, a second later, she started to look around in alarm, but she let out a sigh when she saw what he was looking at.
"Mom!" Josh cried, breaking away from her to sprint across the clouds and straight into Phoebe's arms.
"That was fast," she heard from behind her, and she almost jumped at the sound of the familiar voice. Turning around slowly, she saw Henry watching her with a small smile on his face. "Was he the one who was calling you?"
"Henry?" Paige could barely breathe for the lump that formed in her throat.
"Who else would it be?" he started, but then he frowned, his brow furrowing. "You're not my Paige."
"I'm the same, old Paige I've always been," she quipped, weakly, staring at him in amazement.
"I, however, am your Paige," another voice spoke up, and Paige turned around to see a confused look flash briefly across her alternate self's face. "Wait, that didn't come out right."
"I happen to think it came out perfectly," Henry told her, slinging an arm across her shoulders. "So, what was up?"
"I'll tell you in a minute," alt-Paige told him, a somber look falling over her face. "Right now, I need to talk to her." She jerked her head at Paige, who nodded in understanding. There could be only one thing, right now, that her alternate self would want to discuss.
"I'll just be over there, then," Henry said, easily, turning and walking over to where the rest of the group were.
Paige and her ghostly alter ego followed his progress, and she saw a shadow cross the ghost's face as she watched the tearful reunion between Josh and his overjoyed parents. The other Paige looked like her heart was slowly breaking into a million pieces, and Paige could only imagine that she looked much the same. She was immensely grateful for the distance between her and her sisters that kept them from seeing the tears that coursed silently down her cheeks.
"Please," she whispered, her eyes never leaving Josh, "please tell me she's with you." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her alternate self nod, once, and her shoulders slumped in relief. "Oh, thank God."
"She's safe," her ghost replied, her voice so quiet that Paige could barely hear her. "She's scared, confused. I told her that you - that I - died down in the Underworld rescuing her friend. The truth is too painful, too complicated, and I just don't think she's ready for it."
"Where is she?" Paige asked, wanting desperately to see her little girl again, even if she wasn't sure she could handle the sight of her baby as a ghost.
"With Mom and Grams," the other Paige told her. "I figured that she'd be safe there, until everything was over."
Paige nodded in agreement. "After all this time," she whispered, "I can't believe that I couldn't protect her. She's my daughter; I should have been able to save her."
"You still can," came the quiet reply, and Paige shot her alternate self a skeptical look. "Think about it," her counterpart told her. "In your universe, Piper and Phoebe aren't evil. Pax is still alive down there. You can still save her."
Paige stared at her ghostly self in stunned disbelief. "I-" she started, trailing off, helplessly, and the other Paige nodded.
"Yeah," she agreed. "And I want you to promise me that after you rescue her, you're going to find the son of a bitch who kidnapped our baby girl, and you're going to make him pay."
"With interest," Paige vowed, and a darkly satisfied look flashed across her doppelganger's face. "But, first," she added, "we have your universe to save."
Continued here
Rating: PG
Warnings: character death
Summary: When Phoebe's husband and son are abducted to a dangerous alternate universe, the sisters must travel across reality to save them.
*****
"Any suggestions on how we're going to stop our alternate selves?" Piper asked, overhearing Phoebe's comment. "Because I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to stop someone who can throw fire."
"Not to mention whatever nasty surprises your alternate self might have tucked up her sleeve," Phoebe remarked. "Really, Piper? The Source of All Evil?"
"Well," Piper muttered, "I have always been an overachiever." Sensing a pair of eyes boring into her back, she turned around to see Leo staring at her, a dumbfounded expression on his face. "Leo?" she prompted, when he didn't say anything.
"You're pregnant," he said, sounding stunned.
"Yeah," Piper said, softly, taking a guess as to what had him so flabbergasted. "Almost eight months. A girl. Prudence Melinda," she added, with a fond glance at her older sister.
"You're really an alternate version of my Piper?" Leo went on, quietly, and Piper nodded. "Then, this," Leo went on, "this is the life that we could have had?" Piper nodded, again, unable to speak in the face of the raw emotion coming from Leo. For his part, Leo looked like he was fighting back tears. "Are we happy?" he finally whispered, his voice hoarse.
"Deliriously," Piper told him, with a small smile.
"Not to break up this tender moment," Prue said, hesitantly, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group, "but Phoebe's right. We need to be thinking of a way to stop my sisters before they hurt anyone else."
"Well," Phoebe spoke up, "we can't kill them. I mean, I know they're evil, there's no argument there, but they're still human. They're still-"
"Us?" Piper finished for her, wryly, when Phoebe trailed off, awkwardly. "You're right, though," she went on. "We can't just kill them. Which kind of puts us right back on square one-"
"Maybe not," Prue interrupted her. "What about stripping their powers?"
"That could work," Piper said. "We've even got the right spell for it. Remember the one that we used, when Rex and Hannah were blackmailing us into giving up our powers?"
"Slight problem," Phoebe said, before Prue could say anything in reply, "how, exactly are we going to get the two of them to say the spell? They have to be the ones to relinquish their powers, remember?"
"I think we can help with that."
Piper turned around at the sound of Paige's voice, blinking in surprise at the misty figure making her way across the clouds to where they were standing. Then, she saw Henry at Paige's side, and she realized that she was looking at her sister's ghost. A shudder ran through her as she took in Paige standing before her, and she could see the same look on Phoebe's face, out of the corner of her eye.
Then, she looked over at Prue. Her older sister was staring at Paige and Henry in amazement, blinking back tears.
"You're really here," she whispered, her voice shaky, and Paige smiled at her.
"Did you really think that we would leave you?" she asked, quietly.
"We've been watching over you," Henry added, a fond smile on his face. "Ever since-"
"Ever since you died?" Prue interrupted him, and Piper was surprised to hear a bitter tone in her voice.
"Prue, that's not your fault," Paige said, and when Prue didn't look convinced, Paige crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her older sister. "Say it," she demanded.
"Say what?" Prue echoed, baffled.
"That it's not your fault," Paige told her, sternly. "Because it's not. You are not responsible for Henry and me dying."
"If I hadn't died," Prue said, undaunted by her younger sister's ire, "then you never would have been sacrificed. And Henry wouldn't have been killed."
"Their Prue died," Henry said, jabbing a finger over at Piper and Phoebe, "and they didn't go on a killing spree and take over the Underworld." Thinking about it for a moment, he looked over at Piper and Phoebe and added, "You didn't, right?"
"We didn't," Piper assured him, and Henry nodded in satisfaction.
"See?" he said to Prue. "Their sister died, and they didn't go crazy. So, your sisters going crazy is not your fault."
"How did you know about that?" Phoebe asked, curiously.
"We've been watching Prue," Henry reminded her. "We've been kind of keeping an eye on things, especially after the three of you popped into existence." Glancing over at Prue, he added, "Our deaths were not your fault."
"Maybe you're right," Prue admitted, reluctantly.
"I know I'm right," Paige was saying, but then she trailed off, looking into the distance.
"What's going on?" Henry asked, elbowing her gently in the side to get her attention.
"Someone's calling me," she said, a faraway look in her face.
"The Elders, again?" Henry asked, sounding concerned, but Paige shook her head, slowly.
"Someone else," she said, quietly, and then she kind of faded out of sight, her voice trailing back to them. "I'll be right back."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When the lights of their arrival faded, Paige stared around the destroyed penthouse in horror. The windows had been shattered, millions of tiny, glass shards littering the floor. The couch had exploded in clouds of stuffing. The coffee table had been broken cleanly down the middle, and the bowl she'd used to scry for Josh was melted and warped almost beyond recognition.
'What the hell happened here?' Paige thought, worriedly, tightening her grip on Josh's shoulder when the boy tried to move away from her.
"Where are my mom and dad?" he asked, in a small, scared voice.
"I don't know, sweetie," Paige admitted, giving the boy a hug when he pressed against her side. "But I'm going to find out."
She couldn't sense her sisters, which scared her. Ever since the Elders had assigned her as their secondary Whitelighter - at both her and Leo's insistence - she'd had a supernatural LoJack on Piper and Phoebe. She was always able to sense them, unless one of them was in the Underworld, or -
'Could they be in the Heavens?' Paige thought, casting an involuntary glance up toward the ceiling.
The Underworld was on another plane of existence, and it was that phase shift, combined with the dark magic that permeated the very air down in Hell, that kept her from sensing her charges. The Heavens worked the same way, existing on a different plane from Earth. The difference between Heaven and Hell, though, was that, being a Whitelighter, her magic harmonized with the Heavens, and she was able to distinguish between the Upper plane and her charges, even across the phase shift. It was actually a stronger sense by the way the Heavens enhanced her own magic, as it did for all Whitelighters.
But, her sisters' magic didn't resonate on the same frequency, so it was entirely possible that the magic of the Heavens was blocking her sisters, shielding them from her.
'Well,' Paige thought, as she looked around the demolished penthouse, 'I'm never going to find them just sitting here.'
"Come on," she said to Josh, giving him a reassuring smile when he glanced up at her. "We're going to go find your mom."
Josh just looked at her, confusion on his face. "Who are you?" he asked, sounding tired. "I know you're Paxton's mom, but, who else? Why were you looking for me?"
"Your mom," Paige told him, "is my sister. You're my nephew."
Josh looked like he was thinking about her words for a moment. "Does that mean," he finally ventured, "that Paxton is - was - my cousin?" When Paige nodded, he went on, "Do you think she knew?"
"I think she does, now," Paige reassured him.
"Do you think she went to heaven?" Josh asked, quietly.
"Yes," Paige said, immediately, even though she didn't know for sure.
She hoped - prayed - that her daughter's soul was somewhere safe; she was an Innocent, even after all her time in the Underworld. She'd risked her life to protect Josh, and she'd given up her life saving them. If there was any justice in the world, if Paige had earned any kind of favors with the Elders in her year and half as a witch -
'I just have to hope that they're as good, here, as they have been in my own world,' she thought, suppressing a sigh.
Glancing over at Josh, she gave the boy a brief smile, ruffling his hair. "Hey," she told him, "before we go find your parents, there's something you need to know."
"Okay," Josh said, cautiously, sounding wary.
"In this world," Paige said, "there's a woman who is an alternate version of your mom, but evil."
"The Seer," Josh told her, with a small nod. "She and her sister, the Source, rule the Underworld."
"Right," Paige agreed. "Well, your mom and I, we have another sister, Piper. And her alternate self, in this universe, is the Source. She looks exactly like her."
"There's someone out there who looks like the person who killed Paxton?" Josh asked.
Paige nodded. "Are you going to be okay with that?" she asked, carefully. "Seeing her, and knowing who she looks like?"
"They're not the same person, right?" Josh pressed.
"No," Paige hastened to reassure him. "No, Piper wanted to find you just as much as your mom did. You're family."
"I think I'll be okay with it," Josh finally told her, after a few moments of quiet deliberation. Giving her a concerned look, he went on, "What about you?"
"I think I'm going to be okay with it, too," Paige told him, touched by his worry. "Josh, about Pax-"
"I know you want to keep her a secret," Josh said, before she could finish her sentence. "Don't worry. I won't say anything."
"Okay, the psychic thing's a little weird," Paige decided, "but considering your mother, it's probably to be expected."
"Dad said I got my gifts from her," Josh told her, proudly. "I can't really read your mind, though. Mostly just emotions. Dad says it's called empathy."
"Well, come on, Empath," Paige teased him, gently. "Let's go home, huh?"
She wasn't entirely sure how to get up to the Upper plane on her own. The few times she'd gone, she'd been in either Leo's company, or her father's, and she'd been able to follow their orb trail. Alone, though - she didn't know this reality; there were no familiar magical signatures for her to hone in on. Which mean winging it, and that could be dangerous when it came to orbing.
But, there was no other safe place to go, and she was just going to have to risk it. If only 'risking it' didn't involve risking Josh, as well.
Paige pushed down the doubts that crowded her mind, taking a slow, deep breath to ease her shaking nerves. She wrapped her arms firmly around Josh, keeping him close so that she didn't run the risk of losing him. She focused everything, every fiber of her being on the white eternity. And then she orbed.
It wasn't up, like most people would think. It was more of a step sideways. Admittedly a big step, and not unlike orbing into Hell, when she really thought about it. But, where she felt a subtle revulsion rippling along her skin when she orbed into Hell, like her magic was screaming at her to keep away, orbing into the Heavens felt like being wrapped in a soft, well-worn bathrobe. It felt like coming home.
When the lights of her orb faded, she looked around the familiar surroundings. Beside her, Josh relaxed minutely as he looked at all the white, the tension slowly bleeding from his shoulders. When he stiffened, a second later, she started to look around in alarm, but she let out a sigh when she saw what he was looking at.
"Mom!" Josh cried, breaking away from her to sprint across the clouds and straight into Phoebe's arms.
"That was fast," she heard from behind her, and she almost jumped at the sound of the familiar voice. Turning around slowly, she saw Henry watching her with a small smile on his face. "Was he the one who was calling you?"
"Henry?" Paige could barely breathe for the lump that formed in her throat.
"Who else would it be?" he started, but then he frowned, his brow furrowing. "You're not my Paige."
"I'm the same, old Paige I've always been," she quipped, weakly, staring at him in amazement.
"I, however, am your Paige," another voice spoke up, and Paige turned around to see a confused look flash briefly across her alternate self's face. "Wait, that didn't come out right."
"I happen to think it came out perfectly," Henry told her, slinging an arm across her shoulders. "So, what was up?"
"I'll tell you in a minute," alt-Paige told him, a somber look falling over her face. "Right now, I need to talk to her." She jerked her head at Paige, who nodded in understanding. There could be only one thing, right now, that her alternate self would want to discuss.
"I'll just be over there, then," Henry said, easily, turning and walking over to where the rest of the group were.
Paige and her ghostly alter ego followed his progress, and she saw a shadow cross the ghost's face as she watched the tearful reunion between Josh and his overjoyed parents. The other Paige looked like her heart was slowly breaking into a million pieces, and Paige could only imagine that she looked much the same. She was immensely grateful for the distance between her and her sisters that kept them from seeing the tears that coursed silently down her cheeks.
"Please," she whispered, her eyes never leaving Josh, "please tell me she's with you." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her alternate self nod, once, and her shoulders slumped in relief. "Oh, thank God."
"She's safe," her ghost replied, her voice so quiet that Paige could barely hear her. "She's scared, confused. I told her that you - that I - died down in the Underworld rescuing her friend. The truth is too painful, too complicated, and I just don't think she's ready for it."
"Where is she?" Paige asked, wanting desperately to see her little girl again, even if she wasn't sure she could handle the sight of her baby as a ghost.
"With Mom and Grams," the other Paige told her. "I figured that she'd be safe there, until everything was over."
Paige nodded in agreement. "After all this time," she whispered, "I can't believe that I couldn't protect her. She's my daughter; I should have been able to save her."
"You still can," came the quiet reply, and Paige shot her alternate self a skeptical look. "Think about it," her counterpart told her. "In your universe, Piper and Phoebe aren't evil. Pax is still alive down there. You can still save her."
Paige stared at her ghostly self in stunned disbelief. "I-" she started, trailing off, helplessly, and the other Paige nodded.
"Yeah," she agreed. "And I want you to promise me that after you rescue her, you're going to find the son of a bitch who kidnapped our baby girl, and you're going to make him pay."
"With interest," Paige vowed, and a darkly satisfied look flashed across her doppelganger's face. "But, first," she added, "we have your universe to save."
Continued here