This is where the few members of the resistance to the Spanish colonisation of Cuba reside. Past Petunius is among them. It is a little out of the town, for if they were to be found, they would be killed.

::A rather sweaty indigenous Cuban man pushes his way through about fifteen other men who are milling around a makeshift mess tent, and goes into Petunius' quarters. It's dingy and humid, the air buzzing with the many different flies taking advantage of the air which is moist with sweat. The man glances at the wall - there is a rough sketching of the Taíno chief Hatuey scribbled on dried mud.::

(He is the right man.)

::Slipping his hand through the net designed to prevent insect bites, the man shakes Petunius awake.::

::Except that Petunius is already awake, and has the young man's wrist in a vice-like grip. He sits up slowly and pulls the net off his face, revealing his damp forehead and unkempt hair.::

"What do you want?"

"Th- the chief wants to see you..."

::He barely swallows a yelp of surprise.::

::Petunius releases the man's hand and nods, dismissing him. He's barely started his allotted shift asleep, but he doesn't complain. Swinging his feet out of his wooden cot, he stands and starts to dress.::

::The man stares at Petunius for a moment. He cuts a fine figure in the dim light.::

(He will do the job well. His family will be proud.)

::Catching Petunius' eye, the man suddenly remembers himself and quickly scuttles off.::

::Petunius doesn't get the chance to see the chief, though. Cries of pain are heard as gunshots fire. The Spanish have found them. And they're killing them all.::

::Though he's no coward, Petunius isn't stupid either. He knows he has to run or he'll be killed. He picks up his trusty pistol and tucks it into his trousers before sneaking out of the tent and running into the forest.::

::After about half an hour of running, Petunius stops a few yards away from the tents. He leans against a tree in order to rest while contemplating approaching whomever might be in the barracks. Everyone who's presumably looking for him is in the forest, right?::

"There you are."

::A man rushes over to Petunius, looking panicked.::

"They found us. They've killed most of the resistance. I've only found a few men alive and many were injured. We didn't even see them coming."

"Where are the rest of the men now?"

::Petunius asks, instantly deciding to play the role that was clearly expected of him. The way this man was dressed, the mention of the resistance and the guards in the forest all lead him to come to the conclusion that Past Petunius was some kind of Ché Guevarra type figure or something along those lines.::

"We've pulled them into tents but we can't stay here. Any second now the Spanish will return and burn us to the ground. What do we do?"

::Petunius purses his lips as he thinks things over.::

(Okay, we know magic works since Andrea's power worked just fine. So I'm going to have to use that somehow but without exposing it. Sure as hell don't need to give them a real reason to lynch us.)

"Alright, we need to gather up whoever's left. And I'll need a list of your arsenal. Swords, bullets...muskets, pistols everything."

"Why? They'll have seized most of it. We've got what we can find!"

"Well then just gather whatever we've got anyway. I'll start working on readying the wounded."

::The man nods and looks around, wiping his forehead with the back of a hand. He then darts off and up to other men, talking to them quietly so as to not raise attention of any Spanish that might still be around.::

::Petunius quickly glances around the area for a stove or something he could use for boiling water in. Conveniently spotting the campsite fireplace along with a big pot, clay bowls and cups nearby, he walks over to it and reaches into his pocket for some matches. And stops. A lit fire would surely alert the guards to their presence. Hesitating, he puts the matches back in his pocket before reaching for the cauldron like pot which was filled with water.::

(Don't have time for a big ritual. Make it quick.)

::He places his hands over the pot and closes his eyes as he quickly thinks up a spell to enchant the water with a healing effect.::

"In this time, this darkest hour
I call upon all of the powers
To imbue this water with healing qualities
So we can stand and face our enemies."

[Some blue orbs swirl above the water and enchant it to be all healy. Sort of. Anybody drinking this will feel completely healthy and their body will not continue to weaken, but if you've lost a leg, it's still gone...]

::Petunius places both hands on the pot and careful picks it up before following the man whose name he didn't know into one of the tents. He places the pot carefully on a floor, away from where anyone could trip over it before approaching him.::

"Okay, we have to get the men to drink the water in that pot. I can't tell you how it will help, but trust me when I say that it will help."

"Whatever you say, Sir."

::The water is dispensed into metal cups and distributed, where the previously described effects of the spell take place. Soon people are getting up and saying that they feel fine, despite clearly still being wounded.::

::Petunius glances outside for any signs of approaching guards. None yet, but they seem to be close. With a small sigh, he turns back and walks towards the man.::

"We have to gather the weapons. It's getting worse out there."

::On the other side of the camp, some soldiers are setting fire to your tents.::

::Petunius opens his mouth to say something else, but his attention is caught once more by the sounds taking place outside, which seem to have grown distinctively louder. He frowns and looks at the nameless man once again before edging back towards the entrance of their tent, peering through it. What he sees outside makes his blood run cold. Quickly turning back inside, he scans the room for some kind of weapon and spots a ye old stylee rifle/musket type thing next to one of the wounded. He makes a run for it and picks it up before checking to make sure it was loaded.::

"Gather your weapons. Now! They're setting the tents on fire!"

::He casts an urgent glare at the men before loading his own weapon and gathering up his courage, which didn't need much encouragement thanks to the adrenaline pumping through his body. He barges through the tent entrance, in full view of the guards and points the gun at them.::

"Halt!"

::The guards look up and start shooting at Petunius. That showed you.::

::Petunius flinches and completely out of instinct, a field of blue light emerges in the air in front of him and begins to deflect the oncoming bullets back at the attackers.::

::Several of the guards fall, having been struck by their own bullets. The remaining men look shocked at the forcefield and back off but quickly start shooting again.::

::Equally shocked at the sight of the falling men, Petunius' forcefield wavers for a bit while the bullets come flying again. A stray bullet manages to graze his arm, causing him to cry out and grab onto it. At the same time, the field is reinforced once more as the need for self preservation blocks out all other thoughts from his mind.::

::At the sound of the firing guns, more guards pour into the area and open fire.::

::Petunius grits his teeth and concentrates solely on keeping the forcefield up now, knowing that if he wavered even a little, he'd be swiss cheese. But it's taking a lot more power than he'd imagined to pull off such a feat and he can feel his pool of energy slowly depleting.::

::Piper and Sharon arrive on the scene and the Charmed One quickly throws up her hands and freezes the whole area. She adapts her freeze so that any magical people won't freeze. Piper's powers are weird and I keep changing if she can freeze other witches that aren't her sisters so meh.::

::Continuwhaty? Ahem. Innyway, Petunius frowns at the frozen scene and the accompanying sudden silence. He scans the rows of people in front of him, not yet spotting Piper and Sharon. Tentatively, he lowers his forcefield and decides to call out.::

"What's going on?"

"That way."

::Following the sound of Petunius' voice, Piper and Sharon run into the barracks and find him getting shot to pieces.::

"Woah."

::She leans back to avoid walking into a frozen bullet then slowly dodges around it and walks over to Petunius.::

"Interesting past."

"That's one way of putting it."

::Petunius' expression quickly softens into a relaxed smile at the sight of the two women.::

"How did you even get here? Or know where here is?"

"We're in Havana. Cuba. Don't ask me how I know, because I don't know myself. How we got here is best explained by showing you. So let's go."

"Lead the way."

::Petunius gestures in a random direction. Then stops abruptly.::

"Wait. I can't."

::He glances back towards the tent where the other men were before looking at Piper.::

"The other men. I can't just leave them here to die."

::Piper grimaces.::

"Petunius, we're not able to change the past. It could have serious repercussions on our time."

::Already she feels guilty for saying that.::

::Petunius frowns, a little stung by how cold her words sounded. He shakes his head and when he speaks his voice is a lot more insistent.::

"No, no you don't understand. These people...they're depending on me. Or past me. He's one of a group of resistance leaders of some kind. It's not really changing the past if I'm just doing what he would've been if he was here."

::It all makes sense in his head, at least.::

::Piper sighs, guessing Petunius doesn't know why he's here.::

"Petunius... you've been sent here in place of your past self because this is when he dies. The Source did it to get rid of you. You need to come with us and switch places with the one that's meant to be here. Anything that happens already happened. Changing it would be wrong."

"The Source..."

::Petunius lets out a soft, bitter laugh. He vaguely recalls one of the others back at the fourth dimension void mentioning it but among the ensuing screaming and bickering, he hadn't really had a chance to chase it up further with them. He sighs and shakes his head lightly before resigning himself to what he was being told, though he doesn't look too happy about it.::

"Alright."

::Piper sighs too and looks down, then glances up with a new determination.::

"Can at least give them some fighting chance."

::She suddenly moves and yanks all of the guns out of the hands of the soldiers and piles them inside a tent where nobody can see them. That done, she dusts her hands.::

"Tell no one."