Disclaimer- I do not own Charmed or any of its characters. They are all owned by Aaron Spelling.
Cole Turner sat on the couch in his penthouse apartment. He was holding the picture of him and Phoebe where she was looking up at him with love shining through her eyes. Those days were long gone. He knew that whatever love Phoebe had for him, was gone as well. Even if there still was a little, she hid it very well.
He thought back to the events that had happened this past week. A demon from the future had come to him saying that Phoebe was going to be killed if she kept trying to save her boyfriend. The demon had also said that Cole would regain power of the Underworld very soon. How soon that was, the demon did not tell him. The only thing he could do was wait and see how things turned out. Fortunately for him, it was sooner than he expected.
Cole was getting ready to go to sleep when suddenly, about ten demons shimmered right in front of him. They were all about the same height as him and had blue markings all over their faces. Their skin seemed a bit burnt and they were wearing suits much to Cole's amusement.
"Can I help you?" he asked gruffly.
"Our pardons, Belthazar, for disturbing you," said one demon kneeling in front of him. Then he motioned with his other hand for everyone else to kneel. "I am Ashtar, leader of the Armorous demons. We require your help with something, if you are willing to give it."
"Depends on what it is," said Cole, still staring at Ashtar.
"You remember the demon Cragnis, do you not?"
"Impossible to forget," muttered Cole. He rubbed his head and said, "Continue."
"He's taken over the Underworld and Is killing any demon who shows an ounce of hatred or ill will towards him."
Cole raised an eyebrow and replied, "That always happens. It can never be prevented."
"Yes," said another demon, "but Cragnis is killing most of these demons for no apparent reason."
"And what exactly do you want me to do about that? If you haven't noticed, I'm not on Cragnis's good side. Hell, I'm not very popular down there at all."
"No, but you are," piped in another demon. "They say that if it weren't for the Charmed One, you would have been a great ruler."
Cole walked up to the demon, who had said that and said in a dangerously low voice, "If you have anything to say about Phoebe, keep it to yourself." His blue eyes flashed causing the demon to flinch slightly.
"Pardon me, my liege," said the demon, kneeling before Cole. He stood up then said, "If I had said something like that to Cragnis, I would be burning in purgatory right now."
"My point exactly," said the Ashtar who had first spoken to Cole. "Everyone in the Underworld far prefers you to Cragnis, which is why I have been chosen to ask you to come down and help us kill him and his followers."
"Can this wait till tomorrow?" asked Cole waving his hand at the demons. "I work far better when I'm not tired." The sarcasm was literally dripping from his mouth.
"As you wish, my liege." The demon then waved his hand at the other nine demons and they shimmered out. He took one last look at Cole who was staring into the middle of nowhere and said, "You will know where to find me, Belthazar." Then the demon shimmered away, leaving Cole to think about what had just happened.
Cole woke up the next morning just barely remembering what had happened the night before. He was supposed to help the rest of the Underworld get rid of the new Source, Cragnis, who was apparently a tyrant. Not that Cole cared that much about the Underworld anymore, he just thought that maybe now would be a good chance to redeem himself for what he had done as the Source. Namely, having a Charmed One as his wife. Oh, what a sin that was...
He slowly dragged himself out of his bed, brushed his teeth, took a shower, and went into the kitchen in his apartment. There, he grabbed a cup of coffee and finally shimmered into the Underworld.
He arrived in a dimly lit cave, moments later. The cave was filled with hundreds of demons all shouting at each other and threatening to kill each other. Cole surveyed the place then cleared his throat. He said, very cheerfully, much everyone's chagrin, "Good morning!"
The whole cave suddenly became quiet and the leader of the Armorous demons who had approached him yesterday, Ashtar, walked towards Cole. "Welcome Belthazar. I trust that you have rested well since yesterday." This comment brought out jumbled laughter from the other demons.
Cole smiled grimly and replied, "Actually yes, I feel much better today."
"Good," said Ashtar. "Would you like to hear the news of what Cragnis has done today or listen to the complaints of various demonic leaders?"
Cole snorted to himself and sat down on a rock that was near him. "Let's hear what Cragnis is up to."
A demon, who looked to be about 15 years old, slowly walked up to where Cole was sitting and stared at him with terror in his eyes.
A few moments passed with an uncomfortable silence. Cole broke it by asking, "Well?"
Ashtar came forward and said, "My apologies, Belthazar; Nicholas just completed his training and having heard much about your power is...in awe of you."
Cole raised an eyebrow and looked expectantly at the boy.
"Come on, boy, tell Belthazar the news that you have gotten about Cragnis," said Ashtar.
Nicholas took a deep breath then slowly began to talk. "This morning I woke up to find that my parents were dead. My sister was lying on the ground bleeding to death and since I don't have the power to heal, she died. I went outside and found a mob of demons crowded around a messenger, who had been sent by Cragnis. I soon heard what had happened. This morning Cragnis put forth a decree saying that all demons who pledged their loyalty to you were to be killed."
"He was always the jealous type," said Cole quietly, a small smirk on his face. Cole was cut off by the whispers of other demons who apparently hadn't heard the news.
Cole just rolled his eyes at them and turned back to Nicholas. "What else?"
Nicholas looked at Cole with terror in his eyes. He quickly kneeled before Cole then said, "May I continue?"
"I just asked you to," Cole answered, clearly amused with the respect he had been getting from the demons.
"He said after that, that all children just out of training school or in the training school are to be brought to him to be tested for loyalty. Those who fail the test are killed on the spot regardless of their age."
At this, Cole stood up from his seat. Nicholas was chalk white by then. "Thank you, Nicholas," Cole said. "You may go now."
Nicholas squeaked in reply and ran back to where he was standing before.
"Alright, those of you who have anything to say, step forward now," said Cole.
A demon with tattoos all over his face, stepped forward. He bowed to Cole and said, "Belthazar, I am the leader of the Solaris demons. We do not pledge loyalty to others very easily. As a result, Cragnis wants all of our kind dead. As it is, we are very few in number. We need help to keep us alive and you are the only one powerful enough to help us."
Cole nodded then gestured for the next demon to step forward.
The next demon was a member of the Brotherhood like Cole had once been. "Brother," said the demon, nodding to Cole, "if you remember, when Cragnis first joined the Brotherhood, he was very eager to learn about our philosophies and everything that we did. Naturally no one suspected a thing, and he was able to learn far more than any one member of the Brotherhood had ever known, apart from your old mentor Raynor."
"I am not here to be reminded of my past, brother, so please get on with your story."
"My apologies. Anyways, with all the knowledge Cragnis has gained, he was able to…take over the Brotherhood. Now it is impossible to tell who is a spy for him and who is on our side. Even one mistake, you're dead."
"Thank you brother," said Cole. After listening to many more complaints from the other demonic leaders, Cole stood up once again. He said, "I see now why all of you view Cragnis as a threat. He has created a very unsafe world for us to live in...not that it was safe before, it's just worse now." There was a murmur of approval. "I am not against the fact that he's eliminating those whom he feels is threat to him, but I will give you this. For the race of demons to survive, we cannot have the Underworld supremely dominated by demons, who are all completely loyal to Cragnis. The number of demons will lessne by every generation until there are no more of us left. Once that happens, the good side prevails." There was a roar of disapproval that echoed throughout the cave as Cole said this.
Cole turned to an elderly demon named Centris. "You said that you have spies in Cragnis's layer?"
"Yes, my liege," said the elderly demon, bowing to Cole. "They have reported to me that apart from having the most powerful demons in the Underworld, excluding you, Cragnis has been doing some research that will allow him to…" the demon came closer to Cole and whispered, "resurrect the Triad. He is also in the process of creating a seemingly unstoppable army of creatures from the Underworlds of other countries. My spies have no clue as to what the purpose of this army is, though."
Cole sat silently in his chair, aware that there were thousands of eyes upon him. After a few minutes, he came to a conclusion as to what should be done. He stood up and said, "I would like the demonic leaders who voiced their complaints to stay. Everyone else, leave and once I have anymore news as to what we should do, I'll summon you all here," said Cole in a commanding voice. As everyone began to leave, he said, "Centris, I would like you to stay as well."
After the crowd of demons had left, only Cole and eleven other demons were left.
"Why are we required to stay, Belthazar?" asked the leader of the group of demonic bounty hunters.
"I hate saying this," said Cole, "but if what Centris is saying is true, then we need more help from magical beings outside the Underworld."
"Does that mean that you're willing to help us?" asked another demon.
"Naturally, I have to. At the moment, I probably am Cragnis's biggest threat."
"What do you suggest we do?" asked Ashtar.
"We need some sort of power greater than ours, a power that has a clear difference from demonic powers. This power I am talking about is far greater than anything Cragnis could ever have."
"But Belthazar," cut in another demon, "the Charmed Ones will never help us. They hate all of us! More demons have been killed because of them in the last six years than in the last 100 years."
"My point exactly, it shows how much power they have and how much they are capable of," replied Cole.
"Wait a minutes," said the leader of the bounty hunters. "I'm betting that there's a catch to this. What's in it for you?"
"Well if you don't know already, I am not in the witches' good books so; I want some reward for helping you do this. Naturally, they'll want something as well for helping to vanquish Cragnis."
"We were already planning on giving you something great but what would the Charmed Ones want?" asked Ashtar curious as to what they would want.
"Let's just say that I know exactly what they want and it'll be something that the sisters will not be able to resist or refuse," said Cole laughing.
The other demons in the cave shuddered at his laugh.
"You know what? Maybe I'll talk to them right now," said Cole. "I'll call for you once I get an answer from them." The other demons bowed to Cole then shimmered out, leaving him to think about what he had gotten himself into.