Long Live The Queen

Piper flicked her hands and the first of five demons exploded. Three more went in a similar fashion but as Piper raised her hands to finish off the last of the clan -

'Wait, no!' It was Phoebe. 'Leave him.'

'What?' Piper turned to look at her sister, disbelief written across her face.

'But Phoebe, he's a-' Paige's face mirrored her older sister's.

'I know.' Phoebe spoke softly, 'a demon but... He helped me out once. Just leave him.'

Before Piper could argue, the fifth demon bowed his head towards Phoebe, 'my queen.' He dissappeared.

A plant sat withered in its pot in the corner of Phoebe's appartment. There was a smashed glass on the floor, the aftermath of Phoebe's own rage, for once not a demon attack. Phoebe herself sat in the middle of the room, her head in her hands.

A demon shivered in, 'my queen. ' He knelt in front of her.

'What? What do you want?' The demon waved his hands and cleared up the broken glass.

'There is resistance, my queen. The source has asked that I stay here to protect you.'

'Well, I don't need protecting so you can just run along.'

The demon hesitated. Phoebe glared at him fiercely.

'My queen, I do not doubt your power, but you are not at the manor now. It will not be just one demon attack. Not even two. If there are any, war will break out. Without your sisters... Allow me to defend you.'

Phoebe saw nothing clearly anymore. Her sisters seemed to be out to destroy her. Her husband seemed to be out to destroy everyone else. But Phoebe had always understood people and she saw some shred of integrity in the face of this demon.

'If war breaks out,' she asked cynically,' how do I know you will be on my side?'

'If I betray you, you can vanquish me, with just a flick of your wrists. If I do not defend you, the source will vanquish me with just a flick of his eyelids. But I am not afraid because I am your most loyal servant.'

'I just don't understand, what were you thinking?' Piper yelled across the manor at Phoebe.

'Just drop it, Piper.'

'No, I will not. You just saved a demon. We don't do that, Phoebe. Oh, no, hang on, I forgot. You do.'

Leo walked in from the hallway, he eyed up Phoebe and Piper, 'what's going on?'

'Phoebe saved a demon,' Paige sighed. 'And now Piper's really mad.'

'Well, aren't you? You should be.' Paige shrugged.

Leo looked from one sister to another. This was not unfamiliar territory to him, 'maybe,' he said, consolingly, ' we should hear Phoebe out.'

Phoebe sat, not working, at her laptop. She was eavesdropping on a meeting. A group of upper level demons were sat collaborating outsider her bedroom door. Every fibre in Phoebe's body wanted to vanquish them, scream at them, try to make them see the pain that evil caused. One face paralysed her, left her sitting numbly on the bed, listening; Cole.

Outside her door, the demons sat calling on their master to kill his new bride.

'She is too much of a threat, sire. We cannot afford to have a charmed one on the inside.'

Cole slammed his hand down on the table. ' She is not a threat. She is my wife and I will not have her spoken about like this.'

'Sire,' a second demon urged, 'she is your weakness.'

Such open dissent was rare. Phoebe knew this. Tears dripped down her face.

Then another familiar voice sounded. It was the bodyguard who had just that day sworn his allegiance to her.

'Might I speak, sire.'

'Go ahead,' Cole was exhasperated.

'The queen's humanity is frightening for us all. We see a vulnerability in it that we are unused to; an unpredictability. But let us not act rashly. Demons don't make good mothers. They don't make good allies. This is because they are loyal to only one thing; power. Our queen is not like this; she is loyal to her husband, she is loyal to her child. The queen loves and she feels in a way that we cannot. But rather than destroying this, I ask you to see it for what it is; both our greatest weakness and our greatest strength. For years, the charmed ones have eluded us. They have held a power that we could not understand. This power lies in their humanity. Let us embrace it, let us use emotion to make us stronger, to unite us in a way that demons have never been able to unite before. Let the queen teach us to become good allies and good mothers. That evil might have a future. Let us not resist her, let us welcome this new demonic reign; father, queen and child. I raise my glass, to the source's new bride, to the queen of hearts.'

There was much murmuring from the room next door but the conversation moved onto other topics. Phoebe closed her eyes. A demon may have just saved my life, she thought, and by promising that I will be the greatest strength the underworld has ever possessed. Feeling overwhelmed, she slugged back the seer's tonic.

'No, Leo. I'm not going to explain. You could have vanquished him, Piper, but I asked you not to and you didn't. Let's just leave it at that.'

'And what about the next time you fancy batting for the other side? Are we supposed to just turn our heads then too?' Piper narrowed her eyes.

'What is that supposed to mean?'

'Oh c'mon, Phoebe. You've always had a thing for the darkside. Cole, Drake, the seer - the second one anyway.'

'They were good people.' Phoebe spoke between gritted teeth, shocked by how quickly Piper had turned on her.

'They were demons!'

'Please, Piper, just because you married an angel doesn't mean you haven't made bad choices. I mean, a walock! A ghost! And it wasn't like Leo was the best choice - he was a forbidden immortal.'

'Leo's got nothing to do with this, Phoebe. This is about you, always living in denial.'

'You're really mean, Piper, do you know that? I mean, for once, couldn't you just have faith in me? Believe that I was doing the right thing?'

'Get out! I don't want you here! Get out!' Phoebe shrieked at the seer. The seer didn't move, she simpered at the distressed witch.

'My queen, you must drink your tonic.'

'I don't want it!' Phoebe's fury broke into desperation. 'Just leave me alone,' she whimpered.

'Look at you,' the seer's voice was silky. 'Now you have only confusion where the tonic gave you strength.'

A demon appeared behind the seer, 'get out.' He commanded calmly. The seer looked at him pityingly, 'you cannot command me.'

'I am the queen's bodyguard. She has asked you to leave. Now go.'

'I am the queen's counsellor and I am here on the source's orders.' She turned from the demon dismissively.

'I said, go.' The seer turned, annoyed by the demon's insistence.

'When I tell the source, he will -'

'You may be the source's most powerful servant,' the bodyguard murmured so that Phoebe had to strain to hear the words, ' but I am his most beloved. Who do you think will win in a struggle? Who do you think the source will save? Leave the queen now.'

The seer vanished with a twisted smile. Phoebe cocked her head to look at her defender, 'it should have been Cole.'

The bodyguard behaved as if he had not noticed her words. He nodded to the potion, 'it will dull the pain of your decision.'

Phoebe sighed and indicated to the plant pot, 'it's poison.'

'Sometimes a little poison can make the world seem a lot more pleasant.'

Phoebe smiled, 'ain't that the truth.'

'Will there be anything else, madam?' The demon bowed his head and reverted to servant mode.

Phoebe hesitated, 'before Cole, did you serve the old source?'

'Yes, a little. I am a demon.'

'Right,' Phoebe looked at the bodyguard wondering what his story was. 'Was the old source... I mean, is... Is Cole different?'

'Yes, sometimes. To a demon, he seems very different. But to a human? He is the source of all evil. There is no changing that, no matter who else he might be.'