Shadows Like Ghosts

Prologue-Cole

Darkness clouded the land. The main city seemed to be shrouded by a black fog. It lay in ruins from the rampage five years ago, but no one has bothered to rebuild it, not even the conqueror himself. Wyatt Halliwell was determined to conquer the world first, before he would pay attention to any reconstruction.

" What do you intend to do?"

Cole released a breath, looking at the remains of the mall he had once frequented with Phoebe Halliwell. His breath puffed into a white fog that dissipated in the gray air. " I don't know." He shrugged. " The Halliwells have always been very complicated."

" Don't I know it." Said Billie. " But you would know best, I suppose. He is the last true Halliwell, if you can think from that perspective."

" I know." Cole nodded, but he remained where he stood, unmoving.

The witch sighed, watching her own breath fog in front of her. " He was our last hope. Stubborn jackass just didn't see it that way."

" Stubborness runs in that family." Cole replied. " Besides, if he were not so stubborn, he wouldn't be your last hope. You should appreciate the character when it's due."

" Oh believe me." Billie tossed her hair. " When he's not out getting himself killed I appreciate him a lot. I'd like to continue doing so, so if you don't mind, try to get him out, even if you do nothing else."

Again, Cole was silent and unmoving.

" Seriously!" The witch snapped then. " What would it take to get you out of this funk huh? He's needed you since this whole madness started and all you've done was watch."

" I have watched for so long." Said Cole quietly. " I watched the love of my life die in front of me. I've grown so use to watching that I no longer remembered how to interfere." He looked over at the dusty streets where several cars were still parked, their windshields and bumpers cracked and in pieces on the sidewalk. " The truth is, I let her die because I no longer had the will to save her. How can I save him?"

Billie sighed then. " You know how." She said. " You've seen everything. How he was always the lesser of the two brothers. Of all the children, really. How Leo just pampers Wyatt and ignored him. You should have stepped in then."

" I was too evil for that."

" Who's to judge?" Billie shrugged. " We all can be wrong. Devastatingly wrong. Just look at Wyatt. We were all pretty wrong about him, weren't we. Out of all the family, Chris suffered the most. The others passed on, and he's all alone. He needs someone from your generation. Someone who actually cares. Not that son-of-a-bitch up there." She gestured. " And you can't deny that you have grown to care for him, even if he never saw or heard of you."

" That is exactly why I cannot help him, however." Said Cole. " He does not know me."

" He can get to know you."

Suddenly, they heard a whir; the sound of one of Wyatt's probes. Cole and Billie hid behind a shack as the probes passed.

" Just get him out." Said Billie. " The Resistance will do the rest. Just get him out, because that's the only thing we can't do."

Cole stared at her.

oO

Getting past the demon guards was easy. Cole was no longer any entity they have come across before. They did not register his magic, nor his presence. But finding where they kept Chris was harder. Like most demons in Cole's time, these demons were foul and scatter-brained, and said everything except what Cole wanted to hear as he slipped through their ranks, invisible. Even Wyatt, when he finally found the man, had no words to say of his brother's whereabouts as he briefed his officers in the next attack. It seemed the brother was not even on the elder Halliwell's mind.

Perhaps the child was dead, just like the rest of his family. There was no one who could say for certain if Chris had perished or not. No one had the special link, no one had been his whitelighter—there simply were not enough left to assign him one. Cole was on a mission that could prove fruitless.

Turning the hallways, dark and gloomy, he finally came upon a staircase that looked different from the rest. A stench, that of filth and blood and sex, wafted stronger as he descended. There were many prisoners, most of them human, witches and elves and beings that had fallen prey to the dark lord and his minions. Chris was not in any of the cells.

He double checked. None of the forms matched. He could tell despite the bloodied bodies. He could free them—he had enough power to do so, but as Cole had told Billie before; he simply was no longer used to getting involved with anything in this life. He finally stopped looking for Chris and stared at the bodies wondering if demonhood had ever been as grotesque back in the days when he was Belthazor. We simply hadn't been that strong. He thought. If we had been, we would. Because after all, what is evil, but the cause of pain and suffering?

It was deep in these thoughts that he found Chris's cell. It was a huge block of metal jotting out of the wall. Cole had missed it at first because he had assumed it was part of the walls. He had bumped into the wall and heard an echo. In the dark room the sounds were muffled by the very air, stale and unmoving, but Cole could hear the resonance.

The other prisoners shifted but none of them had the energy or will to care that there was a strange sound. Cole looked at the prisoners, and waited to see if the guards would come. They did not. He shimmered into the cell.

Blackness everywhere, and a terrible heat. The smell of semen was strong, mixed with blood and vomit. Cole could see Chris's form despite the absolute absence of light. The boy was naked, his body limp and skin cracked and dry. Blood coated his body, his flesh pale under the scraped skin. Both legs were broken, his fingers and feet shattered, and all bore the marks of having been broken again and again. White caked the insides of his thighs, his abdomen, and the bottom half of his face. His eyes were half open but unseeing. At his mouth, foam bubbled, pink and ominous. The child was dying.

Cole had seen many horrible deeds in his life, but his stomach churned at the sight. He raced to the boy and gathered him in his arms. Chains locked Chris's neck, wrists, and ankles to the walls. Cole flamed them off. Alarms blared as soon as they released, but this did not matter. Cole was getting the boy out of there.

" Hang in there, kid." He whispered to the lifeless body, before they shimmered out.

oO

Whispers, gasps, cries of dismay. He woke to utter agony. Even with the whitelighter magic coursing through his body, he felt all his hurts as if they were being inflicted right then. After what seemed like an eternity, the pain gradually faded away, but he was unable to move. He had no strength.

" Chris?" He heard a soft voice say, and a warm hand take his own. " Chris, can you hear me?

Who's Chris? He wondered, though he did not move.

" Chris, it's me, Billie."

Who's Billie?

" He's still out." He heard the voice say, sounding muffled and far away. " Thank you, Cole. We owe you one."

" He'll need more than whitelighter magic." He heard a man say.

He felt the hand leave his and heard someone stifle a sob.

" He's only nineteen! Oh God, do you remember when you were nineteen? When I was nineteen? We were complete idiots! How could Wyatt do this to his own brother?"

" Wyatt is only twenty-one." Said the man. " And I think it is safe to say that we all know what he is capable of."

" Chris, it's Billie again. I'll stay here with you, okay? Just wake up soon. We need you."

Chris? Billie? Wyatt? He felt dizzy, and when that passed, heard no more. He had fallen unconscious.