Charmed: Hollowed Lives
Disclaimer: I don't own charmed, but the WB does.
Summary: AU After Season Five- This is a one shot about the troubles of three travelers, whom battle the Hollow in their own world in order to survive. The Seer foresaw this, the Avaters warned of it, Good and Evil both agreed to forgo its usage, but no one listened. From a world that has been nearly destroyed by the Hollow's insatiable appetite, three travelers roam from realm to realm, plane to plane, collecting the magic that is needed in order to seal the Hollow back in its box, but who are they? And what secret does one of them harbor?
A/N: This will be a collection of Charmed one shots that I have written over the last few years, which are mostly about Cole and Phoebe. Review and tell me what you think!
Chapter 2: Climbing Mount Olympus
"Oh my goodness," Phoebe gasped as she turned her gaze over to him, now seeing the resemblance between the man and Cole Turner. Like Cole, he had dark hair, blue eyes, tan skinned, and a tall and stout build, similarly to the way Cole had been. There were a few differences, however, which Phoebe saw immediately, such as his nose and jaw line, which more resembled her own, as well as the different hair texture that he had from Cole. Nevertheless, the resemblance was there, so much so that she couldn't believe that she didn't see it before.
"Hello mother," He said softly, turning his gaze over to her and immediately losing his scowl. His demeanor noticeably and completely changed, instantly transforming from what it was into a seemingly loving son.
"How…what…how….what's your name?" Phoebe rambled, rising to her feet to come closer to him in an effort to get a better look at him.
"My name is Payton," He answered, giving her a small smile in response, knowing how confused she probably felt. "And I really don't want to get into the details because I know you all hate my father in this timeline, so it's just not really worth it for me. I love him; he was there for me every day of his life. That's all I really want to say on the matter." Then, looking over to Wyatt and Matthew, he added, "If you're both done with your supper, the portal is ready."
"Wait," Phoebe reached out, grabbing him by the shoulder gently to stop him from leaving. "Do you dislike me or something?"
"Dislike you?" Payton shook his head, as if insulted by the accusation. "No, of course I don't, don't think that. You were the first to be attacked by the Hollow so I don't really know you to be honest."
Phoebe looked down at the floor, understanding of the sorrow that came with not knowing your mother since she herself felt it daily. "Just tell me how you came to be, when exactly?"
"You didn't kill the wizard in my timeline." He answered simply before walking back up the stairs, leaving Phoebe with a shocked expression on her face.
"Huh? What did he mean, Pheebs?" Piper questioned, not understanding how that would change the timeline. She looked over to her sister, and saw the look on her face, which proved that the statement did indeed mean something; Piper just did not know what exactly.
"Cole once tried to get the Source's powers out of him through that wizard that came to us, but I…I vanquished the wizard and allowed Cole to stay as the Source before the ceremony was completed." Phoebe replied, falling back down in her seat, as if emotionally drained by the day's events. "The Seer talked me into doing it, and if I hadn't done that…"
"Cole wouldn't have been the Source, we wouldn't have vanquished him, and your son wouldn't have been taken by the Seer." Paige finished, knowing Phoebe's train of thought. "I assume that is who he is, right? He is the son that was taken by the Seer?"
"Alright, well, this was fun," Matthew started, immediately seeing that they shouldn't have told them. Payton specifically told them that he didn't want his mother to know about him to keep her from blaming herself, but because they disobeyed, that's exactly what happened—she blamed herself. "It wasn't your fault, Aunt Phoebe."
"Yes, it was," Phoebe retorted, saddened that her son didn't want to talk to her more. "Eat dessert, talk to your mothers, watch a movie, stall or something, I have to talk to him." She got to her feet, grabbed a white plate from the table, and then piled some food onto it. When the plate was covered, she picked up a fork and began walking up the attic, bringing her son the food that the family had eaten. Upon reaching the attic landing, she took a deep breath and prepared herself for what she knew was about to happen. "Hi," Phoebe said, opening the door and entering the attic. She walked further into the room, and then placed the plate down onto the trunk that was on the floor in the center of the attic, setting a place for him to eat. "I brought you some food."
"Thanks," Payton replied, though he appeared uninterested in eating. He was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor, his back against the wall with the triquetra drawn above him. He wasn't smiling, but he didn't seem unhappy to see her, either.
"I'm sorry." Phoebe started, not really knowing what to say or do. Here she was, talking to her grown up son, a son that she never dreamed of having and never knew was born.
"It's not your fault." Payton shrugged, not wanting her to blame herself. "This is just a timeline that I dreaded coming into from the start. I didn't want to encroach on your family moments before or start trouble with anyone."
"So Cole and I are still together in a lot of other timelines then?" Phoebe inquired, wondering if that's what he meant by what he had said.
"No," Payton shook his head in the negative, thinking back to the various timelines they had entered before. "He's dead in a lot of the timelines, having been killed fighting off some demon with you, protecting you or some other odd reason. This is just the first one that I've come into where, well, you loath him and he didn't die a hero in your eyes."
"Cole and I went through a lot," She replied, seemingly not denying the fact that she hated Cole for what he had put her through after he had came back from the Wasteland.
"I get that." Payton nodded, understanding of the fact that things didn't go as well as they maybe should have in the timeline that he was presently in.
"Him as Belthazor, him as a human, him as the Source of All Evil, him as a human with crazy Source-like powers," Phoebe rambled, counting off the various costumes that Cole had worn during his lifetime. "It was always something new, something always got in the way."
Payton bit down on his lip, cocking an eyebrow at something Phoebe had said. "He was never actually the Source, you know that, right?" Payton inquired, wanting his mother to know that fact. "He was always possessed; he never actively became the Source."
"I didn't know that," Phoebe admitted, having never known that fact. She always thought that he had become the Source himself, though now that she thought back, she should have realized it sooner. "I understand that now."
"But it's too late," Payton nodded, not expecting it to alter her opinion of his father. Instead, his intention on revealing that secret was just to save his father's name somewhat, even if it didn't completely erase all the other wrongs that he had performed in his life.
"Exactly," Phoebe agreed, still unaffected by the information—after all, Cole had tried to kill her sisters and turn her evil before he finally died, acts that did not concern the Source. "I wish I could change things, not to bring Cole and I back together, but we shouldn't have ended the way we ended. I did some very, very selfish things, not only to him but to my sisters, that I wish I could take back." She admitted, allowing thoughts that she had never spoken to anyone about come to the forefront of her mind.
"I'm sure you did what you thought was right," Payton said, giving her a small smile, not wanting it to seem like he chose his father over his mother—he loved them equally and did not prefer one to the other. Then, crawling over to the trunk, he began eating the food that Phoebe had brought him, his stomach rumbling in hunger. "Thanks for this, I actually am really hungry."
"See, I'm not all that bad," Phoebe laughed, watching as he picked up the fork that was on the side of the plate.
"I don't think you're bad at all, like I said before, I don't dislike you. You're my mother, I love you, it's just that we've never really spoken before. Trust me, I believe…no, rather I'm sure you would have made for a wonderful mother, and will be a wonderful one in the future in this timeline." Payton said, before taking his first bite. As his hand grazed the white plate, his back straightened and he didn't breathe for a few moments, before going back to normal, continuing to eat his meal.
Phoebe raised an eyebrow at what had happened, but stayed silent, assuming he had just never tasted Piper's cooking before. "What happened to Cole in this timeline, do you know?" Phoebe asked interestedly, her curiosity peaking about what had happened to her ex-husband. Was he still alive? Did he move off somewhere outside of San Francisco? Or did the vanquish that Paige had mentioned about actually stick?
"He's in the Void." Payton answered, and upon seeing his mother's blank expression, he continued, "The Void is the place where beings go that are not allowed to move on for a variety of reasons, but cannot come back to the Earthly plane like ghosts can. It's the cosmic void between life and death."
"He's trapped there?" Phoebe blinked at what Payton had said, a brief thought of mercy flashing into her mind. "Like there is no escape kind of trapped?"
"I guess," Payton uncomfortably murmured, not wanting to think about it. He wasn't there to fix his parents relationship, he was there to save his world, which was one of the reasons he wanted to stay in the attic alone and away from his mother.
"So tell me about yourself, do you have a girlfriend? What powers do you have?" Phoebe asked, changing the subject, noticing Payton's demeanor. "What do you like to do as a pastime? You know, for fun?"
"The first question is a touchy subject, and the second one, more than I can count," Payton answered truthfully, having been born with and stolen too many powers to count. "But I take it you meant naturally, right? Well, as you know, I can throw fire and change melon into steak."
Phoebe blinked in silence for a moment, and then let out a great burst of laughter, remembering how her melon was changed into steak when she was pregnant with him. "You actually remember that?"
"No," Payton replied, shaking his head in the negative. "Aunt Piper would always tell me that story; how I would change your food into whatever I wanted at that time, rather than what I perhaps needed. It was one of her favorites because things were apparently really weird around the house when you and her were pregnant at the same time—Wyatt and I each trying to outdo one another with our magic. Plus," He added with a wry grin, informing his mother on one of his powers, answering her previous question. "I had a vision of you pregnant with me when I touched the plate just before."
"That's what that was?" Phoebe smirked, her internal suspicion of him having a premonition proving true. "I saw you straighten up, but I didn't know what happened. What a coincidence, I guess we haven't gotten new plates since that time. So you inherited my power, did you?"
"Yes and your ability to levitate, as well." Payton smiled, enjoying the conversation more since its turn away from his father. "It's my Halliwell birthright and all, you know."
The pair went silent for a few moments, Phoebe lost in her thoughts and Payton lost in his food. "I'm sorry you have to live in the world that you do. I wish you could stay here, and I could go fight the Hollow in your place." Phoebe said, breaking the silence, truly desiring to take her son's place, to live the horrors in his stead, to fight the menace herself.
"Don't be sorry. It's what Wyatt and I were born for, it's our destiny," Payton responded with a shrug, not willing to allow anyone to fight for him, especially not his own mother. "It's not what we may have chosen, but it's certainly not something we'd pawn off on anyone else. We will win…eventually. And after we do? We'll start rebuilding."
"You definitely have your father's resolve," Phoebe noted, recalling how Cole was so strong in his beliefs, especially when it came to wanting to win her love when he first returned to San Francisco after his faked vanquish. "You have my nose, but your father's resolve." Payton grinned at that, showing his young age for the first time. "How old are you exactly?"
"24," He answered after gulping down some food.
"Just a baby still," Phoebe cooed loudly, her expression a strange mix of a frown and a smile.
"Hey, at least I'm old enough to shave," Payton laughed, knowing that he probably looked and acted like he was older, qualities that he owed to fighting the Hollow. Growing up in a world ruled by fear, and being counted on to save said world, had weighed on his soul, transforming him from a normal man in his early twenties to a smart, articulate warrior who carried a burden far greater than he should.
"I was 24 when I first met your father." Phoebe remembered, before the pair went silent for a few moments once more. She recalled how Cole had appeared in front of her in that alley, seemingly so confident, charming and handsome, it was no wonder she was swept off of her feet immediately.
"Listen, I'm sorry that I didn't want to talk to you before, it's just that, you never will be my mother, so I figured why even talk to you? Why pretend and put you through that?" Payton started abruptly, the silence between the pair making him feel uncomfortable. At his proclamation, Phoebe instantly looked down to the floor, clearly hurt by what he had said. "Oh, no, I didn't mean that how it sounds."
"It's okay if you did," Phoebe replied, looking up at him with honest eyes. She could tell that he was trying, but struggling to form a bond with her, apparently having no previous experience talking to her before then since she had died so early in his life.
"No, I mean literally, I can't be born in this timeline, that's what I meant by 'you never will be.' You are MY mother, and I love you dearly, but you personally will never be the mother to me, if that makes sense." Payton said, trying to fix his mistake, though finding that he was just making it worse. "I was trying to protect you, because I knew that I can't be born so I didn't want you to feel obligated to try and get to know me."
"I understand, don't worry. And getting to know my son is an honor, not an obligation." Phoebe relayed to him, not upset or saddened by what he had said. "I loved your father, trust me, I know exactly how the Turner gene works—blurt things out and then realize you probably should have said it differently in order to convey the true meaning of what you wanted to say in the first place. I'm used to it. Your father, bless him, once brought a gift for your Aunt Piper's wedding, and instead of gently handing it over to her or placing it down like a normal person, he chucked it at her from across the hall."
"Can this be any worse in terms of a mother son reunion?" Payton scowled under his breath, making Phoebe smile. "That sounds like something I would do, too, chucking a present at someone, not intending it to be so rough."
"Well, when I reunited with my mother, my oldest sister astral projected and ran out with some random guy on a motorcycle, nearly ruining Piper's wedding." She remembered, thinking back to Piper's wedding. While it eventually turned out to be a great memory, when it was happening, it was anything but great. "That was pretty bad. I think that might top this."
"That does sound worse," Payton grinned, taking a few more bites of his food.
Phoebe inspected his disheveled and dirtied appearance, seeing that he was a good looking young man underneath it all. "Would you want to change clothes and take a shower? I have a few of your father's things still in my closet, I'm sure they would fit. They may be a little tighter on you than they were on him, since you're a tad taller, but you have relatively the same build as him."
"Um," Payton mumbled, finishing his food with one final bite. He looked towards his mother, seeing her hopeful expression, apparently having another motive behind the question. "That would be nice."
Phoebe's face lit up in joy. "Great!" She chirped, bouncing to her feet in anticipation. "I'll go get you the clothes and start the shower."
"Thank you," Payton nodded, getting to his feet and carrying the plate with him as he made his way over to her. "Maybe we can talk some more when I get out, if you want, I mean."
"I would love that." Phoebe replied as the pair walked down the stairs, heading in the direction of her room. "Do you have a favorite ice cream?"
"Rocky road," Payton answered curiously, wondering what his mother had in mind. She did not expound on what she meant any further, so silently, Phoebe and Payton both walked into her room and over to the closet. After opening the wooden door, Phoebe bent down and rummaged through the bottom, looking for a box that she had thrown into the back after Cole was first vanquished in his penthouse. She tossed around some clothes that had fallen off of their hangers, and then moved some shoes and pumps before finding her prize. She pulled the box out of the closet and carried it over to the edge of her bed, placing it down on top of her comforter. "I didn't think you would keep any of his things," Payton said, watching as Phoebe took off of the lid and looked through the box to find the clothes.
"I don't like throwing anything out," Phoebe admitted with a shrug, never having cleaned out her closet since the time Cole had died. "Ah, here they are." She said, moving aside a photo of her and Cole and taking out a black pair of jeans and a gray sweater. "Here you go."
"Thank you," Payton smiled, taking the clothes into his arms. They weren't his normal style, but for the night, he knew they would work just fine.
"You're welcome," Phoebe returned, unceremoniously piling everything back into the cardboard box and closing it back up. She gestured for him to follow her, leading him into the bathroom and turning the water onto warm. Then, reaching into the bathroom closet, she grabbed a yellow colored towel and a washcloth, before placing them on the rack next to the shower. "Shampoo and soap are in the shower, if you need anything else, let me know."
"Will do," Payton said as Phoebe left the room, closing the door behind her. Payton turned to face the shower, a small smile appearing on his face all the while, knowing that he would get to relax for the first time in years.
Twenty minutes later, a freshly clean Payton exited the bathroom, steam escaping as he opened the door. The dirt that laced his skin and the grime that had accumulated in his hair was gone, each of which had been washed away by the warm water. "Mom?" He said loudly through the upstairs hallway, not knowing if she was around or not.
"In here!" Phoebe called out, sitting in her room, looking at the picture of her and Cole that she had found in the box. She put the picture back into the box just before Payton neared the room, and then looked over to the door, giving a large smile when he came into view. "Wow, you look like a new man."
"I feel like one," Payton nodded in agreement, not remembering the last time he felt so clean. "I haven't had a shower like that in a long, long time. Not much running hot water where we live. We usually use the river to clean ourselves mostly."
"Do you want to go get some ice cream?" Phoebe asked, ignoring the idea of the squalor that Payton, Wyatt, and Matthew lived in. The thought of her son not being able to take a shower with warm water, something that she took for granted on a daily basis, was appalling to her and not a thought that she wanted to have. "There is an ice cream place just down the street."
"Sure," Payton agreed, licking his lips at the notion of some cold ice cream. "I'd love some." He waited for his mother to get up from the bed, before heading over to the stairs and making his way down to the first floor.
"We live on Mount Olympus," Wyatt said, sipping on his coffee, explaining to Piper and Paige their daily lives. They all lived at the top of Mount Olympus along with additional people, mostly low-level witches and their mortal families, having moved their after Hollow-infected witches had infiltrated their last home.
"Wait, the Mount Olympus?" Paige muttered in disbelief, unable to imagine Mount Olympus actually existing, regardless of the fact that she had previously learned that the Greek gods were in fact real. "You mean as in the mythical place where Apollo shot arrows down at the Greeks during the Trojan War?"
"One and the same," Matthew agreed with a nod of his head, seeing and understanding the seeming preposterousness of it all. "It's the only place guaranteed that the Hollow cannot reach. Only us with this pendant can reach it," He said, taking a pendant out from one of his pockets—it was a gold stone with a black leather band. "Perses managed to scavenge these up when our last hideout was found and destroyed. The Greek gods in ancient times used it as a sanctuary to protect themselves from the Elders when they tried to take back their powers."
"Unbelievable," Paige shook her head in amazement, looking down at the pendant that Matthew had handed to her, before passing it over to Piper. "How many of you are fighting?"
"In our group, there are twelve of us left; six evil, six good." Wyatt answered, noting the coincidental fact that there were twelve Olympians in ancient times, as well. He accepted the pendant from his mother, before handing it back to Matthew, who placed it safely back into his pocket.
"So if you three are good, who else is on the side of good?" Piper asked, squeezing some lemon and spooning some sugar into her tea. Once she finished, she placed her spoon down onto the side of her plate and grabbed a sugar cookie, nibbling on it slightly as she waited for an answer.
"I'm not on the side of good." Payton informed her, coming down the stairs with Phoebe right behind him. He was wearing the black jeans and gray sweater that Phoebe had given to him, now completely clean: he looked nearly identical to a young Cole Turner. "Morally and spiritually, of course I am, but magically, my powers are mostly demonic so technically I fall on the other side in regards to what Wyatt is talking about."
"Good and evil magic, not necessarily good and evil people," Wyatt corrected himself, giving a smile to his cousin, recognizing the mistake that he had made. "Let's see, there is Matthew, Billie, Bianca, and myself as witches, the last Elder Kevin and the wizard Rathmere who all use good magic, while Payton, the darklighter Rennek, the demon Goath, a lord of war named Duncan Statler, the demonic sorcerer Mordaunt, and the Titan Perses use dark magic." He counted off everyone that fought with them, each of whom had made a sacrifice to fight the Hollow in one way or another. "None of them are really evil, actually. I mean, Perses is actually downright good like we are; Goath is just a jerk, but isn't really evil in demonic terms; Duncan is bad and I wouldn't want to meet him in an alley late at night, but again, not really evil; and Mordaunt is a liar and a thief, but not someone that will necessarily kill you."
"Rennek?" Matthew nudged Wyatt, reminding him of the last member of their group. Rennek was a darklighter that, throughout his century of being a darklighter, had killed numerous whitelighters, whitelighters-to-be, and innocents alike, and as such, had grown quite powerful in result.
"Oh, right, Rennek," Wyatt nodded, a small frown on his face. "I don't know how I forgot about him. Yeah, he's evil to the core, like a person that would scare children if you told them stories about him."
"He was Jack the Ripper when he was alive," Matthew added, giving a shiver of discomfort. "And I don't mean that figuratively, he literally was Jack the Ripper."
"That's a pleasant thought." Piper muttered, not knowing how much she liked the idea of her son and nephews being around such a killer. She knew that they could take care of themselves, but still, it was needless danger that she preferred they not be around.
"Wait, did you say a Titan?" Paige gasped, just realizing what Wyatt had said, surprised by the fact that there were still Titans around in the world. "Didn't Piper kill them all?"
"No, you three only defeated a small cabal, that's all. There are dozens of them still around, entombed, but alive." Matthew corrected his mother, knowing that there were more than just three Titans out there. "Perses was released a few years before the Titans you fought were released, but since he's not evil like Wyatt said, he stays to his own business and no one even knows about it."
"How is that even possible? It took us being transformed into gods to even take them on, how is that Titan not strong enough to put the Hollow back in its box?" Piper whistled, remembering the rush of power that she felt as the goddess of the Earth, back when she could make lightning rain down onto the world and she was able to get into the Heavens by sheer force of will.
"The Hollow has absorbed nearly all magic in the human world, having already absorbed nearly all the magic in the Underworld, trust us, it's going to take a lot of power." Payton answered, taking a step closer to the table, where the rest were all sitting. "Apparently the Titans only helped each other when it served them, rather than any sort of bond between them. Hence, why Perses lived years without ever even attempting to free the Titans you fought, he only cared about his wife."
Wyatt sniffed the air, and then looked over to Payton. Seeing his wet hair, clean face and new clothes, he cocked an eyebrow at his cousin. "Did you take a shower?"
"Yes," Payton sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of his head.
"Would you like to one, as well? I'm sure we can wash your clothes while you do." Piper questioned, knowing that it would be good for them to take a shower for some normalcy in their lives. Plus, she noticed after sitting with them for nearly an hour, they stunk from lack of adequate bathing. "You can too, Matthew."
"What do you think?" Matthew asked, looking over to Wyatt, wondering what he thought on the matter. The idea of taking a shower was appealing to him, though he knew they were on a schedule that needed to be kept.
"We can afford the time, no?" Wyatt questioned back, not seeing a problem with it.
"We'll just be an hour or two late, so what." Payton agreed with a nod of his head, inwardly happy that he would get to spend more time with his mother.
"Okay," Wyatt nodded, accepting his own mother's offer.
Phoebe looked down at her watch, making sure it was still early enough for them to get ice cream. Seeing that it was, she smiled and tapped Payton on the shoulder. "We'll be back." She said, gesturing for Payton to follow her as she headed into the foyer.
"Where are you going?" Paige asked curiously, wondering where the mother and son pair was heading off. She was unsurprised that Payton had opened up to Phoebe, as she saw the look on Payton's face when he said hi before—it was a look of love and adoration, not one of dislike or hate.
"To get ice cream," Phoebe called back, closing the front door behind them as they left.
A/N: These characters aren't directly from Essence of the Demon, as in that story's Payton, Wyatt, and Matthew are the ones fighting the Hollow, but the characterizations are basically the same. That means that this Payton wasn't the Source himself, but certainly has the Source's powers. Like I said before, this is going to be just a short character story, with an epilogue afterwards.
