Phoebe has to lean against the wall for support. Her knees are shaking. Up until now Cole never laid a hand on her. She knows that something is very off with Cole today because he turned into Belthazor. Normally he avoids changing into his demonic form in her presence, but not today. Today he is different. It started when he first complimented her and then even tried to kiss her. He hadn't tried to do it in months and she wouldn't have allowed it either.
Shaken, she walks over to her bed and sits down. What got into Cole? For the longest time he hasn't shown any interest in her, nor her affairs. And out of the blue he plays the scorned husband. Maybe she shouldn't have provoked him that openly on his birthday? Phoebe has to admit she was kind of bold to flirt with the demon so openly at Cole's birthday party. If Cole's demonic temper is getting worse she'd better start to be more careful about that. But hell, he is screwing around himself- a lot. The Seer never fails to fill her in on all details, without Cole knowing of course, even though Phoebe doesn't want to know at all.
Suddenly she hears someone scream outside her room. Without thinking, Phoebe rushes to the door, and opens it. She finds a wired scene. Cole is lying on the floor, his hand bleeding. Piper is standing nearby, only some metres away, with Leo and the woman who was in her kitchen before.
"Piper!" she breathes, suddenly happy and scared to death at the same time when seeing her sister in the demonic head quarter.
"Phoebe!" Piper answers her voice carrying the same emotion as Phoebe's. The eyes' of the sisters lock for a moment over the hall.
Cole scrambles to his feet and pulls his arm back to aim a fireball at them. Phoebe starts forward only thinking about Piper and pulls his arm down forcefully, using her full weight. Taken by surprise by her attack he extinguishes the fireball and Piper and the others orb out, unharmed.
Furiously Cole whirls around and slaps Phoebe hard in the face. She is thrown to the ground by his hit. Struck suddenly, she sits up and touches her burning cheek as she looks up at him with disbelief. He physically attacked her a second time within only some minutes.
Cole doesn't waste any time and calls for his minions. "Her sister and white lighter just attacked me! Go bring them to me! Alive!" He orders them and the demons shimmer out immediately to do his biding.
Cole bends down and grabs Phoebe's elbows. He forces her up to her feet and pushes her into her room. Phoebe stumbles forward on her high heels, trying to bring a safe distance between herself and her raging demonic husband.
"You stay here until I say otherwise!" he commands sternly and locks the door behind her.
"You freaking bastard!" Phoebe whirls around but yells only at a closed door. She hears the lock click and some muffled words from the other side. It seems he also locks her in her magically. "Evil asshole!" she mutters to herself.
Confused, Phoebe sits down to think about what just happened, especially about Piper's reason to show up and attack Cole and the strange woman, claiming to be her sister. Even Leo was there. Maybe it means Piper and Leo have found a way to defeat the Source at last? A small ray of hope blossoms inside Phoebe. Maybe there is a way out of her living nightmare.
Phoebe realizes she has to be extremely careful around Cole from now on. If she gets lucky, she won't see him again this day. She prays that he goes and gets wasted at his party and forgets about his newly awakened interest in her.
----------------------------------
Outside the door Cole leans against it, ruffling up his hair in desperation.
"Ouch!" he swears. He forgot that he is neither invincible nor self healing in this reality. "You got to be more careful Turner!" he mutters to himself.
He looks at his still bleeding hand. "Shit!" Paige cut a pretty large piece of flesh out of it. Without doubt she is about to make some nasty vanquishing potion for him. He won't let her use it on him. No way. He conjures a dressing and plugs it around his hand.
While he applies the bandage he wonders why Belthazor is so strong in this reality. Without intention he turned into his demon self twice in the last hour. Once while fighting with Phoebe and once almost when they attacked him. Additionally he has severe problems keeping his demonic side in check. He slapped Phoebe. Never before he could have imagined to physically hurt her, not until today. Cole closes his eyes, his heart aching with guilt. He never meant to endanger Phoebe.
He knows he caused some bad bruises on her arms and on her face. And he saw something in her eyes he has never seen before, not even when he was the Source. Fear. Fear of him! He winces at this thought. She was shocked of his brutal behaviour towards her, probably as shocked as he himself.
He opens his eyes and straightens his back.
Evil is strong in him, Cole feels it. Probably because the Nexus is evil now and in all likelihood he has been doing evil again. He doesn't doubt it. He wouldn't be welcomed in the house and addressed as liege, if he isn't. It's probably the reason Phoebe is so cold to him too.
He grits his teeth determinedly.
He didn't change reality for having shouting matches with Phoebe. He can have this in the other reality anytime he wants to. He is here for one thing only. To experience their deep and devoted love to each other again.
Why the Seer is here, why all the demons are here, Cole has no idea. How evil got the Nexus and the Manor. And why Piper is away. He needs to find out what has happened. He has to fix his relationship with Phoebe. He refuses to believe that it is as bad as in the real reality. He isn't ready to give up yet. "You can do it, just don't lose your head," he encourages himself.
Cole forces himself to concentrate on his aim. Granted, the start in this reality was a little bumpy, but he has handled trickier situations before. He is sure he can handle this.
Cole composes himself and goes back to his party. There is no way he can allow himself any weakness in front of his guests. They have come to celebrate him, but none of them would hesitate to stab him in the back, if he gave them a chance or a reason. It's the demonic way of living and he is sick of it. Nonetheless he plasters a relaxed smile on his face when he enters the living room. Its time to find out something about this reality.
---------------------------------
Unknown to Cole, one of his minions shimmers to the Seer.
"My lady." The demon bows his head deeply, "I convey important news."
"You may speak," the Seer allows graciously.
"The sister of Belthazor's wife just attacked him. He ordered us to get the attackers alive and bring them to him."
"Well, well, you are right, this is a very valuable information. You will be rewarded for it." The Seer thinks for a moment, "You said they, who else was with the sister?"
"Another woman and a white lighter, they orbed out before we could get them."
The Seer cocks an eyebrow. "Another woman? Interesting."
She hesitates for a moment. "I change Belthazor's order. Go and kill them on sight. All three of them. Make sure they can't be healed by a white lighter," she replies with an evil smile.
"But Belthazor….." the demon starts.
"Is not in the best grace with the Source any more. Me instead.." she interrupts him.
The demon bows his head slightly, "I understand. I will do as you wish."
"Don't report back to Belthazor before you tell me about the success of your mission. And send someone to inform the Source of the events," the Seer orders when the demon shimmers out.