Prue glared at Cole. Was this a joke? "How dare you." Her voice was low and filled with venom.
"I swear I saw her." he saw the look in her eyes, one he had seen there on more then one occasion when they were fighting demons and when he had first revealed himself to them as Belthazor.
"Cole?"
"Leo I swear it was her. She didn't look that shit hot but it was definitely Phoebe."
Piper couldn't say anything. Her world had been turned upside down more times then she even wanted to count. Prue almost died in her arms, Phoebe was stuck in the underworld because she needed to save them. Cole coming back from the underworld tears flowing down his cheeks when he told them of the battle and that he couldn't save her.
She felt her knees buckle as Prue wrapped her arms around her waist, "Piper?"
"No. I can't do this. You're lying. You told us she was dead!" She felt her anger surge through her. She wasn't even sure who she was angry at anymore. Cole, Phoebe, Elders, Mum Grams? Everyone? That was it; everyone.
"I thought she was. When I left there Klea and her thugs where packing her outta the chamber. She was unconscious. How the hell was I to know, I shouldn't have left her there in the first place!"
"No you shouldn't have Cole and now. She is with your mother? I thought she was dead?" Piper shot back.
Cole stepped away from the sisters his emotions running wild. To see her again brought back all the memories he had been trying so hard to suppress. If he let them in he would let them rule him, and he knew then he would be vulnerable to attack. "I thought so too." he replied quietly. "Raynor always told me she was dead. Killed by witches. It was what he used to fuel the fire deep inside of me. And once I killed my first witch for revenge there was no turning back until I met Phoebe." His voice was lost and far away.
"Colleen you can't do this."
"I can Benjamin. He has a greater destiny then you could even imagine." She held her crying son in her arms.
Benjamin reached for his son as he cried and tried to grab for his father. His mother felt like a stranger had him and her eyes were cold and unloving.
"Daddy!"
"Cole. Colleen don't do this." He pleaded with his wife one more time
She pulled her son away from his father. "Destiny can not be changed Benjamin. You knew that when I married you." She reached out as the lightening bolt slammed into his chest sending him falling to the ground
"I never saw what you saw in him darling." Raynor stepped from the shadows taking her in his arms
"A means to the end Raynor. You know that. Coleridge is half-human half demon. He will be the downfall of all witches." She leaned over and kissed him passionately as she held her crying son.
--- ----
"You can't do this!" her cries echoed off the walls of the underworld.
"I can and I have. Take him." He motioned his hand towards the small child. "And as for you."
"We had an agreement."
"And you fulfilled it perfectly I thank you. And now you have the choice of exile or death. But know you will never see your son again." His hand moved quickly as he held his fingers to the air as she disappeared. "You will raise him as your own Raynor, and one day he will be a demon to face the unknown."
"Unknown sire?"
"The ripples of the past will one day face us all Raynor. The myth of powerful witches will lead to our destruction. But with Belthazor the sands of time will be on our side and the mythical Charmed Ones will no longer be a threat to any of us."
Leo sat on the armchair as Piper sat next to him.
"So the Source and Raynor tricked your mother and then what? Exiled her?" Piper spoke as she now asked the questions that she needed to get her sister back
"Exactly."
"Why not just vanquish her? Seems more his style?" Prue asked
"He wanted her to suffer, knowing she would have nothing to do with raising me."
Piper took it all in, as she knew Prue was as well.
"But you said Raynor told you witches killed her. How did you find out?" Prue poised the question she knew all had.
"I over heard Raynor and the Source one day. It was then I too found out, that when she killed my father Raynor took his soul."
"Ok lets back up a lot here." Prue started. "If this is all true. Where does Phoebe come into this?"
"Klea. She must be working for my mother."
"And how is that?" Piper questioned.
"Someone would have to have taken her to her. Only someone that was close enough to the Source himself would have been ordered to take Phoebe and kill her. But if Klea was working for my mother."
"She would take her to her instead, but the question is still why? Any demon would love the chance to kill one of us." Piper stated.
Cole got up and paced thinking as to what he had seen and why his mother would still have Phoebe alive.
"What do you mean he got away? I told you to bring him here." Her anger flared as the torches around her flared with her.
"He went back to them mistress."
She turned her back to him not wanting to see his face. Her anger had already killed three of her best demons. She looked down at the figure before her. In her sleep like state she had no idea what was happening to her, but she was the key to getting her son back and to rule the underworld. To get her final revenge on the Source.
"Find him and bring him to me. I don't care if he is in the house of their God. I want Belthazor before me before sunrise tomorrow!"
He paced back and forth his fury building with each step.
"Well?" he turned on his heels as another entered his chamber. He could see his fear it read off of him like words on the page of a book.
"We lost him sire."
He said nothing at first. "Then I suggest you find him."
"Sire I come with other news. News of her."
"Her? What her?"
"His mother sire."
He froze his next step. "His Mother?" he looked at the demon almost confused. He had exiled her hundreds of years ago.
"Yes sire. It seems she had some demons on the inside." He paused not sure how his master would take the next information. "She took the witch sire." He hesitated knowing that his life was forfeit once he spoke the words, "The youngest Charmed One lives"
"How is this possible? She comes back now to hunt me to torment me to take what is mine to KILL!" his fury raged through the tunnels.
Demons staggered at the velocity of each cry. They could feel his anger, like nothing they had felt before. "Her family has betrayed me for the last time! Find her, kill her, and bring me the witch. I want her at my feet alive, so I my kill her myself!"
Leo watched as Cole continued to pace. "Cole."
"I couldn't save her Leo."
"We don't blame you Cole, but we will need your help to get her back." Leo stated as he looked towards the kitchen where Prue and Piper had disappeared to.
"Get her back? She won't let her go. She wants me and she is using Phoebe as bait." Cole shouted back towards Leo.
Prue came back in from the kitchen, "Cole. I will not leave my baby sister, or any sister, in the hands of a demon. I don't care who it is. You will help us get her back!" the force in her voice was something Cole knew he couldn't mess with or talk out of.
Cole took in the features of Prue and Piper as they discussed with Leo what they had to do. He knew everything they were planning wouldn't work. He knew that if his mother was up to her old tricks Phoebe was lost. She had been with Raynor to long, she knew his tricks had shared their powers when they were alone.
Cole listened and plotted his own plan to get her back. Though he knew that is was almost impossible to get her back, his mother wanted him by her side and she was using Phoebe as the bait to get him there.
"Cole?" Leo voice pierced through his thoughts.
"Sorry thinking."
"Cole we need to know where she is and how to get Phoebe back." Prue was all business., Cole sensed that in her voice. She wasn't up for emotions. She wanted to fix what she felt was her fault to start with.
He couldn't keep this any longer. He wanted what they did as much as they did, but he couldn't lie to them. "You can't get her back Prue."
Piper pulled her head back from the pages of the BOS and looked up at him, "What do you mean we can't get her back Cole? She's our sister and we will not leave her down there." her words held an edge Cole had never heard from Piper before.
Cole took in the faces of those before him. He was a powerful demon but the looks from the two sisters and the Whitelighter was almost more then he could take. Maybe Phoebe had effected his heart and soul more then he had thought.
He ran his hand over his face and to the top of his head, brushing back his hair. "She was turning her. It was the same spell Raynor used on me. To turn you to your evil side, and with Phoebe being born in the Manor."
"She is more susceptible to the ways of darkness." Prue finished as she looked at Piper.
Prue once again felt the weight on her chest. She had told Leo to make it right. She told him to GO. And now she had to face the fact that her baby sister was now: Evil. Once again the question echoed in her mind: What have I done?
