Chapter 4

Cole didn't return the greeting or rise from the sofa. "I'm waiting for an answer," he said.

"I'll tell you everything, I swear. But, first, I need you to help me. Please."

"With what?"

Cole couldn't have missed that he was sitting six feet away from a corpse. But he was going to make Chris say it.

"Wyatt killed Bianca. I need you to-" He found his voice catching. "We can't just leave her here."

Cole looked over at the quilt-covered body. "No. And we're a bit past traditional funerals these days. All right. I can take care of it." Something in Cole's expression had softened, however slightly, with pity. As he stood, he asked, "Do you want to say your goodbyes?"

Chris took a small step toward her, then pulled back. "I can't." Not with Cole hovering nearby. Reaching in his pocket, Chris felt the ring and added, "I already said goodbye."

Cole nodded and moved over to the body and reached for the quilt. "Do you mind? Being able to see her makes it easier to not take out the attic floor, too."

"Whatever you need to do." Chris turned his back and walked to the window, the need to keep hidden temporarily forgotten as he stared out at treetops and neighboring rooftops. He thought he could hear the sound of Cole's fireball, and a moment later, he saw a flare of red light, briefly reflected on the window. Then he knew it was safe to turn around.

Bianca was gone, along with the quilt and the blood. The floorboards that had been beneath her were unstained and unscorched.

Cole turned to Chris. "Do you want to go downstairs?"

Still staring at the empty floor, Chris could only nod.

They settled in the living room - it seemed least exposed to passersby. And Chris told him everything - okay, not everything, but a thorough explanation of the basics: how Chris had learned of some unspecified evil that got to Wyatt when he was a toddler, how he and Bianca had hatched this plan for Chris to travel to the past to prevent that from occurring, how Bianca, back under Wyatt's thumb (Cole affirmed this with a grim nod), had been sent to drag Chris back to the future. She had died trying to defend Chris in the attic, and … "that's when it all fell apart."

Cole raised his eyebrows. "Only now has it fallen apart? Seems like that might have happened when Bianca turned on you. On us."

"Penka said she didn't give you away."

"All right. I'll give her that, but not much more. So how exactly did this fall apart last night, and why are you here in this house?"

"Well, I was trying to get back to the past again, and…" Chris took a deep breath and then said in a rush, "Wyatt went through instead, he's back in the past, about 23 years ago, and he's done something to the spell so I can't follow him."

Cole stared, apparently trying to process this revelation.

"If he comes back, I set up crystals in front of the portal, to hold him."

"And we left the attic unguarded why?"

"Because you asked if I wanted to get out of there, and I did. We'll know when the crystals are activated, okay?" Chris didn't honestly know this to be true, but he guessed it might be, and he wasn't ready to go back up there yet. "Anyway, if Wyatt wanted to come back to the exact time he left, he would have done it already."

"I don't see why. I also don't see why you thought this whole thing had a chance in hell. Did you give any consideration to the idea that there's nothing in the past to change? Maybe he was just a bad apple. It's not unheard of, not even in your family."

"You haven't known him all his life, like I have. That's not who he is. Something happened to him. I know that for a fact. The sisters rescued him without ever finding the culprit, but he was found in the Underworld. Whatever had him did something to him. That's what I went back to stop. It has to make a difference."

"Doesn't seem to have made a difference so far."

"I wasn't done," Chris said. "I've been looking for months, trying to follow leads on what evil could be after him." He sighed. "To be honest, demons are after baby Wyatt all the time - sometimes it seemed like there were too many possibilities. But the sisters were keeping him safe, more or less, and I-"

"You were in contact with the sisters?" Cole said sharply.

Chris knew what this really meant: You were in contact with Phoebe?

"Yeah, I kind of became their Whitelighter."

"Really? What happened to your father?"

"Leo - Leo's an Elder now."

"Huh. When did that happen?"

Chris shrugged uneasily. "When I showed up. Leo wasn't an Elder originally. That's a change that's my fault."

"Not something that's had much impact on the future so far."

"Not so far."

Cole looked suddenly amused. "There's no way Leo could stay with Piper while he's an Elder. You didn't happen to break up your parents before you were conceived, did you?"

Chris really didn't want to get into this with Cole. "I'm still here, right? Yeah, they're technically broken up, but it's not like it's made a difference. He's never gone from the Manor. All the times in the here and now that I've wished for him to be there, and back in the past, I can't shake him. It's ridiculous. They must think he's an absentee Elder - he'll probably get demoted. Problem solved."

"As long as you're not worried about it." Cole's dismissal somehow annoyed Chris as much as his raising the issue had. Cole continued, "What I want to know is, how exactly are we going to deal with the problem of Wyatt's absence?"

"Why is that a problem?"

"You think he doesn't keep his demon hordes in check? You think things are bad with him, imagine all the demons he's empowered - and they're now off leash."

"Okay. You've told me he goes off on his own sometimes, and even puts you in charge. So this is one of those times."

"That won't work for long. Yes, he's left things in my hands before, but I'm not the one he's trusted lately with that."

"It doesn't have to work for long, because if we don't fix the main problem, we're screwed no matter what: What's he doing in the past? How much more powerful will he try to make himself?"

"On the other hand, he's got himself a pretty good future here. He might disregard all the rules if it suits him, but he reasons to preserve this, to not mess up the past any more than he has to? Guess what: Your brother has thought along the same lines as you have once or twice. I stopped him with stories of my own cold, hard experience with trying to alter the past. Maybe I should share them with you."

"I know the stories, Cole, and I'm not doing this for personal gain. That's the difference. Whatever," Chris said, answering Cole's skeptical expression. "The point is, what if he figures out how to make things worse? Do you really trust him? Do you trust him with Phoebe?"

Pushing that button never failed. "From my point of view, he's already responsible for her death."

"And do you want her death to come twenty years earlier?"

"You don't even agree with me that Wyatt got her killed."

No, Chris didn't, but he tended to avoid the argument, since Cole's vendetta was what kept him on their side. But sometimes Cole himself had to make a point of it, as if Chris's doubts made him a distant accessory to Phoebe's death.

Right now, Chris said carefully, "I agree that Wyatt created the conditions that led to Phoebe and Paige getting killed. And he could do the same in the past. I have to get back. I've put to much into this, and it's the only way to fix things. It's like you said, even if Wyatt disappeared, everything's just too far gone."

"Does it make a difference to you, as you try to change this timeline, that Wyatt was the one that brought me back from the cosmic void?" It was not an accusation: While Cole's voice was cold, it had a clinical curiosity.

"Yes, but - I'm sorry. Believe me, I've thought it over. I've thought over a lot of things that may be sacrificed."

"Including yourself."

"It looks like it. But before I vanish from existence, I have to at least try to warn the sisters. I didn't give them the whole story about Wyatt. I thought they wouldn't believe me or trust me if I did. I need to tell them, I see that now."

"Did you ask anybody else if this plan was worth it? Because I'm surprised that Bianca went along with it, for however long she did. Most people would say your brother can't be saved."

"I'm guessing most people would say that about you."

"And maybe they were right."

"Look, it's not like anyone else has any plan to stop all this. But I've got one, and even if there's only the slightest chance it'll work, it's better than nothing." He paused, and when Cole didn't speak, Chris continued: "You say that Wyatt caused Phoebe's death. Maybe saving Wyatt means saving her. Isn't that worth it?"

Cole Turner shimmered in at the base of what was once known as the Transamerica Pyramid. Wyatt had commandeered it a couple of years ago when he decided that the Manor was too small for him. The Manor became a museum, and a swarm of demons drove out or killed the bankers, brokers, vice presidents and all their corporate underlings and claimed the Pyramid for their master.

Once Wyatt had control of the Pyramid, several bands of demons, warlocks and rogue witches had made their own attempts to seize a skyscraper of their own. Some did this with Wyatt's tacit permission; for others, it was an act of defiance against him. After a few weeks of this, downtown was littered with the rubble of ruined buildings. It's not that the mortals could put up a fight - they quickly fled - but the various demonic and magical factions started battling each other for the best real estate. That's when Wyatt cracked down and put a stop to it, apportioning territory to those who were loyal to him and wiping out the others. But the San Francisco skyline still showed the scars.

In the Pyramid, Wyatt had taken over the top floors for himself, where he lived and ruled. A significant portion of the building was unoccupied. Wyatt's minions could have filled the place, but only those within a certain circle of trust - as much as he trusted anyone - were allowed even to enter headquarters, let alone live or work there. Cole was one of them.

In fact, Cole had been brought back into this world within the Pyramid by Wyatt himself, not long after he had acquired the building. One moment, Cole had been in a cosmic void, the next, in a flash of fire, he was bathed in genuine, living sunlight pouring into windows that overlooked the city. From the void, he had seen enough of the world's descent to recognize the grim young man, dressed all in black, standing before him. And a little over a year before, Cole had watched helplessly, furiously, as this very man had caused Phoebe's death.

Cole had kept this to himself as Wyatt paced the room.

"I take it you know who I am," Wyatt stated.

"Word might have reached me."

"I know all about you: Belthazor, former Source of All Evil, once invincible, my aunt's ex-husband ... and former Avatar."

"Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Why am I here?"

"I want to know more about the Avatars, and you're the only source I could find. Tell me how to defeat them."

"Ignore them and they'll go away." At Wyatt's glare, Cole continued, "You want to know about my experience with the Avatars. I've had a lot of time to think about that experience, and what it tells me is that I should have ignored them. They were just one more bad decision. Tell me, are they trying to get you to join their ranks?"

"No." Wyatt looked almost peeved by this. "But I don't like the idea of that kind of power out there. I need a plan to contain them should they decide to strike."

"They won't 'decide to strike.' That's not how they work. If they haven't even put in an appearance lately, you're chasing phantoms. But you've got the evil overlord generalized paranoia down - good for you."

Wyatt glared at Cole. "I don't tolerate being talked to that way."

Cole shrugged. "Then vanquish me. I'm used to it from your family. Send me back to the void."

But Wyatt hadn't vanquished Cole. He had kept him around, at first as something of a prisoner - the prison being a well-appointed, albeit magically caged, wing of the Pyramid. Gradually, Cole's freedom expanded as Wyatt came to depend on him as a lieutenant who could offer good advice and keep lesser minions in line as Wyatt's empire expanded.

Cole played along, biding his time for more freedom, letting Wyatt think that Cole's evil nature ruled his desires and choices. But he mitigated damage where he could, and reasoned that keeping in demonic minions in check could only help in keeping chaos at bay, while he tried to determine a way, any way to bring Wyatt down.

The prospects of that were dim, but gradually, he became aware of outside resistance - chiefly through Wyatt's outbursts about his brother - and when he felt confident that it was safe to do so, he reached out to them. Of course, it took some convincing to get them to believe he wanted to help. Simply through family stories, Chris had inherited his mother's loathing for Cole Turner. But in the end, it was the argument over Phoebe's death that won Chris over: If Chris didn't blame Wyatt, he believed that Cole blamed Wyatt, and that made Cole a credible ally.

In time, Cole could consider himself nearly second in command in Wyatt's domain - if it weren't for his competition. Which one was in favor and which one was shut out swung with Wyatt's moods and bursts of paranoia, as well as more practical needs, and just at the moment, Cole found himself on the outs.

He hadn't decided yet how soon to seek out his counterpart to tell her that Wyatt was incognito, but it was difficult to avoid her for long, and when he entered one of the floors that served as the common space, there she was.

Cazakin leaned against a desk, her arms crossed, typically displeased to see him. "Turner," she said flatly.

"Expecting to see someone else?"

"I am here to see Wyatt, of course. Nothing to do with you."

"You may be waiting a while. But you go ahead with ... whatever it is you're doing."

He turned and began to stroll away. She grabbed his arm as she caught up with him.

"What are you saying?" she hissed.

Cole gestured to an empty office, once the private domain of some corporate executive. Caza looked around at the smattering of demons conferring in corners and took his meaning. She followed him in to the office and closed its double doors behind them.

"What is it now?" she asked.

"Wyatt's gone. He let me know he was going off on one of his ... expeditions, retreats, whatever it is he does. You know how he is. He'll be back when he's back. He asked me to keep an eye on things here."

It was a completely believable story. Wyatt had done this occasionally, and most times told either Cole or Caza, but not both. The problem with this lie was that as soon as Wyatt reappeared, this would likely be the end of him, or at least the end of his cover. But, Cole considered, this whole gig was already an exercise in staving off the inevitable. He had been undercover before. It always came to an end, one way or another.

"Of course," Caza was saying. "He can run off, have his alone time, and leave us to deal with the mess."

"What mess? I thought things have been running smoothly for once."

"Not anymore. Did you know his brother Chris is back in town? I caught one of the guards thinking about it."

Cole shrugged. "It's not like that kid's a threat."

"No, not really, but I'm guessing that's why Wyatt decided to take off somewhere. He probably killed his brother - finally - and wants to, I don't know, brood? Throw a party? Whatever, it's a distraction. We've got bigger problems. I doing reconnaissance in the Underworld - I like to get things done on my own once in a while."

"No fun in delegating, huh?"

"I can do the job better," she said, and Cole didn't doubt it.

"So what did you hear?"

"I got close enough to a trio of demons wandering down a side tunnel. I got a look inside their heads, and it's not good. They're followers of someone named Andras, new in town and looking to overthrow Wyatt."

"So? There are always rumblings from the dissatisfied, and Wyatt always squashes them."

"And who's going to squash them if Wyatt is incommunicado? But the real problem is that Andras may be new in town, but he's apparently already got a mole within our organization. I couldn't get a name. The demons I encountered seemed pretty low in the hierarchy - I doubt they even know who it is."

"Shouldn't you be making a tour of the Pyramid right now, reading everybody's minds?"

"Don't worry, I will," Caza said. "But I can only read demons' minds. That leaves out warlocks, witches, Darklighters ... not to mention, whatever it is you are nowadays."

"I'm not a mole."

"No. Much as I hate to admit it, this crowd isn't your style - too much hyperactive posturing."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Caza bestowed on Cole one look of withering contempt before continuing: "The other problem is something I just caught a fleeting thought about: Kansas City."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

" I brought it to Wyatt's attention six months ago. I guess you missed it? A giant sinkhole opened up, taking out half a city block. Mortal engineers are still trying to work out what happened, but I thought it looked not at all natural. Wyatt agreed with me. So I've been keeping an ear to the ground. If the demons that did that have shown up here and are gunning for Wyatt ..." She gestured to the floor beneath them. "All I'm saying is that I live here. I like it here. I especially like the view. I'd rather not see it swallowed up into the ground."

"How sure are you that this is what they're planning?"

"Pretty damn sure, or I wouldn't have been here waiting to tell Wyatt."

"Well, I don't want to be the one to put in an emergency call to him and have it turn out to be nothing but your guesses. Let's take care of this on our own. Could you find their lair in the Underworld?"

"I have a good idea."

"Then send a team down there. Wipe them out."

An hour later, Cole was once again reminded that Caza's self-preservation instincts were second to none. She returned without a single singe from a fireball, but she returned alone. The team had gone up in smoke - most at the hands of this Andras.

"I couldn't get a read on him - I didn't get close enough," Caza said. "But he's powerful, he's up to something, and we're running out of time. We need Wyatt."