Hellstorm

Chapter 7: Rainfall

Violence was something Leo only resorted to after all other alternatives had been investigated, but that was his white lighter half talking, the natural pessimist. Since marrying Piper he had come to deal with the raw emotion that the threat of losing a loved one evoked. After the first hour, he had begun to pace. After the second hour he had considered leaving Cole alone and orbing to see the Elders, which he had done after the third hour, however nothing had come of that. After the fourth hour he had taken Wyatt to Victor's because he was sure he was going to have to go something. After the fifth hour that something became trying to slap Cole awake.

Demon constitution or not, invincibility or not, he was going to get some answers, and Leo was confident that Cole had some of them, or at least he had convinced himself of as much in the ten minutes it had taken to illicit a response from the unconscious man. Leo brought a hand down on Cole's face.

"Cole," he shouted. "Cole wake up," he slapped him again. "Phoebe's in danger Cole," he said, which wasn't so much a lie as it was an assumption, but Leo felt it was safe one. "So help me god Cole if you do not wake up," he brought his hand up again. At the last moment he saw the man's eyes flash open and as a reflex he orbed across the room. He reconfigured, eyeing Cole nervously, who levitated to his feet, then stumbled to the side slightly. He pointed at Leo, and then slightly to Leo's right.

"What the hell," Cole straightened himself, his senses off slightly. How much had he had to drink? He concentrated on the white lighter before him. "What the hell am I doing here?" he demanded.

"Phoebe and I found you at the mausoleum," at the mention of her name Cole softened looking down at the floor, and then around the room.

"Phoebe," he said. "Where is she? Is she here? Did I? I was drunk," Leo put a hand up.

"No, she's not here," Leo tried to capture Cole's wandering eyes. "Some demons were doing something to you. Do you remember at all?" he asked. Cole looked down at his clothes and rubbed a hand across his chest, shaking his head.

"No, nothing," he answered.

"Cole," Leo said "something's going on in the underworld, something huge, do you know anything about it?" Cole looked at the other man, standing before him. He could tell he was poised to orb at the hint of trouble. Consciously, Cole fed focus into one of his myriad powers, forcing the alcohol in his blood to thin, closing his eyes as the pain of loss seeped in. He opened them to see Leo staring at him strangely; he had never been one for faith, or one to trust really, at least not before her.

"I think," he began, fighting indecision. "I think I need help, Leo," he said.

"You do know," Leo said. "What did you do, Cole?" when the last of his inebriation was gone he could hear silence pervade through the entire manor. No televisions or kitchen appliances.

"Where is everyone?" Cole asked.

"The sisters went down to the underworld to meet with the Seer because apparently something you did has everyone on red alert," Leo said, taking an offensive step towards him. "Piper is in danger, and so are Phoebe and Paige," he said, almost angrily. "Now what did you do?"

"I don't think they can hear you Paige," Piper said at her sister, who was directing expletives at their captors. The three sisters were all crowded near one of the pillars and the Seer was standing calmly at one across the room. Paige visibly calmed himself, smoothing her skirt. She put her hands up.

"Ok," she said, "Ok, don't panic,"

"Panic? Who's panicking? We're just stuck in this tiny red room that we can't orb out of that with walls that don't transmit sound, why panic," Piper said, looking over at Phoebe, who had been staring at the same spot on the floor for the past hour and change. "Phoebe," she said. Her younger sister looked up and then wiped an eye with her palm. "It's ok, we're going to get out of here," she said. Phoebe nodded.

"I know, I mean, yeah," she said, walking over and crouching near Piper, who had changed her focus to the Seer.

"You know you could help," she said.

"Yeah," Paige said, spinning around. The Seer stared across the table at them.

"I have already foiled Kaia's plan to the extent that I can. I have brought the charmed ones to bear, and have equipped them with the full details of the situation, she will have to accommodate these new events, and she will be unable to," the Seer clasped her hands.

"You should probably work on that whole disclosure thing," Paige said, eyeing a robed demon beyond the shield. "The whole part about us being captured would've been an important detail to cite first," Piper eyed the Seer, suspecting a come back.

"Had you known, you would have fought, perhaps died, perhaps not, but you would have been separated, and without your bond, captured, and then almost certainly killed. This seems preferable,"

"Having Cole come to rescue us is preferable, right," Paige quipped. The Seer grinned knowingly.

"He will not come to rescue you," the three sisters looked at the Seer at that. "He will come to submit himself before Kaia, because that is the only option she will provide. She will strip him of his powers, then she will destroy all of us," Piper looked over at Phoebe, then up at Paige, who seemed to have a comeback forming, but it fell short. Phoebe pulled out her potions and placed them at Piper's feet.

"Give me your potions Paige," Paige looked down at her big sister, panic in her eyes. "Paige, give me your potions,"

"What are you doing, Phoebe," Piper asked her sister calmly. Phoebe took the offered vials from Paige's hands and sat them next to her own.

"She's not always right, Piper," Phoebe said, not looking up. "But she never lies. We have to do something; I'm not going to just sit here and wait. I can't, Piper," she said. Piper nodded, taking out her own potions and sitting them on the floor before them. I can't watch him die again, she thought.

Kaia pondered, eyeing the Seer out of the corner of her eye. Oh how she wish she could ring the woman's neck.

"It would seem that they brought insurance," the robed demon spoke in her ear. Sitting in the source's throne, she had seen from the start that out of them all he was the closest to her mental equal. He warranted close attention; he knew her plan was not conforming perfectly.

"It's of no consequence, you are aware the circumstances under which this room was constructed," she replied evenly.

"Even so," he spoke in her other ear. "Do you have insurance in case they breach the barriers before he arrives," She turned on him fully.

"Do you? You forget who orchestrated this to this point,"

"You mean this point where it begins to fray and tear?" Out of the corner of her eye she could see the two undecided demons were sizing them up. She was at a disadvantage, being alone, however the bodyguards were of little concern. But if all five of them were against her…

"Perhaps you have a point," she gestured at his bodyguards. "I believe you all have a knowledge of the surface world, unlike these two," she gestured at the other two and kept talking quickly "why don't you go and find him to expedite his arrival. It should be child's play to draw him here," she raised her head slightly. The other demon looked at his bodyguards, toying with the athame in his robes, nodding slightly.

"They can go by themselves," he said. One of them stepped forward but backed down when his superior glared at him. "Go." He commanded. "Bring him here, now," he said, and the two of them shimmered out.

"The plan remains resolute," Kaia said smoothly. "Happy now?" The robed demon stepped forward, eyeing her hard.

"You play a dangerous game," he spat. "Do not imagine for a moment that you can do this without me," and turned around, striding around the barriers to the other side of the room.

"And I thought we didn't get along sometimes," Paige said, looking over her shoulder. "I thought they were going to do our jobs for us right then," she directed her attention back to what Phoebe was doing.

"Could have just been an act," her sister replied, robotically. "They've done a good job thus far of tricking us," she took a rubber band and wrapped four of the exploding potions together tightly, careful not to break the glass.

"It isn't like we could hear them," Piper agreed. She looked up at the Seer, still across the table. "They can't hear us, can they?" she asked. The Seer shook her head.

"The barriers were constructed so no spell could transmit in either direction," she said knowingly. Piper frowned. "So I get what we're doing, but what are we going to throw this at?" She whispered to Phoebe, who shrugged.

"Our own prison field back at the manor works with respect to the crystals," she said putting her hand against one of the pillars momentarily. "Just like these are with respect to the columns. If we can blow a big enough hole in one,"

"The field will fall down," Paige finished.

"Or maybe it will just blow a hole I a column and we can orb through or something," Phoebe added.

"You know even if we get out of this," Piper said calmly.

"When, when we get out of this," Phoebe said. Her sister sighed.

"When we get out this, you know we still have a problem right?" Phoebe nodded.

"Yeah, half a dozen demons that we don't have the book to research,"

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it," Piper said. Phoebe brought her face up to reveal her red eyes.

"What do you want me to say, Piper?" she rasped accusingly. "That I don't want to watch him die, or sacrifice himself, or lose himself, again, because of me? That I can't, well fine I can't," her voice filled with sobs. Paige put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "No, don't touch me," she said.

"It's ok to be sad, Phoebe," Piper said, looking at Paige.

"Oh really?" Phoebe asked, "and could you tell me what I'm sad about Piper, do you know? Either of you?"

"You like him," Paige began, smiling briefly. "No, you love him, and you think it won't work, but then it does. It's rough, because you don't think it can work, you get all the signs, to just give up, so you do," she looked down at her sisters, but not really seeing either of them "but you realize a little while later that things hadn't happened the way you thought, or you figure out you were just fooling yourself, wishing for or hoping for it to not work out, just so it wouldn't be so hard, so you wouldn't have to constantly worry about losing what is so, so important to you," she sniffled, her eyes tearing. "But then you realize, once you don't have it anymore, how much worse it is to be without, and it sucks because you can't go back, because you closed the door in his face," she finished and then her face brightened into a smile. "Sounds about like my relationships," she laughed painfully. Phoebe looked up at her sister and took her hand in hers and squeezed it tightly. Piper watched the two of them, suddenly aware again of everything that she had that they did not.

"Yeah," was all Phoebe said, bitterly. "So," she said, clearing her throat. "We about ready to get this show on the road?" she asked.

"Actually," Piper said, putting on a brave face. "We should probably wait until their attention is elsewhere. I mean, they think they have us, so just in case this does work, we should probably let them think that right up until the point that it doesn't" she looked from Paige to Phoebe. "Right?" she asked. Phoebe felt useless, holding the bundles of potions in her hands. The Seer was standing next to them before any of them realized it, but they didn't recoil like they would have hours ago. She smiled, somewhat sadly, and extended her hand to Phoebe.

"More often than not, it is the responsibility of those who know the most, to sacrifice the most for those who know so much less, and who will never know more," Phoebe frowned, staring down at the woman's wrinkled hand. It was steady, though, and welcoming. She looked at Paige and then at Piper, before taking her hand. She inhaled sharply as the premonition took her.

"Ok, here's the plan," Leo felt déjà vu sweep over him, staring into Cole's face. He'd known the man for years; he'd been at his wedding. He swallowed. "We go down to the underworld, and I try sensing for them. If that doesn't work we shake down some demons, or something,"

"Shake down?" Cole quirked an eyebrow.

"Look, whatever," Leo said, pointing at Cole. "The point is, we go down and we don't come back up until we have some answers or the sisters," he almost expected Cole to tell him to follow him. He wasn't sure if he were upset or not when he didn't utter the words. Instead, other voices he hadn't expected called from the other side of the attic. Two men, dressed in all black, that suddenly took demonic shapes grinned at the two of them.

"We have a better idea,"