A/N: Okay, so here's the deal. This new realty is set in the time period of the first season as far as the girls' ages go. Since they have lived their entire life with powers they have new, cooler powers which we will get a taste of, but since they have been witches for an additional two plus decades the demonic threats they experience have increased toward story plots from seasons three and on. I thought this would be a nice way of avoiding episodes I've already used as well as create a more interesting fight between the charmed ones and the rowe coven. I really liked the concept of the rowe coven and thought that had it not been used in the first season it could have made an epic ultimate evil for the series finale. I also want to give the girls an easier path to a happy ending so I used Cole and then nixed him rather than trying to create some epic way to save him.
Thank you for the REVIEWS and please keep REVIEWING. I will try to keep writing for you and thank you for being open to the completely new direction this story is heading in...that's why it is called shades of gray.
"Hey, is Prue here?" Paige had been waiting to talk to her eldest sister after the heated argument that had gone on the night before.
Piper turned to look at her youngest sister with a spatula raised in her hand. "She had a photo shoot early this morning at the beach. Plus, I think she's trying to distance herself from Phoebe until things calm down."
"Until things calm down?"
"Okay, until Prue calms down. We all know what happens when Prue gets mad and I don't want to have to explain to our insurance agent how the house was blown to smithereens."
"So…are you angry with me?"
Piper put down the spatula and stared at her sister for a moment before turning her gaze down to the table top. "You did what me and Prue would have done. Phoebe wasn't capable of doing it and I understand why you did it, even why you lied and said she did it. You were protecting her, weren't you?"
"I knew what Prue would be like if she thought Phoebe chose Cole over us, but Phoebe didn't…doesn't get it."
"It's hard when you love someone who is all wrong for you. It was the most mature relationship Pheebs ever had and she must be going through an awful lot of pain. She'll move past it eventually, you just can't give up on her."
"And Prue? Is she gonna stay mad at her forever?"
"Prue, well let's just wait and see how that goes before we get in the middle, okay?"
"Okay," Paige dutifully agreed and popped a strawberry in her mouth.
Prue finished putting her equipment away and packed it up in the trunk of her SUV. She was fortunate enough that she was successful at what she did and made more than enough money as a freelance photographer to keep the manor taken care of and mortgage free. Still, she wondered sometimes what it would have been like had she not been charmed. It would have meant a lot more freedom to come and go as she pleased; taking more international job offers rather then turning them down in fear that she wouldn't be around when the power of four was needed.
She and her sisters had spent the past seven years fighting demons even as Prue tried to limit Phoebe's and Paige's involvement since they were still young. The year she had turned twenty Gram's had passed away from a heart condition. Piper had been seventeen and a senior in high school, Pheebs had been fifteen and Paige only thirteen. While they had all mastered spell writing, potion making, and completed several years of self defense, Prue wasn't willing to put her sisters in the middle of battle at such tender ages.
They had all had their rebellious phases –with the exception of Piper –and dealt with normal, everyday teenage problems like boys and school. While the sisters had certainly had their contrary opinions and fights, Prue had never expected anything to come between them. She was still reeling from the idea that her little sister could so easily risk not only her life but all of theirs over Cole. This knowledge depleted her faith, belief, and trust that she had in Phoebe. Her entire life Prue had been made to sacrifice her own needs and wants for her sisters; she was the protector and it was her sole responsibility in their lives to watch out for them. That was how she had lost Andy.
Her mother and father had told her she could go away to college and study photography, but Grams was so opinionated over the matter and had often lashed out at Prue. In the end Prue had chosen her sisters just like Grams had expected, and it hurt to know that her sister hadn't been willing to do the same for her. What was the purpose of being charmed, of being sisters and sharing that bond, if when it came down to the wire it meant nothing?
At twenty-seven years old Prue was healthy, mostly happy and extremely successful. Now, faced with her sister's betrayal and the likelihood of coming face to face in their final battle with the appropriately scary title "the ultimate evil", Prue was looking back on her life and wondering if she had missed all of the important opportunities like a husband and children. The eldest Halliwell couldn't help but think she had missed all chances for true happiness for a family that appeared to be ending before her eyes.
Phoebe stepped away from the kitchen entrance where she had been eavesdropping on Piper and Paige. She got it, really she did. Paige was the good sister who had protected everyone and done what was right for innocents everywhere. Phoebe even admired her for it.
As sisters they had all saved another from self-destructive choices in significant others. Hell, Phoebe and Paige saved Prue from a loveless marriage to that jerk Roger last year. She knew in time that she would complete her mourning period and need her sisters to lean on. What Phoebe hadn't realized was what her decision had meant to her sisters, even if she didn't fully realize why it bore such significance to Prue.
As she made her way up to the attic where she would put her plans into action, Piper and Paige greeted their eldest sister. None of the sisters fully understood the consequences of the past weeks.
"Where love is strong my spirit weak, it is an answer that I seek, the question burns within this fire, so I may hear the truth desired," Phoebe said holding a piece of burning paper. As it finished burning in her hands she suddenly felt woozy and felt a familiar tingle in her stomach. Seconds later she became aware of herself standing in the very same spot in a very different attic. Looking around, bright lights danced until the culminated into the arrival of her sisters.
"Pheebs, what did you do," Piper demanded.
"I cast a spell, but…"
"You cast a spell to bring us to the future," Prue asked. She had taken the couple of seconds when they first arrived to look around. "Look at this camera equipment, the technology is at least five years into the future. I've never seen anything like it," she said.
"I was just looking for an answer," the third sister tried to explain; "some kind of way to mourn and move on. I know what I said hurt you but I loved him and I need to know that what happened was really the better way."
"He was a demon," Prue said.
"I know that! But if we've learned anything than it's that our magic has never failed us and I need to know that there was no way to save him. He loved me, too; enough to want to give up his powers for me. That's what he told me right before Paige showed up. He wanted to be mortal…to be with me!"
"Pheebs, I'm sorry. I didn't know that," Paige said.
"That still doesn't explain the spell and why we got dragged into it," Piper said.
"I think I have an answer to that," an older, more mature Phoebe said entering the attic. Looking around she noticed Prue, and began to cry. "Is that really you," she asked softly before running to her sister and hugging her.
"Uh,"Prue uttered as the strange Phoebe held onto her. "What's going on?"
"I'm so sorry," the other woman said pulling away from her. "I never thought there would be a day when all four of us would be together, especially since there are two of me."
"We must be in an alternate universe," Piper said. "The time and space just feel and look completely different here," she said reaching a hand through the microscopic air particles that only she could see.
"Um, what's she talking about," the other Phoebe asked.
"Her power to see and move through alternate worlds," Paige said. "She doesn't have that power in this world?"
"No, just freezing and blowing up things. How long did you have your powers before that one showed up," she asked the younger version of Piper.
"I was eighteen," the young woman answered.
"Wait, you had powers as kids? And you were all raised together?"
"Why, we weren't here," Prue asked.
"No, we only found out about Paige after…" Phoebe trailed off.
"After what," Prue hounded.
Phoebe cast her gaze to the side and then to her feet. "After you died," Phoebe told her.
Phoebe explained the story to the visitors, sure not to give them too much future knowledge. She also found out what spell the younger Phoebe had cast and discovered that in their world she had also fallen in love with Belthazor even though it was years earlier.
"You cast the spell because you needed the truth. Are you prepared to hear it?"
The younger Phoebe looked at her sisters and back to her counterpart. "Yeah, I need to know."
"Alright, well then you should know that I couldn't vanquish him either. Since Paige wasn't raised with us Cole survived. We loved each other and were determined to be together. I stripped him of his powers and he became human."
"Really," Paige said and began to feel guilty.
"Yes. Unfortunately, during our first vanquish of the source Cole became possessed by the source while trying to save us. I married him under the influence of evil, conceived his spawn and nearly died carrying the child. I was queen of the underworld until I finally fought against the evil that was poisoning me and had to vanquish Cole in order to free him from the source."
"He had to be vanquished anyway," the other Phoebe said.
"Yes, but he managed to resurrect himself by collecting powers from other demons in the wasteland. Only by then I was completely disillusioned by our love and refused to acknowledge that the possession was the source. I looked at it as Cole was a demon; his choice, his actions. His love was stronger than mine. He fought so hard, but in the end he went mad from the powers he stole and my rejection. We tried vanquishing him but he had become invincible."
"What happened," Prue asked.
"In the end it was Paige, kind of anyway, who vanquished Cole. Somehow, during an attempt to win me back, he traveled to a parallel universe were Paige was killed before we found her. She managed to get me and Piper back together—don't ask any questions, I wasn't there and don't know much," she said when she saw Piper open her mouth. "She said it was me who finally vanquished him. Looking back on everything, I made a lot of mistakes. I stripped his powers but left him with no protection, vanquished the source and ignored my feelings for Cole. I was angry at him for a long time and then I was angry at myself for a long time. I hope that somehow he gets another chance to be good, I just know that love couldn't conquer all in this life."
"Thank you," the young girl said. "I needed to know what it would have been like if I could have saved him that night. I guess we were always meant to say goodbye," she finally realized. "Maybe it gave him some peace, until he gets another try," she offered to her other self.
Phoebe hugged her younger, alternate counterpart. "You do find love, you will be loved and you will love again. I hope all of you will," she said looking at Prue. "Even if you aren't my Prue, I'm just really glad to know that somewhere out there you have all the chances that you didn't have here. Make the best of them."
"I will," Prue said. "I promise." Turning, she looked at Piper. "Do you have this?"
"Easy peasy," she said and her hand cut through the air creating a portal. "All aboard."
Prue laid on her bed turning pages in her high school yearbook. Pictures of her and Andy littered it and she relived memories of being the homecoming queen and captain of the cheerleading squad. He had been her first love and her best friend. They had tried rekindling the flame when he moved back after college, but even though they loved each other it just wasn't meant to be. They both moved on and he met a wonderful woman named Susan. They were married two years ago in a beautiful ceremony Prue had attended with a friend. Looking back on her love with a man she was meant to say goodbye to, Prue wondered if there was a love for her in the future that she would be allowed to hold onto.
Paige opened Phoebe's door and heard her crying as she lay on her side hugging a pillow. Closing the door after entering, Paige climbed up next to her and held her as she released the pent up feelings from their trip earlier in the day. What Paige didn't realize was that Phoebe was crying at the thought of losing Prue in another world that wasn't really her own instead of the loss of her lover.
