Chapter 12

Up There

Leo orbed in and located Gideon.

"Well my boy, have you taken care of the situation and given the sisters the instructions?"

"Yes, I told them what you advised me to, however they asked me a lot of questions that I was at a loss to answer for them. I was wondering, I realize that it is highly unusual, but I was thinking that perhaps you could speak with them".

Gideon's face was drawn and he thought about it to himself. 'Damn, I knew they would not go along with the plan as easy I want, they always have to be difficult, even after the troublemaking sister was taken out of the picture. Well, perhaps Leo has a point, I may be able to convince them and play on their own guilt and insecurities, especially Phoebe's anger for Cole'.

"You may have something, Leo. I will go with you to speak with them, the sooner we get this predicament handled the safer we will all be." Leo nodded and thought 'well the first step of the plan was easy enough; I hope the girls are ready when we get there'.

"Okay, they are in the attic, lets go". With that they both orbed out to the Manor attic.

Manor

The girls were ready and waiting for Gideon's arrival. Prue having change physical appearance to look like Phoebe was over by the window while Paige and Piper were stand around the Book. They wanted to give the appearance that Phoebe wanted to be 'left alone' because the situation was too emotion, this way Prue would not have to speak since she did not have Phoebe's voice. Patty was invisible and in the corner of the attic ready to follow Gideon undetected when he left. The girls were betting that Gideon would go directly to whomever he was working for or with once he had 'handled' the sisters.

Orbs sounded and quickly the forms of the Elder and Leo appeared in the center of the attic. Leo stepped away from Gideon and moved closer to where Prue (Phoebe) was sitting.

"Girls, let me introduce you to my former mentor and Elder, Gideon".

"Hello, it is nice to finally meet the Charmed Ones in person, Paige, Piper" turning around to see 'Phoebe', "and you too Phoebe". She nodded and avoided making any eye contact with the man.

Piper put on her best fake smile, "Hello Gideon, it is a pleasure to meet you". Paige added, "Yes, we have never gotten to meet a 'real' Elder before, the Angle of Destiny but never an Elder". Gideon smirked at Paige's comment.

Directing his gaze at the two sisters standing he continued, "Well the pleasure is all mine, I can assure you. Leo has informed me that you have some questions that I may be able to answer for you."

"Yes, thank you for coming. We are not use to receiving instructions about who to vanquish and really don't understand why you are doing this now." Paige interrupting her, "yeah, where were you guys when the Source was after us and we could have used your help?" Piper turned to her sister with a look of annoyance, while Gideon watched.

"I'm sorry for Paige; she is still 'new' to the craft and doesn't fully understand the importance of the Elders." Piper was making herself sick trying to be play good cop to Paige's bad cop.

"Well, if they are sooo important why are they giving our directions and potions now"?

Gideon was amused by the bantering between the sisters and did not pickup on the fact that Phoebe was not partaking. He thought 'this is going to be easy, Piper being the oldest and married to Leo will take charge and handle Paige, and Phoebe, she is so emotionally raw she will go along with whatever they say'.

"Let me explain it for all of you. When the Source was in power we were unable to go against him ourselves for reasons that I am not at liberty to discuss and you would not understand. Since the Source was vanquished at the Penthouse, then resurrected himself from the Wasteland the rules changed a great deal. The balance of power needs to be restored and the only way to do that is to vanquish Cole Turner. He has too much power and he is evil. If we allow him to continue, no one, not even the Charmed Ones will be able to stop him from harming innocents."

"But he has not hurt anyone yet. Isn't our calling to protect innocents? If he is not doing any evil….." Paige was cut off by Piper.

"The word is yet. He is evil, look what he did to our sister. We may not know what his plan is but we know someone like Cole will have a plan, he is evil and he can not change that, hell, he became Source."

"I know what you are saying, Piper, but shouldn't we have some proof that he is evil before we take such action?"

Gideon knew he had Piper on his side and he just needed to give Paige a little push to get her on his side.

"Well, we have learned that he is looking for the Grimore so he can resurrect dead demons. He is working to regain control of the Underworld and with his vast powers, he obtained in the Wasteland, now is the time for action."

The girls knew this was an out right lie. They knew where the Grimore was and that Cole had not idea that it was even missing. Leo was the only one that knew where it was and he never told the Elders. He did not want to risk the Elders being corrupted by the evil of that book. Gideon must have thought that it was somewhere in the Underworld which is why he feed them this story.

"What, no way are we going to let him bring back demons we have already sent to the bowls of hell. If you think we should do this then I am in."

"Me too", said Paige

They all turned toward Phoebe (Prue). Piper walked over to her and sat down putting an arm around her in a comforting fashion.

"Honey, I know this is hard to hear but we can not let Cole do this, we have to stop him. You know that right?"

She nodded, sniffing and wiping her eyes.

"So you are in this with us right? You will help us?"

She sniffed again and nodded, then put her head on Piper's shoulder to avoid Gideon's gaze. He was fighting to hold back a look of satisfaction that he had conned the sisters to do his bidding.

"Well, then it looks like you have everything under control, so I will leave you to your work". With a nodded to Leo, Gideon disappears in orbs with Patty quick on his heels.

Once alone, Prue transferred back to herself and they all waited for Patty's return before moving ahead with their plan.

Underworld

Cole and Phoebe had moved from the cavern where the demon had 'self destructed' before their eyes. They did not want to risk staying to talk in the area not knowing who or what was behind the vanquish. Cole had led her to an area of the Underworld that he knew they would be relatively safe to talk. His prior life had some benefits like knowing the layout of the Underworld. They had not spoken since they had left the ritual cavern, each lost in their own thoughts. Cole had never spoken about his mother to Phoebe and all Phoebe knew was what she had seen in the premonition at the mausoleum early in their relationship. When Cole had come back the first time, she did not think it was important to discuss it with him and as their relationship grew it had been pushed out of her thoughts, until now. They had finally arrived at a small cave which looked just like every other area of the Underworld except she could feel something different. She could not put her hand on what it was, put while she felt the evil all around her elsewhere, in here she did not feel evil, and she felt 'safe?'

"Cole what is this place. I mean, it 'feels' different?"

"That is because it is different".

"Okay, what kind of answer is that Mr. Smarta$$. Care to explain or should I just play twenty questions until I get it out of you?" Phoebe deadpanned.

"I'm sorry, just thinking. I will explain, why don't you sit down, you must be tired after our long hike."

"Okay. And why you are at it can you let me know why we did not shimmer here, my feet are killing me." With that Phoebe sat down on a rock formation, taking off her shoes to rub her sore feet.

Cole started to pace around the small cave, and then started.

"When I was a little boy my mother gave me to Raynor, which as you know trained me to become the most powerful demon alive. I was just a boy, Phoebe and she gave me to this, this…monster." Phoebe could see that Cole was deal with some difficult emotions, which she noted she had never seen him do before. "Raynor was pure evil. He wanted to toughen me up and his techniques were horrible to put it kindly. Anyway, I had not idea at that point there was no way out of the Underworld and like any kid I ran away and found this place. I did not know at the time but it has some type of force field around it that protects it against evil. I learned that because Raynor could not locate me until I left this cave. Every time I wanted to get off his 'radar' I would come here, it made me feel good just being here but I had to leave for food and water and that is when Raynor was able to catch me."

Phoebe listened to Cole and her heart was in pain as she pictured the small boy that was Cole from her premonition, imagining him being hurt. She wanted to know what was done to him but she also knew how much difficulty he was having with just this small part of history so she would not push and take what he would able to give her at this point.

Cole regained his composure and sat down next to Phoebe. He was apprehensive about how he should act around her and although he wanted to pulled her into his arms at the moment and smell and touch her soft, silky hair, he held back, until she reached up and touched his face, wiping away a lone tear that had escaped his eyes. He looked into her face and saw love radiating back at him from her big brown eyes. He had missed that look over the last many months.

"Oh baby, I'm so sorry. No one will ever hurt you again, including me." Phoebe said as she through her arms around Cole's neck and he scooped her into his arms, both holding onto each other allowing all the feelings and emotions to flow through each other. Phoebe knew she would never let anything happen to this man again. She loved him and trusted him and she was going to stick by him. She was not going to let anyone talk her into abandoning Cole, including herself. He completed her.

TBC

I wanted to put more Cole and Phoebe in but I had to end this chapter somewhere so next chapter they will get into his mother and you will see how she comes into play.