Disclaimer: "Angel", along with all related characters and concepts, was created by Joss Whedon and Co., so they don't belong to me, while "Charmed" characters and concepts belong to Constance M Burge. Anyway, enjoy
Feedback: As always, I'd appreciate it
AN: As this chapter progresses, keep in mind that Cole is not only slightly more sane at this point compared to how he was when he changed reality in the show, but he also doesn't know what he changed to create this reality; all he knows about this world so far is that he's still Belthazor and Angel's chained up in the manor basement, but he currently has no idea precisely what happened to the sisters in this new timeline (Who's alive and who 'should' be dead, things of that nature)
The Love of a Vampire
Unable to take his eyes off Angel's badly-burned form, Cole hurriedly moved back up the stairs before he felt the need to answer the vampire who should have been his friend- just because he could guess how he could have reached the point where he'd torture the only person who came close to understanding what it was like to be him didn't mean he had to like-, shutting the door behind him to look over at the Seer with a nonchalance that he hoped was more convincing to her than it was to him.
"Still no change there, anyway," he said, shrugging slightly as he looked at the Seer, his mind racing to try and think of a way around this whole mess he now found himself in; was there anything in this reality that had worked out the way he'd wanted it to when he'd made that wish?
God, he knew that vengeance demons would twist anything and everything about the wording of a wish to give the person what they asked for without giving them what they wanted, but twisting something around to this extent?
"So," he said, turning to the Seer- who, he was grateful to note, wasn't looking at him with any particular suspicion; maybe she was used to his other self acting slightly 'off' at times given the possible 'tension' between his human soul and his now-apparently-dominant demon side-, "where's, uh, Phoebe?"
The Seer's lack of reply wasn't exactly encouraging, even if the fact that her expression didn't demonstrate total confusion about why he was asking after the youngest 'official' Halliwell at least suggested that Phoebe was still alive.
"Answer me," he repeated, before the sound of a door opening upstairs prompted him to turn around. As his gaze fixed on the stairs, a distinctive leg appeared in his vision as its owner walked down from the upper landing, followed by the sight of Phoebe in a brilliant red dress, her hair curled in a shoulder-length cut as she took in the group in the lobby with a brief glance.
Cole didn't even stop to think about her apparent nonchalance at being in a manor full of demons; the thought that she was here... that she was living with him...
"What's the matter?" Phoebe asked, pausing at the bottom of the stairs as Cole walked over to stand in front of her, an abrupt tone to her voice that Cole only briefly registered. "Not what you expected?"
"No," Cole replied, trying to bring his mind to focus at this first sign that something might have gone right for him in making this wish; if he could work out a way to release Angel without attracting too much attention, maybe this new world could work for him. "You look... you look great, really."
"Did you just give me a compliment?" Phoebe asked, looking at him in a critical manner that Cole decided to ignore; whatever his other self had done before now, he could definitely make up for it.
"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," he said, leaning in to kiss her, only to stop short when he found his lips heading towards her cheek and her hand on his chest.
"What the Hell is the matter with you?" she asked, her voice low as she looked at him in confusion before she casually brushed past him, heading off to chat with a group of demons off in one corner of the room.
What the Hell? Cole asked himself, unable to do more than stare after Phoebe in confusion.
He'd expected that their relationship would have suffered if he'd really given into his demonic side, but Phoebe wouldn't stay with him if she didn't want to stay with him... right?
"Don't worry about her," the Seer suddenly said, drawing Cole's attention to where the prophetic demon now stood beside him. "My visions have not changed. Once she conceives your magical heir, you won't need to keep up pretences any more. I'll take it from there."
Cole felt like swearing at that revelation; even when his counterpart had the one thing he'd wanted for ages, he had to do something to screw it up...
As Phoebe moved off towards the kitchen, Cole decided to take a closer look at that pool table; with unexpected information coming at him from right and left, he needed a way to cool down right now before he let off any frustration in a manner that all concerned would regret later, and since actually fighting something wasn't an option without attracting too many questions, knocking the balls around seemed like the safer option.
As Paige walked silently through the group of demons in the mansion- she was definitely grateful for the lessons she'd received from Angel in terms of stealth over the last few months; there might be a lot of demons around here, but Angel had given her some interesting pointers about how to be 'invisible' in a crowd-, she only took a brief note of Cole heading for another room; whatever was happening in this reality, she wouldn't help matters by going after Cole- the most likely candidate for whatever had happened here- before she had a plan.
Noting Phoebe heading towards the kitchen- followed by a couple of people who looked like a chef and a waitress walking out of the room in question-, Paige hurried towards the room as fast as she could without attracting attention to herself, just in time to find Phoebe talking a deep draw on a cigarette that she'd somehow produced from somewhere.
"Phoebe," she said, her sister's subsequent shocked gasp and the confusion on her face as she turned to look at her all that Paige needed to confirm what she'd already gathered from her meeting with Leo and Piper; none of her sisters knew her now.
"You don't recognise me," she said, hoping she sounded more casual than she felt; magic might have taught her to expect the unexpected, but this was just too weird. "That's OK; Piper didn't either."
"Piper?" Phoebe repeated, hostile confusion being replaced by a smile of relief as she walked forward to lean against the work surface. "You know Piper? How is she?"
"She's, uh, different," Paige replied, quickly steeling herself for what she was about to say; the faster she got down to business, the faster she could get back to reality. "Look, I don't have a lot of time, so I'm just gonna drop this on you. I am your long-lost sister Paige. I know! It sounds crazy, but it's true. We're all sisters in the real world."
For a moment, as Phoebe looked quizzically at her, Paige thought that she'd made her point...
"Guards!" Phoebe yelled, quickly ending that admittedly weak hope that her delay had inspired.
"Look, I don't know what happened here, but something twisted reality, and I seem to be the only one who... slipped through the cracks, for lack of a better term," Paige explained; hopefully the direct approach would work despite her inability to provide any real evidence to back it up. "Whatever happened, I need your help to turn things back-"
"You called?" a familiar voice said as a door opened behind her, prompting Paige to turn around and take in the equally-familiar face attached to the voice.
"Darryl!" she said, smiling in relief. "Hi!"
"Get rid of her," Phoebe said, forcing Paige back to face the reality of her situation; like her sisters, this Darryl didn't know her and had no reason to trust her.
As Darryl moved to grab Paige's arm, Paige didn't stop to be shocked at this latest turn of events; if she'd learned anything from her confrontations with Angelus last year, it was to be ready to fight off any kind of threat, even if it came from people she considered friends. Neatly sidestepping Darryl's arm- he was fast, but compared to the vampires Paige had killed over the last year he was significantly slower-, she launched a quick but powerful punch to his chest that left him disorientated long enough for her to grab a nearby frying pan and hit him in the head, knocking him out just as Phoebe grabbed a knife on a nearby cutting board.
"Sorry about this, Phoebe," Paige, said, before she knocked the knife out of her sister's hand with a rapid kick, "but if you can't help me right now, I'm going to need to rethink this whole thing."
She just wished that she felt as confident as she'd sounded as she ran for the door, barely registering signs of movement as Darryl apparently began to regain consciousness, her mind racing to come with a new strategy now that things at the manor were clearly a bust; maybe she could get a map and a new set of crystals to try and scry for Angel or Doyle...
As she heard footsteps beginning to follow her as she ran for the street, Paige quickly threw thoughts of alternate methods of coping on her own; if she was going to get out of this, she definitely needed help.
"Leo!" she yelled, hurrying into the street and ducking to put a car between her and the manor (Hopefully, whatever had happened here, even the demons were probably still operating on a policy of not attracting the attention that would be caused by someone getting shot outside a base). "Leo!"
After a few tense moments as Paige waited, the sound of footsteps coming ever-closer to her current location, her call was answered as Leo appeared, grabbing her arm and standing still for a few moments before orbing out once more...
As they returned to reality, Paige sighed in relief; she might have screwed up, but at least she was still alive to figure out a way to put things back.
"Thanks," she said, looking over at Leo as she tried to calm her breathing and heart-rate so that she coul think more clearly about what had just happened. "That was cutting it a little close, don't you think?"
"You're lucky I came at all," Leo said, as he began to walk down the path in what Paige only now realised was a cemetery.
"I'm lucky?" she said, questions about Leo's choice of locale pushed aside in favour of frustration; right now, anger was easier to deal with than the alternatives. "You're lucky! Without me, we're all screwed; I'm the only one who can fix this thing!"
"Oh, yeah?" Leo said, his tone non-committal as he continued walking.
"Oh God," Paige said, shaking her head as the implications of the events of the last few hours began to make themselves clear to her. "It's just so... weird. Cole living at the Manor, all those demons we vanquished wandering around alive... Wait a second..."
She couldn't believe that the train of thought that had just come to her hadn't hit her earlier; it was so obvious when she thought about it now.
"If the demons are alive," she said, "than that means all the innocents we saved are... dead."
"Not just the innocents, Paige," Leo said grimly.
"What are you talking about?" Paige asked, looking questioningly at her silent should-have-been-brother-in-law.
Now that she thought about it, this place was a bit of an odd area to go to 'hide' after escaping from a house full of demons; why had Leo brought her here...?
"What are we doing here?" she asked, looking over anxiously at the Whitelighter.
In response, Leo glanced over at a particular grave a short distance from where the two of them were standing, consisting of a small slab of stone lying on the ground with writing on it.
PAIGE MATTHEWS
BORN 1975- DIED 2001
Oh God... Paige thought, her eyes widening in horror.
Cole had created this reality by killing her?
She'd known that he was approaching the brink- Angel had warned them more often than not that they needed to find a balance in how they treated Cole before the powers he'd picked up the Wasteland drove him too far over the edge-, but from what Angel had told them about things he'd overheard as Angelus, Cole had refused to kill her even when he was the Source because of some weird respect he'd had for his old friendship with Angel; the idea that he'd chosen this way to solve his problems...
"After you left, I went and checked with the Elders," Leo explained. "They confirmed your story that there was, in fact, another sister, only they didn't know until it was too late, until... after the Soruce had already had you killed."
"This reality sucks," Paige said resolutely, trying to restrain the sudden apprehension she felt at this news; if she'd been killed before she was 'summoned' to Prue's funeral, what had happened to Angel when his original 'instructions' to meet her had fallen apart...?
"Well, it explains why none of us knew you," Leo said, as they began to walk back along the main path. "We never got a chance to meet you."
"So, what, you believe me now?" Paige asked.
"I'm not sure what I believe," Leo responded. "The fact is, you're here and you're not supposed to be."
"OK, so we've established that I'm here; why don't I have my powers?" Paige asked; she might not be helpless without her abilities, but given the current situation she needed every edge she could get.
"Because you're not living your life any more; you're living hers," Leo clarified, indicating her other self's grave. "You must have taken over our Paige's life in this reality, or at least ... the life she would have lived had she not been killed. And since she never met her sisters-"
"The Power of Three never got back together, and I never got my powers," Paige finished (She briefly wondered why she hadn't at least retained her orbing abilities, but a brief recollection of an incident that Piper and Phoebe had told her about where they'd gone back in time and lost their powers while their younger selves had still possessed them provided her with an answer to that one; her other self must still count as being 'around' enough for her to have the power to orb instead of her, even if she wasn't able to use it). "Lucky me."
"Luckier than you think, maybe," Leo added. "If you hadn't orbed when you did and been in the Neutral Plane when whatever happened changed reality, nobody would have ever known."
"Except for... whoever did this," Paige finished, shaking her head slightly in contemplation before she looked back at Leo. "Look, I don't know who did this, but so far Cole's the only person who seems to have even remotely benefited from this turn of events- even if Phoebe still hates him here-, so I'm probably going to have to talk with him if I'm going to figure out what happened..."
She sighed in frustration. "Damnit... this'd be easier with my sisters..."
"Well," an unexpected voice said from off to the side, "maybe we can start with me and work our way along from there?"
Turning around, Paige was unable to stop a slight smile reaching her face at the sight of Piper walking towards her; the other woman might still be wearing that skintight black leather outfit that made her think more of Emma Peel or something like that than the expectant mother her sister should be, but that she was here at all was encouraging.
"What are you doing here?" she asked; she didn't want to get her hopes up unless she had good reason to.
"Burying the Lazarus demon," Piper replied. "Figured that if you were right about that, you were probably right about everything else as well."
It was a minor victory, but as Paige had learned over the last year, sometimes the minor victories added up to give you the big one you'd been looking for.
As he stared at the pool table in front of him, Cole wished he could find somewhere where he could be sure of getting a few moments to himself so that he could better figure out his next move; staying in the mansion might allow him to be available if any demons tried going after any innocents- maybe he could figure out some other orders to give them that would encourage the demons to take out people who deserved to die; there was a law firm he'd heard about that the Source had had some trouble with in the past-, but he was still trying to play catch-up without anyone knowing.
He'd been lucky so far with his near-slip when asking about Darryl working for him now, but with this whole thing with an unidentified witch sneaking in to talk to Phoebe for some reason, it was clear that there was a lot of stuff going on here that he didn't know about...
Glancing up as he sank another billiard ball in frustration, his eyes widened incredulously at the sight of Phoebe laughing in the arms of a demon guard before she hurried up the stairs, the guard close behind her.
"What the hell?" Cole said, his attempt to stay in control forgotten at this new development; the one thing he thought was going right for him in this world had been the fact that he was married to Phoebe, and even that hadn't worked out for him?
"My lord?" the Seer said, looking at him in confusion. "What is wrong? You both have your affairs; that's no secret-"
"What?" Cole said, turning to look incredulously at the Seer.
"Darla," the Seer called over to a young blonde standing behind her, the young woman- who, Cole was relieved to note with the part of his mind that wasn't shocked at this latest twist, wasn't the vampire that Angel had staked in P3 to save Paige when they'd first met him-, walking over with a seductive smile.
"Who's this?" Cole asked, even as the sinking feeling in his gut at her expression stopped him from even trying to lie to himself that he didn't know what was happening here.
"Who I always am, baby," 'Darla' smiled- she might not be Angel's Darla, but she was definitely at least similarly inclined where her sexual appetite was concerned- as she leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Whoever you want me to be..."
"Not right now," Cole said, pushing Darla firmly away from him as he tried to resist the urge to torch Darla and Phoebe's lover for their nerve in daring to touch him or the woman he loved; he had to think if he was going to figure this out...
But who the hell was going to give him that help, damnit? Angel was locked up in the basement after what had to be months of torture and was clearly in no fit shape to do much, Phoebe barely seemed willing to talk to him, his contact with Leo was almost certainly non-existent judging by Darryl and the Seer's reaction to him appearing outside the house to save whoever that witch was, Piper was apparently totally off the map- he'd checked Phoebe's address book earlier while she was mingling with their current 'guests' and there wasn't so much as a contact number for her sisters-, and he didn't know if Prue was still alive in this reality, never mind what the situation was regarding Paige...
Fuck, Cole swore to himself.
He didn't even want to know why Phoebe was staying with him in this reality, if what he'd seen of her so far was any indication of her current history. Even the Source had been smart enough to know that she'd only become his Queen back in the 'original' history because of the influence of the baby and the Seer's tonic, coupled with the current tensions between her and her sisters over the baby's development; if she was staying around in this kind of life without the baby's influence, he was willing to bet that it was only because she was trying to 'limit' what he could do as the Source or something like that, with her affairs serving as an escape from a life she clearly had no interest in living...
"So," Piper asked, as she walked through the remains of P3, contemplatively taking in the rubble around them, "you say the club is still pretty successful in this alleged other reality of yours?"
"It's not 'alleged'," Paige countered, as she stood in the centre of the now-desolate dance floor (She wished she'd been able to find a better location for this talk, but without any way of knowing what her or Angel's apartments were like in this world P3 was the safest place). "It's real, and it's really good."
"Oh yeah?" Piper asked, still staring at the ruined building without looking at Paige. "Am I a millionaire?"
"No, not that good," Paige replied, smiling slightly before she tried to resume her story. "Listen, if we want to get this place back to how it used to be, we really ought to-"
"How is it that we don't know about you, that we had another sister?" Piper interjected, turning around to look at her directly.
"Half-sister, apparently," Leo put in from his position on the stage.
"Right," Paige said, quickly going over her history in her mind- the easier it was to cover the essential details the better right now-, before she continued. "The Cliffs Notes version: our mom had an affair with her Whitelighter Sam, but because of the whole Witch-Whitelighter rule thing, they had to give me up at birth. But when The Elders realized they needed me to remake The Charmed Ones, they tossed out that stupid rule, which, as far as I'm concerned, paved the way for you and Leo to be able to keep your baby."
For a moment, Piper and Leo exchanged glances, but the moment passed as Piper turned back to look at her (Although the fact that they'd had a moment was encouragement enough).
"Well, how pregnant am I, exactly?" Piper asked.
"Phoebe and I are practicing to be your midwives as we speak," Paige said with a nonchalant smile. "We're preparing for the big home birth."
"Home birth?" Piper repeated incredulously. "You're nuts; I'd never agree to that. I wouldn't give birth unless it was in-"
"A hospital, yeah, yeah; you keep saying the same thing in any reality," Paige interrupted, shaking her head in exasperated amusement. "Hey, who else but a sister would know that?"
"We must be pretty close then, the three of us," Piper said after a moment's pause, her tone awkward but nevertheless gradually moving towards acceptance of the current topic. "Like... Phoebe and I were with Prue?"
"Yeah," Paige replied. "Close enough to have avenged Prue's death together."
She hated having to use vengeance as a tool for making her point, but given what this Piper had been doing when she met her, it was the only way she could be sure of making her point right now.
"This Cole of yours must have cast a pretty powerful spell to do all of this," Piper said at last, a slight swallow in her throat as she clearly worked to keep her emotions under control, "but if we vanquish him, the spell should automatically reverse itself."
"Great, except that there's no way of working out how we're going to pull that off," Paige interrupted, shaking her head grimly. "We hadn't exactly gotten around to trying to vanquish him yet- he hadn't done anything really dangerous to us since he got back- but-"
"Hold on; from what you've told us, he was probably powerful enough to do something like this, and now you're telling me that he's not the one responsible?" Piper interrupted, looking intently at Paige.
"Look, all I meant was that he's the only person connected to us who seems to have actually benefited from this reality warp, and he definitely had the potential power to do this kind of thing; I'm just not sure if it's him..." Paige explained, wishing she sounded less awkward (She loved Angel for encouraging her to keep an open mind about issues of good versus evil, but that didn't mean it didn't get awkward when she was in this kind of position).
"Well, even if he's not the person responsible for this shift, the fact that he's the only person you've found so far who actually benefits from it suggests that he might know more about it than we do, anyway," Leo mentioned. "In which case, we might have a chance if we can at least threaten to vanquish him; if you've assumed our Paige's life, he must have assumed Belthazor's."
"And you guys would still have the Belthazor-vanquishing potion that you and Prue made, right?" Paige asked, a slight smile
"How do you know about that?" Piper asked.
"It's in the Book of Shadows," Paige clarified. "It also says that it needs a piece of his flesh to make it work."
"That's right, it did," Leo confirmed.
"All right, then," Piper said after a brief pause, pulling a wicked-looking black knife from her belt as she looked at Paige. "Let's go hunting."
Paige just hoped that Leo's assessment of the situation was right; Cole might be the most likely candidate for the recent reality warp, but whether Angel's words or her own doubts were the motivating factor behind her current feelings, that didn't mean that she was totally sold on the idea...