angie2282, I'm sorry if you found that the story got a bit boring... and I'll see what I can do about the Paige/Cole thing. I think I'll stick it in the last chapter, because right now it's more about taking down the Big Bads than reconciling. The hair color comment was a poke at the show... did yu ever notice how many Paige went through in the course of the show? Brunette, deep red, light red, back to brunette...
Angelic Ami, sorry it took so long! My laptop crashed and I had to get a new one and rebuild the chapter from scratch (which was a pain in the butt because I had most of it done, and this is a pretty meaty chapter).
lizardmomma, thanks!
charmed-darkangel, I'm not planning to put in any conflict between Prue and Billie... interesting idea, though! haha
That70sshowlova, I think he's very interesting, too! It's weird for him, because he's supposed to be neutral... but he's more fond of the good guys than the bad!
"You didn't." Billie shook her head in disbelief, even though she knew she did.
"How?" Paige demanded.
Christy cackled, sending chills down Billie's spine. "Don't you guys get it? You can't vanquish the Triad! It's not possible. Nothing, not the Power of Three, not me, nor Billie can defeat them. They are forever. They are evil personified. No spell or potion or power can get rid of evil."
"No? Watch us," Phoebe said.
"Fine. Get yourselves killed," Christy sneered. "But can you do it without Cole, Prue, and Piper?" She waved her hand and a doorway appeared. Coop, Leo, and Henry were standing in an empty room, but Cole, Prue, and Piper were missing.
"We need to find them," Paige said.
Christy scoffed. "Finding them isn't the issue. Hell, I'll tell you where they are." There was a glint of excitement in her eyes. "I want to see the fighting, anyway."
"Where are they?" Phoebe asked.
"Cole is in the Conference Den. Prue is in the Idol Shrine. Piper is in the Dining Hall. Have fun," she replied, before disappearing into the shadows.
Phoebe sighed. "How are we going to do this?"
"Notice how Christy didn't tell us where the Triad is," Billie pointed out. "This whole this is a distraction, that's why she's sending us after them."
"So what do we do? We definitely don't stand a chance without them," Paige noted.
"We do what she wants," Phoebe said, formulating a plan. "Our powers should work against theirs because, at the moment, they're pawns of the Triad, too. So we match ourselves with them."
"And the Triad?" Billie asked.
"The men keep saying they want to be more useful. I say this is their chance," Phoebe responded.
They smiled at the men standing in the next room, trying to look preoccupied.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to show," Cole said, knowing it was Phoebe before even turning around. He stood at the far end of the Conference Den.
"As if I would give up the chance at fighting you."
"I didn't think you would." He turned around, his eyes already pure black.
"Since you know me so well, this battle should be a piece of cake, with you being able to predict my moves," Phoebe said, eyeing her surroundings.
"I taught you how to fight, didn't I?"
"That doesn't mean I didn't get better."
Cole smirked. "You think you got better?"
"Yes, I do." Phoebe slowly dropped into a fighting stance.
Cole transformed into Belthazor. His voice grew deeper, his skin turned crimson red with black markings, and he stood at an intimidating height. "I'd like to test that theory." He flung an energy ball and Phoebe levitated over it.
Prue ran her fingers along a statue of a past Source. She already knew who was coming to fight her.
"Probably the closets you'd ever get to any physical contact," Paige said, entering the Idol Shrine.
Prue whirled around, her eyes black, as well. "Spoken by a true whore," she snapped.
"I'm the whore," Paige repeated, feigning surprise. "Better to be a whore than a cold, stone-hearted bitch."
"Are we going to stand here calling each other names, or should we get down to business?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Paige replied.
Prue waved a small statue off the shelf at Paige, who orbed out of the way.
Billie walked into the Dining Hall, but Piper was nowhere in sight. "Marco," she called.
"Polo," Piper voice rang out.
Billie sighed. "Honestly, Piper? I thought you were a bit more mature than that, or at least braver…"
There was no answer.
"This is getting really old, really fast—"
Piper's arm came out from a crevice in the wall and struck Billie in the face. Piper went to make another blow but Billie blocked it and gave Piper a kick in the face.
"That's more like it." Piper grinned.
Crap, her eyes are jet-black.
Coop, Leo, and Henry were walking through the tunnels in the Underworld.
"I still feel like we're stuck with the short end of the stick," Henry whined. "The girls are kicking ass while we're wandering around without a map."
Leo chuckled. "Are you saying you think you can take on Cole? Or Prue? Or Piper?"
"I feel sort of… insulted," Coop said. "I mean, Christy does a spell to put us all back in our right bodies and turns the others evil, but leaves us to stand around in an empty room. She doesn't even bother to kill us or turn us evil. She just disregarded us without a thought, like we couldn't even be a threat."
Henry shrugged. "I mean, what threat could we really be to them? I guess I could shoot them or something…"
The three men kept walking until they hit a tunnel that split into three ways.
"I guess that divides evenly among us," Leo suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Coop said.
Cole threw a punch aimed at Phoebe's face, but she ducked and delivered a blow to his torso. He grunted on impact, but grabbed her arm and swung her into the wall.
Phoebe used her arms to brace herself and pushed off the wall, spinning right into an attempted elbow at Cole's chest. Cole backed away and backhanded her across the face. Phoebe fell to the floor. Cole formed an energy ball and hurled it at Phoebe. She rolled out of the way and flipped back up, kicking Cole in one fluid motion.
Cole bounced back up and tackled Phoebe to the ground. She pushed him off her and grabbed him by the back of his jacket, ramming his head into the wall. He got back up and punched her in the face, causing her to stumble backwards. He created another energy ball, which grazed her shoulder. Phoebe gasped out in pain.
Cole grabbed her by the back of her hair and lobbed her over the conference table, onto the ground. "You're not giving up on me already, are you?" he taunted.
Prue flung another statue at Paige.
"Statue!" she called, trying to deflect it back at Prue. Prue dodged it and charged at Paige, knocking her down. Prue jumped back up but Paige tripped her and orbed away.
Prue stood up, looking around for a sign of Paige.
"A little old to be playing hide-and-seek, aren't we?" Prue yelled out.
Paige orbed behind Prue and wrapped her arms around her. "You're older than me," Paige said, spinning around as Prue struggled. Prue broke free and tried to deliver a blow, which Paige blocked.
"Statue!" Paige called, hurling a small statue at Prue.
Prue deflect it back at Paige, smashing her in the chest and sending her reeling back into the wall. Paige hit the wall and collapsed to the ground, momentarily stunned.
Prue cocked her head to one side. "You should learn to respect your elders, then," Prue retorted, and waved her arm to push a large statue on top of Paige.
Piper blew up a leg of the chair Billie was standing on. Billie jumped off the chair. Piper was waiting for her, and went to punch her. Billie dodged it and delivered an elbow to Piper's chest, knocking her backwards. Piper grabbed Billie's head and kneed her in the forehead. Billie held her head in pain and had to grab the table to stead herself.
Piper kicked her arm up in the air, and Billie fell forward, hitting her head on the table.
"You're beating yourself up more than I am," Piper commented. She scoffed. "And we picked you as our replacement? More like our disappointment."
Billie recovered and kicked Piper hard, sending her flying into the wall hard enough to temporarily black out.
Phoebe, Paige, and Billie had formulated a plan to snap their opponents out of whatever spell Christy had put them under, which was to tap into their inner pain. Unfortunately, Billie couldn't come up with anything…
This isn't going too well, Billie fretted.
Cole slammed Phoebe down onto the conference table, shattering it. Phoebe kicked Cole's head and he collapsed to the ground. She picked up one of the large splinters, which was more like a stake, and walked toward Cole. And then she stopped and dropped it.
Cole looked up and smirked. "Can't do it, can you?" He got up and dusted himself off. "That's because you're weak." He grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the wall.
She didn't fight back.
"Aw, you're not even trying. It's no fun if you're not putting up some form of defense. At least make some noises."
"I can't, Cole." Phoebe didn't move.
Cole gripped her throat tighter. "Because you're weak."
"No," she gasped.
He sneered at her. "Then, enlighten me. Why?"
"Because," she gasped, "because I love you."
Cole let go of her, and she gasped for air. "Shut up," he spat.
"I love you," she said again, stepping closer to him.
"I said, 'Shut up!'" he yelled, hitting her without enough force to knock her to the ground.
She was on her knees, and this was a desperate attempt, but Phoebe wasn't sure what else to do. "I-I love you, Cole. I've tried not to so many times, and I've tried to admit that I'm not in love with you, so it's okay… But it's not. A part of us will always be alive as long as one of us is. Isn't that what kept you alive in Limbo?"
Cole transformed back into human form. He was hyperventilating now. "SHUT UP!" he kicked her in the face. "I'm Belthazor! Belthazor is evil! You can't destroy evil with love!"
Phoebe tried her best to ignore the pain that was consuming her. "A-a-aren't you living proof that you can?" She slowly stood back up. "Cole, I'm telling you now that I love you. I don't care if you hurt me. I don't care if you kill me. Just know that I love you. I can't not love you."
"WHY?" Cole exploded. "Why do you love me? I haven't done anything to deserve your love, not after everything I have done to you! You should hate me! I'm a MONSTER. Why do you love a monster?" He collapsed to his knees, his face red with anger, anger with himself.
Phoebe carefully knelt down next to him. "This whole time, I've been angry at what you've done to me. It never occurred to me that you were just as angry at yourself."
"Why do you love me?" he asked quietly.
"I'm not quite sure," Phoebe whispered. "But I do."
Cole's eyes returned to normal.
"Feel better?" Phoebe asked.
"A little bit," Cole said.
"Good. Now let's go kick some Triad ass."
This is not good, Paige thought as she was hiding behind a statue. Prue is stronger than I thought!
"You know, hiding won't do you any good. I could turn over every statue to find you."
Come on, think of something that will remind her of who she is! Something that will upset her!
And then Paige got an idea.
"It must really piss you off," Paige voice rang out throughout the Idol Shrine, "that I replaced you so quickly and easily."
A bunch of statues crashed down.
"I mean, thirty years of being their sister, and I replaced you in a matter of months. They completely forgot about you. That must hurt."
"Shut up!" Prue yelled. "You're sadly mistaken if you think you replaced me."
"You're in denial, Prue," Paige replied as more statues came down near her. "I bet you feel like your sisters betrayed you. It's not even that I replaced you, it's that you're replaceable."
"You're wrong!"
The statue Paige was hiding behind fell to the ground, so Paige orbed behind another one.
"You're wrong!"
"That's why you couldn't stand me when you first came back. You think I took over your role as their sister, and they don't need you anymore."
"NO!" Prue shrieked as all the statues toppled over with a cacophonous noise. Prue collapsed to her knees, hanging her head. Paige heard small sobs.
Paige cautiously stepped closer. "You feel like the moment you died, I came in and just stole your spot, and they let me."
The sobs were growing louder, transforming into cries. "They let me go so easily, they just moved on. How could they just… replace me?"
Prue looked up into Paige's eyes, and they turned back to a normal color, full of tears.
Tears rolled down Prue's cheeks as she let go of the fear she had been holding in since her resurrection – the fear that she no longer served a purpose in this world than to vanquish demons.
Paige knelt down next to Prue, placing an arm on her shoulder. "Oh, honey, they didn't replace you… Do you have any idea how long they were hurting, how much it pained them to have someone else join the Charmed Ones so soon after you died? Piper closed herself off from me for so long, she even closed herself off from Phoebe and Leo for the longest time. Even eight years after your death, they still didn't felt comfortable talking about it. You weren't replaced; your sisters loved you more than life. I didn't replace you, I didn't steal your spot, and I didn't take your role as their sister. They made a new spot, a new role for me in the family. I could never be Prue, just like you could never be Paige. But, sweetie, you have to understand that your sisters love you."
Prue had calmed down a bit, although tiny sobs escaped every few seconds.
Paige gave her a few moments in silence, but eventually had to break it. "Are you okay?"
Prue waited a while, then said quietly, "Yes, I think I am."
"Good. Because our sisters need us."
Prue wiped away the last remaining tears and then took a deep breath. "Then, what are we waiting for?"
Paige smiled and helped Prue up.
Billie ran out of places to hide. The fight had destroyed all the furniture in the dining hall, and, unfortunately, the room had not been built with the notion of dinner guests having to hide from an attacker.
Think, Billie, think!
"It would seem that you're out of ideas," Piper commented, approaching her.
Billie went to trip her but Piper saw it coming, leapt over Billie's leg, grabbed it, and swung her into the wall.
"Piper, stop this!" a voice rang out.
Piper turned around, and Billie sat up to see who it was. It was Leo.
Author's Note:
I am SO SORRY that it took this long to update. My laptop crashed around Christmastime and I had to get a new one and rebuild the chapter from scratch... which was a pain in the butt because I had most of it done, and this is a pretty meaty chapter.
I know this chapter was a bit crazy... hope it wasn't too confusing?
KateB819
