Disclaimer: All the characters from Charmed belong to the Charmed Productions and Spelling. I only lay claim on the character(s) that I created myself…

The Worst of Both Worlds
Chapter II

For the whole week that followed Cole's revelations, he had not left her at all. He didn't dare giving her a chance to think about it and change her mind. He suggested that Phoebe called in sick and possibly even left her work since, as he told her, there soon would be no need for her to work at all.

Phoebe was still very unsettled about what he asked her to do, but at this point she couldn't imagine her life without Cole, and the thought of him dying or being hurt was unbearable. Very soon, she started to imagine herself killing someone, and if at first, the thought brought a shiver to her, in the end she convinced herself that his enemy were hers and deserved to die.

Cole saw the change in her and that night he knew that it was then or never.
"I have found one of our enemies," he said.

"Where?"

"Come with me… it's time for you to prove yourself to me."

"I'm scared."

"Don't be; I'll be with you."

"Show me," Phoebe whispered hesitantly.

Cole went to her wrapped his arms around her while kissing her, and then they shimmered out.

Phoebe was almost dizzy when they reappeared in front of a cozy little house in the country.
"What was that?"

Cole smiled.
"Just a taste of things to come..."

Phoebe smiled back without a word. Cole took her hand, and directed her to a window where she could see a woman reading from a book that looked ancient.

She turned to Cole askance and he guessed at her silent question.
"Don't be fooled, she's one of those who want to destroy me. She's much more dangerous than she appears. You do believe me, don't you?" Cole added intently.

"I do…" Phoebe responded as firmly as she could under the circumstances. She was shaken but determined.

"Then listen to me. I'll tell you what you've got to do," he said as he handed to her a mean looking knife she didn't notice him having before.

She took the weapon reluctantly, and after a moment, she turned to him, waiting.

Inside the house, the woman was unaware of what was coming to her. She was checking up on demons which could have been responsible for the deaths of at least eight witches in the city. She was convinced that a powerful demon was at work, but had no idea on which he might be.

A noise distracted her from her reading and she became tense.

Then she saw Belthazor materialize in front of her, poised to attack. She didn't hesitate and tked him away, as it was her most powerful power. However she heard a muffled cry behind her and realized too late that someone else was in the house. She knew it was over before she felt the knife entering her back. Before crumbling to the floor, she caught a glimpse of a young woman, who was looking at her with very frightened eyes. Phoebe thought for a moment that the woman would ask her why, but she died before she could utter a word. Phoebe was paralyzed at first, looking at the lifeless eyes of the woman that she just killed. She was shaking uncontrollably, and only Cole's sudden embrace made her feel better.

"You did well; you saw what she did. And look at the book; she was looking for a way to kill my kind. Our kind now," Cole added persuasively.

"I know."

Cole insisted again.
"You don't regret saving me do you?"

"No! I never wanna lose you."

Cole smiled at her with a mix of cruelty and tenderness that made her feel warm again. Then she realized that the woman didn't matter, nothing mattered beside him, and she smiled in kind, feeling the change in her complete.

They left the house without another look at the dead witch.

Back at his apartment, where they were now both living, they celebrated by making love almost frantically. Phoebe had now put almost all of her doubts behind her and was thinking of what she had done with a curious sensation of pride and glee.

Later he finally got to the part he knew would be the most difficult for her, but he was now confident that she was all his.
"Are you ready for the most important part?"

"For my powers," she asked expectantly.

Cole smiled.
"Yes, your powers. Our powers!"

"Tell me. Tell me how, and I'll do it."

"You'll have to return home."

Phoebe was not so sure she liked the sound of that.
"Why should I?"

"You'll need to be with your sisters to receive your powers, and they're gonna have to believe that you sincerely want to stay with them. And I won't be with you..."

Phoebe was alarmed.
"Why?"

"Until you do get those powers, we can't risk their discovering what I am. They might deny you what is rightfully yours again."

"I will get it back."

"That's my girl. But I am worried of what they might tell you to keep you away from me. Don't listen to them."

"Nothing is gonna keep me from coming back to you."

Cole smiled triumphantly and kissed her passionately.

A few days later, Phoebe arrived at the family house she left more than a year before, in very bad terms with her sisters. She hesitated to go in; unsure of their welcome… However, after a moment, she resolutely went and rang the doorbell.

Piper was fortunately the one answering and Phoebe smiled sheepishly at her.
"Hello, long time no see."

Piper's jaw dropped.
"Oh my God! I thought you'd never come back. I tried calling you many times a few months ago, but I never managed to get through to you."

Phoebe didn't tell her that she had simply ignored her calls. Instead she replied, "Sorry I've been very busy. But now I'm back, if you'll have me…"

Piper seemed to hesitate, looking behind her, and then she said, "Of course, just come in. Prue's there but she's in the kitchen. Let me give her the news first, ok?"

Phoebe was a bit troubled by her attitude but she agreed. She climbed to her old bedroom, while Piper went to the kitchen.

When Phoebe entered the room, she felt so out of place that she wondered how she could ever have felt at home here. However, she was determined to play the role to the end with her sisters, hoping that it wouldn't take too long for her to figure out the power thing.

She put her bags on the bed and prepared to wait for her sister's return.
"Prue I've got a surprise for you."

Prue turned to her askance.
"Well, what is it?"

Piper hesitated some more.
"Ok… you've got to promise that you'll try for me."

Prue became suspicious.
"What is it?" She asked in a harsher voice.

Piper tried to smile but it felt wrong.
"Phoebe just came home," she blurted out.

Prue didn't react at first. However, her severe expression was enough to tell Piper that it wouldn't be a picnic. At last Prue said, "So, the little brat has finally decided to crawl back."

Piper got upset at her tone of voice.
"Come on Prue, she's your sister too and you know by now that Roger was lying, don't you?"

"That still doesn't excuse her disappearing for almost six months. She didn't even call to say that she was coming, did she?"

Piper bit her lower lips but still said, "No. But maybe she was just afraid of your reaction."

"Go figure why."

"Please Prue, give her a chance. She seemed almost lost when I saw her at the door."

Prue rudely added, "What did she do now that she needs us to fix?"

"She didn't say anything of the sort. And you're being stubborn."

Prue tried to calm down for her sister's sake.
"Ok, I'll make an effort."

"Thank you."

Piper came to get Phoebe and now they were all looking at each other awkwardly in the living room. Phoebe started, "Prue I…"

"That's ok… we'll just try to start new, what do you say?"

"Thank you," Phoebe whispered.

Prue went to her, and they reluctantly hugged. Both of them obviously had serious reservations, but Prue didn't guess at Phoebe's motivations.

All that evening and the next few days, Phoebe managed to give them the change. So much so that even Prue began to warm up to her. Then one night, Phoebe finally figured out what Cole had meant about the sign that would come in time.

She was just looking around; still searching discreetly for whatever it was that would give her powers back, when she noticed a spirit board that she had not seen before. She went to ask Piper about it.
"Hey Piper, where did that come from?" Phoebe said, holding the object in front of her sister.

"Oh that… I found it tucked in one of mom's trunks. I thought it looked good and cleaned it today."

"Neat thing," Phoebe said pensively. Then she put it down on the table and was astounded when she thought that she saw the large needle moving. She looked closer, and the needle moved again to the next letter. She cast a guarded look toward Piper, but this one didn't seem to have noticed anything. After a few seconds, she saw that the letters formed the word Attic. She was truly puzzled by this, as the attic has been condemned for as long as she could remember, but she still felt the impulse to go have a look.
"Ok then, I'll put it back." Phoebe told her sister.

Piper answered distractedly, "Yes why don't you do that?"

Phoebe made sure that Piper didn't follow her, and after she put the spirit board back in its place, she climbed the stairs slowly. When she got to the attic door, she tried it but, as usual, the door was locked as it has always been. Dejected, she was already turning back when suddenly the door opened on its own. Thanks to Cole's teaching, magic didn't scare Phoebe anymore, but she still entered the place cautiously. He'd told her many times that the house was protected against evil. But he had also assured Phoebe that, as long as she had not received her powers, and demonstrated her evilness, she wouldn't be affected. Until now, his assurances had held true but at this point she wondered if it wouldn't change. In the room that she never knew existed, a wealth of strange paraphernalia was stored haphazardly, and it made Phoebe wonder about her grand-mother. Gram was always so strict and proper, yet in the end, she had really been one of those witches that wanted to kill Cole and his kind. Then Phoebe corrected herself, "our kind."

After a moment where nothing bad happened, she emboldened herself and sneaked around, searching for the sign Cole told her about. Then she spotted an old trunk in a corner and felt pulled toward it. She became impatient and opened the trunk. In it, more of the strange items were stored but what attracted her attention was a book very similar to the one she saw at the witch's house. Only the cover marking was different. On it she saw a circle with 3 elliptical forms touching it. She opened the first page to find an incantation, and right then she knew that she had found what she was looking for.

Still Phoebe wondered if the book would know about her after she recited it. Cole's voice echoes in her mind.
"Have no worry; nothing bad will come to you. I would never risk you getting hurt Phoebe. You know that don't you?"

This memory reaffirmed her courage and she slowly recited the chant. As soon as she had said the last word, something strange happened. A flash of light made her look back at the cover and she saw that the elliptical forms had come together in the middle of the circle. She immediately put down the book, still fearful. But nothing else happened.

"What? How come the book didn't know that she was evil?"

Cole calmly answered after she interrupted him.
"The book didn't know this yet. Human evil is not what the book rejects, only the magical one. And at that moment this Phoebe had just received her powers and not committed any evil deed yet. If nothing else, that very different Cole," he insisted with a certain amusement, "was at least as clever as I am."

Phoebe frowned playfully at him now, and he gave her a sly smile.

"You better never use that cleverness in this awful manner," Phoebe joked but Cole took it the wrong way.

"You see, I knew I shouldn't have told you that story. You're starting to doubt me again."

"No! I have no doubts about you," she said, coming closer to him. "But I might have an idea for you to stop doubting yourself."

Cole frowned, uncomprehending.
"What do you mean?"

Instead of answering, Phoebe stood up and picked up her bathrobe, handing him his.
"Come on, I'll prove to both of us once and for all that you're good now."

Although he was puzzled about her idea, another thought came to him.
"You don't want us to go out there now, do you?"

"Why?"

"I don't really feel like explaining to your sisters why we left them hanging at the cemetery earlier. I get the feeling that we're in for quite a talk tomorrow, and I really would like it to keep it for then."

Phoebe smiled mockingly.
"Come on, they're asleep by now, I assure you. As angry as they might've been, they wouldn't have stayed up all night just to have it out with us. They'll wait until the morning, I'm sure."

Unconvinced and still puzzled about what she meant earlier, Cole reluctantly got out of bed and followed her. However, instead of going downstairs, Phoebe started up toward the attic and Cole stopped short.
"Phoebe what is it exactly that you want to do?" He questioned suspiciously.

Phoebe turned to him with the same teasing smile as before.
"Come on chicken, follow me."

Cole still hesitated, but she had gotten him in his pride and he followed her up, although he now was pretty sure that he knew what her intentions were, and it made him very nervous. Before they entered, he stopped again.
"Why don't we keep this for later? I thought you wanted to know the rest of the story…"

"And I will… but first thing's first."

Cole sighed, but didn't have any more arguments.

Once inside the attic, Phoebe resolutely went to the book, which confirmed Cole's suspicion about her intentions. He just stood by the door, and she beckoned him closer.

"What if it doesn't let me touch it still?"

"You never even tried."

"But what if…"

"Stop that, come on, I know it'll let you."

Cole started toward the book as if it was a snake ready to bite him. The memories of his previous attempts at touching it were still very clear in his mind. Phoebe, seeing him hesitating again, came to him and took his hand to it.

Cole was sweating now. He didn't really fear the pain but he was afraid that a rejection by the book would make Phoebe doubt him again, and this he feared that he couldn't take.

Still, Cole couldn't help wanting to know as well. He had been wondering for a while about this, and he figured that now was as good a time as ever. So he finally went to it and resolutely put his hand on the cover. Then, he smiled widely when nothing happened.
"What do you know," he said, immensely relieved.

Phoebe smiled gently.
"I had no doubts, but I knew that you did."

"Thank you. It's true."

Phoebe pulled him toward one of the easy chair impatiently saying, "Ok, now that this is out of the way, I want the rest of it."

Cole smiled at her juvenile impatience, and went to sit with her in his lap. Then he continued the story…