1 Cole Learns a Lesson

Cole shimmered into the manor.

"What the?" Cole knew he couldn't shimmer. He had shimmered in the kitchen. A guy, defiantly not Leo, had his hands around Piper.

"Piper, what is going on?" he asked

"Who are you?" Piper asked, "and where the hell did you come from?"

Prue walked in. Cole was very shocked. Dead people generally don't walk around.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" Prue apologised, and then to Piper "Mind introducing me?"

"I can't" Piper said "Because I don't know him"

"Yeah, right" Cole retorted. "By the way, when did she, oh I don't know, raise from the dead?"

"I'm not dead. Never have been" Prue told him "Do I look dead to you?"

"No. That's exactly the problem. I know that a demon killed you."

"I'm sorry, what?" Piper's friend, the guy that didn't look Leo, said. Piper froze him.

"You know about demons?" Prue said, "Are you a demon?"

"Piper, you shouldn't have froze him. What if you blew him up?" Cole scowled

"I'm sorry? Blew up?" Piper said.

"No, she just froze Dan. Blow up. Mind to elaborate?"

"Evolved form of your freezing power. Instead of slowing down molecules, you speed them up, resulting in.."

"Fried worms-slash-demons?"

"Something like that. Where's Leo?"

"Leo" Piper whispered

Cole's minds did a few turns. He had powers. They didn't know him, or didn't seem too. Piper wasn't with Leo; she was with this Dan guy. Had he gone back in time? Phoebe walked in.

"Whose the cutie? Taken? Why is Dan frozen?"

"We think the cutie is a warlock. He just appeared here," Prue explained

"Though the problem is, he's not attacking us" Piper concluded

"That's not a problem" Phoebe exclaimed "That's just cool"

"Cool… right" Cole frowned "Phoebe, do you know me at all?"

"Should I?" she asked.

"Piper, freeze him. We need to talk" Prue frowned

"Wait!" Cole yelped

Piper then froze him.

"I say we vanquish him," Prue said

"What makes you think every guy who is cute isn't human?" Phoebe said

"Track record" Piper explained "Leo, Jeremy, that Internal Affairs dude"

"What?" Prue and Phoebe asked

"Rodriguez. The day that Andy.. Yeah" Piper explained

Cole broke through the freeze.

"The demon that was working with Tempus?" Phoebe asked

"Something about Tempus?" Cole repeated, "I hate that guy, turns back time, way too much." Prue, Phoebe and Piper looked at him. He shrugged.

"You're a demon" Piper stated "So why aren't you attacking?"

"Used to be" Cole answered

"I'm sorry, what?" Prue frowned

"I'm not a demon anymore" Cole sighed

"You don't look vanquished to me" Piper grinned

"Why are we having a normal conversation with some kind of evil?" Phoebe asked no-one in particular

"I'm not evil. Thanks to you." Cole told her

"I've never met you" Phoebe tried to convince him

"Yet"

Dan unfroze. "Uh! Phoebe, where'd you come from?"

"Re-thingy him" Phoebe asked Piper. Prue giggled. Dan froze.

"Re-freeze him?" she giggled even more

Cole started to talk to himself "I've got to figure out how to get back"

"Back where?" Piper asked

"My time" Cole answered

"Which is when?"

"2002" Cole stated, as if it was obvious

"Oh"

"What year is it?" Cole asked

" '99" Prue grinned

"Oh. Phoebe are you sure you don't know me?" he asked, looking at Phoebe

"Sorry. How do I know you in 2002?" Phoebe asked, interested

"Kinda hard to explain" Cole answered

"Try me"

"I've proposed, but you've not yet accepted" he explained

"You said you used to be a demon. That's probably why I didn't, wait, haven't accepted"

"Maybe" Cole muttered, distracted

"I'm not evil. I would not marry evil"

"I did mention that I'm not evil, didn't I?" Cole said

"Demons lie" Phoebe accused

"I did mention that I'm not a demon, didn't I?" Cole repeated

"Go away" Phoebe frowned

"I wish I could, but I don't know how to get back," Cole answered truthfully

"Wow. Tell someone who cares" Phoebe snapped

"You do care"

"Wait one second! You said you're from the future. You also said I'm dead. I'm dead by 2002 aren't I?" Prue hald her breath, waiting for the answer

"Demon's lie Prue, don't believe him," Piper told Prue

"Tell me who killed me!" Prue snapped

"I can't" Cole explained

"Why not?"

"It would change the future"

"Which is a good thing"

"Things happen for a reason"

"I really wish that I had that exploding power you were talking about"

"OK, I get the hint" Cole said and shimmered out

"Maybe we should search for a vanquishing spell thingy"

Cole shimmered around, and stopped when he came to the mausoleum. It seemed to be a place he could remember Phoebe. It was like she hated him. Cole wanted to get back to the real Phoebe, the one he knew. The place was too haunting, remembering the pain.

When he had killed Jenna, this is where he first went. Cole was tempted to stay in this time, and re-live his life. So he didn't kill Jenna, he didn't try to kill The Charmed Ones. Though Cole knew he had to figure out how to get home. Soon. He decided to go to P3.

He glanced over to them. Them being Piper, Phoebe and Prue. Prue was with some weird guy. Piper was with the Dan guy. He saw Phoebe with someone else, kissing him. Cole knew it wasn't really Phoebe. He didn't feel 'betrayed'. *Hell* he laughed to himself, *Phoebe's past is like an angel, compared to my past* Cole didn't quite get the guy's name.

Cole closed his eyes, concentrating. How could he get to his time, his parallel plane? Different times were just different planes. He shimmered to Bo's plane once, didn't he? Why wasn't it obvious to him before? He could just shimmer back. He took one glance at Phoebe and walked out. He shimmered back to where he belonged.

"Cole!" Phoebe exclaimed, "You ju-just shi-shimmered" she stuttered, "have you got your powers back?" Cole tried to shimmer again. He couldn't.

"No" he answered, disappointed

"Then how?" she asked

"I don't know" Cole answered

"I know" Leo said

"Really" they said, turning around

"The Elders told me that they sent you back in time"

"But why?" Phoebe asked

"So Cole could learn a lesson" Leo replied

"What lesson?" Phoebe asked

Cole thought for a minute, and then he came to a conclusion

"The past doesn't matter. If you change the past, you change all what you've worked for" Cole explained

"I don't understand"

"If everything didn't happen as it did, then we wouldn't be here"

"I suppose"

"So if I didn't have an evil past, I wouldn't have met you. Lately I have been wondering that if I could, would I go back and change my past."

Phoebe thought for a minute. The Triad had sent him, that's the only reason they had met. If he wasn't Belthazor..

"I understand now. Though why sending you back in time, have taught you that?"

"I was given a chance to give someone a warning. Though I didn't, because I knew it would change now"

"Wouldn't it, anyway? I mean, by just seeing you?"

"No" Leo answered, "The Elders made sure that they didn't remember. If they did, we wouldn't be here now. Maybe. The future is so diverse, no-one can predict the future. I don't even know where you went. The Elders wouldn't tell me"

"Where did you go?" Phoebe asked. Cole grinned, he might tell her, one day.

Author's Note: Sorry it's so short. It's hard for me to write a really long story. If you review the story enough, I *might* think of another chapter. Oh yeah, set straight after "Black As Cole". Hi to my friends Jess and Mel. Oh yeah, and my name's Alyssa.