Duality
By Risa
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
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Chapter 3
In the darkness that surrounded her, Phoebe was dimly aware of what seemed like a hand reaching out for her, pulling her back to reality. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open. As her vision became clearer, she saw three concerned faces staring down at her. She blinked, trying to clear her mind.
"Are you okay?" Cole said in concern, kneeling down to help Phoebe sit up.
"Yeah…" she said distractedly, shaking her head slightly. "What just happened?" she asked in confusion.
Darien and Fortuna stared at Cole while Cole stared back at them, hesitating.
"Well? What?" Phoebe demanded.
"Oh just tell her already," a voice said irritably from behind Fortuna.
Phoebe looked behind Fortuna's shoulder and saw a slightly translucent figure hovering behind her. She immediately sprang to her feet, swaying with the dizziness that the sudden movement caused. "All right, what the hell is going on here? What's a ghost doing here? How did I end up conscious? I want some answers and I damn well am going to get them right now!" she shouted.
Cole sighed. "Do you remember after we vanquished the Source you asked the Seer what happened to his powers?"
Phoebe nodded.
"Well…" Cole hesitated. "His powers actually stayed with me."
"What – You mean – " Phoebe stared at Cole stunned. "No," she said, shaking her head furiously.
"Yes," Cole said, "I was – am – supposed to be the next Source."
Phoebe swayed backwards. Cole reached out to try and support her. She pushed him away, staring at him in fear and shock as the pieces snapped into place in her mind. Cole's odd behavior the past few days, his mysterious disappearances, his flashes of anger, her dreams and her future self's attitude towards him…
God, how could she have been so blind?
"Why didn't you tell me earlier? Why did you hide it from me?" she asked angrily. "You had so many chances to tell me. I thought we agreed that we wouldn't hide anything from each other again." Phoebe ran her fingers through her hair in frustration as she paced about the room.
"He didn't exactly have a choice," Zimei interrupted gently. "By the time he realised what was happening, the Source already had too strong a hold on him."
"So what's different now? Wouldn't the Source's hold be even stronger by now?"
Fortuna walked over to Cole and lifted the charm on his neck. Phoebe saw a simple round piece of jade with a hole in the middle and light and dark green swirls. She blinked. If you stared at it hard enough, the swirls seemed to move. Fortuna then said, "A few minutes ago, while you were unconscious, we put this charm on Cole. It contains all the power that my family can provide and should keep Cole's human side in control for a month at best."
Phoebe sat down heavily on the couch. "All right, so let me get this straight. My fiancé is about to become the epitome of absolute evil and I'm sitting here in my living room with a ghost and a couple of people that I'm not really sure that I really know right now. Isn't this turning out to be a wonderful day? It just can't get any better can it?"
She sighed and collected herself. "Ok, now 'fess up. Who are you, really?" she indicated Fortuna, Darien and Zimei.
Fortuna sighed and began to tell the story of herself, Darien, the Nightworld and everyone else. She privately hoped that she did not have to repeat it. If she had to do it again, she was going to push the job to someone else. Darien might be a good choice…
"God, this is too much to take at once," Phoebe said, shaking her head. Then she looked at Cole bleakly. "So what do we have to do to get rid of the Source in you? Would the power-stripping potion work?"
Cole shook his head. "I don't think so. The Source filled up the part of me that used to be Belthazor, which already gives him something to work with. That, plus the power he has…" he walked over to Phoebe and cupped her cheek. "The bond's very strong," he said softly.
"What can we do then?" she asked, looking at him in despair. "I can't lose you. Not now."
Cole held her tightly in his arms. "I know," he said, kissing her hair. "But promise me this. If I am beyond all hope, you will kill me before the Source takes over."
Phoebe's eyes filled with pain and sorrow as she nodded. "I love you," she said softly.
"I love you too," he said.
"I hate to interrupt you guys," Darien said, as Phoebe and Cole turned sharply to him, who had almost forgot about the presence of the other three people in the room. "But your situation isn't that hopeless yet. Not exactly shining bright perhaps, but definitely not dire gloom."
"Somebody should strangle you when you try speaking in metaphors," Fortuna muttered, trying to cover up the tears that nearly came to her eyes at the scene in front of her.
Darien took Fortuna's hand in his and smiled at her in understanding. They will do whatever they could to help Cole. It was the very least that they could do.
"All right," Zimei interrupted. "I know that this is hard for you to take all at once, Phoebe, but I'm afraid that we don't exactly have a lot of time. Do you think you could get your sisters back here? They need to know all these things too."
Darien's face turned thoughtful. "I think we should get in touch with the branch of Circle Daybreak here."
"Circle Daybreak?"
"It's an organisation that basically wants to promote understanding between humans and the Nightworld. It started out as a witch circle actually." Fortuna said, looking at Darien's face quizzically. "But why do you want to contact them for?"
"Well," Darien said slowly, "I figure we'll need all the magical assistance that we need. There are quite a few witches here so…"
" – we'll have more resources at hand," Phoebe completed. "Plus I might get a chance to pick up some new spells."
"Ok," Cole said. "So we'll meet back here in two hours?"
"So…" Piper said as Paige, Leo, Phoebe and Cole settled down in the living room. "What's this about?"
"Do you want to tell them, or should I?" Phoebe asked.
"It's better if I told them," he replied.
"Tell? Tell us what?" Paige asked. "You've already told us the big news."
"I think this is much bigger than Phoebe and I getting married," Cole said sighing, before telling them the story.
Immediately there was a chorus of "What?", "Why didn't you tell us?", "I just knew there was something wrong?" and "What are we going to do?"
Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll get that," Cole said, grateful for a brief distraction. "It's probably Darien and Fortuna."
The two of them followed Cole into the living room and there was yet another round of introductions.
I'm really getting tired at repeating all this, Darien said privately to Fortuna, who just grinned at him.
"I'm going to have to report up there with all this," Leo said, glancing upwards.
"Oh no, you don't," a voice said. Zimei's figure appeared in the middle of the living room.
"I have to."
"You can't."
"Why can't he report to the Elders?" Piper asked.
"Because you can forget about saving Cole if they know about this," she said, annoyed. "I've just checked with the side of good to see if we can count on them for their support. But no, they'll rather kill him instead. Less risky, they said."
"What!" Phoebe exclaimed, standing up.
"Calm down Phebes," Piper said. "I don't believe that they'll say that."
"Believe it," Zimei said bleakly. "Separating the Source from Cole is a much riskier and more difficult process than just vanquishing him. Besides, good doesn't want to take the chance that something like this might happen again."
At that moment, the Seer shimmered into the living room.
"Damn these sudden appearing figures," Paige muttered.
"You," Fortuna said, the hostility obvious in her voice. "Why, I couldn't have guessed," she said sarcastically.
"It's been a while," the Seer acknowledged. "I notice that your family is still running aimlessly all over the place."
"It's still better than being a traitor like you."
"I was merely being realistic," the Seer said. "You'll see. You can't keep the Balance for long. You wouldn't be able to save him from the Source."
"Oh really?" Fortuna said, lifting an eyebrow.
"Certainly," the Seer said, "but just in case…" she released an energy ball at Fortuna, so fast that nobody noticed until it was too late. The ball hit Fortuna, who slumped onto the ground.
"No!" Darien shouted as he ran to Fortuna. He quickly drew out the darts that he kept in his coat and tossed them at the Seer, who had vanished before the darts could reach her.
~* To be continued *~