Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, yada yada yada.
A/N: This chapter is a tad on the long side. I just couldn't stop writing! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and like always, please review! Oh and the next chapter is going to be the last :( But I may do a sequel.
Cole turned back to Phoebe and then to Parker who was nervously glancing around the room.
"Please Cole, just call it off." Phoebe begged.
"I can't just call it off Phoebe." Cole scoffed, facing Phoebe once again. The two watched each other for a moment, not quite sure where to go next. Just then, the demon that had previously been reading had finished. He closed the book and approached Cole, obviously eager for the rituals continuation.
"Sir, we are ready to continue." He said solemnly, masking his true anticipation. Cole remained silent for a moment. He bit his bottom lip nervously then spoke:
"Do it." He said, following the demon to the front of Parker's cage.
"Cole!" Phoebe shouted frantically, "You can't do this, please!" Cole ignored her pleas and stood next to his demon counterpart, breathing nervously. The other demon began speaking another unknown language. Parker instinctively backed up against the wall farthest from Cole and the other demon. Phoebe hid her face on Piper's shoulders while Paige was busy trying to orb and call any object she could to her, but nothing was working.
"Dammit Cole, you know you don't want to do this, just stop it!" Piper yelled, holding her sister's quivering body in her arms. Cole glanced up at Parker who was curled up on the cage floor, his head buried in his legs. He imagined the life he could have had, if he hadn't ruined it. For a second, a very important second his human side regained control of his body and his innate instincts guided him. He turned towards the demon that now stood beside him. In his hand he created a ball of fire and threw it at the demon who instantly turned to a pile of dust. Phoebe looked up from her sister's arm hopefully. Cole proceeded to unlock the cage and drag out a shaking, frightened Parker.
"Cole?..." Phoebe asked in almost a whisper. The demons in the arena looked at one another quizzically. Once they realized that Cole was freeing their captive, they assembled and prepared to attack. Parker followed Cole's lead, not wanting to trust him, but seeing no other option.
"Leave!" Piper shouted to Cole as the demons busily fired orbs of fire and electricity towards him and Parker. Cole, along with Parker, quickly shimmered out of the underworld to the only other place Cole knew, the penthouse.
"Piper," Said Paige harshly, "without Cole we have no way out of this box. These demons are going to kill us!" Piper scanned the room. The group of demons had grown increasingly agitated since the disappearance of their sacrifice.
"Leo!" Shouted Piper hysterically, sensing the growing danger. Inside the box, the witches were powerless, a predicament they were not often faced with. Leo materialized momentarily and looking around the increasingly tense room, acted quickly.
"Throw a vanquishing potion to me." Leo ordered, his speech rapid. Paige quickly took one out of her bag and tossed it to Leo. All three witches were quite astounded when the tiny bottle actually made it past the invisible barrier. With one hand, Leo held a tattered piece of paper within the witches' view. "Say the spell, fast!" Leo said as the demons gathered around him. Together, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige read the small writing that was etched on the paper Leo held up for them. When the witched had finished talking, Leo threw the bottle into the air, only to have it explode midway up, vanquishing all the demons in the room. No one spoke for a minute, the excitement they had endured during the past ten minutes required at least thirty seconds of recuperation.
"The Elders told you to do that?" Piper asked as she leaned against an unseen wall.
"Nope, I looked it up in the Book of Shadows. The Elders had no idea how you were going to get yourselves out of that." Leo said proudly.
"What about this box?" Asked Phoebe who was incredibly eager to go catch up with Cole and Parker.
"That's quite a pickle." Said Leo as he walked around the box, testing it for weaknesses.
"Can you orb in?" Asked Paige anxiously. Leo tried to orb in but bounced off the box's surface.
"Nope."
"Great." Said Phoebe sarcastically as she rubbed her temples restlessly. "I don't trust Cole with Parker." She finally said.
"He won't hurt him Pheebs." Said Piper soothingly, rubbing her sister's back, "Why save him if he was going to turn around and kill him later? Cole wouldn't do that, and I don't credit him with much." She said. Phoebe nodded, understanding her sisters argument but not totally comfortable with leaving her child in Cole's hands.
* * *
At the penthouse, Parker had seated himself comfortably on Cole's large living room couch. Cole paced around the room, a glass of brandy in hand. Parker watched Cole walk around the room, he was wary of him but at the same time he felt safer with Cole than he did at home. Parker wanted to say something to break the silence but he wasn't sure what would be appropriate. Cole had just found out he had a son and Parker had just realized Cole was his dad, nothing Parker could think of to say seemed to fit the void. Seconds after that last thought, a demon appeared, carried in by a cloud of black smoke.
"Can I help you?" Cole questioned calmly.
"I'm here for the boy. The other members of the council are quite upset that you took him." The demon said walking closer to Cole, trying to threaten him. "Just what are you planning" The demon asked gazing maliciously over at Parker.
"I've planned nothing." Cole said miserably taking a large sip of his brandy. As the other demon spoke Cole began questioning his decision. He had just sacrificed his place in the underworld for a woman who wanted him dead and a child who had to be terrified him. The demon, ready to take advantage of Cole's momentary weakness, seized the moment.
"I can take him back for you. We can tell the others..." He shrugged his shoulders casually, playing Cole like a flute, "...that you were worried about the threat the witches posed and that you took him away so they couldn't destroy our plan." Cole took another sip from his glass but said nothing. "They don't have to know what really happened, no one does." The demon pointed to Parker, "He's not going to say anything." Cole's gaze followed the demon's finger. He looked at Parker whose brow seemed permanently furrowed. Parker looked more like Phoebe than himself, except in the eyes, he definitely had Cole's eyes. Cole took one more sip of brandy then set the glass down.
"That's not going to work for me." Cole stated coolly.
"It's not? Cole do you realize what you'll be giving up?" The demon walked closer to Cole, trying to intimidate him no doubt. Cole looked at the floor, once again doubting himself and his sanity. "The boy is nothing. Humanity is weakness Cole, don't let weakness destroy your life." The demon placed a hand on Cole's shoulder, which made Cole coldly raise his eyes from the floor. He stared cruelly at the demon before speaking once again.
"I'm not destroying my life, I'm embracing it." Cole said before turning the demon the ash. Parker stared at the pile of black dust on the floor then looked up at Cole.
"Why did you do that?" Parker asked innocently. Cole was thrown off by the question; he had thought it was obvious why he had done what he had done. Before Cole could answer, Parker posed a more difficult question, "Do you love my mom?" Cole was taken aback. He picked up his glass again and took a swig. "Are you doing this for her?" He questioned, tilting his head amiably. Cole remained silent, not sure how exactly to answer Parker's question.
"I don't know." Cole finally answered, "Maybe."
* * *
"Come on Leo, think of something, anything!" Piper pleaded as she helplessly banged her hands on the invisible barrier separating her and her incredibly tired husband.
"I think the whole space thing is getting to me." Said Paige as she sat down and put her head between her legs.
"I'm trying the best I can." Leo whined. "It's not easy, I don't usually have to do these things alone. I'm also neglecting about thirty of my charges." Leo stopped trying to crack open the box and paced around the arena with his hands weakly on his head.
"I know you are Leo, it's just hard being so defenseless and powerless. I want to go find Cole, I need to go find Cole, but I can't because I am stuck in this stupid box!" As the sentence wore on Phoebe got more and more agitated. She too slid down to the cage's floor and huddled up next to Paige.
* * *
"She doesn't hate you ya know." Parker said to Cole after another long gap of silence. "She just says she does, but when she talks about you she gets all weak and... and I don't know, kind of happy I guess. She doesn't say she's happy but you can see it in her eyes. Maybe it's more of a longing than a happiness..." Parker trailed off, he noticed that Cole had turned his back to him and was filling his glass with more brandy. Parker sighed, stood up, and walked over to the balcony doors.
"You shouldn't stand by the window." Cole said, startling Parker. "Easy attack point." Parker backed away from the window and returned to his seat on the couch.
"Do you think they're okay down there?" Parker asked, not really expecting an answer. But to Parkers surprise, Cole turned around, propped himself up by the counter, and answered Parkers question,
"They'll be fine. They can handle themselves."
"Why did you leave?" The question threw Cole off at first; he hadn't expected such a direct query.
"Uh, when?"
"When you two divorced. Why didn't it work out?"
"She never told you?" Cole was a bit surprised that Phoebe would keep such key events from any member of her family, let alone her own son.
"No, she hasn't told me anything about you."
"I was a demon, I am demon. It's kind of hard to explain--"
"Or do you just not want to tell me?" Cole snickered silently to himself. So direct, so perceptive, just like him.
"Can we go get them? What if they're trapped in that box thing?" Parker rose from his chair again and looked out the window from a distance.
"Your mom?" Cole asked a little taken aback by the sudden change in topics.
"Yeah, they might need help." Cole was less than thrilled with the idea of facing the Charmed ones now. How would they react to him? He wondered. He looked at Parker's pleading face and gave into his request.
* * *
"Okay, I think I've figured it out. Maybe if I throw vanquishing potions at the box, it will...it will, be vanquished." Leo said with his hands resting on his hips.
"Leo, vanquishing potions only work on demons, not on invisible boxes." Said Paige mockingly.
"This is driving me insane, I want out of this box. When I get my hands on Cole I am going to strangle him for this." Piper said with her back resting on the wall and her hands resting on her head. Leo stopped pacing for a moment, giving the witches the illusion that he had an idea.
"I have to go." He said suddenly.
"You can't leave us here." Paige whimpered.
"The Elders need to talk to me now, maybe they know how to free you." Leo shrugged and orbed out of the underworld, leaving the witches alone, trapped in a box.