The Miracle Child
Chapter IV
"We can't allow him to become the next Source. I won't let that happen."
"I agree with that," Paige uttered uncertainly, "but where is the part about saving him in there?"
"Yeah, I'd like to hear that one too," Cole uttered irritably, while he stared at Phoebe intently.
This one squirmed, still torn by the uncertainty of her plan. "Look," she finally said, not looking at either of them, "Cole came back from the wasteland… Meaning if our child is also half-human…and he has to be," Phoebe added quickly when she heard Paige grunt unhappily. "Then, he can come back the same way… without the evil powers."
A charged silence followed Phoebe's affirmation. She finally made herself look up and Cole was still staring at her with a mix of contempt and stupefaction. "So now," he said with a calm that wasn't reflected in his expression, "Now you believe that those powers can be purged? Now you believe it's possible for someone to come back from there and not being evil?"
"Cole, I…" Phoebe started, and then she stopped, unsure of what she could tell him after those two months of avoidance.
Cole took a deep breath and kept silent, but Phoebe knew he had a lot to say about it and probably would later on. "Now all that matters is that we find a way to make sure I'm right. And I also need to know that it wasn't a fluke…"
"How the hell should I know," Cole finally exploded. "You think I wrote the manual on this??"
"Please Cole, fighting won't help us now, and it will help the baby even less."
"Still," Paige added, "how can we be sure it wasn't a fluke and that the baby won't come back with more evil powers?"
"Cole isn't evil anymore…" Phoebe said in a little voice. Cole stared at her with a surprised expression while taking one more deep breath, obviously working on controlling his emotions. Once he somewhat succeeded, he questioned Phoebe again; this time more reasonably.
"What exactly do you want to do?"
"Well… if you can't tell me whether he's evil or not…Maybe you know another way?"
Cole only hesitated a moment before making a reluctant suggestion. "There might be some way…I can't feel his evil, but a dark priest could…"
"Wait a minute, "Paige intervened again, "You're talking about bringing a dark priest near Piper and Leo's son here."
"Do you want to know or not?" Cole asked more firmly.
"Do we have a choice?" Paige snickered. "I'll take the other one any day of the week."
"No, we don't have a choice, Paige," Phoebe answered for Cole, ignoring Paige's snide remark. "We have to make sure… But if you're not evil," Phoebe asked tentatively of Cole, "then how are you gonna summon the dark priest?"
"If you're right about our…about the baby, some of them may already have felt him. I think I can call one of those who were loyal to me while I was there. There are ways to summon them even if you're not evil," Cole added quickly when he saw Phoebe's expression darken.
"Let's not lose time then," Phoebe said instead of the negative comments that came to her mind.
As Phoebe took Paige's hand and dragged her down a nearby alley, and in front of a pile of crates and cardboards, Cole followed them and extended his own hand toward Paige. This one wondered why he wouldn't flash out himself, but she reflected that he might be worried about Phoebe's reaction at seeing him using his powers. It wasn't hard to imagine because the mere mention of their past grief had been enough to visibly unnerve Phoebe. Without questioning him, she then took his offered hand and orbed them all out.
A hand pulled out of the pile of debris, while a faint groan emanated from it. After a few seconds, the groan grew weaker and died as the hand fell limply.
Cole, Phoebe and Paige materialized near the hospital parking lot. Paige looked around to make sure no one had noticed them, and then she turned nervously toward her companions. "Are you sure this is absolutely necessary?"
"What aren't you sure about? The Dark Priest summoning…? Or the use of dark magic to get him here…?" Cole questioned almost mockingly. Then, after seeing the irate looks both girls gave him, he pursued more seriously, "look there aren't many ways to do it. If you wanna be certain about the baby's nature, the Dark Priest is your ticket."
"But a goat blood circle in a hospital? A dark ritual in the middle of all those people…? Won't they frown on that if they find out?" Paige added stubbornly.
"I'm sorry, but that's the only way I know of. Besides, blood is no stranger to hospitals… If they see us, we'll play innocents and say we found it like that…"
"Play innocent hey?" Phoebe questioned bitterly before she could stop herself.
Cole gave her a quick dejected glance but didn't reply.
"Once we got the answer, are we so sure that we can get rid of the Priest with the spell you found," Paige asked of Phoebe.
"We'll find out soon enough," her sister replied almost distractedly. Her attention was mostly directed at the hospital and, no doubts, to the child by then.
"Phoebe," Paige asked again.
Phoebe turned to her impatiently. "What?"
"What was the potion for? I mean it's not enough to…to vanquish the Source," Paige replied hesitantly. "Is it to contain him?"
"It's for Piper," Phoebe uttered in a low voice.
"What?" Paige exclaimed, appalled.
"Don't jump on me. I just thought that maybe we'd need to make sure she doesn't…"
"Hurt us," Cole finished for her.
"Or herself…" Phoebe continued after an irate look toward Cole.
"What's that potion supposed to do?" Paige asked with obvious suspicion.
"It will just make her forget about the baby for the time being…That might be our only chance to make her say the spell with us..."
"You think she'll be more prone to vanquish a baby if she doesn't know who he is?"
"Look, when we have the proof that he is the Source, we'll only tell her that…I…I'll tell her I gave birth to the evil child after all… It won't be so far from the truth."
"Sounds like a shaky plan to me," Cole said then.
"I don't know what else to do. I wanna spare her…" Phoebe pursued. "Now we've gotta act. Who knows what might happen if we do nothing? Maybe he's already changing and becoming more powerful by the moment as we speak."
Both Cole and Paige gave her uncertain gazes but they didn't protest as Phoebe started toward the hospital and they soon followed her in.
Once inside, Paige offered to go check on Piper, while Phoebe and Cole prepared to summon the Dark Priest. As he began tracing the circle of blood in an empty room on the same floor where Piper stayed, Phoebe felt the need to question him about his attitude. "Cole?"
Cole didn't look back until the circle was complete, not even vaguely responding to his name. Phoebe grimaced unhappily but she waited in silence until he was done. "What is it," Cole finally questioned with a vague irritation to his voice.
Phoebe observed him for a few more seconds before answering. "Don't you care at all?"
"What?" Cole asked with a grimace of incomprehension.
"About our son? Don't you care at all?"
"What the hell am I supposed to say? We're not even sure if that's true anyway…" Cole dismissed.
Phoebe couldn't help being troubled at the same time as annoyed by his lack of trust in her abilities. "I don't get you…I mean…he's our son…"
Cole pulled a sheet of paper from his coat pocket and he wasn't looking at Phoebe when he gave her an answer. "I don't know what you want from me, Phoebe. I've stopped hoping to understand a while back."
"It's not about us…"
"Isn't it?" Cole questioned, suddenly turning his piercing blue eyes toward her.
There was such coldness in those eyes. Nothing like Phoebe used to see. Even when Cole was angry, Phoebe always felt that he couldn't hurt her; but in this instant, she wasn't so certain. "No it's not," Phoebe uttered hesitantly. "I know what I have to do but…"
"I can't give you any guaranty if that's what you're looking for," Cole replied coldly.
Phoebe, becoming more uncomfortable by the moment, was about to question him further when Paige came back, interrupting the uneasy conversation. "The baby's still with Piper. Nothing seems out of place," Paige uttered hesitantly.
Phoebe saw that her sister was having some more doubts and she went to her, giving up on Cole for the moment. "I know this seems incredible, Paige…I didn't know how to react at first either."
"Well…considering what this means for you, I can understand that. But…what if you're mistaken, Phoebe? What if we bring evil to the baby and he's an innocent?"
Leo entered the room at this moment, startling them all. "What are you doing here," Paige asked uneasily.
"I could ask you the same thing," Leo questioned, surprised to see Cole there as well. "What is he doing here?" He added with obvious suspicion.
Cole snickered vaguely but answered nothing. However, Leo noticed the circle of blood with a quick intake of breath. "What the hell!" he exclaimed, before taking a few steps toward Cole.
"Hell is close enough," Cole replied calmly while staring at Leo steadily.
"Get away from my family," Leo almost screamed. He advanced threateningly as he said this.
"Leo," Phoebe called nervously.
"What?" This one answered without taking his eyes off Cole.
"I asked him to come here…"
That got Leo's attention. He stopped in his tracks and half-turned toward Phoebe. "You asked Cole to perform an evil ritual in the hospital where my wife and son are staying?" Leo asked incredulously.
"When you put it this way, it sounds very bad," Phoebe replied evasively.
"Phoebe," Leo called irritably.
"Yeah, you could say that… but you have to know it's necessary." Phoebe pursued quickly.
"Like she says," Cole added with a vague smile.
"Don't get in the middle of this," Leo growled with a quick murderous glance toward Cole, before he returned his attention to Phoebe. "Are you out of your mind, Phoebe?"
"Listen Leo, we've got good reasons…"
"There's never a good reason to use dark powers, Phoebe. Didn't you learn from your experience with Evil?"
"Leo…" Paige attempted mildly, but she stopped herself, uncertain if she didn't agree with him anyway.
"Whatever it is you intend to do here, stop it now, Phoebe," Leo continued intensely.
"We can't stop," Cole affirmed then, as he quickly walked toward Leo and knocked him out with one powerful blow to the jaw. As Leo fell to the floor limply, Cole watched with what seemed amusement. Phoebe and Paige harbored appalled expressions. "Cole!" Phoebe exclaimed angrily.
"What? You really believed he'd have listened to you after you told him of your intentions? He won't be anymore cooperative than Piper, you know…"
Phoebe bit her lips uncertainly while casting an uneasy look at Leo. Meanwhile Paige was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this idea, but Cole simply ignored them and started chanting a strange spell in a language foreign to them. It didn't take long before a vortex formed at the center of the blood circle and soon a hooded figure stood in the room with them. When he looked up, the Dark Priest seemed understandably angry and upset. "Who dares summon me?" He questioned curtly. This was the same Dark Priest who had visited Charles's cell earlier.
"I did," Cole uttered firmly while staring at the Dark Priest. This one seemed uncertain for a brief moment, and then he bowed slightly. "Source," he exclaimed with undisguised respect.
Right away both Phoebe and Paige became more ill at ease with this. However, if this was unsettling, the Dark Priest's next reaction was actually unnerving. He suddenly looked up and all trace of the respectful fear had vanished from his expression. "You're not the Source. The Source is dead… what is going on here…?" His voice trailed as the Dark Priest suddenly looked at the door. Without another word, he started toward it, walking right over Leo's prone body, while barely noticing him. He seemed in a trance.
"Wait a minute," Phoebe exclaimed. The Dark Priest ignored her and went out of the room. Both girls and Cole went after him and followed him all the way to Piper's door.
"Wait," Paige called, but to no avail, as the Dark Priest pushed the door open and went straight to Piper. This one was still holding Patrick against her breast and looked up just as the Priest extended his hand toward her son's head. Immediately, his face seemed transfigured as a cold but triumphant smile spread over his lips.
"Get away from my son," Piper exclaimed, lifting her free hand toward the Dark Priest. However, this one seemed utterly unconcerned and indeed, not only didn't he back off, he grabbed the hand she directed toward him and before anyone could do anything about it, the Dark Priest had vanished along with both Piper and Patrick.
"No!" Phoebe screamed as she ran toward the bed, but too late. In a panic, she turned to Cole, but all she saw in his expression was something akin to satisfaction. "Cole?" She questioned fearfully.
Cole simply watched her without a word. Paige saw the same as Phoebe and the anger swelled in her.
"You did it on purpose didn't you? You, son of a bitch! To think I was starting to believe you changed."
Cole continued staring at them silently and Phoebe launched in his direction with a vengeance. Just as she was about to hit him, the Dark Priest reappeared behind him and they both vanished, while Phoebe shot across the threshold and went to crash into the opposite wall. However, even as she was getting back up from the bad fall, Phoebe ignored the physical pain, as the moral one was beyond compare. How could she have been so stupid? Cole must have known from the start about his son; maybe even before she did. The only thing that didn't seem to fit was why he would have needed a Dark Priest to get to him… Or even why Cole waited for the said Dark Priest to whisk him away… Maybe it was even worse. Maybe she had been wrong all along and the baby wasn't hers. By doing this, she had allowed evil to get to her nephew and Piper; even facilitated it for the Dark Priest. A profound despair invaded her at this point. Either way, Phoebe only knew that once again, Cole had betrayed her and she had been too blind to see it coming.
"Phoebe," Paige questioned hesitantly, the fear gripping her insides. What would happen next? What had they done? When Phoebe didn't answer, obviously lost in unpleasant thoughts of her own, Paige didn't insist. Right this moment, they only had one chance to save the situation, and it was Leo. Without waiting for Phoebe, who just stood in the hallway, Paige headed for the empty room where they had summoned the Dark Priest. Leo was just coming to and seemed a little confused when she found him.
"What happened," Leo questioned weakly.
"Huh…" Paige trailed and Leo stared at her with growing apprehension.
****
Piper watched the Dark Priest intently while still holding her son tight against her. "Don't come near us," She warned, but again, the Dark Priest seemed unimpressed. Behind him, Charles was the one who was obviously unnerved.
"Why don't we kill the witch now? We don't need her." He uttered darkly.
When he and the Priest had come back together, Piper believed it was Cole at first. However, the glamour spell that the Dark Priest had put on Charles wore off almost immediately. The resemblance was still striking, but she knew the difference. It didn't make things any better however, far from. "Stay away from me," She said again, while the two men ignored her.
"It's not the time yet," The Dark Priest calmly told Charles. This one didn't see it that way and advanced threateningly toward Piper. Suddenly; the baby began to glow brightly and a discharge of energy emanating from him struck Charles squarely in the chest. The former demon went flying backward several feet and he fell to the ground with a scream of pain. Holding his chest, he cast a furious glance toward the mother and child.
"I told you," the Dark Priest uttered almost mockingly. "Count yourself lucky he didn't kill you."
"What are you talking about?" Charles grunted.
"The child is half-human like you… He most certainly developed an attachment to the witch. This is why I needed you. He can't be trusted with the Source's powers. We both know what happened when your brother was invested with those same powers. You, on the other hand, have what it takes to carry on the legacy. Even as a mere human, you're still evil inside."
"And you think me being his uncle will be enough to take those powers?"
"What the hell are you talking about," Piper exclaimed angrily. She was still reeling from her son's use of powers, but she had no reason to believe that these were in any way evil.
"You don't get it, do you," Charles asked with a cruel smile. "He's not your son…he never was…"
Piper was about to protest, but she suddenly remembered the awful nightmare she had before giving birth to Patrick. Charles's words echoed those from the Seer. "You're wrong," She finally managed uncertainly. "He's my son and you won't get to him."
"There has to be a way to get rid of this whining witch," Charles shot to the Dark Priest.
"Don't worry. As soon as the powers have been transferred to you, she won't be protected anymore. Until then, I can't do anything about it. And we have to act soon, before the child becomes fully aware of his powers…"
"How does that work? Didn't Cole destroy the Grimoire?"
"Your brother destroyed the Book, but not the knowledge it contained. For years, I and other Priests were assigned to the Book and we devoted a lot of this time at learning its content. I need a few things but very soon, we'll be able to perform the power transfer."
"What the hell?" Piper questioned again. However, as she looked down, she saw her son's eyes glowing with a fiery light. That, more than anything the Dark Priest could have said, told her the truth about her son. "No!" she exclaimed desperately.