Left of Center
By Risa
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Charmed (I wouldn't be slogging away in school if I did) – no copyright infringement intended.
Summary: While Cole is working with an organisation of neutrals, a witch is killed and she's now seeking revenge. How will the Charmed Ones react and will Cole be able to survive this?
Author's Note: This is the sequel to Regrets… Just a reminder everything in Season 5 hasn't happened yet. This chapter actually has more action in it than most of my stories usually do, so comments are really appreciated. I hope you'll like it. :-)
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Prologue
Cole woke up to the sound of his mobile phone vibrating on the bedside table. He reached for the phone and answered blurrily, "Hello?"
"Cole? It's Basil."
"Basil?" Cole said, his mind shaking off the last vestiges of sleep, "Why the hell are you calling me this early?"
"There's an emergency," Basil said, "We need your help."
Cole got up from the bed quietly, careful not to disturb the still-sleeping Phoebe. He walked out of the room, down the stairs and into the foyer, talking softly. "What happened?"
"A group from the side of good managed to capture three high level demons. They're now torturing the demons for information. We need help to stop it."
"Basil," Cole objected, "you know that I don't work against good now. You know the kind of dilemma it presents with Phoebe being a witch – "
"I know," Basil interrupted, "and I wouldn't ask if we weren't really short of people right now. About three-quarters of the neutrals are still in the Underworld, some undercover and some dealing with one of the Source's new 'projects'. You've gotta help."
Cole sighed. Even at its peak, the neutrals only had about fifty people. Granted, all of the neutrals were well-connected when it came to gathering information, but when force was needed, they were too thinly-spread. He knew that the neutrals needed all the help they could get. "All right," he said in resignation, "where is everything going down?"
Basil gave him the location, "Get there as soon as you can," he added, "all you're got to do is rescue the demons. The rest of them will meet you outside the warehouse." When the call ended, Cole changed his clothes and stood over the table with a pen in hand, trying to figure out what to write. Should he tell Phoebe the truth?
He hesitated. It might be better if he didn't. He'll just go there, do what he was supposed to do and go home. No point making anyone suspicious for no reason. In the end, he wrote:
Dear Phoebe,
The neutrals just called me to do some work for them. I'll be back as soon as I can.
Love,
Cole
That should do the trick, Cole thought, as he left the piece of paper on the table and vanished from the room.
It was another five minutes before the other four arrived. They greeted each other tersely before attending to the matter at hand. "All right," Elise said, taking out a small square of paper from her jacket. Elise used to be a witch, but had grown disillusioned with the side of good. The Elders now regarded her as something like an outlaw. She was cool, competent but reserved. Her grey eyes looked at them intensely as she said, "Here's the plan for the warehouse. The demons are located here," she pointed to a room in the middle of the map, "We got some people to scry and we managed to locate most of the magical traps. We might not have gotten all of them though, so be careful. The demons are located here," Elise pointed to a room in the middle of the map.
"Then Cole and Solaxas will get the rest of the demons out," Elise continued. Solaxas was a demon, but, like Elise, he had become disillusioned with his own side. "The rest of us will try and hold back any kind of pursuit. Lerisa will get us out once you guys are clear." Lerisa, like Basil, had come from a family of neutrals. She was young – still in her early twenties and still had an exuberance and enthusiasm which was a nice change from the cynicism most of the other neutrals had, Cole admitted to himself.
"What about the goodies?" Yarish asked. He used to be a warlock and had a strange ability of coming out of the messiest of fights still looking as neat and elegant as ever. No one actually knew much about him and he was probably more reserved than Elise.
"Nobody touches them, unless you absolutely have to," Elise replied. "And I mean it," she said, glaring at the ex-warlock and the ex-demon.
"Did we say we were going to do anything?" Solaxas said innocently.
"Don't even think about it," Elise said. "Let's get to work," she said, folding the map and placing it back in the jacket as she walked into the warehouse with the rest of them following behind.
Throughout everything, Cole had been watching quietly. Even when he was a demon, Cole had often led this sort of operations. But he also spent a lot of time working alone, especially during his time with the neutrals. He had never worked with this group of people before and had decided the best thing for him now was to quietly watch and figure out how to work with them. The four of them had obviously worked a lot together and Elise was probably the de facto leader. If Cole tried to assert authority, it could create problems and the task was risky enough as it was. So, he guarded the rear and allowed the rest of them proceeded in front of him.
They moved warily, each keeping a lookout for any traps. Cole glanced up and saw a glowing blue net about to fall on them. With an almost negligent wave of his hand, the net dissipated with an orange glow. The rest of them nodded their thanks. They continued down the dark passage ways, disabling the traps one by one. As they got nearer to the room where the demons were being held, they could hear shouting and growls of pain.
This had given them some preparation for what they were going to see. When they entered the room, they saw three demons chained against the wall, their bodies bloody and battered. There were four people covered in hoods in the room, and one of them was flinging one of the demons across the room and another was throwing daggers at him. All the demons had morphed into their demonic form – probably because they were too weak to keep their human form intact. One of the hooded people noticed the six of them standing by the doorway and released five darts aimed at each of them. With a casual flick of his hand, Solaxas caused the darts to fall harmlessly on the ground. He and Cole ran to the three chained demons. Cole placed his hand on the chains to release the demons from them. But the chains were spelled against demonic powers.
"Elise!" Cole shouted. "Solaxas, cover her." Solaxas released an energy ball even as Elise made a dash over. "The chains are spelled," he said. Elise began to chant softly and the chains glowed with a white light. One of the hooded people rushed towards the two of them with a dagger. Cole threw her against the wall.
"Done," Elise said after a moment. Cole used his powers to break the metal apart. When his hands touched the shoulder of one of the demons, the demon groaned in pain. At present, all of them were barely conscious. He yelled to Solaxas, "You get these guys. I'll get the other one." The demon that had been flung around now lay comatose in the corner of the room. Cole disappeared and reappeared at that corner of the room.
Cole was bending over to touch the demon's shoulder when he heard someone shout, "Watch out!" He turned and saw Yarish releasing a fireball at one of the hooded people who had been not far behind him. There was no time to respond, Cole could already sense the opening of a traveling portal. Reinforcements must have been called. They needed to get out quick. He bent, held the shoulder of the demon, and transported both of them to the safe-house the neutrals had designated for them.
When he arrived, Solaxas was already there. Minutes later, the other three arrived in the safe-house. Immediately after they arrived, Elise pulled her hand out Yarish's and shouted, "Damn it, Yarish! I told you – no casualties!"
"Hey, if I didn't acted like I did, Cole here would be dead," Yarish said defensively.
"I can take care of myself, thank you very much," Cole said. This was why he didn't want to go on jobs like this anymore. He had promised Phoebe and her sisters that he would try not to hurt anyone good.
"You're so welcome," Yarish said sarcastically.
"Even so, you didn't have to kill the guy," Elise argued.
"That's enough," Lerisa interrupted. "This isn't the place to argue. Let's just patch these demons up and get them to where they belong, okay?"
It was late in the morning when Cole returned to the Manor. He appeared outside the door and walked in. He had agreed not to suddenly appear in the house after his sudden appearance in the attic had caused Paige to draw a vase at him, thinking a demon had attacked. He walked into the kitchen, where Phoebe was sitting in front of her laptop, typing. "Hi honey," he greeted, as he kissed the top of her head and walked to the counter to pour some coffee.
"Hi," Phoebe greeted, taking off her glasses and smiling at Cole. "What happened? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine. It was just some routine stuff," Cole replied rather evasively. He had decided that it might be better if Phoebe didn't know about the day's events. Cole didn't know what sort of reaction he was going to get, especially when someone from the side of good had been killed.
Someone who could have been a witch.
"Okay..." Phoebe said, "You're just overflowing with details." She searched Cole's eyes – he had always been rather open with what he did for the neutrals. When they got back together, they had agreed that they would be open with each other. Since then, they had managed to keep the agreement and it wasn't like Cole to be this reticent and evasive.
"I'm sorry," Cole said, "I'm just tired. I'll give you the details some other time?"
"I guess I'll just have to wait," she said, standing up. She told herself not to be paranoid. If something important had happened, Cole would tell her eventually.
She hoped.
She walked to Cole and kissed him gently, a kiss which Cole returned with equal gentleness. "I've got an interview with some magazine later today," she said, when the kiss ended. "We'll talk when I get back? You get some rest."
Cole nodded. As Phoebe walked out of the kitchen, Cole sighed. He just knew he should have stayed out of this in the first place.
Solaxas shimmered into his apartment, grateful for some peace and quiet. As he was about to check his answering machine, he saw a young girl of about seven years old, sitting on his couch, looking at him steadily. "How did you get in here?" Solaxas asked in surprise.
The girl didn't reply. Her brow furrowed a little and then Solaxas felt something cold pierce his body. He looked down to see a sword sticking out of his chest. He fell to the ground, wincing in pain as the girl began to chant.
It was a vanquishing spell.
The look of surprise was still on Solaxas's face as he felt the flames consume him. The smile on the girl's face was still eerily tranquil. As his awareness was about to slip into nothingness, he thought he heard the girl's voice murmur softly, "Revenge is always sweet."
*~ To Be Continued ~*
Author's Note: I know, this chapter doesn't show all that much about the Charmed Ones, or even Cole for that matter. But they'll definitely appear a lot more in the later chapters. This is just to set out some of the basic stuff. :-)