Left of Center
By Risa
Disclaimer: See Prologue
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter One
It was two days later when Basil abruptly appeared. Cole had been in his office, behind a large pile of files and working on some paperwork when he heard Basil's voice. "We have a problem."
"There are things known as phones and doors," Cole said irritably. "What happened?"
"In the past two days, three neutrals have been killed. All of them were in your team in the mission two days ago. Only you and Yarish are still alive. Obviously, we think that someone wants to kill everyone who participated in the mission."
"What!" Cole said, shocked. He just knew he shouldn't have gotten involved – all it brought was one problem after another. He still hadn't told Phoebe anything about what happened; he figured he could just put it behind him. All of the neutrals that were killed were strong. To have killed them within two days… "Any idea who's behind it?" he asked Basil.
Basil shook his head. "We figure it's probably for revenge but we haven't been able to figure out more than that."
"Great," Cole said with annoyance, "This is just wonderful."
"Anyway, the Committee sent me here to send you to a safehouse they've got set up. Yarish is there already."
"No, forget it. I can protect myself," Cole said.
"At least until we find out who's behind this," Basil persuaded, "Give a call to Phoebe."
"That's the point! What am I going to tell Phoebe? Sorry, I was on a mission a couple of days ago and a witch got killed. And oh yeah, there's a killer after me because of that. She's going to take that so well."
"You haven't told her?" Basil said in surprise, "Why not?"
"Basil, think. Phoebe – witch. A witch died. Do I need to draw the connections?"
Basil sighed. "From what you told me, keeping secrets from each other has been a major source of problems in your relationship. I thought you'd have learnt your lesson by now. In any case, you have to tell her. She has the right to know. In fact…" Basil paused, thinking. "In fact, whoever's after you might attack her to get to you."
Cole looked at Basil, alarmed. What Basil said made sense.
Damn.
"If that's the case, there's no way I'm going to a safehouse," Cole said, "I'm not going to leave Phoebe if she's in danger."
"You're just too bloody obstinate," Basil said sourly. "All right, tell you what – I'll tell the Committee that you refuse to go to the safehouse. I'll see if they're willing to have some neutrals keep watch over you and Phoebe and her sisters." He grimaced. "It's more work and they probably aren't going to like it much but…"
"I don't care what they do," Cole said firmly, "I'm not going."
"Yes, Cole, I got the message. You've only told me about a hundred times," Basil said, rolling his eyes. "I'll go check with the Committee now. Meanwhile, I want you to go to Phoebe and tell her the truth." He saw the look of reluctance on Cole's face. "You have to tell her."
"Fine," Cole said, raising his hands in surrender.
"Okay," Basil said, somewhat mollified. "I'll be back as soon as I can." With that, he vanished from the room.
Cole sighed and picked up his phone to call Phoebe. He was definitely not looking forward to this conversation.
"What are you guys doing here?" Phoebe asked in surprise as she entered the living room to find Piper, Paige and Leo seated at the couch, waiting.
"We don't know," Paige said, "Cole called us. We thought you might know why."
"I don't," Phoebe said, frowning. "He just told me that we had to talk and to come home."
"Any ideas what this is about?" Piper asked.
Phoebe shook her head. "Well, he has been rather evasive lately…"
"Cole. Evasive. Not a good combination," Paige remarked.
"Paige…" Phoebe began, but she lacked the conviction to defend Cole. In her heart, the idea of Cole keeping secrets from her gave her a sense of trepidation.
"Well, whatever it is, it better be good," Paige grumbled. "I had to do a lot of fast talking to get out of the office."
Leo glanced at the clock. "He better get here soon. We've got to pick Mel up from playschool."
Just then, Cole entered the living room. "Great, all of you are here," Cole said as he sat down in the armchair. His nervous tension was obvious to all four of them.
"Cole, what's this about?" Phoebe said.
Cole took a deep breath. "You guys know that a couple of days ago I went on a mission for the neutrals, right?"
They nodded.
"What I didn't tell you was that this mission was to rescue a bunch of demons that were being tortured by people on the side of good. In the process…" Cole paused, steeling himself against the reaction he knew he was going to get. "In the process, a witch was killed."
"You were one of the people involved?" Leo said, with shock and some anger. He had heard about the incident the last time he was called back to the Elders. It had already taken some time before Leo could get used to the idea that Cole was working for the neutrals. And now this had happened.
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Phoebe demanded. "I thought you said you wouldn't go against good!"
"How could you kill a witch?" Piper demanded as well. Although on some level all of them knew that the neutrals did go against good as well, they had never really gave the matter any serious consideration. They had never realized that witches could get killed in the process, just like demons. This, to them, was still something difficult to imagine. How could anyone not evil kill a good witch?
"I knew it," Paige muttered, "I just knew everything was too good to be true."
"Wait!" Cole shouted. "Let me finish! You don't all have to yell at me at the same time." The four of them slowly calmed down and fell silent. "Look, I wasn't the one who killed her. There weren't supposed to be any casualties. The witch was about to attack me and Yarish just reacted. Nobody wanted this to happen."
"Right," Leo said skeptically.
Cole sighed with exasperation. He had known from the beginning that this wasn't going to be easy. "Look, if we were really evil I wouldn't have told you all this, would I?"
"Cole, I don't think you're evil," Phoebe said gently. "But the fact is that you were involved in the death of an innocent witch and that will take us some time to accept."
"Phoebe, they were torturing demons," Cole argued, "I don't think I'll call that innocent."
"They were demons," Paige said.
"And that makes it right?" Cole said skeptically. "But let's not argue about this right now," he continued, before Paige could argue. "There are more important things to worry about. Because of this incident, someone's out killing all the people who participated in the mission. Out of a team of five, only two of us are still living. You all could get hurt by the people who are after me."
"Great. This is just wonderful," Piper said, her sarcasm tinged with anger.
"Revenge on witches for killing a witch," Paige said, "Not something I would have expected."
"Paige," Phoebe said, shaking her head. She could see the worry in Cole's face, as well as the guilt at having brought this on them. She couldn't blame Cole – he didn't want all this to happen either. When Cole told her that he was going to continue working with the neutrals, she should have guessed that something like this could happen.
Before anyone could say anything, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Cole said, walking towards the door. He needed to move, get away from the tension in the room even if it was just for a couple of minutes. He opened the door to find a girl about nine or ten standing in front of him, holding a large box.
"Hi," she greeted cheerfully. "We're raising funds for a new playground and we're selling cookies. Would you like to buy some?"
Cole looked down at the sweet innocence of the girl and smiled softly. It was moments like these that reminded him just how different he was from the demon he used to be, the change that began since he met Phoebe. "How much?" he said, taking his wallet out from his jacket.
"Five dollars." Cole began to search through his wallet for a five dollar note.
Meanwhile, Phoebe was heading to the kitchen to get herself something to drink and give her some time to sort through her thoughts. She saw Cole talking to the young girl at the door. As she was about to turn to the kitchen, something silver caught her eye.
A knife floating behind Cole's back.
"Cole!" she shouted in warning. Cole turned and saw the knife heading towards him. With a quick wave of his hand he stopped the knife in the air and with another wave of his hand, moved it away. Just then, he felt something hit his back and he was flung against the wall.
"Cole!" Phoebe cried, rushing to his side. Cole sat up, shaking his head to shake off the impact. The two of them looked at the young girl in shock. She had a smirk on her face.
"What's going on?" Leo asked as he, Paige and Piper ran out. They looked at the scene in front of them in confusion.
"What are you doing here?" Cole demanded as he stood up, with Phoebe supporting him.
The girl laughed. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here for revenge – to give you what you deserve."
"Who are you?" Phoebe asked softly. How could a kid be behind all the killings?
"Can't you guess? I'm the witch he killed not too long ago," the girl said coldly, her finger pointed accusatorily at Cole.
All eyes turned to Cole, staring. "I wasn't the one who killed you," Cole said firmly.
"True," the girl conceded, "but you were part of the reason why I died." With that, two knives flew towards Cole with deadly speed. Cole used his powers again to fling them aside harmlessly. Then, he released a bolt of energy at the girl.
"No!" Paige shouted as she orbed beside the girl and pulled her down to the ground, dodging the bolt. Then the girl simply vanished into thin air.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Cole demanded in frustration.
"I'm not going to let you kill a kid!" Paige said defensively.
"Well, she was trying to kill me!"
"Cole," Piper said, trying to keep her voice calm. "She is a child. And a witch. You can't expect us to let you kill her."
"You didn't say anything about the witch being a kid," Phoebe said.
"She wasn't. I don't know why she's one now," Cole paused, thinking. The power of ghosts was limited. A ghost wouldn't have been able to carry out all the killing. But if a ghost possessed someone alive… "The kid could be possessed," Cole said aloud.
"All the more reason not to kill her," Paige said, "the girl's innocent."
"I wasn't going to kill her," Cole said wearily, "I was just going to stun her."
"So what are we going to do?" Phoebe asked.
"Whatever we do, we've got to try and make sure that the girl doesn't get hurt. Ideally, the ghost would leave willingly but…" Leo trailed off, aware of the difficulties.
Cole sighed. That was the problem. Right now, the only way the ghost was going to leave willingly was if both Cole and Yarish were dead. On the other hand, they wouldn't want to do something that would hurt the ghost or the girl. Cole could see no way out of this conundrum. Whatever happened, someone was going to get hurt.
*~ To Be Continued ~*