Note from the Author: The following makes mention of mythology/religion. What is said is not meant to be said as absolute/accurate truth.  It is bits and pieces used to further along the story and make it that much more difficult to follow. I am trying to keep the story as much in the true spirit of the show as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read it. As usual, if you have any questions or nit-picks, please feel free to email me and/or leave an honest review. Thanks and Enjoy.

Piper walked the sidewalk right outside of Halliwell Manor.  She was wearing jeans that were no longer torn, a simple black t-shirt, and her wounds had been healed. Well, the shirt was black because for some reason that she couldn't remember, she was covered in what must have been some sort of black dirt. She didn't walk in her normal way rather she walked slowly with her arms folded, as if it were cold outside. Her rhythm was slow and unsure. The place seemed familiar enough, but she didn't know how she got to this point, so she thought it best not to rush, even though daylight made her all that more conspicuous.  She was about to turn and walk up the steps leading to the house, but she felt a strange gust of wind and heard a whisper she couldn't quiet make out.  She turned around to see if she could find the origin of the muted sound. Much to her surprise she turned around to find a tall and handsome man wearing a black suit with a red collared button up and extremely nice black shoes.  Cole.

She turned to run further down the sidewalk, not sure as to why she didn't just run up the path to the house.  Cole started after her, yelling, "No!  Piper, wait, let me explain."  Piper didn't miss a beat, she just kept running.  Despite her head start, Cole caught up to her fairly quickly, grabbed her arm and pulled her to him.  He spun her around to look at him, both of their faces covered in sweat, due to the intensity of the sun, as well as the intensity of the moment. Too frightened and inexplicably weak, Piper couldn't speak or struggle.  She just stayed there in Coles grasp staring at him as he pleaded, "Piper, please, let me explain.  Piper! Piper! Piper." The vision of Cole grew fainter as did his words, until finally Piper just passed out.  Cole held onto her and then lifted her into his arms and walked across the street. 

*************

About an hour had passed before Piper started to slowly regain consciousness.  She awoke to find herself on a hardwood floor in an empty living room.  Her head fell to the right and she saw a white wall. Then she turned it to the left and saw a blurry vision of a man sitting on the floor with his back against another white wall.  Cole saw her awaken and slowly stood up to make his way to her.  As he got closer, Piper could clearly make him out and jolted herself into a sitting position.  The quick motion caused Piper to have an intense pain throb through her head. She thought it was going to explode.  Cole squatted down next to her and put a hand behind her in case she fell backwards. 

Piper had both hands on her head now, hoping that that would make the pain stop.  She began to speak, "Ok, what do you want? Man, my head is killing me.  Is this pain ever going to stop?!"

"Piper…Piper, you need to listen to me right now.  I can help you."

"You can help me.  You, can help me?! You're evil!"

"No, I'm not, and you know that."

"Yeah? And what makes yooouu so sure of that?"  Piper finally took her hands off her head and used them to prop herself up in order to look Cole dead in the eyes.  Seeing Piper made a rapid and full recovery, Cole quickly snatched his hand back from behind her, since he quite liked it firmly attached to his wrist.

Then he spoke, calmly, "Because I don't exist independent of you; I am here because of you."

"Well, you're crazy because, I'm Piper, not Phoebe."

"You're right I am crazy. But right now you are the only one who can help me…"

"What?...Get Phoebe back? We've been through this before Cole. It just isn't meant to be—"

"No, I need you to help me save my father's soul!" He surprised himself as his words echoed through the empty room.  Piper looked to him stunned, with her mouth agape. Cole stood up and spun around, his left hand on his hip and his right hand rubbing the back of his neck.  Piper stayed sitting on the floor, slowly averting her eyes to study the cracks in the barren floorboards. The two of them stayed lost in thought for about two minutes before Cole broke the pensive silence.

"I didn't mean to startle you. I'm sorry."  He finally turned to face Piper again.  Piper pushed herself up off the ground and put both hands on her hips. With a serious countenance she leaned forward a little, her hair falling, but not in her face, to ask the only question she could think to ask, "What in the hell, are you talking about?"  

Cole proceeded to explain by waving his arms, "I'm talking about me helping you in exchange for you, helping me," flashing a charming smile at the end.

"Dammit!  You really are insane. Look, I don't have time for this. More to the point, where am I, and why am I here? Where're Paige and Phoe-be? If you did anything to harm them, I swear," Piper threatened pointing her right index finger in Cole's direction. 

Cole jumped back and through his hands in the air, "Whoa there partner, I surrender," then he got very serious and towered over her, "Watch where you point that thing. We wouldn't want anything explosive to happen."   Piper quickly realized what he meant and then turned the finger on her, studying it sadly, "It doesn't matter. My powers don't work. At least, I don't think they do. I remember not being able to use them, but I don't know, why." Piper stayed staring at her finger then lifted her head to find Cole still towering over her. She saw fire in his eyes and began to hyperventilate. She was beginning to remember.

All of the images of what she had been through previously came flooding into her mind.  She saw the events of the previous morning, her time in the dark place, the towering monster of fire and eyes, and her body turned to ash. She saw the journey her ashes took from the ground of bones to the eyes of the beast and how they settled on a sidewalk to reform her body.  There was no one around the neighborhood was completely void of people. All that existed to witness the strange goings on were dusty vehicles and abandoned houses. She then remembered the familiar whisper, seeing Cole and making a run for it. It all came full circle in her mind, the images ending once she reached her current state.

"Piper, you were screaming, what's the matter?"

"I saw everything. I had to feel all of it again. It was so painful.  How could I be so cold?" Piper couldn't fight the tears anymore she began to have the catharsis she had been denying herself since she landed in the dark place.  Cole guided her to the floor and sat there holding her for what must have been at least an hour as she told him everything through her sobs.

*************

"Cole, where are we?"  Piper asked, now calmly sitting opposite Cole on the hardwood floor.

"Oh, this is the Manor. Don't you recognize it?"

"Why is it empty?"
"Oh, I haven't gotten around to furnishing it yet."

"I don't understand."

"Oh, you will, in time, of course, mustn't reveal too much now.  I have to prepare you for what's to come.  Since you have no powers that means Phoebe and the Seer are right on schedule. I imagine that the Shadow will be released shortly."

Piper's eyes grew and she jumped to her feet, waving her hands accusingly at Cole, "What?! Why would Phoebe be working with the Seer? I knew it, you're still Evil!" Cole slowly rose to his feet, but stayed a good distance away from her so that she would not feel even more threatened. "No, Piper, I'm not Eeeeeevilllll. I told you, I am here to help you and ask one big favor of you. If you don't want my help, there's the door. But, I guarantee, all that you'll find is a ghost town.  With the sun going down now, it will be a rather unfriendly one at that." Piper gave in, seeing as she still couldn't wrap her mind around her current situation and since Cole hadn't killed her yet, she figured that it wasn't on his agenda.

"Fine, well, start talkin'."

"That's the Piper we all know—"Piper cut him off with a wicked side eye.  "Fine, fine, here's the deal.  You and your sisters are closer to death than you ever have been before. It turns out that the Underworld has caught wind of an imperfection in the Universe.  Mythology speaks of a Creator, an Infallible Creator, to be more accurate.  I assume you have some knowledge of the Bible," Piper gave him a look, "thought so. Anyway, in it there is an account of a man receiving commandments from this Creator.  One of them is that he is not to worship any god besides him. Now, that wording suggests that there are other gods, of which the Creator is to remain supreme. Makes sense, I mean, he did create the Universe and humans, right? Well, of course this isn't going to sit well with the other gods, but none were more upset than one by the name of Krivna.  Krivna, of all the gods is the only one that is Evil.  He tried banding all of the gods together to destroy all of what, the Creator, or Yahweh, to be more accurate had done.  The other gods would have none of it, for they did not turn jealous…Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm just having a hard time. Do you mean to tell me that Zeus and the like were not jealous gods? I mean…"

"No, they're not the gods I'm talking about. They're a whole different ballgame. The gods I speak of are the ones demons fear.  Now, Yahweh granted the gods, who did not betray him, the highest seats in heaven. There are three levels to Heaven: the planets, Elderland, and Heaven itself. Don't get too upset just yet, I assure you that the Elders aren't gods, nor are they and the whitelighters angels. Angels are just winged gods. With that said, the Bible later goes on to tell of a man named Jesus. History does account for his existence, what is unsure about Jesus is whether or not he was indeed the son of the Creator. Not even demons know for sure either, but what is certain is that he was indeed an agent of Good, the catch all word for the Creator and his team of gods and elders. Nothing Jesus did was entirely unheard of, such as the healing and whatnot.  What upset Krivna the most was the man's supposed sacrifice in the name of the Creator. Never had any of his "creations" been such loyal servants, causing him to anger and turn against the various demons he had created. One of those demons, he had not realized, had grown to a strength that was able to stop him, thus causing Krivna to keep a low profile, so to speak.  Long story made long, that strong demon became the first Source. Not, the Devil, mind you, that would be Krivna, but the Source of All Evil. Of course that's human language, the demon words are more accurate so I've heard, but nobody bothered to remember them and all."

"Yeah, but why Phoebe and the Seer, how did the Seer come back?"

"Demons, no matter what faction or level are told of a time when the strongest of each will be able to return from a vanquished state in order to find the flaw in reality or the universe, whichever word works. The catch though, is that demons don't know on which level of Heaven the flaw exists. The Seer is sure that it exists in the Manor, and Krivna is sure that it exists in Heaven, the highest level. But first Krivna has to breakdown the defenses in Elderland in order to reach it."

"Well that shouldn't be too hard."

"Unfortunately, it isn't. This isn't a joke Piper and it's not time to be petty. I suspect Krivna has found his way."

"What will be gained by all of this, so what if there is some flaw? And why doesn't the "Creator" just destroy Krivna?"

Cole put his head down, unable to look Piper in the eyes, "As much as you thought about killing Phoebe when she became Queen of the Underworld, you didn't.  I assume you could answer your question better than I could."    

"I see. Well, how do we stop it all from happening? How do we fix the flaw?"

"Not, we Piper, you," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "And you can't stop any of it. It is all going to happen just as it was foretold. The pieces are already in motion.  What you must do is fix what happens after.  Phoebe and Paige are going to need you more than ever. Even Prue is in danger, no one, living, dead, or undead are safe." Piper had a hard time finding the right reaction. Never had anything of this magnitude been placed squarely on her shoulders.  She couldn't cry or get angry she just stood there and kept asking Cole questions. What else was there to do?

"But, um, why am I here then? This obviously isn't the real Manor. And why would you be here and not, say, Leo?"

"Ah, yes.  Well, this is very much the Manor. This is the Manor that would have been had you and your sisters decided to leave. It remains empty for no one could call it home. As you can see, no one exists, only the evil in the darkness.  Not living here caused the prophecy to happen sooner, left you guys vulnerable, as well as the entirety of the human race.  The sun still rises to preserve balance, taking it away would have left Krivna with nothing. I don't understand the reasoning there, but I'm not a god."

"Yeah, but if it happened here then why not in all of possibilities?"

"Because, it's not real, just a simulation, of sorts. The practice run, the answer to, 'what if.'  Only the actual possibility holds tangible consequences.  You can access the actual from here, once it is time.  No one real exists here, except for you."

"And you."

"No, like I said, I'm only here because of you. This is a place of answers, I have them, and you knew I would."

"But you said that you hadn't gotten around to furnishing the place, I just assumed you lived here."

"Oh, yeah, that. Well, I was just pretending. I remembered that you had called the Manor my home once.  It was a simple and passing moment, probably hadn't even really realized what you'd said or what it had meant. I just wanted to believe that it was still so. But no, once you leave, I return to wherever it is I came from. I have no idea how I got here, just why. You must be a pretty powerful witch."

"Impossible, I have no powers."

"Power is infinite and eternal.  You survived the Void of the Dead, Piper.  You have more than the powers that were taken, you just have no idea.  I'm here to help you figure them out."