A/N: Hello everyone! Well, we're really on the final stretch now... I'm thinking just a couple more chapters should do it. Maybe an epilogue later. I hope you've all enjoyed the story so far, because I've certainly enjoyed writing it.
Ernie: Thanks. Go. To...
Ori: I love it when I find that great story that really does blow me away! It's a wonderful feeling and I'm very, very honoured that you think so highly of my not-so-little-story.
Meow14: I like Josh. I don't think he's right for Talia after all, but I like him that's why I didn't want readers to hate him for his reaction to Talia.
Frances: I'm glad you liked my story. Is this updating quick enough for you? I try to update roughly once a week. Enjoy whatever's left of it.
Charmedchick11: It seems Josh's point of view was quite the success! I'm glad you liked it.
TanyaM: Your wish is my command milady! I believe you'll find the first part of this chapter rather interesting, which is why I'm dedicating it to you!
Spuffyfan: The best Charmed story you've ever read? Really? I doubt that, but I very much appreciate it. I'm flattered.
Svata2004: Soon enough? Hope you like it.
Barb6: Talia will find out the truth. The next two chapters are already mapped out in my head and just need to be written down. They'll be very, very dramatic and will probably be the last ones.
Phoebe-Cole-lovers-foreve: Yeah, I thought the ending of the last chapter was really cool too! I'm glad someone else caught it. It's not very dramatic, but I thought it'd be true.
Mickis: Well, maybe I exaggerated the "rode off into the sunset bit" a tad. In nightcrawler's version Cole professed his undying love for both Talia and Phoebe and after he flamed out, Phoebe found herself thinking that they could maybe work things out. It's the second time that nightcrawler's tried to sneak in a scene that would very likely result in Cole and Phoebe getting back together. He's an incurable romantic, but I love him for it. I hope you like this chapter.
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Ahh... and everyone please say hi to my very first ever flamer!!!
He/she has very originally called themselves yu! Glad to see they aren't hiding behind anonymity, right? Yu, my advise to you would be that you first try and learn how to spell personal pronouns, before you try to nonsensically criticise people who can not only spell better than you, but can use punctuation and tenses correctly.
Now let's see, you said... I don't like talia for treat cole like a dirt. That's your opinion of course, and you are entitled to it, but what you should've said was: I don't like Talia for treating Cole like dirt. See the difference here?
Your next sentence was... He is his father for god sake! I mean, really, after 38 chapters, haven't you figured out that Talia's a girl yet? And it's God's sake, as in the sake of God.
You then said... She threaten him like that! It's very hurting me if I am cole! Well... if you can't see what wrong with that, then I'm not even going to bother telling you!
You get the idea people! To sum it all up, according to my 'friend' Yu, Phoebe can go kill herself, Cole should be more powerful and get a girlfriend, and I should punish Talia for ever wanting to be good!
Oh, and how do you know Cole's not had other girlfriends? Phoebe's had boyfriends and two divorces and Cole, although he still loves her as much as she loves him, couldn't possibly sit around pining away for sixteen years, could he? He is the Source after all and a very attractive man. I'm sure that he's never been short of women to warm his bed. But Phoebe has remained the only woman he's ever really loved, just as he's remained the only man she's ever really loved.
Hmm... I see where you're going with this Yu and all I have to say is, if you don't like it then bugger off and go write your own story, this one's mine!
Please do understand that I'm a very logical person. I do not mind critique, I welcome it. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion and it's enlightening to hear views opposite to mine. But do not however attempt to clumsily insult my story with nonsense that show a complete misunderstanding and disregard of the characters, and a refusal of seeing anything other than the black and white picture you want to see. My story is not black and white. I should hope that my characters go deeper than that!
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Hrmf! I'm glad I got all that off my chest! Now you can all come out from under your desks, where I'm sure you're hiding after my rather extensive tirade, and read the story!
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Nightcrawler... do your magic!
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The end draws nigh...
Please REVIEW...!!!!
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Chapter 39: The Beginning of the End
Remos was scribbling furiously on the parchment as if his life depended on it. In a way, it did.
Perdicus,
I'm sure you've already heard. The attack on the Princess' mortal failed. We seemed to have underestimated the little Phoenix. Not only is the mortal still alive, but our plan to turn her on the Source seems to have failed too.
My contacts in the palace tell me that the Princess has already visited her father a while ago, but the visit was not as eventful as we would have liked. The Source will know that someone else arranged the attack and you can be sure that he informed the Phoenix of this.
The situation is worse than you think. Some of the bounty hunters have survived and they can connect me and a few others to this. I'm getting out the hell of here while there's still time. You should do the sam...
Remos never did manage to finish his letter.
An unearthly roar echoed all around him. Terrified, he dropped the quill he had been writing with, and jumped back from the desk, knocking the chair he had been sitting on, backwards, in his haste. Remos' eyes widened in fear and he backed into the wall. He knew what, or should we say who, was coming. Every part of him that was demon screamed it.
The Source flamed in all his fury into the small room.
His presence was overpowering. Angry flames licked the stone ceiling and the walls shook with barely controlled rage of murderous intent. His power swirled around him even as his midnight black cloak did. The air crackled with power beyond belief.
"YOU INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE TWERP OF A DEMON...!! YOU UNWORTHY PIECE OF UNDERWORLD SCUM...!!"
Remus cowered in fear next to the wall.
"Please Sire..." he whined.
This only served to make the Source angrier, but Cole took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before speaking again. After all, he didn't want to kill the snivelling creature too quickly, did he?
A cruel smile formed itself on his unyielding features. When he finally spoke his voice was soft and velvety smooth, but it still retained that sharpened-steel edge that spelled disaster, death and infinite pain to whomever it was addressed to.
"My daughter has informed me that she saw the two of us talking this morning in an alley above ground.
"Now I know for a fact Remos, that I was nowhere near above ground today. Want to let me know what's going on?" he drawled as he glided towards the terrified demon.
Remos wasn't fooled by the Source's soft voice. He knew that his life was already forfeit. The only difference now lay in just how painful his death would be. He opened his mouth to answer.
"I suggest," growled Cole, grabbing the demon by the front of his robes and raising him until his feet were dangling in mid-air, "that you do not lie to me Remos."
Silence reverberated around the room at this pronouncement. Remos opened his mouth once again, but no voice came out. He seemed to be terrified beyond speech. Cole was doing his best not to smash Remos' face in, with his fist, but if the demon kept this up...
Cole wrinkled his nose in disgust at the smell that invaded his senses. Remos had soiled himself.
"Tell me NOW Remos!!"
"S-sire, it wasn't my plan, lord! I-I swear!!" he stammered. "There were some upper level demons involved... members of the Council. I-I was ordered to take part in this. I-I couldn't say no your highness..."
"You couldn't come to ME and let me know of this TREACHERY??"
If possible at all, the man seemed to shrink and shrivel even further.
"I-I-I..." and that seemed to be the limit of his vocabulary at that very moment.
Cole couldn't give a damn.
"Who was behind this, Remos??"
Remos knew that the only thing that stood between him and the Source's rage were a bunch of names. He knew what he had to do and, demon that he was, he didn't think twice about betraying his fellow conspirators now that he had his speech back. If he was going to go down, then he was going to take them down with him.
"Cremon... Dacremond... and Perdicus," he choked out.
Cole was startled at the sound of the last name. He let go of Remos' robes and the demon crumpled on the floor.
He was surprised at the sound of Perdicus' name not because he hadn't expected it of Perdicus, but because of certain, disturbing... suspicions that name conjured.
Perdicus was just the sort to lead this scheme. The head of one of the oldest, most powerful demon families of the Underworld, he and demons like him, had hated Cole and his impure lineage. They would have loved to see Cole displaced from the throne. But Valdis...
Despite him being Perdicus' son, Cole had glimpsed something in the young man that had told him he was different from his father.
It didn't mean that Valdis wasn't evil, but Cole had thought that Valdis had the same quality that allowed him to trust Xander: a kind of honour among thieves, so to speak. He didn't think Valdis would have been in on a scheme like this. Valdis wouldn't have moved against another demon out of pure spite. He would move against them in retaliation, or if his best interests were endangered, but not out of spite... And this was spiteful. A personal, sneaky attack that would perhaps, at the absolute, best, yet unlikely, possible scenario, put someone else on the throne while he and Talia fought. Valdis knew that he didn't stand a chance of becoming the next Source over older and more powerful demons, and he was smarter than risking his neck for someone else, even if that someone else was his own father.
Cole didn't want to believe Valdis' involvement, but when he remembered that the power of illusion was one of Valdis' powers... He remembered Talia's words.
~I saw you! I heard you order his death!~
Valdis could have easily taken his form to fool Talia.
Damn! Damn the boy! Xander and he, had taken the young man under their wing. Xander had trained him himself! Cole had trusted him as much as the Source trusted any demon! He had trusted him to watch over Talia...
That was it, he realised...the missing piece of the puzzle. The conspirators had known Talia and the details of her new life and who better to report it all to them that the man whose only job for months was to watch her, under Cole's own command.
Cole's blood boiled in fury.
Remos watched with trepidation the face of his master even as he was trying to catch his breath. When Cole turned towards him he visibly flinched. The Source was shaking from the effort of holding back his fury.
"Thank you Remos," he said with a sneer.
He unclenched his closed fist in a sudden movement to make a fireball in the palm of his hand. Like his daughter's fireballs, it was made of hellfire. Remos' eyes widened. He, like every other demon, had heard that they made for a particularly gruesome and painful death, most definitely, not the almost-relief a quick, normal fireball would bring.
Cole flamed out of the room to the agonising cries of a dying Remos and the stench of burning flesh.
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Valdis paced the stone corridor outside his father's office.
His plan had failed. Josh was still alive, Talia had not turned back to Evil in her grief, and she had not challenged her father. He had gambled everything and he had lost. His life stretched out for centuries before him, empty and lonely. Without her by his side the world seemed dark and bleak, so much so, that Valdis couldn't bear the idea. How had he lived without her for so long?
The door burst open and he paused in mid-step. Perdicus stormed out of his office.
"What are you doing here, boy?" Perdicus scowled. It was clear that he blamed the failure of the plan, on his son.
Valdis thought it wise not to answer.
"You've heard the news then haven't you? My fault of course...I sent a boy to do a man's job! You hired nothing but a bunch of useless bounty hunters!"
Valdis' expression remained neutral.
"Fine...!" Perdicus growled, "I'll see to it myself!"
Perdicus turned to take his cloak from the coat hanger.
"What are you planning father?" asked Valdis in a soft voice, finally breaking his silence.
"Get out of my way boy, I have a mortal to kill," he growled before simmering.
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Talia flamed at the edge of the football pitch. She had done it out of sight of the stands, where she suspected Josh to be.
Josh had loved football. There were one or two other places he might have gone to when he was upset, but inexplicably Talia knew that tonight she would find him here. And sure enough, as she squinted to see in the distance, there was a solitary black figure sitting hunched on the stands.
Talia hesitated. His hurtful words still rang in her ears.
~Get away from me you freaks!~
He had called her a freak.
Perhaps she was a freak, Talia reflected with a sigh. Even among demons in the Underworld she had been a freak. Not only was she Princess of the Underworld, the Phoenix and the Source's most infamous assassin since the age of six, but she was also half Charmed. How could she have ever hoped to gain the acceptance of demons when her family on her mother's side, were the champions of the light? The mask had been a good idea really. With it, she was recognised as the Princess of All Evil, demon, assassin extraordinaire. Without it she could go unnoticed and she treasured the anonymity. Yet even as simply Talia, it had been very hard and lonely growing up in the Underworld.
Finding the Charmed Ones wasn't that much better in that respect. True, she had Wyatt, and her mother and aunts, but... Talia wasn't like them. The Halliwells always did the right thing. Personal expense meant nothing to them in front of the greater Good. Talia on the other hand, couldn't help but feel that sometimes all the dangers and pain they went through for those innocents, weren't really worth it. It's not like they ever got any recognition for it! And the constant smiling, caring and analysing of emotions that the Halliwells required from her, was in all honesty starting to get on her nerves. On too many occasions she found herself wishing that they left her alone! She hated herself for feeling like this. Next to them, the darkness in her soul seemed all the more obvious, and it made her feel tarnished. She wanted to prove to them that she was good, but in her heart, she felt that she'd never be good enough for them.
And then there was the fact that they all had to hide who they truly were from the human world. Talia really hated having to lie to everyone at school. Josh had been the worst of course. In a way she was glad that he knew the truth now, even if meant that she had lost him. And she had lost him. She had seen it in his eyes. Though he could try, he would never be able to accept what he had seen tonight. Still, he was her innocent and she would protect him to the death.
And with that in mind, she started walking purposefully towards him.
She sighed. She had so many different personas that it was making her head hurt! She didn't fit anywhere and no one could accept her, a walking, talking, paradox. But Talia knew her duty and right now her duty lay with Josh.
She kept walking.
He heard her approaching and lifted his head up to see her. She flinched at the look in his eyes, but kept her steady pace.
"Josh...?"
He couldn't help noticing how tired she sounded and looked.
"Hello Talia."
"Is the seat taken?" she asked in a half-hearted attempt to reconstitute the comfortable relationship they had shared hours ago.
Josh's lips curved slightly upwards in a small smile. They were the only people there. He waved his hand over the seat next to him. She sat down.
"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do, right?"
He nodded. Talia couldn't help noticing that he had still to meet her eyes.
"Wyatt and I... our family...we're witches."
He looked up at that. He still seemed surprised, confused, uncomprehending. She tried to explain as best as she could.
"What you've seen tonight, was pretty scary, and I'm sorry you had to see it at all.
"You see Josh, there's a magical war, between Good and Evil going on for thousands of years, that mortals are not aware of. What you saw last night, was only one battle of many. Wyatt and I... we're powerful witches, and we're with the good guys. We have to fight the bad guys all the time.
"We've each got powers, magical powers, to help us in this war. But the bad guys have magical powers too, and the battles can get pretty... violent. I lost a grandmother and an aunt to this war and I had to live without my mother and her family for the first sixteen years of my life because of it.
"My powers are telekinesis, creating fireballs and flaming, which is a little like teleporting from one place to another. And, as you already know, I can also transform into a phoenix.
"Wyatt's powers are more defensive. He can orb, which is a different way of teleporting. That's how he got to us so fast. He can also create a protective shield over himself and anyone else he wants, heal, and he can freeze time. He healed you, you know."
He said nothing for a while and neither did she. He needed the time to digest what she had just shared.
"Those guys, back at the alley, they wanted to kill you?"
If she had killed in self-defence...he felt he could accept that.
"No," she said, unknowingly shattering his hope. "They wanted to kill you."
Josh started.
"It's complicated," she admitted, her eyes closing with fatigue. "They were trying to get to me through you. I owe you an apology for putting you in danger."
Josh studied the girl next to him. She looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders and from the sound of it, she did. He didn't know what to feel. The shock seemed to be wearing off although the horror and fear still remained. Even now, as they sat talking calmly, the way they had done dozens of times before, he was careful to avoid physical contact with her. Things would never be the same again and he couldn't help feeling sad because of it.
"Josh...?" she said interrupting his reverie. "They could still be after you. Will you let us protect you?"
He still didn't look at her. He hesitated slightly, and then nodded.