A/N: Wow, it has been a long time since I've updated this story! Don't worry, to make it up, this chapter is extra long—and is, in fact, the second-to-last chapter. If you feel like there are still some unexplained holes to this story, don't worry, most likely I'll answer them in the final chapter. And also, if you're following up on my other story, Love's Intervention, the next chapter should be up in a few days, I'm just having trouble sorting out all the anal details. Well, enough of that. Please read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter Four

Cole stood there for a second, then abruptly turned his heel and walked as quickly as he could around the club. He had to find Leo and Piper, and fast. He rushed past a stage, where they were setting up for something, past a few gambling tables, and barely noticed as other girls looked his way. He risked a glance back at where he saw Phoebe last, and to his relief and alarm, she wasn't there. Cole was torn in two for a split second; should he look for Phoebe or the others? Fate, however, seemed to make his choice for him, as Leo rushed up to him from the crowd.

"Cole!" he called. "We need your help. We found Paige, there's definitely something demonic going on."

"There is," he said grimly. "Jaquera."

"No," Leo arched an eyebrow, looking at Cole. "Here?" His glance wandered over to a grinding orgy over to his left. "Well, now that you mention it..."

"Lead the way," Cole responded. "Be quick, we don't have much time."

Leo grabbed his hand, pushed them both behind a couch, and then orbed. They ended up on what seemed to be the rooftop of the building next to the club—Cole could hear the commotion of people trying to get in, though faintly, telling him that they were a good number of stories up. He turned, and saw Piper and Paige on the very edge of the building, Piper evidently trying to pull Paige away. He ran up to them, Leo close behind.

Piper seemed to notice them out of the corner of her eye. "Cole, help," she choked as Paige tried to fight against her and go toward the edge of the building again. "I can't do this much longer."

"How did you find her?" he asked Leo, his voice urgent. "What was she trying to do?"

Leo looked puzzled by the question, but still answered. "She looked like she was trying to jump off the building or something."

Cole nodded and took over from where Piper was. He wrestled her away from the edge a good couple of yards, and then held her by the shoulders as he looked into her dazed eyes. She didn't respond to the sight of him, just tried to make her way toward the brink again. Cole spoke, clearly and loudly.

"You are the reason your parents died, and they hate you for it."

Paige's eyes went wide with shock. Suddenly, her eyes rolled back and she crumpled upon herself, like a house of cards.

"Leo! Heal her!" Cole yelled as Piper rushed to try to help.

"Where?" Leo shouted, confused.

"Her head!"

A warm, yellow glow emitted from Leo's palms as he placed them above Paige's head. It was a full twenty seconds before she sat up with a gasp.

"Where am I? Where's Phoebe?" She looked at her bare arms. "And where's my coat?"

Piper walked back into the fold, holding an armful of clothes. "Right here." She handed it to Paige, who gladly put it on. "I found Phoebe's coat and sweater too." At this, she glimpsed at Cole, fearing a fierce reaction from him at the sound of her name. A muscle twitched at his eyebrow, but he remained calm nonetheless. Piper turned her attention back to Paige. "And don't ever do that again, I have enough to worry about without you going suicidal on me."

"I wasn't trying to commit suicide," Paige said honestly. "I was trying to fly." They all looked at her. "So what? I was. Maybe it wasn't a very good idea, but I just couldn't resist the urge...besides, I have wings, right?" She twisted around to look at her back. "Wait, I don't?" She looked at her family, looking still a bit confused.

Cole spoke. "You were drugged with Jaquera, the demonic brew. Did somebody with a goatee offer it to you two?"

She nodded. "Duane."

"Dwynral, more like it. Demon of perception and distortion."

A smile tugged at Piper's lips, who let out a snort of laughter before she could stop herself. "Dwynral? Sounds like a cough syrup."

Cole stared levelly at her. Piper ignored him. "Demon of perception and distortion?" Paige asked, bringing them back to the situation at hand. "How does that work?"

"He usually only works with distortion. Drugs. Heroin, ecstasy, all either by him or his students. With you guys, since you're the Charmed Ones, he used his perception to exploit your weaknesses and then distorted you. With Phoebe, for example, it looks like he knows that me and her have some—problems."

"So what does he want? To kill us? Phoebe?" said Piper, beginning to look concerned again.

Cole turned to her. "The answer is maybe. Probably. He usually doesn't like killing—few don't, as you should know—he likes corruption. But in this case..."

"We're Charmed, we get special treatment?" offered Piper sarcastically.

"Partially," he responded, completely serious. "See, the thing is, a few centuries back he and the Source got into a—rift. Something about a liter of vodka and a rubber chicken, I'm not sure, it was before my time. Usually, obviously, the Source doesn't let those he gets into a fight with live, but since this was Dwynral, who was irreplaceable at the time, the Source had to settle by demoting him to the lowest level of demon there is. Better than being dead, but then Dwynral made a mistake—he took too many students. They're now just as competent as he is. So the Source can off him whenever he feels like it—"

"But if he offers one of us to him, then he's home free," Piper finished for him. Cole nodded. "Well, then, let's save her!" she exclaimed, ready for action. Piper peeked back at Cole. "What do we do?"

Cole seemed to make a quick decision. "First, we gotta find her. I'm still not sure what we can do, but if we see her we'll probably get a better idea."

Leo was already in radar mode. "Found her," he said.

They all orbed out back to the club and almost at once hit upon a huge crowd of men. Suddenly, a song started playing throughout the club—part soft latin, part sleazy jazz, all sultry. At the sound of it, Piper immediately stopped plowing through the crowd. She seemed, in fact, rooted to the spot, as her face twisted into an expression of fury, dismay, and embarrassment.

"Honey?" Leo stopped as well and turned to his wife. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, no," she said softly, burying her face in her hands. She spoke through her fingers. "Oh, God, no."

Paige stared at her, a look of recognition slowing spreading over her face. "Piper, you don't mean to say—Phoebe—she—her?" Paige whispered. "That was her?"

Piper nodded grimly. She turned to the confused men to explain. "In her senior year of high school, her friends decided to enter the annual talent show as a dance group. Yolanda and Phoebe choreographed it. Yolanda was a stripper." Piper raised an eyebrow at Cole. "Phoebe had a very long solo."

"I have to see this," said Cole, pushing forward through the mass of people. The rest of the group followed.

They didn't have long to go, and they weren't disappointed. Phoebe was still in the clothes they saw her in last; a white tank top and jeans. Everyone around them was cheering as she did provocative moves and bent ways that seemed impossible, using the stripper poles on stage as part of her performance. Piper looked at Leo and saw a mystified expression on his face. She whacked his head. "Not for innocent eyes," she said, only half-joking.

Then she looked at Cole. He looked—surprised. "You know," Piper said softly. "The Phoebe you know is actually a really tame one. You can't imagine what she was like before."

He nodded slowly. "I guess I know a bit now?" He cleared his throat and loosened his collar.

Paige tugged at Piper's arm. "I never knew," she breathed. "Do you know how much of a legend she—and her whole group—became? Every year someone would copy them, or pay them homage, until the school threatened to stop the show because of it." She paused as a pair of jeans flew from the stage to the crowd. "You know, we're gonna have to retrieve that."

"No need," Piper responded. She gestured at Leo, who had caught the jeans and was staring down at it, as if not sure what to do with it. Piper snatched it cleanly out of his hands and added it to her pile of clothes in her arm. "So, you guys done staring? Because you know, you might want to stop her."

"Why?" they both asked at the same time. The two men turned to each other, surprised, then seemed to snap out of their trance.

"You know, she right," said Leo, looking sheepishly at his wife. "From what I know about Jaquera, she should be lucky she's alive by now. And from the read I'm getting from her..." his face fell. "She doesn't seem to have long."

"OK, then, what do we do now?" asked Cole, alarm starting to creep back into his voice.

"Well, this was your idea, to go see her! And now, after five minutes of staring with your tongues sticking out at her, you still don't know what to do? You were the one who saved Paige!" Piper practically yelled, sounding a bit hysterical.

"But I don't know if it can work!" Cole screamed back, equally frantic. "Paige had one drink, she had three!"

"Oh, yeah, like that makes a difference to me, you have all the demon knowledge, you should know what to do!"

An idea formed in Paige's mind as she heard them arguing. She remembered what it was like when she had taken the Brew, what drove her to do what she did...in the back of her mind, even though she was growing to love her sisters and her newfound family, she had still wanted to keep her independence, and she could only say that the demonic drink somehow knew this, and used this fact about her to drive her to her death by jumping off a building because she thought she could "fly". Talk about psychology with a twist. Paige thought to Phoebe's situation.

But I feel like, like if I don't consent soon, it's gonna be over...

Paige scanned around the vicinity, looking for a target. She found the perfect one, near the bar. She sidled away from Cole and Piper and went over to her.

The girl Paige had picked out was tall, leggy, and a platinum blonde. Currently, this girl was flirting with a balding, skinny man who seemed nervous to just be talking to a girl like her. Perfect, thought Paige. She sidled away from Cole and Piper, who were still yelling at each other, and went over to her. Paige tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey," Paige said brightly. "My friend over there—" she pointed at Cole—"would like to have a word with you."

The girl gave her a scornful look, but she looked nonetheless, probably deciding anyone was better than the guy she was flirting with. Her face significantly perked up when she saw who Paige was pointing at. However, when she turned back to the Halliwell, her expression was still dubious. "Why isn't he here?" she asked pointedly.

Paige thought quickly. "Uhh, because he's trying to shake off this other girl." Made sense; it was obvious he was arguing with another woman. "He wants you to come over." The blonde, after a few seconds of thought, complied. Apparently, a man that was sought after was good enough for her.

Paige hurried in front of her, excusing herself with a vague sentence or two. So far, so good. "Cole," she called as she came near. "When I give the signal, I want you to kiss that blonde over there."

"Excuse me?" said Cole, his face drawn and looking completely flabbergasted.

"I know what I'm doing," she said hurriedly as the blonde came closer. "And you don't get to watch," she said to Piper, who was smirking. "You have a job to do, with me."

They rushed over to the front of the stage as Paige explained her plan. They stopped in front of her, as the song began winding down. "Phoebe!!" They yelled in unison.

She glanced placidly at them, her eyes looking shot and glassy at the same time.

"Cole doesn't love you," his sisters chanted, clearly and loudly. Paige pointed in his direction.

Phoebe looked at them, confused and a little disbelieving. Then she looked at where Paige was pointing.

A tall blonde...and Cole Turner...

Her body went rigid and she started to scream.