** Chapter 17: Rekindling old flames **
by Lilian.
lilian413@yahoo.com
AN: *Pout* Now where did all my faithful readers go? I guess I had it coming for keeping you guys on the edge for so long--- I understand if you've lost interest... I now *I* would've! I do hope that with this quick updates I might me able to catch your attention again!
To Jaki: in hopes you've still got some footwear. Any other clothing items look at you funny and you tell me, I'll speed up my updating! (edited to say: is this fast enough for you? *grin*)
To Kismet: thank you SO much!! I think I'm blushing...
Read on and enjoy!
***********************
"Phoebe!".
Cole's hurried cry was cut short as another fireball whizzed past him and he was forced to jump aside to avoid getting hit. In front of him, Phoebe only smiled, and that one curl of her lips sent shivers down Cole's spine.
"How many times do you need to hear it, love? Phoebe died a long time ago", she said, never once taking her eyes away from the stunned half-demon she had once loved. Or from the suddenly bawling baby in his arms. "The name is Phax now", she continued, calling forth two more fireballs and firing them in rapid succession at Leo and Cole. Both men jumped out of the way, Cole's movements slow and careful as he took great care in trying to soothe Prue while still keeping an eye on Phoebe.
"And I believe you have something of mine".
The hairs on the back of Cole's neck stiffened as he realized what she meant, and simply clutched Prue tighter to his chest. "Phoebe, this is Prue. Our Prue", he tried, desperately looking for a flicker of recognition in those black eyes of hers.
He found none.
She advanced on him, strangely calm in her actions as she laid eyes on the baby she had thought dead for such a long time. "Wrong, Belthazor. She was never yours". Her voice was cool and low, but Cole had learned to read her a long time ago and was not fooled. There *was* a stiffness to her as she spoke of their daughter--- a long forgotten regret, maybe?
Through the corner of his eye, he watched Leo scurry towards a still unconscious Piper and begin healing her. At least they were both safe, he told himself, suddenly feeling *very* exposed with Prue's weight in his arms. The baby cried and he longed to comfort her---
"Hand her over", said Phoebe, stretching out a hand towards him, a fireball sizzling in the other. And as Cole looked into her black eyes, he found none of the love he so desperately needed to see. Instead, a burning fire of anger, of hatred and grief, all wrapped around black magic that called to his own demon.
He had hoped Prue would be enough to shake the Source's hold off of Phoebe. He couldn't have been more wrong. Not only had Phoebe demanded he return their daughter to her, but she threatened to burn the house down with all of them inside if he didn't. As the last embers of hope in his heart began to die, he was forced to shimmer out of the way of an oncoming fireball.
Prue squealed in fear right in his ear and for a few seconds he was deaf to outside sounds. When he reappeared, behind Phoebe, he noticed she hadn't moved. And it irked him, that she was this confident in her abilities to let him shimmer behind her.
"I won't repeat myself. Do it, or die".
Her voice was freezing in its lack of feeling, and Cole did not answer. Instead, he cast a wayward glance at Leo and the whitelighter nodded at him, telling him Piper was okay. But still a bit dazed, he noted, watching as the young woman tried to sit up and ended falling into Leo's lap again.
"Phoebe, please! You have to listen to me!", he said, but Phoebe was much too occupied watching him watch Piper. For a split second he thought he saw a flash of sadness pass through those dark eyes of hers, but it was gone too fast for him to make sure.
"And still you put her above me, Belthazor. Seems absence has not made the heart grow fonder", she murmured, and stood still for a few heartbeats. She then shook her head to free it from such thoughts, and glared at Cole once again, her hatred renewed.
"You cannot believe that, Phoebe. I love you", he said, surprised at the easiness with which those three little words rolled from his throat. And then he found himself wondering if that was still true--- and to his despair, it was. He loved her, with his heart, with his soul-- he loved her like he had loved no other before, and her disappearance had only stalled the deep passion that now howled within him.
She laughed in his face, mirth dancing in her ebony pupils. "You do? How touching! And here I am serving the Source! My, why didn't you tell me this sooner, Belthazor? I would've seen the error of my ways and ran back into your arms a long time ago!".
He didn't know what hurt the most... her stinging words, or the sarcastic tone she used to speak them with. Maybe both, and the fact that she smiled all through her speech, clearly pleased with the devastating effect her words caused upon him.
Prue sobbed quietly against his shoulder, hiding herself from the world. And when Phoebe's eyes landed on the baby's small frame, a touch of tenderness lit up her stone features, and Cole was reminded of the woman he loved. And the embers of hope flared back into a roaring fire, as he realized that there was nothing in this world (magical or otherwise) that could defeat motherly love.
"She's alive... my little Prue".
The whisper came to him like a slap. Alive? Of course she was alive? Had Phoebe thought he would let their own daughter die? Had she lost that much faith in him?
Prue disentangled herself from Cole's shoulder, and turned to look at Phoebe, tears running down her chubby cheeks and her beautiful cobalt eyes clouded with pain: "Mama?", she whispered, and Cole's heart broke at the sheer pain in that single word. Phoebe did not answer, but anger had fled from her features and left an unreadable expression behind. The fires in her eyes dwindled down and she seemed almost--- soft when they looked back at Prue.
****************
In the Underworld, a small sphere of light exploded in blinding sparks, as Phoebe's soul reacted both to the sight of her daughter and the one word she thought she would never hear. Where it sat atop a pedestal, it began hovering above the scarlet cushion as its inherent power soared.
No less than a second later, the Source's form flamed into the room. And suddenly, the bright light didn't seem as bright anymore, and the shadows it had chased away began making their way back into the walls and corners of the chamber, feeling their master's presence.
"Going somewhere, little Witch?".
His voice was loud and dripping with amusement, and the globe changed colors as if answering.
"Of course I knew. I see everything, after all", said the Source, the darkness of his hood not parting at the brilliance coming from the sphere. Most unnatural, but there was nothing to be called 'natural' about the Lord of the Underworld.
His massive hand raised from his robes, and the skin shone red with the light of the torches. The soul withered under the shadow of his hand and the glow diminished, tired and spent.
"Now that is better, is it not?", cooed the Source, with a voice that was strangely soft. Pushing the hovering globe down was not hard, but it wasn't easy either. It resisted for a few seconds, finding the deep, hidden remnants of strength to fight back. But it could never win. Not against the Source, not when she was so very weak. In the end, when the Source's hand pushed it back down against the soft cushion, a long sigh echoed across the room, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. It was the sound of defeat.
"She is alive, Witch. Has been for all this time. Now spend your time wondering what Phax will do with her once she gets her".
He laughed, a despicable, horrifying laugh when the soul shone once again, angered. "Oh yes. She will soon return to me like she was meant to, and your last premonition will come true. And then I will have no more use for you, except maybe as a plaything".
The Source caressed the sphere of light almost lovingly, and it quickly changed colors from green to purple and to blue, as if disgusted.
Laughing, the Source flamed out, leaving a broken soul behind.
*********************
Cole had thought they had finally made contact. Phoebe had remained still for a few seconds, eyes blank, hands shivering... But then, chased away by demons of her own, Phoebe's eyes turned to ice and hardened to steel.
But Cole had seen it, he knew it was there: if only he could find a way to exploit that!
As he sought to find something, a speck of longing in her black eyes, he noticed a lack of life in them that hadn't been there before. When he had first seen her as this twisted version of the woman he loved, back in the alley, her eyes had all but shone with emotions, with feelings too strong to be kept bottled up inside. And when he had followed her into the caverns of the Underworld, she had reacted lashing out at him, desperate, emotional... and doubt had been there. She had almost reached out to him, almost taken his hand when he offered it to her. Cole had recognized the inner struggle, the biting of her bottom lip, the trembling of her voice as she ordered him to leave...
None of that was present now. It was as if she was an empty carcass, devoid of anything but hatred and anger and--- the veil closed and Cole was cast out. Panting for breath, he recovered his bearings and tried to make sense of what he had seen. But how could he, when he only had half of the puzzle? So many things didn't make sense!
"What happened to you?", he asked her, needing to know. Because if they knew, then they might be able to fix it. And he needed a place to start, and what better place than the beginning? If only Phoebe would tell him... if only she would open up to him, like she once had, they could most certainly work it out. Because he knew, in his heart of hearts that this was all just a huge misunderstanding!
Phax just looked at him for a few moments, unresponsive. So many possible answers... you happened to me, she wanted to say, you and fate. But he wasn't asking about that. He was asking about something else entirely. And then her face lit up in understanding: "Oh, you mean this?", she said, opening the first few buttons of her top and pushing it aside. The exposed skin of her upper left breast beckoned Cole's eyes, and there was not a single person in the room that did not notice the sudden hunger that raided his eyes at that particular sight.
Her palms a few inches apart, she framed a small portion of skin and concentrated. A small glitter appeared in the space in between her hands and the air rippled and changed. It was as if someone was slowly opening a drape, letting the first rays of sunshine into a darkened room. And then she groaned in pain, and the light flickered and died, and instead, they found themselves looking at a gaping hole where her heart should've been. Black and yawning like a beast awakening from slumber, when Phoebe let her hands fall it wavered and disappeared, leaving soft, perfect skin behind. But they had all seen it, and it was now ingrained in their memories with fire and brimstone.
"No", whispered Cole, feeling as if someone had suddenly pulled the floor from under him. And he really did feel as if he was falling, and only when the sudden impact of his knees against the debris covering the floor registered in his tired brain did he realize he had sunk to his knees.
"Oh yes, lover. He did it right after you left. After beating me within an inch of my life, of course".
Cole shook his head in denial. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be! But he had seen it: where a shinning light of purity should've shone, where the star that was her soul should've been, there was nothing but a hole. A hollow heart; if lacking a soul was not a heart anymore...
"Cole? What is that? Can somebody explain to me what's going on?". Piper's voice came from afar, almost as if they weren't even in the same room anymore. Cole felt his world crumbling down around him, falling into pieces and he could only watch mesmerized, as Phoebe released the hem of her top and let it fall back into place... and still, right on the edge where cloth met skin, Cole could see the swelling of her breasts and the place where her soul should've been.
"What's going on, big sis", began Phax, turning away from Cole and facing Leo and Piper with a grin that at any other time would've made hope flare in their hearts. Now, it only made her black eyes shine even higher, and her blood red lips framed her long canines, unfit for a mortal mouth but so very right in a demon's, "is that the Source has removed the one thing that stopped me from killing you. Which is why I'm here, by the way", she added as an afterthought, as if making clear that they were not going to leave this room alive.
Piper's brow wrinkled in confusion, and she squeezed Leo's hand for dear life. "Leo? What does she mean?", she asked, feeling the sudden hands of fear gripping at the edges of her consciousness. When Leo did not answer, she looked up into those beloved eyes of his, and what she saw in there made her shiver and tremble. Leo looked away before answering her.
"Her soul, Piper. The Source has removed her soul. He took the Good within her, and with it, what made her the Phoebe we knew".
Appalled, Piper turned away from her husband and towards the smiling woman standing amidst what was once known as their reception hall. "That's impossible", she breathed softly, leaning back into Leo's chest for support that for once, wasn't there. The whitelighter made no move to comfort his wife, and instead, he shed one tear for yet another charge of his that he had lost.
"As impossible as reincarnated witches and half-demons and dead angels? Come on, honey, are you trying to tell me you still don't believe in magic?".
Piper simply shook her head, refusing to believe. "No. Phoebe, I know you're still in there. Please, listen to me!". Her voice rose as she spoke, her frantic need to reach the unreachable getting almost too big to bear.
She was not going to believe it. Because it couldn't be true. Because if it was, that meant Phoebe was lost to them, and she was not loosing another sister. She wasn't. Phoebe was there, she just had to make her see!
Phoebe raised her hands. That single move made the small inverted triangle in her forearm come to life, and they watched fascinated as it seemed to snake around her skin with a life of its own. The brand of the Lord of the Underworld pulsed with magic of its own, the elven marking erasing the last traces of doubt Cole might've had.
"You are not her anymore, then". He rose on shaky legs to his full height, Prue's cries silenced now. He whispered a few words in Prue's ears, and the baby listened intently. Not more than a heartbeat later, she was shimmering away from Cole's arms and into Leo's awaiting hands.
"Take them both away, Leo. This is my fight, not yours".
Any and all protests from either Leo or Piper were silenced by the look Cole sent their way. Without arguing, Leo grabbed Piper's hand and orbed away. Piper shrieked, indignant and her cry mingled with Phoebe's as she watched her daughter (and prize) slip right through her fingers. Just a heartbeat before the orbing lights disappeared, Piper made her choice and threw herself out of the orb before it was completed, landing with a huff on the floor.
"Like hell it's your fight. She's *my* sister, damn it, and I'm sick of you and Leo thinking I can't defend myself!", she screamed at Cole, rising to her feet and flashing him a glare that would've sent other men cowering. But Cole was not any man (he wasn't even a *man*) and was not fazed. Instead, he lashed out at her. Worry made him angry, and anger made him mean: "PIPER! get out of here NOW! You won't last a second against her! She's too far gone for you to reach!".
Rather than listening to Cole (and common sense), Piper strode towards him purposefully, and with strength Cole did not know she had, slapped him. Hard. As his hand cradled his injured cheek, he turned wide eyes towards Piper, surprise dancing in his pupils. "Don't tell me what to do, Cole. I am a Charmed One, for God's sake. And I *will* bring her back, because I owe it to her!".
By some unspoken understanding between them, Cole knew Piper meant not only Phoebe, but Prue too. Piper owed it to Prue to protect Phoebe, and she had failed once at it. And she wasn't doing it again. As he opened his mouth to try and convince her to flee, he noticed her chocolate eyes brimming with unshed tears of frustration and anger, as the fate of her family once again hung in the balance and she was pushed away before she could do anything about it. Slowly, he closed his lips and swallowed the string of curses that threatened to spill from his throat, as he realized that there was nothing he (or anyone else for that matter) could do to dissuade Piper. Not when she was like this.
"Trouble in paradise? Don't stop because of me! By all means, take it all out! I'll just kill whoever is still standing afterwards".
The sharp words stung, and both Piper and Cole looked away from each other, the telltale signs of a blush spreading through their cheeks. That only served to inflame Phoebe's anger further, and with a cry of fury, she attacked them.
Or him, for that matter. Completely ignoring Piper, Phoebe jumped Cole and they rolled across the floor, neither noticing as splinters dug into their skin. Cole did not attack her. Instead, he settled for blocking her jabs and stopping her kicks, keeping one careful eye on the athame she sported on her hip.
He and Phoebe had sparred before. Before any of this personal hell of theirs had come to pass, back when their only worry was the Source, he had taken it upon himself to teach Phoebe some fighting moves. He had been impressed by her quick learning abilities, and at the natural talent she possessed for the Arts.
But the Phoebe that tackled him into the floor was a much different one. {She fights like a true demon}, he thought, blocking a fist that would've smashed his nose into his brain. Deadly speed, and she wasn't even breaking a sweat yet!
He had meant it when he said that this was his fight. If hadn't been for him, Phoebe would've never been captured. She would've never been turned into--- into *this*. And as Piper owed it to her big sister to protect what was left of her family, Cole felt obliged to give Piper the chance she wanted to try and reach Phoebe. And if all else failed, he would be the one to kill her: it was his mess, and he was the only one to fix it.
"Phoebe! Stop!".
She did not listen. Nor did she stop. Sending a vicious kick to his midsection, she made him double over in pain and landed an elbow on his now exposed back. As Cole went down with a grunt and Piper cried out his name, Phoebe only smiled.
"This is for me", she told him, continuing her assault, "for everything I gave you and you took without care". Cole was too stunned to react, torn in between protecting himself from the woman he loved and coming to terms with the fact that she wasn't that woman anymore. "You made me kill her, Cole", she continued, and his real name sounded like a mockery in her lips, not like the soft-spoken caress it had once been.
"I gave everything up for you", she said, and Piper watched horrified as Phoebe drew the athame in a perfect circular motion around her, slicing Cole's shirt and missing his skin by millimeters. "Everything", she punctuated, stopping in mid-turn to spare Piper a glance full of contempt. "It wasn't enough for you, was it? You wanted more. You wanted *her*".
Backed up against a wall, there was little Piper could do to defend herself as Phoebe closed in on her. Suddenly coming out of her stupor, she threw her hands in the air, and froze the room, taking extra care to keep Cole out of her range of action.
To their surprise, Phoebe did not stop.
Instead, she grinned widely, and they caught the spark of light coming off the mark on her arm as it swallowed and deflected Piper's power. "Did you really think I wouldn't come prepared this time? It only works once, sis. Just once".
Over Phoebe's shoulder, Piper saw Cole forming an electric bolt in his hands. Drawing her eyes away from him quickly, lest Phoebe followed them and notice it too, she began talking, trying to distract her sister and make her forget she had left Cole un-watched behind her.
"But Phoebe--- we can help you! Just let us in again--- whatever he did to you can be undone", she tried, meaning every word she said. If only Phoebe would let them, they might have a chance at removing the Source's influence from her, and return whatever it was he had extracted from her.
{Please, sis. Listen to me}.
In response, Phoebe shook her head. "Why should I? Do you know what it feels like to be free, Piper? What if feels like to not have to worry about anything but yourself? Why would I want to trade all this freedom for an eternity spent working for the Greater Good, which has brought me nothing but pain and heartache?".
Piper found herself at a loss of words. As Phoebe moved closer and closer, she found herself lost in her black eyes, drawn in by the alluring storms that brewed with her every word and seemed to break off with every step she took. "That's not true. You have us, Phoebe, and we love you".
Phoebe's harsh laugh was like a dagger to Piper's heart, and her hands hung limp at her sides, useless. Chances were, if Phoebe was able to divert her freezing power, her exploding power wouldn't do much good. And besides, even if it did, she could not (would not) use it on her sister.
"Love me? You never loved me. You only wanted him to yourself. Well guess what, honey, he isn't even *that* good".
Taken back by the bitterness in Phoebe's voice and completely confused by what she meant, Piper did not answer. Him? Cole? Did she mean Cole? But she and Cole were not an item--- they never were!
As a sudden clarity exploded in her brain like a light bulb going on in the darkness of the night, her eyes darted to Cole, who stood behind Phoebe, arm poised and ready to send the electric ball flying.
In his eyes, Piper found horror that mirrored her own.
{Oh my God...}
Because she was the only one looking in that direction, she was the only one who saw a tall form shimmer into the room, carrying a very fainted, very injured Paige in its arms.
"Now, now, Phax. You should know better than to leave your back exposed like this. One might think you *want* them to get you", it said, and then carelessly tossed Paige into the floor.
And then proceeded to give Cole a run for his money.
*******************
Leo didn't know where he was. All he knew was that Prue was with him and Piper was not.
As he had orbed out of the manor, he hadn't had any particular destination in mind, just the promise he had once made to Cole, the promise to keep Prue safe. But then Piper had jumped out of the orb, and was left behind.
And when he tried to orb back, he couldn't.
Something was keeping him in the orbing-limbo, and he was growing dizzier by the minute. Prue hadn't made a sound ever since they had left the manor, but she breathed evenly against his neck where she clung for dear life, so Leo was not worried.
Instead, he was worried sick about his wife and his friend, stranded back there in the Halliwell home while he orbed into limbo. Where they okay? Why had Piper refused to be orbed out of there? Were they injured? Hurt? Dead?
"Piper, please be okay", he muttered against Prue's hair, as he caressed her little head in attempt at calming her and himself. They had to be all right. They *had* to be.
Suddenly, the whole world stopped spinning around him and with a deafening rush of wind, they landed somewhere. Or fell. Or something. Leo was careful to keep Prue from harm, and as they rolled to a stop, he found the familiar knee-high mist clinging to his clothes like a second skin.
When the voice spoke, he didn't have to look up to know where he was. "Rise, Leo Wyatt. You have been brought upon Council".
He rose slowly, taking in his surroundings. Just as he remembered them to be. Clouded, dank and endless... clouds upon clouds and pillars and doorways leading into nowhere. For that was where the Elders resided, the place where all whitelighters went when they orbed for counsel or advise.
A place he had thought he would never see again.
He had been forbidden entrance into Heaven back when they had accepted Cole into their family, the Elders too horror-stricken by the blasphemy (as they called it) of the Charmed Ones welcoming a demon into their bosom, much less him working side by side with them. Leo had spent the next several months waiting for the disabling pain that came with the crippling of his angel wings. When it hadn't come, he had accepted the strange fact that even if the Elders frowned upon the fact he was mingling with demons enough to cast him off Heaven, he had retained his powers for good. Maybe the Halliwell predecessors had something to do with it, but as he looked up into the robed figures standing before him, he realized they might've just ran out of luck.
"Greetings, Leo. It has been far too long since you have visited us", said a second voice, and he turned around to find that not only did the hooded figures stand before him: they surrounded him. And he suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end, as he realized he was greatly outnumbered.
"I was informed I was no longer welcome here, Elder. I only followed the advice you gave me".
Someone in the creepy circle snorted disdainfully: "Really? Well that might be a first for you, Wyatt".
In his arms, Prue seemed to be curiously staring at the seven people around them, her wide blue eyes full of curiosity. When her examination proved useless, she turned to Leo and cooed: "Dada?".
Her voice sounded strangely low and childlike in the floor-less/ceiling-less room they now stood in, and Leo had to fight the urge to hide little Prue from their sight as all their heads turned to stare intently at the baby in his grasp. As he tried to soothe Prue with soft words in her ear, a loud voice interrupted the silence.
"Is this the child?", somebody asked, and Leo shivered unconsciously at the coldness within those words. He knew Prue was not supposed to exist: after all, the Elders had moved Heaven and Hell to keep Phoebe and Cole apart, just as they had done with Piper and himself. And even if they had finally (grudgingly) accepted the fact that a Charmed One was marrying (and bedding) a Whitelighter, it would rain flowers before they even considered accepting a Witch and a Demon. Even if said half-demon was a powerful Force of Good in his own right and probably saved more innocents daily that anyone else in business.
And Prue--- the small baby shouldn't even be alive! But she was alive, and in the very center of a Judgment Circle that frowned upon her very existence. And Leo did not like it one bit. The Elders saw that their mistakes never made it into the Upper ranks of Good, and if the looks they were getting were any indication, what they thought of doing to Prue was not only ugly but wrong.
"She bears the mark of both her parents. There is no doubt".
Whoever answered, Leo did not know, but he clutched Prue tighter. "What do you want from me?", he said, narrowing his eyes at them. He had a family to protect, and he was going to do it. Cole had asked him to protect Prue, and protect her he would. Even from those he had once called a family of his own. How wrong and misguided he had been...
"You are of no use to us, Wyatt. It is her we want".
A bony hand extended, and pointed straight at Prue. The baby looked at it for a few seconds, and then burrowed deeper into Leo's chest, trying to get away from it. "We come from battle, sir. Don't you have any compassion for such a young child?".
If he could only ensure her safety here, he could go back. Go back to the manor, and help Piper and Cole---
"And do what? You have no active powers for a reason, Whitelighter. You are only meant to heal and guide, not fight. The Halliwells lost their right for a whitelighter when they sided with that--- demon".
The last word was spoken with such venom that Leo took a step back. Were these the same people who had appeared in his dreams the night before he died, telling him of his greater future? Were these the same ones who held his hand in the battlefield as he died, helping him cross over and acquire his wings? They couldn't be... they couldn't be!
"He has not done Evil for a long time. By what right do you judge him?", he said, his voice rising and echoing around unseen walls over and over again, as they acted as amplifiers.
"By that given to us by the Higher Powers, Wyatt. And that Power wants her gone".
"NO!", he screamed, and tried to orb out. The power did not come to him, and a throaty chuckle came from his right. "You can not leave unless we bid you farewell, Whitelighter. And neither can she", added the throaty voice as Prue scrunched her petite face in concentration as she tried to shimmer away. When she couldn't do it, she began crying, not quite understanding what was going on. She only knew she couldn't go back to her Daddy and that these mean people were bad.
"You will not hurt her", Leo said, his eyes daring anyone to try and take Prue from him. No one did, but he did not feel safer because of that. "Do you really think we need your permission to do anything, Whitelighter? We gave you your wings, and just as easily we can take them from you".
It *was* an open threat but Leo couldn't care less. If it was his wings they wanted, they could have them. They weren't touching Prue, either way. "Take them. Still, Prue goes back with me. We have family down there, family we love".
The voice chuckled again, and Leo didn't feel as secure anymore. "You do? But do they love you back, Leo Wyatt?".
He frowned at that. "What do you mean?", he asked, Prue's little heart beating a thousand times a minute and thundering in his ears. Or maybe it was his own heart, he couldn't tell for sure. Everything was amplified in here where most inhabitants had no bodies, and his own human flesh was beginning to suffer the effects of excessive magic permeating the environment. That, and the pesky fog coiling at his feet like snakes.
Another robed figure (that as far as Leo could tell had not spoken until then) chose that moment to wave a hand about, and in a flash of light, a mirror appeared. Reflecting the swirling world around them, Leo found nothing special in the images it projected. But as he looked deeper, he found himself drawn into the tales of the future and the past, of that what was and that what was meant to be.
"Look into the Mirror of Time, Wyatt, and tell us if your family loves you as much as you say they do".
Leo could not look away even if he wanted to. The face of the mirror seemed to grow until all he could see was the glassy surface reflecting his own face back at him, eyes wary and demeanor tired, until the frames seemed to dissappear from sight. As the whirlwind of images came to a screeching halt, he made a move to cover his ears to muffle the howls coming from around him, but what he saw next made him stop.
He knew that room--- where had he seen it before? There was someone laying on a bed... a door opened, and a familiar figure walked in. "Piper?", he breathed, surprised that all of things, the mirror would show him the one thing he knew to be right in his messed-up life.
"I do not understand", he said, eyes never once wavering from the film-like scene developing in front of him. "Just watch and learn, Whitelighter. Watch and learn".
He watched Piper lay back against the closed door, and he noticed that the figure in the bed was Cole. But a much younger looking Cole, he realized, as he stood up and walked towards the window. There was no sound, but Piper's lips were moving and he knew they were talking.
Prue gurgled in recognition as Cole's face came into clear view, and Leo could not help but feel deep sorrow as in his eyes he noticed that far-away, hazed gaze of those whose hearts are slowly breaking. And then he realized this must've happened almost two years ago... the day he had dragged a feverish Cole through the manor's front door, and the day they had learned Phoebe had died.
"Dada!", said Prue, her chubby finger pointing at the mirror. Clapping her hands, she continued: "Paip-paip?", once again pointing at the glass, this time at Piper's downcast eyes and defeated stance. Leo shhed her with soft words: "Yeah honey. That's Cole and Piper".
He all but forgot about the robed figures around him as he watched, aghast, as Cole's arms came around Piper and hugged her close. When Piper tilted her head up and Cole's lips descended on hers, he could not look anymore. "No! It's a lie!", he cried out, trying to stop the sudden burst of jealousy from eating him whole.
"Stop it", he pleaded, the image of his wife and his friend passionately kissing ingrained in his mind and repeating itself over and over again. Because he was looking away, he never saw that when the couple parted, just as their foreheads touched and their breaths mingled, Piper mouthed his name. 'Leo', she had said, all those months ago... but he did not see it.
"To accuse the Mirror of Time of falsehood is more than heresy, Leo. And you also know we can not lie".
He knew it... oh, how well he knew it. The Mirror of Time only showed that which Was, and there was no power upon this world or the next that could change its pictures, just as there was no power that could change what had already happened.
{Piper}, he thought, almost like a prayer, {What have you done?}
On the Surface, Piper sneezed.
***********************
TBC....
To Evil Angel: okay, I didn't want to put this at the beggining because I know it'd spoil it for some people. I'm really sorry Prue wasn't enough to set Phoebe free, but hey, I've still got two years to write about!! The story can't end now, can it?
by Lilian.
lilian413@yahoo.com
AN: *Pout* Now where did all my faithful readers go? I guess I had it coming for keeping you guys on the edge for so long--- I understand if you've lost interest... I now *I* would've! I do hope that with this quick updates I might me able to catch your attention again!
To Jaki: in hopes you've still got some footwear. Any other clothing items look at you funny and you tell me, I'll speed up my updating! (edited to say: is this fast enough for you? *grin*)
To Kismet: thank you SO much!! I think I'm blushing...
Read on and enjoy!
***********************
"Phoebe!".
Cole's hurried cry was cut short as another fireball whizzed past him and he was forced to jump aside to avoid getting hit. In front of him, Phoebe only smiled, and that one curl of her lips sent shivers down Cole's spine.
"How many times do you need to hear it, love? Phoebe died a long time ago", she said, never once taking her eyes away from the stunned half-demon she had once loved. Or from the suddenly bawling baby in his arms. "The name is Phax now", she continued, calling forth two more fireballs and firing them in rapid succession at Leo and Cole. Both men jumped out of the way, Cole's movements slow and careful as he took great care in trying to soothe Prue while still keeping an eye on Phoebe.
"And I believe you have something of mine".
The hairs on the back of Cole's neck stiffened as he realized what she meant, and simply clutched Prue tighter to his chest. "Phoebe, this is Prue. Our Prue", he tried, desperately looking for a flicker of recognition in those black eyes of hers.
He found none.
She advanced on him, strangely calm in her actions as she laid eyes on the baby she had thought dead for such a long time. "Wrong, Belthazor. She was never yours". Her voice was cool and low, but Cole had learned to read her a long time ago and was not fooled. There *was* a stiffness to her as she spoke of their daughter--- a long forgotten regret, maybe?
Through the corner of his eye, he watched Leo scurry towards a still unconscious Piper and begin healing her. At least they were both safe, he told himself, suddenly feeling *very* exposed with Prue's weight in his arms. The baby cried and he longed to comfort her---
"Hand her over", said Phoebe, stretching out a hand towards him, a fireball sizzling in the other. And as Cole looked into her black eyes, he found none of the love he so desperately needed to see. Instead, a burning fire of anger, of hatred and grief, all wrapped around black magic that called to his own demon.
He had hoped Prue would be enough to shake the Source's hold off of Phoebe. He couldn't have been more wrong. Not only had Phoebe demanded he return their daughter to her, but she threatened to burn the house down with all of them inside if he didn't. As the last embers of hope in his heart began to die, he was forced to shimmer out of the way of an oncoming fireball.
Prue squealed in fear right in his ear and for a few seconds he was deaf to outside sounds. When he reappeared, behind Phoebe, he noticed she hadn't moved. And it irked him, that she was this confident in her abilities to let him shimmer behind her.
"I won't repeat myself. Do it, or die".
Her voice was freezing in its lack of feeling, and Cole did not answer. Instead, he cast a wayward glance at Leo and the whitelighter nodded at him, telling him Piper was okay. But still a bit dazed, he noted, watching as the young woman tried to sit up and ended falling into Leo's lap again.
"Phoebe, please! You have to listen to me!", he said, but Phoebe was much too occupied watching him watch Piper. For a split second he thought he saw a flash of sadness pass through those dark eyes of hers, but it was gone too fast for him to make sure.
"And still you put her above me, Belthazor. Seems absence has not made the heart grow fonder", she murmured, and stood still for a few heartbeats. She then shook her head to free it from such thoughts, and glared at Cole once again, her hatred renewed.
"You cannot believe that, Phoebe. I love you", he said, surprised at the easiness with which those three little words rolled from his throat. And then he found himself wondering if that was still true--- and to his despair, it was. He loved her, with his heart, with his soul-- he loved her like he had loved no other before, and her disappearance had only stalled the deep passion that now howled within him.
She laughed in his face, mirth dancing in her ebony pupils. "You do? How touching! And here I am serving the Source! My, why didn't you tell me this sooner, Belthazor? I would've seen the error of my ways and ran back into your arms a long time ago!".
He didn't know what hurt the most... her stinging words, or the sarcastic tone she used to speak them with. Maybe both, and the fact that she smiled all through her speech, clearly pleased with the devastating effect her words caused upon him.
Prue sobbed quietly against his shoulder, hiding herself from the world. And when Phoebe's eyes landed on the baby's small frame, a touch of tenderness lit up her stone features, and Cole was reminded of the woman he loved. And the embers of hope flared back into a roaring fire, as he realized that there was nothing in this world (magical or otherwise) that could defeat motherly love.
"She's alive... my little Prue".
The whisper came to him like a slap. Alive? Of course she was alive? Had Phoebe thought he would let their own daughter die? Had she lost that much faith in him?
Prue disentangled herself from Cole's shoulder, and turned to look at Phoebe, tears running down her chubby cheeks and her beautiful cobalt eyes clouded with pain: "Mama?", she whispered, and Cole's heart broke at the sheer pain in that single word. Phoebe did not answer, but anger had fled from her features and left an unreadable expression behind. The fires in her eyes dwindled down and she seemed almost--- soft when they looked back at Prue.
****************
In the Underworld, a small sphere of light exploded in blinding sparks, as Phoebe's soul reacted both to the sight of her daughter and the one word she thought she would never hear. Where it sat atop a pedestal, it began hovering above the scarlet cushion as its inherent power soared.
No less than a second later, the Source's form flamed into the room. And suddenly, the bright light didn't seem as bright anymore, and the shadows it had chased away began making their way back into the walls and corners of the chamber, feeling their master's presence.
"Going somewhere, little Witch?".
His voice was loud and dripping with amusement, and the globe changed colors as if answering.
"Of course I knew. I see everything, after all", said the Source, the darkness of his hood not parting at the brilliance coming from the sphere. Most unnatural, but there was nothing to be called 'natural' about the Lord of the Underworld.
His massive hand raised from his robes, and the skin shone red with the light of the torches. The soul withered under the shadow of his hand and the glow diminished, tired and spent.
"Now that is better, is it not?", cooed the Source, with a voice that was strangely soft. Pushing the hovering globe down was not hard, but it wasn't easy either. It resisted for a few seconds, finding the deep, hidden remnants of strength to fight back. But it could never win. Not against the Source, not when she was so very weak. In the end, when the Source's hand pushed it back down against the soft cushion, a long sigh echoed across the room, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. It was the sound of defeat.
"She is alive, Witch. Has been for all this time. Now spend your time wondering what Phax will do with her once she gets her".
He laughed, a despicable, horrifying laugh when the soul shone once again, angered. "Oh yes. She will soon return to me like she was meant to, and your last premonition will come true. And then I will have no more use for you, except maybe as a plaything".
The Source caressed the sphere of light almost lovingly, and it quickly changed colors from green to purple and to blue, as if disgusted.
Laughing, the Source flamed out, leaving a broken soul behind.
*********************
Cole had thought they had finally made contact. Phoebe had remained still for a few seconds, eyes blank, hands shivering... But then, chased away by demons of her own, Phoebe's eyes turned to ice and hardened to steel.
But Cole had seen it, he knew it was there: if only he could find a way to exploit that!
As he sought to find something, a speck of longing in her black eyes, he noticed a lack of life in them that hadn't been there before. When he had first seen her as this twisted version of the woman he loved, back in the alley, her eyes had all but shone with emotions, with feelings too strong to be kept bottled up inside. And when he had followed her into the caverns of the Underworld, she had reacted lashing out at him, desperate, emotional... and doubt had been there. She had almost reached out to him, almost taken his hand when he offered it to her. Cole had recognized the inner struggle, the biting of her bottom lip, the trembling of her voice as she ordered him to leave...
None of that was present now. It was as if she was an empty carcass, devoid of anything but hatred and anger and--- the veil closed and Cole was cast out. Panting for breath, he recovered his bearings and tried to make sense of what he had seen. But how could he, when he only had half of the puzzle? So many things didn't make sense!
"What happened to you?", he asked her, needing to know. Because if they knew, then they might be able to fix it. And he needed a place to start, and what better place than the beginning? If only Phoebe would tell him... if only she would open up to him, like she once had, they could most certainly work it out. Because he knew, in his heart of hearts that this was all just a huge misunderstanding!
Phax just looked at him for a few moments, unresponsive. So many possible answers... you happened to me, she wanted to say, you and fate. But he wasn't asking about that. He was asking about something else entirely. And then her face lit up in understanding: "Oh, you mean this?", she said, opening the first few buttons of her top and pushing it aside. The exposed skin of her upper left breast beckoned Cole's eyes, and there was not a single person in the room that did not notice the sudden hunger that raided his eyes at that particular sight.
Her palms a few inches apart, she framed a small portion of skin and concentrated. A small glitter appeared in the space in between her hands and the air rippled and changed. It was as if someone was slowly opening a drape, letting the first rays of sunshine into a darkened room. And then she groaned in pain, and the light flickered and died, and instead, they found themselves looking at a gaping hole where her heart should've been. Black and yawning like a beast awakening from slumber, when Phoebe let her hands fall it wavered and disappeared, leaving soft, perfect skin behind. But they had all seen it, and it was now ingrained in their memories with fire and brimstone.
"No", whispered Cole, feeling as if someone had suddenly pulled the floor from under him. And he really did feel as if he was falling, and only when the sudden impact of his knees against the debris covering the floor registered in his tired brain did he realize he had sunk to his knees.
"Oh yes, lover. He did it right after you left. After beating me within an inch of my life, of course".
Cole shook his head in denial. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be! But he had seen it: where a shinning light of purity should've shone, where the star that was her soul should've been, there was nothing but a hole. A hollow heart; if lacking a soul was not a heart anymore...
"Cole? What is that? Can somebody explain to me what's going on?". Piper's voice came from afar, almost as if they weren't even in the same room anymore. Cole felt his world crumbling down around him, falling into pieces and he could only watch mesmerized, as Phoebe released the hem of her top and let it fall back into place... and still, right on the edge where cloth met skin, Cole could see the swelling of her breasts and the place where her soul should've been.
"What's going on, big sis", began Phax, turning away from Cole and facing Leo and Piper with a grin that at any other time would've made hope flare in their hearts. Now, it only made her black eyes shine even higher, and her blood red lips framed her long canines, unfit for a mortal mouth but so very right in a demon's, "is that the Source has removed the one thing that stopped me from killing you. Which is why I'm here, by the way", she added as an afterthought, as if making clear that they were not going to leave this room alive.
Piper's brow wrinkled in confusion, and she squeezed Leo's hand for dear life. "Leo? What does she mean?", she asked, feeling the sudden hands of fear gripping at the edges of her consciousness. When Leo did not answer, she looked up into those beloved eyes of his, and what she saw in there made her shiver and tremble. Leo looked away before answering her.
"Her soul, Piper. The Source has removed her soul. He took the Good within her, and with it, what made her the Phoebe we knew".
Appalled, Piper turned away from her husband and towards the smiling woman standing amidst what was once known as their reception hall. "That's impossible", she breathed softly, leaning back into Leo's chest for support that for once, wasn't there. The whitelighter made no move to comfort his wife, and instead, he shed one tear for yet another charge of his that he had lost.
"As impossible as reincarnated witches and half-demons and dead angels? Come on, honey, are you trying to tell me you still don't believe in magic?".
Piper simply shook her head, refusing to believe. "No. Phoebe, I know you're still in there. Please, listen to me!". Her voice rose as she spoke, her frantic need to reach the unreachable getting almost too big to bear.
She was not going to believe it. Because it couldn't be true. Because if it was, that meant Phoebe was lost to them, and she was not loosing another sister. She wasn't. Phoebe was there, she just had to make her see!
Phoebe raised her hands. That single move made the small inverted triangle in her forearm come to life, and they watched fascinated as it seemed to snake around her skin with a life of its own. The brand of the Lord of the Underworld pulsed with magic of its own, the elven marking erasing the last traces of doubt Cole might've had.
"You are not her anymore, then". He rose on shaky legs to his full height, Prue's cries silenced now. He whispered a few words in Prue's ears, and the baby listened intently. Not more than a heartbeat later, she was shimmering away from Cole's arms and into Leo's awaiting hands.
"Take them both away, Leo. This is my fight, not yours".
Any and all protests from either Leo or Piper were silenced by the look Cole sent their way. Without arguing, Leo grabbed Piper's hand and orbed away. Piper shrieked, indignant and her cry mingled with Phoebe's as she watched her daughter (and prize) slip right through her fingers. Just a heartbeat before the orbing lights disappeared, Piper made her choice and threw herself out of the orb before it was completed, landing with a huff on the floor.
"Like hell it's your fight. She's *my* sister, damn it, and I'm sick of you and Leo thinking I can't defend myself!", she screamed at Cole, rising to her feet and flashing him a glare that would've sent other men cowering. But Cole was not any man (he wasn't even a *man*) and was not fazed. Instead, he lashed out at her. Worry made him angry, and anger made him mean: "PIPER! get out of here NOW! You won't last a second against her! She's too far gone for you to reach!".
Rather than listening to Cole (and common sense), Piper strode towards him purposefully, and with strength Cole did not know she had, slapped him. Hard. As his hand cradled his injured cheek, he turned wide eyes towards Piper, surprise dancing in his pupils. "Don't tell me what to do, Cole. I am a Charmed One, for God's sake. And I *will* bring her back, because I owe it to her!".
By some unspoken understanding between them, Cole knew Piper meant not only Phoebe, but Prue too. Piper owed it to Prue to protect Phoebe, and she had failed once at it. And she wasn't doing it again. As he opened his mouth to try and convince her to flee, he noticed her chocolate eyes brimming with unshed tears of frustration and anger, as the fate of her family once again hung in the balance and she was pushed away before she could do anything about it. Slowly, he closed his lips and swallowed the string of curses that threatened to spill from his throat, as he realized that there was nothing he (or anyone else for that matter) could do to dissuade Piper. Not when she was like this.
"Trouble in paradise? Don't stop because of me! By all means, take it all out! I'll just kill whoever is still standing afterwards".
The sharp words stung, and both Piper and Cole looked away from each other, the telltale signs of a blush spreading through their cheeks. That only served to inflame Phoebe's anger further, and with a cry of fury, she attacked them.
Or him, for that matter. Completely ignoring Piper, Phoebe jumped Cole and they rolled across the floor, neither noticing as splinters dug into their skin. Cole did not attack her. Instead, he settled for blocking her jabs and stopping her kicks, keeping one careful eye on the athame she sported on her hip.
He and Phoebe had sparred before. Before any of this personal hell of theirs had come to pass, back when their only worry was the Source, he had taken it upon himself to teach Phoebe some fighting moves. He had been impressed by her quick learning abilities, and at the natural talent she possessed for the Arts.
But the Phoebe that tackled him into the floor was a much different one. {She fights like a true demon}, he thought, blocking a fist that would've smashed his nose into his brain. Deadly speed, and she wasn't even breaking a sweat yet!
He had meant it when he said that this was his fight. If hadn't been for him, Phoebe would've never been captured. She would've never been turned into--- into *this*. And as Piper owed it to her big sister to protect what was left of her family, Cole felt obliged to give Piper the chance she wanted to try and reach Phoebe. And if all else failed, he would be the one to kill her: it was his mess, and he was the only one to fix it.
"Phoebe! Stop!".
She did not listen. Nor did she stop. Sending a vicious kick to his midsection, she made him double over in pain and landed an elbow on his now exposed back. As Cole went down with a grunt and Piper cried out his name, Phoebe only smiled.
"This is for me", she told him, continuing her assault, "for everything I gave you and you took without care". Cole was too stunned to react, torn in between protecting himself from the woman he loved and coming to terms with the fact that she wasn't that woman anymore. "You made me kill her, Cole", she continued, and his real name sounded like a mockery in her lips, not like the soft-spoken caress it had once been.
"I gave everything up for you", she said, and Piper watched horrified as Phoebe drew the athame in a perfect circular motion around her, slicing Cole's shirt and missing his skin by millimeters. "Everything", she punctuated, stopping in mid-turn to spare Piper a glance full of contempt. "It wasn't enough for you, was it? You wanted more. You wanted *her*".
Backed up against a wall, there was little Piper could do to defend herself as Phoebe closed in on her. Suddenly coming out of her stupor, she threw her hands in the air, and froze the room, taking extra care to keep Cole out of her range of action.
To their surprise, Phoebe did not stop.
Instead, she grinned widely, and they caught the spark of light coming off the mark on her arm as it swallowed and deflected Piper's power. "Did you really think I wouldn't come prepared this time? It only works once, sis. Just once".
Over Phoebe's shoulder, Piper saw Cole forming an electric bolt in his hands. Drawing her eyes away from him quickly, lest Phoebe followed them and notice it too, she began talking, trying to distract her sister and make her forget she had left Cole un-watched behind her.
"But Phoebe--- we can help you! Just let us in again--- whatever he did to you can be undone", she tried, meaning every word she said. If only Phoebe would let them, they might have a chance at removing the Source's influence from her, and return whatever it was he had extracted from her.
{Please, sis. Listen to me}.
In response, Phoebe shook her head. "Why should I? Do you know what it feels like to be free, Piper? What if feels like to not have to worry about anything but yourself? Why would I want to trade all this freedom for an eternity spent working for the Greater Good, which has brought me nothing but pain and heartache?".
Piper found herself at a loss of words. As Phoebe moved closer and closer, she found herself lost in her black eyes, drawn in by the alluring storms that brewed with her every word and seemed to break off with every step she took. "That's not true. You have us, Phoebe, and we love you".
Phoebe's harsh laugh was like a dagger to Piper's heart, and her hands hung limp at her sides, useless. Chances were, if Phoebe was able to divert her freezing power, her exploding power wouldn't do much good. And besides, even if it did, she could not (would not) use it on her sister.
"Love me? You never loved me. You only wanted him to yourself. Well guess what, honey, he isn't even *that* good".
Taken back by the bitterness in Phoebe's voice and completely confused by what she meant, Piper did not answer. Him? Cole? Did she mean Cole? But she and Cole were not an item--- they never were!
As a sudden clarity exploded in her brain like a light bulb going on in the darkness of the night, her eyes darted to Cole, who stood behind Phoebe, arm poised and ready to send the electric ball flying.
In his eyes, Piper found horror that mirrored her own.
{Oh my God...}
Because she was the only one looking in that direction, she was the only one who saw a tall form shimmer into the room, carrying a very fainted, very injured Paige in its arms.
"Now, now, Phax. You should know better than to leave your back exposed like this. One might think you *want* them to get you", it said, and then carelessly tossed Paige into the floor.
And then proceeded to give Cole a run for his money.
*******************
Leo didn't know where he was. All he knew was that Prue was with him and Piper was not.
As he had orbed out of the manor, he hadn't had any particular destination in mind, just the promise he had once made to Cole, the promise to keep Prue safe. But then Piper had jumped out of the orb, and was left behind.
And when he tried to orb back, he couldn't.
Something was keeping him in the orbing-limbo, and he was growing dizzier by the minute. Prue hadn't made a sound ever since they had left the manor, but she breathed evenly against his neck where she clung for dear life, so Leo was not worried.
Instead, he was worried sick about his wife and his friend, stranded back there in the Halliwell home while he orbed into limbo. Where they okay? Why had Piper refused to be orbed out of there? Were they injured? Hurt? Dead?
"Piper, please be okay", he muttered against Prue's hair, as he caressed her little head in attempt at calming her and himself. They had to be all right. They *had* to be.
Suddenly, the whole world stopped spinning around him and with a deafening rush of wind, they landed somewhere. Or fell. Or something. Leo was careful to keep Prue from harm, and as they rolled to a stop, he found the familiar knee-high mist clinging to his clothes like a second skin.
When the voice spoke, he didn't have to look up to know where he was. "Rise, Leo Wyatt. You have been brought upon Council".
He rose slowly, taking in his surroundings. Just as he remembered them to be. Clouded, dank and endless... clouds upon clouds and pillars and doorways leading into nowhere. For that was where the Elders resided, the place where all whitelighters went when they orbed for counsel or advise.
A place he had thought he would never see again.
He had been forbidden entrance into Heaven back when they had accepted Cole into their family, the Elders too horror-stricken by the blasphemy (as they called it) of the Charmed Ones welcoming a demon into their bosom, much less him working side by side with them. Leo had spent the next several months waiting for the disabling pain that came with the crippling of his angel wings. When it hadn't come, he had accepted the strange fact that even if the Elders frowned upon the fact he was mingling with demons enough to cast him off Heaven, he had retained his powers for good. Maybe the Halliwell predecessors had something to do with it, but as he looked up into the robed figures standing before him, he realized they might've just ran out of luck.
"Greetings, Leo. It has been far too long since you have visited us", said a second voice, and he turned around to find that not only did the hooded figures stand before him: they surrounded him. And he suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end, as he realized he was greatly outnumbered.
"I was informed I was no longer welcome here, Elder. I only followed the advice you gave me".
Someone in the creepy circle snorted disdainfully: "Really? Well that might be a first for you, Wyatt".
In his arms, Prue seemed to be curiously staring at the seven people around them, her wide blue eyes full of curiosity. When her examination proved useless, she turned to Leo and cooed: "Dada?".
Her voice sounded strangely low and childlike in the floor-less/ceiling-less room they now stood in, and Leo had to fight the urge to hide little Prue from their sight as all their heads turned to stare intently at the baby in his grasp. As he tried to soothe Prue with soft words in her ear, a loud voice interrupted the silence.
"Is this the child?", somebody asked, and Leo shivered unconsciously at the coldness within those words. He knew Prue was not supposed to exist: after all, the Elders had moved Heaven and Hell to keep Phoebe and Cole apart, just as they had done with Piper and himself. And even if they had finally (grudgingly) accepted the fact that a Charmed One was marrying (and bedding) a Whitelighter, it would rain flowers before they even considered accepting a Witch and a Demon. Even if said half-demon was a powerful Force of Good in his own right and probably saved more innocents daily that anyone else in business.
And Prue--- the small baby shouldn't even be alive! But she was alive, and in the very center of a Judgment Circle that frowned upon her very existence. And Leo did not like it one bit. The Elders saw that their mistakes never made it into the Upper ranks of Good, and if the looks they were getting were any indication, what they thought of doing to Prue was not only ugly but wrong.
"She bears the mark of both her parents. There is no doubt".
Whoever answered, Leo did not know, but he clutched Prue tighter. "What do you want from me?", he said, narrowing his eyes at them. He had a family to protect, and he was going to do it. Cole had asked him to protect Prue, and protect her he would. Even from those he had once called a family of his own. How wrong and misguided he had been...
"You are of no use to us, Wyatt. It is her we want".
A bony hand extended, and pointed straight at Prue. The baby looked at it for a few seconds, and then burrowed deeper into Leo's chest, trying to get away from it. "We come from battle, sir. Don't you have any compassion for such a young child?".
If he could only ensure her safety here, he could go back. Go back to the manor, and help Piper and Cole---
"And do what? You have no active powers for a reason, Whitelighter. You are only meant to heal and guide, not fight. The Halliwells lost their right for a whitelighter when they sided with that--- demon".
The last word was spoken with such venom that Leo took a step back. Were these the same people who had appeared in his dreams the night before he died, telling him of his greater future? Were these the same ones who held his hand in the battlefield as he died, helping him cross over and acquire his wings? They couldn't be... they couldn't be!
"He has not done Evil for a long time. By what right do you judge him?", he said, his voice rising and echoing around unseen walls over and over again, as they acted as amplifiers.
"By that given to us by the Higher Powers, Wyatt. And that Power wants her gone".
"NO!", he screamed, and tried to orb out. The power did not come to him, and a throaty chuckle came from his right. "You can not leave unless we bid you farewell, Whitelighter. And neither can she", added the throaty voice as Prue scrunched her petite face in concentration as she tried to shimmer away. When she couldn't do it, she began crying, not quite understanding what was going on. She only knew she couldn't go back to her Daddy and that these mean people were bad.
"You will not hurt her", Leo said, his eyes daring anyone to try and take Prue from him. No one did, but he did not feel safer because of that. "Do you really think we need your permission to do anything, Whitelighter? We gave you your wings, and just as easily we can take them from you".
It *was* an open threat but Leo couldn't care less. If it was his wings they wanted, they could have them. They weren't touching Prue, either way. "Take them. Still, Prue goes back with me. We have family down there, family we love".
The voice chuckled again, and Leo didn't feel as secure anymore. "You do? But do they love you back, Leo Wyatt?".
He frowned at that. "What do you mean?", he asked, Prue's little heart beating a thousand times a minute and thundering in his ears. Or maybe it was his own heart, he couldn't tell for sure. Everything was amplified in here where most inhabitants had no bodies, and his own human flesh was beginning to suffer the effects of excessive magic permeating the environment. That, and the pesky fog coiling at his feet like snakes.
Another robed figure (that as far as Leo could tell had not spoken until then) chose that moment to wave a hand about, and in a flash of light, a mirror appeared. Reflecting the swirling world around them, Leo found nothing special in the images it projected. But as he looked deeper, he found himself drawn into the tales of the future and the past, of that what was and that what was meant to be.
"Look into the Mirror of Time, Wyatt, and tell us if your family loves you as much as you say they do".
Leo could not look away even if he wanted to. The face of the mirror seemed to grow until all he could see was the glassy surface reflecting his own face back at him, eyes wary and demeanor tired, until the frames seemed to dissappear from sight. As the whirlwind of images came to a screeching halt, he made a move to cover his ears to muffle the howls coming from around him, but what he saw next made him stop.
He knew that room--- where had he seen it before? There was someone laying on a bed... a door opened, and a familiar figure walked in. "Piper?", he breathed, surprised that all of things, the mirror would show him the one thing he knew to be right in his messed-up life.
"I do not understand", he said, eyes never once wavering from the film-like scene developing in front of him. "Just watch and learn, Whitelighter. Watch and learn".
He watched Piper lay back against the closed door, and he noticed that the figure in the bed was Cole. But a much younger looking Cole, he realized, as he stood up and walked towards the window. There was no sound, but Piper's lips were moving and he knew they were talking.
Prue gurgled in recognition as Cole's face came into clear view, and Leo could not help but feel deep sorrow as in his eyes he noticed that far-away, hazed gaze of those whose hearts are slowly breaking. And then he realized this must've happened almost two years ago... the day he had dragged a feverish Cole through the manor's front door, and the day they had learned Phoebe had died.
"Dada!", said Prue, her chubby finger pointing at the mirror. Clapping her hands, she continued: "Paip-paip?", once again pointing at the glass, this time at Piper's downcast eyes and defeated stance. Leo shhed her with soft words: "Yeah honey. That's Cole and Piper".
He all but forgot about the robed figures around him as he watched, aghast, as Cole's arms came around Piper and hugged her close. When Piper tilted her head up and Cole's lips descended on hers, he could not look anymore. "No! It's a lie!", he cried out, trying to stop the sudden burst of jealousy from eating him whole.
"Stop it", he pleaded, the image of his wife and his friend passionately kissing ingrained in his mind and repeating itself over and over again. Because he was looking away, he never saw that when the couple parted, just as their foreheads touched and their breaths mingled, Piper mouthed his name. 'Leo', she had said, all those months ago... but he did not see it.
"To accuse the Mirror of Time of falsehood is more than heresy, Leo. And you also know we can not lie".
He knew it... oh, how well he knew it. The Mirror of Time only showed that which Was, and there was no power upon this world or the next that could change its pictures, just as there was no power that could change what had already happened.
{Piper}, he thought, almost like a prayer, {What have you done?}
On the Surface, Piper sneezed.
***********************
TBC....
To Evil Angel: okay, I didn't want to put this at the beggining because I know it'd spoil it for some people. I'm really sorry Prue wasn't enough to set Phoebe free, but hey, I've still got two years to write about!! The story can't end now, can it?
