Chapter 4-Deception
Late that night The Charmed Ones were sitting in the room that Wolfram and Hart put them up in and talking about the coming battle and the past as well. "Cole is back, how do you feel about that." Paige asked Phoebe. "I don't know how to feel... I mean it's strange that it took his death for me to see that actually at one point he wanted to be a good guy." Phoebe reacted with a sigh. "Well you guys go ahead and lead the parade of pain." Paige said walking towards the bathroom, "I'm going to take a shower." The remaining two sisters looked at the door as she walked through then back to each other. "You know she always had it in for Cole in the first place." Piper said narrowing her eyes to look at Phoebe. "Yeah I know at least Prue gave him a tiny chance." Phoebe said looking back at the seat that used to seat Paige. "She wont be very happy when we start training tomorrow since we have to work with Spike." Piper said. Then a new voice joining the conversation spoke up. "You know it's been a while but you really should be able to tell when your sister is sitting around eavesdropping on you." The two of them looked over to see Prue standing there translucent with her arms folded. "Prue!" Phoebe screamed and ran to her trying to hug her. "Um I'm all ghostly I don't think hugging is in tonight's agenda." Prue said. "So big sis coming home to help us out now is she? How come you never visit?" Piper said smiling. "Well this isn't the right time to talk about that. You have to drop out of this fight. If you don't you will die. This isn't supposed to go like this you shouldn't have to do this for him." Prue said looking at the two of them. "No we won't were ready for this we wont lose if we do there is no chance for human kind as we know it." Piper said looking at her to see her reaction. "The first has its force, I know that you don't know what your up against but I do!" Prue yelled. "How'd you get here?" Phoebe asked bluntly. "What?" Prue asked confused. "How did you get here? None of us summoned you here so how did you get here." Phoebe asked again. "I broke a few rules." She said in response. "Really so you just showed up to tell us to turn and run?" Piper asked. "No, i'm here to warn you off." Prue said looking at them sideways. After she finished her sentence there came a knock at the door."It's open!" Piper yelled as James followed by Angel, Spike, and Cole entered. "Thought you could influence my fighters?" James said to Prue. "Oh but I was just about to go into this speech about how sisters have to look out for each other." Prue said patronizingly. "Get out..." Phoebe this time. "Yeah go! I'm not going to be tricked into thinking that you're my sister." Piper yelled while her eyes watered. "Oh well. It was worth a shot." The First said rolling her/it's eyes. "I think you need to go now." Phoebe said folding her arms. "Fine I'll go but first." It/she said walking towards Angel and Spike. "I'll be watching you." It said morphing into Jenny Calendar. "You should have just killed Buffy when I told you to then I wouldn't have to fight with you over it." The first stated as it disappeared. "Hold on, 1,2,3,4,5. Where's Paige?" Spike asked. "In there." Piper said pointing at the bathroom. "Aw I'll just go check on her you know make sure she's alright." He said moving to and opening the door. "No that's the bathroom!"Phoebe yelled. "Ahhh!!!" Paige yelled. "Vase!" Paige summoned the vase to his head. "Ow, oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to." He said falling outside. "He ha he ha ha haha." James laughed falling over. "That has got to be the stupidest thing you have ever done." Angel said grabbing him and dragging him to the front table. Then came a voice from behind the bathroom door. "I'll be out in a minute I have to put on a robe." Paige's said. "Alright I wanted to gather everyone to explain more rules." James said hurriedly. "Alright I'll be right out." Paige said. Moments later Paige walked out in a red robe and her wet hair up in a ponytail. "The First just paid a little visit to the two of us." Piper said looking semi- disturbed. "What do you mean I thought it didn't have a body." Paige said alarmed. "It doesn't matter it doesn't need a body. The first can take the form of any dead person it wants." James explained. "What? Who was it?" Paige asked already expecting the answer. "It was Prue." Phoebe said quietly. Cole started to pace and look around at all the faces that he once knew very well. Do you still love her? James asked him using his mind. "Yes." He answered out loud. Phoebe looked at him and asked, "Yes what?" "Nothing I... nothing." Cole stated quickly. Phoebe looked at him suspiciously then back to James. "So the meeting is about what?" Phoebe asked him. "Right, the rules of engagement." James said getting back to business. "First of all, there is only going to be one on one fights with the rest watching from limbo, you will only be transferred to the same plain when it is time for you to battle." He started. "Second, there is no limit to the what you use, nothing is unfair or out of line." "Also the First will most likely have some of the most powerful evil beings that have ever lived, or died..." James trailed off. "So even if they're dead it will still be allowed to use them." Angel asked thinking to himself. "Yes and they might not even be evil they could just be dead and under The Firsts power." James said. "How does it know who your fighters are but you don't know theirs?" Phoebe asked with her arms folded. "The first has a much broader frame of reference than I do there is a lot of pure evil in the world." James said as though that settled it. ""Don't you have a way of figuring it out?" Piper asked. "I have some spies that give me as much info as possible but nothing conclusive, besides I haven't been up their to collect my new info that is probably sitting on my desk right now." James stated looking up into the air. "Go get them the sooner we know what were dealing with the sooner my people can start their research." Angel said darkly. "I'll go in a while I still need to make you all understand the rules." James said looking at them all. "What are the rest of them?" Paige asked. "No interference..." James said sadly. "So if one of us is fighting the others can't help, even if they are about to die?" Piper asked. "Exactly no matter what you can't stop the match for any reason." James answered. "Now I think it's time to start training." Cole interjected. "Yes, you should, I think you need to form groups of two for practice." James suggested. "That might work, but how will we train?" Spike asked. "Just spar, fight hard but don't kill each other." James said as he disappeared into the sky with the blue orbs surrounding him. "Now who wants to be my partner?" Spike said leaning against Paige's chair and smiling. "Get off me, you know I really do hate you! " Paige yelled standing and walking away from him. "She still wants me." Spike said smiling. "Yeah, right... I think we need to just go random names from a hat." Cole stated looking for something to use. "Alright I guess that will work." Piper said sounding tired. "Can't we start that tomorrow though were all pretty tired?" Phoebe said groggily. "How about we choose the training teams tonight and start tomorrow." Angel ventured. "Let's do that I'm bored." Spike said. Paige walked out to the door and looked out the hallway, seeing a man wearing a hat she called for the hat. "Hat." The hat orbed to her and she put it on the table. "Now paper anybody have paper." Piper asked. "Let me see here..." Angel said reaching for his cell phone. "Harmony can you bring some paper up to the guest room?" Angel said into his phone. "She's on her way." He assured them. Moments after he said it they heard a knock on the door. Upon opening it they found that Harmony had run straight there from her desk to get there as quickly as possible. "Here you go boss." Harmony said handing Angel the stack of paper. "Thank you Harmony that will be all." Angel said dismissively. "Alright good night boss." She said smiling and walking away. "O.K. Now we can choose our training partners." Cole stated looking at the hat. "Names are going into the hat now." Spike yelled to get everyone's attention. The names were placed into the hat and the hat shaken as two of the names came out into Angel's hands. "Piper, and hold on I'm having a little bit of trouble opening this one, oh and that's me." Angel said. Piper looked at Paige and then to Phoebe. "Alright, we can start tomorrow morning." Piper said to him. "That's fine with me, you know I'll be good once I've had my blood." Angel said reaching into the hat again. "Oh? It looks like me and you baby cakes." Spike said walking over to Paige and putting his arm around her shoulders. "Now we know the only other two people left in the hat so I guess it's me and Cole..." Phoebe said looking at him. "We can trade if you want..." Paige volunteered. "No I think I can be a little more mature about dealing with my ex than you will be dealing with yours." Phoebe said looking at Spike with his arm still around her. "In the morning we will start our training" Angel said walking to Spike and dragging him to the door. "No wait maybe I should stay here in case you know the first comes back!" Spike said trying to go back towards Paige. "And do what kick it's translucent ass?" Angel asked him throwing him into the hall. "Don't listen to him he's just grumpy, he got turned into a wee little puppet man." Spike said winking at the girls as the door closed behind them. "I'll just go..."Cole stated closing his eyes to shimmer. "No wait!" Phoebe yelled out. "Stay here I want to talk to you, alone..."She added looking at Paige and Piper. "Alright, alright." Piper said as they both walked away Paige took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and went to her room. "So, you're a good guy now?" Phoebe asked him skeptically. "Yeah, have been ever since I fell in love with you." Cole said. "No you weren't, remember you became the source of all evil." Phoebe said looking at him. "I thought we covered all this before you killed me the second time." Cole said. "James said that you help people now." Phoebe stated looking at him in angry. "Well I do. "Cole answered. "How can you sit here and tell me that when you tried to kill me so many times? Plus your using demonic powers again!" She yelled in his face. "You know I'm not that bad you are just angry because seeing me confuses you." Cole said calmly looking her dead in the eye. "I don't remember when you started to tell people how they feel, but that's my job now!" She yelled. "Now get out of my room!" Phoebe yelled. "I'll do that." Cole said walking for the door. "I'll be by in the morning to start training." Cole said as he walked out. "Paige!" Phoebe yelled. "Yeah? What do you need?" Paige yelled from inside her room. "What are you doing in there I hear talking..." Phoebe said opening her door. As the door opened Phoebe slammed down the phone and crumpled the piece of paper and threw it into the garbage by the side table. "Busy?" Phoebe said. "No not at all, just going to bed now." Paige said. "Right sure good-night." Phoebe said walking out and to her own room.
Late that night The Charmed Ones were sitting in the room that Wolfram and Hart put them up in and talking about the coming battle and the past as well. "Cole is back, how do you feel about that." Paige asked Phoebe. "I don't know how to feel... I mean it's strange that it took his death for me to see that actually at one point he wanted to be a good guy." Phoebe reacted with a sigh. "Well you guys go ahead and lead the parade of pain." Paige said walking towards the bathroom, "I'm going to take a shower." The remaining two sisters looked at the door as she walked through then back to each other. "You know she always had it in for Cole in the first place." Piper said narrowing her eyes to look at Phoebe. "Yeah I know at least Prue gave him a tiny chance." Phoebe said looking back at the seat that used to seat Paige. "She wont be very happy when we start training tomorrow since we have to work with Spike." Piper said. Then a new voice joining the conversation spoke up. "You know it's been a while but you really should be able to tell when your sister is sitting around eavesdropping on you." The two of them looked over to see Prue standing there translucent with her arms folded. "Prue!" Phoebe screamed and ran to her trying to hug her. "Um I'm all ghostly I don't think hugging is in tonight's agenda." Prue said. "So big sis coming home to help us out now is she? How come you never visit?" Piper said smiling. "Well this isn't the right time to talk about that. You have to drop out of this fight. If you don't you will die. This isn't supposed to go like this you shouldn't have to do this for him." Prue said looking at the two of them. "No we won't were ready for this we wont lose if we do there is no chance for human kind as we know it." Piper said looking at her to see her reaction. "The first has its force, I know that you don't know what your up against but I do!" Prue yelled. "How'd you get here?" Phoebe asked bluntly. "What?" Prue asked confused. "How did you get here? None of us summoned you here so how did you get here." Phoebe asked again. "I broke a few rules." She said in response. "Really so you just showed up to tell us to turn and run?" Piper asked. "No, i'm here to warn you off." Prue said looking at them sideways. After she finished her sentence there came a knock at the door."It's open!" Piper yelled as James followed by Angel, Spike, and Cole entered. "Thought you could influence my fighters?" James said to Prue. "Oh but I was just about to go into this speech about how sisters have to look out for each other." Prue said patronizingly. "Get out..." Phoebe this time. "Yeah go! I'm not going to be tricked into thinking that you're my sister." Piper yelled while her eyes watered. "Oh well. It was worth a shot." The First said rolling her/it's eyes. "I think you need to go now." Phoebe said folding her arms. "Fine I'll go but first." It/she said walking towards Angel and Spike. "I'll be watching you." It said morphing into Jenny Calendar. "You should have just killed Buffy when I told you to then I wouldn't have to fight with you over it." The first stated as it disappeared. "Hold on, 1,2,3,4,5. Where's Paige?" Spike asked. "In there." Piper said pointing at the bathroom. "Aw I'll just go check on her you know make sure she's alright." He said moving to and opening the door. "No that's the bathroom!"Phoebe yelled. "Ahhh!!!" Paige yelled. "Vase!" Paige summoned the vase to his head. "Ow, oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to." He said falling outside. "He ha he ha ha haha." James laughed falling over. "That has got to be the stupidest thing you have ever done." Angel said grabbing him and dragging him to the front table. Then came a voice from behind the bathroom door. "I'll be out in a minute I have to put on a robe." Paige's said. "Alright I wanted to gather everyone to explain more rules." James said hurriedly. "Alright I'll be right out." Paige said. Moments later Paige walked out in a red robe and her wet hair up in a ponytail. "The First just paid a little visit to the two of us." Piper said looking semi- disturbed. "What do you mean I thought it didn't have a body." Paige said alarmed. "It doesn't matter it doesn't need a body. The first can take the form of any dead person it wants." James explained. "What? Who was it?" Paige asked already expecting the answer. "It was Prue." Phoebe said quietly. Cole started to pace and look around at all the faces that he once knew very well. Do you still love her? James asked him using his mind. "Yes." He answered out loud. Phoebe looked at him and asked, "Yes what?" "Nothing I... nothing." Cole stated quickly. Phoebe looked at him suspiciously then back to James. "So the meeting is about what?" Phoebe asked him. "Right, the rules of engagement." James said getting back to business. "First of all, there is only going to be one on one fights with the rest watching from limbo, you will only be transferred to the same plain when it is time for you to battle." He started. "Second, there is no limit to the what you use, nothing is unfair or out of line." "Also the First will most likely have some of the most powerful evil beings that have ever lived, or died..." James trailed off. "So even if they're dead it will still be allowed to use them." Angel asked thinking to himself. "Yes and they might not even be evil they could just be dead and under The Firsts power." James said. "How does it know who your fighters are but you don't know theirs?" Phoebe asked with her arms folded. "The first has a much broader frame of reference than I do there is a lot of pure evil in the world." James said as though that settled it. ""Don't you have a way of figuring it out?" Piper asked. "I have some spies that give me as much info as possible but nothing conclusive, besides I haven't been up their to collect my new info that is probably sitting on my desk right now." James stated looking up into the air. "Go get them the sooner we know what were dealing with the sooner my people can start their research." Angel said darkly. "I'll go in a while I still need to make you all understand the rules." James said looking at them all. "What are the rest of them?" Paige asked. "No interference..." James said sadly. "So if one of us is fighting the others can't help, even if they are about to die?" Piper asked. "Exactly no matter what you can't stop the match for any reason." James answered. "Now I think it's time to start training." Cole interjected. "Yes, you should, I think you need to form groups of two for practice." James suggested. "That might work, but how will we train?" Spike asked. "Just spar, fight hard but don't kill each other." James said as he disappeared into the sky with the blue orbs surrounding him. "Now who wants to be my partner?" Spike said leaning against Paige's chair and smiling. "Get off me, you know I really do hate you! " Paige yelled standing and walking away from him. "She still wants me." Spike said smiling. "Yeah, right... I think we need to just go random names from a hat." Cole stated looking for something to use. "Alright I guess that will work." Piper said sounding tired. "Can't we start that tomorrow though were all pretty tired?" Phoebe said groggily. "How about we choose the training teams tonight and start tomorrow." Angel ventured. "Let's do that I'm bored." Spike said. Paige walked out to the door and looked out the hallway, seeing a man wearing a hat she called for the hat. "Hat." The hat orbed to her and she put it on the table. "Now paper anybody have paper." Piper asked. "Let me see here..." Angel said reaching for his cell phone. "Harmony can you bring some paper up to the guest room?" Angel said into his phone. "She's on her way." He assured them. Moments after he said it they heard a knock on the door. Upon opening it they found that Harmony had run straight there from her desk to get there as quickly as possible. "Here you go boss." Harmony said handing Angel the stack of paper. "Thank you Harmony that will be all." Angel said dismissively. "Alright good night boss." She said smiling and walking away. "O.K. Now we can choose our training partners." Cole stated looking at the hat. "Names are going into the hat now." Spike yelled to get everyone's attention. The names were placed into the hat and the hat shaken as two of the names came out into Angel's hands. "Piper, and hold on I'm having a little bit of trouble opening this one, oh and that's me." Angel said. Piper looked at Paige and then to Phoebe. "Alright, we can start tomorrow morning." Piper said to him. "That's fine with me, you know I'll be good once I've had my blood." Angel said reaching into the hat again. "Oh? It looks like me and you baby cakes." Spike said walking over to Paige and putting his arm around her shoulders. "Now we know the only other two people left in the hat so I guess it's me and Cole..." Phoebe said looking at him. "We can trade if you want..." Paige volunteered. "No I think I can be a little more mature about dealing with my ex than you will be dealing with yours." Phoebe said looking at Spike with his arm still around her. "In the morning we will start our training" Angel said walking to Spike and dragging him to the door. "No wait maybe I should stay here in case you know the first comes back!" Spike said trying to go back towards Paige. "And do what kick it's translucent ass?" Angel asked him throwing him into the hall. "Don't listen to him he's just grumpy, he got turned into a wee little puppet man." Spike said winking at the girls as the door closed behind them. "I'll just go..."Cole stated closing his eyes to shimmer. "No wait!" Phoebe yelled out. "Stay here I want to talk to you, alone..."She added looking at Paige and Piper. "Alright, alright." Piper said as they both walked away Paige took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and went to her room. "So, you're a good guy now?" Phoebe asked him skeptically. "Yeah, have been ever since I fell in love with you." Cole said. "No you weren't, remember you became the source of all evil." Phoebe said looking at him. "I thought we covered all this before you killed me the second time." Cole said. "James said that you help people now." Phoebe stated looking at him in angry. "Well I do. "Cole answered. "How can you sit here and tell me that when you tried to kill me so many times? Plus your using demonic powers again!" She yelled in his face. "You know I'm not that bad you are just angry because seeing me confuses you." Cole said calmly looking her dead in the eye. "I don't remember when you started to tell people how they feel, but that's my job now!" She yelled. "Now get out of my room!" Phoebe yelled. "I'll do that." Cole said walking for the door. "I'll be by in the morning to start training." Cole said as he walked out. "Paige!" Phoebe yelled. "Yeah? What do you need?" Paige yelled from inside her room. "What are you doing in there I hear talking..." Phoebe said opening her door. As the door opened Phoebe slammed down the phone and crumpled the piece of paper and threw it into the garbage by the side table. "Busy?" Phoebe said. "No not at all, just going to bed now." Paige said. "Right sure good-night." Phoebe said walking out and to her own room.