"You have a specific person in mind," Esttai said, a statement, not a question. "Another example of their alleged behavior."
Cole nodded. "Yes." He hesitated, glancing at the Charmed Ones then quickly looking way.
"And this person is...?" Darban prompted impatiently.
"Myself," Cole admitted.
"You have got to be kidding me," Piper said, looking at Leo for confirmation.
"It explains a lot," Leo mused. "How he was able to alter reality -- Cole is an Avatar!"
Phoebe fluttered her hands at her sister and her husband. "Shhhh!" She leaned forward, intent on listening to Cole.
"Explain," Darban told Cole.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "After I was vanquished when I was possessed by the Source of All Evil, my human soul survived. I figured out how to escape the demonic wastelands. But when I returned to Ms. Halliwell, she rejected me. When I realized that I could not win her back, I made plans to leave San Francisco -- until Paige convinced me to stay and used a spell to show me Ms. Halliwell still cared for me."
Paige winced. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?" she said, looking guiltily at her sisters. "And, hey, it worked, or we'd be the Power of Two and a half-naked mermaid here." Now it was Phoebe's turn to wince.
"I...tried again," Cole went on, ignoring the conversation behind him. "I tried to give her room to deal with her feelings, hoping we would reconcile, but despite what she had said, she insisted I was evil and wanted nothing to do with me. When the Demon of Fear, Barbas, began tormenting me, she and her sisters would offer me no help. Well, Paige did, but she was sorely chastised by her sisters for it."
Esttai nodded in agreement with the last statement, and Paige felt a rush of vindication. But the judge also noted, "We see no evidence of any manipulation by the Avatars, demon. The failings of love do not excuse your behavior."
"True," Cole agreed. "But it was not these 'failings' alone that affected my behavior. I...started seeing and hearing Ms. Halliwell where she wasn't." He spoke slowly and carefully, as if reluctant to make this admission. "I would hear her voice or see her out of the corner of my eye. When I slept I'd hear her name whispered to me over and over again. Every night I dreamed of her. I did not know it then, but it was the Avatars. They took my desires and twisted them until they became an obsession. I killed to protect her. I killed to make her mine. The conflict between the man what I wanted to be and the Avatar's influence...made me go mad."
Cole took a few steps, moving into the Circle of Truth. "And then the Avatars came to me and offered me their powers."
An image appeared of Cole, unkempt and unshaven, speaking to two Avatars, their leader and another dark-skinned man. "I told you last night, leave me alone!" Cole said angrily.
"Last night, you crossed a line," the dark Avatar said. "The power inside you has grown."
His leader nodded in agreement. "You have nowhere else to turn...except to us."
Cole gritted his teeth. "I won't turn evil."
The Avatar leader moved closer to Cole. "Good and evil are such useless categories, endlessly embattled, neither side ever winning. It gets rather boring, don't you think?"
"Then what are you?" Cole asked.
"The Avatars," he responded.
Cole didn't seem impressed by the name. "Avatars of what?"
"Force and power," the leader said. "And we don't have to limit ourselves to choosing between good and evil. We can drive them both."
"What's that got to do with me?" Cole said suspiciously.
"We're only a few," the Avatar said, "but we are preparing to wield a power the likes of which this world has never seen."
"And we want you to be part of it," his partner added.
"Let me make myself clear," Cole growled. "I want nothing to do with you." He conjured energy balls, one in each hand, and threw them at the Avatars. The blasts had no effect on their targets much to Cole's surprise and chagrin.
"You can't fight us, Cole," the leader of the Avatars said. "It is futile to try. Sooner or later, you will join us. It is inevitable."
Cole stepped back out of the circle and the image faded. "I refused them at first. But their torment persisted. I loved Ms. Halliwell, yes, but now my every moment, waking and sleeping, became consumed with her due to the Avatar's actions. They knew Ms. Halliwell was my weakness, and they used that against me. They made it so I couldn't get her out of my head, and the only way to make the pain end was to possess her."
Phoebe was trembling now as she listened, and Piper put a comforting arm around her younger sister's shoulders. "Whatever happens here, we won't let him hurt you, I promise," she said.
"It's...it's not that," Phoebe whispered. "I just never realized..."
Meanwhile, Cole had moved back into the circle, letting another image play out. The Avatar leader spoke with the woman who had appeared in the memories pulled from Leo's mind. "His power is incredible," she said, "but are you certain about this course of action? Our interference has made him highly unstable and it will be difficult to control him."
The leader nodded. "The end result will be worth it. We need him if we are to remake the world. And he will give us the Charmed Ones."
She frowned. "How can you be sure, given the current animosity between him and Phoebe Halliwell? If he joins us, will she and her sisters not oppose us for simply that reason?"
"At first, yes," the leader admitted. "But the witch still loves him. And the promise of a life with him, free of demons and evil and danger...it will sway her to our side. And with her come her sisters and all their power."
"And we will be unstoppable," the female Avatar said, smiling now. "We will create our Utopia."
"Indeed our work has left Cole Turner very unstable," the lead Avatar continued. "His desires are very strong, and enflaming them as we have is dangerous. There is a chance we will destroy him with madness before we are able to convert him to our cause. But it is worth the risk, and I think it will not be long before he accepts our offer of power in order to possess the witch again. From there it is a simple matter of calming him and undoing the damage that we have done his mind so that we might utilize his power for our cause. And if we should we fail here, I do have a contingency plan to bring the Charmed Ones into our control."
The image dissolved as Cole left the circle again. He paused, closing his eyes as if to shut out the memories. "They knew...I would accept their offer to join them in order to make Ms. Halliwell mine. I fought it, but as powerful as I was, against them I was helpless. However, they erred in how far they pushed me into madness. I used the powers they gave me to create an impossible world and...well, here we are. And when they failed with me, they turned to Leo, knowing he would serve as a gateway to the Charmed Ones as I could not. They seized upon his vulnerability -- his family -- and exploited it until he had no choice but to join them as well. As to the charge of murdering a fellow Elder, it is ridiculous that this is even being brought up. Leo was being influenced by the Demon of Fear and was not truly in control of his actions."
"Further proof that an Elder should have no ties to the mortal world," Serris sneered.
"Leo did his job and did it well for years," Cole said evenly, "while involved with Piper Halliwell. If anything, his love for her made him more devoted to his task. I doubt you will find any Whitelighter could have done a better job than he at keeping the Charmed Ones alive and well. They would've died many times over were it not for him, and you know it. Do you wish me to waste our time and use the Circle of Truth to prove it?"
"Unnecessary," Briel spoke from the judges' dais. "We have heard all your words and will consider them. What remains now are the charges brought against the Charmed Ones themselves, and whether they should be stripped of their powers so that those more worthy to bear them might be found." She inclined her head toward the prosecution. "Present the charges."