First of all, thank you for wonderful reviews, they give me courage to write. I don't know what I would do without you!
Sorry, I quite forgot about some essential notes. Firstly, it is

Disclaimer: don't own anything from the show, Pat and plot are my only property.
... and secondly...

Summary: Cole's back from the Wasteland again, but this time it's not for Phoebe. The child that was vanquished in the 4th season was not a pure evil, her soul managed to survive and Cole brought her back to life. The whole Chris thing from the season 6 took place several years ago, but Chris didn't die. He became a whitelighter but the Elders forbade him to see the rest of the family. Leo's still an Elder and Piper's mad at him. Paige doesn't have a job, works as a whitelighter and auntie and sometimes likes to hunt demons. Phoebe's powers have returned, she has empathy, premonitions and levitation. The sisters still live in the Manor.
Enjoy and, please, don't forget to review, I need this badly!


…Having found himself in the Wasteland for the second time Cole Turner understood once and for all that he apparently was the Nature's worst mistake. Half-humans were not rare among demons but mostly their human part served only as a mask to hide their true nature; those endowed with a soul preferred not to roam about the Underworld - the human part didn't let their abilities develop properly and they usually ended up as petty criminals in the mortal world. He was an exception from the very beginning: not only hadn't his human half merged with Belthazor, but it also tried to fight the demon, and though each time Belthazor eventually managed to regain control, both parts were growing stronger. Despite this inner struggle he became one of the most powerful demons in the Underworld and more than once one gang or another tempted him to kill the Source and take the power. But he despised this scum and their machinations and chose the role of a skilled assassin along with a certain degree of freedom it provided. Belthazor and Cole had finally reached a kind of agreement: Belthazor killed when it was necessary to let Cole lead a human life in the rest of the time. And then the Triad hired him to kill the famous Charmed Ones.

In the next two years he seemed to live a whole lifetime fighting Belthazor, turning into a mortal, being possessed by the Source and then vanquished, becoming the first creature ever to escape from the Wasteland, going mad, joining the Avatars and finally being vanquished again. Only one thing gave Cole Turner the strength to carry on all along and that was his love for Phoebe. The love that was the reason for him to sacrifice everything - his status, his powers, even his life. The love that he believed to survive everything. He proved to be wrong. Cole didn't blame his ex-wife for rejecting and vanquishing him - he was mad or possessed and certainly presented a threat to her and her family… But it still tore his heart. Ex-demon, ex-human, ex-Source, ex-Avatar - who was Cole Turner now? He couldn't be a full human - the void in him would always yearn for powers; and neither was he able to return to demonic ways. Too much had changed in him in these two years.

But whoever he was, Cole was not going to stay in the Wasteland and wait for the beast to find him. As a demon and as a mortal, as the Source and as a dead man, he had always been a survivor, at least, when sane, and wasn't going to give up now. He couldn't imagine his life without Phoebe but if there were no way back he would move on. And then all of a sudden his life took a totally new turn.

To kill the beast Cole definitely needed a plan, and to think of a plan he needed a break from running. This meant he had to find a hiding-place. Most caves weren't safe being either discovered by the beast or inhabited by other loathsome creatures, and the ex-demon - or whoever he was now - approached the entrances very carefully, straining all five senses to feel danger before it was too late. But certainly the last thing he expected to hear in this God-forsaken desert was a baby's cry…
'Daddy!' For the second time this morning Cole was pulled out of his thoughts by Pat's slightly indignant voice. 'Weren't you listening to me!'
'Yes, surely I was,' however sleepy he might feel there was no excuse for a father not paying enough attention to his daughter. 'You know, it's a bit stuffy in here, let's go for a stroll and I'll be able to listen to you more attentively.'


…… A little sandy-haired boy surrounded by a blue protection sphere is standing in the center of a dimly lit room and crying. All of a sudden five columns of fire flare up and disappear leaving five men in long black robes who form a pentagram. The men start chanting and as their voices become louder the child stops crying. Smoke is filling the room, its tendrils reach the boy who seems to be falling into a kind of trance. The men are chanting and the child's eyes are becoming darker… But a cloud of blue orbs suddenly appears at the entrance and takes the shape of two men and three women. The women start saying a spell while one of the men rushes to the child and orbs him out. Before the enchanters have time to react flames envelop them and a powerful explosion shakes the cave……..

Axara opened her eyes. So, one more plan was doomed because of the damn whitelighter. She counted on the Elders' pertinacity and conservatism that should make them send Christopher Halliwell back to the twisted future despite all the good he had done. But, surprisingly, this time pigheads chose not to stick to their precious rules and let the out-of-time guy stay, although forbidding him any contact with his family. But as far as she could see the man would be able to find out about the plot and save his brother one more time. That just wasn't fair! A man that wasn't even supposed to exist in this timeline screwed up, one by one, all perfect plans to bring an extremely powerful player over to the side of evil.

She turned around. A tall hooded man met her gaze and slightly bowed.

'What have you seen, oh Seer?'
'Your failure.' Axara tried her best not to sound irritated. As a Seer she had to be cool and distant so that no one could suspect she took any interest in their schemes. Seeing the future was something none of demons had ever been able to harness so far and that's what gained her respect, or one may even say, reverence. Which was very useful for a wirepuller she was going to be.

'You plot will fail because of a certain whitelighter,' Axara stated looking straight at the man. 'Chris Halliwell. Get rid of him and most probably the plan will work out'
'Of course,' she mused silently as the hooded figure disappeared in the darkness of the passage. 'There is another way. According to the Prophecy two powers will decide the fate of the world and this means one of them is still to be found. But it's always better to play safe. So while I'm looking for the second chance why not help them to take the first.'


'Chris! Chris!' a ginger woman yelled angrily, her hands on her hips. She was standing in the middle of a small room that looked… It was difficult to find a comparison but perhaps a chemical laboratory after a particularly unsuccessful experiment would do. The woman was just about to give another yell when an athame appeared out of nowhere right in front of her. She let out a shriek but an invisible hand immediately pressed the athame to her throat.

'One move and you're dead' a low male voice whispered menacingly.

'What… What do you want?' she choked out.
'I could say I want your powers as usual but I feel kinda truthful today, so let's just say I need your whitelighter's head on the plate'
'He's coming,' another voice hissed.
'Then we doesn't need her anymore, right?'
And as blue orbs started forming a figure the woman's limp body fell onto the floor.
'Joanna!'

'Not so fast, whitelighter,' Chris quickly turned around to face the owner of the voice and the black arrow shot through the air behind his back. The whitelighter gasped and fell to his knees as a searing pain burned his chest. Blood started to spill from the wound and his head went dizzy. Chris heard his enemy's footsteps approaching and found himself staring at the lowered crossbow.

'Well, well, what a nice little trap, isn't it? You whitelighters are so predictable! I'd prefer to let you die slowly but unfortunately the special order was to make sure you're as dead as possible. So, I'm deeply sorry but I truly have to cut the fun short. Adieu!' the crossbow started to rise slowly. Suddenly the its owner let out a cry of pain. Chris barely had time to throw himself down on the floor as the darklighter exploded. The sound of the second blast told him that Joanna's death was also avenged.

Pain clouded his mind and Chris couldn't even bring himself to sit up. He felt somebody dragging him up from the floor and taking to the sofa. In a moment of relief the young Halliwell opened his eyes and would have felt utter surprise if a new surge of pain hadn't overcome him.

'Uncle Cole…' he only managed to whisper. And everything went black.


'Piper! Paige! I'm home!' Phoebe called slamming the front door.
'We're in the kitchen!' Paige sounded a bit over-enthusiastic and on entering the kitchen Phoebe realized why. The kitchen table was crammed with tens of potion bottles and at the moment her eldest sister was busy cooling a pot of another acrid-smelling liquid.
'Wow! Are we going to war?' Phoebe asked cautiously.
'In case you haven't noticed yet we're living in it,' Piper answered matter-of-factly. 'And another bomb is ready for a demon fascist that may dare to assault us.'
'Why do you think we'll need all this?'
'And who says we won't? Phoebe, I can't remember the last time we had a free-demon week off or a normal anniversary. And Paige's birthday's in a week that's why we'll most probably be busy soon.' Her voice began to ring with tension. 'And considering the information about the new power and the fact that we don't have any clue on how to find it...'
'Wait,' Phoebe caught the opportunity to stop the outburst. 'What power? Did I miss something?'
'We had a certain visitor this morning,' Paige explained giving Piper a sidelong glance. 'And he said that Up There they sensed a really 'gifted' person coming into power. So we have to find the guy, check if he's good or evil and act according to the situation, that means guide him if he's good and vanquish if he's evil. But the problem is we don't have a slightest idea on how to find him.'
'Have you tried scrying?'
Paige shrugged.
'What's the use of it if we don't even know what sort of powers the guy has? And to look for any source of power in San Francisco…'

'…means searching for a black cat in a dark basement. I got it. And what does the Book say?'
'Absolutely nothing.' Chris' cry interrupted Paige. 'Oh, I'll get him.'

Phoebe opened her mouth but before she could say anything Paige was gone. For a few seconds the witch desperately wished she had Prue's power of telekinesis to drag her sister back to the kitchen but then plucked up all of her courage and turned to Piper. The eldest Halliwell was looking through the Book of Shadows, apparently in the search of another recipe.

'Piper, honey, calm down. You can't make a potion for every possible demon and the Manor is protected from shimmering and blurring. Besides, your children need a mother.'

But once Piper made up her mind it was hard to stop her. 'First of all, my children need to be safe.'

'That's why you have to calm down because you're not thinking clearly. To make this world better for Wyatt and Chris we have to find this person Elders were talking about, and to find this person we need all of our strength and knowledge.'

'Phoebe, what are you talking about? We don't know anything about him, anything, do you understand? And what if evil finds him first? What if he's already evil?'

'Well, maybe I will have a premonition…' Phoebe started hesitatingly and suddenly stopped. Her eyes widened. 'Wait. I have a brilliant idea. That's it!'

'Care to explain?' Piper couldn't help feeling interested despite herself.

'Prophecies. If this person is really so strong then there must be some sort of prophecy about him. Remember, our arrival was predicted and so was Wyatt's. I don't believe this guy could have slipped out.' Phoebe started pacing around the kitchen. 'Paige and I will go to the Magical School and look what we can find there and you…' she stopped and pointed at her sister, '…will put away all this stuff before someone pushes the table and our kitchen turns into debris'

'Okay,' for the first time since the beginning of the conversation Piper smiled. 'You're right, maybe I'm really overreacting. We may have a chance after all.'