Thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews! They really increase my inspiration to write more. I'm not going to ramble a whole story here, because you probably want to read some explanations. If you have any questions, just ask them and I'll answer them (if they aren't already going to be answered in the following chapters)
"Cole?" Paige asked.
Phoebe ignored Paige and looked hard at the face of the transformed demon who wasn't who she had expected to be. The man under the piano gave a cry, showing his pain. Paige stepped back with a frightened expression on her face when she heard this sound. The demon kept silent for a moment, forgetting his pain and realizing his powers. He shimmered with a grin on his face. Prue looked disgusted at the spot where only a piano remained.
"He'll be back," Prue warned, putting the piano back in place.
Phoebe was still astonished by the unknown identity of the demon. She had been so sure it was Cole. But now that he wasn't, how could there be someone else who was Belthazor? She remembered Sikes who had imitated Belthazor, but this was different. This Belthazor looked exactly as the Belthazor Cole was, as opposed to the imitation of Sikes.
Another idea popped into her head. Maybe it was one of Cole's grandchildren or great-grandchildren. That could be a possibility. The image of Cole having a happily family with someone else besides her made her stomach turn. There was only way to find out, she had to summon Cole to find out if he really was dead in this world.
"Who's Cole?" Paige insisted now her question still hadn't been answered.
"Your demonic ex-brother-in-law you hate," Phoebe mumbled.
"Huh?"
"Nothing, I think... I have to summon someone. Where are the candles?"
Paige pointed to the left where a basement was. Prue gave an angry gaze at her younger sisters.
"We're not going to use our powers unless there's no other option," She exclaimed.
"But... " Phoebe protested. The resoluteness of Prue surprized her.
"Phoebe, we had this conversation before and we decided to... " Prue said and put her hands on the shoulders of Phoebe to make her words more powerful.
The touch of Prue's hands made Phoebe shake and before she knew it she landed in another premonition. She recognized herself and Prue. The words they were saying became little by little understandable. "It's my fault, Phoebe. You two are my responsibility and I failed to save Piper," She heard Prue say. She saw herself crushed sitting at the foot of the stairs with tears in her eyes. "We're moving as soon as possible. We can't stay here in this house where Piper... " Prue closed her eyes, unable to say the words aloud. "Useless magic, we can't even bring our sister back," Prue began to complain, throwing a table and a painting with her powers. All that Phoebe could do was nodding and letting her tears course down her cheeks.
"Do you understand?" Prue asked with a threatening tone in her voice.
Phoebe came out of her premonition, back to reality where Prue was standing in front of her. She looked at her older sister and she understood her behaviour. Prue had always felt like the protector of Piper and Phoebe. Prue had blamed herself and magic for Piper's death.
"No, it's something you decided. I'll use magic whenever I want," She yelled to Prue, getting lose from her grip.
Prue looked astonished and dissapointed at the same time. Paige was watching with her mouth open, not knowing what to do in this situation.
"If that's what you want, you're on your own," Prue stated calmly. She grabbed her coat and stormed out of their house.
Phoebe tried to ignore the feeling of guilt hurting her sister. She brought her attention back to her plan to summon Cole and walked to the basement. Phoebe brought her hand to hear forehead when she saw that the room was filled with removal-boxes. How was she going to find candles in here? It wasn't till Phoebe heard some noise behind her she noticed Paige had followed her, curious to see what her sister was up to.
"It's something I've got to do alone."
"Fine, I have better things to do anyway," Paige said before she left as a mocking child.
Phoebe sighed, getting both of her sisters mad wasn't an achievement she was proud of. A moment after Paige had left the basement, candles and the Book of Shadows flew out of a box. The leaves of the Books of Shadows turned over wildly until they stopped at the page to summon someone. Phoebe looked surprized at all the things she needed. She smiled, realizing grams was helpful in this world as well. After she had lit the candles and said the spell a vague figure appeared. Phoebe looked amazed at the spirit who didn't look much different than the boy she had seen this morning. His hair was a bit messier and he seemed to have grown at least 10 centimeters.
"You're a... child," She stammered.
The pale boy watched closely at the woman standing in front of him. Why would she summon him? She looked familiar to him like he had seen her before.
"I died when I was 14, I know, it sucks."
"It sucks?"
"Yeah... I learned some words from other children up here," The ghost of Cole said looking up for a moment.
"The demon here... Belthazor... you're supposed to be him, not someone else."
"Belthazor?"
"You know... red, evil man," Phoebe tried to explain.
"He is... was my brother."
"What?"
"He... eh kind of killed me," He said fast, hoping it would sound less horrible if the words quickly slipped away. You never knew with those mortals how much they could take. Some of them were already scared by thinking about their own death. To his relief he saw that the woman who summoned him was surprized, but didn't look like she wanted to scream and run away as fast as she could.
"But how can he be Belthazor?" Phoebe asked, absorbing all the unbelievable things she heard today.
"I don't know. That's just the way it always has been."
Phoebe kept silent for a moment to think. Did Cole have a real brother in her other life? She hadn't seen other children in the past when she had been there with Cole today.
"He's your older brother?" She asked.
"No, he is 8 years younger than me... it's kind of embarrasing he killed me."
She gave him a slight disquieting look. She had talked to ghosts more than once, but she always felt akward when they talked about their death. And the sentence 'it's kind of embarrasing he killed me' she never had heard before.
Phoebe thought back at the words Cole had said earlier this day. "They probably came for my powers... shimmered with my mother... killed my father." In this world where Cole didn't have powers the demons probably never had attacked him and his father wasn't killed. And in this world he had a brother who was 8 years younger. That would mean... that the parents of Cole in this life had gotten a second son who got the same powers as Cole used to have. It explained why there was another Belthazor here. Everything fell in his place.
"I've got to go back," Phoebe decided.
So much was changed in her life now Cole wasn't here. Everyone was so sad here. Piper and Leo were dead, they would never have children, Prue blamed herself for the death of Piper, Paige wanted to use magic now she found out she was a witch, but felt guilty after using her powers and then there was herself... she didn't know if she was a happy person in this life, probably not. Losing her sister and brother-in-law, seeing how unhappy her sisters were.
She had to go back to the moment when Cole had stripped his own powers. Back to her normal life, when Piper and Leo, although they argued a lot, were happy and Paige experimented with magic as much as she could. Back to being the Phoebe she knew she was, who was unhappy in love in her normal life as well. But it always would be better to have lost the love of your life than never even had seen him.
But how could she get back? What if she was stuck? What if she was destined to life in this world?
"Back to what? Maybe I can help you?" The young ghost asked, noticing the fear that had filled the eyes of the woman.
"I have to prevent a mistake... someone made a mistake," Phoebe explained, knowing that the ghost she was talking to was the one who had the mistake. How could Cole have ever thought it was the best for the both of them to erase their relation?
"Phoebe! Phoebe!" They heard someone screaming.
Paige came running and gasping for breath in the basement. She watched scared behind her to the door. She saw Cole and then gave a confused gaze at Phoebe. Paige got herself together from her confusion.
"They're here! They're here in this house!" Paige paniced.
"Calm down. Who's in the house?"
"Belthazor and... and a man, another demon! We're going to die!"
"We're not going to die," Phoebe said to reassure her frightened sister, although she wasn't sure about it.
The door swung open and Phoebe looked at the two demons who entered. She saw the face of Belthazor she was prepared for, but the other face... She walked back, away from the Source. Why were they together? In the normal world they never had attacked together, but there had Cole been both of them. Phoebe stepped further away from the demons and went though the ghost of Cole which gave her a shaking feeling.
She saw a dark cave. The seer and Cole were standing in the cave talking to each other. The seer was holding some kind of box in her hands. "And what happens to me after?" Cole asked. "The witches and I will banish the Hollow back to its crypt. You will return to normal." Cole wasn't convinced and looked suspicous at the seer. "How do I know this isn't one of the Source's trick? Or one of yours for that matter." " The Source has been corrupted by the Hollow. And is going to destroy us all. He can not be allowed to continue with this path of madness," The seer answered. "If I do this, what do you see then?" "A future for both sides." Cole walked across the room. "Is this the great thing you saw us doing together?" "Perhaps. However, you won't know unless the Source is stopped first. It's your only chance to save your love." Cole walked over to the seer who opened the box in her hands. A lot of black bee-like creatures flew into Cole through his eyes and mouth.
Another premonition, they just didn't seem to stop. They came in handy now, but she knew she would be irritated to have so many of them everyday.
But she didn't know what she actually just had seen. Cole was grown-up, so it had to be a premonition from the normal world? Maybe she was imaginering things, but all her other premonitions had been right. She had no time to think now the Source and Belthazor were in front of her.
Paige blew up the Source, but he immediately got put back together, just as he had done in the other world. Phoebe didn't know what to do. What could she do against them? She couldn't defeat them with only her kicks. Both of them here was something she only had expected to see in nightmares.
"The Book of Shadows... to fix your mistake," The ghost said.
Phoebe became aware of his words and grabbed the Book of Shadows to return. She turned the leaves as fast as she could. Paige stood helpless in the room without her powers. Phoebe saw fire balls coming towards her. There was nothing they could do. Phoebe closed her eyes and held her hands before her head to protect herself, although she knew it wouldn't be enough. She expected to be blown away, but when nothing happened she opened her eyes again. The ghost of Cole had somehow became untransparent, receiving the attack that was meant for her. He lay on the floor with his eyes open wide.
"Cole..." Phoebe said in asthonisment, distracted from her search in the Book of Shadows.
"Don't worry about me, lady... I already died once, I mean if my soul dies, it couldn't be much worse, right?"
The ghost looked curious at the woman who had summoned him. She had called him by his name. She knew him. She already had looked familiar to him the first time he had seen her. He didn't know why, but something about her was special. Special enough to give his soul for her life. And the way she looked at him, like she knew everything about him, like they had an unusual special connection.
"I know you... You're the woman who wouldn't throw that bottle at me," He smiled now he remembered where he had seen her before.
The tears came into her eyes, while she looked at his body that was becoming transparent again. He shut his eyes and he slowly vanished.
Paige screamed when the Source threw a fire ball at her, which made Phoebe aware again of the demons and Paige. Finally Phoebe found a spell to fix a mistake, she read it aloud, seeing the two demons coming to her and Paige who lay lifeless on the floor. The images of them started to spin round.
She felt she was getting lighter. A dizzy feeling came to her and then everything turned black.
A/N: Wow, I didn't even make a cliffhanger this time! The premonition Phoebe had about the seer and Cole is a scene from Charmed and Dangerous and I don't own that.
