AN: Sorry it took so long again, but I had to pass a very strict exam and I had to learn a lot. But now I'm over it so here is the next chapter. Read and enjoy! And tell me what you think about it!
Chapter 4.
They walked rather slowly because Cole stopped after every five or six steps and needed some encouragement to go on. He still seemed hesitant to follow them. Mother-instinct took over the wheel in Piper and she achieved that the man followed her instructions every time.
Paige couldn't stop wondering what the hell could have happened to Cole. She couldn't say that she always liked him but in the end she had started to trust him and always laughed about his jokes. So, she could tell that she accepted him as family.
Now, he was nothing like the man she used to know. He looked like those crazy homeless people who you could meet at every corner on the streets. Mostly, he only looked confused but once in a while his eyes went distant, almost empty as if he were watching something only he could see.
When they came in view with the manor he stopped again and stared at the building.
"Don't worry, that is our house. You lived there too, don't you remember?" Piper explained.
"Isn't that Phoebe's car?" Paige asked suddenly.
"Oh my God…" Piper whispered. "What the hell will we tell her?"
They didn't have the time to make up a plan because the front-door opened and Phoebe stepped out, closed the door and when she turned she caught sight of her sisters. Her waving hand stopped abruptly and she just stared at them as if frozen. This lasted a while but then she burst into running. She was at their side in seconds.
"What…? How…?" No coherent questions came from her, only babbling and Piper started to worry for her health. "Oh my God…" Phoebe whispered then and with a wild movement she jumped in Cole's neck.
She hugged him very tightly and Cole obviously didn't know what to do with the slightly hysteric woman. First he tensed but had no chance to pull away so after a while he hesitantly hugged back. Phoebe sobbed and laughed at the same time which made her not less mad-looking than the man she was hugging.
Then suddenly she tensed and Piper knew that she was having a premonition. For a moment she stayed that way but then Cole sensed that something was wrong and pulled away.
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Phoebe has never felt such a wide range of emotions, especially not when those emotions all belonged to herself. She couldn't make up any coherent thoughts: it was almost as if she were dreaming. It must have been a dream for sure, but at the moment she didn't care. She just ran down the stairs and over the street. She didn't see Piper or Paige, she didn't see the curious neighbor, Mrs. Wilson, either. She had eyes only for Cole who was standing there in front of her, alive, even if a little bit stunned.
She needed to touch him, needed to feel his breath on her skin and she hugged him tightly. So tightly that for a moment she feared that she would strangle him. And then suddenly the familiar feeling came as she was pulled into a vision. But she knew that it wasn't a premonition, it was a memory.
They were in a cave, surely in the Underworld. Two demons held Cole in a standing position and a third one stood behind him. That third demon had something coming out of his palm – something like a lean tentacle. Its end dug into the back of Cole's neck. He was writhing and tried to free himself, but the demons held on tightly and the tentacle seemed to push deeper. The next moment Cole's whole body tensed and his eyes went hazy…
She was on the street again, leaning against Piper. Cole was moving away edging slowly backwards. Phoebe just now realized how haggard and haunted he looked like.
"What did you see?" Piper asked quietly.
"I don't know… a demon did something to him but I don't know what and he shot down the connection when he pulled away…"
"Something is very wrong with him" Piper said. "I'm not sure he even knows who we are… or who he is…"
"We have to take him in the house. Cole… dear… come with me. Come home."
He stood frozen and Phoebe could see the conflicting emotions in his eyes: trust, fear, suspicion.
"I'm Phoebe, do you remember? I love you, you can trust me" she talked in a gentle tone and stretched out her hand to encourage him.
He looked at her and Phoebe felt pain and confusion radiating from him. Then he slowly nodded but didn't take the offered hand.
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Some time later Piper and Phoebe were with Cole in the bathroom. He urgently needed a good shower and some new clothes. What he was wearing now were really more like rags than real clothes – rags in more layers. Piper helped him unbutton the coat-like thing, under it there was a jumper and then a T-shirt. Some time ago it was white, now it was a dark shade of grey with torn holes on it. Around his wrists there were some self-made bandages – also in a bad shape.
"We should take those off immediately…" Piper said.
Phoebe was just sitting on the edge of the bathtub as Cole obviously didn't want her to touch him again. Piper saw that her eyes were glistening with unshed tears, but she kept a firm hand on her emotions.
To tell the truth Piper also found the situation disturbing. She always thought – even before she had started to like him – that Cole was a strong man. What could have happened to him that turned him into this broken soul?
But she waved these thoughts away to help him now because he had some difficulties with undoing the bandages.
Piper gasped when she saw what was under them: deep, ugly, half-healed wounds around both wrists in wide stripes. Hearing the sudden sound Cole pulled away again.
"It's okay…" Piper said immediately. "I think we need Leo to heal these" she said to Phoebe. "And maybe he should stay here to help Cole with the showering."
"I'll go and call him" her sister said throwing a last worried look at her love.
Leo came immediately and Piper left the two men alone in the bathroom and joined Paige and Phoebe in the living-room.
"I looked after Wyatt, he's sleeping and I let Chris go."
"Thanks."
Phoebe was pacing back and forth and the tears were now running down her face.
"This was my fault…" she said. "I should have known that he was alive… I should have felt it…"
"Phoebe! We all thought that he was dead" said Paige.
"Yes, we looked for him and there was no sign" Piper added.
Phoebe didn't really listen instead she sat down and buried her face in her hands. She stayed that way until – almost half an hour later – Leo came down.
"Where is he?" Phoebe asked.
"I asked him to stay upstairs while we talk" Leo answered.
"Did he tell you something?" Piper asked.
"Not a word" he sighed and sat down next to his wife. "I healed his wrists and some other injuries I found."
"What's wrong with him?" asked Phoebe.
"He has a lot of scars and lost a lot of weight, he obviously is largely under-nourished. As for his mental state… I'm not sure if it has a physical reason or magical…"
"I think it's magical" Phoebe said. "That demon in my vision… it did something to his mind…" she gulped back the upcoming sobs.
"How did that demon look like?" Piper asked. "We should look him up in the Book."
"Long, black hair, pale skin, dark eyes, very tall and a tentacle-like thing came out of his palm…"
"All right. But before you do anything else, you should put Cole to bed" Leo said. "He seems to be extremely tired, he almost dozed off while I was checking him over."
"I'll do it" Phoebe said and stood up. "And I'll stay with him."
"Do you feel up to it?" Piper asked.
"Yes. I want to be there for him…"
"Okay then. Paige you come with me and Leo, please go and ask around a little bit."
"Okay."
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Phoebe was sitting next to the couch where she made bed for Cole and watched his sleeping form. He fell asleep as soon as he put down his head but had quite a troubled sleep. He was tossing and turning and mumbling incoherent words. Phoebe saw him like this many times before, because he has always been a restless sleeper. At least she knew now that he wasn't mute because of some physical cause.
Leo shaved him and cut his hair and it was visible now how pale and emaciated his face was. But in other ways he was still the same and Phoebe felt the need again to touch him.
She bent forward and caressed his cheeks and then put her hand on his forehead. His body twitched but didn't pull away and she felt it was a good sign. Then she had a strange feeling: her empathic power raised its head and stretched out its fingers. She hesitated but then let it go and the next moment found herself under the attack of flowing pictures, fractures of the past that were Cole's dreams.
Cole was kneeling in front of the same demon she had seen before. The tentacle dug deep in the back of his neck, his eyes were hazy, his body rigid. Then the demon pulled out the tentacle and smiled with satisfaction. Cole's eyes rolled back and his body collapsed to the cave-floor.
"It was fun, wasn't it?" the demon asked and waved at two others who stood at the wall. "Take him back!"
x
The picture changed and they were in an other cave, or more like some kind of mine. There were more people, men and women. Cole was supporting a young woman and was talking to her in a quiet voice:
"It will be all right… We will find a way, just hold on, okay?"
The woman nodded hesitantly.
Then there was the same woman with empty eyes, hugging her knees and slowly rocking back and forth.
x
Then a very battered-looking Cole sitting next to a man.
"I'm so sorry, Neil…" his words were no more than a whisper.
"You couldn't do anything else…" the man answered.
x
Then a much older memory in which Cole seemed to be about eighteen. He was sitting in a very small room, crossed-legged on the floor and writing something. Then suddenly an older man appeared – this was somebody Phoebe knew: Raynor. Cole jumped up immediately.
"I have a task for you" the older demon said and raised a photo about a young man. "This is a witch, every needed information is in this envelope" he dropped the envelope on the desk that occupied a good part of the room. "Kill him quickly."
"Yes, sir."
"I'll wait your report in two days and don't disappoint me because this is a special request of the Source."
"I'll do my best."
"I expect nothing less!"
x
The man from the photo lying on cobble-stones in broad daylight, his throat cut open, blood dripping from an athame that Cole slowly wipes in his black trouser.
x
Scenes from a battle in the Underworld. Darkness, injured demons lying around with missing body-parts. Energy-balls flying in the air in every direction, screams and shouting.
x
Cole face to face with the Source of All Evil.
"I'll stay, just let her go!" Cole said.
"Do you think it's so easy? You betrayed me Belthazor and this always has consequences."
There stood more demons around and the Source talked to one of them.
"It seems you can have your wish Baran! Take her but make sure that she doesn't die…"
"No!" Cole jumped forward in blind rage and attacked the Source. The next moment he was pushed back with impossible strength and hit the wall so hard that some bones audibly cracked. The Source stepped closer, waved and chains appeared around Cole's wrists and ankles.
"From now on you're a prisoner until I decide that you changed enough to serve me again!"
x
Then the pictures followed each-other more quickly and Phoebe couldn't make out much sense of them:
A man bursting into flames… the Seer raising a knife that looked like as if it was burning… the Source again with a smirk on his face… a young girl (who as Phoebe guessed was Rose) crouching in a dark room, bandages over her eyes… Belthazor breaking the neck of a woman with one single motion… the Temple where they found Wyatt… then Phoebe herself, covered in blood and making rattling sounds, obviously dying…
Phoebe suddenly pulled away her hand and jumped up, knocking the chair - she was sitting on - over. In the same moment Cole sat up on the couch gasping for air with wild eyes.
Phoebe quickly pulled herself together. She shouldn't have done this in the first place: this was as if she had infiltrated in his most private sphere.
"It's okay" she said. "It was only a dream… you're in the Manor and you're safe here."
He wasn't really awake but clearly could hear the shooting words and slowly calmed down, lied back down and slept in again.
Phoebe stayed there during the whole night, watching him but didn't touch him again.
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The days went on but with not much change. They couldn't find the demon in the book but Leo found some information about him. As he told the demon's name was Gardior and he was one of the most powerful lords in the Underworld. He rarely came to the surface because he was mostly experimenting out new weapons for other demons. Rumors said that he searched for magical stones in the Underworld's mines where he worked humans. This at least gave sense to the memory Phoebe saw about that mine. Gardior had a lot of powers and one of those was this special tentacle in his palm with which he could drive everybody mad. How he did this exactly, nobody knew.
Just like nobody could tell where this Gardior could be found.
At least they had an explanation for Cole's state of mind but they still couldn't find a way to help him. So, they decided the best way was to handle him as normal as possible and so they did.
They wanted to involve him in their everyday-life so it was natural that when Piper and Phoebe were brewing a potion he was around in the attic. He might have forgotten how to speak but he still remembered a lot of things about magic and he always gave them the proper ingredient sometimes even without asking.
"I think it will work now" Piper concluded when Cole went to the shelves put something and gave it over to Phoebe.
"Oh, right! I almost forgot!" she dropped a pinch in the potion. "Thanks, now it will really work."
Cole just nodded and went back into the corner to the book he was reading. Since the first day he helped a lot around the house, he did everything they asked of him but the only things he did alone, was reading and sitting on the porch and watching the sky.
The girls started to fill the potion in small vials. They worked silently… until suddenly with a banging noise a demon appeared in the middle of the attic.
Phoebe threw a vial at him without hesitation but when the smoke settled down the demon still stood there with a nasty smirk on his face.
"You need more than this to vanquish me, witches!" he said, raised his left arm and with a wave threw Phoebe over the table and into the wall.
Piper tried to blow him up but it didn't work and the next moment she flew into the wall as well and hit her head badly. The demon laughed out and said:
"Now there's nothing to stop me!" and with that shimmered out.
Piper felt falling into the blackness but she still could think clearly enough to realize what this was all about.
"No!" she cried. "Wyatt…"
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Cole saw what happened and heard Piper's words. The baby! The demon wanted Wyatt… For a moment he felt frozen but then looked around…
He needed something because he couldn't use his powers, just like he lost the ability to speak. Suddenly he felt very frustrated. Usually it didn't bother him because his mind was too fuzzy to know what was really going on but now it was different. He knew that he hadn't been like this before… and then something kicked in. He saw the athame on the shelf and took it. It fitted in his palm perfectly.
He ran out and down the stairs to the baby's room.
The demon was there and Wyatt's shield that Cole had already seen a few days ago was up. But the demon had something around his wrist, some kind of amulet and he managed to slowly push through the shield.
Just in the moment as the demon felt that somebody came into the room and turned, Cole threw the knife. It hit the demon deep in the chest but on the wrong side. If he hadn't turned it surely would have hit his heart and whatever amulet saved him from the girls' magic he would have been dead in an instant.
This way he was just badly injured and it didn't stop him from using his power. Cole was thrown in the air and he landed onto a cupboard that fell into pieces. Something stabbed into his shoulder and he hit his head quite badly. His vision blurred but he could see the blue lights that appeared in front of the cot. Thank the gods, it must be Leo!
But it wasn't Leo. It was that guy – what was his name again? – yeah, Chris… the new whitelighter. Chris moved his right arm and the amulet was torn from the demon's wrist… But how the hell did he do this? Cole's mind might have been confused even amongst the best circumstances but he knew one thing: whitelighters didn't have the power of telekinesis. Then Chris took out a vial and threw it at the demon who burst into flames.
Who the hell can he be? was the last thought Cole had before he blacked out.
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