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The Coven of Reformed Supernaturals
"So, which way do we go from there?" Piper asked, indicating the door that seemed to be the only means of actually leaving this part of the building.
"What, you couldn't just whip up a spell to point us in the right direction?" Spike asked the oldest Halliwell, raising a casual eyebrow. "I thought you three were supposed to be the world's most powerful witches?"
"Spike," Leo said, glaring over at his teammate, "we can't use magic right now; it's too dangerous. There were a ton of anti-magic barriers in the cell, so Cole's unlikely to have had any detector spells around there, but outside? He'd want to make absolutely sure nobody else could get in here without being detected; warriors for good might have been able to get through the barrier, but they couldn't shield its normal combat magic. If the sisters use any magic at the moment, we lose the element of surprise!"
"Are the detectors another reason you chose us for this mission?" Hellboy put in, raising his hand. "You know, the fact that we all rely more on physical strength than magic?"
Leo nodded. "Yeah; the Elders figured that using reformed spell casters was too risky; the magic might not have 'reformed' even if its user had, but they weren't prepared to take that chance."
"Well, fascinating as this is, we need to get moving," Angel said, as he glanced over at Cole. "Do you think you can direct us out of here?" he asked. "After all, this is you we're tracking; can you… detect him… or something?"
Cole shrugged. "Maybe…" he said, as he closed his eyes and raised his hands. "There is one little trick that I've never tried; kind of shimmering and telepathy combined…"
"Isn't that a bit risky?" Leo put in; evidently, he knew what Cole was planning, even if the others didn't. "What if he detects you?"
"Leo," Cole said, opening his left eye to look at his friend, "detection's only a concern if the demons involved are close to each other in power. I can produce energy balls, shimmer, and shapeshift between my human and demon forms. He, from what I understand, possesses pretty much every demonic power you can think of, along with a few extras that certainly aren't the norm."
He shrugged slightly as he closed his eye again. "Our power levels don't have that much in common, do they?"
"Gotta admit, he has a point," Constantine said, looking over at Leo. "Don't like the fact that we're so outmatched, but his reasoning why we won't be discovered seems sound enough."
"Thank you," Cole said, nodding gratefully at the psychic before closing his eyes and tilting his head back. "Now, just give me peace and quiet for a few moments; this may take a while."
Following his advice, the Coven and the Charmed Ones stood there for a few moments, nervously awaiting a response, and then Cole's eyes popped open, and he smiled.
"He's down the way; only a few doors away," he said, smiling in relief, before he turned to look at the Halliwells, Leo, and Constantine. "The main exit to the fortress is there as well; you can get out that way to rescue Wyatt while the rest of us handle the demons."
"Right then," Spike said, smiling as he reached into his coat and pulled out another weapon, this one a long, sharp silver dagger; evidently, when FutureCole had knocked him out, he hadn't bothered to search the vampire for anything smaller than two feet. "Let's just blow this thing and go home."
As the Coven headed out of the door and began to run down the corridor, 'Batman' leading the way to provide advance warning of any approaching demons, Angel looked over curiously at Spike.
"Was that a coincidence, or did you just quote from Star Wars?" he asked his friend curiously.
Spike shrugged. "What? The stupid kid dragged me off to the Star Wars marathon when they had that Two for One offer and nobody else was available-"
"And, let me guess, you liked A New Hope best, right?" Angel said, smiling at Spike casually. "You never did have much taste…"
"Oh, and you did?" Spike asked, looking back at his sire mockingly. "What was your favourite film trilogy again? Oh yeah; Indiana Jones!"
Angel opened his mouth, but then Blade spun around and glared at the other two vampires.
"Can we focus right now?" the dark-skinned hybrid growled. "When we get out of this, then we'll debate our favourite movies."
Then, as the three vampires started to walk again, Blade smiled slightly. "Besides, I always preferred The Matrix myself."
"With that coat, why am I not surprised…?" Spike muttered under his breath.
"You know, you wear pretty much the same coat, Spike," Blade pointed out, glancing over at the peroxide-haired vampire. "You can't just assume my fashion sense dictates what movies I like."
Spike just groaned and kept on running.
Angel and Blade glanced over at each other, and Angel shrugged helplessly before they continued on after the other Coven members.
Cole smiled as he looked around at the army that he had gathered to him; demons of every make, from different walks of life, different methods… some even from different realities.
It hadn't been easy, but, finally, he'd achieved his goal. Here, in this vast cavern, which could easily have held the army of the dead from The Lord of the Rings trilogy and still have enough room to hold several trolls, was gathered the greatest army of darkness ever created…
And it had been created by him.
Unbidden, an old Bible quote rose up in his mind, and he smiled slightly at how appropriate it was in this instance.
"And God was pleased with what He saw…" he mused to himself, nodding thoughtfully as he raised one hand and flexed his fingers. He could almost feel the power that was contained in this room, in all these demons before him…
And all of them feared him.
Which was just as it should be.
"My followers!" he said, raising one hand in a commanding gesture as he stood in his throne. "Your devotion to me shall now be rewarded! The Champions of the Elders have fallen; those who were here to save them have been captured; what is left to stop us? The Slayers? HAH! They merely possess strength; even an army of them cannot stand against our magical might! The other witches? After the Charmed Ones, even the best of the witches are easy to defeat! Who is left to stand against us!"
Then the door to the hall crashed open and an army of bats tore through it, led by a large, monstrous bat with a tattered cape flying from its neck, and followed closely by a gathering that included three witches, three vampires, a psychic, an 'angel', two half-breed demons, and at least one extremely angry pure-blooded demon.
Cole's face paled as he stared at the new arrivals, but he quickly recovered; he wouldn't allow himself to be intimidated by these second-rate fools who couldn't cope with something as simple as being evil!
"So, you got out of the cell then?" he asked, looking at Angel and his past self specifically; he knew that it would be hard to intimidate the Charmed Ones no matter how much power he had, but the 'leader' of this so-called 'Coven' and the man/demon that he had once been were other matters. "And can I ask what you expect to accomplish with this rather foolish stunt?"
"Your death, for one thing," Angel said, looking back at his nemesis with an intensity that he wished he felt. He was quietly confident that his plan would work, but the question was if he'd last long enough to put it into practise. After all, it was a fairly substantial amount of power…
No, Angel thought to himself, as he kept on staring at Cole.
The plan would work.
It had to.
He'd do this last act, and then…
Well, he'd see what happened to him when the time came.
"You're powerful, yeah, but we've tackled tough suckers like you on our own and lived to talk about it," Angel continued, the other Coven members shifting into combat positions as Cole just stared at them; evidently his forces didn't want to attack them until Cole himself gave the order to do so. "Why shouldn't we all be capable of stopping you if we work together?"
"Because you've got other problems to deal with," Cole replied. Then he glanced around the room at his own forces, and smiled. "Kill them."
The demons began to advance towards them.
As the demons began to move, the Coven members instantly changed positions, Hellboy taking his position at the front of the group. Lowering his head, his stone arm outstretched in a fist, he charged forward, knocking the demon aside like a bowling ball knocking down pins; these demons were from Cole and Angel's reality, and thus were far easier to knock down than the kind Hellboy normally encountered.
Behind him, Constantine had whipped out the Holy Shotgun and was firing away at the oncoming demons, while Belthazor and Piper used energy balls and their explosion powers to blow up any that got too close. The other Coven members mainly fought the demons by grabbing the nearest weapon from a demon and then starting to use it against the former owners.
"There's too many of them!" Paige yelled, desperately hacking away at random with a small axe she'd managed to acquire. "We can't last forever!"
"We don't need to; once I get to Cole, it should all be over!" Angel yelled back at her, as he lashed out with a powerful kick at an oncoming Mohra demon, shattering the gem on its forehead as he grabbed the sword in its hands.
"Look, I know this part of the mission is important, but the Halliwells and I need to get going; Wyatt needs us!" Constantine yelled over at the Halliwells, as he took advantage of a momentary reprieve in the action to slip on his gold knuckleduster. He knew that they wouldn't do much damage to the army around him, as the knuckledusters had been 'developed' with a different kind of demon in mind, but it was enough to give his punches a significantly greater amount of force behind them than they would have had otherwise. "Couldn't you… I dunno, orb us to the door or something?"
"Cole's got spells around this place that prevent orbing from working!" Leo yelled, from where he was trading blows with something that reminded Constantine of a soldier demon he'd exorcised a while back. "Don't you think I would have already tried orbing as soon as I got out of the cell? Nothing happened! We have to get outside!"
"Then hang on," a voice said to the three witches.
To the shock of the Charmed Ones, they suddenly found themselves surrounding by a mass of bats, some kind of claws grasping the backs of their necks as they found themselves flying towards the door, Leo and Constantine hanging on to a tattered blue object that was flapping behind them….
Phoebe realised it first.
"Batman?" she asked, staring up at the vampire vigilante of Gotham in surprise.
"You were expecting that Cole had hired Dracula?" Batman asked, as he dropped the group to the ground in front of the main door. "I assure you, that foe is, mercifully, beyond the reach of even Cole, no matter how much power he has amassed."
"Right…" Piper said, as she glanced around the hall; demons were already coming in their direction, but they still had a few moments before anyone reached them.
"We have to go," she said, looking over at Batman. Impulsively, she leaned over and kissed the ex-Dark Knight Detective on the cheek.
"Thank you," she whispered, before the five of them stepped out of the door and onto the steps outside the fortress. Leo grasped Piper and Phoebe's hands, Paige took Constantine's right hand in her left, and the two Whitelighters orbed out, taking the others with them.
'Batman' briefly looked at the area where they had once been, and smiled slightly as he raised his hand to the cheek that Piper had kissed him on.
He smiled slightly.
Maybe I actually can achieve redemption… he thought to himself.
Then he turned around and swung back into battle, lashing away at the oncoming demons. Whatever his future was, right now, his life was this battle.
He'd save the day, then starting thinking about what he'd do afterwards.
"Angel!" Belthazor yelled over to the vampire, ducking under a swipe from a large turtle-like demon as an energy ball eliminated a vampire that had nearly gotten in a lucky blow. "Whatever you're planning, could you do it soon? We're running out of energy here; adrenaline will only take you so far!"
Angel didn't reply to Belthazor's yelling; he merely nodded as he turned to look at the centre of the room, where Cole was standing, looking serenely around at the carnage before him, apparently just waiting for someone to fight him.
Angel didn't intend to disappoint. Kicking out one last time at the demon nearest him (Which he vaguely identified as a Fyarl), he leapt into the air, spread his arms out, closed his eyes as he began to fall back to the ground…
Then, after a swirl of white light and a momentary feelings of incredible, blissful peace, Angel was standing behind Cole.
For a moment, Angel grinned. He'd been worried about that stage of the plan ever since he'd figured out that Leo and Paige couldn't orb, but he'd taken a gamble and assumed that it only prevented Whitelighters from orbing; evidently that restriction didn't apply to someone who was borrowing the powers in question.
Cole turned around to look at Angel, but, before the demon could do anything, Angel had lashed out with a powerful punch at his foe's face, sending the demon staggering back, dazed, with a broken nose.
"You're dead, you bastard," Angel said, as Cole stared back at him.
Then he lunged for the demon's neck, bit down sharply, and began to drink Cole's blood.
Belthazor winced slightly at the psychic scream that suddenly tore through his head, but, despite the pain, he couldn't help but grin. That kind of 'scream' could only be coming from his future self, which meant that Angel's plan was working…
Then he looked up, saw exactly what Angel was doing to his other self, and his face fell.
"NO!" he yelled, as he instantly shimmered away from his current location…