Disclaimer: Arianna' is an original character, the rest are not mine. If
they were, then Phoebe and Cole would be together.
Summary: See Chapter #1
Author's notes: 1. C.O.S.: Change Of scenery
2. ""= Dialogue, ''= thoughts 1st charmed fic, so be nice.
Reviews: Yes please.
Chapter #4, Lessons Learned
Our Universe.
The man known as Cole Turner sunk to the floor in a heap, holding his head in his hands. 'What am I going to do?' he thought to himself. 'Why didn't I freeze?' 'Am I a demon?' If I am a demon, then why don't I look different?' I mean all the 'demons' I've heard about have all looked different, all didn't look human. So if I am, then why don't I look like them?' He needed somebody's opinion, and unbidden, a picture of his Arianna came into his head. 'I need you Arianna. Help me get through this. He pleaded.
All at once, it seemed he realized he wasn't in the penthouse anymore. He was on a veranda somewhere. He looked around and noticed the weeds that choked out the garden, and the planks on the veranda had rotted away. He walked up the front door, and noticed it was boarded shut, nails holding it up. He wrenched the board off, and dragged the door off its hinges. He walked in, and the memories came flooding back to him, of cold winter nights spent setting at the kitchen table with Amelia, and Alexander drinking hot chocolate. Of Arrianna herself, her blue eyes twinkling, while she made dinner. He walked through the swinging door, and into the living room. He peered around the dark room, noticing the dust gathered on the wooden floor. His gaze wandered to the corner of the room, where some cobwebs had gathered. He noticed that what limited light came through the planks on the windows illuminated a small toy on the ground. He walked the short distance, and picked it up. It was a pink bear, with blue eyes, and a little bow tie. He recognized it as Amelia's first bear. He slumped down against the wall and again began sobbing.
"Oh Arianna, you know that this is Amelia's favourite bear. How could you leave without it, poor Ame, she never falls asleep without it. And this house, how could you leave it? It was our house, the place where we planned our future how could you?" His tears went from sadness to anger.
"I could leave this place, because you were off with that damn witch of yours. Just as this was where we planned our future, this was also where you broke my heart. We built this house around our lives, our two beautiful children climbed all over that couch. It's the same couch where I caught you with your witch." He heard her bitter voice in his head. It caused more tears to stream down his face as he continued to hold his head in his hand. Time passed, and he still sat there. The light coming through the windows faded.
"Get up." A feminine voice flatly said. Cole glanced up and saw this figure, dressed in black striding towards him. There was just enough light coming in behind her to illuminate her face. A pair of icy blue eyes stared back at him. He stayed seated.
"Get up I said." The voice repeated. It was unmistakably that of Arianna. She reached out a hand and slapped him across the face. He stood up then.
"I didn't deserve that." Cole angrily told her. She slapped him again.
"I didn't deserve that either. She reached her hand up to slap him a third time, and Cole caught her wrist.
"Listen I don't know what I did to deserve that, or why you are so angry at me. But if you stop, I promise to explain myself." Her eyes narrowed at him.
"You promise to explain yourself. You promise to explain why you having an affair with that little whore of a witch. You promise to tell me why so many times you broke your word to your own children, our children. You promise to explain to me, why this house, that so personified our dreams, has now turned into a house of nightmares, and broken dreams. Fine, I'll hear you out." She bitterly told him.
"Whatever it was you think you saw. You didn't." Cole began. She raised her hand, this time to chest height, and pointed it at him; he was then flung against the wall.
"Don't insult my intelligence." She told him crossly, holding him there.
"It's all in your mind. I never slept with her. You are the only one for me, my heart, and my soul. You are in my blood. I don't even know who are you talking about." Cole began pleading.
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHO I MEAN. I MEAN THAT WHORE PHOEBE HALLIWELL!" Arianna shouted. She raised her leg to kick him in throat, and Cole raised his hand, and just like that she was halfway across the room.
" See I can do that too" he said sarcastically, walking over to her. She punched him in the eye.
"Ouch, that hurt." The eye instantly became swollen. Her eyes glazed over then, and cloudy blue ones locked onto his gaze: "Cole sweetie, can you let me down from here?" Her voice was sickeningly sweet. Cole, unable to resist let her down out of his grasp, and backed away to the other side of the room. Arianna's eyes cleared off, and a ball of flame sprang into her hand. He noticed it, and instinctively in response a ball of flame sprang to his hand. They met in the middle of the room, creating a giant explosion that shook the foundation of the house, and burned through the floor underneath them.
C.O.S.: The Manor
They had begun scrying for Cole the moment after Paige got back, and reported the Penthouse empty. Phoebe was bent over a map spread over the table, with Piper perched on a stool mixing potions.
"I don't even see why we're even bothering. We wanted him gone anyway. Maybe he's finally dead." Paige said.
"We are bothering because this Cole is an innocent. He may have powers, but he does not know how to use them, and it is our job to help innocents. And maybe, this might mean I get a second chance." Phoebe explained. Paige glanced at Piper for support.
Piper sighed: "As much as I hate to admit it, but she's right. Cole is an innocent."
"Found him." Phoebe announced. Piper walked over to the map and looked to where her sister was pointing.
"That's not too far from our house." Piper observed. "LEO" Piper called. Leo orbed in: "Is it time?" he asked motioning to Piper's stomach. Piper smiled.
"No honey it's not. We were wondering if you knew anything about Cole." Piper said.
"Yes, the elders think that he might not be dead after all." Leo answered.
"We know that all already Dr. Obvious. We were wondering if they knew anything about this Cole." Piper specified sarcastically.
"The elders say that this Cole does not belong here." Leo informed his wife.
"They think this Cole is from another timeline, one where he's completely human. They think that somehow when you 'killed' Cole, instead of going to hell, Leo cringed as he used the word, he went to this other timeline." His explanation was greeted with an uneasy silence; Leo moved to stand behind his pregnant wife Paige looked up in horror.
"If this is true, does Cole still have his powers?" She finally phrased the question.
"Yeah they somehow transferred to this other timeline. So now we have two Cole's with their powers. Paige cringed. Phoebe looked up from the map shocked. 'My Cole is still alive, somewhere. We still have a second chance.' She thought excitedly to herself.
"We have to save this Cole. Piper have you got the potions ready?" Phoebe asked. "Yeah, the potions are all ready, lets go." Piper answered, taking up her husband's hand. Paige took Phoebe's hand, and in a matter of seconds they were outside the abandoned home, they walked through single file and into the living room to find Cole holding an unidentified woman up by the throat against the wall.
"Cole, put her down." Leo urged. Cole let his captive go and she slumped down onto the floor with a thud, and sat there gasping for her breath.
"Who are you?" Phoebe questioned.
"Arianna Matheny Huffington." She responded, as her eyes glazed over again. Phoebe cast a questioning glance at Cole: "And in your universe, what is she known as?" Cole looked at her with a blank face, and there was silence.
"In other words, what name do you know her by?" Piper clarified.
"Arianna Matheny Turner." Cole answered, suddenly taking an interest in his shoes.
"Sister?" Piper asked.
"No, wife." Cole gulped. Just then Arianna's eyes glossed over again.
"Help me." she weakly managed, as her eyes again became clear.
"You haven't heard the last of this." She said, and shimmered out leaving the five alone. It became silent in the room. Paige finally broke it by saying:
"Looking at her, I'd say she's possessed or something." The room was silent for another few minutes.
"I guess the first question would be, how did you get here?" Leo began.
"To be honest I don't know. I was in the penthouse, thinking about everything you told me, and I decided that I needed to talk to somebody. Naturally I thought of Arianna, the next thing I knew I was here." Cole started.
"You shimmered. It's a process where you transport yourself merely by thinking of another place." Leo told him.
"I see." He replied.
"You know Cole, we should probably take you back to our house, because there's going to be some rather not nice people after you." Piper added.
"You mean to stay with you?" Cole asked, some nervousness creeping into his tone.
"Yeah, we have a lot to tell you." Piper answered, smiling weakly. Leo moved forward, and grabbed her, and Cole's hand, then orbed to the manor, followed closely by Paige, and Phoebe. Paige and Phoebe followed Cole, Leo, and Piper into the lounge. Piper sank down onto the couch.
"You, she pointed to Cole, sit over there." Cole realizing it was not a good thing to argue with a pregnant woman, sat in the appointed chair. Phoebe, and Paige took their spots on either side of Piper, with Leo slouching on the end. Piper took a deep breath.
"Okay, I'm going to give you the no pun intended give Cole's notes version. You are a demon named: Belthazar, sent here, to kill us around 5 years ago. But instead you ended up falling in love with Phoebe here. You two had a good thing going, you were made human, wedding bells were definitely ringing. Then you realized that hey: I can't live without my demon half. So you hooked up with some bitch called the seer. She seduced you with the whole: ' get me a charmed one, and I'll give you power beyond your wildest dreams' malarkey, which you of course bought. You tricked Phoebe into marrying you and crossing over to the dark side. And then we banished you. But you, oh you were a clever one, you tricked demons into giving you their powers, and gradually you clawed your way out of that wasteland, and poof were back again. Your efforts then were concentrated on winning Phoebe back by being a good boy for a change. Which in the end, failed miserably." Piper paused to take a breath.
"So one day, you decided that the way to get Phoebe back was to make sure we never met Paige. You called the avatars to you, which were the new evil boys in town, and they made you even more invincible. The problem is, you decided to use that power to influence timelines, which apparently avatars never do. So you travel back, and manage to take Paige here with you. A second problem: This is a time when you were totally human. So instead of you killing Paige, Paige managed to kill you. Or so we thought. But instead it appears that someone somewhere has played a cruel joke on us, and merely switched Cole's on us. Any questions?" Piper finished.
Cole just sat in stunned silence.
Knowing this Cole, what do you think his reaction will be? What are the real Cole's plans for Mr. Dean?
Stay tuned..
Peace Out,
Happy Reading.
-A.B.
Summary: See Chapter #1
Author's notes: 1. C.O.S.: Change Of scenery
2. ""= Dialogue, ''= thoughts 1st charmed fic, so be nice.
Reviews: Yes please.
Chapter #4, Lessons Learned
Our Universe.
The man known as Cole Turner sunk to the floor in a heap, holding his head in his hands. 'What am I going to do?' he thought to himself. 'Why didn't I freeze?' 'Am I a demon?' If I am a demon, then why don't I look different?' I mean all the 'demons' I've heard about have all looked different, all didn't look human. So if I am, then why don't I look like them?' He needed somebody's opinion, and unbidden, a picture of his Arianna came into his head. 'I need you Arianna. Help me get through this. He pleaded.
All at once, it seemed he realized he wasn't in the penthouse anymore. He was on a veranda somewhere. He looked around and noticed the weeds that choked out the garden, and the planks on the veranda had rotted away. He walked up the front door, and noticed it was boarded shut, nails holding it up. He wrenched the board off, and dragged the door off its hinges. He walked in, and the memories came flooding back to him, of cold winter nights spent setting at the kitchen table with Amelia, and Alexander drinking hot chocolate. Of Arrianna herself, her blue eyes twinkling, while she made dinner. He walked through the swinging door, and into the living room. He peered around the dark room, noticing the dust gathered on the wooden floor. His gaze wandered to the corner of the room, where some cobwebs had gathered. He noticed that what limited light came through the planks on the windows illuminated a small toy on the ground. He walked the short distance, and picked it up. It was a pink bear, with blue eyes, and a little bow tie. He recognized it as Amelia's first bear. He slumped down against the wall and again began sobbing.
"Oh Arianna, you know that this is Amelia's favourite bear. How could you leave without it, poor Ame, she never falls asleep without it. And this house, how could you leave it? It was our house, the place where we planned our future how could you?" His tears went from sadness to anger.
"I could leave this place, because you were off with that damn witch of yours. Just as this was where we planned our future, this was also where you broke my heart. We built this house around our lives, our two beautiful children climbed all over that couch. It's the same couch where I caught you with your witch." He heard her bitter voice in his head. It caused more tears to stream down his face as he continued to hold his head in his hand. Time passed, and he still sat there. The light coming through the windows faded.
"Get up." A feminine voice flatly said. Cole glanced up and saw this figure, dressed in black striding towards him. There was just enough light coming in behind her to illuminate her face. A pair of icy blue eyes stared back at him. He stayed seated.
"Get up I said." The voice repeated. It was unmistakably that of Arianna. She reached out a hand and slapped him across the face. He stood up then.
"I didn't deserve that." Cole angrily told her. She slapped him again.
"I didn't deserve that either. She reached her hand up to slap him a third time, and Cole caught her wrist.
"Listen I don't know what I did to deserve that, or why you are so angry at me. But if you stop, I promise to explain myself." Her eyes narrowed at him.
"You promise to explain yourself. You promise to explain why you having an affair with that little whore of a witch. You promise to tell me why so many times you broke your word to your own children, our children. You promise to explain to me, why this house, that so personified our dreams, has now turned into a house of nightmares, and broken dreams. Fine, I'll hear you out." She bitterly told him.
"Whatever it was you think you saw. You didn't." Cole began. She raised her hand, this time to chest height, and pointed it at him; he was then flung against the wall.
"Don't insult my intelligence." She told him crossly, holding him there.
"It's all in your mind. I never slept with her. You are the only one for me, my heart, and my soul. You are in my blood. I don't even know who are you talking about." Cole began pleading.
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHO I MEAN. I MEAN THAT WHORE PHOEBE HALLIWELL!" Arianna shouted. She raised her leg to kick him in throat, and Cole raised his hand, and just like that she was halfway across the room.
" See I can do that too" he said sarcastically, walking over to her. She punched him in the eye.
"Ouch, that hurt." The eye instantly became swollen. Her eyes glazed over then, and cloudy blue ones locked onto his gaze: "Cole sweetie, can you let me down from here?" Her voice was sickeningly sweet. Cole, unable to resist let her down out of his grasp, and backed away to the other side of the room. Arianna's eyes cleared off, and a ball of flame sprang into her hand. He noticed it, and instinctively in response a ball of flame sprang to his hand. They met in the middle of the room, creating a giant explosion that shook the foundation of the house, and burned through the floor underneath them.
C.O.S.: The Manor
They had begun scrying for Cole the moment after Paige got back, and reported the Penthouse empty. Phoebe was bent over a map spread over the table, with Piper perched on a stool mixing potions.
"I don't even see why we're even bothering. We wanted him gone anyway. Maybe he's finally dead." Paige said.
"We are bothering because this Cole is an innocent. He may have powers, but he does not know how to use them, and it is our job to help innocents. And maybe, this might mean I get a second chance." Phoebe explained. Paige glanced at Piper for support.
Piper sighed: "As much as I hate to admit it, but she's right. Cole is an innocent."
"Found him." Phoebe announced. Piper walked over to the map and looked to where her sister was pointing.
"That's not too far from our house." Piper observed. "LEO" Piper called. Leo orbed in: "Is it time?" he asked motioning to Piper's stomach. Piper smiled.
"No honey it's not. We were wondering if you knew anything about Cole." Piper said.
"Yes, the elders think that he might not be dead after all." Leo answered.
"We know that all already Dr. Obvious. We were wondering if they knew anything about this Cole." Piper specified sarcastically.
"The elders say that this Cole does not belong here." Leo informed his wife.
"They think this Cole is from another timeline, one where he's completely human. They think that somehow when you 'killed' Cole, instead of going to hell, Leo cringed as he used the word, he went to this other timeline." His explanation was greeted with an uneasy silence; Leo moved to stand behind his pregnant wife Paige looked up in horror.
"If this is true, does Cole still have his powers?" She finally phrased the question.
"Yeah they somehow transferred to this other timeline. So now we have two Cole's with their powers. Paige cringed. Phoebe looked up from the map shocked. 'My Cole is still alive, somewhere. We still have a second chance.' She thought excitedly to herself.
"We have to save this Cole. Piper have you got the potions ready?" Phoebe asked. "Yeah, the potions are all ready, lets go." Piper answered, taking up her husband's hand. Paige took Phoebe's hand, and in a matter of seconds they were outside the abandoned home, they walked through single file and into the living room to find Cole holding an unidentified woman up by the throat against the wall.
"Cole, put her down." Leo urged. Cole let his captive go and she slumped down onto the floor with a thud, and sat there gasping for her breath.
"Who are you?" Phoebe questioned.
"Arianna Matheny Huffington." She responded, as her eyes glazed over again. Phoebe cast a questioning glance at Cole: "And in your universe, what is she known as?" Cole looked at her with a blank face, and there was silence.
"In other words, what name do you know her by?" Piper clarified.
"Arianna Matheny Turner." Cole answered, suddenly taking an interest in his shoes.
"Sister?" Piper asked.
"No, wife." Cole gulped. Just then Arianna's eyes glossed over again.
"Help me." she weakly managed, as her eyes again became clear.
"You haven't heard the last of this." She said, and shimmered out leaving the five alone. It became silent in the room. Paige finally broke it by saying:
"Looking at her, I'd say she's possessed or something." The room was silent for another few minutes.
"I guess the first question would be, how did you get here?" Leo began.
"To be honest I don't know. I was in the penthouse, thinking about everything you told me, and I decided that I needed to talk to somebody. Naturally I thought of Arianna, the next thing I knew I was here." Cole started.
"You shimmered. It's a process where you transport yourself merely by thinking of another place." Leo told him.
"I see." He replied.
"You know Cole, we should probably take you back to our house, because there's going to be some rather not nice people after you." Piper added.
"You mean to stay with you?" Cole asked, some nervousness creeping into his tone.
"Yeah, we have a lot to tell you." Piper answered, smiling weakly. Leo moved forward, and grabbed her, and Cole's hand, then orbed to the manor, followed closely by Paige, and Phoebe. Paige and Phoebe followed Cole, Leo, and Piper into the lounge. Piper sank down onto the couch.
"You, she pointed to Cole, sit over there." Cole realizing it was not a good thing to argue with a pregnant woman, sat in the appointed chair. Phoebe, and Paige took their spots on either side of Piper, with Leo slouching on the end. Piper took a deep breath.
"Okay, I'm going to give you the no pun intended give Cole's notes version. You are a demon named: Belthazar, sent here, to kill us around 5 years ago. But instead you ended up falling in love with Phoebe here. You two had a good thing going, you were made human, wedding bells were definitely ringing. Then you realized that hey: I can't live without my demon half. So you hooked up with some bitch called the seer. She seduced you with the whole: ' get me a charmed one, and I'll give you power beyond your wildest dreams' malarkey, which you of course bought. You tricked Phoebe into marrying you and crossing over to the dark side. And then we banished you. But you, oh you were a clever one, you tricked demons into giving you their powers, and gradually you clawed your way out of that wasteland, and poof were back again. Your efforts then were concentrated on winning Phoebe back by being a good boy for a change. Which in the end, failed miserably." Piper paused to take a breath.
"So one day, you decided that the way to get Phoebe back was to make sure we never met Paige. You called the avatars to you, which were the new evil boys in town, and they made you even more invincible. The problem is, you decided to use that power to influence timelines, which apparently avatars never do. So you travel back, and manage to take Paige here with you. A second problem: This is a time when you were totally human. So instead of you killing Paige, Paige managed to kill you. Or so we thought. But instead it appears that someone somewhere has played a cruel joke on us, and merely switched Cole's on us. Any questions?" Piper finished.
Cole just sat in stunned silence.
Knowing this Cole, what do you think his reaction will be? What are the real Cole's plans for Mr. Dean?
Stay tuned..
Peace Out,
Happy Reading.
-A.B.