Part Four

With a groan, Phoebe opened her eyes to stare up into one worried Cupid's, "Coop…"

"Welcome back," he quietly greeted the witch he'd caught in his arms just as she'd reappeared in the attic and collapsed. She tried to move from his lap and, at her moan, he cautioned, "Easy now, time travel can be rough."

"Anyone ever tell you you've got the power of understatement?" she whined as the room spun beneath her closed eyelids. She brought a hand to her forehead as if it would help stop the movement. "What time is it?"

"Almost five-thirty," he replied. "And Piper's been sitting outside the door for nearly a half-hour."

"Open the door," she requested as she tried, once again, to sit up, "I may as well get this over with now."

"You got your answers?" he asked while helping shift her onto the pile of pillows.

She didn't reply as she closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply. First thing she'd do when she could stand would be to put a note in the Book about the side effects of this potion.

"Phoebe!"

Before Phoebe could open her eyes, she felt herself being pulled into her sister's arms. "Careful," she groaned, "or I'll make a mess all over your jammies."

Piper only hugged her tighter, "I was so worried about you."

"Told you you wouldn't need to open the letter," Phoebe declared as smugly as she could in her nauseous state.

"Not funny! I haven't slept a wink since you locked me out!" Piper chastised even as she gently rubbed Phoebe's temples.

"Sorry," Phoebe sighed. "God, that feels good…I think maybe chamomile would've helped. Gotta remember to add that in the note." Slowly, she eased herself from Piper's arms and sat up, "I'm okay, well, I will be when the room stops spinning."

"Told you a portal would have been better," Coop piped up.

Piper suddenly noticed the Cupid and slapped her sister's arm, "You let Cupid help but not your own sister?"

Phoebe returned the gesture, "I didn't let him do anything."

"Not for lack of trying," Coop nodded. "Your sister can be rather stubborn."

"Tell me about it," Piper muttered.

"Hey!" Phoebe wasn't that sick to her stomach that she couldn't feel insulted. "Isn't the important thing that my plan worked and I'm okay?"

"About that plan…" Piper looked around her at the remnants of the candles, "Spell?"

"Not a spell," Phoebe revealed as she hugged a pillow to her stomach, "potion."

"Time-travel potion," Coop clarified.

Piper frowned at her younger sister, "Explain. Now."

Phoebe flashed a look of annoyance at the Cupid. "Cole," she admitted. "I went back in time to talk to Cole."

"Why when you know he's --" Piper cut herself off when she remembered that Phoebe didn't know Cole still existed and that a time-travel potion hadn't been necessary. And once again, she wondered whether it had been a mistake to keep Cole's involvement in limbo a secret from Phoebe.

"And?" Coop had prompted at the same time.

"I figured when Cole worked for the Triad, he might've known why they kidnapped Christy and that he would tell me and then we could figure out a way to stop whatever's going to happen," she answered Piper. To Coop, she simply said, "I listened."

"And?" he repeated.

"And I learned," was all she replied.

"You actually listened to me, I'm impressed," he grinned.

"Not a big deal," she lied. It had been a big deal. Seeing Cole again, even if he had been the Source, opened more than just the wounds she'd suffered at both their hands. Seeing him again, being with him again, had opened that part of her heart she'd wanted to close forever.

But all Piper could think of was that Phoebe had gone back in time. She got to her feet and couldn't keep her temper from flaring, "Are you out of your mind? Didn't you think about the consequences? You could've changed our past!"

Startled from her thoughts, Phoebe scrambled to her feet and waved her hands about the room, "Does it seem different?"

"How would I know!"

"You're upset, I get that," Phoebe acknowledged. "But I told you before, we need answers and this was the only way I could think of getting them."

"You messed with the past," Piper accused. "Phoebe, the slightest change would have a ripple effect and -- God, I've gotta call Paige and make sure --"

Phoebe grabbed her sister's arm, "Paige's fine! Believe me, I've got the answ--"

"This was so irresponsible!" Piper ranted. "How could you have put all of us at risk? How could --"

"She did what she thought best," Coop quietly defended when he realized Phoebe wouldn't argue with her older sister, "and she'd spent hours researching her plan."

Phoebe glanced at Coop in surprise before averting her gaze. "Guess I shouldn't tell you about the glitch, huh…" She waited a moment and when Piper seemed to be silently counting to ten, she explained, "I thought if I went back to when Cole was human, I could convince him that he matt-- never mind, it doesn't matter. It should've worked but --"

"Should've?"

"Somehow the timing messed up and I ended up with Cole as the Source." Phoebe cringed when the old broken frame hanging on the wall next to her suddenly exploded. "It's okay, Piper, he never had a clue!"

"The Source! Phoebe, are you out of your mind!"

Stepping back, and still slightly cringing, Phoebe tried to assure her sister, "It's not like I planned it. But it was still Cole. The times it counted, it was still Cole. And he still…" she spotted Coop watching her intently but she wasn't ready to discuss with him her emotions that were all still mixed up, "The point is, she believed me and now I've got some information we need."

"Who, she?"

"She, me," Phoebe explained. "It started off okay in the Underworld but --"

"The Underworld?" Piper nearly shrieked.

"But we ended up back at home, I mean the penthouse," Phoebe quickly continued, "and I managed to keep him out of the bedroom where --"

"Where your past-self was!"

Phoebe sighed, "I'd run out of time because the potion was starting to bring me back and I still didn't have the answers and then she woke up and I had no choice, I gave her the truth potion and tried to convince her that --"

This was going from bad to worse. Piper pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to calmly interrupt, "What truth potion?"

Phoebe took a deep breath, "Okay, so maybe I was a little worried that my plan would have some glitches and I --"

"Some glitches!"

"Well, I figured better be safe than sorry, right? So I created a couple of other potions. One," Phoebe slipped the vial from her pocket and showed it to Piper, "would make someone forget and the other would make someone tell the truth. With me about to disappear, I needed to convince her to slip the truth potion into Cole's drink and ask him about the Triad and Christy."

As she watched Phoebe place the vial on the table next to the cauldron, Piper shook her head in disbelief, "You drugged the Source. You actually drugged the Source."

"Made him susceptible to telling the truth," Phoebe reasoned. "You make it sound so terrible." She cringed again when the remaining pieces of the shattered frame exploded again. "We're still here, Piper, he obviously never knew."

"That isn't the point, Phoebe!"

Coop stepped between the sisters, "You said you have information so it worked, right?" When Phoebe warily nodded, he surmised, "Your past-self retained the information he gave her and now it's part of your memory."

As if it had happened yesterday. "Strange to have a memory of something I haven't actually lived," she commented.

"One of the quirks of time travel," he told her.

"Experienced are you?"

"Back up," Piper interrupted. "You've got a memory of something that never happened?"

"Not until today when I went back and made it happen," Phoebe shrugged. "Guess I changed the past after all, huh."

"Maybe you needed to," Coop quietly said.

"Maybe…" Phoebe turned from them and fingered some of the vials she'd left on the table as she remembered Cole feeding her bites of the sandwich he'd made especially for her. "The old fashioned way," she unintentionally whispered. The memory was so real. Even though she, herself, had already been gone, and it had been her past-self that had cuddled with him on the bed. Phoebe now licked her lips as if she could taste the melted cheese. It was so real. She closed her eyes and pictured herself pouring the potion into his drink when he'd gone back to the kitchen to fetch the ketchup she'd told him she had to have as a dip for her sandwich. Tears stung her eyes when she realized how willing he'd gone, eager to do anything to please her at that moment. And she hated herself for having drugged him. Source or not, he was still her husband and she should've tried asking him first. But she hadn't given him the chance.

Piper heard the soft mewl that escaped from her sister and, for the first time, she saw the toll this task had taken on Phoebe. She came up behind Phoebe and hugged her sister, resting her chin on Phoebe's shoulder, "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Phoebe's voice cracked.

"For accusing you of putting yourself first," she replied with a kiss to Phoebe's cheek. "That's not what you did and I'm sorry I blew up."

"I understand," Phoebe shrugged. "I did risk our lives and my plan nearly fell apart when I ended up with the Source instead of a human Cole."

Piper couldn't control a shiver and released her sister by gently turning Phoebe around to face her, "And I'm sorry that you had to face Cole like that."

"It turned out okay," Phoebe shrugged again.

"I think there's a lot more to it than that," Piper guessed, "and I'll be here whenever you're ready to talk about it."

"It did turn out okay," Coop assured them. "Phoebe, you had the opportunity you needed and you took it. And you don't have to talk about it with Piper, with me, or with anyone, until you've sorted out the answers for yourself."

"Look, pal, --"

But Coop interrupted Piper and focused on Phoebe, "You've learned and grown and that's what's important."

Phoebe shrugged again and wondered exactly what she'd learned and how she'd grown.

"You saw the truth and have acknowledged and accepted your mistakes," Coop replied as if he'd known her thought.

"Not just mine," she couldn't help but correct.

"No," he smiled, "not just yours. But now you've seen what your heart wouldn't let you see before."

Those brief few hours she'd spent in the past with Cole, making lovewith him, remembering all the good, the love. Phoebe glanced uncomfortably at Piper. How could she tell her sister that she understood better now the mistakes both she and Cole had made? How could she tell her sister that she wished he was still around so that they might forgive each other? Instead, she stepped away from Piper, sniffled, and cleared her throat, "It seems there's always a Triad. When three are in power, there are always others waiting and preparing for their time to serve. Sometimes they're vanquished but sometimes members step aside voluntarily to perform elsewhere."

"So when Cole killed them…"

Phoebe nodded, "Another three immediately took their place. The thing is, if the ones in power are killed, the Triad's weakened and, no matter how powerful their replacements, they still need time to regroup."

"Which explains why it's taken five years to hear from them again," Piper realized as she finally sat down on the sofa. "Great, just great," she muttered. "So now we have to worry 'bout them reforming and coming after us again."

"Not for a while though," Phoebe considered.

"So back to Cole," Piper said, "did he have any idea why the Triad had kidnapped Christy?"

"You're not gonna like it…" Phoebe warned.

"And I like the rest?"

Still a little dizzy, Phoebe joined her sister on the sofa and closed her eyes as she recalled what Cole had admitted while they'd lain drowsily in bed after having finished their snack. She couldn't help but rub her arms as she remembered the feel of his fingers sliding up and down her arms, as real as if she had experienced it herself. And a part of her was insanely jealous that she'd never had the chance to experience that moment for herself.

"That's ridiculous," Coop uttered. "You were there."

"Stop reading my mind!" she snapped.

Piper glared at him, "Since when can Cupids read minds?"

"Not minds," he corrected, "emotions. And it all depends on the person and how open they are and right now your sister's emotions are screa--"

"None of your business!"

Coop grinned, "Actually, they are. But, you've had a rough day so --"

To avoid an explosive situation, Piper turned Phoebe's head away from Coop, "The Triad?"

Phoebe frowned but answered, "They wanted Christy to grow up in their realm so that they could condition her to think like them, be loyal to them. They wanted to return her to our world and never once question what they trained her to do."

"Which was?"

Phoebe sighed, "Christy's the key to ultimate power."

"We already know that." But Piper quickly apologized for letting her frustration through, "Cole say anything else?"

"Just because the Triad answered directly to the Source didn't mean they always worked for him." Phoebe saw Piper's confusion and explained, "Christy was their own little experiment. Ultimate power might mean overthrowing the Source. So while they were loyally working for the Source, like by having Belthazor go after the Charmed Ones, they were also working on a plot of their own."

"So if Cole knew about that plot, why didn't he use the knowledge to get in the Source's good graces before Prue di--?"

"I asked him that," Phoebe quietly said when Piper didn't finish her thought. "It seems Cole didn't know about Christy until after he'd become Source. He'd discovered what the Triad had been planning and decided they were still weak so he was willing to let them continue and see for himself how far they'd get with Christy. If they failed, no loss, but if not…"

"He'd harness the ultimate power for himself?" Piper shivered at the thought of how powerful Cole really had been at the time. And she glanced at her younger sister and was amazed at the power Phoebe had found in order to vanquish him.

Lost in her new memories, Phoebe didn't answer Piper. She'd nearly bolted from the bed when Cole had revealed his plan for using the Triad's key for himself. But he'd caught her in his strong grip and tugged her easily back to his side. He'd wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear that she was safe, that he would never cause her any harm. And he'd promised that he'd meant every word he'd said about trusting her and believing that they, and their son, would be unstoppable. And she'd said nothing in return. All she'd done was snuggle back against him and pull his arms tighter around her. The last thought she remembered before falling asleep in his arms was his quiet declaration that he'd also learned from experience to acquire power however he could and that meant letting the Triad free to do the work while he would ensure he would be the sole being to wield the power they sought to possess.

Piper was quiet for a moment as she processed the information. "So maybe we can de-condition Christy. We've already been doing that, haven't we?"

"They've had fifteen years to work on her. I'm not so sure we can do it in a few weeks." Phoebe didn't add that she felt she'd already failed in a similar way with Cole.

"Then maybe," Piper considered, "we need to find this ultimate power before she does."

Phoebe cringed in advance, "She, um, actually, she already did."

"What? When?"

"See, this's the really bad part." She suddenly found it hard to get the words out.

"Phoebe?"

"Billie…"

"What about her?"

"She's the ultimate power."

Piper shook her head, "I did not hear you tell me that Billie is the ultimate power coming after us." She stared at her sister, "Tell me you didn't just say that."

But Phoebe couldn't comply and revealed the rest, "The Triad had discovered the two sisters would be a powerful force, maybe more powerful than the Charmed Ones, and they wanted the sisters on their side. So they planned to split the sisters when they were young and raise one who would turn the other. Cole thought it was an inspired plan if not a little flawed after he'd been the one to break the Charmed Ones. But still, when the sisters would reunite under the call of evil…let's just say he had high plans for Billie and Christy in the upper guard."

Piper watched the emotions flicker across her sister's face and realized Phoebe was dangerously close to falling apart. So she changed the focus off Cole and her time with him back to the present situation with Billie. "Billie's spent her whole life wondering about her sister's disappearance. She developed her powers on her own and sought us out all so she could find her sister. How do we tell her that her sister…"

"Has been trained by the Triad to join with her and --"

"Christy has to know," Piper suddenly understood with horror. "I mean the Triad had to've told her…"

Phoebe nodded, "Cole figured she was probably conditioned to 'save' Billie when the time was right."

"We know Billie's a powerful witch," Piper acknowledged, "or she will be with time. And look how many times she's helped us, reminded us of why we chose to be witches. She won't turn."

"Won't she? I know what it's like to be faced with that choice and I know how hard it'll be for Billie," Phoebe sadly countered. "She can't see anything right now except helping her sister cope through an ordeal that she doesn't know has been faked. And she won't see Christy manipulating the situation or using her own guilt against her. How long do you think it'll be before Christy is all Billie sees and believes?"

Piper picked up Phoebe's train of thought, "If Billie unleashes her full potential, we won't need to worry about the Triad coming back. We're in serious trouble here, Pheebs."

Phoebe agreed, "Didn't the Angel of Destiny warn us that we wouldn't even see this one coming? So tell me, Piper, how do we go up against this girl that we let into our family?"

"We can't."

"Maybe you won't have to," Coop interjected.

"I don't think we'll have a choice," Piper worried. "If Billie's this big evil that's coming, we'll have to fight her."

"Unless we do something else first," Phoebe intimated.

"We can't do that, Phoebe!"

"Like you said," Phoebe maintained, "we won't have a choice, Piper. Billie knows us, she knows our secrets, and she's powerful. We can't let her be swayed by Christy any more than she's already been and she won't be able to do it herself."

But Piper vigorously shook her head, "Christy's an innocent."

"Not anymore," Phoebe sadly informed her. "She's been trained, Piper. She's killed." She saw Piper's surprise and nodded, "Cole said the Triad's progress pleased him. Christy's killed innocents. She chose her path, Piper, and we can't change that."

"But it wasn't by choice," Piper insisted. "She was brainwashed by evil. She's still Billie's sister and we can't vanquish her."

Phoebe wearily leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes, "I told you it was bad…"

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