Part Two

Cole returned from the kitchen with the Seer's tonic disguised in a teacup. 'Is Loverboy still here? At least Piper got Phoebe to sit down.' Striding past the cupid, he presented to Phoebe the teacup and saucer. "Your favorite flavor. Maybe it'll help settle your stomach so we can talk about the baby." He acknowledged Piper's shrug with a nod. "What's going on, Phoebe? I'm worried about you. You don't have to keep anything from me."

Emotionally spent, Phoebe accepted the tea without arguing. The concern in his voice was almost too much for her to bear. All she wanted was for the nightmare to end. But just as she was about to sip the steaming liquid, images from that last night flashed through her mind. 'The tonic!' She hurled the cup and saucer at Cole who barely dodged out of the way. "You bastard! I won't let you do this to me!"

'She can't know.' Cole absentmindedly swiped at the tea spots now dotting his suit jacket. "Out with it, Phoebe, what did you see? What do you know?"

"What makes you think she had a premonition?" Paige sneered. 'We've got you now.'

"I know the truth, Cole," Phoebe replied to him as she locked her eyes with his. 'C'mon, Cole, admit it. Say it, you're the Source.'

'Damn it all to hell, she knows.' Reaching for her hand, he promised, "Everything will be okay, Phoebe. I won't let anyone hurt us. Our family is all that matters."

'Oh, God, Paige was right. Cole really is working with demons. That's why Phoebe's so angry with him. She didn't know in the past but she knows now. And Cole doesn't know she's from the future. I have to get her out of here.' Piper neared her sister, "Sweetie, why don't you come home with us? Cole, you should probably go to work, I mean you just started this job, you shouldn't suddenly start taking off. We'll keep an eye on her and call you later."

He was just about to "thank" Piper when the Seer materialized in the room. "What the hell?"

"You!" Without thinking about what she was doing, Phoebe angrily let fire shoot from her hand attacking the Seer.

"Omigod," Piper gasped just as Paige hurried to her side.

"Phoebe, no!" Cole threw his arm around her, breaking her concentration and the flame. "Are you out of your mind? The Seer's dangerous and you're pregnant! You'd risk the baby?"

"With this active power?" she taunted as she flamed the Seer again. 'Maybe there is one good thing after all about being back here in my past-self's body.' She grinned as the Seer's robes began to smoke and catch flame.

"Flame-throwing," Piper uttered as Coop pulled her and Paige back, "upper-level demonic power."

Too shocked to be smug, Paige said, "Cole is a demon!"

"Mental collapse, do you see?" the Seer hoarsely questioned him.

"Oh, I see all right," Phoebe snapped. "I see this's all your fault! You manipulated everything from the moment you chose Cole to absorb the Hollow…the baby, the tonic, everything so you could become Source!"

Withstanding the pain, the Seer still declared, "The pregnancy was foreseen and you need to be careful or it will destroy you."

"The only one who will be destroyed," Cole coolly said, "is you." And before she could say another word, he threw a fireball at her that instantly reduced her to a pile of ash. And when Phoebe's flame turned on him, he simply smiled, "You see, Phoebe? I believe in you. You had no reason to lie to me while the Seer…let's just say you've already solved for me a future problem." He held out his hand to her, "Come with me, Phoebe. I love you and I want us to be together."

'Did Phoebe really just vanquish the Seer?' Piper stared at the pile of ash, "What the hell just happened?"

Paige glanced up at Cole and watched the flame die from Phoebe's hand, "I think we've got a bigger problem than Cole being a demon again."

Leo orbed back just as he heard Phoebe's toneless introduction, "Piper, Paige, meet the new Source of all Evil." Confronting Cole, he glared, "When was the coronation? The Elders didn't know."

"The Elders are self-righteous idiots." Phoebe seemed in shock and Cole led her to the sofa nearly laughing when the others nervously stepped out of his way. 'At least I can end this absurd double life.' He turned back to Leo, "As a matter of fact, the coronation hasn't happened yet. The Seer was supposed to be putting together the details while I attended to," he glanced down at his wife, "other matters."

"The we still have a chance to stop it," Leo realized.

"Damn right," Paige muttered as she orbed out of the room.

"How?" Piper asked her husband as she leaned against him, grateful for the protective arm he threw around her shoulders.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Phoebe whispered. "Why haven't I gone back?"

"Are you saying you're from the future?" Cole inquired. 'This could change everything. How do I turn it into my advantage?'

"She's not from the future," Leo corrected.

Phoebe laughed bitterly, "Of course I am, Leo. Only now that I've changed the past, I seem to be stuck here."

"You haven't changed anything," Leo assured her.

"I didn't know," she spoke to Cole as memories caught her unaware, "or maybe I didn't want to know, just like the Seer told me. She's the one who convinced me to "save" you from the wizard. Some affair, that coronation. Every upper level demon was there to see the new Source and his queen. And what a laugh they had when they learned she was a former Charmed One. They thought it was the start of a new era." She let Cole wipe away a tear that ran down her cheek and even let him hold her hand as the memories became more painful. "The Seer and her tonic. Oh, I handled the evil all right. I played right into her hand. I wonder if she knew that I would end up vanquishing you because of it. Or was that just an early bonus for her?" She pulled Cole's hand to her abdomen, "This evil was what she was after all along. She transferred the baby into her own body and then we destroyed her and the new Source within her."

"Phoebe, no…" he whispered as he withdrew his hand and stood. "No."

But she continued, lost in her memories, "And then you came back and sent my life into a tailspin." Tears filled her eyes as she gazed up at him, "It took me years to get over what happened but I finally found happiness again. With Coop…"

Coop cleared his throat, "I'm flattered, Phoebe, but that's not the way things work. Cupids don't fall in love with their charges, they don't fall in love period."

"You didn't plan it," she quietly told him. "Neither of us did. In fact, falling in love with anyone was the last thing I wanted when we were preparing to go up against -- look, Coop, it happened. We fell in love and we got married, by an Angel of Destiny no less. And now we have three beautiful little girls with a fourth one on the way…"

"Enough of this fairy tale!" Cole exploded. "Phoebe I know you believe what you're saying but none of it's true. It's the shock of the pregnancy and what you did to the Seer. Go into the bedroom and lie down and we'll talk about this later."

"Don't patronize me," she snapped as she stood toe-to-toe with him, "I'm telling you the truth. I am married to Coop!"

"The truth," he retorted, "is that we love each other and we're having a baby!"

"You're not listening to me!"

"Okay, Pheebs," Piper carefully stepped forward and gently tugged her younger sister back, "take it easy. This's a lot for all of us to understand. Cole, if you really love Phoebe, you'll let us take her home until we can figure out what to do."

Cole shook his head, "And let you convince her to go ahead and vanquish me? Sorry, Piper. Phoebe's my wife and she's having my baby. You're right, I do love her but I'm not letting her go anywhere with you. And if you're halfway as smart as I believe you to be, you'll take the others and go home. Alone."

"Love isn't enough!" Phoebe shouted. "Why can't you understand that, Cole? We can't overcome the evil and the temptations and risking everything for love will only tear us all apart! And this time…I swear, Cole, I'll do whatever it takes to protect myself, my children…"

Cole noticed the way her hand settled protectively on her belly and he reminded her. "That is our child, Phoebe, not some cupid's. He was conceived in love and no one will take him from us."

She immediately dropped her hand, "This baby was meant to be evil and was never ours no matter how he was conceived. Whose idea was it, Cole? Yours? I doubt it. The Seer manipulated everything from his conception to -- she manipulated everyone and especially you."

"So," he countered, "you believe I'm innocent but won't trust me enough to save our --"

But an unexpected wave of nausea sent Phoebe running back to the bathroom before she could respond.

Piper jumped from the sound of the slammed door and stared at Cole who, for the first time that morning, seemed unconfident. "Leo, if Phoebe isn't from the future, what did the Elders say?"

"Near as they can figure," he replied as he kept an eye on a silent Cole, "Phoebe had a premonition coinciding with her faint and she lived it while she was unconscious."

"That's impossible," Piper argued, "Phoebe's premonitions aren't that powerful."

Coop also watched Cole watching for Phoebe's reappearance, "Maybe her subconscious used the opportunity to warn her about Cole being the Source, about the need to vanquish him."

"Watch it, Loverboy," Cole warned, "I can make sure her premonition about you never comes true."

"Some things are meant to be," Piper quietly told him. "What'd the Seer say about mental collapse? I'm sorry, Cole, I know Phoebe loves you but there may not be any other way to save her."

"As if Phoebe would vanquish me," he scoffed. "Did it ever occur to you that the baby, predicted to be the most powerful magical being, might be augmenting her power and she simply couldn't handle it? She might not be ready for such an advancement and what had started off as a premonition turned into a case of sensory overload."

"But it's still true, isn't it?" she challenged. "You're still the Source. You're still our enemy and out to destroy us."

"I need Phoebe and she needs you…alive," he reluctantly admitted. 'Did you think I kept saving you out of the mere goodness of my heart?'

"You need her," she repeated. "But what about love, Cole? Do you love her or has the Source killed that too?"

"He loves her," Coop verified before Cole could respond. "Deep down, he does. It's his weakness." He turned to Cole, "But love isn't a weakness, Cole. Once you believe that, you'll --"

"Don't preach to me, Cupid."

"We're taking Phoebe home with us," Paige announced when she suddenly returned.

"Not unless you want to join the Seer," Cole threatened.

"You won't get that chance."

"How do plan to stop me?" he laughed. "In case you weren't paying attention, I'm the Source."

"Same as we did before," Paige smirked. "Crystals," she ordered as they orbed to the floor in a ring surrounding him.

'Our little sister's really grown in her powers.' "You've never done anything like that before, Paige."

"Nothing like a little motivation," Paige quipped to her sister before turning to Cole. "You were saying…"

"What have you done?" Phoebe gasped in horror at the sight of Cole in the crystal trap they'd designed for the Source. 'It's happening all over again!'

"Tell them to remove it, Phoebe," Cole told her. "I don't know what you saw in your premonition but only I can make sure your sisters stay alive. And I swear to you, I will protect them."

"Why would you do that?" Paige exclaimed in disbelief.

"Because I love Phoebe and even the damn Cupid believes it!"

Piper looked from one younger sister to the other, "Phoebe, sweetie, if it's as bad as you think, there's only one way to set it right, to give you that happy future you saw in your premonition."

'Piper doesn't believe me.' Phoebe shook her head sadly, "I don't think it's bad, Piper. I know it's bad because it wasn't a premonition. It was all real and I lived it."

"What'd I miss? I thought Phoebe was from the future," Paige suddenly asked Piper. "You're saying she only had a premonition?"

"The Elders believe she had a premonition, an extension of her power possibly brought on by the stresses of the pregnancy," Leo explained, "that led her to actually live what she was seeing."

"It's the truth, Leo," Phoebe practically cried. "My power does advance that way. I can experience a premonition. But that's not what happened here! I really did come back in time!" She spun to face Cole as tears flowed down her cheeks, "You have to understand, it has to be this way."

"You love me, Phoebe, you won't do this."

"That's why I have to do this," she ruefully whispered as she covered her mouth and stepped back to her sisters' sides, reaching for their hands.

'Then maybe this is for the best if she's already given up.' Standing tall before her, he gazed at her and said, "I love you, Phoebe, and I always will. Love is what brought Cole Turner to life and love is what will keep him alive."

'Why do I always have to lose you like this?' Phoebe buried her face in Piper's shoulder, "Now before I lose my nerve."

"Prudence, Patricia, Penelope, Melinda, Astrid --"

"Phoebe what's wrong?" Piper asked in surprise when Phoebe's voice suddenly trailed away.

"The wizard," she whispered as she slowly stepped away from Piper and moved back towards Cole.

"Phoebe," Paige warily requested, "come back here."

"Could you do it?" Phoebe asked Cole. "Could you finish the ritual with him, the one I interrupted before?"

"Wizards are dangerous," he warned her. "There's a reason they're going extinct and I don't want you messing with one."

She stepped even closer to the trap, "In a weak moment, you once confessed you were sorry you weren't able to finish transferring power to the wizard before I'd killed him. Do you mean that?" Without waiting for an answer, she knelt before him, "Maybe that's why I'm really here," she removed a crystal and carefully stood, "maybe I'm here to give you that chance."

"Phoebe, no, what're you doing?" Paige called to her. "Put it back."

"He's the Source, Phoebe," Piper agreed, "we can't let him get away, even if it is Cole."

Phoebe gripped the crystal tightly and kept her eyes on Cole, "He won't. Not if he truly loves me."

'This could be a way to kill two birds…' "Could you find him?" Cole asked simply.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I wasn't at the manor when he first showed up so I don't have the details." She caught his inquisitive expression and shrugged, "It wasn't something I wanted to talk about after it all ended."

"This is such a bad idea," Paige muttered. "Crystal."

"No!" Phoebe fell to her knees, grabbed the crystal back, and took some deep breaths when the edges of her vision began to darken. She felt Cole's arms suddenly pull her close to him and she simply let him while she closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

"What if it can save Cole?" Piper questioned her youngest sister as she pointed to Cole and Phoebe. 'It would be so much easier if he didn't love her.'

"Love is worth the risk," Coop quietly recommended.

"Put the crystal back, Phoebe," Cole whispered in her ear as he gently pushed her back. He got to his feet and took a few steps back into the center of the ring. "They won't trust me unless you do." But when Phoebe hesitated, he nodded encouragingly, "It's okay."

"What makes you think we'll trust you anyway?"

"Don't antagonize him, Paige," Piper sighed. "Look, Cole, if this doesn't work, we will vanq--"

"Just do what you have to do," he said, "and take care of Phoebe."

"Piper," Leo directed as Phoebe carefully stood, "I'll stay with Phoebe while she gets dressed. You and Paige check the Book of Shadows and see if you can find a way to call for a wizard. We'll join you in a little while."

"And that, I suppose," Coop announced, "is my cue to leave." He focused on Phoebe and Cole and advised, "Don't give up on love. It's the only thing that will save you and your future."

"Oh, Coop," Phoebe burst into tears and ran from the room.

Piper looked from Coop to Cole, shrugged as she shook her head, and followed her sister into the bedroom.

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