Charmed: Hanging with Mr. Turner
Disclaimer: I don't own charmed, but the WB does.
Summary: AU After Season six- After Gideon's death, Leo has taken over his position as guardian of the school but has hired a headmistress to handle all school matters. When the headmistress hires a familiar new teacher, the Halliwells must investigate to see what this new teacher's plans are. Are they good? Or is there an ulterior motive here?
A/N: Just a quick story based around plots that I have written over the last few years, which are mostly about Cole and Phoebe. Review and tell me what you think!
Chapter 6: Sick at School
"As you remember, we spoke about warlocks and evil witches last week, so today we will be discussing monsters and low-level demons, and maybe get into chevron demons and spirits if there is time," Cole started his class lecture the next week, taking off his coat and hanging it over the back of his chair. "First, are there any questions before we move on to the aforementioned topics?"
"I have one, sir," A boy said, not bothering to raise his hand. "What is the difference between evil witches and warlocks again?"
"Warlocks took the wiccan rede and broke it by killing a witch for their powers or giving themselves over to evil," Cole replied patiently, knowing it was a difficult subject to understand, in part because of its personal nature to the witches in the class. "While an evil witch did not take the rede, and therefore did not break it by turning evil, but rather they were just evil from the start."
"That's my question," The student said slowly, going over everything that Cole had just relayed, trying to piece it all together. "If they give themselves over to evil, why are they not transformed into warlocks?"
"Well, you're forgetting the mythical window: an evil witch became evil during that window, while a warlock did not. Further, a warlock is only transformed the moment they kill a witch and takes his or her powers," Cole answered, hoping to illuminate the difference that separated the two. "Literally, if a witch kills another witch, but does not take their powers, they're just evil but not lost. It is the actual breaking of the rede and the taking of the witch's powers, the doubling of the magic that finishes the transformation, and forever transmutes the evil witch's powers into those of a warlock. In evil witches, the witch is simply giving over to evil upon the closing of the mythical window, but not stealing the powers in order to transform, which saves them from being marked by their evil via a transformation. Is that clearer?"
"Yes, sir, thank you," The boy nodded with a smile, somewhat understanding it, though he was still a tiny bit confused by the entire thing. However, he knew that in time his confusion would be cleared up, once he left the safety of school and confronted the real world.
"Then I guess we'll start with monsters," Cole said, beginning his prepared lecture of the day. "Monsters are beings that have been transformed into their state by magic or a curse that was placed upon them. As their name implies, they appear monstrous to human standards, such as excess hair, limbs, maybe even horns, along with gigantic size or vibrantly colored eyes. Additionally, they have human ancestry or descent, limited magical abilities, and no real place in either the Underworld or the human world. There are a few common types of monsters which I will name now, firstly being the banshees, which are created when an emotionally confused or hurt witch hears the cry of a banshee. Banshees have super strength, levitation, and of course, the ability to emit a wail of such pitch that it can shatter glass and kill whoever hears it."
"So all banshees were witches at one time?" Another confused student questioned, wondering if that was what Cole meant. How many monsters hailed lineage from witches that the world knew about? It was scary for the students to know that they could be transformed into a monster without any control over the circumstances, unlike in becoming a warlock, where it was a choice to become one.
"Yes," Cole nodded, agreeing with the statement that all banshees were born from witches. "How the first one came to be and why, I have no idea, but there it is: banshees turn from emotional witches that hear a banshee's call. Moving on, there are also wendigos, which are created when someone is scratched by a wendigo—the first wendigo having been born when a cannibal's heart was turned to ice long ago. And then there are many other monsters, too numerous to count, but generally weaker than an average witch."
"How was his heart turned to ice?" A boy in the back asked interestedly, having read various stories about the mortal myth of a wendigo and being even more interested in the magical being known as a wendigo.
"Couldn't tell you," Cole shrugged, not having that knowledge and doubting anyone did. "It was probably a curse from a shaman, if I'm taking a guess, but that's just a guess. He was heartbroken, ate the heart of the woman who hurt him, and then he was a transformed into a wendigo." He said, and after seeing that there were no more questions, he continued, "Furies can also be considered monsters, as they have human ancestry and no real place in the Underworld, but because they go after evildoers, they are vanquished on the spot by most demons. As such, they are considered on the side of good in the Underworld, though they are certainly not good in our understanding of the word."
Cole paused to take a sip of his water, a tickle forming in the back of his throat, and he briefly wondered if he was coming down with a cold. He felt a bit sick, but he pushed his thoughts away, knowing that he still had to get through the lecture, regardless of how he felt. "There was a Source once that tried to get the furies onto his side a few years back, but that endeavor ended badly for all involved." He finished, referencing his own attempt to unite all factions of monsters in order to defeat good magic while he was possessed by the Source, an action that he was criticized for within demonic circles. "Furies are also much more powerful than other monsters, being able to teleport wherever they please, possess great strength and durability, and can make people hear the cries of their victims. And then there are lesser known monsters, like incubi and succubi, which certain varieties of those beings can both form from witches, but they're few and far between. We'll talk more about incubi and succubi proper during my lecture about darklighters."
"What about werewolves?" A female witch questioned, raising her hand high into the air. She had a smile on her face and a slight blush, as if she was thinking of a werewolf in particular, but did not voice her thoughts.
"What about them?" Cole inquired with a cocked eyebrow, wondering what the girl wanted to know specifically. While such a beast as a werewolf existed, they were not like the movies portrayed, instead they were much less prevalent and not at all powerful.
"Do they exist?" The girl replied immediately, as if excited at the prospect of werewolves being in existence. "Would they be considered monsters?"
"You teenagers love your werewolf stories, don't you?" Cole teased with a smile, earning a chuckle from many of the students. "Yes, they exist and yes, they are considered monsters and in fact are similar to wendigos. Werewolfism stems from a curse from long ago, one of those 'if you won't love me, no one will love you'-type deals or so legend has it. The daughter of an evil shaman or a witch cursed a man to become a wolf at night in the hopes that a hunter would kill him as if he was a regular wolf. Turns out, the curse was more powerful than originally thought, and the werewolf bit a whole town of people, turning them all into werewolves, but giving them a lesser form of the curse, hence why they only turn into a wolf on nights of the full moon. That lesser form continues to this day."
Another girl raised her hand high into the air, a curious expression on her face. "What do they look like?" She inquired, wondering if the images of the werewolf being a humanoid wolf were correct.
"Like normal wolves," Cole shrugged, having not really noticed any differences between a werewolf and a wolf. "All they are is a person who turns into a wolf on the full moons. They have no power other than that, save for perhaps enhanced senses in human form. They're not all that powerful and definitely not as glamorous as some novels would lead you to believe."
"How do you tell they are a werewolf then?" A boy in the corner inquired, confused on how they would be able to tell a werewolf apart from a regular wolf if they appeared to be exactly the same.
"Before mirrors and razors and beautification techniques became popular and common, you could tell a werewolf by his or her unibrow and the fact that they had hairy palms," Cole lectured, detailing the history of how werewolves were investigated centuries prior, when the witch trials were prevalent. "Now, they can shave their brows and their palms, albeit leaving them rougher than a normal human's palm."
"I meant when they are wolves…" The boy prodded slowly, realizing Cole interpreted his question incorrectly.
"Oh," Cole smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with his right hand. "Well, they're smarter than normal wolves are, albeit not up to the level of a human, so you'll sense that the wolf is smarter and therefore a werewolf. Other than that, you really can't. They look exactly like wolves. They may, may have human looking eyes while in wolf form, but I don't know that for a fact as I've never looked when I was close enough to one to be able see their eyes."
"Can anyone become a werewolf?" A voice rang out as the class silently wondered who could become a werewolf. Were they at risk of becoming a werewolf themselves? Or would their inherent magic protect them from the curse?
"Not anyone, no," Cole shook his head in the negative, knowing that there were only certain people that could carry the curse. "The curse only transmits to mortals, and by mortals, I don't mean how witches use the term—meaning humans without powers—I mean anyone that is not eternal. So that means that anyone with fully human descent and can age as such can become werewolves, meaning witches can become werewolves just as much as normal humans can, but not half-demons or whitelighters, each of whom are immune to the curse." He said, recalling how a demon ally was once bitten by a werewolf during the time of his life that he spent as Belthazor; it hurt the demon a lot and nearly killed him, but he was not transformed into a werewolf because of it.
"What are their weaknesses?" A boy who was taking detailed notes asked, wanting to be able to kill a werewolf should he ever come up against it. Unlike his classmates, who were only interested because of the novel of werewolves, he was truly interested in learning about them in order to protect himself and others more thoroughly. "Are they really weak to silver?"
"As far as I know, yes," Cole agreed with that assessment, having heard about a werewolf dying from being stabbed by a silver blade once before—it was his own mother's hand that had done it. "Apparently the shaman who cast the original curse really wanted the guy to survive but be in an excruciating amount of pain because of it, so he made him immune from death to everything but a few specific weaknesses—fire, silver, beheading, those folkloric banes that we have all come to know. If he had the power, he probably would have made him entirely immortal, but that was beyond what the shaman could do, it seems."
"He wanted the wolf to suffer that much?" A student asked, and at Cole's nod, the student shook her head, clearly disturbed by that fact. "How horrible he must have been to bestow such a fate."
"Well, evil people are evil for that reason," Cole whispered, and then, seeing that no one had anymore questions on werewolves, Cole nodded and took another sip of his water. He gulped it down before placing the bottle back onto his desk at the front of the classroom. "Now, onto low-level demons, who are demons from the Underworld that are without a human form and are limited in powers and abilities," Cole lectured, gazing out over the class as they all started writing. "They are mostly unintelligent, and rarely ever leave the Underworld. They are content to war as we breathe, fighting endlessly amongst each other, and appointing a new clan leader every few days or so."
"So we would never see them unless we go to the Underworld?" A student asked, hoping to not have to see the demons that Cole spoke about.
"Not necessarily," Cole shook his head, knowing that there was still the possibility for them to come across a low-level demon. "You potentially still may. Sometimes, rarely but it does happen, more powerful demons may use them as grunts, granting them passage to the human world in exchange for them working for them. However, because they don't have a human form, don't have many active powers, and aren't all that intelligent, they usually just act like fodder in those situations."
"They are the cavemen of demons, right?" A voice came, repeating what Cole had informed them during his first lecture, where he had given an overview of all that they would learn during the semester.
"Basically," Cole agreed, feeling that the comparison between cavemen and low-level demons to be fairly accurate. "They are monstrous in appearance, bleed a violent shade of green, and don't really understand the human world in most instances, which makes them relatively useless in the grand scheme of things. If there is ever a war in the Underworld, they are recruited more heavily, but because most coups are small and quick, they haven't been recruited to a side in a long, long time." He finished, and then, seeing no one else had any questions, he moved on to the next subject, having exhausted his brief lecture on low-level demons.
"Above the lowest form of demon are the chevron demons and the spirits, which both hail lineage from humanity, similarly to monsters," He said, moving up to the level above low-level demons. "Chevron demons are former humans who enter the Academy and undergo a process in order to transform their human soul into a demonic essence. They get their name from the chevrons that appear on their forearm while they undergo the process, with six chevrons transforming the human into a demon fully."
"Why would they do that?" Sara, a girl with the power of telekinesis questioned, confused as to why a human would want to be transformed into a demon. Were their lives that miserable that they needed a way to escape, even if it would cost them their soul?
"There are a wide variety of reasons; sometimes they are lost in life, or seduced by the idea of power, or want to be heard, or are tricked into it, really, there isn't just one reason," Cole answered with a shrug, knowing that everyone had their own reasons for entering the Academy, some more evil than others. "Sometimes it's a sad story; sometimes it's just the worst of humanity."
"What kind of powers do they have?" She questioned once more, wanting to know what powers the people who entered the Academy traded their soul for and whether it was worth it or not.
"When they first come out of the Academy?" Cole answered, earning a confused nod from the students. "Depends on the person, but usually a low power, like a flame ball or a volt ball or a power like that," said Cole, before biting his lip, seemingly trying to think of something. "Just because they turn into a demon after six chevrons does not mean they stop earning them throughout their life—the more chevrons they have, the more powerful they are. Their magic evolves and grows just as yours does. I think I recall a demon that once had twelve chevrons; that was the most I've ever heard and that number bequeaths power that is just touching the lower parts of Upper-Level demons."
"What's a volt ball?" A few students inquired, having never heard the term before. They knew energy balls, they knew fireballs, they even knew flame balls, but a volt ball was something that was novel to their young minds.
"For lack of a better term, it's a red energy ball," Cole responded quickly, not wanting to spend too much time on powers as he had a separate lecture prepared for it at the end of the semester. "They have the same electrical component of an energy ball, but lack the concussive force of it. In that way, an energy ball is the evolution of a volt ball. I've only known one demon, a demon by the name of Keats who was part of Kurzon's cabal and his second in command, who possessed the power, though I'm sure there have been others."
"So it's weaker?" The students questioned, not seeing why a demon would prefer a volt ball to an energy ball if the latter did more damage.
"No necessarily weaker, just less…destructive," Cole shrugged, not really being able to form an argument against the idea of a volt ball being weaker than their blue brethren. "If you get hit with it, you'll probably die just the same; you just won't be thrown ten feet in the air like you would an energy ball."
There was a silence over the entire class, as Cole stared off into this distance, his throat hurting him a touch and his mind began to wander as he sensed something in the distance. "What about spirits?" He heard a student say, though he couldn't ascertain who it was that spoke.
"Right," Cole agreed with a nod of his head, moving onto the second subject of the day. "Spirits, meanwhile, are former humans who have transformed into demon-like magical beings under their own actions. Someone consumed by rage in their life, or their fears overcome them, or they were betrayed and their hatred lives on, can all transform into spirits upon death. Upon the destruction of their mortal form, their soul solidifies into another body, for lack of a better term, which is an exact replica of their original human body. This process also grants them supernatural powers that are vaguely reminiscent to how they died or how they lived—take the Siren for example, who died by flames, she was capable starting fires with a simple gesture."
"Are they immortal like demons?" A student naturally inquired, wanting to know how deep the conversion went. Were they entirely inhuman or was their a shred of mortality still left in a spirit?
"Eternal, you mean? Yes," Cole nodded, answering in the affirmative that spirits were not wizened by age or disease, but stood immune to both. "They grow more powerful as they live, like most magical beings, which allows them to be anointed demons in their own right once they grow powerful enough for the distinction. That is what happened to the Spirit of Fear, Barbas, who had grown so immensely powerful that a Source in ancient times had no choice but to anoint him a demon or else he feared Barbas' insurrection. Of course, Barbas was then banished soon after, but still; he was made a demon and became known as the Demon of Fear, escaping his prison every 1300 years to bring fear to those around him. I believe he's accumulated enough power to escape more often than that these days, but that's a story for a different time."
A boy sitting in one of the middle rows of desks tentatively raised his hand, a bit fearful about the thought that had just entered his mind. "So anyone can become a spirit?"
"Any mortal that lives and dies with a volatile emotion in their heart, whether it's fear or rage or desire for revenge or hatred, yes," Cole agreed with a nod, agreeing that anyone can become a spirit under the right circumstances. "No one with love or compassion in their hearts will ever become a spirit, though."
"They're ghosts then, right?" Tag, a student with the ability to teleport in a flash of smoke replied, not seeing any difference between spirits and ghosts. "Is that what you're saying?"
"No, no, ghosts become ghosts because they have a lingering feeling at the time of their death, whether its that they don't believe themselves to be dead or that they had unfinished business that tethers them to the Earth or something similar, whereas spirits become spirits because they lived that way during life," Cole explained, realizing for the first time that it was indeed hard to distinguish between the two when you were not as knowledge about the subject as he was, similarly to the distinction between warlocks and dark witches. "It's a subtle difference, but still, a difference nonetheless. Albeit, in some cases, like the case of the Siren, that difference becomes clouded and nearly erased."
Cole looked at the class, and noticed that they were all wearing the same confused looks, as if they didn't quite understand what he was telling them. "In ghosts, death is the reason for the transformation, whereas for spirits, death is simply the completion of the transformation that has slowly been taking place throughout their life." He said in an effort to make it clearer for them, hoping that they would see the division with their own eyes.
"What exactly is the transformation?" The boy who inquired about the werewolves asked, wanting to know what exactly made a spirit a spirit. Were they just humans running around with magical powers? Or was there something different about them?
"The corruption of the soul into a demonic essence, which is the core difference between a human and a demon," Cole answered, having felt the two while living his life as Belthazor, with his demonic essence far overshadowing his human soul. "A soul has a broader ability to experience positive emotions, mainly love, and is eternal, everlasting, compared to a demonic essence, which can be destroyed and experiences shallower emotions except for the negative ones."
Herman, a boy with the power to conjure various items, looked down at his desk, his brows furrowed as he went over everything that Cole had said. "So demons just die when they are vanquished, they don't have an afterlife?" He inquired, reading between the lines and interpreting what Cole meant by a soul being eternal but not a demonic essence.
"Well," Cole started slowly, memories of his time in the Wasteland coming to the forefront of his mind, making him slightly uncomfortable. "Their powers live on in a terrible hell dimension, with their powers housing some vestiges of their personality, some parts of their demonic essence. Those vestiges can allow for a resurrection in a variety of ways, but for the most part, they're gone for good when they are vanquished, yes."
"How are they resurrected?" Cole heard ask, though like before, he did not know who asked it. In the back of his mind, he didn't know how or why, he could still feel something off in the distance, a growing fear, making him feel sick and distracting him from his lecture, though he didn't know what it was exactly.
"I'll answer that when we get to demons proper," Cole replied with a shake of his head, not wanting to talk about that just yet. "It's more belonging to the upper-level demon lecture."
"Can they be ghosts?" Slick, a witch with the ability to shapeshift, questioned, raising his hand. He was a popular kid, though many of his classmates simply pretended to like him out of fear, as he had been a bully for many years leading up to their senior year.
Cole turned his attention to the student, before giving out a sigh, really not wanting to get into the conversation about demons just yet, but finding that question quite intelligent. "That's an interesting question," He started, giving into that question alone, his intellectualism taking over for the briefest of moments. "Some demons can linger after vanquishment as a ghost if it is one of their powers to do so. Another way is if some of their power still anchors the demon to the Earth, which creates an undead-like skeletal being that lives a half-life. They must feed on the life energy or spirit of a living being in order to hold onto whatever life they still have. This usually only happens when an extremely potent demon is vanquished by a witch not as powerful as they are, which is rare in and of itself. That witch leaves some of the demon's power on Earth, which then allows the demon to live on via un-life in the hopes of one day being able to regain that which they lost."
Seeing that there were no more questions, Cole continued with his lecture, with the rest of the class being spent informing the students about some of the better known spirits. Once the bell rang and the students departed class that day, Cole made his way to his apartment in Seattle, appearing in his home with a flurry of grey orbs. As he started to prepare dinner, he realized he didn't have all of the ingredients that he needed, so after grabbing his wallet and keys, he exited his apartment through the door and walked down to the corner market. He weaved in and out of the aisles, doing his shopping with a smile on his face, trying to not think about his hurting head and his tickling throat. He collected a few extra things, and when he had all that he wanted, he went up to the cashier and paid for his items, before carrying his groceries out of the store and starting to head back to his apartment.
As he walked, he enjoyed the cool night air. Ever since his return to from the Void, he had been stripped of the negative energy that had consumed him after his vanquish as the Source. It had been the reason for his obsessive behavior, the lingering feeling of being cheated by fate: he was possessed, yet the people that he loved most in the world did not bother to hear his side of the story. That feeling of disrespect, however, was now gone, allowing him to live a happy, quiet life that permitted him to find joy in the little things, one of them being taking a walk around the city at nighttime to enjoy all the sights that the city had to offer.
He arrived back at his apartment, and upon taking his groceries out from the bag, he started cooking. It took about fifteen minutes for the meal to be finished, so he set the table and poured himself a drink in the meantime. Just as he was putting his food on his plate, he paused and a pensive expression took shape on his face. For a moment, he looked entirely confused, before his face contorted into worry, sensing something that he wished he hadn't. Quickly, he transformed into a flurry of grey orbs, rising into the air and disappearing a few moments later, sparkling out of his apartment in an effort to confirm his suspicions.
He reappeared in the attic of the Halliwell manor, hidden from the sight of everyone by invisibility. He silently watched as three people in black attire teleported out of the room in a shadow, leaving the man that was kneeling in front of them alone. The man gave out a deep sigh as he rose to his feet, feeling the profound effects of the ceremony that had just taken place. He gave a look around the attic, before turning and heading for the door, only pausing when he heard a noise.
"You just made the worst decision of your life, Leo," Cole's voice said through the air, realizing that it had been the return of his former comrades that had made him feel sick all day. It had been the return of the Avatars onto the Earthly plane that made him feel discomfort, made him sense a rising danger in the world—one that he knew all too well.
"What? Who's there?" Leo called out, seeing no one else in the attic. His eyes moved around the room, searching for the voice, but still, he did not see anything out of the ordinary.
Behind him, Cole Turner appeared, revealing himself to Leo for the first time. "Follow me," He ordered, before sparkling out, hoping that Leo would take him up on his advice. Sure enough, after a moment of thought, Leo disappeared in a flurry of blue and white orbs, following the trail that Cole had left behind, inwardly curious as to what Cole had meant by his proclamation.
A/N: I figured I'd give a new chapter for my birthday. I don't know when the next chapter will come, but you'll at least get one more chapter so I can end Cole's portion of the outside Avatar arc (you won't see the entire arc from Leo's side, only from Cole's side).