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 7: Spring Break
They appeared moments later in a dark, cobwebbed lair, with the only light coming from the torches hanging high on the walls. "Where are we? What is this place?" Leo questioned immediately upon landing, furrowing his brows as he wondered why Cole had brought him there. While he did not distrust the former demon and did not believe it to be a trap, he still did not want to spend any time with him all the same. "What were you doing back in the manor?"
While waiting for Cole to answer his questions, the Elder scanned his surroundings more and noticed that that the chamber they had arrived in was positively ancient. The air was stale and filled with dust, while spiders and beetles scattered in the corners. Dirt covered the sandstone floor, though Leo did not see a way in which the dirt would enter the chamber as there were no doors or windows or other entry points. There were hieroglyphs on the walls with the chamber being illuminated by torches that never seemed to go dull, telling the world of ancient tales, though Leo knew not of which they spoke. Overall, in the Elder's mind, it was a chamber that seemed too old to be one that Cole used for himself.
"Why would you give yourself over to the Avatars like that?" Cole asked, ignoring Leo's inquiries, knowing full well that he would be a threat to the Avatars that would eventually need to be squashed and that his time was relatively limited. "They're evil, Leo, you've been fooled by their propaganda. They're the Avatars of Force and Power, not hugs and kisses."
Leo's gaze jerked to Cole at what the man had said, his attention being drawn away from the chamber around them. "What? How do you know about them?" Leo questioned confusedly, his eyes going wide at Cole's proclamation. How did Cole know about the Avatars? How did he learn about their nature when they were so mysterious to everyone else, including the Elders?
"I was once part of their collective, a member of their kind," Cole replied with a sigh, revealing one of his most guarded secrets, one that he never wanted anyone else to know. "It was how I gathered the strength to transform the world into what I wanted back when I wasn't thinking clearly."
"You're lying," Leo scowled, finding it preposterous that the Avatars would accept Cole and allow him to join their group. Cole had been flushed with evil and selfish thoughts in the past, which ran against his own thoughts of goodness and keeping those he loved protected from the evils of the world, which meant that their two natures completely cancelled each other. How could the Avatars allow both disconnected ways of thought into the collective?
"I wish that was the case, but I'm not," Cole responded, shaking his head in the negative, not wanting Leo to think he was being untruthful. "Why do you think I brought you here? Read the walls, you'll see their history. They took over the world eons ago, in a time before the Founders became the Elders, but were forced to retreat by humanity after the wizard Anubis concocted a powerful potion that was capable of killing them."
"We want paradise," Leo replied, firmly believing that paradise would be brought to the world by the Avatars. It was the reason why he had joined the group as they had promised him an end to the constant fighting, allowing his family to be safe and protected from demons, warlocks, and other beings that went bump in the night. "We want utopia."
"And their version of paradise is not what you think it is," Cole answered, knowing that he had to start getting through to Leo before it was too late. "Their version is with them as the rulers and no threats to their power, a future shaped by their own design. They don't believe in free will, they don't believe in choice, instead they demand people to live in their own limited dogma, restricted to the whims of the Avatars. It's worse than the evil-plagued world we live in; at least here we have a chance to do what makes us happy, to do what we want, but with them? They arrogantly stomp out any threats to their own magnificence and force us to bow to their own ideals."
"That's not true," Leo said, shaking his head in the negative and turning his back on Cole, not wanting to hear anymore on the matter. What Cole had said was deeply unsettling to him, as he knew that free will, the ability to do as one pleased, was what made humanity so special, so different than all other races in the cosmos, so to hear that could be taken away was especially disheartening to him.
"Believe what you want, I don't care," Cole replied with a shrug, hoping that his words would reverberate throughout the Elder's mind. "But I know more about the Avatars than you do, and trust me when I say this, they are not who they say they are. They are evil, just a different brand of evil than what you are used to seeing, and one day you will come to recognize that. However, if you need more proof then answer me this: what are you bringing to the collective?"
"What?" Leo asked, confused by the question as he turned back around to face the taller man. Why would Cole want to know what Leo brought to the Avatars? Why would that help the man in any way?
"Everyone is bringing something, what are you bringing?" Cole asked once more, repeating the question that he had posed, knowing that its answer would inform Leo of the Avatars' true motives. "Gamma? He's an alchemist; he's the one that allows you to resurrect the dead. Beta, she's a Mayan shaman, one of the most powerful shamans that has ever lived, one who has the ability to cast illusions that can entrance even the most diligent of people and can sense things happening from across the world. Omega, the Avatar of Force and Alpha, the Avatar of Power, are clever manipulators, who have recruited a Titan for his weather manipulation, a devil for his ability to manipulate time, and even an invincible demon simply for his immense powers, amongst a few others." Cole explained, knowing exactly which Avatar possessed what from his study of their collective in preparation for their return, having even referenced himself by alluding to his own previous invincibility. "So again I ask: what are you bringing? What are you incorporating into the collective?"
"What does that even matter?" Leo growled, not understanding why anyone would care what Leo brought to the collective. "Why is it so important to learn what I bring into the collective?"
"Because if you're not bringing something to the collective, then they obviously brought you in for another reason, a more sinister one," Cole answered, seeing that something wasn't right with the Avatars bringing in Leo. As an Elder, Leo was surely powerful, but he wasn't powerful enough to risk contacting him and notifying the side of good to their presence, which made the entire ordeal quite perplexing in Cole's mind—it was a risk that wasn't worth taking. "They don't usually extend their hand out unless they need something from that person, and in this case, it's you."
Leo furrowed his brow, seeing what Cole meant, but not knowing where the conversation was going exactly. "Like what?" He questioned, allowing himself to ponder what Cole was saying for a few moments.
"I don't know yet, it could be their ploy for the sisters, for them to be able to enter the Heavens, I haven't figured out their angle just yet," Cole replied, having been unable to see the plan of the Avatars up to that point. He knew there was something illusive in the air, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, which was starting to frustrate him.
"Yet you assume they're evil," Leo sighed, having hoped that Cole had turned a new leaf, rather than revert to his old, scheming ways. Without proof or even some semblance of a theory, he would not hear Cole out as he ran the risk of making a mistake on the word of a known liar. "And you want me to believe you when you offer no proof other than your word?"
"I knew you wouldn't, that's why I brought you here. I just hope that when that time comes, it isn't too late to fix your mistakes," Cole said, making a move to put his hand on Leo's shoulder, but hesitating, instead keeping his arms by his side. "Just promise me that you will remember this place. I'll be dead before you come to your senses, but remember this place. This is the only location in all of creation, outside of the Upper levels of Heaven, the void, and the Netherworld itself that the Avatars cannot see and they cannot sense. This is the only safe spot for you when the time comes."
"Sure," Leo nodded, not anticipating the need to remember the place, but not wanting to continue the conversation any longer than he needed.
Cole looked at the walls, before flicking his eyes over to Leo once more, knowing that it was time to leave. "If you don't believe me, fine, I understand," he started, giving one last push to get Leo to trust him on the issue. "But at the very least, when you realize that I was telling the truth, that the Avatar message isn't what they say it is, return to this place. The truth of my story and your salvation is written on the wall." With that, Cole nodded and transformed into a flurry of grey and white particles, before rising up to the ceiling and disappearing, leaving Leo alone in the chamber.
Leo lingered for a few minutes, staring at the wall, trying to decipher what he saw, before shaking his head. He wouldn't allow himself to be fooled by Cole, to be fooled by whatever agenda Cole had. As such, he gave one last cursory glance at the walls and then orbed out of the chamber and back to the manner, intent on helping out the sisters with whatever threat they were facing. He didn't know what to think of Cole's message, the plot behind it, but he would not spend any time thinking about it until the Avatars showed any sign of being evil.
The week surprisingly passed without a problem, and before Cole knew it, he was standing in front of his class, ready to begin his lecture. "Last week, you'll remember we discussed monsters, low-level demons, chevron demons, and spirits," Cole said, taking off his blazer and putting it on the back of his chair at the head of the class. "This week, we'll be discussing mid-level or level-two demons and darklighters, but first, does anyone have any questions from last week?"
Cole ran his eyes over the entire class, and not seeing any hands, he nodded and took a deep breath before starting his lecture proper. "Level-two or mid-level demons are demons that are just above low-level demons, but still a way's away from being an Upper-Level demon. They usually have simple powers like super strength or durability like lower demons possess, but what makes them above lower-level demons is that they look human and they are intelligent, albeit not up to the level of most Upper-Level demons."
"At the peak of this tier are the Zotars, a race of demonic bounty hunters," Cole informed them, referencing the bounty hunters that had chased after him when Belthazor was still alive. "They have the ability to smell and track blood throughout the planes, allowing them to hunt whomever they want relatively easily. They can also have other active powers, like the ability to teleport whether via shimmer or a glare or a glisten, and the ability to throw energy balls or bolts of electricity. Others of this level simply look human and are used in the human world to advance the plots of Upper-Level demons," He continued, before finishing by saying, "Like I said during my first lecture, this really isn't a level per se, but instead, it's just common nomenclature within demonic circles. It's the point where Lower-Level demons meet Upper-Level ones."
"Will we ever fight them?" A student asked, wanting to know whether they would ever come up against a Level-two demon.
"Potentially, so be aware," Cole nodded, believing there to be a slight chance that they would indeed fight a Level-two demon. While it wasn't a large threat, the threat was still there, and as such, he wanted them to be cognizant of it.
"Okay," The students all agreed, knowing that they would remember Cole's lectures when they entered the real world. He had a way of imputing knowledge into their minds without it being boring, which allowed them to learn a great deal from him.
"Moving on, we have the darklighters," Cole started, speaking of the other common type of evil that witches experienced along with warlocks and demons. "There are various types of darklighters, depending on what they specialize in, but they are all meant to guide newly turned warlocks, kill whitelighters, destroy the destinies of future whitelighters, and propagate evil within the human world. Created nearly four or five thousand years ago, they showed up around the time that the first whitelighters appeared which was after the fall of Olympus."
"Who created them?" A girl with long black hair questioned, wondering if they were naturally born like demons or if they were given new life like whitelighters.
"The Infernal Council, which we will talk about in more detail when we reach the highest level of the Underworld," Cole answered, not wanting to speak about the council too much as it would be included in a later lecture. "Originally, they were created as antitheses of whitelighters, sent to newly turned warlocks to inform them about the customs of the demonic world, teach them the demonic laws, and give them a slow entry into the Underworld. They then started to hunt whitelighters and future whitelighters and then eventually they became the tool that the Underworld uses to propagate human evil in the world, almost entirely abandoning their original purpose of training new warlocks."
"How do they do that?" A student in the back asked, earning a few snickers from the rest of the class. "Propagate evil, I mean."
"Well," Cole shifted awkwardly, knowing that they would be entering an uncomfortable topic of conversation. "They are the incubi and succubi of myth, to be honest—there are other, similar creatures, like the witch version of each, but the darklighters served as the folkloric inspiration of the creatures humans know. They mate with rich and powerful humans, whether male or female, creating an evil offspring that is basically entirely human since darklighter powers don't transfer unless the other person involved possesses magic. After the birth, they disappear, to do it over again in another place with another person, leaving the child with their human parent."
"Are they demons?" A girl in the middle row of the class naturally asked, presuming that the darklighters were simply a race of demons that had been enhanced by the Infernal Council.
"No, they're former humans," Cole answered, shaking his head in the negative, informing his students that darklighters had once been humans before their mortal death. "They are created from the souls of humans that lived an evil life. They are taken and reborn in a facsimile of their old form, not unlike whitelighters, creating another parallel between the two races."
A student in the front cocked an eyebrow at what Cole had said, a thought popping into her head as she recalled the lecture the week before. "Wouldn't that make them spirits?"
"No," Cole shook his head in the negative once more, fully prepared to distinguish each group from the other. "Spirits are usually evil in their life, yes, but that is because they are controlled by an emotion or a feeling, whereas darklighters are those humans that are just plain old evil." Seeing their confused faces, Cole thought of an example in order to help them differentiate the pair. "Okay, let's say you go around throwing rocks into people's expensive windows: one person does it because a window fell on his father, and he has a grudge against all windows and he hates them as such. Another just throws rocks through windows because he likes throwing rocks through windows. It's a silly example, I know, but I hope you see the point—one is evil to be evil, the other is just ruled and controlled by an emotion or feeling."
The students all nodded in understanding, seeing the difference, before going silent, taking their respective notes on the subject. "What kind of powers do they have?" The same question came from a few students, all wanting to know what exactly a darklighter could do and what made them dangerous.
"Depends on the specialty of the darklighter," Cole said with a shrug, knowing that because there were so many powers that a darklighter could potentially have that it made it hard to distinguish them all. "But mainly their active powers are black orbing, apportation of their crossbow to their hands no matter their location, glamouring, and killing with a single touch. They can also sense objects and beings from any distance, including whitelighters and future whitelighters, which can only be blocked by a whitelighter's cloak. There are some darklighters called Spirit Killers, which have the ability of cursing, or granting bad luck, and suggestion, which they use to drive a future whitelighter to suicide, therefore canceling that whitelighter's destiny. Others, meanwhile, like Trackers, have more basic powers just advanced to suit their purposes."
A boy in the front of the class cocked her eyebrow, earning Cole's attention as he looked around the entire classroom. "What does black orbing look like?"
"Like regular orbing, except instead of blue and white, the orbs are indigo and black," Cole answered, the fact that the orb colors were a near inversion of one another not going unnoticed by those having seen both. "They look very similar, with the only real difference being that black orbing does not grant darklighters the ability to enter the heavens like orbing does for whitelighters. On another note, I will say that I never understood why they're called darklighters and not blacklighters as that's way more symmetrical with whitelighter than darklighter is, or if they are called darklighters, why black orbing is not called dark orbing. Very weird nomenclature we have going here, I think."
"What does regular orbing look like?" The same boy questioned, having never seen a whitelighter orb in his presence. In fact, he had never seen a whitelighter at all, let alone one that used their powers around him.
Cole looked at the class, and seeing their curious faces, he gave a small grin. "Imagine this with the orbs a tiny bit bigger and generally blue in color," he said, as he disappeared in a flurry of grey and white particles that looked vaguely similar to orbs, albeit smaller and less luminescent, before reappearing right where he stood, as if he hadn't disappeared in the first place. "And it looks something like that."
"What was that?" Many students asked, amazed by Cole's display of his powers. Outside of the classroom, they all had talked about what exactly Cole was and what powers he had, so to see him finally reveal that he was indeed magical like them was greatly exciting to them.
"Dusting, dark sparkling, grey orbing, silver wisping," Cole rattled off the many names of his teleportation ability, shrugging slightly in indifference. "It doesn't really have a name as it's a mix of various teleportation powers, having all of the advantages of them without any of the disadvantages. It allows me to do all that I need to do in my position."
"How did you get it?" A curious student in the corner of the room asked, speaking up for the first time. Cole knew her to be Janet, a shy but intelligent student, one with the ability to learn the history of all that she touched, a power called psychometry.
"We'll talk about me in the future," Cole smiled, not wanting to reveal what he was to the students, but instead hoping to keep it a secret for as long as he could. "When we talk about the Elders and the whitelighters as I promised, as well as the powers lecture as a whole, I'll tell you how I got that power."
The class grumbled amongst themselves, until a boy raised his hand into the air, and Cole gave a nod, allowing him to voice his question. "Let's say a darklighter is three hundred years old..."
"Wow, that's old," Cole whistled, interrupting the boy, finding a darklighter reaching that age especially unlikely. "That must be a powerful darklighter."
"...do their powers continually grow or do they stop becoming powerful?" The student continued, ignoring what Cole had said for the time being and instead focusing on his question.
"They technically continue to grow," Cole replied with a nod of his head, answering in the affirmative. "All magical folk continue to grow in strength over time—it just depends on how fast they can do it and how powerful they are destined to become."
"Technically?" The boy asked, not understanding what Cole had meant by technically. Why was it only technically and not in practice?
"They'd die before they reach that point," Cole shrugged, knowing that it would be very rare for a darklighter to ever reach that age. "Demons would kill them out of rage or jealousy. Very few darklighters make it to the century mark, and even fewer make it to the bicentennial."
"Why is that?" Tag, the boy with the power to teleport via smoking, questioned, not understanding why a darklighter would be killed by a demon when they were supposed to be on the same side.
"Demons get jealous, they get petulant, even scared, so they take out the threat before it can rise against them," Cole replied, having witnessed countless of darklighters slaughtered due to their growing threat, similarly to the way warlocks were killed. "Heck, I think even the Infernal Council, the bosses of most darklighters, would kill a darklighter before it reaches that kind of power that you're hypothetically talking about."
Sara, a sixteen year old with the power of telekinesis raised her hand and asked the question that was on the tip of everyone's tongue; each student was intrigued to know just who the darklighter was that was able to survive long enough to grow powerful as Cole implied they could. "Who is the most powerful darklighter known?"
"Rennek," Cole responded quickly, as if the name had been in the front of his mind the entire time. "He's Jack the Ripper." He said, earning a round of laughter from the class, thinking that it had been a joke. "No, I mean literally, he was Jack the Ripper before he died. He's about a hundred years old or a few years older. He's not the oldest, that's probably Salek, but his powers are great nonetheless."
"If he's not the oldest, how did he become so powerful then?" A boy with the power to walk through walls said in a confused tone, befuddled as to how a darklighter became more powerful than those older than him if their powers grew with time as Cole had said they did.
"He's smart, he's taken on very dangerous missions, which earned him bequeaths of power by the Infernal Council," Cole replied, referencing the various assignments that Rennek had undertaken, which allowed him to become more powerful at a much quicker rate. "Unlike other darklighters who are overcome with their new power and become arrogant, he waited, planned, and plotted, which allowed him to grow in power at a relatively abnormal rate."
"Why isn't he dead yet then?" The same boy questioned, calling back Cole's previous insights where he had said that darklighters were often killed quickly by demons before they could gain power.
"He avoids the Underworld," Cole shrugged, knowing that there were plenty of darklighters that were able to slip through the cracks for a time—eventually they would be killed, but they could potentially survive for a while. "He knows he'll probably be vanquished if he shows himself. He can fight very strong Upper-Level demons, sure, but he can't fight the top level, he's not that powerful yet. Those that want his services go to him."
"What kind of powers does Rennek have then?" A girl named Tana asked in a thick British accent, though Cole couldn't quite place it exactly. As the magic school was meant for witches across the world, there were a slew of various dialects and accents being used in any one classroom, which created quite the multicultural experience for all of the students.
"A lot," Cole sighed, rubbing his hand on his forehead as he tried to remember what exactly Rennek could do. "Due to the amount of abilities he possesses, he nearly perfectly mirrors the powers of a whitelighter, with the normal powers of a darklighter, plus pyrokinesis, shadow manipulation, voice manipulation, glamouring, and I'm sure a few other powers of which I am unaware."
The class went silent for a moment, each member thinking about what Cole had said about darklighters, before a hand shot up into the air and a voice said, "In whitelighters, I know there are Elders, the highest and most powerful of whitelighters, is there such a thing for darklighters?"
"Well, not all Elders were whitelighters," Cole corrected, informing the younger witches that a few Elders bypassed the need to be a whitelighter before ascending to the position. "Some were witches, some empaths, others were shamans, so don't assume all of them have the same powers and abilities—most Elders simply have mental powers, and are actually fairly weak in the grand scheme of things. They are wise, yes, very wise, are extremely powerful in combination and have considerable clout, but magically impotent individually otherwise. Anyway, to answer your question, the Infernal Council serves as the Elder Council, but there are small packs or groups of darklighters that serve as trainers and forgers—they create the darklighter arrows and crossbows and act as mentors to new, younger darklighters."
"Not all Elders were whitelighters?" A very confused student murmured, who stared at Cole disbelievingly, as if the man had said that Santa Claus was real.
"That is correct," Cole nodded in the affirmative, knowing for a fact that there were quite a few Elders on the Council that were not whitelighters beforehand. Gideon, the former Headmaster, had been one of those Elders, as he had been a witch for many years before being made an Elder. "But if I go into it any more I'll be deviating immensely from what I'm supposed to be teaching you."
"Come on!" The class yelled, trying to goad him into telling them more about the Elders. Cole had quickly become one of their favorite teachers not only because he made his lectures much more interesting and entertaining than many of the other professors did, but because he was willing to go off the lecture and allow them to talk about whatever magical thing they wanted.
"How about this, when we're done with all the demonolgy stuff, I'll answer whatever questions you have on the magical world as a whole?" Cole asked, trying to make his class happy without ruining his lecture plan. "Do we have a deal?"
"Deal," They all chirped, happy that Cole was willing to teach them what they really wanted to learn about.
"As I alluded in my first lecture, when the Infernal Council first created the darklighters, they put in a few safeguards in their beings to make sure that the demons would always be in power," Cole started back up, resuming the place that he had left off. "Outside of their inability to transfer their powers if the other parent is a mortal, another one of those safeguards is the fact that a darklighter's body is not nearly immortal like a whitelighter's. In fact, it's barely above a human. Being that they have normal bodies, not composed of black orbs like whitelighter's are composed of orbs, they can die by physical weapons just the same as humans can. When they get stabbed, if the wound is mortal, they will die. Additionally, they are not immune to their own poison, and it is nearly as poisonous to them as it is to whitelighters."
As the students took their notes, one looked up with a cocked eyebrow. "Do they age?" She questioned, wondering if they were like other supernatural beings that looked as if they were in their prime forever.
"No, they are eternal like demons, meaning they are unaffected by age and disease and sickness, but they do not have the usual bodily composition of a demon, that's all," Cole answered, remembering how he had seen a hundred year old darklighter look like she was seventeen or thereabouts, but soon died by the dull blade of an athame. "It's a power in fact, called 'high resistance', which allows demons and other magical beings to survive what would normally be mortal wounds. They are less affected by pain and injury, which is something that the darklighters do not have. Instead, in that way, they are entirely human."
"That's why they die so easily?" A student said in a laughing tone, having witnessed his mother vanquish a darklighter in a few seconds, not like other demons, where she would actually have a tough battle before she vanquished them.
"Well, some darklighters, like that Salek that I mentioned before, can become highly resistant, but that takes time," Cole replied, his brows furrowed as relayed to them what little he knew about Salek, the darklighter who was in charge of the forging of the arrows. "More time than most darklighters have, I would say. Rennek, as well, is quite resistant to injury, nearly the same as a demon at this point. Now, onto their most dangerous power: their poisonous arrows."
"What makes them so poisonous?" Cole heard asked, though he couldn't quite place which student was the one to ask it.
"I don't know," Cole shrugged, not knowing what it was that made the darklighter arrow so fatal. "I'm not sure anyone but the darklighters know. However, I once heard a rumor that the poison was made from their own blood, so that could be part of it. I'm sure there are loads more ingredients to it, though, and I would say it's brewed not unlike some of your potions. Remember, it's poisonous to all beings, it's just more potent and lethal against whitelighters. And please, be aware that projectiles fired from a crossbow are actually bolts, not arrows, but we use the term arrows for the sake of simplicity. If a bolt hits you, it will hurt and it will very well kill you should you allow the poison to enter your body, so try your best to prevent that from happening."
The rest of the class was spent telling about the various types of darklighters that existed. He gave them insights into the workings of the Trackers and how they hunted down fallen or near-fallen whitelighters in order to prevent them from regaining their wings; he informed them of the Spirit Killers, those darklighters sent to ruin the destinies of future whitelighters; and finally, he told them more about the Nightbreed, which were the incubi and succubi-type of darklighter that impregnated or got impregnated by powerful and influential mortals in order to propagate evil. He also told them about the additional powers he knew some darklighters to have, which would hopefully prepare them for battle if they should ever run against a darklighter, a relatively likely event in Cole's opinion. As the class winded down, Cole gave them all a smile, happy to have finished the lecture as he suddenly began to feel the encroaching danger that was starting to swirl above him.
"I guess that's it," he said, looking up at the clock and seeing that the bell would be ringing in a few short seconds. "I had fun teaching you all, thanks for being great students. Until next time, I'll be seeing you."
The students looked around confusedly, not understanding Cole's tone, before shrugging and gathering their things to leave. They spoke amongst themselves as they exited the room, leaving Cole in the classroom all by himself. "I was wondering when you all would show up," Cole whispered a moment or two later as he placed his things into his satchel, sensing the person that had silently appeared behind him. "For nigh-all powerful beings, it took you long enough, I think."
"Yes, well," A slick male voice answered in response, as three others appeared next to him in a black shadow. "Staying in the void like you did for most of your time prevented us from finding you, very clever."
"My mother always did tell me I was smart," Cole replied sarcastically, turning and facing the newcomers. The one he had been talking to was an older white male with slicked back salt and pepper hair with a matching goatee; to the man's right was a middle-aged black man that stared at Cole with his arms crossed in front of him, anger and distrust palpably emanating from him; to his left, was a young Asian man with black hair and a black goatee, as handsome as he was powerful; and finally, behind them all was a young woman with black hair and caramel skin that was accentuated by soft brown eyes that hid so much wisdom and intelligence. "I wish I could say that it's nice to see you, Power, but I'm afraid I'd be lying."
"I'm sure you remember Force," Power said, gesturing to the black man next to him, who continued to stare at Cole with his angry gaze. "And you never met Beta and Gamma, though you know of them, they are two other members of our collective." Power finished, gesturing to the woman and the Asian man respectively.
"I'm charmed to finally see you in person, I've heard so much," Cole mocked, dropping any semblance of politeness, fully aware that it would not matter in the least—they would still do what they came to do, regardless of his actions. "What do you want?"
"How did you return again?" Force said, taking a step forward, wanting to be made aware of Cole's situation before they extinguished the threat that he presented. Truthfully, the Avatars had no idea he had returned until they had sensed him with Leo, having all thought that he was dead and gone for the past two years. "We did not foresee this."
"I have friends in higher places, what can I say?" Cole replied, not willing to divulge the information about how he had escaped his punishment. He would not give them the satisfaction of knowing his secrets, but rather, he would keep them in the darkness just as they would push the world into darkness.
"That may be so, but we will not allow you to ruin our plans," Gamma growled angrily, disliking Cole's arrogance, believing him to be an impudent brat. He knew the ex-demon had been egotistical in the past, but he had hoped the man would be willing to discuss things with them, a desire that clearly was not meant to be fulfilled. "You set us back once with your obsession, your presence alone makes us vulnerable this time."
"Then I guess you should do what you came to do then," Cole shrugged, knowing that it would be useless to fight back or try to escape as he knew the powers they all possessed firsthand. If he ran, they would hunt him down, they would find him, and they would kill him, presumably more painfully than they would if he just allowed them do it then and there. "Actually," Cole quickly said, putting his hands up, changing his mind on something. "Let me at least try this."
Without another word, Cole channeled a plasma ball into his right hand before aggressively tossing it towards Force, who caught the ball in his hand and allowed it to fizzle out, unfazed by the attack. "Did you really think that was going to work?" The man replied with a mocking smirk, clearly unimpressed by Cole's display of power.
"Not really," Cole laughed with a shrug, having never anticipated that it would actually work. He recalled tossing an energy ball at the Avatars when they first appeared, which had no effect on them just like his plasma ball attack this time, and that was when he was much more powerful than in the condition in which he currently found himself. "But it was worth a shot. Okay, carry on."
They gave a nod, and Cole gave a small smile, fully aware of what was to come. He was okay with it—he had been living on borrowed time as it was. He had found peace in the extra life that the Higher Powers had granted him, and had used it to do as much good as he could in his relatively short time, all in an attempt to make amends for all the evil he had down previously. As such, unlike the prior two times that he had been vanquished and killed, where he had been overcome with emotion and was plagued with negativity, this time, he was okay. He would go out with a smile, knowing that he had lived his life as best as he could.
Sure enough, with a wave of Force's hand, Cole began to disappear, before being completely erased from Earth as if he had never been there in the first place. The Avatars all looked at each other before they too disappeared in a pillar of darkness, returning to their own plane of existence outside of space and time, their mission having been a success: Cole Turner would not be a thorn in their side any longer. However, unbeknownst to the Avatars, Cole would indeed have the last laugh as his message to Leo had sown the seed of doubt in the Elder's mind just as he had intended, giving humanity the chance it needed to throw off the yoke that the Avatars would eventually place upon the world.
A/N: I know I say this a lot, but this is probably it, but if I do update it, it won't be for a while. By the way, yes, the name is totally ripped from "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper". Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this foray into the classroom of Cole and enjoyed…Hangin' with Mr. Turner.