Kat had left in a hurry, and she had left little of herself behind. They had come to the past with nothing but the clothes on their back and their weapons, and Kat had never been overly fond of those.
Trying to find the general area that she might be was their best bet, but the city was pretty big, and it was even bigger for a whitelighter who could go pretty much anywhere.
"It's no use," Phoebe huffed, dropping the crystal down on the map when the swing of the crystal stopped altogether for the third time.
"Maybe she's blocking you," Cole suggested.
"Does she know how to do that?" Paige asked.
Cole shrugged. "I'm not the one teaching her."
"Do you have any idea where she might have gone?" Phoebe asked for the tenth time, somewhat helplessly.
Cole shrugged again. "We're really not that close," he admitted. "I know her mother pretty well, but Kat is more independent. She's always liked going off alone. Not even Henry knows where she goes."
"I used to run off a lot when I was about her age. Sometimes kids need their space," said Paige.
"Where did you go?" Cole asked.
"Lots of places. Why?"
"You were the same age when you lost your parents. She does know you in the future, maybe you mentioned somewhere to her?"
Paige didn't look much like she believed that, but she didn't argue which Cole was grateful for.
He was close with Paige in the future, and he and Phoebe had mended their relationship - their purely platonic relationship - before her death, but these were not those same women. It was easy to see that. Phoebe had been young when she died, but she was so much younger now. And Paige might have taken a while to get over her hatred of him, but Cole hadn't realised how much she had gotten over it until he looked into her eyes and saw the depth of it. His Paige actually cared about him. With Coop gone and Leo so busy, he supposed he was the closest adult to her. He was certainly the strongest adult connection she had left to Phoebe. That was the main reason that he had stayed around after her death. He had promised to watch out for her kids, but he could have done that from a distance. Only, the pain was still as bad as it had been when he first lost her, worse even because this time there was no chance whatsoever of fixing it, and he had needed to be with someone who understood that. Paige did.
"I knew that my birth parents left me in a church," said Paige. "Sometimes I'd go around to different ones trying to see if - I don't know." She sighed. "It was just some connection to them, I guess. I never asked which church my parents adopted me from, but I never did go to it."
"There aren't many churches left in the city in the future," said Cole. "Demons don't like them, but you were never really interested before that."
"So, you're still hanging around us in the future," Paige noted. "Why?"
Cole snorted. "The world kind of got destroyed. Evil didn't win, but it's close. We all had to stick together. We work together. And someone's got to train your merry bunch of Resistance fighters. Half of them were recruited straight out of school, they had no idea what a demon even looked like, much less how to fight one."
"We're not…?" Phoebe asked.
"Together? God, no. Absolutely not."
"And us?" Paige tested.
"No," said Cole, emphatically. "And not me and Piper either." He and Piper had commiserated over their lack of romantic success on occasion. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I knew your husbands." He glanced over at Phoebe. "He was a good man. I'm glad you had each other." He had been there when Coop died, but he didn't say that.
Phoebe shot him a grateful smile. "I'm glad you found some happiness in the end."
More than some, Cole reflected. Life could be awful in the future, but he still had Phoebe's kids, he still had Paige and Leo, he still had friends and he was still useful. He was still able to help. There were people that were a lot worse off.
Wyatt started to fuss in his playpen and Phoebe got up to handle him. "Paige, you try?" she suggested, pressing the crystal into her sister's hands.
"It's worth a shot," Cole shrugged. They didn't have anything that Kat owned, but Paige was still Kat's mother, even if she wasn't yet. If there was a way to suggest it without raising suspicion, he would suggest that Paige used some of her blood to find Kat, but that was too obvious and Cole didn't feel like jeopardising anyone's existence just yet.
Paige sighed and picked up the crystal, waving it over the map without much faith. The crystal swung more than it had for Phoebe, but it still wasn't much. If only Kat had had a weapon like the cupids, or a sibling blood connection like Chris and Mel. Phoebe had given all of her kids an athame that could kill upper-level demons for if they ever got separated from their bows. She had gotten an extra one for Matthew. And for him.
"I don't need to warn you against poking your friends with it, do I?"
Kat didn't have a weapon, but Paige and Phoebe didn't know that.
"Wait," he said. He tugged the athame out of its hidden sheath in his belt. He used it so rarely, what with his powers being much more useful and more reliable, but it was a gift from Phoebe and he couldn't bear to be separated from it for too long. He hoped she understood why he was about to do this. "We got a set of athames. They're not all the same, but they came from the same place. Maybe that'll work." And he carefully pretended to accidentally slash Paige across the hand.
"Ah! Cole!" Paige snapped.
"What happened?" Phoebe asked, worried. She hurried over with Wyatt.
"Cole stabbed me!"
"Sorry," he said, and it sounded genuine. He wasn't exactly happy to stab people that he cared about, but the greater good was more important. And he was pretty sure that Paige would happily be stabbed through the hand if it meant assuring that her daughter was out of harm. "I forgot how sharp this thing is."
Paige hissed and pressed a hand into her wound, it was only small but that meant little in terms of pain. "It's not poisoned as well, is it?"
"No, it's just sharp."
Paige found a towel and pressed it against the cut. She held the athame gingerly in her injured hand and swung the crystal again. Almost, immediately, the crystal hit the map with a loud thunk.
"Huh."
Maggie Murphy was a very conservatively dressed whitelighter who, nonetheless, greeted Matt with open arms, literally, and clear affection. Most whitelighters and witches who dressed like that were overly suspicious and hateful towards half-demons. Especially with his tongue being pretty obvious.
Most people tended to believe it when he said that it was a medical thing, but witches and whitelighters always knew better. Sometimes he just got tired of wearing a glamour.
"Thank you for doing this for us," Leo said, accepting his hug from Maggie with slightly more grace than Matt.
"It's no problem. Prue saved my life a few years ago, I'm happy to return the favour. I was so sorry to hear that she passed."
Leo nodded somberly. "Thank you."
"So, Prue saved you?" Matt asked. "Before you… How did - is it okay to ask that?"
Maggie smiled. "Yes, Prue saved me before I became a whitelighter. But I got sick a few years later."
"I'm sorry," said Leo.
Maggie waved a hand. "It's fine. It was a long time ago. I've accepted it. And at least I can still help people as a whitelighter. I've found my true calling. Come, let's go meet Patience." She took a hold of Matt and Leo's hands and orbed them into a small, decorated living room.
The curtains were drawn as it began to get dark but there were no lights on, and Matt assumed that that was because of the small, squinting young woman sitting on the couch with her legs tucked under her. She darted to her feet when they orbed in.
"Hi," she said, nervously. "I'm Patience. I'm a witch." She shoved her hand into Matt's face.
"Hi," he responded. "I'm Matt, I'm half-demon." He shook her hand lightly.
"Okay," Patience said, sounding slightly disappointed. "I'd hoped that…" she trailed off.
"Leo, here is the Charmed Ones' whitelighter - that's almost as good as meeting one of the sisters themselves," he offered.
"No," Patience was quick to reassure. "It's still a pleasure to meet you, Matt. I'm happy to help your friend."
"That's great," said Matt. He sat down on the couch across from Patience when he was invited to, squished between the arm-rest and Leo while Maggie joined her charge.
"What can you tell us about your vision, Patience?" Leo asked gently.
Patience hummed. "It was pretty dark, but I definitely saw your friend. And I knew who he was! I didn't before, but it was kind of like a dream where you just know things. Like, sometimes I get visions about people that I know are dead, or I know it's already happened, or that it hasn't happened yet."
Matt nodded. "You saw Chris. What happened to him?"
"He died," said Patience simply.
"How?" Matt asked. "What killed him?" He pressed. "Where was he?"
Patience pursed her lips. "I don't know," she admitted. "It was dark, like I said. But, not dark like here. Dark like… a basement or…"
"You said a cave," Maggie offered.
Patience nodded. "Yes! Like a cave!"
"Like the Underworld," guessed Leo. "When was this?"
"There weren't any clocks or anything. I just knew that it hadn't happened yet," said Patience.
"When did you get the vision?" Matt asked, gritting his teeth. He had met some ditzy people in his time, but this witch might be the worst. Phoebe had complained that her visions wrecked her head, he hadn't thought that she meant that literally. PJ seemed relatively sane though, for a Halliwell.
"Oh! Not that long ago. It was in the middle of the night."
"Last night?" Leo guessed. "But why would you get a vision about Chris getting attacked so shortly before it happened? If it was to warn us to save him then why didn't it go to Phoebe? Or someone who had a better idea of who Chris was?"
"You don't know who killed Chris?" Matt checked and when Patience shook her head, he continued. "But did you see what killed him?"
"A fireball," said Patience, certain.
"Can Archer demons shoot fireballs?" Leo asked.
"Lokl can't," said Matt. "Something to do with who his mother was. Manticores can't."
"Was he half-Manticore?" Leo wondered.
Matt shrugged. "It's never been important. Whoever she was, she's probably dead. Their father never kept his wives around for long." He paused. "Except for Ryake's mother."
"So Chris was killed by a fireball, not an arrow?"
"An arrow?" Patience repeated. "No. I've never seen a demon with an arrow."
"A darklighter, you mean?" Maggie suggested.
Leo shook his head. "No. An Archer demon. One of them attacked Chris and poisoned him. He's very sick at the minute."
Maggie hummed in sympathy. "Is there anything that we can do?"
"No, I don't think so. This was already a long-shot. Thank you for your help," said Leo, he rose to his feet.
"Wait!" Patience cried. "I think that I might be able to trigger another vision!" She dove across to Leo and snatched up his hand. "I can trigger them by touching someone close to -" She cut herself off and slammed her eyes shut.
"Patience?" Maggie called, concerned. "Patience!" She cried, when Patience went ghostly pale and dropped. Matt was barely able to catch her head before it crashed to the floor.
"Does this normally happen?" He asked, perturbed.
"No, I've never seen it before," said Maggie.
Leo was looking at his hand where Patience had grabbed him. "How did she even - ? What did she see?"
Matt refused to look at Leo. "Is there anyone she goes to for help with visions?" He asked.
Maggie shook her head. "They're not usually so bad. She gets them in her sleep, they're more like dreams."
"She's not sleeping now," Matt noted. He cradled Patience's head in his hands and he felt the tensed muscles under his fingers. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes darted behind her closed eyelids. "Have you ever heard of the Seer?" Matt asked.
"The Seer?"
"Kyra, the Seer," Matt explained. "She's a demon seer."
"A demon?" Maggie was incredulous.
"For now," said Matt. "She's not quite evil. She's just self-serving. I can offer her something that she wants, she'll help us."
"What does she want?" Leo asked suspiciously.
Matt swallowed. "Something that only another demon can really understand."