This chapter gets a little bit into the last of season three.

"I still can't believe you're getting married to a demon." Phoebe said. Piper grinned at her, bouncing on her bed a little.

"I know. Grams is probably going to kill me when she finds out." Phoebe waved that away.

"I'm sure she'll get it. She was rooting for Prue and Leo all along, wasn't she?"

"That's true," Piper nodded. "But Leo's an angel."

"You're not having regrets about saying yes are you?" Phoebe sat down on Piper's bed next to her.

"Of course not. And Grams and the elders and anyone else who has a problem will just have to deal. I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else but Cole." Phoebe smiled at her.

He looked around the place that he had been summoned, and his eyes widened. He knew who the demon before him was.

"I have an assignment for you." He frowned. This one was stronger than he was, could kill him if he wanted before he could even try and shimmer out. "You want Belthazor, do you not?"

"Belthazor." He had been planning that. He was patient, unlike a lot of demons, patient, and he had wanted to make sure that he was strong enough to face Belthazor and his witches first.

"You want his standing in the underworld? Vanquish him and it is yours." He contemplated this for a moment before nodding with a smile and shimmering out.

"He won't win." The younger of the two demons said, shimmering in a few seconds later.

"No. But to defeat him Belthazor will have to take on his true demonic form. That will be our opportunity."

Emma heard the news. She saw the reports of deaths in the area. She didn't think she would find him this quick, but it looked like he was surfacing. Finally.

"Wow." Phoebe said when she saw the food that Piper had made everyone for breakfast. "Trying to kill us, Piper?" Piper rolled her eyes.

"I just thought it'd be nice if we all sat down for a real breakfast, you know. Everyone." She said with a smile.

"I'm not complaining." Cole spoke up, and Piper smiled brighter, leaning across the island to kiss him.

"Okay, hands off while we're eating." Prue said, but she was smiling at them as well.

"Hey." Leo orbed in to the kitchen.

"Hey, Leo. Breakfast?" Piper asked, and then she caught the look on his face and sighed. "Uh oh. I know that look. Demons?"

"Sorry. It's looks great." He said.

"Thank you." Piper's smile came back at the compliment. "So, what is it?" Prue gave her sister an amused glance.

"She's been a little giddy lately." She said, walking over to him.

"Well, something has been killing witches around the city lately. The elders think it's an upper level demon. Maybe you guys could go to the last crime scene, see if the demon left anything behind?"

"Did you find anything?" Piper made a face when Phoebe and Prue came through the door, covered in slime. "Looks like you guys got a juicy one."

"Not our demon, though." Prue said. Piper shook her head.

"No, Cole said that all upper level demons bleed red. He went down to the underworld to see if he could find anything else out."

"Hey, find anything?" Piper asked, standing up when Cole shimmered in.

"No, just an upper level demon trying to gain a reputation by killing witches." Piper nodded, wrapping her arms around him.

"We should definitely take a vacation after this." She said, smiling a little.

"Maybe some place private?" He suggested, tracing his fingers along her spine. She lifted up to kiss him. They broke apart, though, when Leo orbed in not far away.

"Hey." Piper said, pulling her shirt down. Leo ignored the display, to used to how Piper and Cole were now.

"Another witch has been killed."

"...It didn't matter what they looked like. Only mattered that I did what I was told." Piper watched him as he sat, holding the athame before going over to him. He hardly ever talked about his past, about the things he had done, and she knew that it was because it was hard for him.

"Cole," she sighed and sat down next to him. "I know who you were, but you're not that demon anymore." She held up a hand when he opened his mouth. "And, yes, I'm sure. You've been living at the manor for over six months. We're getting married. Do you really think I would have said yes if you were?"

"But Belthazor still lives inside of me, Piper." He stood up.

"Cole, you have done so much good since you've been here. You are a part of this family, and you've saved our lives so many times."

"Doesn't balance out. Doesn't even come close." Piper stood up as well.

"What you were...You said it to me once, remember? When you asked me to marry you. If I couldn't get past what you were to see who you are, we wouldn't have even gotten started."

"That may be, but...if the potion doesn't work. I'm warning you now, Piper. If the potion doesn't work, the only way to destroy him is for me to turn into Belthazor."

"But you'll turn back into you, right?"

"I may not be able to. To stop him I'll have to embrace my demonic self completely. There may be no coming back from that."

"Well, then we'll just have to make sure the potion works. I won't lose you."

"Where are you going?" Prue asked when she saw Piper putting on her coat.

"I'm going to go...try talk to Emma." Prue frowned.

"You really think that she'll listen to you?" Piper shrugged.

"Probably not, but at the very least, I could try and keep her out of the middle of the fight so she doesn't get hurt." Prue's frown deepened. Piper's good mood had evaporated completely.

"Something else wrong, honey?" Piper sighed.

"I just...I have a bad feeling about this." She met her sisters eyes. "I have this horrible feeling that something's going to happen to him, that I'm going to lose him." Prue pulled her into a hug.

"We won't let that happen."

"Have you ever lost anyone to evil?"

"Yes." Piper said, sighing. Emma started to walk away again when Piper spoke up. "We're getting married." She called. Emma stopped, turning to her again.

"You're marrying that demon." Piper nodded.

"I know that you hate him, that you always will, but...I love him. Completely." Emma walked closer to her.

"And if someone murdered him, the way he murdered my fiancé?" Piper met her eyes.

"I don't know if I'd survive that." She said quietly.

Piper held up the vanquishing potion that Prue had given her before she had left the manor. It would get rid of Sikes. It had to work, she couldn't lose Cole. She gave a cry when someone grabbed her from behind and she dropped the potion and her purse on the floor.

Emma opened the manor door, and stopped when she saw the purse lying there in the hall, saw the potion on the floor beside it. She picked it up, looking at the liquid. She hesitated for a moment and then heard a scream coming from upstairs.

When she got there, she saw the demon, the demon who had taken her life away, advancing on the sisters. Piper was trying to reason with him. Foolish. Emma had tried to tell her. He was a demon, not a man.

The thought that Piper truly did love him only made her hesitated for a second before she raised her arm and threw the potion.

"No!" Piper said when Prue raised her fist, about to test her vanquishing potion she'd made for Sikes on Cole. "Cole?" She and her sisters took another step back as Belthazor stepped towards them. She didn't see Emma until it was too late. Didn't see her throw the potion until the flames consumed his body. He screamed, switching back from Belthazor to Cole and back again before the flames overtook him and they blew, leaving nothing behind.

"No." Piper stood numb, staring at the spot where he had been. She was vaguely aware when she fell to her knees. She didn't react when her sisters knelt with her and put their arms around her, she just kept staring, now over Phoebe's shoulder, at the spot that he had been just a minute before.

Phoebe and Prue met each other's gaze, both of them with tears in their eyes, neither of them believing what had just happened. They both wrapped their arms around Piper, but she didn't react.

Leo orbed into the manor, a little bit worried about what was happening. When he saw the girls, he froze. Prue and Phoebe were kneeling on the floor, wrapped around Piper. Piper was staring out past her sisters, unmoving. One look at her eyes and he didn't have to ask what had happened.

Emma watched the exchange for a moment, watching Piper. She was better off without him, Emma knew that. He was a demon, demon's don't change. She was better off. Still, she didn't look in Piper's eyes before she turned and left the manor.

Phoebe and Prue both jumped when Piper finally reacted. She let out a choked sort of sob and started fighting them, trying to get away.

"Piper..." Prue tried to get a hold of her sister, but Piper broke away, scrambling away from them and to her feet, and sprinted out of the attic. Prue and Phoebe jumped to their feet, racing out of the room after them.

"Piper." Phoebe said when they saw her. She had stopped at the bottom of the stairs. She wasn't crying yet, but she did look lost.

Piper stopped numbly, looking around the manor. Her sisters were saying something but their voices were sort of fading in and out on her. The image of him disappearing in bright flames kept playing over and over in her head. She kept hearing that last pain filled scream in her head.

Her stomach rolled and she stumbled to her knees again. She wondered if she was going to be sick as she heard Cole screaming over and over again in her head. She tried to picture his voice the way it had been just a day before, tried hear his laugh. Tried to see his smile when she told him about the six month anniversary, tried to remember his kiss when she had said yes to his proposal, but all she could hear was that scream. She raised her hands, gripping the side of her head, trying to get it out of her head.

"No." She mumbled again, shaking her head, tears finally falling.

"Piper..." Prue wiped her own eyes as she knelt in front of her sister once again. She brought Piper towards her and Piper finally collapsed against her, sobbing.

Okay, so I will explain who sent Sikes after Cole a little bit earlier than he wanted to probably in the next chapter.