Chapter 6

"Phoebe!" Piper screamed as she tried blowing up the tall demon who didn't even flinch but instead of advancing towards Phoebe, he turned to Piper now. "Guys!" Piper yelled after freezing the fireball he hurled at her.

"Fireball!" Paige called out and threw the fireball back at the demon who shimmered out and shimmered back in behind Paige, stabbing her in the back with an athame he conjured. Paige cried out loud and fell to the ground.

"Paige!" Phoebe yelled and ran towards the demon. She levitated and tried kicking him but before she managed to, he grabbed her leg and sent her flying across the room. She hit the wall but managed to get up, determined not to leave Piper alone with the demon. He threw another fireball at her which her baby blew up just a moment before it hit her. Phoebe used the opportunity of the demon having his back turned to her and kicked him in the back. As soon as he fell to the ground, she grabbed an athame and stabbed him with it. She felt like someone splashed her with the cold water in the face but wouldn't allow herself to be distracted by it. The demon got up from the ground instantly and grabbed the nearest chair which he looked like he was going to throw on Phoebe but changed the target in the last second and hit Piper instead. She fell to the ground with few deep cuts on her arms and face which self-healed after a couple of seconds, but long enough for the demon to grab his athame. "Phoebe, behind you!" Piper said as the already familiar female demon shimmered in behind Phoebe who had had all her attention focused on the male demon and shimmered out with her and the other demon.

Piper's eyes widened in shock. A demon had just taken her sister! "Leo!" she cried and her husband orbed in instantly. "Paige, now!" Piper yelled and Leo rushed over to his sister-in-law, bent over her and started healing her.

"What happened?" he asked with concern. "Where's Phoebe?"
"That's a very good question." Piper said. Paige woke up slowly and moaned.

"What was that thing?" Paige asked and accepted Leo's hand to stand up.

"I don't know but whoever it was, he was working with Ciara." Piper said. She walked over to the Book of Shadows and started flipping its pages quickly.

"Ciara, Cole's demon-ex whore?" Paige asked and joined Piper in scanning the Book for the yet unknown demon.

"Precisely." Piper replied. "And they got Phoebe."

"What?!" Paige asked and suddenly realized that Phoebe was indeed nowhere to be seen.

"Which is why we have to find them, I just don't know how." Piper replied.

"I may not know how to find them but I do know how the chances of that happening shift dramatically to our favor. Cole!" Paige called out.

Cole shimmered in, casually leaned against the wall, eyeing the two sisters and Leo slowly. He looked so relaxed and his expression was so smooth that he got on the sisters' nerves almost instantly "You rang?" he raised his eyebrows.

"We rang because your ex-demonic girlfriend just kidnapped Phoebe." Piper said, clearly frustrated.

"What?" Cole suddenly changed his attitude from indifferent to concerned.

"Ciara took Phoebe!" Paige snapped. "She sent some ugly-looking demon after us and as soon as we were distracted, she got Phoebe and shimmered out."

Cole closed his eyes. "I cannot believe she would dare doing this."

"Do you have any idea where they might be?" Piper asked.

"A couple of them." Cole said. "I can go check them out and in the meantime, you guys should start working on a damn strong vanquishing potion. It will require her flesh but let me take care of that. You just mix all the other ingredients. And try identifying the demon she was working with, it might be useful."

"You just go find our sister." Paige said quickly.

"Paige, Phoebe is also the love of my life. Do you really think I'd let Ciara lay as much as one finger on her?"

"Yes if you don't hurry up!" Paige snapped and Cole shimmered away.

"Okay now let's go start working on that vanquishing potion..." Piper sighed.

P

"You should stop trying, you know." Ciara said absent-mindedly. "There is no way for you to break free."

Phoebe tried kicking through the shield around her that was keeping her inside of it despite her best attempts to get out.

"Only demons can get through that and you..." Ciara eyed Phoebe up and down disrespectfully. "Do not qualify as one."

"For your information, I was the Queen of the Source of all Evil." Phoebe snapped, hating how Ciara thought she wasn't good enough to be a demon.

"Yes I know, and what he saw in you, I shall never understand." Ciara replied loudly, making sure Phoebe heard every single word.

"You mean, what I have and you don't?" Phoebe challenged. "He told me all about you, you know. How you loved him and how he never loved you back. He said that he could never know love until he met me. Makes you wonder what I have that you're missing, huh?"

Ciara just chuckled. "I am better than you in so many ways, little witch. Even he knows that. I am sure that what we have done together you've never even heard of."

Phoebe decided to remain silent although her mind was starting to race. Was Ciara really better in pleasing Cole than she was?!

"And you still love him." Ciara said simply. "I could almost hear your mind racing and your heart beating jealously when I said what I said."

"Cole is my past but he is your past too." Phoebe replied coldly.

"Are you willing to bet your life on that one?" Ciara asked as she formed an energy ball and began to observe it closely as if she had never seen it before.

"You won't kill me." Phoebe said calmly. "If you intended to do that, you would have done it a long time ago."

"Not as stupid as you look..." Ciara mocked.

"Now that we're at it, why do you need me?" Phoebe asked, ignoring her last comment.

"I've seen one too many action movies to uncover what my plan is before it's executed." Ciara smirked and sighed. "Sure does take him a long time to find us, doesn't it. Really makes you think if he even bothers..."

"You think Cole is looking for us?" Phoebe eyed Ciara suspiciously.

"Not for us. He is looking for you. He's gonna find you too, I hope." Ciara smirked evilly.

"So your plan is for him to come, kill you and save me? That doesn't sound too brilliant to me." Phoebe said coldly.

"Oh but who ever said it is you he is going to save?" Ciara laughed and shapeshifted into Phoebe. She then turned Phoebe into herself with a single wave of a hand. Phoebe gasped.

"This isn't gonna work." she said, shocked to hear herself speaking in Ciara's voice. "I'll tell him what is really going on."

"You won't be able to tell him a thing, sweetie, because you'll be unconscious." Ciara replied and threw an energy ball at Phoebe who didn't have any time to defend herself but ended up being slammed to a wall and sunk to the ground unconscious within seconds.

Ciara smirked at Phoebe lying on the ground just the second before Cole appeared in the room. He rushed towards Ciara, thinking it was Phoebe. "Phoebe, I'm so glad you're okay." he whispered at he embraced her gently.

Ciara grinned to herself. "Yeah, she had no idea whom she was up against I guess." she said in perfect imitation of Phoebe.

"Come on, let's get you home, Piper and Paige are pretty worried about you." Cole said and shimmered out with her, leaving the real Phoebe unconscious on the ground...

P

"So how exactly did you manage to deal with Ciara on your own?" Cole asked after they returned to the Manor and explained to Piper, Paige and Leo that they Phoebe dealt with Ciara before Cole even got there.

"Uh well..." Ciara started slowly. "She released me from some shield she put me in and was gonna hit me with some sort of energy ball but I thankfully managed to avoid it and started fighting her. She made one wrong move and there she was, unconscious on the ground."

"Then I guess we should thank Cole for training you properly." Piper said.

"Yeah..." Ciara sighed and closed her eyes, pretending to have a headache. "I think I'm gonna go rest a little bit. I am feeling a little light-headed."

"I'll help you to your room." Cole said, a little too eagerly. The thing was - Phoebe was his wife, she used to be his lover and would always be her soulmate. He knew every single little thing about her and judging by her current behavior, he knew there was something wrong with her. Knowing Phoebe as well as he did, he was also fully aware that she wouldn't admit it in front of her sisters but he was holding hope that she would confide in him when they were alone.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Ciara agreed, knowing that she had no idea where Phoebe's room is and besides, a little time alone with Cole could never hurt.

Cole wrapped his arm around her shoulders and walked her to her room slowly. When they got in, he closed the door behind him and turned around. "Can we talk?" he asked seriously.

Ciara gave him a surprised look, now fearing that he might have been onto her. "Yeah, sure, what about?"

"There is something you're not telling us." Cole said as he walked over to her. "Did she do something to you? Is there something wrong?"

With a pang of jealousy, Ciara realized that she underestimated Cole's love for the witch. He noticed what not even her own sisters did. She started thinking quickly. "No, I just... I'm tired and..."

Cole put his hand under her chin and gently pulled her head up, making her look into his eyes. "Phoebe, I think that after all this time I can make a difference between when something in wrong and when you are just tired." he inhaled deeply. "You know you can tell me anything."

She thought she had planned the whole thing out but obviously, she was wrong. Ciara didn't know how to get out of that one without lying into Cole's face which, she was sure, he could have noticed pretty easily. She only saw one way out which she wasn't sure would work but it was her only hope. She reached out and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. Cole was first so astonished that he didn't respond at all but when his senses kicked in, he kissed her back. His mind was racing. He knew Phoebe would never kiss him, that she didn't feel that way about him anymore and he also remembered her kisses all too well and this one was nothing like her. This was a lustful kiss, so unlike Phoebe's sweet, meaningful kisses. Then it hit him. He realized it wasn't Phoebe who was kissing him at all but he decided to play along just to be sure.

Cole broke the kiss and slipped her a small smile. "What was that all about?" he asked.

Ciara pretended to be ashamed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking... I didn't mean to do that, I just..."

Cole smiled. "It's okay. You know I love you. But ever since we divorced, you kept repeating that you didn't love me, I'm just surprised."

He set a trap. He said they were divorced. If it was Ciara, as he suspected, she would fall right into the trap. If it was Phoebe, she would have reminded him that they were still married.

"I know but I just... Since we divorced, I really missed you a lot. I might not have given you that impression but I really have missed you." Ciara said and Cole's heart skipped a beat. It was Ciara! He had left Phoebe all alone in that dungeon! He had to go back for her and he had to warn the sisters.

He smiled gently. "You need some rest. I'm gonna go and I'll be back later to check up on you, okay?"

Ciara smiled back. "Yeah, thanks." she said quietly.

Cole walked out of the room and as soon as he shut the door, he shimmered to the attic.

"We made a mistake." he said quickly. "It's not Phoebe whom I brought back here, it's Ciara. She took Phoebe's form and probably turned Phoebe into herself."

All three of them looked alarmed. "Are you sure?" Leo asked.

"Positive. First of all, she kissed me. Phoebe wouldn't do that, she knows it's over between us. Secondly, her kisses are nothing like Phoebe's. Thirdly, I set a couple of traps that Phoebe would have noticed and this Phoebe fell right into them."

"Well what are you waiting for?!?" Piper yelled, annoyed by the fact that they didn't notice it wasn't their sister whom they just welcomed into their house. "Go get Phoebe!"

Cole looked at her and shimmered out. As he shimmered back into the Underworld, he crouched next to the unconscious Phoebe in Ciara's form and touched her forehead gently. She was burning up. He knew that Ciara must have hit her with a pretty high-voltage energy ball in order to do this to her. He scooped her into his arms and gently lifted her from the ground, shimmering back to the Mansion with her.

As soon as he placed her on the couch and Piper and Paige rushed over to her side, he waved his hand and turned her back into Phoebe. He let out a sharp breath. "I knew it." he whispered and bent over Phoebe. "Leo, heal her fast, she has got a high temperature."

Leo advanced towards Phoebe, placed his hands over her apparently lifeless body. Light emerged from his hands and he sighed with relief. "She's gonna be okay." he announced and in the matter of seconds, Phoebe sat up, breathing heavily.

"She took my form!" she said quickly and Paige just smiled. "We know honey."

"How do you know?" Phoebe asked with confused expression.

"Apparently, Cole could make a difference between her kisses and yours." Piper said with a small smile.

Phoebe looked at Cole and slipped him a small smile. She was well aware of how well he knew her but she would have never dreamed that he could recognize a shapeshifter in her form by just comparing the kisses. He was looking back at her with such an intense stare that Phoebe felt that he was literally looking through her eyes and into her soul. After a couple of seconds, she broke the eye contact unwillingly, for she knew her sisters and Leo were looking at them.

"What do we do about Ciara?" Paige broke the silence.

"I think I have a pretty good idea about that..." Cole said. "I might not have enough power to vanquish her and your potions might not either but I think that the spell you guys used to vanquish the Source might do the trick."

Phoebe raised her eyebrows. "That could actually work." she said and immediately got up from the sofa.

"I'll orb you guys into the room. That way we can have the element of surprise." Leo said and took Piper's hand who held her other two sisters as they orbed out, leaving Cole alone in the attic. He leaned against the wall and sighed.

As soon as the three witches orbed into Phoebe's room, they started chanting.

"Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda
Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace
Halliwell witches stand strong beside us
Vanquish this evil through time and space!"

Ciara didn't stand a chance nor did they give her time to defend herself in any way. A loud, high-pitched scream echoed through the room as she erupted in flames and exploded as soon as the chanting was over. The sisters let out sighs of relief.

"If somebody saw this now, they would have said this was easy." Paige said with a frown.

"It was easy and we could have done this quite awhile ago if it crossed any of our minds that the Source vanquishing spell was bound to work on her too."

"Okay come on, Cole is waiting." Leo took their hands and orbed them back to the attic.

Cole raised his eyebrows as he saw them appear in the twirl of bright white and blue lights. "I take it by that look that she is gone?"

"For good, hopefully." Phoebe said while slipping him a small apologetic look. Somewhere deep inside, she was still convinced that Cole had some feelings for Ciara but he have no sign of sadness or disappointment. He just smiled.

"She is, trust me." he said.

Piper smiled. "Okay so who's for P3?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm all for it. I'm supposed to meet Michael tonight." Paige said with a mischievous grin lingering on her face.

"Michael? I thought it was Will?" Piper raised her eyebrows at her baby sister.

"Oh no, we broke up last week." Paige said without removing her grin.

Piper shook her head and decided not to reply to that one. She turned to Leo. "Honey, are you coming?"

"Maybe we shouldn't go..." Leo said slowly, careful not to get on Piper's bad side. "I mean, I don't think all that noise and crowd are good for the baby."

"Honey, the baby is gonna be just fine." Piper said impatiently. "Besides, if it really bothers her, she'll probably send me flying out of the club or something."

"Well I guess so..." Leo gave in.

"Pheebs, what about you?" Piper turned to Phoebe.

"No, I think I'm gonna use this opportunity to go get some sleep." Phoebe smiled at her sister.

"Suit yourself. We'll see you later." Piper said and walked out of the attic.

"Wait, aren't we orbing?" Leo went after his wife.

"We have to change, Leo." Paige gave Leo an odd look and then rushed him out of the attic.

Phoebe fixed her eyes upon the old dollhouse and was determined not to look anywhere but there. She appeared to be studying it closely as if she had never seen it before. It was so easy being alone with Cole when they already had something planned. It was easy to train with him for hours in the empty basement because they knew exactly what the other one expected them to say or do. But when she found herself alone with him so suddenly, she just ran out of words. Everything she thought she should tell him the first next time they met seemed to fade away from her mind.

Cole was looking at her. He kept looking knowing that eventually the most uncomfortable of silences that was building up in the room would break her. She was always far less patient than he was. He was studying her closely, smiling at how innocent she seemed and what a childish way she was using to not have to speak with him.

Just as Cole thought, after merely a minute of awkward silence, Phoebe couldn't take it anymore and she spoke. "Thank you." she said quietly. It wasn't much but it was a start.

"For saving you?" Cole chuckled. "That's what I'm here for."

"For noticing she wasn't me." Phoebe corrected him and took a breath. That was going to be one of the hardest things she had ever had to say. "I should have done the same for you."

Cole frowned slightly and then realized what she was talking about. "Phoebe, that was subtle possession which took a lot of time to completely take control over me. This was done very unprofessionally and was an exchange, not a possession."

Phoebe looked like she was about to burst into tears any second. "I keep trying to blame it on you." she whispered and Cole felt himself walking over to her and embracing her in spite of himself. "But I know it wasn't your fault." she continued whispering, afraid that she would start crying if she spoke aloud.

Cole embraced her tighter. "It's okay." he whispered. It had been so long since she last allowed him to hold her that close without pulling back. He leaned his chin on the top of her head and smiled slightly. "We agreed to put that behind us."

"But it's still there." Phoebe whispered while wrapping her arms around him. "It's still here every single day. Whenever I look at you, I remember the horror we went through together. We were both equally guilty about it. The only difference is that you didn't blame it on me like I did on you."

Cole looked into Phoebe's tearful eyes. "It was a normal thing for you to hold me responsible. From your point of view, it was I who was doing all those things."

"Yes but I found out the truth. I knew it wasn't you. So why did I hold it all against you all this time?" Phoebe whispered.

"Because that is the only reasonable explanation for why we are not together anymore and for why you have stopped loving me." Cole replied, trying not to allow himself to get emotional. He had to calm her down and he certainly wouldn't be able to do that if he got down himself.

Phoebe looked into his eyes. The eyes of her soul mate, of her lover and of the love of her life. She knew that no matter what happened, his name would always be the only one deep inside her heart. "The day I stop loving you is the day I stop breathing." she whispered.

Cole felt his heart skip a beat. He blinked and kept looking at her as though she was about to burst out laughing, telling him he fell for her joke.

Phoebe looked away suddenly and stepped back. She was just as surprised as Cole was. She was positive that she was over him, where in the world did that come from?

"Uh... Maybe you should go." she said quickly.

"Phoebe..." Cole stepped towards her but she took another step backwards.

"Go. Please." Phoebe whispered and Cole slowly nodded before shimmering away.