A/N: As sad as this sounds, this was the soonest I could get this chapter uploaded. I was afraid I was going to have to wait until tomorrow, but luckily I found some time! Hope you all like! Thanks to all reviewers, I appreciate you immensely!

FanficFemale: It's definitely going to affect Phoebe, as you'll find out in this chapter and the chapters to follow. As for Piper and Prue, well, you'll just have to read to find out! Lol.

Another Phoebe: Thank you! And I always consider reviews. I love Cole's dark side, and hopefully this chapter will not disappoint!

Shadow Cat17: Thanks. Many more twists to come!

Charmed4Life322: Lol. Thanks, glad you liked it. As I said before, many more twists are coming!

lizardmomma: Can it last in the Underworld, too? Hope you like the aftermath of Prue and Piper finding out what happened.

funluvr151: Thank you, glad you liked it.

SpeedDemon315: Yes, I hated how Prue constantly said that everyone has both a dark side and a good side, yet she never accepted that Cole had a good side even when he was trying to prove it. I'm so glad you like it! I agree that if Phoebe and Cole had kids on the show, their son would be a heartbreaker. That would've been fun to see. Anyway, hope you like this chapter, and thanks for the review!

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Do you think Phoebe is even here?" Piper asked as they pulled into the apartment complex parking lot.

Prue shook her head. "I don't know, but there's only one way to find out." She got out of the car once her sister parked it. Piper followed suit a second later.

As Prue looked up at the tall apartment, she couldn't help but feel a deep sense of longing. Even though it had barely been a month since Phoebe had disappeared into the Underworld, it felt more like a year and Prue felt as though she had missed out on a huge part of her little sister's life.

"Let's go. Phoebe lives in the penthouse," Piper told her as she hurtled past.

As Prue hurried to fall in step with her, she was overcome with an unexpected pang of jealousy. Piper had gone to see Phoebe without her. Granted, Prue had been at work at the time, but Piper hadn't even told her about it. Piper had all but said that she hadn't told her because she was afraid Prue would freak out. But Prue was beyond freaking out. Now she just wanted her sister back.

She still couldn't believe it had come to this. What started out as hiding in the Underworld to keep her sisters safe had quickly escalated into Phoebe becoming the Queen of the Underworld. It was like in the blink of an eye, everything had changed. Sometimes it was almost too much to handle.

The doormen nodded his head to the sisters, having recognized Piper from her visit the other day. They acknowledged him then walked briskly to the elevator.

Prue looked at Piper. She wanted to know whether she felt as nervous as Prue felt. Her instincts were telling her that something was wrong, and they had never been wrong before.

Piper, picking up on Prue's uneasiness, frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know Piper, but something doesn't feel...right."

"Well, it's not like Phoebe hasn't forgotten stuff before. When we get there and find her still sleeping we'll laugh this whole thing off," Piper said, waving Prue's concerns off, but something in her voice told Prue that Piper didn't believe a word she had just said.

Prue didn't say anything more on the subject, and by the time the elevator came, she was half tempted to take the stairs three at a time.

Even though it only took about a minute to get to the top floor, to Prue it felt like an hour. By the time they got to the penthouse, she practically threw the doors of elevator open.

What she saw made her realize her worst fears had been confirmed.

The only signs that people had once lived here was the furniture. The sofa stood abandoned in the center of the living room, the piano was in the farthest corner. There were no books, computers, televisions, dishes, cups, make-up. Definitely no sign of Phoebe or Cole. It was as though they had simply vanished off the face of the earth.

Piper gasped in horror from behind her. "How is this possible?" she asked in disbelief, though the question was rhetorical.

Prue answered anyway. "They're gone."

"But how?" Piper squealed uncharacteristically. "I was just here the other day."

"A lot can happen in a day," Prue muttered.

"Apparently. But where could they have gone?" Piper asked as she moved past her older sister and into the living room. "I mean, you would think that Phoebe would have the decency to call us and tell us where she was going, or at least that she was leaving."

"Unless..." Prue trailed off as a single, horrifying thought occurred to her.

Piper turned around to face her. "Unless what?" she demanded.

Prue hesitated, not sure of the best way to express her terrifying thought out loud. Finally she decided the best way to go about it was to just say it. "Unless Cole kidnapped her."

Piper's eyebrows shot up. It was apparent that this was not the answer she was expecting. "Excuse me? You think Phoebe's husband kidnapped her?"

"Well, what else am I supposed to think?" Prue cried, motioning to the empty apartment. "Everything is gone, no note, no call. There's no sign of forced entry."

"But why does that automatically mean that Cole was the one who kidnapped her? In fact, why does that mean she was kidnapped at all? Maybe she ran away," Piper offered.

Prue shook her head. "No. I don't believe that. Phoebe would never run away, no matter how bad things get."

Piper gave her a pointed look. "What about right after Grams died and Phoebe went to New York?"

"That was different. She was scared, depressed, lonely, so she went to go find our father."

Piper walked over to her older sister and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. "Well, uh, don't you think that's kind of how she's feeling now?"

Prue looked down. She hadn't really thought about it, but now it made sense. Being Queen of the Underworld had to scare her at least a little bit. And Piper said that she had been a little depressed and lonely when Grams had come down to see her. Not in so many words, of course, but it was the general message.

"You think?"

Piper shrugged, looking helpless and defeated. "I don't really know what to think. But something must've happened to her, and whatever it is, I think the best thing we can do is to go back to the Manor. Maybe she'll try to contact us there."

Prue thought about it, not quite ready to give up. But she knew Piper was right. That was the one place Phoebe knew to go to where her sisters would be, aside from P3 and possibly the 415 magazine building. After a moment or two of silence, Prue nodded. "Okay."

As they turned to leave, Prue remembered something. She quickly turned on her heel and walked to the bedroom. She didn't really know how she knew it would be there, but she didn't dwell on it. She just let her feet lead her to where she was going.

"Prue, what are you looking for?" Piper asked curiously.

It took Prue only a second to find it. With a smile that didn't quite express her relief and gratitude, she picked it up and met her sister by the door.

"Just getting the Book of Shadows."

Phoebe's hand was on her forehead in irritation and boredom. She was staring straight ahead at the wall--or rather--cave wall, trying to find different patterns for lack of anything better to do.

Cole was away at meetings, gathering all his best demons. Maseras had been left behind with her. He claimed that the meeting didn't concern him and that was why he was here, but Phoebe knew better. Cole was afraid she would try to leave, so he left his most trusted demon with her to keep an eye on her.

She refused to talk to the demon, more out of pride than anything else, so she was left with nothing to do. She wished she had brought her computer, but knew that even if she had, the battery would only have lasted a day, two if she were lucky.

"Are you sure you don't want to have a go at a sword fight? I hear you are a natural," Maseras spoke up, getting to his feet.

Phoebe glared at him with as much venom as she could muster. For the first time since she received the power, she sent her mind into the vast reaches of his and heard his thoughts even as they entered his mind.

'What a lovely body. Maybe if I get close enough, I can run my hand along those nice, curved thighs and...'

"Okay, that's it. If you so much as think another word, I will put my sword down the base of your throat and keep it there until your lungs rip in half. Got it?" she snapped, rounding on the perverted demon.

For a moment Maseras looked taken aback, but as quickly as it came, his surprise was gone and a cold, calculated smirk crossed his features. "Ah, finally using the powers the Source obtained for you? It's about time."

"Don't tell me you wanted me to hear your dirty thoughts," Phoebe scoffed, irritated.

"Well, maybe not all of them. But I would have thought you'd take it as a compliment. Not all demons think of humans that way. But you, most of them make an exception for--"

"I told you to keep your mouth shut. Otherwise my husband is going to be very, very angry." Phoebe's voice was like a cold breeze in the middle of a dark night.

Maseras shrugged. "He'll never know."

"He will if I tell him."

"You think he would believe you over me? I'm his advisor. I aid him in all his decisions. You could say, I'm the man behind the Source of all Evil."

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "You are no man. And he would never believe you over me. I'm his wife," she hissed, drawing out the last word into a few syllables to make it sound venomous.

To her severe annoyance, this only made the demon smirk wider. "Then tell me, why is it that he left me here to watch you? Perhaps it was because he did not trust his wife to stay where she was told."

"He trusts me fine. And believe me," she said, getting to her feet and reaching for the hilt of her sword. She didn't take it out of her belt loop, only let her hand dangle threateningly in front of it as she strode closer and closer to Maseras. "If I wanted to leave, I'd do it, and don't think for one second that you could stop me. I'm more powerful than you."

Maseras yawned as if bored. "I beg to differ."

Phoebe raised her eyebrows interestedly. "Is that a challenge?"

Maseras regarded her for a second before standing up. "Perhaps."

Phoebe drew her sword out. "Bring it on," she breathed.

Maseras swung before she was ready. He knocked her on her feet, thrusting her sword just out of her reach. "Come on, Charmed One. At least give me the illusion that this will be a challenge."

As he raised his own sword, preparing to bring it down into Phoebe's stomach, she rolled out of the way just in time to grab her own sword and strike his, bringing the two pieces of sharpened metal to a deafening clang.

Phoebe managed to shove the bearing down demon out of the way so she could get to her feet. This time she was ready as he swung, deflecting him easily. They stayed like that for a while. One of them would swing and the other would block. It wasn't until Phoebe threw in a swift kick to his abdomen that he hesitated, taking a quick second to recover from the blow.

But it wasn't quick enough.

Phoebe swung her sword again, hitting his own sword so that it swung gracefully out of his hands and landed by her feet. She scooped it up before Maseras could and pointed both of the swords' points right at his throat.

His breathing staggered and he kept his gaze glued to the swords, though Phoebe knew for a fact that all his attention was directed at Phoebe in angry, embarrassed wisps of thoughts.

"Like I said, think anything like that again, and I will take great pleasure in killing you."

Then she threw his sword back down in front of him and turned away, returning to her spot in the furthest corner of the cave's entrance, waiting impatiently for Cole to return.

"What do you mean Phoebe's gone?" Leo asked later back at the manor.

Prue and Piper had gathered Leo and Paige into the living room to tell them what they had found out back at the penthouse.

"We mean all their stuff is gone, and it looks like they either left in a hurry, or..." Piper trailed off, not able to finish her sentence.

"They were kidnapped," Prue finished for her.

Leo frowned. "But that doesn't make any sense. The Source wouldn't run away from anything, and Cole would never kidnap Phoebe. He loves her too much."

"Yeah, but maybe that's the problem," Paige put in, speaking for the first time since she'd found out that Phoebe was gone.

The sisters and whitelighter turned to her.

She blushed a little by the attention, but kept going. "Maybe Cole was afraid that you guys were getting to her. You know, turning her good again. Maybe he wanted to take her somewhere that you couldn't get to her."

"That's ridiculous," Prue said, dismissing Paige's theory, though everyone knew by the tone of her voice that she didn't think it was so ridiculous.

"So they just packed up and moved back to the Underworld?" Piper sounded disbelieving. "I'm sorry, but I know Phoebe, and I know she would never agree to that."

"Maybe Cole didn't give her a choice," Leo added quietly.

"So he gave her an ultimatum? Either him or us? Phoebe would never tolerate that," Prue stated.

"Well, I don't think she had much of a choice," Paige replied quickly. "Who knows what Cole would have done if Phoebe had chosen you guys over him. He could have killed her. Or he could have threatened to kill us."

"But if that was true, she would have tried to contact us somehow. She'd have warned us that he was going to try to come after us," Piper interrupted, not really sure why she was since this seemed to be the most likely scenario.

"Well, it's much harder to use good magic down in the Underworld. Plus, Phoebe isn't a Charmed One anymore so she doesn't have as much power as she used to. Contacting us is going to take a while. In the meantime, I think I should go see the Elders and tell them what we know. Even if Cole isn't going to go after you guys, I'd rather play it safe," Leo said after a while.

Prue nodded. "Do what you have to. In the meantime, I'm going to scry for her. She may not be in the Underworld. She might be in trouble somewhere else, and if that's the case, she needs our help now."

She stood up and went to the attic. Leo took that time to orb up to the Elders, leaving Piper and Paige alone in the living room.

"So you really saw Phoebe the other day?" Paige asked once Prue and Leo were gone.

Piper nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. It just didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time."

Paige shrugged. "It's not. It's just weird to think that the woman who we summoned here, the very essence of evil is good, at least somewhat."

"I like to think so. Hopefully once all this is done, Phoebe is going to be back home with us. But in order to make that happen, you and I need to pay the Underworld a little visit."

"Have my belongings arrived yet?"

Cole was pacing in the Underworld, in the room they used for meetings.

A tall, bulky demon nodded. "They are in your chambers as we speak."

"Good. I don't want my wife knowing I sold the penthouse. It would make her uneasy. I need the influence of the Underworld to overtake her again. I need her on my side for what's to come."

The demon hesitated, unsure of whether he should engage the Source in conversation, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he asked, "What's to come, My Liege?"

Cole grinned. "Something beyond your wildest imagination."