A/N: Sorry again for the long wait. Sometimes you just need to take a step back in order to regain your muse. Plenty more to come, I promise!

Big thanks to FanficFemale, kagomekikyo-arrow, BelovedSlayer, StreetButterfly09, Another Phoebe, and SpeedDemon315 for reviewing! Thanks for sticking with this story, I promise it won't disappoint!

Chapter Twenty-Six

Cole was not looking forward to going back to his lair. Not because he didn't want to see his wife. He did. But he wasn't in the mood to get into another fight. Lately it seemed that was all they did and he was sick of it. He had hoped the fighting would stop once he got Phoebe back in the Underworld; once she was out of her sisters' influences.

He honestly did not know what it was that had changed so quickly. One minute they were Cole and Phoebe: Powerful Source and Queen of All Evil. People to be respected. Feared. Now they were Cole and Phoebe: On the Brink of Disaster. He had no idea how it had gotten this bad this fast, but he did know one thing.

He wouldn't let Phoebe go without a fight.

Cole didn't sense that was what Phoebe wanted, though. Throughout their many fights, Phoebe had always remained firm that she still loved him. And Cole still loved Phoebe as much as the night they'd gotten married.

So what the hell had changed?

The minute he stepped foot inside the large cavern he and Phoebe shared, he knew something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

"Phoebe?" Cole called out uncertainly.

He walked deeper inside the cavern, brushing his fingertips across the black suede sofa, as though he thought he could somehow channel Phoebe's old premonition power and see where she was. "Phoebe, honey, are you here?"

No answer. Cole felt his irritation growing. Out of the corner of his eye Cole spotted what looked to be a leg sticking out of the entrance to their bedroom. He knew immediately that it was not Phoebe. The leg was too bulky and muscular, and it was wearing man's pants.

It was Maseras. He was unconscious with a massive bump forming on the back of his head. At first Cole feared that some rogue demon had busted in and taken his wife, but then realized this could not be the case. Phoebe was too smart to let some stray demon take her. And besides that, any demon who busted in would not have knocked the Source's bodyguard/advisor on the bead.

No, Phoebe must have done this. Cole knew she hadn't liked having Maseras around all the time. She had complained on more than one occasion about the lack of privacy. She must have wanted or needed to go somewhere alone.

"Get up," Cole demanded the unconscious demon.

Maseras woke instantly. When he saw the Source towering over him, his eyes widened and he jumped to his feet.

"My Liege...she knocked me out! I had no time to stop her...she-"

Cole cut him off. "I don't want to hear excuses. You let her out of your sight, and now there's no telling what kind of danger she's in! I promise you, Maseras, if anything happens to her, anything at all, I'll do worse than vanquish you! I can do all kinds of things to make your life a living hell!"

Maseras gulped and bowed his head. "I'm sorry, my lord. It won't happen again."

"You're damn right about that..."

A black swarm suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, accompanied by the sound on usually hears when a darklighter materializes. Cole turned around just in time to see Phoebe, her hand clutching her stomach and her face as pale as a ghost.

He opened his mouth to demand where she had been, but stopped himself upon seeing how...shaken she looked.

"Phoebe? Are you okay?" Cole asked quietly, moving carefully towards her.

Phoebe looked up at him as though noticing him for the first time. "What?"

"Are you okay?" Cole repeated, gently taking her arm and leading her to the sofa.

"Um..." Phoebe hesitated. She looked as though she had something to say that she knew Cole wouldn't like.

"Tell me," Cole insisted, trying to keep his tone calm and light.

"I'm pregnant."

Judging from Phoebe's wide eyes and frozen expression, Cole guessed that she hadn't meant to blurt it out like that.

Time seemed to stop. Cole was trying to process what his wife had just said, but the words hadn't sunk in yet. He wanted to believe that Phoebe was just yanking his chain, but one look at her face told him this was no joke. This was real.

Cole sank down into the coach beside Phoebe. He knew it wasn't a smart thing to let Maseras see him looking so vulnerable, but he couldn't help it. Phoebe's news felt like a blow to the stomach. He felt like he'd just had all the air knocked out of him. It took him a few minutes to catch his breath long enough to start saying sensible words again.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

Phoebe nodded. "I just came from the doctor's. I missed my period, which isn't normal, and took two pregnancy tests. When they both came back positive, I wanted a formal opinion so I went to Dr. Williams...I've known him for years. He did some blood work, and that's when he told me. I'm pregnant."

Cole was speechless. Phoebe hadn't even told him she'd taken one pregnancy test, let alone all this. Now that it had sunk in a little bit-not too much though-all the possible times they could have conceived felt like a slap in the face. Of course Phoebe was pregnant. How could he have not seen this coming?

"Phoebe this is...this is great!" he finally exclaimed.

Cole thought he saw the corners of his wife's lips lift. "You do?"

"Well yes! I'm going to be a father. You're going to be a mother. Phoebe...we're gonna be parents!"

"Yes, Cole, that's generally what having a baby means," Phoebe stated with amusement.

"I'm going to have an heir! We're going to have an heir! I don't even care whether it's a boy or a girl! Our line is going to continue," Cole continued, rising from the couch. That was when he noticed that Maseras was still there, standing in the corner of the room, silent.

"Leave us. And don't breath a word of this to anyone. We're going to announce the news later," Cole warned.

Maseras nodded his head once in understanding then shimmered out, leaving husband and wife alone.

Prue entered the kitchen, fully expecting it to be like any other day with her being the first one up, making the coffee, inhaling a quick breakfast while getting ready for work. What she hadn't expected was to find Piper had beat her to it. The coffee was already made, the paper was in, and there were two eggs waiting for her in a skillet on the stove.

Piper looked up and smiled at her. "Morning."

"Morning," Prue replied, frowning. Piper was reading the newspaper-something she rarely did- with her coffee already half gone, eating her eggs as though she didn't have a care in the world. "What are you doing up?"

Piper feigned confusion. "Why shouldn't I be up?"

Prue gave her a look, which Piper returned with another smile. "You know what I mean. Couldn't sleep?" she guessed.

Piper shrugged. "Sorta. Mostly I just felt bad for making you worry while Paige and I were...you know. I wanted to make it up to you."

"So you made me eggs?" Prue felt herself break out a small smile.

Piper laughed. "It's my way of saying I'm sorry. You know, in case you hadn't gotten the point yesterday. I thought you were going to have an aneurism when we returned."

Prue shook her head. "Forget about it. If it hadn't been you, it would have been me. The truth is, I've been thinking of going down there myself. Ever since we first found out that Phoebe was down there in the first place."

Piper nodded, not looking surprised by this. "Would you go down there now?"

Prue looked at her younger sister in surprise. "I don't know. Perhaps not so soon. I mean, you and Paige barely managed to escape. Who's to say Cole's not down there right now waiting for us to try again? I think, if we ever try this again, and mind you this is a very big if, we need to wait it out. Lay low for a while."

"You really think they'd expect us again so soon?"

Prue shrugged. "I don't really know what I think anymore. All of this has escalated so much...I just don't know. Can I be completely honest with you?"

Piper nodded.

"This whole situation is so screwed up. I mean, I don't even know what to expect anymore. Demons haven't attacked in so long, which makes me think that Phoebe still cares about us, but every time we see her, it's just another reminder to me of how much I failed."

"You didn't fail-"

"Yes." Prue cut her off. "Yes, I did. If I had done my job, Phoebe would still be here. Plain and simple. You know what it comes down to? Us being careless and stupid. We should have known better than to use our powers in broad daylight. How could we have been so naive to think that no one would see?"

"Uh, Prue, what are you talking about?" Piper asked, confusion all over her face.

Prue smiled sadly. "When we followed Shax into the street that day. I know neither of us remembers doing it, but we did. We knew vanquishing him required the Power of Three. Phoebe reading the spell alone wouldn't have sent him away for good. We should have known that. We should never have let her go down to the Underworld, we shouldn't have used our powers in public, and we definitely shouldn't have listened to Leo when he said Phoebe was safer with Cole. What the hell were we thinking?"

She had meant it to be a rhetorical question, yet she still half hoped Piper would offer an answer. Any answer, just so she wouldn't feel like the giant let down she knew in her heart she was. It was all too much to handle. No wonder Phoebe had turned evil. If she had been stuck in the Underworld, surrounded by demons, and her sisters had just left her down there, she might have turned evil too. As far as Prue knew, Cole had never left Phoebe when she needed him most.

But Prue was disappointed yet again. "I don't know, Prue. Everything that happened made sense at the time. If we hadn't gone after Shax, he might have harmed another innocent. Who's to say he wouldn't have attacked the news crew who taped us that day?"

"How do we know he even would?"

"Well, he appeared in that street, and that news crew was there. As far as we know, they were the only innocents on that street. He wouldn't have appeared just to walk in the sun," Piper pointed out.

Prue nodded. "I know. You're right. It's all just so much to handle. The whole situation is a mess. And quite frankly, I don't know what to do anymore. We've tried everything, but nothing seems to work. I don't want to give up on Phoebe, but I don't know what else to do. How can we save someone who doesn't want to be saved?"

This time it was Piper's turned to offer a sad smile. "We can't."

Prue looked down at her lap. "Then what can we do?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe the best thing we can do right now is lay low. We've been focusing on this for so long that we've probably lost perspective on it. If we let it go for a while and come back later refreshed and rejuvenated, maybe we'll know what to do," Piper said, sounding as helpless and defeated as Prue ever remembered her being.

Prue stood up, laying a comforting hand on Piper's shoulder as she passed by her to pour herself another cup of coffee. She didn't know if abandoning this for the time being was the right thing to do, but she knew they weren't getting anywhere fast doing what they were doing. She felt horrible about giving up like this, but Piper was right. Coming back refreshed would definitely do them all some good.

"How do you think Paige and Leo are going to take it?" Prue wondered as she sat back down.

"I don't know. Not well, probably. But we're out of options, even they have to realize that," Piper replied.

Prue nodded. They sat in silence for a while, each of them finishing their breakfast. When Prue was finished she took both hers and Piper's plates and dumped them in the sink. "I'll be at work. Call if you need anything."

She saw Piper nod out of the corner of her eye. She felt like she had to say something else, but she didn't know what to say that would make either of them feel any better. So she did the only thing she could.

She left.

"Hey!" The demon bellowed as Maseras shimmered in front of him.

Maseras jumped the demon, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the wall behind him. "Quiet yourself, Danix! You want yourself killed?"

The demon known as Danix, though still breathing heavily, shook his head, indicating he would be quiet. Carefully Maseras let go of the rather young and attractive looking demon. Though still keeping watchful eyes on each other, they both backed away and gave each other some space.

"Maseras. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be off babysitting the queen?" Danix sneered, mocking the demon before him.

"That is why I've come." He took a seat in a chair nearby, putting one leg across the other in a rather casual manner. Danix remained standing, frowning.

"Our queen," Maseras too sneered at the word, "is with child."

"What?" Danix gaped at Maseras, and began crossing and uncrossing his arms.

Maseras nodded. "It's true. I just found out. The Source is with her now. Apparently it was quite unexpected. The Source is ecstatic, as is to be expected. The queen, however, doesn't seem to share his excitement."

"So what does that have to do with me?" Danix demanded.

"If that Charmed One," Maseras spat the last two words with as much force as possible, "delivers that child, it will be the Source's heir. And since it will be half-human, like his father, it can also reproduce. Which means that they can carry down the line for generations to come. And we will never be able to become the Source."

Danix scoffed. "You may have a death wish, Maseras, but I don't. With the powers those two possess, you'd be lucky to stand one minute against them."

Maseras rolled his eyes. "I don't wish to go against our liege. I wish to kill his queen. Together they might be unstoppable, but separate them, and they are weaker. Not weak, mind you, just weaker. Weak enough that we might stand a chance if we gather enough demons."

"Why would you do that? Have you forgotten that the queen is a former Charmed One? No one who has gone up against them has lived to tell the tale. And besides that, if we went up against her, the Source would kill us for sure!" Danix exclaimed.

"Not if we're careful. To do so now would be reckless, but if we band together and gather a few more upper level demons, we might stand a chance!"

"So you plan to go up against your boss, destroy his queen and unborn child, just for the chance to become the Source yourself?" Danix questioned.

Maseras nodded impatiently.

"What makes you think I'd risk my life to help you?" Danix asked, walking up to him and getting just an inch away from his face.

"Because it's either you help me, or serve some half-demon, half-human abomination of a Source in the years to come," Maseras replied simply, pushing Danix away from him.

"But the Source now is half-human and you don't seem to have a problem with that," Danix pointed out sourfully.

Maseras sighed as though the answer to this was obvious. "He also used to be Belthazor. And Belthazor was a great demon before he succumbed to the love of a witch."

"He isn't Belthazor anymore."

"Enough!" Maseras bellowed. "There are plenty of demons who will jump at the chance to kill the Source's beloved queen. Either join me or prepare to get vanquished yourself."

Danix sighed. "I'm with you. But don't for one second think I'm doing it for you."

Maseras smirked knowingly. "I don't."

Danix rolled his eyes, hating that he was agreeing to answer to Maseras who was, once upon a time, lower on the food chain than he was. "So what's our first move? Boss?" he asked, exaggerating the last word.

"You'll see. But first, we need to get some old enemies out of our way."