The lonely warrior – chapter 16

Halliwell Manor

Attic

"A Whitelighter?" Paige asked in disbelief. "I don't think so... The demon probably lied to you, Chris."

She couldn't believe that a Whitelighter would do anything to hurt any of them. It was pretty clear to her that Whitelighters were great forces of good and they would never do anything evil.

They had no mean bones in their bodies at all.

Whitelighter were pure good.

Chris sighed. "It was hard for me to believe it too, Paige, but..."

"No buts, I don't believe it," Paige said with a shake of her head.

"Paige," Piper said softly, resting her hand over her shoulder. "I don't wanna believe it too, but we can't ignore this information..."

"Piper..." Paige muttered.

"I saw the future," Piper said quietly. "I saw what happened to my little baby, I saw the evil in his eyes. So... It's hard for me to believe a Whitelighter is responsible for this mess, but I know that it's not impossible."

Paige rubbed her forehead in frustration. "I don't know what to say..."

"We need to find out who this Whitelighter is," Chris said firmly.

"All right," Paige said. "But... What are we gonna do? We can't vanquish a Whitelighter."

Can we?

"We'll do exactly what we always do," Piper said, with a heavy sigh. "We'll defeat evil..."

"But a Whitelighter..." Paige started to argue.

"If this Whitelighter is after Wyatt," Chris said. "Then he's not good, then he lost himself to evil... and we can't just ignore it. You didn't see the future, Paige. I'll do everything I can to change things. I won't let it happen!"

Paige cleared her throat. "I am sorry for everything that happened to you, Chris,. I'm really..."

"So help us," he said softly. "Help us to save everyone..."

Paige looked at him, then turned to her sister. "Fine," she nodded. "You're right... It doesn't matter who is the responsible for this mess... Whitelighter or not, we need to stop him!"

A Coffee House

"Phoebe, I..." Cole muttered in confusion.

The last time he saw Phoebe, she was full of anger and hate. Even if she had said that she was feeling nothing, he could feel it, the hate in her eyes.

But now... She was different.

"You survived," she said softly. "I thought I would never see you again... I thought I forgot you, but..." she cleared her throat, before continuing. "I was wrong..."

Cole frowned. He really didn't expect it to happen.

"Wait a minute," he said, a small smile on his face. "I don't have a recorder here..."

Phoebe frowned. "What?" she asked in confusion. "I don't understand..."

"Oh sweetheart," he said. "I'm sure I would appreciate hearing this someday again..."

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "This is not funny," she said seriously.

"I know," he said softly.

"I went against everything and everyone because of you," she said. "I put all my faith on you and when you accepted to be the Source, I..."

Cole shook his head. "Phoebe, you need to..."

"No," she said, resting her hand over his. "Please, let me finish it... You made me choose between you and everything I believed... I went down to the Underworld with you, but I didn't born to be evil, Cole... It's not who I am. And I had to choose again. You need to know that vanquishing you that night was the most hard thing I've ever... I wanted to die with you that night, but still... I was pregnant. Do you remember? I was pregnant... So, I just try to be strong for the baby... But the baby... Oh God... The baby was never mine..."

"Phoebe," Cole said painfully. "Don't say it... The baby..."

"was soulless," Phoebe shook her head. "He was only an evil spawn growing inside of me..."

"This is not true," Cole said. "The baby was possessed... the tonic was killing everything good in him..."

"You forced me to drink it," she remarked.

"It wasn't me, It was the Source," Cole said.

"Same thing," Phoebe sighed. "You did it consciously, you accepted to be him... and I couldn't forgive it..."

"I didn't accept it," he argued. "Things didn't happen the way you think... When I took in the Hollow, I didn't know what would happen... You need to know I tried to fight it, I tried to fight him..."

"But it wasn't enough," Phoebe said, shaking her head. "And you hurt me, you hurt me and my sisters... You killed an innocent... And we had to vanquish you... But you didn't give up... You came back, you just rose from the dead..."

"I thought our love was so strong... I thought you would understand me... For some reason I thought you would," he told her.

"I was afraid," Phoebe said. "I couldn't live through that hell again, Cole... even for you..."

Silence filled the air for a moment.

"I need to ask you something," Phoebe spoke again. "Why did you create an alternate reality? Why..."

"As I said," Cole sighed. "I wasn't thinking clearly... I wasn't myself anymore..."

"We should strip you from your powers," she said, caressing his face. "They obviously was driving you insane..."

"No," he said, removing her hand from his face. "I told you... the powers were just powers..."

It was you...

"Oh, Cole... I'm sorry for what happened to you. I couldn't recognize you anymore," Phoebe said, holding his hand.

"I need to go..." he said, raising up.

"No..." Phoebe put her hand on his arm. "Please, we need to finish it..."

"We have anything more to say to each other," he protested.

"This is not true, and you know it," Phoebe said softly. "Please, let's finish it..."

Cole looked around him and sighed. "Fine... Let's to talk more about what happened when I came back from the Wasteland..."

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites. I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)