Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or Charmed.
Phoebe, Piper, Xander and Faith followed Cole down the woods.
"Guys, are you sure we can trust him?" Xander asked.
"Honestly, I think we don't have a choice." Piper said.
"You could say it's a leap of faith." Cole said before smiling at Faith. "That pun wasn't intended, by the way."
Faith chuckled in amusement before she spoke up. "You said he used to be a bad guy, then tried to be a good guy, then turned bad again, then it just became a circle before you vanquished him. But if he helped you before, I guess it wouldn't hurt to at least hear him out."
They walked down the woods before they ended up at the edge of the cliff where they stopped at a crevice.
"This is your ticket out of here. But for it to work, you need to believe it will work. You need to trust me." Cole said.
"Well, you weren't kidding about a leap of faith." Faith muttered.
"How do we know this isn't a trick so you can kill us?" Xander questioned.
"If you doubt this, you won't survive, for the magic of this to work, you need to believe." Cole said.
"If it's that simple and you knew this was a way out of here…" Phoebe began.
"…why haven't I escaped already? I'm dead. Remember?" Cole reminded. "This route is for those who are not supposed to be here. But like I said, you need to believe it will work or you'll die making the jump."
"I think the least we can do is believe him." Piper said before turning to Phoebe.
"I trust him." Phoebe said without hesitation. She was finally willing to let go of this grudge and anger towards Cole she had been holding onto.
"I do too." Faith said before turning to Xander, who was hesitant, considering that Cole was a former demon… but ultimately he realized that if he wanted to get out alive, he needed to believe. Besides, while it took him a long time to realize it, there were some good demons and vampires, even if they should be evil by nature, like Anya and while it had taken him a while, he was finally able to let go of his grudge towards Angel and Spike. And Piper and Phoebe knew Cole the best, so, if they trusted him…
"OK… I guess I'll listen." Xander said as he took a breath.
"So you believe me?" Cole asked.
Piper and Phoebe looked at each other and nodded before turning to Cole. "Yeah." Phoebe said.
"I do too." Faith said. While she didn't know Cole that well, she knew he was their only chance of escaping before she turned too Xander.
"Yeah." Xander said, doing his best to cleanse any doubt due to the fact that Cole was a former demon.
"Ready?" Phoebe asked as they took each other's hands and nodded.
"On three?" Piper asked and they all nodded before taking a breath.
"One…" Xander counted.
"Two…" Faith counted.
"Three!" Piper yelled as they jumped off the cliff to the abyss as the darkness consumed them.
Buffy, Dawn, Tara, Willow, Melinda and Paige followed Prue down the hallway, when they heard screaming.
"What was that?" Buffy asked.
"I know that scream." Prue said.
Paige got up as she rushed down the hallway as she called. "Phoebe!"
"Wait!" Buffy yelled as they followed her.
"Paige!"
Paige ran ahead, when Phoebe and Piper ran down the attic and they hugged each other.
"Mom!" Melinda cried as she and Piper hugged each other.
"Oh, thank God." Phoebe said.
"Yeah. Thank God." Paige said. "Where were you?"
"Long story." Phoebe said before she pulled away. "Where's the Source?"
Suddenly, Phoebe and Piper froze, registering who was behind Paige as their eyes widened.
"Yeah… there's something I need to explain to you…" Paige said awkwardly as she, Melinda, Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn moved away for Phoebe and Piper to get a clear sight of Prue.
"Hi…" Prue smiled. "Long time no see."
"Prue?" Piper asked, shocked.
"Is it…" Phoebe swallowed, lost for words.
"Yes. It's me." Prue said.
Phoebe and Piper slowly approached Prue as they cautiously reached with their hands to touch her to be sure she was real as they nudged Prue in the shoulder.
Piper swallowed as she felt her throat thicken, shaky breaths coming out. She had never expected to see her elder sister again and Phoebe's eyes were twinkling already from the tears forming and the floodgates opened as they both hugged Prue almost in beat strength, while Prue grunted.
"Please, tell me this isn't a dream." Piper begged.
"No. No, it's not." Prue assured, patting Piper in her back as they all sniffed.
"You have no idea how much we've missed you." Phoebe whispered.
"I have a pretty good idea." Prue said. They both hugged each other for a few moments as they smiled.
"Uh, just asking, 'Prue' as in their dead sister Prue?" Xander trailed off, whispering as he approached Buffy and Willow, who nodded and Xander's and Faith's eyes widened in realization.
"Oh." Faith said, summing up what she and Xander were thinking.
For a long moment, the sisters hugged and sobbed, unspoken words expressed in emotions coming out, while Paige, Melinda, Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Tara were also in tears from seeing the emotional family reunion.
"How?" Phoebe asked as she pulled away. "I mean, for years we tried summoning you—"
"I know and believe, I wish I'd come to see you, but if you had relied on me too much, you never would've grown in the ways you had in the years I was gone. I know my decision hurt you and not a day goes by, when I wouldn't wish we could see each other again, but I thought that you relying on me would've only held you back, so I kept my distance, but that never meant I never watched over any of you." Prue said.
Phoebe processed and considered. While they had often been at odds, even before finding out about their destiny as the Charmed Ones, since then it had grown and developed as they would look out for each other, no matter what and they would always love each other, given that Prue was often the motherly figure after their mother Patty had died.
Piper had looked up to Prue as her role model as Prue had been protective of her since childhood and Prue would have done anything to protect her. And after they had lost Prue, Piper had bottled up that anger over Prue dying and leaving Piper to be the big sister to Phoebe and Paige and she thought she had let go of the anger after she had become Fury. She took a deep breath as all that repressed grief and anger came back and she tried to shut the floodgates before she would lash out and say something she might never take back. She could understand Prue's decision, but, the fact that Prue had a choice to see them again and guide them and decided to stay away just hurt Piper.
"I understand that you're angry and I want you to know that I just thought it'd be the best way for you to grow without me there for you." Prue said.
"Prue… you're back now. That's all that matters." Phoebe said as they hugged each other again before Prue turned to Piper. If anyone had the most right to be angry, it was Piper that she had to be the motherly figure after Prue's death.
"Piper…" Prue began and Piper sighed. She had mixed feelings, happy to be finally reunited with Prue and angry over the fact that Prue had decided to stay away from them, when she had the choice to be there for them, but as much as she wanted to explode on Prue, she knew she had more important things to focus on as she took a breath, suppressing her anger and shelving it aside. She would talk it out with Prue later.
"I'm pissed that you left." Piper said and Prue looked a bit guiltily before Piper smiled as they hugged. "But I'm happy to see you again, so as far as I'm concerned, we'll hug first, then we'll get rid of the Source once and for all, then I'll kick your ass for leaving us."
Prue smiled. "Same old Piper."
Paige and Phoebe and Melinda joined in for the hug.
"I love you all." Prue said.
"We love you, Prue." Piper said.
Buffy, Willow, Faith and Dawn wiped the tears from their eyes as they and Xander, who also was touched at the sighed, processed the emotional family reunion before the sisters and Melinda pulled away from each other.
"So… sorry to interrupt the emotional family reunion, but… any idea how to get out of here and vanquish the Source?" Buffy spoke up.
The sisters and Melinda looked at each other firmly.
"I think it's time for us to get rid of the Source once and for all." Prue said.
"How do we do that, if he has the Hollow?" Willow pointed out.
"I know a spell. We just need to distract him long enough so we can use it before we vanquish him." Piper said before she looked at everyone, who looked determined.
"It's time for us to get rid of the Source once and for all." Prue said before a blinding glow enveloped them all and they disappeared.
The Source looked around the manor as he smiled. "Where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are and I will make it quick and painless."
"Over here!"
The Source turned to see Piper as he threw a fireball and Piper dived away as the fireball destroyed the desk behind Piper.
"Hey!"
The Source turned to Phoebe, who ran down the hallway and the Source snarled before he threw an energy ball but Phoebe flipped away as it flew through the window. The Source then heard whistling as he turned to see Buffy, Willow, Xander, Faith, Tara and Dawn and they ran and dodged as he threw more fireballs at them as they dodged and backed away. The Source tried throwing lightning at them, when it just went through and they vanished, making the Source realize they were just astral projections, when he heard chanting and turned to see Piper, Paige and Phoebe chant.
"Iam Is Addo
Hic Is Addo
Malum Quod Bonus
Vox In Consensus
Super Dico Nos"
Suddenly, the Source grunted as the swarm of black flies flew out of his body and vanished and he fell down, realizing that the Hollow had been ejected from him.
Buffy and Faith felt their Slayer powers returning, while Dawn gasped, feeling better than before, as if she had recovered from a severe injury suddenly, with the Key magic inside Dawn coming back to her, while Willow felt her magic recover.
"No!" The Source snarled in rage before he turned to the Charmed Ones. "You… you've ruined everything again!"
He was about to shimmer, when suddenly, Cole appeared in a shimmer and grabbed the Source, while Paige widened her eyes.
"Cole?" Paige exclaimed in shock.
"I can't hold him for long! You need to finish it!" Cole shouted.
It took a few seconds before Paige overcame her shock and recovered her determination. "Crystals!" She yelled, when a circle of crystals appeared on the ground in a shimmer of orbs, surrounding the Source and the crystal cage containing him and Cole.
"Belthazor…" The Source snarled, turning to Cole.
"All that pain and suffering you've brought to all of us… I'm going to end it right here. Right now." Cole said before turning to the sisters. "End it! Vanquish him, hurry!"
"But you—" Phoebe began.
"Do it!" Cole ordered.
Piper, Phoebe and Paige joined hands as they chanted.
"Prudence, Penelope Patricia, Melinda
Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace
Halliwell Witches, stand strong beside us
Vanquish this spell from time and space!"
The Source was engulfed in flames with Cole as both of them screamed, but neither one of them seemed to disappear or be vanquished as the crystal cage was beginning to break.
"It's not working!" Willow yelled as she tried to create a force field to contain the Source, but he was still too strong.
"Then I guess we're gonna have to add more fuel to the fire." Piper said as the sisters decided to chant another spell, with Melinda joining in and Prue appearing next to them, realizing what spell it was.
"Let's end this." Prue said.
"The Power of Three and Nexus of All
Hear our cry and answer our call
The Power of Three we now decree
The Power of Three will destroy thee
With the Power of All the evil falls!"
The Source screamed in agony, while Cole also grunted, before he turned to the sisters, who examined the look in his face. As if he was at peace. His face was a myriad of regret, serenity and closure, as if he was finally making amends as the sisters realized he was trying to redeem himself by helping get rid of the Source once and for all and while the sisters had their reasons to mistrust Cole, he had been their friend and ally for a time and they knew that his own choices and their treatment of him had pushed him down a darker path, but now that he was helping them again defeat their old common enemy, they couldn't bring themselves to hate him anymore, given that he was sacrificing himself.
They couldn't make out what was Cole trying to say through the Source's screams, but they managed to read from his lips as he said one word.
"Goodbye."
An explosion followed, knocking them all of them on the ground as the walls cracked and the nearby furniture was smashed into shards, shrapnel and splinters. They all coughed before the smoke and dust settled as they got up.
"Is it over?" Buffy asked.
"Looks that way." Willow said.
"Well, we thought we'd vanquished him before." Piper pointed out.
"Somehow I doubt he'll recover from something like this." Prue noted.
"But Cole…" Phoebe trailed off, tears filling her eyes. She thought she was ready to move on finally, but then Cole returned, even though he wanted to make amends and now he helped them vanquish the Source again as she sighed, wiping her eyes.
"He sacrificed himself to help, Phoebe. I may never get past my issues with him, but I know he was our friend once." Prue said.
"But at least it's over." Willow said.
"So, the Source is gone?" Dawn asked.
"Even if he survives this, I think it'll be a very long time before he recovers from a defeat like this one." Piper said.
"Phoebe, are you OK?" Paige asked as they turned to Phoebe, who let out a few shaky breaths before getting ahold of herself.
"I'll be fine. Really." Phoebe said as the sisters came to hold her by her shoulder to comfort her over losing the man she had loved once, yet again, apparently this time for good.
Melinda, Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Faith, Willow and Tara kept some distance, feeling just as saddened, with Buffy remembering when she had lost Angel after he had been ensouled and Spike in the battle over Hellmouth, realizing that Phoebe and Cole used to be in love as they watched the sisters silently mourn.
Not entirely sure with this chapter, since magic battles aren't my specialty and I'm not sure if it's possible to write fights in Charmed with adding some tension and action unlike in other fandoms, such as Arrowverse, MCU or Buffyverse, at least for me.
The spell to vanquish the Source was a combination of a spell from the follow-up comics the sisters had used to vanquish the Source when he returned again and the novel from post-series finale written by Paul Rudits called 'The War on Witches', which the sisters used to connect to magic of other witches, which didn't work the way they had intended, from what I looked up, I haven't read the novel, not sure if I will, but the spell sounded cool, so I thought it'd be fun to combine both spells.
The follow-up comic books tried to give Cole a redemption arc but it was lazily written, so I hope I did a good job here, while Cole was better as a villain, him trying to be good was an interesting concept but it was ruined by how Phoebe was mistreating him and pushing him to going insane, so I thought it'd be fitting if Cole helped beat the Source again, since that way he would get some sensible redemption.
The next chapter is going to be concluding epilogue of the story.
So, what do you guys think?
Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this so far.