oh, learned something new
smile Well, it did start out as one chapter for the fanfic challenge. Those who entered were given two lines from a song that they had to use; mine were:
Even if it’s a lie
Say it will be all rightThen we could use any of the following, if we so desired (I used them):
But I do believe
That not everything is gonna be the way
You think it ought to be
It seems like every time I try to make it right
It all comes down on me
Please say honestly you won’t give up on me
And I shall believe.It's just I left it hanging and I HAD to work on the ending, but the site went down shortly after the contest which is why its still unfinished. Anyway, here's the beginning:
Fate Intervenes
-Disclaimer: Recognizable characters that have appeared in any book, television series or movie, together with the names, titles and back story, are the sole copyright property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended by the author, and no monetary profit has been made in the writing of this story. However, the story itself, as well as any original characters, is the sole property of the author. Please do not copy the story from this site or post these stories elsewhere without the express written permission of the author. In other words, I don’t own anything but the story and Benjamin. Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phoebe shivered slightly as she entered the mansion. Ever since Piper had told her that Cole was still hanging around she felt his presence every time she came home. Even though Piper had assured her that Cole only wanted to spare her his bleak existence she couldn’t shake that feeling that he was there watching and waiting for something she may never be able to gift him with again, her trust. Sighing as she climbed the stairs she admitted to herself that as the apple peeling had shown so long ago Cole was her one and only soul mate just as Leo was Piper’s. He honestly would forever hold her heart in his keeping. If only her trust hadn’t been so fragile when she had first met him, perhaps if it had been stronger she would have been able to withstand Cole’s return to evil and then his total obsession with her.
The fight against the evil side of her own powers was hard even though she was a Charmed One, but it was only since Piper had told her of Cole’s fate that she had finally thought about how much harder the fight had been for him. As she entered her room she picked up the photo of Cole and her that still rested on her dresser. She had new found respect for him now that time had dulled the pain of a love that seemed doomed from the start. Having been born to a demon Cole had been molded into someone who could kill without a second thought almost from birth. He would of known pain and degradation, never love, trust, or a belief in his goodness so it was actually amazing that he had even recognized the gift of love that they had both been given.
Sitting on her bed she allowed the tears to fall silently as she finally realized that both the pressure from her sisters and her own feelings of being unlovable had helped doom both Cole and her almost from the beginning. Unfortunately it had also doomed Cole to a fate worse then death, an eternity alone and unloved. At that moment a small breath of warm air wafted across her shoulders as her sister Paige orbed into the room and for just a second Phoebe heard a brief whisper as the air passed her ear.
“Don’t give up on me.”
Her eyes widened at the familiar voice as Paige asked, “What’s wrong Phoebe?”
Mustering a small smile Phoebe wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand, “Just thinking how unfair life is.”
“Cole”
“Yes.”
Paige frowned as she sat down beside Phoebe, “Yeah, I’ve been thinking a lot since Piper told us of his fate. I knew him for so short a time and most of that was when he was the Source or Mr. Invincible. I was so hard on both of you, especially on him. Looking back I see how afraid I was that I was going to lose my new found family because of this tremendous evil that had consumed my sister’s boyfriend. Then he was so obsessed with you while at the same time having access to such tremendous powers, I don’t know, it just really scared me.”
Phoebe laughed softly at that, “You weren’t the only one believe me.”
Paige smiled sadly, “Still I should have trusted you and not been so holier-than-thou towards Cole.”
Hugging Paige, Phoebe smiled, “I think towards the end even I was a bit judgmental.”
“Only towards the end and by then you had been hurt by the very person you had chosen over your family. Unfortunately Paige is right none of us gave Cole even half the trust that you did. We were his judge and jury every time he made one simple mistake, which was exactly when he really needed our faith and understanding the most.” Piper said as she walked through the door.
“Okay, so we are all guilty that doesn’t mean Cole deserves an eternity filled with loneliness.” Phoebe sobbed out as tears started streaming down her cheeks causing both Piper and Paige to rush over and wrap her in their arms.
Meeting Paige’s eyes over Phoebe’s head Piper mouthed, “She still loves him…?”
Paige nodded slightly in response just as Phoebe pleaded with them, “Even if it’s a lie, say it will be alright. Please I want to believe everything will be okay.”
At those heartfelt words tears began to fall from her sisters’ eyes as well. It was all such a mess and one that they had helped create.
“We will fix it Phoebe I promise you we will find a way to help Cole find peace.” Piper whispered into her baby sister’s hair.
“And I will help you as best I can.” Leo volunteered from the doorway. Piper squeezed Phoebe hard once before standing up and moving over into her husband’s arms.
“I don’t know guys. It seems like every time I try to make it right it all comes down on me.”
Paige laughed lightly, “Yeah, when it comes to Cole it does seem like all you do is attract bad luck and unfortunately it also happens to be the luck that is extremely evil as well.”
Piper held her head his as she admitted to being wrong a few short years ago, “But we will prevail this time Phoebe. We can promise you that because this time we will believe in Cole. He has earned that and more over and over, it’s our fault that our egos got in the way before. We expected too much, too soon from someone raised as he was and we never acknowledged the good he achieved, only condemned him for the evil that was his birthright.”
They had all pulled together numerous times to help and support Leo, even when he had been an Avatar, but they had never really supported Cole. If she was honest with herself even now she expected Cole was just plotting something evil yet again. Rubbing her forehead Piper wondered if there was something to her suspicion or if it all came down to the fact that Leo used to be a Whitelighter so therefore good no matter what and Cole used to be a demon so evil no matter what. Even if they hadn’t realized that there were shades of gray back then you would think they would know better by now, so why was she still having second thoughts even as she assured Phoebe that they would find a way to help Cole. At that very moment a fierce wind blew through the room and faint voices could be heard as it circled the sisters.
“Believe…” whispered a young female.
“That everything is not gonna to be the way you think it ought to be…” murmured a young male voice.
“That’s the only way.” They finished together. Then the wind was gone as suddenly as it appeared.
From the bed where she sat hugging Phoebe Paige asked, “Who, or what, was that?”
“My guess would be The Fates.” Leo answered.
“Oh that’s just great. Any idea what their little speech meant? Was it a warning or a clue?” Demanded Piper as she stepped out of his arms and began to pace back and forth. “I don’t understand what they are trying to tell us. Are we supposed to believe that what Cole told me about his fate isn’t true or that what we think his fate should be isn’t really important or realistic?”
“But I do believe! Piper, please don’t give up on him this time. He may have done some real rotten things before he met me and lost the war with evil to become the Source, but he doesn’t deserve this. He put his life on the line for us numerous times and I really believe that the only reason we were finally able to defeat the Source is because of Cole.”
Piper stopped pacing as she realized what she had said. Once again she had automatically assumed that Cole was out to destroy them even from his trapped existence. Taking a deep breath she went over and kneeled in front of Phoebe and placed her hands on her sister’s knees.
“I’m sorry baby I don’t know why I always think the worst of Cole. Please say honestly that you won’t give up on me and I shall believe. I promise you Phoebe, I shall believe in Cole no matter what,” she pleaded.
“Let’s see, first Cole was a demon out to kill the Charmed Ones, then he was taken over by the Source, and finally he was this invincible being totally obsessed with Phoebe. I really don’t see why you wouldn’t automatically think the worst. I do too and I wasn’t around when he was trying to kill you all,” Paige chuckled as she patted Phoebe’s back and then stood up. “Still he did the best he could and managed to do a lot of good in the short time that he won the war against the evil he was nurtured in. This ‘punishment’ or whatever it’s suppose to be is just plain wrong. I don’t believe any of his crimes merit this type of judgment, I mean really he even took back those crazy powers so we could defeat that fear demon and lost Phoebe once again in the process.”
“Neither do I” Piper and Leo asserted at the same time.
“So we will find a way to defeat the fates, together.” Leo continued as he walked over to join Piper and Paige by Phoebe’s bedside. Standing Phoebe wiped away her tears, only this time they were tears of hope.
“To the Book?” she asked.
“To the Book!” her sisters answered.
Leo held up his hand to stop them for a second, “I think it will be better if Phoebe and Piper check out the Book of Shadows while Paige and I see if there’s anything at the Magic School that can help.”
“Good idea, we can cover more ground that way,” Paige said as she grabbed Leo’s arm and orbed out.
Piper and Phoebe made their way upstairs to the Book of Shadows. As they entered the doorway a hard, hot wind stopped them in their tracks and actually began pushing them back out the door. Battling through the hurricane type tempest Phoebe swore she could feel an immense sense of love and a frantic sense of worry enveloping her very soul. As they neared the Book the wind began to die down to a small whimper.
“What was that all about?” Piper wondered out loud. “If that’s those Fates trying to stop us before we even start, all they’re really doing is making me more determined.”
Phoebe looked at her sister worriedly, “If the only reason you want to help Cole is to put one over on the Fates then I don’t think this is a good idea. Personally I think that there is more to their cryptic statement than Cole’s current situation.”
“What do you mean Phoebe?” Piper inquired as she started leafing through the Book.
Phoebe shrugged as she stood beside her sister, “I don’t know really. It’s like I can glimpse a glimmer of some revelation that all this is suppose to reveal to us, but yet I’ve no idea what it is. All I feel is that it has something to do with our expectations, our view of the world, and our own failings.”
“Yes, nothing is done against our ordinances…” A middle-aged woman’s voice wafted through the room as the pages in the Book of Shadows began to turn rapidly on their own.
“And mortals seldom keen the complex design we weave. However, it seems thy premonition struggles to reveal that which is hidden,” intoned a grandmotherly voice just before all went still and quiet in the attic.
Puzzled Piper and Phoebe looked at each other. “Okay, who were they?”
“I don’t know Phoebe but maybe the Book will tell us that as well. If not I’ll have Paige drag Leo back here and see what he says.”
Phoebe chuckled a little at that as she glanced down at the open book. Reading aloud she said, “The Fates or the Moirai. Three sisters named Clotho, Lakhesis, and Atropos who represent the three sections that are attributed to time (present, past, and future). Clotho, also known as the Spinner, is the youngest and puts the wool round the spindle thus spinning the thread of life as she sings that are. Middle-aged Lakhesis, also known as the Allotter, determines the length of the thread as she sings of things that were. Atropos, also known as the Never-turn-back, is the eldest who sings of things that will be as she cuts the thread when the proper time for death has come. At birth they give each person their share of good and evil and punish all transgressions.”
“Okay that explains the three women who have spoken but what about that young boy?” Piper asked just before the Book started flipping through its pages again.
There on the page was a young, handsome twenty-something man dressed in an expensive black suit standing under big, black bolded letters that spelled out DEATH. Beneath his feet were words that Piper read out loud. “Thanatos is Death whose power affects all mortals. He is subject to the Moirai, who are the three sisters who decide on human fate; and as everybody has a portion in life, the individual fate is usually present when Thanatos comes to fetch a mortal.”
Phoebe stabbed her finger down onto the picture as she said, “That was not there back when Prue looked.”
“He also doesn’t look like the man Prue described either!” A furious Piper bit out just as a soft glow entered the attic.
“That’s because Prue was seeing him as he appears towards the time that Atropos cuts a person’s thread.”
Piper and Phoebe looked up with joy and ran to stand just out of reach of their Gram’s spirit as they joyously yelled, “Grams!”
Grams smiled at them as she said, “Each moment in time reveals a different phase in life and thus Death is neither young nor old but all the phases of life.”
“Okay so judging from the voice we heard I would guess he is with the youngest Fate, Clotho and thus in one of his younger phases.”
“Yes and you three are not the only ones who they have visited,” Grams said just as she disappeared.
Phoebe rubbed her forehead, “okay, all this double talk and hidden truths nonsense is starting to give me a headache.”
Piper smiled, “I think I got the meaning behind that last part. Seems we’re not the only ones who need to take a good hard look at the fabric of our lives.
“Cole…?”
“I think so, because even though a lot of his choices were made with the best of intentions after he fell in love with you they were still mostly motivated by his own self interests.”
“Piper….I was evil in a past life and so was Paige. In fact I chose to rule the Underworld beside Cole over my sisters. Why don’t you automatically assume the worst when it comes to us?”
“Paige is now a Whitelighter so she can’t be evil and well, you’re my sister so you can never really be evil.” Upon hearing her own words Piper put her hand over her mouth in shock.
Beside her Phoebe nodded, “Yes, it is shocking how hypocritical we are if we stop and really think about what we say and do. As the Book says the Fates give each person their share of good and evil upon birth. Though Cole only knew him for a very short time he did have a human father with more than his share of goodness inside. We never learned much about his mother, why she chose to have a child with a human or why she killed Benjamin and took Cole away as she did. She had to have known what life would be like for her child.”
“She was a demon Phoebe, I don’t think she cared.”
Phoebe shook her head as she thought out a few things. At the end she had been afraid of how obsessed Cole had gotten but she had been even more scared of how easily she had embraced the evil within herself. She had told Cole that it was too tempting when she was with him and blamed him for her own weakness. Cast adrift as he was Cole had been alone and desperate, it was a wonder he had been same enough to help them when she was a mermaid and to make the choice he did when that demon of fear had stolen his powers. He had been suicidal even before entering that alternate reality Paige had talked about. From the sounds of it that reality had been even worse so it was no surprise that he had been vanquished so easily. Though usually it was the wasteland that demons were vanquished to so it was interesting that he hadn’t ended up in the wasteland of that alternate reality. It caused her to wonder if this banishment really meant he had been vanquished or had died and been judged. This limbo that he seemed held in didn’t feel like an actual sentence or final judgment to her.
Cole may only be assuming that it was his final fate to be there which was why he was trying to save her from it even though it was unclear how or why she would suffer such a fate. The more she thought about the situation and the recent involvement of the Fates the more she felt that once they figured out the key to his release Cole would be free to live life as a normal mortal man. If that was the case Phoebe wasn’t sure how she would handle it or if she even wanted to pursue a life with Cole once he was free. Sighing she wondered who she was trying to kid, of course she would want Cole in her life again. Even after all the pain and all the betrayals she still had hope that somehow their love would win out in the end. At the thought of a possible happily-ever-after for Cole and her Paige and Leo orbed into the attic.
“Okay, other than the Fates are three sisters and the young male we’re heard is apparently Death. What have you learned?” Piper asked as soon as they appeared.
“Not much except that there may be a way to get them to agree to Cole’s release,” answered Paige.
“However it involves an exchange. In other words someone must volunteer to take Cole’s place in order for it to work,” Leo warned the sisters.
A mournful wind swirled around the attic and all four of them could clearly hear a sorrowful “NO!!!” echoed in its wake. Looking at each other the four of them had the same realization that the exchange wasn’t a variable option as it appeared that Cole wouldn’t agree to the exchange anyway.
“I have no reign in this design the answer lies not in old agreements but in open minds and enlightened souls,” the voice of the young male they assumed was Thanatos teased them as the wind died down again but now a new presence could clearly be felt in the attic. As Thanatos rippled the veil between Cole’s existence and theirs the sisters could clearly see Cole standing by the Book of Shadows. Holding his hands up Cole slowly backed away from the Book even as Piper reached over and grabbed it off its stand.
A young woman they now identified as Clotho spoke, “The lesson is still unlearned by those chosen.”
“Yes, one wonders what the future would hold if they were allowed to be judge and jury as the Avatars were,” intoned the grandmotherly voice of Atropos.
“Judging by the past only those who are truly good at the start would receive any type of consideration from these three,” the middle sister, Lakhesis, criticized darkly.
“Hey we’re made exceptions,” Piper protested hotly.
Phoebe laughed slightly at that, “As long as it wasn’t Cole, yes I guess you could say we have given some people a little trust in regards to them turning their lives around. However, when did we even once acknowledge the good that Cole accomplished?”
“He was a demon Phoebe!”
“Yes and so basically were Prue’s football guy and the most recent member of the magic school. Apparently they don’t count as evil in your eyes even though they both were clearly on the same path Cole was before choosing a different direction!” Phoebe almost yelled at Piper while she paced the attic floor. When she finished she threw herself down on the little sofa and clutched a throw pillow to her chest as tears began to flow once again.
Cole looked on in anguish from where he stood by the stand for the Book of Shadows, Thanatos stood beside him preventing him from moving over to comfort Phoebe. Instead Piper set the Book back down on its stand and went over to gather Phoebe into her arms. As Paige and Leo also moved to stand by the couch in silent comfort, a soft white light bathed the Book of Shadows in an unearthly glow.
“Destiny and fate, fate and destiny are forever interwoven. To forgive the past is to strengthen the future, for it is through our mistakes that we learn.”
“I know that voice,” a stunned Paige blurted out.
“Yes, I believe you three have met him before. That’s the voice of the Angel of Destiny apparently adding a few words of wisdom,” Leo informed her.
Paige gave him a ‘you think’ look while Thanatos lifted the Book of Shadows off its stand. Next to him Cole backed up even more so that even the possibility of brushing up against the Book would be remote. Thanatos noticed his movement out of the corner of his eye and a small calculating smile slowly emerged on his face.
“Think fast,” was all the warning Cole got before Thanatos threw the Book right at his chest. Acting on instinct Cole automatically caught it in his hands.
“NO!!!” Leo, Paige, and Piper screamed in unison as Phoebe watched silently with a confident, hopeful, and amazed look on her face.
As Cole stood holding the Book he was now bathed in the soft white glow from above as the Angel of Destiny spoke once more, “Faith, such a fragile and delicate thing to have. To have the faith to believe in ourselves, faith to believe in others and most importantly to have faith in the unknown is the key. To have faith in what you can’t see or touch is almost impossible, yet sometimes such a little thing determines the pattern the Fates weave for you.”
With eyes wide in disbelief Leo, Piper, and Paige listened to the Angel of Destiny and watched Cole as he opened the Book in shock to relevantly feel the pages. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand Phoebe stood up with a small smile and walked over to where Cole stood. Reaching out she slowly took the Book out of Cole’s hands and placed it back on its pedestal, all the while looking him lovingly in the eyes. Once the Book was out of the way she moved into his arms with the whispered words, “Never again shall I doubt you, never again,” on her lips. With a flash of light the two of them were gone.
“Hey!!” yelled Piper and Paige in protest.
Leo gathered Piper up off the couch and into his arms. “Quiet baby, I think its going to be okay. They need time alone and we need time to readjust some of our preconceptions. Things aren’t the way we think they ought to be, remember the Fates said that. In reality they are more complex and filled with more areas of gray than strictly black and white or good and evil.”
“And so a new design begins to emerge in the pattern being woven for the Charmed Ones,” Clotho smiled as she finished and took her sisters with her as she vanished from the attic.
Thanatos stared at them a moment before saying, “The thread of life is short and filled with tests. Think, learn, and grow so it can be lived to the fullest with no regrets.”
Then he was gone leaving the three of them in a quiet attic, alone with their thoughts.
Reply
