Post by ~B@MeLiSsA30@B~ on May 1, 2008 13:55:37 GMT -5
Chapter 7: The Rescue
Cole walked into the Cave and Zankou spun around. "How did you find me?"
Cole gave Zankou a devilish grin. "I have my ways to track down any demon I wish to find," as he lit a fireball behind his back.
Zankou glared. "I must kill you like I should have done when I had the chance in the warehouse. I knew you still loved that witch of yours."
Cole was getting angrier thinking about how Phoebe could have been hurt, along with her sisters. He couldn't let Phoebe get hurt. He stared at Zankou, anger building up inside. As his anger grew, he morphed into his big bad alter-ego, Balthazar and before Zankou had a chance to see what was going on, Balthazar threw the fireball towards him. It only barely grazed the side of Zankou's arm, smashing against the wall behind him.
Even as Zankou screamed in anger, Cole shimmered out of the Underworld, back to the manor, hoping Zankou would follow him out of the cave.
"Do you think coming here will save you, Balthazar?"
Cole spun around to see Zankou standing there. "I will die before you hurt Phoebe or her sisters."
Zankou grinned. "As you wish."
"Before you kill me, I have a question for you."
Zankou shrugged. "And what is that?"
"I just wanna know why you need Piper's baby?"
Again the demon gave an elegant shrug. "Since you are about to die anyway, I shall go ahead and tell you. As you probably know, I have coveted this manor and its Book of Shadows and the Nexus that it stands on for some time now. I mainly covet their Book Of Shadows. No Evil can touch it as you well know.
"Nothing in the past has worked. When I discovered from The Crone that Piper was pregnant, I knew the baby would be born good. However, since I shall raise her baby as my own, since the baby would still be a Halliwell, she would be able to gain access to the Book for me. Because she would be evil, her accessing the Book would turn The Book over to the dark side. I had The Crone morph into Piper and pretend to be her so her sisters would not know she was missing. But Leo realized she was not his Piper. So we had to take Leo, too."
Cole gave a slightly sarcastic bow. "That is brilliant," and Zankou bowed back, proud of his plans and pleased that he could boast about it to the great Balthazar before finally killing him.
Cole couldn't believe what he just heard. He stared at the huge fireballs in each of Zankou's hand. He wondered how long he could keep Zankou talking and avoid being hit and vanquished. But he knew Zankou's biggest fault was the same as the Source, the same as Prue's--pride would always go before a fall. If he kept appealing to Zankou's pride, certainly he could remain alive before he could think of something else. He had to keep Zankou occupied long enough so the rescue would be successful and Phoebe and her sisters would be all right.
But before he could think of something, Zankou threw the fireball. Even as Balthazar felt the flames, Cole screamed out, "PHOEBE!"
The Underworld:
Phoebe turned towards Paige with a grin. "It worked! Zankou followed Cole. They're gone. Let's hurry and save Piper and Leo."
Paige nodded that she understood and they hurried into the cave. Right away they noticed that Piper was very, very pale and her eyes were closed. Scared, they both hurried to her and Phoebe sank to her knees next to her sister and took her into her lap, lifting Piper's head. "Piper, it's Phoebe and Paige. We're here to save you."
Piper opened up her eyes and they lit up when she saw her sister. "How? How did you find me, Phoebe? How did you escape? I was so scared for you and Paige, so sure that Zankou would kill you both."
Phoebe smiled. "Rescue now. Explain later. Right now, we need to get you and Leo free so we can vanquish Zankou for good."
Phoebe wrestled with the rope and had no luck, so Paige came over and between the two of them, they were finally able to untie all of the knots.
Piper rubbed her wrist and stood up, groaning because her legs were cramped and her feet were tingling as blood finally returned to them. She looked at her sisters and gave each of them a huge hug, before going over to the wall that she knew was between them and Leo.
Ever since she first found out that Zankou had Leo trapped on the other side of the wall, she'd been trying to figure out how to get rid of the wall. She tried to come up with a spell even though Phoebe was a lot better at writing spells than she was. Then it suddenly hit her...she was trying to reinvent the wheel. Paige had come up with a spell that should be perfect. She just hoped it would work. So she began to chant.
But before the first word came out of her mouth, she heard her sisters gasp "Zankou?"
Piper spun around, getting ready to freeze him, but her arms were still cramped from being tied and she couldn't raise them fast enough. She screamed when Zankou grabbed her, keeping her arms near her body so she wouldn't be able to access her freezing power.
Sh strugged hard to get away, but he had her held fast and he couldn't help grinning at her struggles. Then he turned the same grin towards her sisters. "Do you honestly think me as a fool? Just because your half-demon friend is does not mean that I am. I knew all along you were here. But I had to play along. Make you think you could save Piper and Leo before my return."
"Let my sister go, mister." Phoebe growled, even as she worried about what had happened between Zankou and Cole.
That made Zankou laugh. "What? Are you going to premonition your sister free? You can not harm me. And if I do not throw something at your other sister, she can not richochet it back towards me."
Even as Zankou laughed, Paige orbed behind Zankou, a large rock in both of her hands. She didn't need her TK to whack him over the head! But just as she raised the rock high, Zankou laughed and shimmered out, Piper still his prisoner.
"Where did they go?" Phoebe asked.
Paige shrugged, then reached out for Phoebe's hand to orb her back to the manor.
Phoebe shook her head, "No! Leo! If we can't rescue Piper, let's at least rescue Leo. He might be able to help."
"But where is he?" Paige asked, looking around.
"You're half-whitelighter, Paige. Try to sense him!"
So Paige closed her eyes and tried. "I can't sense anything."
Phoebe remembered when Piper traded powers with Leo. "Yes, you can! You have to relax and grow calm and just concentrate on him! You can do it, Paige! I know you can."
Paige gave her a disbelieving "Who, me?" look, but she took a deep, deep breath and both calmed herself and centered herself. When she closed her eyes again and simply thought about Leo, she was surprised that she could not only hear Leo in her mind but also see him. Leo must have felt her mind touch because he was now also reaching out to her.
She opened her eyes.
"Well?" Phoebe asked anxiously.
Paige pointed at the wall. "He's on the other side of that wall. But the room is protected against magic. He can't orb out and I can't orb in."
"So we get rid of the wall."
The two tried several things with no luck until Paige softly hit her head with her hand. "Of course."
"What?"
"Why reinvent the wheel?" And although she didn't know it, she began to chant the same spell that Piper was going to try:
"Let the object of objection become but a dream
As I cause the scene to be unseen"
And just like that, before their very eyes, the wall was suddenly no longer there. They could now see Leo lying on the ground and they ran to him. This time it was Paige who dropped to her knees and lifted his head saw how very weak he was, barely alive. She was grateful that he was able to feel her mindtouch and send out his own. She reached up to grab Phoebe's hand and quickly orbed them all back to the attic of the manor.
As soon as they reappeared, Phoebe called for Cole, but there was no answer. Scared silly, she pointed at the pedastal. "Vanquishing spell! Book! Hurry!" and she ran downstairs, hoping to find her love still alive.
Paige carried Leo over to the couch and gently laid him on it before hurrying over to the Book and started flipping through the pages.
She began to worry as she started looking through the pages again, passing by all demons they had killed in the past, hoping to find Zankou and a spell that would be able to vanquish him, since there was no time to make a potion. If they could vanquish him, then they would be able to rescue Piper for sure.
The Manor: Downstairs:
Phoebe ran down the stairs to see Balthazar down on his knees, bleeding from his shoulder, his arms wrapped around his stomach. Even as she watched, he morphed back into his human form and she knew he must be getting weaker.
"No!" she screamed in terror. "NO!" She ran over to him even as his face grew paler. "Cole? Are you okay? You gotta be okay.
Cole thought he could hear this angel talking. "Am I dead?". But when he opened his eyes, expecting to see hell, he instead could see Phoebe looking down at him, worry and fear in her face and he smiled. But then he started coughing really badly, and blood began rushing out of his wound.
Phoebe gasped in fear and tried to stay calm even as she was panicking. She tore his shirt off to see the huge gash on both his shoulder and stomach, both leaking blood.
She ripped his shirt to pieces and used the pieces to cover and push down on his wounds, trying to staunch the blood that was flowing from him. "Don't you leave me, Cole Turner!" she warned. "Don't you *dare* leave me or I'll, I'll I'll never speak to you again!"
Cole began to laugh but that just made him cough harder and blood began to come out of both his nose and his mouth.
"No!" she screamed. "Paige! Paige! Get down here, right now!"
Even as she screamed, she berated herself for ever doubting him. She leaned over and lightly kissed his lips, then screamed for her sister again. wondered why she ever doubted him. She leaned over and lightly kissed his lips.
Just then Paige orbed into the room. "What is it?"
"Cole! He's dying! You're half-whitelighter! Heal him! Right now!"
"You know I can't do that," Paige protested. "Remember? Leo and I had to do it together, and he's in no shape to do any healing right now."
"Phoebe," Cole coughed. "Go save Piper. "
Paige agreed. "I found the spell. We can vanquish Zankou."
"No! Not if it means finding Cole dead!"
Cole shook his head. "Go save Piper. You don't have the Power of Three and Zankou will vanquish you for sure and my sacrifice will be in vain."
"Don't talk like that!" Phoebe moaned.
Paige looked at Cole. "He was willing to sacrifice himself for us, for you. We can't let him die. I can try healing him. Maybe it will be enough to stabilize him until we get back and maybe Leo will be okay enough that we can both hang onto him."
"No!" protested Cole. "Your sister needs you! Go save your sister!"
"Shut up, Cole," Paige growled. "I'm going to save you no matter if you want me to or not!" even as she put her hands over him. Sure enough, her hands turned golden and so did Cole. It was a very, very light gold, but at least the blood stopped flowing. "I don't know how long that will last," she started.
"Doesn't matter," Cole told him. "Thank you. Now go!"
"Cole, you gotta hang on," Phoee told him. "You can't die on me. Not when we deserve another chance to be together."
Cole looked up at her and reached up to touch her cheek. "Phoebe, I love you. But go save your sister. She needs you."
"I love you too, Cole. I'll be back to save you as well. Just rest and save your strength."
"There's one problem," Paige spoke up.
"What's that?" Phoebe asked.
"The spell. I found it, but it's a Power of Three spell. We need Piper."
Phoebe moaned in frustration. What else could go wrong.?
"But I have an idea," Paige continues. She then told her sister about the spell she used to try to call for Piper. "Let's do it again," she suggested. "Maybe between the two of us, it will work better."
Phoebe nodded. "It's worth a try." Then she turned back to Cole. "Did you hear that? My sister found that spell, so we're gonna call for Piper and when Zankou comes here to get her again. We'll finally kick Zankou's sorry ass then vanquish him for good."
But once more he wasn't responding to him. She could see that his chest was still moving, but when she touched his wrist, she felt that that his heartbeats are so far in between. No, he couldn't die on her! He couldn't!
When Paige saw that Phoebe was just staring at Cole, dazing off in another world, she rolled her eyes. "Uh, Phoebs, if you wanna save him, we really got to get going."
Phoebe shook her head to clear her mind and looked back at Paige and slowly nodded in agreement.
Then Paige leaned over and put her hands over Cole. Again they turned golden and so did he. He didn't regain consciousness, but at least both his breathing and his heartbeat was stronger, although Paige didn't know how long that would last.
Phoebe leaned over to hug her sister in gratitude even as Paige orbed them to the attic.
They stood in front of the Book of Shadows to read the spell that hopefully would bring Piper to them.
They both looked at each other and said in unison,"Ready?"
Cole walked into the Cave and Zankou spun around. "How did you find me?"
Cole gave Zankou a devilish grin. "I have my ways to track down any demon I wish to find," as he lit a fireball behind his back.
Zankou glared. "I must kill you like I should have done when I had the chance in the warehouse. I knew you still loved that witch of yours."
Cole was getting angrier thinking about how Phoebe could have been hurt, along with her sisters. He couldn't let Phoebe get hurt. He stared at Zankou, anger building up inside. As his anger grew, he morphed into his big bad alter-ego, Balthazar and before Zankou had a chance to see what was going on, Balthazar threw the fireball towards him. It only barely grazed the side of Zankou's arm, smashing against the wall behind him.
Even as Zankou screamed in anger, Cole shimmered out of the Underworld, back to the manor, hoping Zankou would follow him out of the cave.
"Do you think coming here will save you, Balthazar?"
Cole spun around to see Zankou standing there. "I will die before you hurt Phoebe or her sisters."
Zankou grinned. "As you wish."
"Before you kill me, I have a question for you."
Zankou shrugged. "And what is that?"
"I just wanna know why you need Piper's baby?"
Again the demon gave an elegant shrug. "Since you are about to die anyway, I shall go ahead and tell you. As you probably know, I have coveted this manor and its Book of Shadows and the Nexus that it stands on for some time now. I mainly covet their Book Of Shadows. No Evil can touch it as you well know.
"Nothing in the past has worked. When I discovered from The Crone that Piper was pregnant, I knew the baby would be born good. However, since I shall raise her baby as my own, since the baby would still be a Halliwell, she would be able to gain access to the Book for me. Because she would be evil, her accessing the Book would turn The Book over to the dark side. I had The Crone morph into Piper and pretend to be her so her sisters would not know she was missing. But Leo realized she was not his Piper. So we had to take Leo, too."
Cole gave a slightly sarcastic bow. "That is brilliant," and Zankou bowed back, proud of his plans and pleased that he could boast about it to the great Balthazar before finally killing him.
Cole couldn't believe what he just heard. He stared at the huge fireballs in each of Zankou's hand. He wondered how long he could keep Zankou talking and avoid being hit and vanquished. But he knew Zankou's biggest fault was the same as the Source, the same as Prue's--pride would always go before a fall. If he kept appealing to Zankou's pride, certainly he could remain alive before he could think of something else. He had to keep Zankou occupied long enough so the rescue would be successful and Phoebe and her sisters would be all right.
But before he could think of something, Zankou threw the fireball. Even as Balthazar felt the flames, Cole screamed out, "PHOEBE!"
The Underworld:
Phoebe turned towards Paige with a grin. "It worked! Zankou followed Cole. They're gone. Let's hurry and save Piper and Leo."
Paige nodded that she understood and they hurried into the cave. Right away they noticed that Piper was very, very pale and her eyes were closed. Scared, they both hurried to her and Phoebe sank to her knees next to her sister and took her into her lap, lifting Piper's head. "Piper, it's Phoebe and Paige. We're here to save you."
Piper opened up her eyes and they lit up when she saw her sister. "How? How did you find me, Phoebe? How did you escape? I was so scared for you and Paige, so sure that Zankou would kill you both."
Phoebe smiled. "Rescue now. Explain later. Right now, we need to get you and Leo free so we can vanquish Zankou for good."
Phoebe wrestled with the rope and had no luck, so Paige came over and between the two of them, they were finally able to untie all of the knots.
Piper rubbed her wrist and stood up, groaning because her legs were cramped and her feet were tingling as blood finally returned to them. She looked at her sisters and gave each of them a huge hug, before going over to the wall that she knew was between them and Leo.
Ever since she first found out that Zankou had Leo trapped on the other side of the wall, she'd been trying to figure out how to get rid of the wall. She tried to come up with a spell even though Phoebe was a lot better at writing spells than she was. Then it suddenly hit her...she was trying to reinvent the wheel. Paige had come up with a spell that should be perfect. She just hoped it would work. So she began to chant.
But before the first word came out of her mouth, she heard her sisters gasp "Zankou?"
Piper spun around, getting ready to freeze him, but her arms were still cramped from being tied and she couldn't raise them fast enough. She screamed when Zankou grabbed her, keeping her arms near her body so she wouldn't be able to access her freezing power.
Sh strugged hard to get away, but he had her held fast and he couldn't help grinning at her struggles. Then he turned the same grin towards her sisters. "Do you honestly think me as a fool? Just because your half-demon friend is does not mean that I am. I knew all along you were here. But I had to play along. Make you think you could save Piper and Leo before my return."
"Let my sister go, mister." Phoebe growled, even as she worried about what had happened between Zankou and Cole.
That made Zankou laugh. "What? Are you going to premonition your sister free? You can not harm me. And if I do not throw something at your other sister, she can not richochet it back towards me."
Even as Zankou laughed, Paige orbed behind Zankou, a large rock in both of her hands. She didn't need her TK to whack him over the head! But just as she raised the rock high, Zankou laughed and shimmered out, Piper still his prisoner.
"Where did they go?" Phoebe asked.
Paige shrugged, then reached out for Phoebe's hand to orb her back to the manor.
Phoebe shook her head, "No! Leo! If we can't rescue Piper, let's at least rescue Leo. He might be able to help."
"But where is he?" Paige asked, looking around.
"You're half-whitelighter, Paige. Try to sense him!"
So Paige closed her eyes and tried. "I can't sense anything."
Phoebe remembered when Piper traded powers with Leo. "Yes, you can! You have to relax and grow calm and just concentrate on him! You can do it, Paige! I know you can."
Paige gave her a disbelieving "Who, me?" look, but she took a deep, deep breath and both calmed herself and centered herself. When she closed her eyes again and simply thought about Leo, she was surprised that she could not only hear Leo in her mind but also see him. Leo must have felt her mind touch because he was now also reaching out to her.
She opened her eyes.
"Well?" Phoebe asked anxiously.
Paige pointed at the wall. "He's on the other side of that wall. But the room is protected against magic. He can't orb out and I can't orb in."
"So we get rid of the wall."
The two tried several things with no luck until Paige softly hit her head with her hand. "Of course."
"What?"
"Why reinvent the wheel?" And although she didn't know it, she began to chant the same spell that Piper was going to try:
"Let the object of objection become but a dream
As I cause the scene to be unseen"
And just like that, before their very eyes, the wall was suddenly no longer there. They could now see Leo lying on the ground and they ran to him. This time it was Paige who dropped to her knees and lifted his head saw how very weak he was, barely alive. She was grateful that he was able to feel her mindtouch and send out his own. She reached up to grab Phoebe's hand and quickly orbed them all back to the attic of the manor.
As soon as they reappeared, Phoebe called for Cole, but there was no answer. Scared silly, she pointed at the pedastal. "Vanquishing spell! Book! Hurry!" and she ran downstairs, hoping to find her love still alive.
Paige carried Leo over to the couch and gently laid him on it before hurrying over to the Book and started flipping through the pages.
She began to worry as she started looking through the pages again, passing by all demons they had killed in the past, hoping to find Zankou and a spell that would be able to vanquish him, since there was no time to make a potion. If they could vanquish him, then they would be able to rescue Piper for sure.
The Manor: Downstairs:
Phoebe ran down the stairs to see Balthazar down on his knees, bleeding from his shoulder, his arms wrapped around his stomach. Even as she watched, he morphed back into his human form and she knew he must be getting weaker.
"No!" she screamed in terror. "NO!" She ran over to him even as his face grew paler. "Cole? Are you okay? You gotta be okay.
Cole thought he could hear this angel talking. "Am I dead?". But when he opened his eyes, expecting to see hell, he instead could see Phoebe looking down at him, worry and fear in her face and he smiled. But then he started coughing really badly, and blood began rushing out of his wound.
Phoebe gasped in fear and tried to stay calm even as she was panicking. She tore his shirt off to see the huge gash on both his shoulder and stomach, both leaking blood.
She ripped his shirt to pieces and used the pieces to cover and push down on his wounds, trying to staunch the blood that was flowing from him. "Don't you leave me, Cole Turner!" she warned. "Don't you *dare* leave me or I'll, I'll I'll never speak to you again!"
Cole began to laugh but that just made him cough harder and blood began to come out of both his nose and his mouth.
"No!" she screamed. "Paige! Paige! Get down here, right now!"
Even as she screamed, she berated herself for ever doubting him. She leaned over and lightly kissed his lips, then screamed for her sister again. wondered why she ever doubted him. She leaned over and lightly kissed his lips.
Just then Paige orbed into the room. "What is it?"
"Cole! He's dying! You're half-whitelighter! Heal him! Right now!"
"You know I can't do that," Paige protested. "Remember? Leo and I had to do it together, and he's in no shape to do any healing right now."
"Phoebe," Cole coughed. "Go save Piper. "
Paige agreed. "I found the spell. We can vanquish Zankou."
"No! Not if it means finding Cole dead!"
Cole shook his head. "Go save Piper. You don't have the Power of Three and Zankou will vanquish you for sure and my sacrifice will be in vain."
"Don't talk like that!" Phoebe moaned.
Paige looked at Cole. "He was willing to sacrifice himself for us, for you. We can't let him die. I can try healing him. Maybe it will be enough to stabilize him until we get back and maybe Leo will be okay enough that we can both hang onto him."
"No!" protested Cole. "Your sister needs you! Go save your sister!"
"Shut up, Cole," Paige growled. "I'm going to save you no matter if you want me to or not!" even as she put her hands over him. Sure enough, her hands turned golden and so did Cole. It was a very, very light gold, but at least the blood stopped flowing. "I don't know how long that will last," she started.
"Doesn't matter," Cole told him. "Thank you. Now go!"
"Cole, you gotta hang on," Phoee told him. "You can't die on me. Not when we deserve another chance to be together."
Cole looked up at her and reached up to touch her cheek. "Phoebe, I love you. But go save your sister. She needs you."
"I love you too, Cole. I'll be back to save you as well. Just rest and save your strength."
"There's one problem," Paige spoke up.
"What's that?" Phoebe asked.
"The spell. I found it, but it's a Power of Three spell. We need Piper."
Phoebe moaned in frustration. What else could go wrong.?
"But I have an idea," Paige continues. She then told her sister about the spell she used to try to call for Piper. "Let's do it again," she suggested. "Maybe between the two of us, it will work better."
Phoebe nodded. "It's worth a try." Then she turned back to Cole. "Did you hear that? My sister found that spell, so we're gonna call for Piper and when Zankou comes here to get her again. We'll finally kick Zankou's sorry ass then vanquish him for good."
But once more he wasn't responding to him. She could see that his chest was still moving, but when she touched his wrist, she felt that that his heartbeats are so far in between. No, he couldn't die on her! He couldn't!
When Paige saw that Phoebe was just staring at Cole, dazing off in another world, she rolled her eyes. "Uh, Phoebs, if you wanna save him, we really got to get going."
Phoebe shook her head to clear her mind and looked back at Paige and slowly nodded in agreement.
Then Paige leaned over and put her hands over Cole. Again they turned golden and so did he. He didn't regain consciousness, but at least both his breathing and his heartbeat was stronger, although Paige didn't know how long that would last.
Phoebe leaned over to hug her sister in gratitude even as Paige orbed them to the attic.
They stood in front of the Book of Shadows to read the spell that hopefully would bring Piper to them.
They both looked at each other and said in unison,"Ready?"
You just love dropping me off the edge of a cliff don't you? That isn't very nice either... 
You need to finish it and save Piper. In some ways you're worse than Stephenie Meyer.... If anybody has read the Twilight saga you would understand that... PM me if you don't I will happily answer. Melissa that is supposed to be a compliment if you were wondering at all. She is a good suspense writer too. ;D
