"Oh, come on Pyralis, smile!" Phoebe shook her daughter's shoulder playfully. Pyralis glared at her.
They were taking a walk in the sprawling grounds around the manor. Pyralis had only consented to this because there was a slim chance that it could reveal a more appealing escape route. So far it hadn't, and she was getting extremely annoyed by her parents and their bodyguards. Especially the one with the camera.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Cole decided to make conversation. "So, how's school?" he asked.
"'S okay," Pyralis replied. Inwardly she groaned. They were trying so hard to be normal that it hurt.
"You get good grades?"
"Usually."
Cole looked up at the sky. "Nice weather today."
"Not really." It was the same as the day before; gray, windy and very dull.
There was another silence. Phoebe apparently thought she needed to fill it. "So, how're your aunts?"
Pyralis shrugged. "Worried sick, I should imagine. Still, they'll probably find me soon."
"Do you want them to?"
"Are you crazy? There's no way I'm staying here longer than I have to." She gave her mother another glare.
Phoebe looked away. Putting her hands in her pockets, she turned to Cole. "It's getting cold. We should go back inside to warm up."
"Sure." Cole caught Pyralis' gaze. She raised an eyebrow. Then she turned her back to him.
It was warmer inside, but Pyralis wasn't sure if she hadn't preferred being outside. In this drawing room or whatever it was, she felt caged in and uncomfortable. She sat in her armchair, staring at the fire in total silence for a full ten minutes before Theresa came in with a bowl of fruit and Phoebe thought of something to say.
"Would you like a strawberry?"
"I'm allergic to strawberries."
"Oh." Phoebe looked at the one she had been about to eat and put back in the bowl. "I didn't realize."
"I wouldn't expect you to. It's not as if you know me or anything."
This made Phoebe look up. "I'd like to," she said, her voice softening.
"It's too late," Pyralis said dismissively.
"Pyralis, we understand that you're angry..." Cole took Phoebe's hand and glanced at her before turning to their daughter. "But-"
"You don't understand," Pyralis cut him off. "You're simply not capable of understanding, no one is! I mean, sometimes not even I understand how I feel. And I certainly don't understand you. You left me, but now you want me back. You keep hidden pictures of me, for God's sake!" She watched as they looked at each other, mouths open, then shook her head. "So you didn't even tell each other about them. Maybe you need to work on understanding each other before you even begin to try to understand me!"
The stunned and confused silence that followed was interrupted by one of the servants bursting through the door. "Excuse me sir," the demon said urgently, "But someone's trying to break in." He gestured towards the window.
Cole stared at him for a moment before rushing to the window to see for himself, followed moments later by Pyralis and Phoebe. The rest of the family had just broken through the gate at the bottom of the path. Cole looked at his bodyguards and inclined his head sharply. They promptly rushed out of the room and down the stairs. Then he returned his attention to Phoebe.
"You kept pictures of Pyralis?" she was asking.
"Yes."
"And you didn't tell me?!" Phoebe was incredulous.
"Neither did you!"
"Well, I didn't know what you would say."
"You don't trust me?"
"I didn't say that!"
"Well you sure as hell implied it!"
"Are you saying you don't trust me?!"
"No!" Cole threw up his arms and looked around. "I..." He inhaled deeply, then met her gaze. "I better go help out down there." He gave her one last look, then left.
A few moments later Pyralis saw him sauntering down the lawn towards where her family seemed to be holding their own quite well against the six bodyguards. She watched for a moment, then looked over at Phoebe, who was also watching intently.
"How can you just stand there and watch your husband try to kill your family?" Pyralis asked.
Phoebe looked at her. "You're just standing there watching."
"Only because I don't think that thing seems very inclined to let me through the door." She glanced over her shoulder at Theresa, who was standing by the door and had reverted back to her not-very-attractive demon form.
"You're right." Phoebe turned back to the window. "We can't have you getting involved in a fight that doesn't concern you."
"Doesn't concern me? Those people brought me up, they're my family! It sure as hell does concern me! A lot more than you do, in fact."
"We're your parents, Pyralis, you can't get much more connected than that."
Pyralis laughed. "Maybe that would be true if you had ever been there for me when I needed you, but you weren't!" She shook her head. "And now you just expect me to forget the last fifteen years and play happy families with you? I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way! You can't just not care for so long and then think I'll believe you when you say you do."
Phoebe looked at her. "You think I don't care?"
Pyralis looked back. "I know you don't."
"How do you know? Because they told you so?" Phoebe angrily jerked her head in the direction of the battle raging outside. "They don't understand a thing about me!"
"They didn't tell me anything," Pyralis said with a cold smile. "They didn't need to, it was obvious. What kind of parents just decide one day to get up and run off to rule the Underworld?" She shrugged. "You know, I don't even care that you're evil, not really. I care that you left me behind and never looked back! And because of that I had to grow up being afraid of you, and that isn't right."
"I left you behind because I didn't want you to grow up in a world like this!"
"How do you expect me to believe that?" Pyralis fired back. "You've killed so many people, shown that you don't give a damn about so many horrible things, how am I supposed to believe that you do about me?"
"Because I wasn't always like this!"
"Then why didn't you stay good?!"
"I wasn't strong enough!" Phoebe shouted. There was a pause as they both inhaled deeply and their gazes locked. "A lot of bad things happened to me, and I just couldn't resist the temptation anymore," Phoebe finished, more subdued.
Pyralis crossed her arms. "Like what?"
"Well, first my sister died..." Phoebe sat down in an armchair and stared at the fireplace. "And I was pretty cut up about that. Angry, too. If it weren't for Cole I probably would've-"
"If it weren't for Cole?"
Phoebe looked up and smiled at Pyralis' disbelieving face. "Yes, Cole. He's a good man, Pyralis, he just has... evil tendencies."
Pyralis snorted.
"Look," Phoebe said, a hint of exasperation in her voice, "I don't expect you to understand, nobody else does either."
"Go on," Pyralis said after a pause.
Her mother looked at her scrutinizingly before continuing. "Like I said, Cole helped me stay strong for Piper and you, and we met Paige and for a while everything was all right." She shrugged. "Then Cole lost his demon half and the Source - the old Source - took advantage of that and possessed him."
Pyralis' eyes widened. "You mean-"
Phoebe shook her head. "We got the Source out of him eventually... but not his powers." Another shrug. "They made the pull of evil too strong to resist."
There was a silence as Pyralis contemplated this new information. "That still doesn't explain why you didn't resist," she said finally. Phoebe opened her mouth but Pyralis cut her off again before she could say anything. "And if you say it was because you couldn't leave him I swear I'll kill you right now."
More silence. Phoebe looked at her, a look that seemed full of uncertainty, even fear of how she would react. "I was pregnant," she told her, trying desperately not to break eye contact.
Another pause. Another look, this one from Pyralis; non-comprehension, trying to fit this new piece of the puzzle but not succeeding, anticipation, the need to know.
"The Book of Shadows..." Phoebe said, her voice faltering on the last word. "It said we should kill the baby. Piper and Paige convinced me to do it."
Pause. Look.
"I regretted it the moment it was done. I ran to Cole, my head was all messed up, I didn't know what to do."
Pause.
Look, full of meaning, begging Pyralis to understand.
"I stayed with Cole because I was afraid to do anything else. I don't even know what I was afraid of! But I was even more afraid to take you with me, I just had this gut wrenching feeling that something terrible would happen if I did. I don't know why I had that feeling, either." She sighed. " If it wasn't for that baby I would've been stronger. As it was... I was just too tired to say no." She got up. "And now here I am," She started pacing. "And I hate myself, I hate that I've become everything I used to despise. I hate that the only things that make me feel anything anymore are Cole and other people's pain. Causing pain is the only way I can feel that I have any control over anything, and the stronger the pain, the stronger the satisfaction." She stood still and turned to look at her daughter. "But with you... I can't hurt you, there's something stopping me. When I look at you, I just feel empty inside, and I want to hide away and cry. All the fire I have in me, all the anger, all the feelings of betrayal that make me want revenge on my sisters for what they did to me... It's all gone, just like that." Phoebe sighed and sat back down, all of a sudden looking small, tired, and old.
Pyralis looked at her in the uncomfortable silence that followed, unsure as to how to respond.
"Does Cole know you feel like this?" she ventured after a moment that seemed like an eternity.
Her mother responded with a short, bitter laugh. "No. I don't tell him things like this." Her gaze wandered to the window, though she could only see the sky from where she was sitting. "He doesn't understand them."
"Then why don't you-"
"No." Phoebe looked her daughter in the eyes, then away again as she stood up. "This is the way it is now."
There was a final silence, Pyralis feeling like there was something she should say, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what.
And then came the scream.
Pyralis' head snapped around so fast she was surprised she didn't break her neck. She rushed to the window, pressed hands and forehead against the glass, looking down, searching...
Cole was standing with his arm thrust out, hand open... And there was Phyre, lying on the ground a few meters away with a big scorch mark on her chest, her head at an angle that could only mean one thing...
Piper was screaming, Prue was just standing there, stunned.
And the demons were taking advantage.
"Oh no..." Pyralis breathed.
She stared for a few seconds, then forced herself to blink and look away.
Phoebe hadn't moved, was standing still as a statue, staring at her.
Pyralis caught her gaze, held it for one long, lingering moment, then ran out of the room, warding off Theresa with a "you touch me I kill you" glare. Down the stairs, the hall, through the door, onto the grass, angry, so incredibly angry...
The demon nearest her was gone in one short, intense burst of flame. "Go!" she shouted at the others, most of whom were still standing around, shell-shocked.
Another demon came up behind her. She turned, pointed her her finger at him and he burst into flame. Then she turned back to her family, who hadn't moved. She stared at them, her eyes saying "you'd better do as I say or else". "This is my fight," she said.
Leo must have got the message because he took Piper by the arm and lead her away, then one by one the others followed, first walking but then running, until Pyralis was alone with the demons.
The remaining two tried to come at her from either side, but she held her arms out and they were gone as quickly as the others had been.
Which left her and Cole.
They stared at each other.
Then Pyralis saw something out of the corner of her eye and looked up at the manor. Cole turned around and followed her gaze.
Phoebe was lying on the ground below the window of the room Pyralis had just been in, and there was a knife in her chest.
"Phoebe!" Cole was by her side faster than Pyralis could blink. She ran after him, then knelt down next to her mother, mouth open.
"Phoebe," Cole said more softly, more desperately.
Phoebe looked up at him. She smiled. "Love you..." she told him. Then her eyes came to rest on Pyralis. A second later the soul vanished from behind them.
"Phoebe, no!" Cole cried, tears glistening in his eyes. He picked her up, hugged her, kissed her hair. "Phoebe..."
Then he looked up at Pyralis, and she saw that his eyes had turned completely black. "You did this," he growled.
"What?" Pyralis looked at him, confused, perhaps a little dazed.
"This," he said more loudly, "is your fault!"
She stared at him, mouth agape. "How can i- I didn't do anything!"
"All I wanted," he said, lowering his voice as he rose, "Was a family." He advanced on Pyralis as she stood up as well, causing her to backpedal onto the grass. "When I was little," he continued in a slightly less imposing tone, "all I wanted was for my father to come back so I could be part of a proper family again. But I knew that could never happen because he was dead, my mother had killed him. So I gave up on that. And then I met Phoebe, and I was happy, then you were born and I was ecstatic. I thought maybe I could have my family after all, but no, Phoebe killed our son because of you and because of that she can't - couldn't... - have any more children. And then she made me leave you behind. And now, now I thought I might finally have her convinced and we could be a real family again... and then you made her do this." He looked back at Phoebe's body for the briefest of moments. "I'm sorry, but I just can't forgive you for that."
"And I can't forgive you for killing my cousin." She shrugged, a tired, beaten shrug. "I guess that makes us even." She paused to study him, all the anger inside him evident in every bit of his appearance. "Are you going to kill me now?"
His turn to shrug. "I'm going to try. Source of all Evil and a representative of Good? I'd say a fight is a forgone conclusion."
"I don't want to fight you," she told him, backing further down the lawn.
"Fine, then I'll just kill you and do unspeakable things to innocent people in order to vent the pain," -and here he threw a fireball at her, which she only barely managed to dodge - "And the anger" - Another fireball, she dived behind a convenient boulder, - "You've caused me."
"You don't want to do this!" Pyralis called from her hiding place, hoping it was at least semi-true.
"Doesn't matter," he said in a seemingly nonchalant voice. "Good versus Evil, that's the way it works."
At least he had stopped bearing down on her. "It doesn't have to!" she said.
"It does! If it doesn't there are too many complications and everyone ends up losing. Come on now, fight for what you believe in!" he urged her.
"Is that what you're doing?"
"Maybe."
"I think you're just fighting because you don't know how to to anything else. At least I try!"
"You're not trying very hard right now." And with that he blew up the boulder she was hiding behind.
She rose, they looked at each other, trying to stare each other down.
And then they fought.
Pyralis soon found out that her firestarting skills were useless on him, and while she could telekinetically move his fireballs and prevent them from hitting her, no matter how hard she waved her arm Cole himself did not budge.
He had started firing a continued barrage of fireballs at her, and though she redirected most of them a few still hit her, her arms and cheeks were burnt and her hands scorched. This tactic wasn't working.
So she threw energy balls, one for each fireball he threw, more and more, faster and faster, colliding in the space between them and releasing an energy so huge she wasn't sure if deflecting the fireballs hadn't been less painful. And yet, somehow this was so much more enjoyable than that had been, she could feel the power emanating from her, wanted more, more...
She knew she had to end it. So she said the spell, squinting at the bright explosions in front of her, unable to even see her father anymore.
Hear these words, hear my cry
Spirits from the other side
Come to me, I summon thee
Cross now the great divide
She felt a strong gust of wind behind her and then they were there, she couldn't see them but she could feel them, their power, all behind her. So she kept up the energy balls, raising her voice to join the ghosts in chorus as they said the second part of the spell:
Halliwell witches now stand united
To vanquish this evil
Together we smite it!
The light in front of her grew even brighter, she didn't know whether to shield her eyes or her ears as Cole exploded, a loud roar escaping his throat even as it was destroyed...
Then silence, and no visual evidence apart from a patch of charred grass.
Slowly, she turned around.
She recognized some of the transparent figures, all holding hands, glowing, smiling at her, hundreds of them. Her great-grandmother, her grandmother Patty, Prue... Phyre, near the front... and Phoebe. Smiling.
But they were all fading, already fading oh-so-fast, so much harder to make out than a moment ago...
Then it started to rain, and she was alone.