Fractured Mirth

part 12

"What the hell is this place?"

Rachel Burke abruptly drew a single finger to her lips, as she hushed him to silence rather impatiently, her free hand remaining tight and secure around her weapon, as they rounded a fairly dark corner, lightly plagued with monstrous shadows in every remotely dark crevice they encountered. Brief flickers of noise could be overheard in the distance, fading in and out of resolution as they failed to yield to her intense concentration. "Do you always forget to remember a little subtlety?"

Cole Turner etched a perturbed sigh across his scruffy countenance, his gaze now transfixed in her direction. "Only when I'm somewhere where I could just possibly end up dead in a matter of seconds. But hey. Don't mind me. I'll just pretend I'm already dead, so as not to destroy my brave manly exterior."

"And I'm not leaving until I find out what they're up to."

"Yeah, I figured as much. But did it ever occur to you that it's not going to take them long to see the number you did on the doorman back there, and come running after us to take us down?"

"I took care of a potential problem. Is that so bad?"

"You could have at least moved him out of sight. Being with the task force, I really didn't believe you'd have to think about that one twice."

"And I am sick and tired of you doubting my credentials."

"Miss Burke, I was under the impression that you valued your work. I had no idea you often take it for granted."

"Your point being?"

"Instead of being so uptight about it, maybe you could learn to have some fun with the job?"

She shook her head. "Well, if the shoe fits..."

"You know, maybe that's why you have so much trouble with your co-worker. You keep that side of you to his back whenever he wants to get close to you. He probably just assumes you're not interested."

"Signals are one thing. Reading someone right, is another."

"You're saying I don't already have you pegged?'

She almost laughed, in spite of herself. "Oh, I know you don't."

"Look, I may not be an expert in the field of romance, but I know something is amiss when I see it."

"Amiss?"

"But if you work at it hard enough, it gets better. You learn to trust that person with everything you have."

She rolled her eyes. "And instead of wasting time telling me about it, maybe you could write a book."

"And something tells me you've already got a new theory worked out on the triquetra already."

"Why would you say that?"

"I'll bet Duane provided you with a new angle. In a sense, he's the fictitious savior people often dilude themselves into believing is on their side."

"When you bring someone in to assist you in worshipping the dark arts, you don't exactly come out looking like the world's best savior," she lightly quipped.

"Which is why I said fictitious. To lure someone in, you have to appear like you're fighting for their cause."

"Which is?"

"The devil has many faces. Pick one."

"That's nuts, Cole."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is it? Because I would hope it could get you closer to the truth, given the circumstances."

"The circumstances are as follows. We still have yet to go deeper into Robertson's mind, and until we do, everything up to this point has been mere child's play. He's the source."

"Well, technically, he isn't. The Source resides from time to time in the Underworld, and he's not about-"

"I meant that Robertson is the key." She frowned, her glare fairly evident, as she paused a brief moment. "He's the key that's going to open the door to whatever else is out there."

"The keys are key," he added.

"Excuse me?"

"Maybe I'm still a firm believer that they lead somewhere. Maybe not somewhere that'll prove extremely vital, but they have to have a home, nontheless."

"Yeah. Keys that belonged to two guys I could've apprehended, had the circumstances been working in my favor."

"You're still beating yourself up over it?"

She frowned. "Does that give you some kind of amusement?"

"Oh. No. I just think it's endearing to see just how long you choose to dote on the past."

"Well, well, well," a gruff voice echoed behind them, a buried sense of satisfaction carved into the tone, as the figure moved forward, his hands clapping in a profound gesture of recognition, upon seeing what he'd landed himself.

Rachel whipped around, throwing her weapon directly into his face, steadily holding it there, as her eyes hurredly scanned him for harmful attire of his own, her gaze narrowing as she caught the untouched smile that lay plastered on his face. "Don't move."

"Lady, you won't use that. I'd knock you on your ass before you could even try."

Cole calmly stepped up beside her, pleasantly crossing his arms over his chest. "The same goes for you."

"You think we ain't had your kind down here before?"

"Actually, no," he surmised rather briefly, an eyebrow arching itself upon his forhead. "I don't think you have."

The stranger's attention turned back to Rachel, as he cleverly gestured around him with a hand. "See the thing of it is, I really don't think you're gonna have a choice in the long run, because you're already outnumbered. Word of advice. I don't come alone. I don't approach my enemies alone. In fact, I guess you could say a guy like me's gotta be pretty damn cautious these days with rats infiltrating his territory."

Five men clothed in long robes had begun to position themselves in a circular pattern around them, their faces hidden by the black hoods that shaped their heads, carefully drawing in their identities from all sides. The tallest calmly drew a blade from beneath the fabric, his hand tightly compressed against the handle, making it poised and ready for battle.

"Before I engage in any form of combat, I really like to see who I'm fighting," Cole quipped. "I mean, just in case they get away, you know? Then I can track them down much later, and bury them headfirst into the ground, should I cross paths again. I find it's a way to both connect with them and encourage them to meet their doom. What do you think?"

"Tell your chick to surrender her gun, and we might play nice."

He laughed, propping a hand below his chin. "My chick, really?"

Rachel threw him a frown. "And you're really getting a kick out of this, aren't you?"

"Did I say that?"

"Look, I know you're better than this. So why you don't you cut the small talk crap, and step into action-"

"Are you sure about that?" he countered.

"I'm supposed to be interviewing a criminal right about now, and instead I'm trapped in an unknown building by six burly men who probably only want to add another body to their already rising death toll. Help me out here."

"You're not going to yell at me, and call me names afterwards?"

"Can't you ever just shut up and-"

"Then in that case, I'd love to." Quicker than lightning, he threw out both hands, scorching two of the men with a double set of energy balls, watching with a sheer sense of pleasure as they went up in flames, their screams and newly revealed disfigured faces setting them ablaze, as they crumpled into two piles of ash. "Fast and efficient," he mused excitedly. "Works like a charm."

Rachel simply stared at him in awe, her grip unprotected, as the man in front of them shot out, abruptly tackling her to the ground, the impact sending both of them against the hard floor in a wave of pain. She fought to regain her lost sense of balance, reaching out and roughly shoving him to the side with all she had left, as a hand shot out for her weapon a foot away, abandoned and still out of her reach. "Dammit."

"No one comes and trespasses here and gets away with it, lady. We've got dignity. We don't associate with no one, and we don't expect them to come crashing our little party uninvited. Got it?" Overcome with rage, he slung his fist into the right side of her face, his expression brightening as he watched it close in on her cheekbone, packing quite the wallop. "I don't care if you're some hot shot cop, or some stupid broad out on the streets. No one comes here, and-"

Catching him offguard, she nailed him successfully between his legs, as she watch him collapse to her left, his lips howling in pure agony as he tried to get a hold of himself, the blow almost too much too bare when she heard a child-like whine escape from him, his composure clearly broken. Taking a deep breath, she got to her feet, offering him a nice quick kick in the ribs to finish it off, as she reclaimed her weapon, holding it above his head, as she rapidly glanced out of the corner of her eye at Cole. "You're down, and you'll stay down until I tell you to move again. Try budging an inch and I'll start knocking fingers off. Got it?"

He merely groaned, as he continued to lay in the puddle of defeat, his knuckles already beginning to swell.

"Guys, look, let's just sit down and talk, okay? There's plenty of time for a reasonable explanation for all of this, isn't there?"

"We are here only for the one we serve, and even he wishes you harm," a remaining man snarled from beneath his hood, his voice slightly muffled. "You are not one of us. Fall to your knees, and we shall kill you without troubling the one we serve."

"The one you serve? Is that like some big demon who thinks he's all powerful and full of himself, but still begging to be added to The Charmed Ones' lists of conquests?"

Aiming the blade he'd retrieved at his next opponent, Cole let it fly, while he threw two energy balls with one hand at the others, scraping his hands together in a common mass of victory, as he watched more of them meet the exact same mindless fate, their stupidiity never failing to cloud their judgement in preserving their lives for the greater good. As the knife struck invisible air, it clattered down below, meeting the ground with a loud metal clang.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I- how can you even ask me that?"

"I just-"

"Why didn't you turn?"

"Turn?"

"You're one of them, right?"

"Now, wait. Just hold on a minute, okay? I never said I was once as pathetic and degenerate as these guys were, and though I once prayed day and night to the dark arts, I've never been that careless or completely void of any feeling about it. Those guys are into something that goes above our heads, and I think we're dealing with more than just a string of homicidal maniacs here- because contrary to popular belief, there also seem to be supernatural homicidal maniacs on the loose."

"Are you telling me they have in fact joined forces with this thing?"

"It would appear that way, yes."

"And if we can get our friend here to talk, we might actually have an understanding?"

"You might want to wait awhile on that," he suggested. "Until the....effects wear off?"

She nearly smiled. "Why do you always act like what you do is nothing?"

"Rachel-"

"No, I mean it. You should be proud of what you do...who you are. There's nothing bad about it. You probably just saved my life, and if I'd been here alone, I would've-"

"No. You wouldn't. You're strong. You could've taken them."

"Or so I thought before," she tossed aside, relating the earlier experience. "But in actuality, I would've been just another human sacrifice."

"Phoebe always says the same thing to me," he whispered.

"What's that?"

"She tries to get me to see the good I can't. Everytime I think I'm getting close, I'm forced to question myself, and it becomes something I just can't accept."

"I'm grateful," she managed.

"So who do you think our boy works for?"

She sighed. "Hard to say. Could be anyone. We know that this power extends beyond Duane, so it can't be who he's answering to. It has to be whoever did the job on Paulina with his approval." She placed a firm grip on the man's chest then with her shoe, as she trained her full concentration on him, her patience gradually failing her. "So what do you know?"

Groaning again, he spit out a small trail of blood to the side, as he stubbornly shook his head, his mouth curling itself up into a wicked smile. "I don't know nothin', and you ain't gettin' nothin' outta me."

"So he's still playing hard to get," Cole added. "They're all alike."

"The faster you talk, the faster we can save lives," she murmured. "It's your choice. You'll be held liable for whatever ends up coming back to you."

"And how are you gonna prove it? Like I said, you ain't got squat, lady, and you know it."

"The bruise on my face might be a start, and I've got a witness to prove that."

"Look, I don't know what they do down there, okay? I just come here to collect my damn salary. It pays good, and it's gotta count for somethin'."

"It'll count for a lot if you can tell me where 'down there' is, and who's down there," she told him, her stare never leaving his.

"You're that profiler chick, aren't ya? They're already talkin' about you."

"Who is?" she asked again. "Who's talking?"

"Why don't ya ask them?"

"I'm calling for backup," she decided, her other hand reaching for her cell. "We're not going to-"

A scream filled the vacant air then, as it pierced her ears with a a profound blast of intensity, sending a wave of shock through the narrow hallway, it's noise causing the glass on the window perched near the ceiling to vibrate, sending the pane rattling.

"That way," Cole called back to her, already on his feet, and sprinting out full speed.

"Dammit," she hissed, rapidly yanking out a pair of handcuffs, her fingers fumbling, as she nervously applied them to her attacker's wrists, reluctantly choosing to drag him along with her, her level of annoyance creeping to the brink, as her heart beat quickly in her chest, diving off in Cole's direction without a moment's hesitation.

"This is abuse," the man threatened her. "I'll preach it in the courts, lady."

"Yeah. You do that, while I put in dibs for your oath to silence, alright? I'm sure the judge would love to hear that one."

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Cole shouted. "Don't you know how dangerous this is?!"

"We followed a lead on Paulina!" John called out.

"You're in no condition to be out here."

"Look, Phoebe fell. She's down there, Cole. There was some kind of hole, and I- she fell. I don't know if...."

"You brought Phoebe with you? Are you out of your mind?!"

"I can't bend down. My ribs...look, you have to see if she's okay."

"You didn't answer my question."

"For your information, she came voluntarily. How the hell was I supposed to know this place was a health hazard?"

Cole flung himself down to the space that had opened below them, the loose floorboards in the rundown room having caved all the way to basement level, as a whiff of dust rose in large heaps from the newly formed cracks. "Phoebe! Phoebe, are you down there!"

"What's going on? What's the matter?!" Rachel beckoned to them, as she set her captive aside, quickly wiping the sweat from her hands straight onto the legs of her jeans. "John, watch him. Don't let him out of your sight. Use force if you have to- he's already in our custody." Letting out a breath she'd only recently drawn in, she knelt down beside Cole, her pretty face streaked with shards of worry, as she struggled to gain a line of vision into the darkness that had eneveloped in the hole below her.

"I'm going in," Cole sided.

"What, wait...you can't. What if you-"

"Goddamn it, Rachel. The woman I love is probably unable to defend herself down there, and I am not going to just leave here while we go and get help. I can't, and I won't. I'm going in, and you just try and stop me."

"You go in that hole, and I will hold you personally responsible for whatever happens from that point on. You go in there, and you fully submit to-"

"Take me off the investigation then. It's my ass either way, right?"

"Cole," a clouded voice choked out, it's tone cut off amongst the scattered debris and distance, coughing slightly, as the dust entered through to her lungs.

"Oh, thank God." He carefully shut his eyes, taking time for a breath of his own. "Are you alright?!"

"I didn't fall all the way!" she managed to sound out, raising herself an octave. "Looks like some sort of...hidden passage...or something. I can't really tell. There's a doorway....can you pull me up?!"

"Is there anyone there with you?" Rachel asked her. "Do you see anyone?"

"No. No, it's just me, as far as I can tell."

"The husband was a no show," John surmised. "We finally gave up, and decided to come here. We heard some voices, and she panicked- I grabbed my weapon, but they were already out of sight- I don't think they even heard the crash when she went down."

"How could you risk putting her at-"

"Rachel, we talked about this. Don't tell me what I did was any more irresponsible than what you just attempted with him. You brought him right into the line of fire, for God's sake."

"And you nearly died in an allyway, alone. How does that make it okay?"

"So...what? You think I wasn't worrying about you all that time you were away? They were asking for you with Robertson, and Inspector Morris has already ran into a lot of trouble keeping him on the sidelines this long. You can't keep avoiding him. Maybe if you tried the voice of reason, you'd already know what you were looking for out here."

"I've got you," Cole said softly, as he finally grasped the dirty hand that reached frantically for safety, while the other part of her body fought to hang on. Phoebe clung to his strong grip as best she could while he edged her up, her weakened arms gladly throwing themselves around his neck, as she squeezed him for all it was worth, her heart thudding wildly against her chest, her face caked with the same dirt she bore across both hands. "Don't worry, I've got you. Are you hurt?"

She shook her head, a random tear gently spilling itself down her cheek, as she tightly shut her eyes. "Thank you."

"What lead was it?" Rachel asked, breaking the silence between them, as her eyes once again found John's, recovering from the relief that had set in over Phoebe, her muscles suddenly seeming less tense.

"We figure he was in on it," John told her.

"Who, the husband?"

"Yeah, Dobson. It makes sense. We think he knew where she was gonna be, and had her taken care of. She fits the profiles, doesn't she?"

"Of the former victims, sure. But that doesn't explain how this all comes together- now even now. Somehow, I don't even think we're close anymore."

"Unless we can get him to talk," he reasoned, indicating the stranger to his right.

"Who is that?" Phoebe asked quietly.

"He gave us quite the ordeal back there," Cole explained. "He knows something about the guys who came after us in the cloaks, and I think-"

"Guys in cloaks? You mean, like the Underworld?"

"I don't know. Nobody still wants to spill and have a nice little chat with us."

"There's probably something else you should know then," Phoebe whispered, slowly raising her eyes.

He searched those eyes, calmly at first, then more suggestively.....but he almost knew. The connection they'd formed in the short time he'd know her, said it all. He knew her too well, and it scared him. More than he was willing to admit.

"They've got Piper and Paige. John says they must've came this morning, and probably got in the manor undetected. I was with him, so I left pretty early. He said he could use my help on this, and I was more than happy to do it. When we stopped looking for Dobson, Darryl called me on my cell. They've got my sisters, Cole. Dammit, they've got Piper and Paige, and we don't even know anything about them."

"Yet," Rachel reminded her, her eyes coated with anger.

She buried her face in Cole's shirt, as she began to sob, her voice coming out rather shakily. "I thought I could......but it's not enough, is it?"

"Do I have permission to take this guy into interrogation?" he spoke up.

"Cole, that violates protocol. Dammit, look, you can't just take the law into your own hands. There are rules-"

"Rachel, I don't think you know me well, even now, if you think I just sit by and play by the rules. Moreover, I don't think you do either."

"You're right," she said aburptly. "I'm calling Bailey. We're bringing in George and Grace on this. To hell with procedure."

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