Fractured Mirth

part 26

The body vanished in an instant, leaving the children in a panic, as small particles of dust began to stir in the air of his wake, donning the cabin in a cloud of smoke. Cole growled low in his throat, as he let his fist connect with the wooden wall, letting out a shout of pure rage, his voice surrendering itself to violence. "You just did," he whispered angrily. "Dammit, he just did."

"He knew this would make it harder for us to find him," Rachel told him, finally picking herself up off the ground, as she stole a quick glance at Bailey, her eyes wincing out of clean-cut annoyance, her frame still bruised from the attack. "Had it all planned, didn't he? Just wanted to throw us off track."

"He didn't plan on us finding him this soon," Cole insisted, frowning. "For once, we may have just surprised him."

"Didn't think we could spring one on old Lucifer," John commented, clearly still trying to take everything in. "I mean, he's the one guy you can never fool, right?"

"I thought you didn't believe in that stuff."

"Yeah, and let's just say the bastard finally convinced me otherwise, all right?"

"Was it the crappy disguise or his threatening to kill me that did him in?" Cole quipped, his tone leaking sarcasm.

"Look, he's here, and that's priority right now," Bailey Malone interjected. "We need to think and we need to think fast. Now, the children need to be taken to safety. There's a good chance he might come back for what he didn't finish. We get them somewhere he can't touch them, and we take him out."

"I agree," Rachel told him. "And they're your responsibility from here on out. John, Cole, you're with me."

"I'm not letting you-"

"Bailey, you don't exactly have a choice right now."

"I sure as hell do, and I'm not about to lose my team out here."

"You won't," she assured him.

"You can't make any guarantees on that," he stated firmly, his voice hoarse, his brown eyes narrowing slightly. "We're not dealing with a case that needs a profile anymore, Rachel. We're dealing with a man who stepped over the edge and crossed the line to insanity long before any of us were born. Long before any of us even dared to so much as blink. That doesn't leave much room for mistakes, and it doesn't leave any for sacrifices. The more of us out there, the better."

"There's not always strength in numbers though," John pointed out. "He's well prepared. Hell, he's always been well prepared."

"He anticipates, but he's not always on target," Cole argued. "There's a difference in knowing what to expect and when to expect it."

"Yeah, see, I'll keep that in mind when he's actually trying to kill me."

"John," Rachel warned.

"What? He's making this out to be the easiest thing we'll ever do, and it's far from it. You don't just put a bullet in Satan, and say, oops, sorry, better luck next time. No. He gets up, feels fine, and before you know it, you've probably got a damn hole through your heart and you're on the floor, covered head to foot in your own blood."

"Well, this is where we part paths, Grant," Cole chimed in, a casual smile playing itself across his handsome features. "Because I'm not exactly fond of bullets, and I only find they do justice to real criminals. You know, the scum that sit there in jail...sitting there just reading their magazines and wearing the orange? This guy still owes his dues for God knows how long- no pun intended, and the only way he's going to be put down is with magic. It's smooth sailing."

"Yeah, and I guess I should've seen this coming."

"And what's that?"

"Maybe you're as much out of your mind as he is."

"I'm sorry?"

"You really don't get it, do you?"

"You're pissed because he came close to making a meal out of those children," Cole filled him in. "Hey, it's understandable. Fact of the matter is, it's done with, and they've still got a fighting chance in this world."

"Yeah, and we don't."

"Hey, if you wanna be a cynic, that's up to you," he murmured. "I try not to discount all of our options before I encounter the enemy, okay? It's kept me alive this long, so I'd say I've at least been doing something right."

"So it's settled," Rachel added bluntly, her eyes refocusing themselves on Bailey, her gaze steady and strong. "We trust Cole."

"I've never disputed it," Bailey began, "but you have to think about this, Rachel. We're not here investigating something that's just going to blow over. If we're here now, it means we're here until this is over."

"Yeah, and wouldn't Sam stick this out until the end? Wouldn't she want to see something like this through?" she challenged him. "Because I'll be damned if I'm going to just let this son of a bitch walk after he tried to turn you against me. No, see, I'm not buying it. He wants me, fine. Let him try and get me, for all it's worth. I'm going to put up one hell of a fight in the process, and I see no reason to back down now. He started it, we're going to finish it."

"Sam isn't-"

"The hell she isn't. This is just as much about me taking her place, as it is about saving the world from this guy."

"You and Sam are two very different people," he added.

"We're both very determined to get to the bottom of something," she countered. "It haunts us, it eats away at us, until it's all we can think about. Sam was like that because of Jack. Me? I'm like this because someone obviously wants me to fall victim to a cause I never stood for."

"Didn't take magic to figure that out," Cole intervened, a small smile cutting across his face, his scruffy visage faintly amused.

"No, but it's not like he never used it."

"Yes, and Bailey makes a very good point. You're safer if you get out of here while you still can."

"But I thought you- look, I run scared, he's gonna come looking for me. Last time I checked, that wasn't exactly an option here."

"Rachel, if we go out there, you sure as hell know what's going to happen." He stared at her a moment, frowning. "Telling me to come with you, only complicates matt-"

"It doesn't," she argued.

"And you don't have a plan," he shot back. "You're defenseless where you stand."

"How would you know?"

"Bailey was able to get you from behind, no sweat. You never saw it coming. If it had been our guy out there, you probably wouldn't even be here right now."

"That's for me to decide."

"Yeah, and I can't make any promises from here on out. You lose, you lose. Simple as that. This is every man out for himself."

"Since when did you become so damn high and mighty?" she snapped.

"Challenging the bastard to a death match more or less puts you in the mood."

"Well, he's not taking a rain check now, is he?"

"Look, I've got Phoebe to worry about. I don't exactly have time to imagine the consequences where you're concerned."

"Goddamn it, just listen to yourself."

"It's best to just spread out," he concluded, his right hand resting calmly on the back of his neck. "Trust me, you find him first, I'll know."

She carefully tilted her head in his direction, her eyes blazing with pure annoyance, as she struggled to understand the sudden change of heart. "And how's that?"

He didn't miss a beat. "I'll hear you screaming."

"Cole-"

"Maybe I need to explain this in terms you might just make do with." He waited a moment, his blues grazing her face with the concern he was trying too hard to bury, too hard to block from his train of thought, that it was slowly becoming near impossible to contend with. "You go with John, he might just believe he's me. We've been working together for the majority of this investigation, and as far as we know, our friend can't tell the two of us apart, despite the fact that he's seen us together. Matter of fact, the only way he could ever see past that, is if John decides to show his fear. Fear's a pretty nasty emotion when you're dealing with someone who can sense it so easily. It's not pretty."

"And what do you propose we do about that?" John countered. "Swap clothes?"

"See? You read my mind. We're connecting already." Offering him a grin, Cole began to pull his sweater over his head. "Of course it goes without saying that your sense of style could probably use a little work."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind the next time I sit down to have a little chat with my wardrobe person."

"Good to know."

"John and I can't use magic though," Rachel pointed out. "There's no way we can- all right, you know what? You're walking us right into a trap, and you know it. You're deliberately feeding us to him without the-"

"You know, when I first met you, I kept deducing that you talked too much. Funny thing is, it's not exactly much of a myth anymore."

"Yeah? And you know what you can do with this holier than thou attitude you suddenly just got?"

"Oh, I think we can save that for another day," he murmured.

"No, I think I'd rather say it now," she quipped, tossing him a forced smile.

"And I'm still wondering who the children are in this room," Bailey retorted, shooting them both a glare.

"Look, where's Phoebe?" she responded then, hands setting themselves roughly against her hips.

"Phoebe thinks she might've gotten a lead on Piper and Paige," Cole added quietly. "Hopefully they'll be joining us very soon."

"So you basically left her to him, too. Nice to see you care so much."

"Oh, I do," he confirmed, grinning. "I just don't like the idea of you putting yourself on the line like this."

"I'm a profiler, it's what I do."

"That wasn't what I meant."

"I was pursuing Duane Robertson long before I met you," she clarified, narrowing her eyes at him. "I by no means had to justify that to you, and like everything else- it was who I was. It was a job. It was my job to see the bastard put behind bars. Yes, I tried to reason with myself countless times about his true agenda, and yes, it was complicated to render him a psychopath, given what I had to go on, and what I had envisioned. But just because there's other lunatic on the loose who proves himself a coward by using magic, is no reason for me to back off and sit right back down."

"My thoughts exactly."

"So what wer-"

"Just trying to see if we're on the same page," he sided, giving her shoulder a slight squeeze. "We let The Charmed Ones join forces, do what they do best, and the three of us will take care of the rest. And, well...we've still got plenty of reinforcements, so I'd say we're better than good at this point."

"So should I be cheering that we're all going out there to get ourselves killed?" John quipped, raising a brow.

"If it works for you," Cole concluded. "In all likelihood, you won't even feel it if he gets you."

"Yeah, all right, but do you really need the pants, too?"

"Shirt'll be fine."

John merely rose his eyebrows, his eyes widening out of both irritation and surprise. "Great."

"He means well," Rachel commented then, tilting her head a bit to look at the half demon, "but just between you and me, I'd say he's still got a few screws loose."

"Oh, Miss Burke, always the skeptic," Cole retorted.

"What the hell am I, Scully?"

"That depends. You believe in alien life and spacecrafts?"

"If I said no, would you have to kill me?"

"Not right away," he finished curtly, throwing her a smile. "So. Here's the pla-"

"He's probably already found his next victims or victims," she argued. "You can spot children anywhere in these parts. It's not uncommon for some innocent family to schedule a weekly camping trip and be completely unaware of what they're getting themselves into."

"He wants a large group," Cole explained. "He won't just settle for anything to give him life. He has very specific tastes."

"Which means young women are also still a target," John murmured. "And they carry more life in them than a child would."

Cole merely nodded. "Exactly."

"So what's your point? He's already passed me right by for the pick of the litter," she roughly countered. "And he would have killed Piper and Paige on the spot. You can't tell me-"

"I'm not telling you anything," he continued. "As far as I'm concerned, I never could. You'll still want to play God in this and continue to believe there's a better way out of it for all of us."

"No, I just think corrupting his beliefs would be a hell of a lot simpler."

"And I'm afraid he chose his so called path a long time ago. We've been over this countless times. You can't right every wrong with assuming someone can be altered in any way. Doing what you do, you should know people are as they are. A demon is what it is. A lifeless monster with no bargaining tools."

"So I guess that pretty much includes you then, doesn't it? Congratulations, you've just described yourself."

It stung him more than he let on, his eyes wincing slightly from the jab, his beautiful face situating itself in a pained frown, his hands clasping themselves slowly behind his back. "I may be a lot of things, but I can honestly tell you I'm not lifeless," he confirmed, his voice cracking slightly.

"But you're still a demon."

Phoebe had used pretty much those exact same words when she was still wrestling hopelessly with herself to finally grasp his true identity not all that long ago, recalling the time she'd countered him in the mausoleum, demanding answers and more of an explanation than he'd been willing to give. "Yeah, well, we all live with what's inside of us, no matter how dark it is. You've seen that darkness, Miss Burke, and I know you've probably let it consume you more than once."

"Like I said, I do my job," she added, barely flinching.

"Your job is going to have-"

"My job is my career, and right now, that's on the line. I go public with anything we've seen or experienced here today, and this is all over."

"Oh, you really think so? Because given what we know, everybody else will already be dead. At your hand, I might add, because you refused to see you were killing them."

"This has gone far enough," Bailey muttered, his countenance clearly expressing massive disgust, his brown eyes narrowing, as they lingered on each of them in turn. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places."

A short beat of silence ensued, as all three turned to him with wide eyes, their mouths seemingly hanging open in a kind of surprised merit of shock.

"Wow," John commented, giving him a gentle pat on the back. "I never would have guessed."

"I've been reading, John."

"Yeah, and I can see that. I'm clearly impressed."

"It's exactly what Cole's been saying all along," he reasoned. "He just puts it in terms both of you can comprehend."

"Oh, c'mon, Bailey, that's not fai-"

"And maybe the way to defeat him isn't in magic or challenging him in a fight to the death," he tossed in, raising his eyebrows. "Maybe the only way to persevere, is to fre-"

"Free him from our minds," Rachel concluded, her demeanor suddenly very focused, as she quietly sighed.

"Once you surrender your beliefs to God, Satan can't hope to claim you for your sins," Cole added, smiling. "Unfortunately...the things I've done, the...things I've seen...don't exactly leave me that option, Mr. Malone."

"So you're saying he has to be here, because someone brought him here?"

"And Duane sure as hell fit that bill," John finished, throwing her a look. "I mean he sold himself, didn't he?"

"Yeah, but this is all old news. It doesn't change the fact that he was strong enough to oversee the beliefs of his one true believer."

Cole merely stared at her, slowly tilting his head to the side, amusement flooding his features. "And they call you a profiler?"

She just rolled her eyes at him. "Maybe you just need to face your inner demons."

"Clever," he mused, falling victim to a small grin. "But I don't think it's that easy."

"It never is, is it?"

"It still remains that thousands of other people know there's some form of evil out there. You can't purge what you can't see, but it's always there, eating away at you."

"So in a nutshell, we're doomed," John brought forth, shrugging. "I mean, somebody may as well say it, right?"

"Not necessarily."

"I don't understand."

"We both know he feels nothing. No emotion, no...regret for his actions."

"Right."

"Tell me you're not going to suggest one of us sacrifices ourselves for the good of humanity so he can become an angel," Rachel quipped. "Because I really don't have time for this crap anymore. All signs indicate that the bastard abhors women, witches and children. That's key, and as far as I can see, it's what we need to focus on it specifically, if we expect to surpass him in the grand scheme of things."

"Yes, and the locations are endless," Cole emphasized. "Now, me? I think he still wants you, and he's going to stick around a little late for the festivities. But hey. What'd I know, right? I'm only a demon."

"Look, I never said you weren't- I'm well aware that you know how he thinks. Probably better than all of us put together."

"And you're still wondering why I'm putting you with John."

"I know I'm probably not going to get any solids on that, but hey- can't blame a girl for trying, right?"

"Especially when that effort comes out of nowhere."

"And you're still so fascinated with what I think."

"Or so you'd assume."

"So why are you doing it? I mean, just for the record, it still doesn't add up, and I'm getting rather impatient here."

His blues softened slightly, his profile growing somewhat dim, his generous mouth setting itself in a stern line. When he spoke, his voice just barely touched on a whisper. "Ever want to see what happens when one demon sacrifices himself to rid the world of another?"

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