She looked up when Cole moved to her side, feeling his unease immediately. "What is it? Something wrong?"

A short silence, then, "Chris is gone."

"So?" Paige said, raising an eyebrow. "Future-boy is one more headache than we need right now. Besides, it didn't look like you liked him; why do you care where he is?"

"This isn't about liking him," Cole said irritably. "I don't trust him. What he's trying to do, changing history—he could make some mistake to evil's benefit; he doesn't have to be evil to do that. Just stupid."

"If it helps," Phoebe said, laying a hand on his arm, "he must know us well in the future, because he really does care. Whatever he's doing, I'm sure he thinks it's for everyone's good."

He did care. She hadn't been kidding about the intensity of his pain over Piper when she'd been petrified, and had sensed a deep, abiding fondness for herself and Paige. Oddly, though, Cole seemed to—well, not scare him, exactly, but certainly unsettle him. That, and cause a great deal of confusion.

She decided that, for the moment, hers was not to question why. The enigma that was Chris could be unraveled after they managed to survive the Titans.

"So am I," Cole agreed, "but that's no help. His idea of 'everyone's good' is subjective. There's a good reason even most demons know better than to mess with time."

"Uh-huh," Piper said dryly, half-smiling. "Nice speech, Cole, but it'd've gone over better if I didn't remember somebody trying to screw with our family line about, oh, two years ago? Halloween? Of sixteen-seventy?"

She felt a little annoyance from him, but it was shaded with shame. "I did say most demons," he pointed out, "and that was before I gave a damn about consequences. Actually"—his tone turned reflective—"if I think about it, I knew on some level that I wasn't going to get away with it the moment you got there. Everything after that was—"

"More along the lines of cat-and-mouse?" Phoebe finished for him. It was something she could see him doing. "Sizing us up?"

He nodded, giving her a fond smile. "And you were very impressive on that broomstick. You looked magnificent…even with the ridiculous conical hat."

She remembered that night, the current of elemental powers flowing through her and the sheer joy of flight. "Save the sweet talk, Cole," she said, forcing herself to focus on the present. "We can reminisce later. Right now…what do we do now?" she asked Piper. "Our wards didn't even slow her down, and that potion Paige was working on…"

"I know," Paige said dejectedly. "Total failure. It got rid of her because it burned her, not because it actually did anything magically relevant." A sigh. "So much for being super-witch."

"Paige, this is no time to go defeatist on us," Piper said, glancing at the still-smoking stain on the carpet. "We need you to hold it together, okay? 'Cause if the odds look bad now, we've got zero chance if we let them grind us down."

"So we're supposed to beat them how? With good attitudes?" Paige gave a bitter little laugh. "It doesn't matter how 'together' we are if we have no firepower—who do you think there're going to go after when they're done mowing down the Elders? After them, we're the biggest threat ar—"

"Don't," Phoebe said, turning toward her sister and meeting her eyes. "I know you're scared—we all are—but Piper's right. If we give into it, then we're signing our own death certificates." She looked up at the ceiling. "Leo! Now would be a good time for some answers!"

But when the orb-lights cleared, it was Chris they revealed, not Leo. Piper faced him with arms akimbo, her eyes narrowed, and Phoebe could feel her fear for her husband. "Where's Leo, and what's going on Up There?"

"Leo's fine," Chris assured them. He felt relieved, almost confident, and she seized on that to help combat her own doubts. "The Elders…aren't. Well, most of them. Leo's staying to help get the few surviving ones someplace safe. He'll be sending reinforcements in a minute."

Surviving? Okay, it wasn't like she'd expected the Elders to fare well against the Titans, but hearing that most of them were dead was still a blow. However useless they'd been, some small measure of security had been derived from knowing that there was a rung of the ladder positioned immediately above them, somewhere to go if they were desperate, and now that was gone.

"Reinforcements?" Piper said skeptically. "What's that supposed to mean? More witches?"

Phoebe hoped so. Preferably several large covens' worth, because it was unlikely they'd so much as faze the Titans with less.

"Not exactly," he said, smiling mysteriously and taking a step back, his anticipation making her tense. "You'll see."

The next thing she was aware of was light, almost bright enough to be blinding.

And then there was Power, suffusing her entire being in a flood of radiant heat that seemed to electrify and supercharge every cell. She didn't just have power—she was power. Power stronger than anything she'd ever felt or even conceived of. More than the Power of Three. More than the spell that had raised the wards. Just…more. And then some.

The light dimmed and died away, and she blinked her vision clear of afterimages, reoriented herself. She wasn't hurt; she wasn't in pain; she was…

She was wearing a long, white, toga-like dress. And was that knee-length blonde hair actually hers? She reached up, caught a lock between her fingertips and gave an experimental tug. Yes, it was.

"What the hell is this?" Piper demanded.

Phoebe turned toward her, seeing that her sister's clothing had also changed and her hair, caught up in a bun a moment ago, now flowed loose to her shoulders. Paige, on her other side, wore a similar dress—albeit with a more daring neckline—and held a huge trident in one hand.

"You're gods," Chris said calmly, as though this were perfectly normal. A short pause, then he amended, "Or goddesses, anyway."

"Which explains the costume change," Paige said, looking down at her outfit. "Did we really need it, though? It's not going to be easy to run in these things, and don't even get me started on how impractical long hair is in battle—" She broke off, and Phoebe felt her surprise. "Why do I care about that? And why"—she held up the trident, turned it over in her hands—"do I love this thing?"

She knew she should probably be paying attention as Chris introduced Paige and Piper as war and Earth goddesses respectively, and herself as a goddess of love, but Cole picked right then to move to her side and put a concerned hand on her shoulder, and suddenly the Whitelighter's terse lecture about powers and urges didn't matter: all she cared about was that the nausea-inducing pregnancy hormones seemed to be at low ebb, and her other hormones, which had been out of whack lately, were working fine.

She turned and gave Cole an appreciative once-over. Mmm…did I say fine? I meant exceptionally… Reaching forward, she raked the fingernails of one hand gently up his shirtfront and tilted her head up, parting her lips for a kiss.

He bent, returned her kiss far too lightly, and reached to catch her hand, moving it gently but firmly back to her side. She frowned, and tried not to be offended by the rising note of anxiety she was sensing—definitely not the reaction she was going for.

"Phoebe? Honey?" he said. "I think your new powers may be going to your head—you don't want to do this in front of your sisters—"

Oh, so that's all it was. Silly of her not to have thought of it. "Of course not," she broke in, making her voice low and sultry. "Not when there're much, much better places…"

He was already touching her, so it was child's play to transport them out—she wasn't exactly sure how she knew how to do it, but why question a good thing? When the puff of pink smoke dissipated, she cast a satisfied look around the little clearing. They'd need a bed, of course, but conjuring one up would be child's play, and it was otherwise perfect. "Remember this?"

He blinked twice in surprise, looked around, then met her gaze and spoke very calmly. "Yes, of course; I shimmered us here once. We had a picnic. Care to explain what we're doing in southern France?" He didn't give her time to answer. "Never mind, I can guess—and it's not that I don't appreciate the thought, but you need to pull yourself together. Now."

"Ooh, commanding!" she said admiringly, already thinking through possibilities. "Very nice…that could be fun—"

"Dammit, Phoebe, I'm serious!" he snapped, throwing up his hands in exasperation and then catching her wrists before hers could start to roam. "This is not the time for this and I'm not playing games!"

She paused. Some niggling little part of her thought what he'd just said was important…

"Focus!" he said intently. "Or if you can't, tap into mine! You should at least be able to feel we're on two very different wavelengths right now…"

Yes, she could do that, couldn't she? Focus, irritation, impatience, some fear…but none of the fevered needyounow she was experiencing. Why was that?

Because I'm hosting the powers of a love goddess with her libido in overdrive, said the niggling part, which she identified, after a second, as her rational mind. She focused on Cole's emotions to keep herself grounded, and after a moment, was fairly sure rationality was back in the driver's seat. "Okay. I'm okay. I think."

Cole relaxed visibly and released her wrists. "Empathic reality-check?"

"And how," she said, wincing at the thought of how she'd been behaving. "But thank God for it, or you'd've had to conjure up a cold shower pretty fast."

"Let's just be glad I didn't have to," he said dryly, "because I doubt bringing more magic into the mix would've helped." A brief pause. "So. If we're done with the side trip, could you take us back home?"

"I could," she said ruefully, "if I knew exactly what I did to get us here in the first place."

"Simple," he said with a shrug, unperturbed. "Transportation-type powers all work basically the same way." Reaching forward, he closed his hands around hers. "Just picture where you want to go and will yourself there."

Easy for you to say, Mr. I-Shimmered-Everywhere-for-a-Century-Plus. But she drew a deep breath, closed her eyes and fixed a mental image of the manor's living room behind them, and after a moment there was a slight jolt and a rush of wind, and she felt a wooden floor beneath her feet instead of the slight give of the ground outside. Opening her eyes again, she confirmed they were where she'd wanted them to end up. "Not bad for a first try."

"Second," Cole corrected.

"I was under the influence of goddess hormones the first time," she said with a grimace, "so it doesn't count." She dropped his hands and took a step back, reassessing herself. Said hormones seemed to be under control now—more or less—but they were still very much there and singularly inconvenient. "Do cold showers actually help?"

"Yeah, but you don't want that kind of shock to your system in your condition," he said, shaking his head. "Just…try not to think about it."

She tried.

She failed. Giving him a pleading look, she suggested, "Maybe if we just make it really quick?"

"I'm going to kill Leo," Cole said to himself, giving the ceiling a baleful glare. "Why not the goddess of wisdom, or hunting, or healing—it just had to be love, didn't it?" Then, to her, with what was clearly his best effort at patience, he said, "You have to use your power; you can't let it use you. Control it."

"I'm trying!" she said shortly. "You think I want to be thinking about sex when we have an apocalypse in the works? That kind of thing is supposed to be a turn-off!" She heaved a sigh, made herself focus on his eyes and not let hers wander downward. Maybe if she could figure out exactly what her powers could do, she could stop them from affecting her judgment. "I'm kind of blanking on my mythology classes—my power is…what? To create lust?"

"Or love," he said with a nod. "Maybe not the ideal power for this situation, but if the situation were right—control love, you control the lovers."

She felt a flash of old pain and guessed he was remembering the Seer's manipulation, how he'd taken in the Hollow out of love and how she'd almost damned herself for it. "Okay, but what am I supposed to do? Give them raging hormones and hope they forget about the world takeover? I'm having enough trouble with my own libido." A short silence. "We don't need a Cupid effect or a seductress. We need firepower, and I don't have that."

"You have your power," he countered. "Your ability to love, to trust, to hope. If your powers as a goddess aren't enough, then channel all that into strength."

Good idea in theory, but how was she supposed to—

A rush of wind and swirling leaves interrupted her musing, dispersing to reveal Paige and Piper, the former pouting and the latter seriously annoyed. "Okay. Time to review some ground rules." Piper took Paige's trident out of her hands, opened the front closet, tossed it in and shut the door with a bang. "You do not get to transport yourself out of the house on a whim, you do not get to blow up anything except the Titans, and most of all, you do not get to have a demon army!"

"A what?" Cole demanded, and Piper spun to face him.

"Cole," she said, sounding relieved. Thank God. I thought I'd have to go after Phoebe next and walk in on something X-rated." Then, to Phoebe, "Are you in control now?"

"Kind of," she said ruefully. "I mean, I'm not going to rip off my clothes in the middle of the living room, but I'm still…" She paused, searching for a tactful word, then finished, "Distracted. And I have no idea how my power is supposed to help us stop the Titans."

"Could be worse," Piper said, narrowing her eyes and giving Paige a look. "Athena over there thought her power to marshal an army of demons might help and needed a little morality check."

"I had them practically groveling at my feet," Paige recalled with a smug smile. "Nice change from having to chase down and vanquish them—and I still say, they were very loyal."

"Right up until one of them got brave enough to stab you in the back, maybe," Cole said flatly. "Demons don't do loyalty for its own sake. One of the reasons they started breeding human hybrids." He didn't wait for a response before turning to Piper. "So. If Chris is right, you were appointed to be in charge—what's the plan?"

"Get my sisters' heads on straight and Leo back down here to tell us where to go next," Piper said shortly, looking up at the ceiling and raising her voice a little. "This was his plan; he does not get to bail and leave me to battle Titans without direction!"

"You have direction," Chris said matter-of-factly, emerging from the kitchen. "Your powers should have you feeling in control and grounded, so you can guide your sisters."

Piper frowned, made a deprecating noise. "Right. Guide them where, into battle? Charge of the Goddess Brigade?" Her hands went to her hips. "It took a mountaintop's worth last time, and there are exactly three of us. Now, I don't know what the hell Leo was thinking, but—"

An angelic tone sounded, cutting her off, and Chris looked up, head cocked to one side as he listened. "Leo's thinking it's time to go. Now. There's an Elder under attack."

"Finally, some action," Paige said, retrieving her trident from the closet and shouldering it with a slightly feral smile. "Let's go kick ass."

Phoebe wished she could share her sister's confidence. But without any active powers she knew how to use, and the certainty that martial arts were not going to work on the Titans, all she felt was unprepared. Vulnerable.

"Be careful."

She didn't need her empathic power to see the anxiety in Cole's eyes and tried to manage a reassuring smile, something to take the sharpness out of his fear for her, but her best effort didn't so much as touch it. "We'll be fine," she said, affecting certainty she didn't feel. "We're goddesses, remember?"

"As if I could forget," he said, forcing a grin. "Just…"

She cupped his face in her hands briefly before stepping back, a loving gesture in lieu of the kiss she knew she shouldn't risk right then. "I know."

"There's a vanquishing potion on the stove in case of demonic attack," Piper said to Cole, all business now that they had orders, "and Chris will orb you and Wyatt to Dad's if you need to get out of the house; I have his address written on the pad in the nursery, as well as the regular emergency numbers. You know the spell to contain the Shadow if there's seismic activity and it gets loose?"

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Shadow?"

"Malevolent essence over the Nexus; lives under the basement floor?"

"Oh, that. Yes."

"Good. You're in charge of Wyatt, Chris and that sanctimonious elf until we get back." Stepping back, Piper took her hand and Paige's, and before Phoebe even had a chance to wonder how her sister knew where they were supposed to go, there was a rush of wind and they found themselves standing with an Elder behind them and two Titans in front.

Paige, deciding the best defense was a good offense, aimed her trident and fired an electric bolt at one of them, which was deflected harmlessly.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"Never mind," his partner said. "Just kill the Elder."

And then there were electric bolts flying at them, and she put up her hands automatically, calling on Cole's deflection because it was the only thing she knew to do and hoping that her powers as a goddess would boost her powers as a witch.

White light, tinged blue, shone from her hands and met one bolt, sending it between the two Titans and into a low branch, which split instantly and fell with a leafy crash; she felt an electric jolt, the crash of meeting energies, and guessed either Piper or Paige had caught the second with lightning of her own.

"Strategic retreat would be a good idea," Paige said tersely, taking another, similarly ineffectual shot, then a third to redirect one of the Titans'. "Let's take the Elder and regroup."

The Elder, fortunately, took the hint and closed a hand around one of Piper's shoulders, and the wind returned as her older sister transported them home. "Leo!" she yelled when they rematerialized in the living room. "Get the Elder out of here!"

He was gone in a cascade of orb-lights (since when could Leo do that?), which Phoebe really, really hoped the Titans wouldn't sense and follow to the manor. There'd only been two, not the expected three, but two was too many.

They were freaking goddesses, and two was too many. What were they supposed to do now?

"Phoebe?" Cole's voice, from the nursery. "You okay?"

"For now, anyway!" she called back, and headed upstairs.

Cole was sitting in the rocking chair with Wyatt in his arms, Chris was pacing the floor, and the elf was nowhere in sight. "Fired the elf nanny?" If he had, it was good: she was one more source of stress than Piper needed.

"Told her I could handle Wyatt until Piper got back," he corrected. "She took that as an insult to her child-rearing ability and left with the rest of the magical creatures, who're apparently taking orders from Leo now." He half-smiled, amused, and shifted Wyatt, by now half-asleep, to his other arm.

The motion looked natural, not like the stiff, exaggerated care of a man holding something he believed to be in imminent danger of shattering, and for a second she let herself forget the Titans and imagine how he'd look holding their daughter that way. "You're getting good at that," she said approvingly, then frowned as she noticed that he looked tired and slightly pale. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. We knew using each other's power came with limits—"

"I did this?" She remembered what she'd read about the potential energy cost to both partners when power was accessed over distance, but she hadn't felt…

But she was a goddess. She had enough energy, enough power that she wouldn't necessarily have noticed. "Did I hurt you?"

He shook his head. "I felt a little lightheaded before and I'd like a nap in the not-too-distant future, but other than that, I'm fine." He held her gaze intently. "Don't hesitate to protect yourself and the baby for my sake. I promised I'd shield you and I meant it." He stood up and transferred Wyatt carefully to the crib, passing a still, wide-eyed Chris and giving him a sharp look. "Is there a problem?"

"You can use each other's—how is that even—a witch can't handle demonic powers!"

Which answered the question of whether or not Chris was aware of who and what Cole had been. "He's not a demon," she said smoothly, "so it isn't a problem."

"Half-demon, then!" Chris said, irritated. "Make whatever distinctions you want, but it wouldn't make a—"

"I'm a witch," Cole broke in, his tone very clearly forbidding questions. "That makes a difference."

Chris made a half-choked, frustrated noise and covered his face with one hand. Phoebe sensed new heights of confusion and anxiety and heard him mutter what sounded like a curse into his palm. Definitely not typical Whitelighter behavior.

She restrained herself from asking exactly what was his problem with her husband, since it was unlikely she'd get a straight answer anyway. "Okay. Whatever they are, your issues with Cole are not the problem right now. Get a grip and help us deal with the Titans."

He dropped his hand, straightened up, nodded and followed them into the living room.

"I don't get it," Paige was complaining to Piper. "I gave it my best shot and he didn't so much as bat an eyelash! What happened to being all-powerful goddesses?"

"Bottom line," Phoebe said with a sigh, sitting down on the sofa and scooting over to make a place beside her for Cole, "is that it was three to two, we're goddesses, and it was still a stalemate. Meaning our all-powerful powers obviously aren't."

"Obviously," Piper echoed, "or I'd have my family back together instead of being stuck troubleshooting." She glared up at the ceiling. "Any more bright ideas, honey?" she called, sarcasm dripping false sweetness. "Because this one doesn't look like it's working out!"

The familiar angelic tone sounded again, and they all looked to Chris for translation.

"He has every confidence you can handle the situation," Chris said.

"That's the best you can do?" Piper demanded, her glare intensifying. "A secondhand pep talk?" When there was no reply, she stood up, contained fury written in every line of her body, and headed for the stairs. Pausing at the bottom, she said deliberately, "I will be in my bedroom with my son. Call me when you have a plan or when my husband is done reorganizing the heavens."

When her temples were beginning to throb with her sister's anger, Phoebe decided it was better to let her have her space. "Let her go," she said to Paige. "She'll be back when she's calmed down. In the meantime…you're the goddess of war, right? Show me what you've got."

A/N: So sorry for the wait, but had finals, final papers, and then post-semester burnout. I'm (mostly) over that now, and hoping some of you are still reading this! Feedback (especially of one paragraph or more), as ever, is immeasurably appreciated, and I will try to have the concluding chapter of the "Goddess" arc posted in a more timely fashion. Also note, for those who enjoy my writing, that I'm beginning to post miscellaneous Charmed content (including, so far, a filk and some drabbles) on my LJ (link in profile).