Chapter 2: Judgement Day
"Do you know of anything we could use instead of tubeworm?" Paige asked as the sisters concentrated on putting a potion together quickly in the eventuality Marchosias or whatever his name was would be back, "cause we don't have tubeworm."
"I don't think it's substitutable," Phoebe answered, "but we can't send you away for it, cause we might need the power of three."
"Leo!" Piper found the answer to their questions and shouted upstairs.
Leo materialised at the other side of the large table, "are you ready guys?"
"We're nowhere near ready. We need you to go to Hawaii or somewhere, honey."
"What?"
"We're missing tubeworm. I haven't seen it in the shops for a while, so get the original. Tubeworms live over a mile deep on the Pacific Ocean floor near hydrothermal vents. They look like lipstick. Hurry."
"For Goodness' Sake's Piper. It's wet and dark. And cold. How am I gonna find it?"
"I'm sure you'll think of something," Piper opened the cabinet under the sink and handed him the flashlight.
"Until I'm back take care and…you think you could make a healing potion for Cole?"
"Demon healing potion?" Paige asked amazed, "you must be kidding. I might be taking this whole witch idea wrong, but where do we get that? I never remember seeing anything like that in the Book of Shadows or anywhere else."
"Wonder why," Phoebe added.
"Of course I know there will be nothing like that in the Book of Shadows," the white lighter established, "but there might be a spell against injuries caused by energy balls."
"Why would there be? Not many would survive an energy ball and if they did, they had a white lighter to heal them," Phoebe thought out loud, "but if you are so adamant, why didn't you ask Cole about the ingredients of that potion as well."
"He didn't tell me anything like that when I asked if I could help. But we need to do something."
"Leo's right," Piper agreed with her husband, "we might need Cole fighting this thing till we're ready. Phoebe, I dislike using him just as much as you do, but he might be our best option in case we haven't got this other potion ready."
"Speaking of, we should continue with the herb cutting," Paige reminded them, "especially that there is nothing that we can do for Cole just now. Leo! Worm!"
"Are we sure summoning Marchosias is our best option?" Phoebe asked as they all gathered together up in the attic an hour later.
"If you don't do it now, he might free his old army officers from captivity as well and then you're pretty much stuffed," Cole said from the sofa where he was now sitting up.
"We already heard your arguments," Phoebe told him firmly, "I was asking my sisters."
"If the potion doesn't work, this time we are prepared with a dozen of others we could use on him," Piper gave her authorisation for the procedure.
Paige nodded and tightened her lips together in agreement. She held out a paper in front of them and they started chanting, "in the darkness of this hour
I call upon the ancient general's power.
Bring back our present enemy,
So that we can vanquish him."
Everything else happened in a flash. Marchosias appeared in a flash ready to blow fire at them. Everybody ducked away from the flames as Paige orbed the potion at him at the same time. The large and strange wolf was writhing in pain, its wings flapping rowdily. Its claws were shrinking into hands, his body twisted and contorted by the wracking pain, are all very visceral. It screamed in agony as its entire body was turned inside out. The end result seen a very different creature. Human he was, but you can hardly make that out. He was wearing moccasins made from fur and his body was covered with a presumably army uniform made from animal skin. On his head, a helmet made from skin as well, with horns made from bone. The parts of him that weren't covered with clothing, were plastered with all kinds of pearls and tattoos. He held a sword in one hand, a shield in the other. He growled and charged forward, but before he could reach anybody, Cole released a fireball at him. The ancient demon lifted up his battle shield, but the wooden armour that was held together by weeds was no use against Cole's moderate strength fireball and the warrior was vanquished at the spot.
"What was that?" Phoebe attacked her ex again, "you killed him before we could ask any questions! What is the secret now?"
Cole looked at them, fed up with explanations. And because he could now, he shimmered out without saying anything at all.
Piper, Leo and Phoebe were sitting chatting over the dinner table the next afternoon. The table was set, food was already served, but not everybody finished their soups yet, so Paige wasn't that late when she orbed into the hall, and dashed into the dinning room.
"Hi, sweetie," Piper smiled warmly, "hungry?"
"I had a full-size lunch at court. Long lunch break," her sister explained. Although she had given up being a social worker for being a full time witch, she was sure by now that she caught up with her sisters learning the magic business, so she went back to her old job and today she was supporting her client in court in a sexual assault case.
"Come on," her older sister urged her, "it's not often nowadays that we can all sit down for dinner together with busy star advice columnist Phoebe and I don't have to run out and leave you because of morning or afternoon sickness of whatever it is."
Paige shrugged and walked over, taking her place at the table, which Piper thought of as a cause for pouring some of her popular home made lentil soup for her younger sister.
"I thought you said it will be a long day at court," Phoebe remembered what she heard from her that morning.
"It would've been," Paige sighed, "but the judge ordered for the case to be postponed because he was afraid prosecution will faint or be sick over the stenographer's head," following the funny looks she got, she added, "his words, not mine's."
"Wait a minute," Piper realised, "prosecution as in Jackman, Carter and Kline? You work with them nowadays don't you?"
"Prosecution as in Cole," Leo summarised the obvious.
"Wait, it gets worse," Paige went though in her head about what happened, "the judge asked if there was a Paige Matthews around and when I stood up ready to act as a witness or whatever he wanted me to do, but then he says: are you Mr. Turner's sister in law? Ex sister in law, I say. Then he told me to take Mr. Turner home before he'll faint or is sick over the stenographer's head and assure he won't go back wasting the judge's time before he is able to stand for more than two minutes at a time …so I did. I orbed him home and put him to bed."
"Maybe I should get over there," Leo offered, "I'm worried about him."
"I sorta said to him that I will orb over tomorrow morning to see if he's ready for court and orb him to make it easier for him," Paige admitted.
"I don't understand you guys," Phoebe declared, "what does Cole concern you? He killed a man just recently! It was malicious criminal, right enough, but a human being!"
"I was kinda ordered to do so by jurisdiction," Paige defended herself, "Judge Log is not one you mess about with. Besides, that doesn't mean as if I would have said to you to go out with him. It isn't like that at all. When is it I would say such a thing? I mean ever."
"Don't forget that Cole is one of the most powerful demons that currently live. He could be accepted as the leader of the underworld any time," their white lighter theorised.
"Really?" Phoebe ironised, "tell me something new."
"All I'm saying is that you don't want to make him your enemy," Leo reasoned with her.
"Most powerful huh?" Phoebe questioned, "then why is he needing our help?"
"That would be an interesting question worth investigating," Leo offered.
"Whatever," Phoebe stood up. She wasn't sure how she'd react if she really thought about the situation, but that wasn't going to happen for her own protection. Keen on remaining impartial and leaving her heart out of it, she knew that the only way she could do that was to physically stay away, "I'll be upstairs if you need me."
"Help!" Phoebe heard Paige's voice from downstairs in the morning as she was combing her hair. That usually meant there were demons on the loose and she required immediate assistance of the power of three or at least their individual powers to help defeat whatever demon attacked. She ran down the stairs to find that Piper and Leo had already orbed down and the white lighter was helping Paige lie Cole down on one of the sofas. The demon immediately curved up in a ball on the settee, holding his stomach and moaning quietly.
"I didn't know what to do with him. I found him on the bathroom floor out cold, you don't wanna know in what," Paige explained.
Leo nodded, took the demon's pulse again and touched his clammy forehead, "I haven't got many ideas," he concluded, "other than going down the underworld and finding a demon doctor for him."
"Not necessary," Cole grunted, "I told you it will go away in a few days. Demon doctors are…well, I don't have a good history with them. Just orb me back home please," he sounded more coherent and lucid now than when Paige first saw him that morning..
"No," Leo shook his head, "you must be vulnerable this way just now…the medication that I gave you last time seemed to have temporarily helped, right? I'll get some more. Piper, could you get some compresses for his stomach?" He orbed out.
"Well, I gotta go," Paige stood up, "gotta let the Judge and my work know of the developments," she also orbed out.
Piper and Leo arrived back into the room at the same time and Piper handed her husband the pot of water, "that's it. I'm expecting a big delivery at the club," she kissed Leo good bye and took her coat while the white lighter administered the drugs he just arrived with.
"Wait, I'll orb you," he offered, "but then I must be up for report," he was referring to the Elders.
"What?" Phoebe reacted to everybody disappearing around her, "you must be kidding! I'm not sick sitting! Besides anything else, I have an article to write."
"So what?" Piper hang on to her husband's arm, "you can write that at home."
"Just make sure you change the compresses every ten minutes or so," Leo orbed out before Phoebe could protest any more.
"Great! That's just great!" Phoebe swore. She wanted to further express her disappointment with some cursing, but the look in Cole's eyes as he turned his face towards her stopped her. There was no need to unnecessarily hurt him any more.
Yet, he was already well aware of her continuous pushing away and he offered, "write you article in peace upstairs. Just put that pot of water closer. I'll…let you know if I need anything."
"Thanks," Phoebe took the opportunity to spend as little time with her ex as possible.
A few minutes into opening her laptop and starting to type, the external world has chased to exist for her and she only looked up when she heard footsteps coming towards her door.
Cole leaned on the doorframe, but he seemed to be in control of his movements, not looking nearly as pale as when Paige arrived with him, "how is your article going?"
"Very well actually," Phoebe took her reading glasses off, "how are you?"
"Those drugs Leo gives me work like a miracle," he let go of the doorframe, "tell Paige I'll be there in court tomorrow, I'm sure. I remember from the past that when I get my strength back so definitely and suddenly as I just did, it is over," he shimmered out, himself limiting the contact he had with the love of his life. Feeling her rejection when they were standing eye to eye hurt him more than anything physical ever could.
"We all know demonic activity has doubled itself in the last week, if not trebled," Leo tried to convince his charges about the truth in what he had heard from the Elders, "it won't be enough to just deal with what comes our way, we need to go out on demon hunts every day."
"But they have no idea what caused the increase in demonic activity?" Piper asked. She was never sure of the Elder's competence.
"No, they have an idea in fact. They think that Marchosias did have time to awaken some of his old army generals. That makes sense if you consider how powerful all the demons have been that we have dealt with in the last few days. I have information on all his former generals, we can't know which ones have been awoken, so we have to make potions against all of them and learn about how to recognise each one."