Chapter 5: On The Surface
A feeling of uselessness took over Phoebe as she was watching Cole finally fall asleep towards the morning hours. Her own tiredness has been replaced by inner strength that kept her going, not even vaguely irritated by the wakefulness, but completely overtaken by trepidation.
"How is he?" Leo orbed in with Piper and Paige.
"Been sick so many times I lost count. It wasn't bloody…yet," she choked, "what did you find?"
"Some bacteria like organisms. There is no way they are harmful to humans, I tried it on some other samples from the lab, they die immediately. And I tried it on some demonic blood we got from O'Mara. It my calculations are right, Cole has about two days to live. I'm sorry Phoebe."
"He almost screaming with the pain as it is sometimes already. Go to the Source and tell him we are ready."
"You're insane," Piper held, "he'll kill us at the end."
"What else do you suggest?"
"We could make another of those potions that would make him human. Bacteria would die."
"Do it," Phoebe ran back to her moaning demon boyfriend, now awake, and hugged him, "now! Hurry!"
Just as Leo reached for the shoulders of his wife and sister in law, the air started become misty next to the door and a bald, sturdy demon emerged from it.
Piper immediately reacted by lifting her hands to use her newer powers, but the demon took another step towards them, unaffected by the older charmed one's efforts and raised his hands up, as if saying seize fire, "I'm just the messenger. Source wants to know if you are ready."
"Like Hell," Piper responded with another movement of her hands, copying the previous one, "I know I can't blow you up, but that is our answer."
The demon nodded, fixing his gaze at Cole as he misted out.
"He'll be back," Cole grunted, manoeuvring himself into a sitting position without affecting his midsection with the movement as much as it was possible.
"We'll deal with that later," Phoebe insisted, "you need to lay back down."
"No. I mean he will be back in two minutes, after I do the work for him."
"What work?"
"Telling you that it will be best if you cooperated with him. Source must be pretty desperate to appeal to Maxepo's services. He's an ancient demon, who started off without any active powers at all, but gradually became more and more powerful over the centuries. It would be a natural succession for him to aspire for the throne now. Just stop with the blowing up and listen to him. You might have an ally."
"Job well done," they heard Maxepo's voice from behind a small cloud in the middle of the room, that disintegrated as he took form, "I was trying to find a weakness the Source had for centuries. And now he has one. Infatuation with you three. He will believe you gave in to his demands if you agree to be transported into the middle of a defensive circle that protects the Source from your powers. They might not work down there anyway, but he wants to make sure. But when you perform the ceremony, he will himself become vulnerable to my attacks. Then I'll free you to help me defeat him."
"We have to think about this," Piper growled at him, "you might need us, but we want some guarantee for our safety."
"We don't have time for figuring out more magic tricks. I can't spend too much time with you, the Source will become suspicious."
"We can't go down there and not even have our powers. That's suicide," Piper argued further.
"Just one minute Maxepo," Cole interrupted, trying to stand up. He frowned, then gave up, "could you come here, all of you?" He waved Paige to kneel down in front of him, and whispered something to her while the ancient demon raised his eyebrows trying to catch some of the words from further away.
"Can you do that?" Piper asked her youngest sister.
"I think so…"
"In that case, take us," Piper stood up, approaching Maxepo.
Tbc
