Chapter 1: Off The Record

There was a beat of silence. After darting a brief apprehensive look at each other, they all turned their attention back to Cole with disbelief written on their faces

"Just give it up, Cole," Phoebe said scrutinising him intensely, "that was a pretty shoddy plan last time, getting me back. This one is even lousier. Since when do we believe in aliens?"

"Since you got your powers? Demons are of extraterrestrial origin, only they came such a long time ago, nobody remembers where from."

"So that was a demon after all," Paige glared, "you just feel like talking fancy."

"No, that was a present-day alien. One that came to take over the world. No, really. Your powers didn't work on him, right? Doesn't that prove he's not a demon?"

"It only proves he's powerful," Piper supplied.

"But not even one tiny bit? Any of your powers or magical doings? Besides, my powers are useless against him as well. In fact whichever power my demons try to use against him, it still doesn't make a difference."

"Your demons? Guys, please tell again why is it we're talking to the leader of the underworld?" Paige complained.

"If they came to take over our world, why don't they go ahead and do that? Why didn't we hear about they so far?" Piper asked.

"And more importantly, why on earth would did one of them come to see the charmed ones?" Phoebe pointed out, "are we some kind of tourist attraction?"

"First thing the aliens did when they arrived, was taking the Grimoire," Cole explained, "they are gathering information to begin with. You're in the Grimoire. So you are being checked out as how much as a potential threat you are. By your performance, I don't think much."

"We're in the Grimoire?" Paige raised an eyebrow.

"Of course you're in the Grimoire. Lists all dangerous witches of all times...look, I don't expect you to believe me, cause why would you? This is a file we put together on them," a folder materialised on the bar, "with what we think they want, how they want it, what their strength and weaknesses are...I mean, we couldn't find any weaknesses yet, but take a look," he made himself disappear.

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"...as I cause the seen
to be unseen," Paige said the spell to help Piper clean up the complete mess caused by the aliens, or the Idegen, as demons called them as much as it was possible, cause they have destroyed pretty much almost everything in the house in the search for something. The mirrors were smashed, and over the floor there were empty drawers thrown all over, wrecked seats, counters, the laptop, they have shattered the whole lot to pieces, "okay, if Cole is annoyed with these guys cause they have reportedly killed over two hundred of his demons, and probably the several hundred that were reported missing, I would say good on the Idegens, but I don't see how we could like them under the circumstances."

"Not to mention taking the book of shadows," Piper prompted.

"It underlines what Cole said," Phoebe admitted, however unwillingly, "they could take it because they are immune to magic. All magic. So they can't be from this world."

"Can we not be canny with this?" Paige suggested, "according to Cole's accounts, the Idegens consider demonkind a bigger threat if any, and that is why they started eliminating them from Earth first. That is probably why they needed the Book of shadows as well. Can we not wait until they get rid of them all and then we launch some kind of attack? If this is all true and we need to, that is."

"I'm afraid you can't," Leo orbed in, "there have been reports of several witches being ruthlessly killed by these beings, and what's more, there have been sightings of the creatures in China, New Zealand and Italy, taking over churches and other places of worship. Apparently, they take no notice of military strongholds whatsoever."

"Makes sense. According to Cole, they started killing demons when they took charge of all temples down there," Paige read up from the files, "it gives them some sort of extra power over them, a spiritual advantage. I don't know why, they seem powerful enough as it is."

"So we must go and guard a church, any church," Piper tried, "it might hold them up? What do the Elders want us to do? What did they say?"

"Not anything. They have no idea Piper, there's nothing magical about this whole thing. They didn't say anything, apart from the fact that the war is on."

tbc

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