In the lowest depths of the Underworld, the only source of light in the hellish pit being the liquid magma flowing below him, Inspector Cortez was balanced precariously on a cliff ledge, crying out for salvation. "Somebody, help me! Help me!" he pleaded, but when Leo arrived in a flurry of blue-white sparkles, and Cole Shimmered in just afterward, his sentiment abruptly changed. “You! Stay away from me! Stay away!”

“We're here to save you,” said Leo, trying not to let his irritation with Cole for bringing the inspector to such a place show.

“You're the one who put me here!”

“No, no. Actually, that was just me,” Cole corrected, “hoping you'd change your mind about the girls. Have you?”

“Killing me is the only way to keep me from trying to stop you!” Cortez spat.

Leo attempted to reason with the man, “We're not going to kill you, Inspector. But what you don't understand, is that by exposing the girls, you're not stopping evil, you're helping it.”

“Oh, yeah, right!”

“You do understand that if we take him back, it's over,” Cole told Leo under his breath. “You’ll lose Piper. Again. Phoebe’s sacrifice will have meant nothing.”

Ignoring this, Leo reached out to Cortez. “Take my hand,” he urged.

“No!”

“Take my hand,” Leo repeated more forcefully. “Where else can I take you that's worse than this?”

Accepting that anywhere was better than here, Cortez took Leo's hand and was Orbed out with him.

With a shake of his head, Cole followed them up. He wasn’t sure what was worse when they reached the surface, Leo’s foolishness at selecting an empty janitor’s closet as their destination, which led to them bursting out of the door due to the cramped quarters, and Cole Shimmering a foot into a mop bucket, or his naivety at letting Cortez go, escorting him straight to his workplace, the San Francisco Police Department Station.

Cortez tore out of Leo’s grip as he stumbled out of the closet and took off immediately.

“Inspector, can’t we talk for a moment?” Leo urged as he and Cole followed the man, but he wouldn’t slow down, and soon reached his office, picking up his desk phone with a defiant look.

“Look, we didn't have to bring you back, you know. We could have just let you rot,” said Cole.

“Cole, I don't think this is helping any.”

“Like your way is?”

Spotting the trio, Darryl came over, and asked, “Cortez, where’ve you been?”

“This is Inspector Cortez,” the man spoke into the phone. “I need a surveillance team around the clock. I'll take one shift.”

“What are you doing?

“What I said I'd do before you clipped me from behind.”

“You're making a big mistake, Inspector. You have no idea what you're doing,” said Cole darkly.

“You want to bet?”

“Something's wrong,” said Leo with a look to the ceiling. “Piper's calling.”

“Just so you know, whatever pain caused because of what you're doing will be nothing compared to the pain I put you through. You understand?” Cole warned.

“Thirteen twenty-nine Prescott Street,” Cortez confirmed into the phone. “Prue and Piper Halliwell. They're murder suspects.”

“All right. Come on,” sighed Leo, pulling an irate-looking Cole away by the elbow. “Come on.”

“Hey, listen, Cortez,” said Darryl in a conciliatory manner, placing a hand on the headstrong man’s shoulder.

“Let go of me," Cortez demanded, with a look of disgust that made his colleague comply. "You make me sick. How long have you been covering up for them, huh? How many other murders have you ignored just to protect them? You're a disgrace to that shield, my friend!”

Darryl’s calm demeanor turned to one of fury at that point, and he pinned Cortex to the wall, using his considerable height and bulk to his advantage. “This isn't the first time I've risked my career for those girls—my life, my family! They're the best people I've ever met, and they'll do more good than you'll ever know! And it cost them their sister,” he raged under his breath.

Cortez was understandably surprised and confused by this unexpected action but remained determined.

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Two of their fellow inspectors intervened, pulling Darryl away from Cortez. “Hey, hey, inspector, ease up,” one said.

“Hey, you alright?” said another.

“I'm good. I'm good," Darryl insisted, his level head returned to him, then left to get some air.

***

When Leo and Cole arrived at the manor, they found Prue pacing the conservatory and Piper sitting on its wicker sofa, looking defeated.

"What's the matter?" Leo asked, looking over the girls to make sure they didn't require healing.

“Well, we went to the church, and we found Paige there,” said Piper.

“And then we lost her,” said Prue. “To the Source.”

“Wait, the Source was there, at the church?” Leo asked, folding his arms as he watched Prue continue to wear a hole in the conservatory floor.

“What did he look like?” Cole asked.

“I’m pretty sure it was the guy we saw Paige kissing on the rooftop. Either the Source has possessed him, or else he’s disguised himself.”

"But how can you be sure it was the Source?" Leo asked, confused by Prue's reasoning.

“Gargoyles,” she answered simply.

"We figured that was what the noise was after something pretty powerful knocked us on our asses.”

Cole sat down, his face creased in contemplation as he muttered, “But if he was there, why didn't he try to kill Paige?”

“Maybe the gargoyles weakened him too much?” Piper proposed.

“And he didn’t want to go up against the Charmed Ones,” Prue added.

“No, that doesn't make sense," said Cole, which Prue clearly took umbrage to if her raised eyebrow and pursed lips were any indication. “He knows that Paige is new to her powers. If ever there was a time to attack….”

“Wait a minute,” said Leo thoughtfully. “What if he's not trying to kill her anymore? What if he's trying to lure her to his side?”

“The mythological window," said Cole enigmatically.

“The what now?” Piper queried.

“There's a window of opportunity, an opening,” Leo explained.

“Forty-eight hours,” Cole clarified, continuing their double act.

“Right, forty-eight hours where a nascent witch who hasn't chosen to use her powers for good or evil yet can be swayed either way.”

“It has to be her choice, but he can tempt her, entice her. If he gets her to use her powers for evil…”

“She becomes evil forever,” Leo concluded.

“Who makes up these cockamamie rules?” Piper sniped. In answer, Cole gave a pointed look down, while Leo stared upward. “Oh, never mind…”

“So that means we have, what?” Prue says with a look at her watch. “Less than twenty-four hours to stop the Source, or he ends up with an evil Charmed One?”

“And you still don’t know where Paige is,” Cole reminded them.

“But I bet the Source does,” Piper groaned.

***

“Here,” said Shane, handing Paige a glass of water, and sitting down next to her.

“Thanks," she said distractedly, snuggled beneath a blanket on her sofa as she took a sip of her water. “I'm so sorry to involve you in all of this.”

“All of what?” said the Source through Shane, convinced the witch was close to opening up to him. “Paige… What's going on?”

“I don't know. I'm so confused. I don't know what to do,” she despaired.

“Hey, you don't have to know. You're safe here…with me,” Shane assured her, and kissed her deeply, feeling her mind’s natural defenses finally lowering. “I'll take care of you.”

***

Cole stared balefully out of the attic window. Inspector Cortez was leaning against his car, parked outside the Manor for his surveillance shift. “Are you sure you don't want me to turn Belthazor loose on Cortez, just for a minute or two?” he asked, only half-joking.

“No,” said Leo decisively. “He doesn't have anything on the girls yet. Besides, now is no time to be blurring the line between good and evil.”

“I can’t find anything that will help us find the Source,” sighed Prue as she turned through the Book of Shadows impatiently.

“Err, I thought we were looking for something to find Paige,” Piper questioned.

“Yeah, well, there’s nothing that would do that either,” said Prue, closing the book. The book, however, opened of its own accord at that moment, flipping through its pages until it landed on one.

“Thanks, Grams,” said Prue gratefully, but her face fell upon reading through the details. “Wait, an enchantment spell? Speak these words to enchant an object…?”

Piper pointed at the spell language thoughtfully, “Well, it can’t find either of them, but it might ID the Source. See the last line? It's, ‘so she can reveal the evil within.’”

“But the question remains, how do we find him?”

“Maybe we can, or at least, maybe you can," Leo interjected, looking at Cole.

“Meaning?” asked Prue.

Cole left his spot by the window and walked toward the others, looking pensive. He had thought it might come to this but was reluctant to suggest it before now. He cleared his throat, “Demons can sense the Source's aura. It's how he reminds us of his power, his reach. Maybe if I focus on it…”

“Alright, do it,” Prue instructed.

Piper let out a dubious laugh. “Hold on! Why didn’t you suggest this before?” she enquired. Cole didn’t answer. “Is it because he would be able to sense you doing it?”

“Not if I was careful,” Cole answered, moving back to the window. “It might be your only chance at saving your new sister. Phoebe would want me to try.”

Piper raised an eyebrow; very much certain Phoebe would not want Cole to try this. Seeing that neither Prue nor Leo was concerned for Cole's safety, however, she relented, "Fine. So, we need something to enchant.”

After a glance around the attic, with a flick of her finger, Prue drew a childhood pair of pink sunglasses to her from a shelf. “These’ll do,” she said.

"I remember Grams having to hide those to stop pre-teen Phoebe from wearing them at school," Piper reminisced with a smile. "She thought they made her look so cool."

“You ready?” Prue asked, interrupting Piper’s reverie.

With an edge of bitterness in her voice, Piper joined her sister in reciting the words, "Magic forces far and wide, enchant these so those can't hide, allow this witch to use therein, so she can reveal the evil within." At this, the glasses’ lenses glowed briefly.

“Okay. Better test 'em,” Piper suggested.

Prue put the glasses on and looked directly at Cole. Instead of seeing the man, she saw his red-skinned demonic form, Belthazor. "Yeah, they work," she said definitively.