Post-All Hell Breaks Loose One-Shot
Wind blew through the empty, almost lifeless home of the Halliwell sisters. Had evil really won this time? In the distance police cars and ambulance sirens could be heard racing to the scene. The worst thing that the sisters could ever have imagined to happen to them, had already happened. The sisters had been exposed as witches, but now time had been reversed and although they didn't know it yet, they were about to face an even worse, and more unimaginable event – the death of a sister.
(X)
Deep in the underworld, Phoebe felt a sharp pain in her chest. "Leo, Leo!" she called, reaching out and grabbing him to for stability, her legs almost crumbling beneath her in shock.
"What...what is it Phoebe?" he whispered, placing his chin on her head, cradling her in his arms.
"I don't know," her breathing heavy, "I need to get out of here, something is wrong, I don't know what but we need to get home!"
"Phoebe you can't you made a deal, a deal with the devil." He paused. "I'll go, check things out and then I'll your sisters down here to get you home otherwise if I orb you out then we'll have a host of bounty hunters after you."
"No, no I need to go with you!" she protested, moving her head to face his.
"He's right," Cole said seriously, steeping out of the shadows, "you can't leave."
"Cole, I am a Charmed One I can look after myself," she said turning to face him. He advanced towards her, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking her directly in the eyes.
"No, you stay here, do as Leo said. He'll bring your sisters and we can get you out of this deal together."
"I'll be a moment, just a moment," Leo said softly with a warm smile slightly crinkling his face before orbing out in a ray of bright blue and white lights, eliminating the entire cavern which they had inhabited.
(X)
"Aggh!" Leo screamed as he orbed into the foyer of the manor, instantly feeling the pain of his dying charges, his family - his wife. "Piper! Piper!" he called as he rushed over to his unconscious wife.
"Prue. Oh no. What happened?" Instinctively he placed both of his hands over the sisters, Prue on the left, Piper on the right and began the healing process, his hands glowing with golden rays. A few painful seconds passed, which felt like hours, long, painful hours. Piper's wounds healed, the blood faded and the rips in her clothing disappeared.
"Ouch," Piper groaned, feeling her aching joints hurt as he sat up. "Leo?"
"Shhh," he replied, still concentrated on Prue, who Piper had not yet noticed.
"What's taking so long?" There was no reply from her husband, who was deep in concentration, although part of him already knew it was too late. "Leo?" Piper's long dark hair still stuck to her face, draped over her eyes, and her arms and legs ached more than anything she had ever felt before in all these years fighting evil, but all she could think about was hoping Prue would pull though.
"Piper," Leo whispered, closing his left hand and ending the healing attempt. "It's to late. I'm sorry."
"No! No! Leo, no try again! Leo!" Tears poured down her face as she gazed at Prue's lifeless body. She stoked Prue's face, and collapsed onto her chest. Not wanting to let her sister go.
"I'm sorry," Leo said, in an almost apologetic tone, as if he had failed her. His eyes were now streaming with tears too. Phoebe suddenly popped into his mind, she should know, she should be here, but she was trapped, locked away in darkness and now with the Charmed Ones defeated how was she to make her escape? "Piper, Piper it's Phoebe." She didn't move, he slowly began to stoke her hair, thinking of the most gentle way he could break it to her that she had lost another sister to The Source. "She's in trouble." Piper slowly raised her head and faced him.
"Trouble? What do you mean?" she asked, her voice croaking as she tried to talk through her tears. "Where is she? What's going on?"
"It's a long, long story, but I don't have time to explain."
"Make time," she said sharply.
"You were exposed," he began. "You were exposed as witches and Phoebe and Cole made a deal with The Source who agreed to get Tempest to turn back time if she stayed down in underworld. He was supposed to warn you of Shax's attack, but it looks like we were tricked and it was his plan all along to destroy The Power of Three," he explained. Piper stood up, balancing herself with her arms as she tried to grasp the loss of both of her sisters as well as trying to get her head around the whole situation.
"We need to get down there, we need her here…I need her."
"Look, we can't take on The Source and his bounty hunters alone, not without," he paused and glanced at Prue's lifeless body. "Not without The Power of Three." Piper ran upstairs without saying anything, to which Leo immediately followed.
(X)
The attic felt cold, empty like it to could feel the loss. "Piper slow down," Leo called after her as she ran towards the Book of Shadows and began flipping though the pages.
"I need to find something, anything that can help," she said frantically, her eyes red from crying. "There has to be something!"
"Piper there isn't anything, not that can fix what has happened to Prue." He placed his hands around her waist and tried to pull her away from the book.
"Fine, we'll get Phoebe and then try and fix this," she said storming over to the table which was placed in the centre of the room. She grabbed a handful of potion bottles and took Leo's hand. "Take me to her."
(X)
The underworld was hot, too hot, but Phoebe's face was ice cold. Not knowing what had happened, not knowing that her older sister had died and not knowing if she would ever escape the clutches of The Source had taken it's toll. When Leo's orbs became visible, she straightened up waiting for him to appear, Cole joined her at her side and took her hand.
"Phoebe!" Piper ran and embraced Phoebe as she and Leo appeared in dark, dank cavern. Clutching her baby sister she didn't want to let go, fearing that she may lose her to.
"What is it?" Cole asked.
"It's Prue," Leo said, his eyes looking down to the floor, not wanting to look Phoebe in the eyes.
Piper released Phoebe and moved back to stand next to Leo, not saying anything as she tried to hold back her tears which was enough of an explanation in itself for Phoebe.
"No, no." She thrust her head into Cole's warm arms, he began to rock her backwards and forwards in an attempt to comfort her.
"I was too late, she was attacked by Shax, we were double crossed," Leo explained.
"What?" Cole's face grew red with anger. "Come on, we have to get you out of here Phoebe, before he kills you too."
"But how, without being chased down by more of The Source's assassins and bounty hunters?" Leo asked. "He could be watching us right now, and he probably is there's no way we can make it to the manor before he's on to us!"
"We still have some power between us, two witches, a whitelighter and a demon doesn't exactly make up the power of three but we can't just sit here and wait to be picked off one by one," Cole argued.
Suddenly, four large bounty hunters shimmered in as if The Source had been listening to them and was reacting to their fears. Cole quickly fired an energy ball to his left, taking out the hunter before he could make his move. In turn Piper threw one of the potions she had brought as back up at the hunter standing to the right of Phoebe, hoping for the best. Cole summoned another energy ball and threw it towards one who stood behind Piper and Leo advancing slowly. The final bounty hunter backed off slightly, Piper took another potion and quickly threw it at him before he could escape or attack. With all four vanquished, the four stood staring at one another – they had to get out of here and the fight wasn't over yet – Prue's killer was still out there.
(X)
Four days later, and Phoebe was safely back at the manor. Safe by Halliwell standards anyway. Bounty hunters had continued to attack both her and Cole, but Cole was doing a good job at protecting them both. Piper and Phoebe weren't exactly in the fighting mood right now, in fact they couldn't even concentrate on laying Prue to rest because of the police investigation into her and the Doctor's deaths. But neither of them, especially Piper were giving up on trying to save their sister. But something they didn't know was that they were still Charmed, and their destiny hadn't been fulfilled just yet. There was a knock on the front door, which had been temporarily replaced by wood panels in place of the destroyed glass.
"Darryl," Leo greeted as he opened the door to the family friend as SFPD Homicide Inspector.
"Hey Leo, can I come in?" Leo opened the door fully, allowing Darryl to pass. He walked straight into the living room, where Phoebe and Cole were cuddled up on the couch under a blanket. Piper sat on a chair by the window, motionless as she starred outside.
"Hi," Darryl said softly. "I have news, it's about Prue's case," he added, trying to be as gentle as possible. "The police have ruled her death as murder, they are still looking for who is responsible. Obviously they won't get far but they are releasing the body," he finished.
"Thanks Darryl," Leo said, patting him on the back and shooting a warm, thank you smile at him.
"Yeah, thanks," Phoebe smiled. "At least we can say goodbye now."
Piper said nothing. She still gazed outside, not really taking in what was happening on the street outside but listening to what was being said in the room. But she wasn't ready to say goodbye to Prue just yet, not without trying every possible option at her disposal.
A/N: This was wrote earlier this year as an entry to Shadow Tale's Relive the Magic writing contest for AHBL.
As usual, the characters aren't mine and this is just a work of fan fiction based on Charmed created by Constance M. Burge.