Introduction

Hello dears. It's been a long time! Well, over at Shadow Tales -- just Google that ;-) -- there was this contest asking us to "write about any of the events that weren't clearly shown on screen between the time of season three finale and the premiere of season four." I won the contest -- thanks to all who voted! I was so happy! -- and this is what I wrote. Please R&R, as they say; time to get the closure you never had ;-) Enjoy:

Death Took A Halliwell

Darkness. All around. Quiet. Deadly silence. Of the kind that presses against your eardrums, that makes them beat harder, faster, as if Silence itself was a threat ready to pounce at you and tear your throat apart. That kind of quiet you get at night, when you are lying in your bed after switching off the lights and not even an owl is hooting outside.

Only, this time, the pain that usually shots through your ears after a time didn't come. Actually, the pain that a few seconds ago was coursing through every nerve in her system had dulled and dissipated in the blink of a … thought?

She tried opening her eyes, but whether she did or did not manage it she couldn't tell for everything was still black as ebony.

Where was she? Wait, something more important occurred to her; who was she? She could not remember her name, could not remember how she had gotten wherever she was.

Then a spark silently burst into life somewhere high above – was it really that high? –, a star coming into existence in the nothingness. And she started to remember.

There were only noises at first; the distant shattering of glass … doors being slammed shut … a thud not too far from her … a wall being broken down …

Then sensations; a broken spine … blood dripping from her ear … landing hard on the floor … passing through a wall …

And finally colors, flashes of lights that blinded her at first; a swirl of images as the world spun around her … a huge figure, both blue and grey aiming an energy ball at her …

She gasped, her eyes wide open while she stared at the now bigger star overhead as it had grown during her reminiscing.

So this was it. Death.

She looked around. So peaceful. So … quiet. She turned her gaze back at the light above and once again her life came back to her backwardly. The demons she had vanquished, the lives she had saved, the ones she had lost, all played before her remembering eyes. Until it came to how she received her powers and how she fought with her little sister over and over again.

"Prue."

She blinked. Had she heard something?

The light was now nearly recovering the whole of the place wherein she laid. A visage, indistinct, seemed to hover in it in the distance. Its vague mouth budged.

"Prue."

Prue? Was that her name?

She cocked her head sideways, trying to get a better viewing of the person. Still, aside from the uncertain outlines, she could not make out who it was. So she merely let herself fall back into her rearward course down Memory Lane.

Grams's death. The apartment she shared with Piper. Her high-school romance with Andy. Her teenage years went by, and then her childhood, to the point of her mother's death.

"Mom." Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper as she refocused on the now more distinct figure in the light.

Patty gazed down at her, smiling. "Go on, follow the path," she said in her kind voice.

The light was verily nearly overpowering the darkness in the area now, and Prue did as she was bid. The first few years of her life – how her powers were bound, how she had first used them freely, her birth – all played out before her.

When she was done witnessing her past, the light had totally colonized the place where she was, and Patty now stood at her feet.

"Come, my sweet." Patty held out her hand and Prue took the offered help to stand up.

"Am I –?" Prue began as she stood but Patty cut in, "Ask only those questions the answers of which you don't know, darling."

As soon as Prue was on her feet, the dazzling white surroundings were replaced by a more familiar scene; the hall at the bottom of the stairs in Halliwell Manor, near the foyer.

Immediately, Prue turned to where she knew her lifeless body lay and horror struck her when she spotted Piper's evenly still one.

"Piper!" She made for her sister but her mother gently grabbed her arm. Patty shook her head. Tears shot up in Prue's eyes. "Is she –?"

"Look," Patty merely said.

As if on cue, bright blue-white orbs materialized over Piper's body and Leo was soon left standing in the parlor.

"No!" he pleaded, getting on his knees at the sight of his wife. Tears were running down his cheeks as his hands, shining golden light, passed over the dying witch. When the blood started retreating and the wounds healing, he thanked the gods and strengthened his power. Soon Piper gasped and sat up.

Leo was about to hug her when Piper scrambled out of the hold and crawled to Prue's side. "Heal her!" she desperately commanded her husband. Tears were literally flowing down her cheeks as she pulled her elder sister on her lap. "Now!"

Leo tried to explain, "Piper, I can't sense her –"

"I said, now," she repeated scathingly.

Leo sadly shook his head and approached them, uselessly lifting his hands and lighting them over Prue's dead body.

A hand was put on the watching Prue's shoulder and she turned towards her mother as the scene darkened once again, and the others vanished.

"I can't die!" she said fiercely, freeing herself from Patty's grasp.

"Prue, you don't have to be afraid."

"You don't understand!" Her temper was rising. "I am not afraid!" (Was that entirely true? She couldn't tell.) "They need me! I have to keep protecting them!" She was shouting now. "Without me, the Power of Three is no more. Without the Power of Three, they're as good as dead!"

"Prue, calm down. You have to accept this. You don't want to end up a ghost or a poltergeist, do you? You have to go on to the afterlife."

"They – are – gonna – die!" Prue seethed, pronouncing the words as if talking to a simple-minded person.

Patty shook her head, her face bore the expression of one about to admit a huge secret. "There's still hope for them, Prue. For the Power of Three."

Prue's eyes widened; she looked at her mother as if she were a stranger.

"Sam and I –", Patty began, but enough had been said; Prue nodded curtly.

She couldn't blame her for loving another man, not when she herself had loathed her father nearly all her life until very recently.

"Can I see her?" Her tone was short. She hated to have been kept out of the secret but still longed to see this girl that might be the sake of her family. She had even briefly forgotten she was dead.

Patty was speechless. "I – I guess."

The world swirled around them for a split-second then settled again. They were in the main area of what Prue recognized as the South Bay Social Services of San Francisco. Instantly, she knew which girl she was looking for; her gaze was immediately attracted to her.

The brunette sat at a computer in a cubicle, typing. A lollipop was stuck in her mouth and her head moved slightly in tune with the music coming from her headphones. Suddenly, she looked up and stared straight at Prue. Prue froze.

Then the girl stood up and made her way towards Prue who startled, afraid of being exposed. But the young assistant walked through her and on down the room.

Prue turned round and watched as the woman crouched in front of a little boy of barely eight and offered him another lollipop.

The boy smiled but shook his head. "Sorry, ma'am, I'm not allowed to accept candy from strangers."

The brunette nodded, put the extra lollipop in the back pocket of her jeans, put the one in her mouth in her left hand, and held up her free one to the boy. "My name is Paige."

The boy shook her hand. "I'm Jackie."

"Nice to meet you. So, Jackie, see? We're not strangers anymore. You still don't want the lolly?"

The boy grinned and nodded. Paige gave him the spared candy and sat next to him. "You're not too bored, sitting here all by yourself?"

Prue turned to her mother. "She has a big heart." Patty agreed.

The décor was suddenly back to the Ghostly Plane version of the parlor in Halliwell Manor.

A strange expression passed over Prue's face, as though she dared not ask something.

"What is it, honey?" Patty asked.

"I – I wish I could see Phoebe."

Patty sighed. "I'm sorry, darling. I don't think you should. Just know she is safely back with Piper."

Prue, resigned, let out a long breath.

"Shall we go?"

"If we must."

Patty nodded and offered her daughter her hand. A portal of dull blue light with white strikes appeared nearby.

As they made for it, a question suddenly blossomed into Prue's mind and she turned to the woman she barely knew and yet remained her mother. "Why? Why is it you coming to me and not Death himself?"

Patty nodded, seemingly expecting this. "He granted you this … last wish. Having me showing you the path instead of him, although you would have met me on the other side. He feared that, although you made peace with him, you might have been – how did he put it? – a pain in the neck if he were to collect you himself. Didn't want you becoming a ghost out of pure hatred of him."

And they stepped through the portal.

***

She watched as Piper tried to summon her back to life, and as Phoebe accepted her death as best she could.

"It's like the Book just deserted us and deserted Prue, and I don't understand why," Piper cried, and Phoebe took both her hands, sharing her pain in the middle of the dark attic.

"We lost our sister. How can we ever understand that? We've tried every magical way to bring her back … but we can't. She's gone." Facing this reality was too much and, as tears swelled up in their eyes, they hugged each other. "I just … I thank God that I didn't lose you too." Phoebe kissed Piper lightly then broke the hug, sighing. "We have to get some rest. Prue will never forgive us if we look bad at her funeral."

"How mistaken," Prue thought, watching her sisters leave the darkened room arm in arm. She knew Phoebe was only trying to convince Piper to go on with her own life, but she couldn't help feel a little pain at how much her little sister had always been unable to know her.

She put a hand on the Book of Shadows, caressed the triquetra on its cover. The antique symbol shone red, then Prue used her power to open the spellbook to the last entry Piper had read; "To Call a Lost Witch".

Death took a Halliwell, but another one remained.

Author's End Note

Well, if you did read through it all; thank you. It means I did a good-enough job to keep you 'till the end :-) I would be delighted to know what you thought of this one-shot, because it's the first time I ever wrote about Prue as the acting character! And the only way for you to let me know that is to review :-D

Until next time ;-)