Chapter 10 - The Unimaginable Battle

Ricker glanced at Prue, and she knew she was supposed to be thinking of a way out of these bubbles. She didn't care what happened to Ricker - the best think he had ever done was give her the boys. She didn't love him, never had... and now, she realised, she despised him.

If they made it out of here alive, she might just kill him herself.

"So what now?" Preston asked suddenly, glaring at his aunts and cousins. "Are you going to kill us?"

"Well, that depends." Phoebe replied, her eyes still teary but her voice strong.

"On?" Preston snarled, looking so much like his father that Prue shuddered.

"On Prue." Piper replied, looking back at her big sister. "So, Prue, are they your sons?"

"Yes." Prue said, and although Piper's face didn't change, Prue noticed the way her eyes slid over to the boys, and the way her eyes sparkled at them. In her eyes, Prue realised, they were her nephews. For some reason that made her feel better... only she didn't know why.

"What do you mean, it depends on me?" Prue said after a while.

"We don't want to vanquish you, or them." Paige said quietly.

"This doesn't have anything to do with you!" Prue yelled suddenly. "I don't even know you!" She resented Paige, she realised. Paige had taken her place. They didn't need her because of Paige.

Angry, Prue conjured up a fireball and hurled it in Paige's direction, forgetting how she was trapped. The fireball bounced back and hit her on the arm. Prue gasped in pain, and Phoebe took a worried step forward before she remembered.

"Are you OK?" Phoebe asked, trying to keep her voice cool.

"Like you care." Prue spat back, ignoring the fierce pain in her arm. The skin had turned red, started to peel a little.

"Prue, Paige hasn't taken your place." Piper said, almost in annoyance. "She's our sister, and she's her own person. She has her own place."

"Yours is still open." Paige added, trying to pretend Prue's words hadn't hurt her.

"Well it can stay open." Prue snapped. "I don't want it."

"Prue, listen to me. This isn't you. You're not evil." Phoebe said. "You had your moments, but you were always good. You can fight this, you're stronger than his magic. You can come home."

"I can't." Prue said quietly, even though a big part of her wanted to. This is me now. I can't go back."

"You can. Please, Prue." Phoebe pleaded.

Paige watched the flicker of hope in Prue's eyes, saw the longing behind the cold. And, going on the instinct that made her such a good witch, she put all their lives at risk.

She stepped forward, and brushed a finger on the bubble that surrounded Prue. It vanished immediately.

"Kill her Prue, kill her!" Ricker cried.

"Paige!" Phoebe screamed, and was about to throw her own bubble potion when Piper gripped her arm. She silently shook her head, then turned back to Prue and Paige.

"You have every right to be scared." Paige said softly. "I would be too. I was. Fifteen years ago, I found out that I wasn't really who I thought I was. I wasn't Paige Matthews, who just worked as an assistant. I was actually a witch, a charmed one. I wasn't an only child, I had sisters. Everything changed, overnight. And I was terrified. Terrified I wouldn't live up to what they expected. To you. And you must feel like I did all those years ago, right? You don't know if you'll live up to the person you used to be."

Silently, Prue nodded.

"I learned, though, Prue, I learned that they didn't actually expect me to be anything. They were fine with me just being me, and in my own time I settled, and I realised that it wasn't that much of a change. I was still the same person. And so are you. No matter what he's done to you, how many rituals, you are still you. Deep down. And that person will always be there. And you... if you want, you can be just Prue. Not Prue, the super demon, or Prue, the super witch. You can be whatever you want. But you have to choose."

"My boys..." Prue mumbled.

"Prue, don't listen to her. Just kill her. Kill them!" Ricker cried desperately.

"The boys are a part of you." Piper said quietly. "They're a part of this family. There's room for them, too."

"I thought you'd hate me." Prue mumbled. "I tried to kill you."

"How could we hate you?" Phoebe murmured. "We love you. Just... come home..."

Prue looked at them for a long time, long enough so that all doubt vanished. This was home, Phoebe was right. This was home. Tears made their way down her face. She hadn't cried in fifteen years, but she couldn't stop.

"I... I need to ask my boys." Prue said quietly, brushing the tears away. More took their place.

"No!" Ricker yelled. "Don't listen to them, Prue, just ignore them! They - they're tricking you, they'll kill you and the boys, and me!"

"They won't kill you, Ricker." Prue sneered. "I will." That silenced him.

Prue stepped over to her boys, stood in front of them.

"You understand, don't you?" She murmured. "This is my family, my home. Your family, too. I...I know it'll be different, but we can do it. You'll still have your powers... only now, you'll be fighting demons instead of witches..."

"But we are demons." Preston cried. "We're not witches!"

"You are... half demons." Prue corrected. "And half-witches. My half."

"We're still demons. We can't be good." Preston snapped.

"You can. I... I know it's scary, I'm scared too, but I'll be here, for you. Just... stay with me..."

"What if we don't want to?" Preston challenged. "What if we want to stay evil?"

"I..." Prue faltered, glanced behind her at her sisters. Piper gave a small nod, and Prue turned back to them. "Then I'll go back down there with you, and stay with you. I meant what I said about not leaving you."

"You mean it?" Parker asked, and although her heart sunk, although the disappointment overwhelmed her, she nodded.

"I promise."

"Then I'll stay up here with you." Parker said. "We can give it a try, being good. I'll come with you."

"Really?" Prue gasped, her eyes shining with hope. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Besides, this place is warmer than the cave." Parker smiled.

"I don't believe you!" Preston cried. "The cave is our home, the underworld is where we belong!"

"Preston..." Prue said softly. "We can belong here too..."

"I'll live here too, mum." Perry said after a brief hesitation. He was nine, wouldn't leave his mum. He could be good, too, if he had to.

"Are you sure?" Prue asked for the second time, and Perry nodded. She looked again at Preston.

"No." The eldest said firmly. "I won't."

"Preston-"

"I won't do it." He said again. "I like being a demon, I'm good at it. I wont give it up, or my powers."

"Your powers?"

"They'll bind them, for sure." He replied. "Won't want to risk us killing their little darlings, will they? What about us, huh? What if we need to defend ourselves? Like they care."

"We wouldn't take away your powers." Piper frowned. "Not unless you wanted us to."

"Sure you wouldn't." Preston snapped. "I won't do it, mum." He said, looking her right in the eye. "I'd rather you vanquish me."

"I wouldn't ever vanquish you." Prue whispered.

"Ha! Course you would. If they said you had to, you would."

"I wouldn't. I... love you." For a moment, he just looked at her, then he shook her head.

"I don't care..." He said quietly. "Demons... don't love."

"Please..."

"No. I want to go home." Preston said, and for a moment, Prue was reminded of how he was when he was little boy, all wide-eyed at the blood on his mothers clothes, at the lifeless body on the floor. She'd killed the woman purely to show her son how to do it. At the time, he had been just two, and Ricker had decided it was time her learned what his powers could actually do. Little Preston had been terrified, and spoke those very words. No, I want to go home.

But now it was too late. It had been too long for him, and now he was perfectly at home killing witches. Innocents. They had once mattered to her so much, she remembered. And they could again.

"This is home." Prue said finally, but he shook his head.

"Either let me go, or vanquish me."

"I won't vanquish you." Prue said firmly.

"Then let me go."

"I'm going to vanquish Ricker." Prue said to Preston, and beside him, Ricker gave a little yelp. "You can't go down there alone."

"I'll go to Louian. That's what you told us to do."

"But..." I made him this. I made him what he is, and now I can't stop him. "OK." She nodded. "But, promise me, that if you ever change your mind, you won't hesitate." The tears were thicker, now, faster.

"Sure."

"And if you ever need help, you come straight here, no matter what. You don't even have to stay..."

"OK."

"And... Swear to me, that you'll never come here to kill us. Any of us."

"I swear." Preston nodded.

"OK. OK." Prue turned back to the others. "How do I...?" Piper stepped forward, gently touched the bubble encasing Perry. It sank away, and the young boy stood uncertainly.

"Like that." Piper murmured. Prue gently touched the bubble surrounding Parker, and that vanished too. Then she slowly stretched out her hand to Preston's. She was going to lose her boy, going to lose him. When her hand was just a centimetre from the sky-blue surface, she mouthed the words "I love you". Then she placed her full left hand on the bubble. It vanished, but she kept her hand there.

"You too." Preston said quietly, so quietly she almost didn't hear it. But she heard it, and she understood.

Then, his eyes locked on hers, he shimmered out without another word, and Prue's hand dropped limply to her side.