Back at the Halliwell's house, all three girls were sitting in the living room having cups of tea to calm their nerves while they waited for Leo to touch base with them. They were all lost in their individual trains of thought when their front door was suddenly getting banged on quite heavily. All three of them took their various positions in the hallway in case it turned out to be a threat. Given that it was coming up to two in the morning, none of them could think of anything friendly that would be there at that hour. Paige focused her mind on the front door and shouted "Open door!" at it. As the door swung open, Piper jumped out from her position behind the window part of the door and froze everyone there with her hands. Phoebe walked tentatively over to the small group of people crouched in the door way, amazed by who was there.
"Ok, normally big bad demons hit on our door at the back of two in the morning," she pondered out loud, "so, why would there be a girl and a guy, both carrying what looks like badly injured people on their backs?" She stopped in her tracks, though, when she saw who the girl was carrying on her back. It had been only a matter of months and the person frozen had changed terribly, but Phoebe would know her sister anywhere. She bit back a sob before running over to Piper and Paige, holding onto them as her knees buckled underneath her.
"What's wrong?" Paige asked Phoebe gently while Piper went over to look at the frozen group for herself. She could barely believe her eyes either when she saw Prue's prone form. There was something wrong here, as she recalled that good witches were never affected by her power to freeze. But there was no mistaking that it was her sister being carried there, looking completely catatonic. Paige, noting how shocked Piper was looking, approached the prone form of Prue. She tried to remain somewhat detached from what she was witnessing, tried to keep a level head though a myriad of emotions were running through her head. Here was the sister she never thought she would meet and she had wanted so badly to get to know. Running her eyes over the completely bald woman, Paige noticed that although catatonic, Prue wasn't completely motionless as she had appeared to be at first glance. She was shivering and her bottom jaw was particularly going quite violently as her teeth were chattering. Paige forced herself to look over the rest of this group and noticed the other girl on someone's back. She had nothing on the upper half of her body aside for a blood-soaked white sheet. Her trousers were torn down one side leading into her groin and were also heavily soaked with blood. Summing up a deep breath, Paige walked back to where her sisters were standing and addressed them calmly.
"Ok, I think it's only fair to tell you both a couple of things," she said tentatively, "I'll say them quickly before everyone unfreezes. Prue's not frozen like everyone else; as I saw she's shivering like crazy in that God awful t-shirt she's wearing. Also, the other girl that's being carried is badly injured and I don't think she'll last much longer if we don't do something." Acting on pure instinct and not fully processing what was happening, Piper and Phoebe went over to the spectacle-wearing woman and carried her frozen body into the house where they lay her down on the sofa in the living room. Paige followed them with Prue in her arms, feeling completely numb and contemplating how odd it felt to be the youngest of the family and have the oldest in her arms, clinging to her like a frightened child. Once they were all set, Piper unfroze everyone and a loud thud signalled the boy and girl that were standing outside had fallen through the open doorway onto the floor. A mumbled groan of pain came from the wrapped girl on the couch. She went back to bleeding heavily again and the sisters were struggling to stop the bleeding. Piper closed her eyes and sent a silent plea of help up to the elders, calling Leo back to her side. Immediately, the white lighter appeared in the living room and appeared to be completely unperturbed by the chaos that was going on around him.
"Leo, please, can you heal this girl?" Piper asked icily, "then I can find out what she's done to Prue!" As her already frazzled emotions were up in the air, the brunette needed someone to take her anger and distress out on. The injured person lying on the couch was more than perfect to fulfil that role.
"She's done nothing to your sister other than attempt to hide her modesty!" Tyrk shouted irritably, "Her name's Lyra and if you're really as good a white lighter as she's told me you are, you'll save her from dying!" Leo didn't respond to either of them but instead turned to the task at hand. Holding his hands out in front of him above the sheet, he sent bright waves of healing and managed to stop the relentless bleeding. Tyrk and Piper stood glaring at each other while Crystal walked over to sit on the chair opposite the one Paige was kneeling in front of. Prue was still staring straight ahead, shivering uncontrollably and not responding to anyone or anything around her. It was indeed as if she was frozen in time, her eyes completely devoid of any kind of emotion. Lyra opened her eyes slowly, struggling to focus her gaze. Turning her head slightly, she met the eyes of Leo and understood in that instant what a truly remarkable man he was. She smiled weakly at him before looking just behind him to see Tyrk ready to lock horns with one of the other charmed sisters.
"Hey, if anyone's fighting with Piper, it's gonna be me," she growled softly. Both Crystal and Tyrk rushed over and enveloped their friend in a tight hug.
"Ok, ok, guys I need oxygen ya know!" she moaned good-naturedly. They sat on the couch once Lyra gathered her legs underneath her body and leaned back against the arm behind her. Piper had her fixed with a death stare, Phoebe had her arms firmly crossed across her chest and Paige was waiting by Prue's side. Lyra rolled her eyes, trying desperately to think of a way out of this at the very least for her closest friends.
"If you guys are planning on vanquishing anyone, then make it me," she stated solemnly, "these guys only joined me because I asked them to. I knew Prue was in terrible danger, so I wanted to go and save the wumman." Snorting at her own failure to keep the slang from her voice, Lyra waited for the Halliwells to respond in some manner. The possibility of death strangely didn't scare the passionate Scot and she waited with bated breath. Piper completely ignored what the girl said and turned to Leo.
"What did your bosses tell you about these characters?" she asked, "Did they explain how these strangers ended up with our sister who was dead until a short time ago!" She couldn't hold back the tears that came as things started to sink in. Leo wrapped his arms around the sobbing form of his wife, whispering soft words in her ear in an effort to comfort her. Phoebe approached the reclining female on the couch whose eyes held a look of absolute resolution. She knelt down in front of her and took one of Lyra's hands in between her own.
"Can you tell us what exactly happened tonight?" she asked, letting her empathy ability draw from the other female. Almost immediately, Phoebe could feel the emotions that were lying just beneath the surface of the otherwise cool and collected woman. There was great exhaustion, relief at the knowledge that Prue was safe, barely subdued grief and something else Phoebe wasn't sure she wanted to confront at that moment. Releasing her grip, the witch backed away very quickly.
"I'll have to talk it over with my friends," Lyra replied gently, "about how much they are happy for me to share with you all. There's also a hell of a lot to tell you, so I think we're better leaving it until morning. If for nothing else than to get Prue into bed, we can sleep in your basement if you want us to stay close by." Her gaze slowly trailed over to the shivering, frightened form that was perched so unsteadily on the chair close by. In an instant, for the first time that night, Prue turned her head slowly and locked gazes with someone. Her eyes had lost none of the wild terror that had made its home there, but she was looking at someone rather than through them, almost as if silently asking them to reach for her. Blushing furiously, Lyra broke the contact she was sharing with Prue and gestured for both Tyrk and Crystal to stand with her. As they all made their way to the basement, Phoebe regained her voice and called out:
"Wait! The strange animals I saw earlier, I don't guess you would know anything about those? I can wait til morning for more info on who you guys are and the like, but at least clear up the animals I saw!"
Smirking despite her exhaustion, Lyra changed into her panther form, letting the sheet that had been wrapped around her drop to the floor. Tyrk followed her move and turned into a red fox while Crystal let her Bengal tiger form make an appearance. The big cats padded slowly through the door that led to the basement, not even glancing back once. The fox on the other hand trotted over to Phoebe, rubbed his body against her legs and walked away, calling back in an amused manner:
"Does this clear it up well enough for ya?" With a flick of his thick brush, Tyrk managed to close the basement door behind him.
Still running on autopilot, Phoebe, Piper and Paige helped Prue get to her feet and they slowly walked her up the flight of stairs towards her old bedroom. In the short time after her funeral, Prue's bedroom had hardly changed. Even though she had her own flat further downtown, Paige sometimes liked to stay over at the manor. On these occasions, she usually slept in Prue's room and the youngest sister had made a conscious effort to keep everything as intact as she could. It was as if subconsciously she was clinging to every part of the sister who had gone, one quarter of the family she was becoming a very much integral part of. After so long alone, it was an overwhelming feeling to belong somewhere and Paige was damned if she was going to let any aspect of that go. When they arrived in the bedroom, Piper and Paige went over to the chest of drawers that were underneath the window while Phoebe tentatively tried to persuade Prue to remove what she was wearing. It was at this moment she was hit with a vision. In a large cavern, the girl with dark hair took off her t-shirt very quickly, taking great pains not to look at Prue for some reason. She instead threw the item of clothing to her friends, speaking an instruction of some sort very quickly before changing back into a panther.
"I think I know who this t-shirt belongs to," she said, voicing her conclusion. Piper never looked away from the drawers but continued rummaging while Paige looked over and once more took in the sight of the only thing shielding her other sister's nudity. The t-shirt was a mixture of black and green, the colours swirling together in a very unusual way and it was very distinctive. It had a picture covering the front and Prue was so frail and thin that the t-shirt stopped just above her knees. The picture was of a black panther walking out of the darkness, ears flattened and teeth bore in a snarl.
"Well, it would explain why she was only wearing a sheet earlier," Paige remarked distractedly. With all that was going on, she began to suspect nothing would ever shock or surprise her again. Both she and Piper walked over to Prue with a set of blue silk pyjamas. It did seem odd that a woman from another country would travel so far to risk her own life to save a stranger from terrible danger and torment. When they removed the t-shirt, all of the sisters burst into tears, unable to keep their emotions in check at the sight of Prue's scarred body and complete baldness. It looked as though every inch of body hair had been burned off and the skin had healed over, ready to be marked again. Prue herself was shaking with sobs, the first real emotion that she had shown all evening.
"I-I'm really home, a-aren't I?" she whispered shakily, "this isn't a d-dream of mine i-is it?" She was enveloped in tight and loving cuddles from the rest of her sisters. Although she had never met Paige before, she could tell that they were connected somehow. Old bonds were being reinforced while new ones were building and flowing between all four women. As they tenderly dressed that which had been lost to them, it was truly as if they were giving her a new skin, one free of scars and pain. Moving towards the bed, Piper slowly drew the duvet cover back for Prue to crawl in. Once she was lying back and comfortable, the other three gently tucked the duvet around their oldest sister and all placed tender kisses on her face. On the way out, Phoebe picked up the panther t-shirt from the carpet. She mentally made a note to have a long talk with the owner of the top.
"Right, Paige, why don't you crash in with me tonight?" Phoebe suggested, "It's too late for you make your way home now." Paige nodded, barely stifling a yawn with her hand. As they made their way towards Phoebe's bedroom, Piper slowly walked into her room. Leo was already waiting for her, arms open for which she was especially grateful.
"Hey, I thought I'd tell you what I knew when we were alone," he whispered gently, "the group downstairs, until tonight anyway, were unknown to them above. Simply put, they're not magical in any way. With regards to Prue, they feel terrible that they had no detection on her suffering before now. As far as they were aware, she had passed over to the other side when she had died. I know you don't trust them, but the people in the basement are the only ones who know anything about this. Just, hear them out before you crucify them, ok?" Piper relaxed in her husband's arms, feeling the love and comfort emanate into her body from him.
"Fine, I'll give them a chance to tell their story," she replied, too tired to argue much further. Placing a tender kiss on her love's lips, she turned to bed and crawled into it. Getting changed seemed too much of an effort and she was contented when Leo joined her. Tomorrow would be an interesting day when it arrived.