Disclaimer: I don't own charmed
a/n: Apologies for the slow updates I've been in Italy! Sorry it's a shorty- normal service resumes in chapter 12.
Chapter 11 : It's a Long Story II
"Well, we've spent 2 weeks investigating it" Leo began
"2 weeks?" Pheobe screeched "You've been gone 7 hours!"
"Time moves differently up there" Chris explained "it's either quicker or slower than here on earth, depending on what we wish to accomplish"
"anyway" Leo interrupted, not wanting to delay the agony. "From what we can tell…, Prue didn't die that day"
"Shax was a double agent, working for both the source and for another demon, let's just call him the Mystery Demon. The Source wanted the Charmed Ones dead, the Mystery Demon wanted or rather needed at least one of them alive, as he intended to to kidnap whoever he could, quite what his ultimate plan was, we don't know, very few of his followers remain alive, and those who do were not very receptive to our line of questioning" Chris continued
"When Prue hit the wall, the force of the collision was enough to cause her to involuntarily astral project, her astral projection was also knocked unconscious. It was a hard blow, but not enough to kill her." Leo said
"But we saw her!" Piper cried "Just one of her! And she most definitely did not have a pulse. You said it yourself, that she was dead, you looked me in the eyes and said, ' I can't heal the dead"
"and I thought she was..but I was wrong"
"but…"
"Mom just let him explain!" Chris admonished
"As I was saying, for the briefest of seconds there were two Prue's astral Prue and real Prue. As real Prue was unconscious and unable to control her mind, astral Prue mirrored whatever happened to her counter part. The invisibility demon, or InvisiMon, was waiting in the wings. He had been hired by Shax to take Prue back to the underworld. He had 5 seconds to chose which Prue…, had he choson her astral projection, things may have been very different…. Unfortunately for us, he picked the real Prue, and whisked her away. Which is why, by the time I reached her, there was only one Prue"
"But her pulse? "Phoebe commented " did he cast some illusion over us to think that she was dead?"
"No it was far simpler than that" Chris explained "It was opium. He injected Real Prue with opium."
"Opium?"
"Opium when injected in the right amount slows the heart and the breathing down so slowly that on first inspection the person appears to be dead" Leo added
"But the doctors would have noticed! When we took her to the hospital…"
"They would have, but by the time you took astral Prue to the hospital, real Prue really had stopped breathing"
"huh? But you said she didn't die?"
"She didn't" Leo was beginning to get exasperated by the girls' inability to let him finish. "The InvisiMon took real Prue to the lair of the Glaciere demon ( a/n : this is my name for the demon in Vaya con Leos, as I can't remember what his name was). The Glaciere demon had a pod ready and waiting, and within minutes of their arrival, he had frozen real Prue. Which, before you ask, is why you never noticed that astral Prue was an astral projection, because the 'projection' was never able to return to Prue's body. This is what you buried."
"Then how did I get out?" Prue asked, amazed that all this had happened to her, yet she had no recollection of it.
"The lair, and every person and object inside it was protected by some of the most powerful kind of dark magic known to us, rendering is 'unplottable' on the demonic map. When you girls killed Zankou, and the Nexus was destroyed, the magical explosion was enough to break the forces protecting the lair, and those protecting the pods."
"we vanquished Zankou nearly 3 months ago" Paige exclaimed
"Freezing people isn't an exact science. It appears that it took all this time for Prue to 'thaw out'. This morning when it seemed as if Prue was near to regaining consciousness, she was brought above ground and set free."
"I don't understand, why did the 'Mystery' Demon want Prue?" Piper wondered.
"like I said, I don't know" Leo repeated, "some people think that he was planning some kind of demonic coup d'état, to take over the underworld from the Source, we're still investigating, but we thought you'd want to know the main facts"
"I can't believed I was frozen" Prue exclaimed, "No wonder my head hurt…"
"I can't believe you were alive all these years and we didn't know" Phoebe cried
"I'm gonna hunt him down and so help me god blow up his demonic ass" Piper vowed.
Paige, as previously remained oddly silent.
"None of that matters, not for the moment at least" Penny cut-in.
"Mother's right" Patty agreed, "all that matters at the moment is that all four of you are back together "
"That's right" Penny said "One big happy family." She glanced round at the room at everyone who despite themselves were smiling, excited that Prue had been returned to them. If some one had dared to take a closer look, they might have seen that the smile didn't quite reach Paige's eyes.
Coming soon –Chapter 12: look what tomorrow brings