AN: I know the last couple of chapters were kind of "blah" so I hope this one will make up for them. Warning: Reading this chapter may require the reader to keep a pack of tissues handy...
Angelically Charmed: Till Vanquish Do We Part
Prue sat in the window of the attic gazing out the stained glass window. In less than two weeks, she had lost a sister, learned her daughter was destined to marry a demon, survived a stroke, managed to successfully become a part of a plot to ruin her marriage and now had to face the reality that she might lose Andy to a cursed relic arrow.
How had things gotten so out of control? Had Phoebe's death made her so blinded by grief that she didn't see the signs that her marriage was in trouble? And how was it that she and Andy had actually managed to come to blows with one another? Not to mention both seemingly "cheat" with another member of the opposite sex.
It was if someone had placed a curse of some sort on her, wanting to see how long it would take before she would break. It wouldn't be the first time, she sighed pulling her knees to her chest. But there was something different this time: she was breaking.
"Prue?" Paige crept up quietly and placed her hand on Prue's shoulder. "Honey are you okay?"
Prue quickly scrubbed at her eyes and cleared her throat. "Yeah, how's Andy?"
"He's sleeping, I think Leo and I finally managed to convince him to save his strength."
"Good, call Piper" Prue returned lowly springing to her feet so that she could cross over to the Book of Shadows. The allotted time to save Andy was running scarce and she was just about out of options "I am going to need her for a power of three spell"
"You want to summon the Angel of Destiny?" Paige laced her fingers through Piper's and finally Prue's. The last time the angel of destiny had come to them was during the middle of Phoebe's funeral. Under no uncertain terms the angel had told Prue that she could not control the future.
"Let's just say, I think she holds the key to the barrage of grief we've been getting lately.
"Power of Three we summon thee, and call to us the Angel of Destiny."
In unison, the two vocal sisters began to chant until a large white light exploded before them delivering the Angel of Destiny.
"Why have you summoned me?" The large angelic woman roared.
Prue released her sister's hands and stepped forward, "I want to know why you are so determined to destroy me?"
The angel did a double take eyeing Prue curiously. "What is wrong with your voice?"
"I think you know," Prue hissed as t he angel started to wave her hands causing a lump to form in Prue's throat. Adverting her eyes Prue watched as a white ball of glowing light flew from her lips and into Piper's"
Piper's brows lifted from her forehead making her eyes grow wide.
"Now carry on," the angel waved. " I want to hear more of your ludicrous accusation"
Prue swallowed a few times and sighed, revealed when she heard the sound of her own voice springing from her lips. "I want to know why the Charmed Ones are destined to lead such miserable lives. Why it is that so call destiny can't leave us alone?" Specifically she and Andy; It had seemed that ever since Patty had cast the spell that reunited them that some unforeseen force was always trying to destroy the precious union they shared.
"No ones life is perfect Prudence, all humans experience grief and suffering."
"But I think that it is fair to say that we've suffered through more than our fair share" Prue retorted, watching the Angel's brows knit with anger.
"More than your fair share? How many mortals or witches for that matter do you think really get a chance at afterlife such as you have had? You are technically an angel yourself in charge of the Wicca world but you live a life with a family in the mortals world"
"Exactly which why I want to know why you are so determined to see it end"
"It is not I who wants to see your Charmed Afterlife come to end, but there are others. Others who want to see you fall from your heavenly reign. You must prepare for a battle Prudence, a battle to save your destiny…all of your destinies?"
Another battle with destiny, Prue sighed, "Is this battle going to cost me my afterlife with Andy?"
"I cannot answer that" the angel replied solemn "but I will say that it is because of this impending battle that you have been bombarded with so much conflict and pain"
"But why?" Paige squinted. "We've done so much good for the world! Given up our lives, the people we love…" her voice trailed letting her mind flow back to her birth parents and Glenn.
Because from emotional pain you gain strength; when you sister was taken we were hoping to see a burst of inner strength emerge, much like the strength we saw when Prue was taken by Shax. Because of the determination she saw between you and your others sisters she was able to use her strength to reach out to you from the afterlife. But we have no seen such a burst of emotion from Prudence so we had to try another way.
"Andy" Prue muttered too softly for anyone to hear. Was the angel saying that she had to lose him again to gain enough strength to go on with her destiny and possibly get her sister back? It made sense, he was the gift in her life that had enabled her to complete her Charmed destiny as the mother to the Angelic Ones; the glue that literally held her angelic soul together.
"So then you and Death was really behind what happened to Phoebe?" Piper blurted with her own voice sounding foreign. Now the angel was saying they all had to endure some gut wrenching pain to get her back? "Enough with the damn mind games already!"
"Not specifically, but it is because of an alliance between Death and the grand design of good and evil that Phoebe was taken before her originally planned time" the angel returned her attention to Prue. "There are things you have yet to accept within your destiny, limits you still must learn, even as a Charmed one you have been given too much"
A white glow appeared around the angel signaling her exit. "Wait!" Prue shouted with a sense of urgency stopping the angel in her tracks. "There must be some other way!"
"I'm afraid not. There is no magical cure for the poison from Mandela's relic arrow. I highly suggest you make the most of the time you have left" The angel's voice echoed.
"Well that did a whole hell of a lot of good" Piper grumbled indignantly. "Basically she told us that we're all SCREWD! Doomed to live out these so called Charmed lives in misery"
"No..no.. she didn't" Prue said distantly, "I think I know what I need to do" If the angel was right, she needed to find a way to accept the things in her life that she could not change. The only problem was she needed time.
As night fell over the manor, Prue watched over Andy with baited breath. It had now been nearly twelve hours since he'd been shot with Mandela's arrow and time was now precious. In the back of her mind she had a plan, one that she hoped would save them all and restore the power of four. It was a plan of risk but it was one she was willing to take.
Nervous, she sat on the edge of the bed and picked at her cuticles until she drew blood. "Okay, you can do this…you're super witch. We cheated death once before we can do it again…right?"
"Prue?" Andy's voice was nothing but a shallow rasp. His sickly-yellowed tinted eyes rolled miserably towards the sound of her voice. Even on his deathbed, he was pleased to hear it.
"Hey" Smiling she leaded over and pressed a kiss to his slack lips. "How are you feeling?"
Andy closed his eyes and swallowed back a huge lump with a sea of unseen tears. "I don't have much time"
"We don't' have much time" Prue corrected pursing her lips to stop the quivering, "but I'm going to fix that. I just need you to trust me"
Trust, Andy couldn't help but grin as trust had been a mute thing between them lately. "Prue about Bane…I…"
"Ssh…I know" Prue whispered letting her own tears fall upon his face. "Let's not waste what time we have left on that okay?"
Piper and Paige entered the bedroom each carrying several vials of colored potions. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Piper set her collection of vials on the end table and started to remove the lids.
"I won't allow Andy to be vanquished" Prue bit back bitter anger. Losing him to a mortal's death had been bad enough, but at least with death came an afterlife. A vanquish was quite the opposite, leaving nothing, no hope, no afterlife, nothing…
"Okay then," Piper's normally bright chocolate eyes were red and tear filled. Her voice was so clouded with emotion she could hardly speak, "why don't you go get the girls and Paige and I will get things ready"
Prue blinked out a stream of tears and pushed herself from the bed.
"I can't believe this is happening" Paige brushed streaks off of her porcelain skin as she made her way over to the bed. Grinning she sat down in the spot that Prue had vacated. Brushing her hair back, the strawberry-brown witch leaned over, kissing Andy's forehead. "You know I always wanted a brother like you when I was growing up"
"I always wanted a sister" Andy caressed the side of the youngest charmed one's face causing her to giggle with impending emotion.
A vision of Andy fending off a wendigo in Golden Gate Park came to mind, "If you hadn't of saved me that night in the park. I would have never have found my sisters"
"I think you would have" Andy managed a small grin before letting it fade. "Paige, I need you to do something for me" Andy watched as the witch nodded, "I need you to give Prue a letter for me"
"Sure tell me where it is, I'll go get it" Paige offered watching Andy's pained face.
"It's in 1988" he said sheepishly.
"1988?" Paige repeated confused.
"I wrote it on the night of our prom" Andy admitted, "But I never gave it to Prue"
All Paige could do was nod reading into Andy's wishes. When the time was right she would use Ally to take Prue back to the past and retrieve the letter. "Who knows if things work out maybe you can give it to her yourself"
"Yeah" Andy choked as Paige kissed him again and pulled from the bed too emotional to go continue.
Tears continue to flee down Piper's face as she saw Prue file back into the room with the girls. Tenderly, she pressed her two forefingers to her lips and blew Andy a kiss before motioning to Paige.
"Let's give them a minute," From the door jam Piper watched agonizingly, as Prue instructed each of her daughters to say good-bye their father. Austin being the youngest of course was first. From the look on the tots face, Piper could see that the empath had read everyone's emotions and collected a tidal wave filled with sorrow. No one could ever say that child would ever truly become akin to the emotionless Death she thought as the room began to shake with the child's unshed grief.
The sight of Ally saying good-bye was nearly more than Piper could take. The little witch was crying so hard that she had to physically be removed from Andy's body by Leo.
Amanda of course was definitely Prue's daughter. The oldest Angelic one just stood there stoic and strong, not even shedding a tear until she watched her Mother try to say good-bye and even then she just turned and ran from the room.
"Amanda! Amanda wait!" Piper reached out to catch the little angelic witch only to have Amanda orb from her arms.
"I'm sure she just went back to her room. Could you…" Paige eyed Drake, who in return nodded his confirmation that he would go look after Amanda. An awkward moment passed between prompting Paige to force a smile.
"Thank you for being here" she whispered pulling the demon into quick hug.
"This so can't be happening" Paige then wrapped her arms around her middle sister, letting her headrest on Piper's shoulders. "What if Prue's plan doesn't work?"
Piper followed suit engulfing Paige. "We just have to hope it does, or we're going to lose another sister" Although, Prue always seemed to be the emotionally strongest of all of the sisters, Piper knew she would never survive losing Andy again, especially to another demon.
Prue rested her head on Andy's chest, letting her own tears soak into his blood stained ribbed t-shirt. "Whatever happens next, you have to know that I'm doing because I love you".
Unable to speak through his own raw emotions, Andy nodded allowing Prue to press her lips to his firmly, one last time.
Sitting up, Prue reached for the clear vial that Piper had set next to the bed and handed it to Andy. "Drink this," she instructed supporting the back of his neck. More tears fled as she watched his choke down the contents with effort and gave a ragged cough before slipping back into unconsciousness.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Piper asked as Prue started to fiddle with the vials pulling the cork from the purple one and dumping it's contents into a large cooper pot.
"Honestly? No but what choice do I have?" Right now anything was better than watching Andy die at the hand of some hapless poisoned arrow. Prue reached for a satchel of something similar to bay leaves and threw three sprigs into the mixture followed by a vial of which Piper had never seen. "What's that?"
"Holy Water"
"Holy water?" Piper's head snapped back, "since when did we become religious?"
"Andy has always been catholic" Prue returned, " I didn't think it would hurt" Prue then added the remaining vials and lit the contents of the pot with a match before revealing a small scrap of paper.
Clinging to one another the three sisters started to recite the spell, Eternal sleep come to me, so that I may suspend my impending destiny. Protect, the body, soul and mind, until I may return to life another time"
Gold firefly's appeared at the foot of the bed and started to swarm around Andy's feet, wrapping the Tracer carefully in protective white strips until he was completely mummified from head to toe. A gold emblematic beetle was embossed in the center of Andy's chest. A rectangular coffin with gold trim and then encased the body for safe keeping.
"Well done" The sound of wind and clapping hands startled the sisters prompting them to whirl around. A man with slicked back hair, dressed in black was standing behind them.
"Who are you?" Piper demanded, placing her hand in ready position.
"His name is Jeric. He's an Egyptian demon and I summoned him. He's part of the spell to save Andy" Prue said softly using her own hands to slowly lower Pipers.
" A demon Prue what the hell are you thinking?" Piper blasted in her normal fashion.
"I'm thinking I needed to find a way to keep Andy from being vanquished and this is it" By preserving Andy in a mummified state, Prue would be able to buy time; enough time to figure out the riddle the angel had presented as well as a magical fix to the relic arrow.
Pushing past the sisters, Jeric walked over to the bed, admiring Prue's handiwork. "Very nice…very nice indeed." He placed his hands on the glass coffin and ran his fingers over the trim. "This should keep the body and mind well preserved until you are ready to release his soul"
"Then we have a deal?" Prue questioned carefully.
"Only if you fulfill your part of the part the bargain," Jeric pulled his attention away from the coffin and crossed his arms over his chest. "I will keep your husband preserved for as long as you wish so long as you help me free my wife"
"Free his wife? Prue what in the hell is he talking about?" Piper frowned darkly.
"Consider it done" Prue returned earning scornful looks from both of her sisters. Unbeknowest to Piper and Paige, Prue had made a deal with Jeric to free his imprisoned wife Isis from a vengeful demon who had sealed her in a forbidden tomb.
"Very well" Jeric touched the side of the coffin dematerializing himself and the casket into a pile of sand. A strong wind blew the shutters to the window wide open scooping up the sand and spreading it upon the cool evening breeze.