"You what? Give it up? Because Prue died? You aren't responsible for any of the pain we are in. It wasn't your fault. You couldn't know the Source wasn't going to keep his promise. It was something none of us expected." Phoebe stood, her arms flailing to emphasize her point. She couldn't believe Leo would just give up. 'He had before, remember?' a little voice in Phoebe reminded her. He'd relinquished his status as their whitelighter to Natalie, a 'by-the-book' whitelighter. She'd later been killed by a warlock, and Leo had become their whitelighter again. No one thought of that as a sign Leo wanted to quit. It was just a little weakness during a time when he was a major target on earth. 'Maybe it was a sign' that little voice reasoned.
"What? The Source broke a deal? What are you guys talking about?" Piper lifted her head, her eyes still watery. She had collapsed, crying, and Leo had comforted her. Now, she sat up, and turned to look at Phoebe, who looked away. She wasn't supposed to say anything about the deal. They, Leo and herself, had decided Piper - and at the time, Prue - didn't need to know about the deal. When they'd seen the destruction from Shax, it had been a silent agreement to never say a word about it, not even years after the attack.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter now." Leo glared at Phoebe as he spoke and wrapped his arms around Piper's shoulders.
"But it might make you clip your wings. That makes it important." Piper whispered. Her words had barely been audible; only Leo had heard her speak.
"Okay, I guess you deserve an explaination." Leo paused to think before continuing, "Before you and Prue were thrown, do you remember what you did?" Piper nodded. "Well, Phoebe was there. The first time you vanquished him. Phoebe was up there, said the spell and made him disappear. Then, you and Prue took off to vanquish him. You did, but it was on live TV. The whole world knew you were witches. There were people crowded around outside the house. One crazy person shot some bullet or something and killed you. Not instantly, but after you were taken to the hospital. The Source knew this and made a deal. You see, Phoebe had gone into the Underworld to save Cole. We found out what had happened through him. He let me come up and see you were dead. He had a deal for us. Phoebe stays down there, he resets time to before Shax attacked and he would tell you guys, so you'd be prepared. We agreed, to bring you and Prue back. Prue was almost killed; an FBI agent shot at her and almost hit her. Time was reset before that. So, you battle Shax again, only Phoebe wasn't upstairs. So, you guys didn't know the spell, and Prue died. And it's all because the Source broke his part of the deal." Leo's tone was grave, and Phoebe had started to cry again.
Paige looked taken back by all this talk about "the Source" and "vanquishing" and "demons". She looked timid and asked, "Is this what we do as witches?" |
