A Look Back at His Troubled Future (Done!)

[mcharmed21]

Author: Celtic Child

By Morgana Pryce

I took some liberties with this story, as all writers do. Some of the things in this story do not match up perfectly with the television show Charmed such as the events surrounding Wyatt’s birth. As well I am not entirely accurate when depicting the calling of the quarters or the proper way to cast a circle or perform a spell. As well I do not own any part of Charmed (though wouldn’t it be great if I did?) and all of the characters are fictional and any resemblance they bare to living people (though I doubt they will) is purely coincidental.

In chapters five and six I used excerpts from the song How Soon is Now? By the Smiths, but covered, as we all know and love it by Love Spit Love.

And one last thing before you read on. I give this a PG/PG13 rating because of some violence and sexual content. I tried to deal with the abuse Chris may have suffered as delicately as I could but I just want to warn anyone in case they may be offended (basically I’m covering my butt in legal speak).
I hope you enjoy.

Prologue

She slept. And in her sleep she reached out for the one that was not there, her body aching with a heavy longing, a thirst gone too long unquenched. Her fingers closed on nothing and she was about to turn away when her mind touched his and she felt his grief and his guilt. It stung her, numbing pin pricks of fear and pain and she wanted to heal him. Instead she heard:


‘You and your love must join together at this point in your lives and face the darkness.’<br>

Far away the one, who knew neither of her nor of his destiny, struggled in his sleep, alone in his bed but not his mind. His memories ate at him, filling his head with nightmarish pictures and angry words,

‘Go on, cry for your Mother. Cry. But then get up. I won’t kill you on your knees, I owe you that much.’
‘But you can’t you’re . . . you’re--’
‘I said get UP!’

Then as if by magick it all stopped, his conscience was eased and his innocence restored. With this one generous act she had cemented their bond and he called out his love for her in both their minds. And across the distance they embraced.

Chris sat bolt upright in bed startled, confused and wiping sweat from his chest.

What happened? Why do I feel so much . . . love?

Wondering if he suddenly has the power of premonition or of empathy he sits in the dark of his room as he grasps at the hazy edges of the dream. The face of a girl is just starting to come into focus when Wyatt and little Chris’s baby monitor goes off.

Not another midnight feeding.

He lets out a sigh and stumbles out of bed grabbing a shirt from the knee-deep pile by his door.

Chapter One

The early morning sun streams in rainbows through the living room window of an old Victorian house, as a young woman bustles around. It turns the hardwood floors to gold and her waist length hair to a deep burnished copper. She rolls back a faded rug to reveal a pentagram painted onto the floor and places a tall white candle at each point. Flicking her wrist she ignites them, the golden flames licking at the air like the many tongues of some ancient beast. She casts the circle, calling the quarters, the North, South, East and West to aid her. As she steps to the center she takes a deep breath, readying herself. She recites with a slight accent:


“I call to you/ Powers that Be/ Bring the One who is meant for Me/ My will be done/ So mote it be!”<br>

She throws back her head; arms raised high and a source less wind whips through the room pushing her hair into her face, her green eyes flash with the sudden surge of power. The candles flare and go out.

Banking her power like you would a fire you wanted to last she releases the quarters and closes the circle then looks around the room with desperation, eyes darting to every corner, looking for a sign, any sign that her spell had worked.

She steps from the circle with a heavy heart and begins to replace the candles and other supplies in one of the many cabinets and shelves that line the room. Suddenly she feels an intense wave of emotion roll over the room, startled, she turns her head slowly and reaches further into the cabinet for her atheme--- readying herself for anything---or so she thinks.

Standing in the middle of her pentagram is a tall bleary-eyed young man; his mid length brown hair sticking up everywhere and a few days worth of stubble obscuring his face. He stands hands on hips looking rumpled and more than just a little pissed off.

It’s Chris, who is justifiably pissed having just been interrupted from one of the increasingly less frequent naps that he had been trying to have.

Sometimes it would be easier if they didn’t trust me with Wyatt, then I wouldn’t be stuck as Mr. Nanny 24/7, especially now that I’ve been born.

His eyes pan the room taking in the high ceiling, old rugs, and leather furniture; it’s classic and not just a little like the Halliwell Manor. As he turns to the girl who is standing motionless, hand still halfway in a cabinet the clock bongs seven.

“Who the hell are you and why----no, how, the hell did you call me?” he says with a touch of arrogance.

The girl turns to him, finally removing her hand from the cabinet to reveal her atheme. She flinches at the inflection in his voice; the mixture of pain, anger and guilt that is wrapped around him like a cloak, but he doesn’t notice, he’s not looking at her face.

All he sees are the curves under her Led Zeppelin t-shirt, the mass of gorgeous red hair and the porcelain skin that seems to glow. He totally misses the flash of recognition in her eyes as he watches her movements, noting the way she handles the knife like a seasoned vet, ready to slit enemy throats in the jungle of the Viet Cong.

Yet she seems so delicate when she answers and she stammers, “I--I---I’m Mia. I cast a speell--aww--oww.”

Chris had lunged at Mia and knocked her to the floor, yelling, ‘Watch out!’ as a woman in a black robe shimmered in and hurled a knife towards them. Chris blew up the demon on the way down but missed the knife and it hit him in the abdomen.

They land on the floor with a thump and Mia quickly rolls Chris onto his back, instincts taking over. “Wake up, wake up. Stay-with-me!” He moans incoherently but opens his eyes. Mia looks at the wound for a moment, and then steadying herself, firmly grasps the hilt of the knife. He looks at her pleadingly. She closes her eyes and yanks it from his side; he lets out a whoosh of breath, the blood streaming forth freely.

[mcharmed21]

Mia set the knife aside with a shaky hand, careful not to let his blood touch her. She is holding one of Chris’s hands to the wound, pressing it down when abruptly the knife dissolves. She wishes he could control his emotions; the panic is starting to seep into her. What she wouldn’t give to not feel to just not feel anything. It would feel so good to be empty and quiet for once.

When the flow of blood won’t be staunched by ordinary means Mia dashes to a shelf and rifles through it, her hand emerging rapped tightly around a small bottle containing a brownish liquid.

She returns to kneel by Chris who is lying in a growing puddle of his blood on one of her antique rugs. She tries to distance herself from his emotions but as a droplet of his blood lands on her hand she is forced to bear witness to his life, passing by in brief flash glimpses.

Momentarily stunned she sits beside him, tears blanketing her cheeks, she is certain now that he is the one from the dream. Snapped back to the present by his moan of pain she props his head up on her lap and attempts to force the liquid down his throat. He tries to rise, pushing it away.

“I--make it a rule--not to take potions from---strange witches,” Chris mumbles weakly, his voice giving way to a sick gurgle. His thoughts swirl around in her mind and Mia tries to keep calm in this increasingly urgent situation, to keep both of their emotions at bay.

Her laugh comes out forced but feather soft, “It’s good that you still have a sense of humour but at this point you really need to drink this. It’ll help keep the poison from spreading and stop the bleeding until I can figure out what to do.” Chris looks up into those honest eyes, somehow not surprised to see his memories mirrored in their depths then cautiously drinks the potion and lies back on her lap. He just wants to go to sleep, to never wake up, to feel no more pain. But he has so much more he needs to do; the future depends on him.

Mia whispers to herself, “Gods I wish Leo was still around, he didn’t even take the time to assign me a new whitelighter. What am I gonna to do?"

Hearing her Chris says urgently, “Call for Leo . . .”<br>
“But . . . he’s---”<br>
“Just call him . . . willya? Tell him . . . Chris . . . needs him.”<br>
Not that that has ever really mattered anyway.

Standing she calls out, “Leo. Leo I know you can still hear me. I really need you down here right now,” glancing at Chris, who is still lying on the floor, sweat running in rivers off his body, plastering his hair to his head. Saying with emphasis, “Chris needs you.”<br>
Moments later Leo orbs in. One look around the room has him rushing over to Chris. “@#%$, what happened? Piper is going to kill me. She always thinks it’s my fault when you get into these situations.”<br>
Chris smiles deliriously, “Chill . . . I’ll handle Mom . . . can we get with the healing here though?”<br>
The force of that one word has Mia reeling. “Mom? Leo, you’re his . . .? How is that even . . . what about Wyatt? Leo what is going on here?” she blurts, she hadn’t seen this in his memories.

“I’m the one that should be asking him that,” he says as he Chris helps to his feet. “What are you even doing in Canada Chris? How did you manage to get attacked here? Mia has never had an incident with a demon or anything else before.”<br>
Chris looks at Leo incredulously; “Whadya mean Canada?” as he leans out the window, looks from side to side and up the street as Leo glares at him.

The hostility in the room is suffocating Mia and she sits abruptly, pointing at Chris, “You, can you tone down the angst a little bit? Just turn it down. There, that’s better. And Leo, quite feeling guilty for things you haven’t done, you have time to change them.”<br>
Leo looks down and gathers his emotions, remembering just how sensitive Mia is.

“Huh?” is all Chris says.

“Mia is a VERY powerful empath Chris, you---”<br>
Mia makes a motion like she’s turning down the volume.

“Right. Sorry. She’s a powerful empath, more powerful than your Aunt Phoebe and you have to keep your feelings in check around her, no potion is going to block them. But I really want to know why you’re here if you don’t know her.”<br>
Chris raises his hands in defense, “Don’t look at me, she’s the one doing the summoning.”<br>
“But I didn’t assign you to her. I hadn’t assigned anyone to . . . her . . .” his eyes narrow in Mia’s direction.

“Finally I’m not the one being blamed.” Chris says as he sinks into the couch and puts his hands behind his head.

With all eyes on her again Mia clasps her hands in her lap and looks down embarrassed, “I cast a spell. I need to find the person I’m meant to be with, it has to do with a prophecy I was told.”<br>
Chris jumps up, “Person you’re meant to be with? You mean to tell me I’m your soul mate?” a panicked look coming over his face. “Don’t I get any say in this?” Looking from Mia to Leo. “Leo?”<br>
Mia winces and puts a hand to her head.

Chris looks at her through lowered lashes, “Sorry.”<br>
Standing she puts a hand on his shoulder, “It’s okay you have nothing to apologize for, yet.”<br>

[mcharmed21]

Leo ignores this exchange he really has other things to do, “Can you remember what it said specifically?”<br>
Mia sits on the edge of a wingback chair, wringing her hands, “Well . . .” she takes a deep breath not daring to look at Chris, “You and your love must join together at this point in your lives and face the darkness.”<br>
Leo scratches his chin thoughtfully. Chris can only stare.

“I kind of just assumed that darkness meant demons or something else evil. I don’t have much experience with that sort of thing though so I could be wrong.”<br>
Leo, quick to comfort everyone but his son, “Well it sounds like the most likely interpretation. I’ll do some checking around though, see if I can find out what particular darkness you two will be facing.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll go check my BoS, there may be a spell that will show us what it is.”<br>
When they are alone Chris sputters in disbelief, “But Leo, I have other . . . things I have to take care of . . . and I’m not even from the same time . . . this . . . I . . . what about . . .” his voice cracks and he hesitates to say Bianca’s name, the loss still freshly imprinted on his memory. And he’s a bit unnerved by the way Mia can see right through the walls he’s worked so hard to build over the years.

Leo looks at Chris with sympathy starts to reach out to him then stops and looks away, “Well usually these things are meant to happen in more natural circumstances but if it’s meant to be it’s meant to be Chris.” He eyes Leo moodily.

“Well unfortunately I have to get back . . . I’ll stop by the Manor before I go though . . . take care Chris.” He looks one last time at his son, sadness enveloping his eyes and orbs out.

Chris watches him go feeling utterly alone, his emotions stirred up in an impenetrable cloud. All of the sudden he hears a shriek from the hallway.

He finds Mia in a heap on the floor, “What happened? Are you okay?”<br>
She pulls herself up against the wall wiping tears from her face again, “Gods, you really are an emotional train wreck aren’t you hon?”

Chris doesn’t know how to respond to this and Mia just pats the floor, “C’mere.”<br>
He sits on the floor and she says, “Is it hard to keep something like that inside you?”<br>
“You mean . . .”

“I know, yeah.”<br>
“I deal, sometimes. Mostly I just try to block it out.” He displays a shy smile, “It doesn’t really work.”<br>
“I can take it away for awhile Chris.”<br>
“Take what?”<br>
“Your pain, your grief, your anger. I can give you your innocence back. No one deserves to have it taken in that way.”<br>
“Y--you know that too?” but even as he says it he remembers the dream and the feeling that she could read his very soul like the back of a cereal box.

She smiles, a smile of someone who has lived centuries, not less than a quarter of one, “I can help if you let me.”<br>
“I can’t make you endure that, you shouldn’t have to take on other people’s hurts,” he wants more than anything to say ‘Yes! Take it’ but he fears he’ll lose sight of his goal if he does so he takes her hand instead.

“I don’t. I haven’t. You would be the first, the only, Chris. Let me do this for you, only for a little while, to give you a rest.” She looks into his eyes.

He gratefully caves, “Okay.”<br>
Taking his other hand she chants:


“Remove his grief, his anger, his pain/ Let only happiness and calm remain/ Give it to me to hold, to keep/ For less than a fortnight and more than a sleep/ My will be done/ So mote it be!”<br>


The feeling was amazing, all of the negative emotions seeped from him, drained out of every last cell in his body. He had never felt so, so unburdened, so clean. He felt . . . love, true, unblemished love. Chris embraced her, this time in the flesh, could feel her heart beat in time with his and murmured his love for her into her hair.

She concentrated on his body, the earthy smell of soap and sweat; she placed his pain in a safe place away from either of them, wrapped it up and locked it away. And gave in to him.

Chapter Two

A short while later as Mia and Chris sit in her kitchen, a little rumpled and a touch sweaty, a comfortable silence blankets them. Demons watch. Mia moves to get more cookies from a tin on the counter and they strike like the Blitz Krieg, the sound of shattering glass and pottery electrify the air.

Mia is knocked to the floor from behind and hits her head on the counter. One of the demons moved to her and something in Chris snapped, his pain came flying out of Mia, broken from its bonds it filled Chris, invigorating him. His eyes blacken and he raged, incinerating demon after demon in a desperate attempt to reach her but they just keep coming. Soon he is overpowered.

Fully letting go he screams, clearing a path for all the pain and anger that had gnawed at his conscience for so long to bubble up. Wailing unlike anything she had ever heard before high pitched and demented, an utterly inhuman sound. He tries to shake off his captors, “NO! You will not take HER from me too! NO!”<br>
Mia raises her head in time to see Chris thrashing within the grasp of four demons, trying desperately to reach her. His love and fury engulf her and she blacks out, her head hitting the floor before a robed woman plunges a knife into Chris’s chest and flames out with him.

Some time later Mia jolts back to consciousness and screams, “Leo, Leo!” blood running into her eyes.

Leo orbs in once again and reaches Mia, gathering her in his arms, “There were so many . . . he didn’t stand a chance . . . I didn’t see him go,” she sobs.

[mcharmed21]

He pats her hair and speaks, to reassure himself as well as her, “Don’t worry he’s fine, I’d feel it if he wasn’t” a lie, he doesn’t have that kind of connection with his son but Mia is too shaken up to notice. Then, “We’ll find him I know it. But I think you have a concussion. I’m going to take you back to the Manor; we’ll need the extra help to find Chris anyway.” With that he orbs them both to Sans Francisco in search of the Charmed Ones.


Leo appears in the hallway holding Mia in his arms, “Piper, Phoebe, Paige? Anyone home?” Piper comes out of Wyatt and little Chris’s room carrying a laundry basket.

“Leo, what are you . . . who’s that? Is she okay?” as she puts a hand to Mia’s forehead.

“We have a bit of an emergency hon, Chris has been kidnapped by some unknown demon. And this is Mia; she was one of my charges. She was hurt in the attack and I thought it would be safer for her here while we figure out if they are after her too. I can fill you in later but right now I need to heal her and you need to find your sisters so we can get Chris back. I’ll meet you in the attic,” and with that Leo is gone.

Piper stands in the hallway for a beat and then grabbing Wyatt and little Chris from their room hurries downstairs yelling for Phoebe and Paige.

She finds them in the kitchen debating whether there is a reason that women actually need men.

“Sex,” says Paige as she takes a deep pleasurable sip of her mochacino.

“Sex?”<br>
“Yeah, that’s the only thing we need men for, and really we could just conjure one up if we were that desperate.”<br>
Phoebe cocks an eyebrow; “I see your logic on that one but remember the whole no magick for personal gain rule? Oh hi Piper.” Suddenly looking concerned, “Honey, what’s wrong?”<br>
“Chris has been kidnapped, Leo just told me.”<br>
“Big or little?”<br>
“Big. Chris was with some girl, his charge I think, and she got hurt too. Leo wants us to meet him in the attic.”<br>
“Well what are we waiting for,” Paige grabs both of her sisters by the arm and orbs them to the attic. Piper places the boys in the playpen. Mia is sitting cross-legged on the floor, meditating and Leo is flipping through the BoS, looking for the robed woman that Mia had seen during the first attack.

Phoebe, “Got anything yet? Wait, who’s she?”<br>
“Family,” says Leo absently.

Piper, “What? I thought she was your charge? Don’t tell me we have another long lost relative,” she looks accusingly at Leo, “Fess up.”<br>
Mia opened her eyes and stared into each of the sister’s in turn, finding common ground with Phoebe because of their empathy and Piper because of her love of Chris, Paige however was closed to her, “Chris and I are meant for each other. Soul mates if you like the term. It is not a choice that either of us was free to make, it just is.” The sisters continue to stare so she shrugs.

Leo steps in, “It’s true she was told of a prophecy, which I’ve verified. She was getting a little anxious,” he eyes her with a smirk. “So she cast a spell to bring her love to her, it just happened to be Chris. Demon attacks ensued, I believe they were after Chris and sensed that he was more vulnerable with Mia, since she has no background in fighting demons.”<br>
“So you’re trying to tell us that a bunch of demons have been stalking your son and have now kidnapped him?” says Phoebe.

[mcharmed21]

“Yeah.”<br>
“And you’re concerned and want to get him back?” Paige chimes in.

Leo gapes at her with a puzzled look on his face, “Well of course, he’s my son . . .”<br>
Phoebe clasps her hand together, “Oh this is wonderful!”<br>
Leo is shocked, “How can you say that? Chris is gone--”<br>
“No. Not that, the fact that you care about his wellbeing. When did that happen?” Paige studies him closely like the answer will be clear if she can just find where it’s printed on his body.

“Have you been doing some bonding that we don’t know about?”<br>
Before he can answer Phoebe continues, “Never mind. Any idea of why he was taken?”<br>
“I don’t have anything as of yet.”<br>
“Maybe they know he’s your son and they want to like hold him for ransom,” quips Paige.

Piper who has kept silent through this whole discussion speaks quietly now but her words bear down upon those in the room like a freight train. “I don’t care why they have him I just want my baby boy back. Now.”<br>
Phoebe and Paige reach for Piper to comfort her, “Of course we’ll find him sweetheart.”

Leo tentatively takes his wife’s hand Piper wipes at her damp eyes with the back of the other and hugs her family, taking strength from them.

Mia stands off to the side feeling a bit like a voyeur, uncomfortable with witnessing this intimate moment, yet feeling too swept up in Piper’s sorrow to do anything but stare. Fortifying the walls that she had built, for the same yet different reasons than Chris, she speaks words that she hopes will carry some kind of comfort, “You must be very proud of you son Piper, leaving behind everything familiar and safe because of the chance that he may be able to save his brother. He is an injured soul but he will heal.”<br>
The Charmed Ones digest this, no one had ever really thought of it that way before. They only think of his secrets and how he distances himself from the family, from love.

Piper sighs; her family always seems to be hurting. “What can have happened to him in the future that damaged him so badly?” she wonders. “What made it worth it to give up everything he knows?”<br>Mia shifts her gaze to the floor, she knows the answer but only Chris has the right to speak it.

While the Charmed Ones, Leo and Mia concern themselves with finding Chris, he lies in a dark room, deep underground, his only concern: making the pain stop.

His tormentor, an achingly beautiful blonde wreathed in a simple, form fitting red robe. Blood red. She stands over him as he writhes on the table his bare chest marred by the scar from the knife wound. He had managed to partly heal it only to have her use telekinesis to inflict worse pain on his mind. She lets him rest for a moment and he whimpers the world coming to him in fragmented purples and blacks. His powers are useless because of the potion she poured into him and all he can do is try to stay conscious.

Survive.

Off in the corner one of her followers’ laughs, “I thought he was supposed to be all powerful. How exactly is he going to be any help?”<br>
The robed woman smiles malevolently, never turning from Chris and the follower screams as she is engulfed in flames. Calista sighs, “Ahh, yes, now I remember why I used to cut out the tongues of all my followers.”<br>
She strokes Chris’s cheek as he takes a shuddering breath in. “The rest of you will bare witness to one of the most awesome powers on this Earth after the Charmed Ones. And while there are three of them and they stand united he is alone and therefore more vulnerable. He had to be weakened in order to be captured, but you’ll see his power soon.”

“All hail Calista, Queen of the Underworld!” the chant starts somewhere in the back and rides in waves towards Calista and Chris, reaching a fever pitch.

“Soon enough. Yes.” And she laughs a deep hollow laugh that makes Chris’s blood run cold.

Ignorant of the pain Chris is in the group continues to search for any clues as to his whereabouts.

Phoebe breaks the silence first, “So what have you guys got so far?”<br>
“Not much unfortunately, I didn’t see the demon who took him, they had hoods . . . and I was kind of unconscious for most of it.”<br>

[mcharmed21]

Immediately suspicious, Paige, “Are you sure?”<br>
Mia winces “Don’t look at me like that I’m not the bad guy here.”<br>
Paige, “Well don’t mind us if we think it’s a little odd that the last person to be seen with our nephew was conveniently unconscious when he was kidnapped. For all we know you’re in on it,” she looks at Phoebe for support.

“At this point in I don’t think we need to question Mia, Leo vouched for her and she’s an empath, it’s not like she can do too much damage with a power like that.”<br>
Mia nods in agreement but deep inside she knows the truth.

“It could just be something we’ve never encountered, it’s happened before,” Piper adds.

“I’m going to go check Up There. Paige why don’t you take Phoebe and go canvass the Underworld, see if anyone knows anything about a new force of evil, or an old one that has been more active than usual,” Leo nods at his wife.

Taking the cue Piper says, “Mia and I will stay here and keep trying to call him.”<br>
Optimistic, the group breaks, everyone going off in their separate directions.

Chapter Three

Calista leaves a now unconscious Chris with two guards so she can put the other facets of her plan into action. The two beautiful black robed women watch Chris, whispering softly.

He opens one eye slowly, his head a pounding mess. Still he’s had worse. Much worse. Seeing the two guards he falls back on a familiar tactic that he had used to much success in the past. He slowed down his breathing until it seemed to stop.

Noticing this and knowing their mistress wouldn’t be so kind as to simply kill them if he died the two guards come closer to investigate.

Just a little closer.

They come within reach and he strikes with the intensity of a coiled spring, lashing out with his foot he catches one in the throat, crushing her windpipe. She falls unable to scream, her face contorted in pain and rage just before she blacks out. Standing now Chris grabs the other one’s wrist like a vice and twists snapping it with a sick crunch. Enraged she rakes the nails of her good hand across his cheek and he backhands her, knocking her down. With one final kick to the back of the head she’s out cold.

He feels the years of suppressed rage bubble up inside of him again. He swallows the volcanic anger, resists killing them just because he can.

You aren’t him you don’t need to. Just go. GO!

Stepping over his guards Chris heads towards the door.

Strange, it’s unlocked.

He turns the knob anyway. So desperate to escape is he that he ignores his instincts and comes face to face with Calista. Still unable to use his powers he tries to strike her but she swats his hand away like a fly. She pushes him back into the room, the door slamming shut on its own.
Chris stumbles and she laughs, caressing his scar with mental fingers. He doesn’t notice that the guards’ unconscious bodies are gone. She pushes him into a chair, he starts to rise and she backhands him viciously, stars explode behind his eyes and he nearly blacks out.

“What exactly do you want with me?” he manages instead through clenched teeth.

“Ah young Christopher, always one of the most impatient Halliwells . . .”<br>With panicked eyes, “How do you--” and is rewarded with another backhand.

“Don’t . . . interrupt me again or it’s Piper, or should I say your Mother who will regret it.” Chris swallows visibly but keeps quiet.

“Good. I want a lot of things from you Christopher, your knowledge of the Charmed Ones, your access to Heaven, your body . . . ” at this a blank look comes over Chris’s face as if someone flipped a switch and turned off his emotions.

Don’t think. It never happened. IT NEVER HAPPENED!

“But foremost I want your powers. And I don’t simply want to strip you of them and use them for myself. No, I want you to use them for me. You think that Wyatt is the only son of a Charmed One in danger of being turned?”<br>
“I’ll never do your dirty work for you, @#%$!” He screams the switch suddenly turned on. Tears thicken in his throat as he says, “And you won’t get to my Mom, her and her sisters are stronger than me, they’ll stop you.” He readies himself for another blow but it doesn’t come. When he looks up she is pouring a potion into a small vile.

She turns, “Maybe so but you can do an awful lot of damage in the meantime. Now drink up.” She thrusts the potion at him but he moves his head.

[mcharmed21]

“I just knew you would play hard to get. Why don’t I show you a little movie instead?" With a wave of her hand a portal appears beside Chris. In it he sees Piper, Phoebe and Paige standing at the remaining portion of the Golden Gate Bridge, looking out on the vast city, razed to the ground, smoke thickening the air to the consistency of molasses. Scene after scene he sees is death and destruction.

He witnesses Bianca’s death again and then Mia’s, burned at the stake by a group of vigilantes who think all magickical beings are to blame for the ruin of their city.

Next Phoebe and Paige are crying over something that is lying on the living room floor. It closes in on Piper’s crumpled form, holding an equally still Wyatt.

Next Leo is standing in an alley, taunting a Darklighter, “I’ve nothing left. Nothing. Just kill me damn it!” He’s shot and falls to the ground.

Chris is sobbing, screaming, tears flowing freely. “No! NO! You wouldn’t. You can’t!” He jumps up only to be knocked on his ass by a left he didn’t see coming. He drops to the floor mumbling, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it. Don’t hurt my Mom, my family. Please.” He looks up at her through wet lashes and holds out his hand, Calista places the vile in it and stands close.
His hand shaking spastically Chris downs the liquid and throws the vile across the room as it shatters Calista smiles seductively. Chris sighs in resignation. “But how?”<br>
“Very easily Christopher, just because I was imprisoned for eight hundred years doesn’t mean I’ve lost my edge. I am your worst nightmare.”<br>
Doubtful.

She kneels next to Chris and unzips his pants; he looks at the floor and takes a deep breath.

Don’t think. Survive.

It’s now afternoon and things at the Manor are getting tense, Leo has been unable to find out anything from the other Elders. No one in the Underworld seems to know of this mysterious demon that kidnapped Chris, or isn’t talking if they do and with the BoS containing no entries about hooded demons they are running out of options.

“That’s it!” Phoebe throws down the scrying crystal and heaves an exasperated sigh. “He’s alive, we can all feel that but obviously someone is cloaking him from us.”<br>
“Can we try that summoning spell just one more time? I think I made an adjustment that will make is work.”<br>
“I don’t mean to be unsupportive Paige but you said that the last five--”<br>
“Six times,” Mia corrects Piper.

Standing up and rolling her shoulders Paige says, “Let’s just give it a try, okay?”<br>

Meanwhile Chris is shivering convulsively on the floor of the cell where he is curled, dressed only in his boxers.

Calista enters and Chris shrinks away shielding his bloody face. “It is time to test my hold over your powers Chris.” Again she waves a hand and the portal appears. This time it holds a woman and her fiancé, holding hands over a candlelit dinner.

Chris stares, not understanding what he’s supposed to do.

“Kill the girl.”<br>
“What?” Forgetting himself, “Are you nuts? I can’t kill an innocent,” but even as he says it his hand is rising, ready to stop her heart with his mind.

He could hear him in his head, “Do it Chris. Kill her. Join me.”<br>
She speaks again, “Do it Christopher,” and he obeys, tears racing down his face as he closes his fist.

In the portal the woman clutches her heart and falls to the floor, her fiancé bends over her and finds no pulse. He pulls her close and rocks.

Back in the dungeon Chris also rocks as Calista gazes at him with approval. “Very good Christopher,” she purrs.

[mcharmed21]

Chris pulls his knees up to his chin. “Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods,” Chris mumbles, head in hands, in shock from the horrific thing he’s done.

“I’ll leave you alone to get used to the idea of being a murderer. Trust me it will grow on you.” She kisses him sharply on the mouth her taste bitter and harsh.

The moment she’s gone Chris begins to pace the room in desperation, the full weight of what he has done pushing in on him from all sides, a giant vice tightened around his soul.


“If we’re gonna do it let’s just do it, okay?” says Piper.

“Right, join hands and I’ll say the spell. Concentrate on your best memories of Chris, really try to pull him home.” Paige takes Piper and Phoebe’s hands; Leo takes Piper’s and Mia, Phoebe’s. The circle takes a collective breath in and Paige chants:


“Forbearers in the Halliwell line, hear our call/ Bring our flesh and blood back to us/ The next generation of Halliwells depends on you now/ Our will be done/ So mote it be!”<br>

Chris felt something tugging at him, like that thing in the back of your mind that you know you forgot but just can’t remember. He looks around desolately at his prison, blinking back the tears that threaten to spill forth.

When he opens his eyes he’s home. Piper rushes to him and wraps her arms around him; Mia places a blanket over his shoulders and rubs his back, knowing already that this isn’t the end. Leo, Phoebe and Paige stand over him grinning like idiots. But when Chris looks up at them they know that everything isn’t all right.

His eyes are flat and vacant, and he’s far too pale. Shaking so hard he can hardly talk, “I-I--I‘m---s---s--sor---sorry, Mm--Mom---I-did---didn’t want to---I---I couldn’t----couldn’t stoppp---stop it.”<br>
“Shush, Chris baby, what are you talking about?” His eyes well up with tears and he struggles to catch his breath.

“I---k-k-killed an----an innocent.” It comes just above a whisper but it echoes throughout the room like a gunshot. Even though Mia knew this was coming she starts to hear it spoken aloud. Paige and Phoebe blanche but Piper doesn’t react, she just continues to stroke his hair. Leo looks at him with disgust.

“It’s okay honey, it’s okay, and we’ll figure things out. You’re home now, that’s all that matters.”<br>
Chris pushes her away and struggles to rise, using the wall for leverage, “N--no. You have to send me back. She’ll come looking for me.” His eyes dart from face to face in desperation.

“And when she does we’ll vanquish her ass, right girls” says Paige.

“Right!” is the unanimous answer from the sisters.

“But you don’t understand, I can’t---” and with that Chris is interrupted by Calista who flamed into the attic.

“Christopher, I thought I’d give you a head start. I figured you would have been more prepared by now. No matter. Chris, come here.”
The rest of the group stares as Chris walks over to Calista and she puts her arm around his bare shoulders. He looks away in disgust but doesn’t move.

Leo, “Chris what are you doing? Get back over here.”

[mcharmed21]

He starts to but Calista holds him back with, “Remember what I showed you Christopher.” And he stops.

“Now Chris, vanquish the Charmed Ones.” His face contorted from an inner battle Chris starts to raise his hands, concentrating he can stop all their hearts at once, but before he can go through with it Piper flicks her hands and knocks him on his ass.

Before anyone else can react Calista flames out with a stunned Chris.

Chapter Four

Everyone in the attic is dazed, not moving they look around as if the answers to all their questions will be printed on each other’s faces.

“What exactly just happened here?”<br>
“Your spell worked,” supplies Mia.

Piper, sounding crushed, “And my son just tried to kill us.”<br>
Leo moves to comfort Piper. He rubs her arms softly.

“It wasn’t him, you could tell it wasn’t him,” says Mia desperately.

Phoebe, “I don’t like this one bit, Wyatt and Chris are able to vanquish us from what we know from the future and now obviously there are demons that know that too.”<br>
Paige, “I actually don’t think she knew that he could. I think she was just testing him to see if he would try to kill his family. That’s why she looked so happy even though he didn’t do any damage.”<br>
Piper, “It makes sense, but now she does know it and what are we going to do if he comes back?”<br>
“Eh well we can’t exactly vanquish our nephew so we’ll have to find a way to break the spell,” says Paige.

At that moment Leo hears a jingle, “I have to go, I think they know something about how to stop Chris.” He looks into Piper’s eyes, “I promise I’ll be right back.” And he’s gone.

Once they’ve flamed into the room Calista pushes Chris to the floor, he starts to rise, struggling desperately to regain a hold of his tough guy front; he couldn’t believe she’d seen him cry.

You’re not a child anymore. Fight back.

He gets up again she kicks him in the ribs and this time he stays down.

“Sit. I have some questions for you.” He gives her his best kiss my ass smile considering the circumstances and she laughs.

“I’m afraid you don’t get a choice in this my dear.” Calista hands him a vile and says, “Drink it.” He does, then sits back staring at his hand, wondering how that happened.

“I have control of more than you powers Chris. The potion works that way, like an infection, slowly taking control of all of your actions.” He digests this new bit of information with the blank look once more in place.

“Now that you’ve taken the truth serum, answer me this: Can you actually vanquish the Charmed Ones?”<br>

[mcharmed21]

His expression is pained, “Ye---yes, yes I can.”<br>
“Can Wyatt?”<br>
“Wh-when he’s older. Yes.”<br>
She turns smiling thoughtfully to herself. “Yes this is a nice surprise. But next time there will be no hesitating, they can still stop you and I don’t know if they would kill you, their own flesh and blood.” Whirling around,
“Tell me, would they?”<br>
The answers are coming easier now, rolling off his tongue like honey, “Not with Wyatt. But with me, yes. Leo in a second, the others would hesitate but in the end they would if they had to.” And it is this knowledge that pains him the most.

“Very good.” He is alone with his thoughts once again.

Chris awakens from a half sleep, sides heaving as if he’d just run a marathon. Which was an excellent way to describe his dream. He had been running from Wyatt but everywhere he went his brother followed, not winded in the least as Chris dripped sweat and tasted the coppery tang of blood.

He had finally caught up with Chris as he rested in the burnt out shell that had been the high school. Laughing he dragged fourteen year old Chris up by the hair and said, voice dripping with sarcasm, “Ah, bro, how I love these little games you play.” Followed by a slap to the face and then they were back at Wyatt’s fortress.

Chris always woke up after that part, unwilling to confront what happened next, even in his dreams. He started to pace the cell, clearing his head of sleep and the ugly images that haunt it.

As he starred at one of the blank brick walls, willing something to happen, someone to come get him, he heard her words echo in his head “You will kill again Christopher, and this time it won’t be a stranger.”

Those words chilled him to the core. The next time he saw his family he would kill them, and this @#%$ that knew nothing about him would sentence the future to death by killing him.

The Manor was quiet in the early morning hour; everyone had fallen into an exhausted sleep around three. Leo had come back with the news of who this mystery demon was; a very powerful sorceress who was imprisoned eight hundred years earlier. Some archeologists had accidentally released her three years ago but the Elders figured she was too weak to do any damage and let her be. The Elders also said they would pardon Chris of his crime because he wasn’t in control of his powers. That is if they ever got him back alive.

When Piper came down the stairs much later with the intention of making some coffee and getting breakfast for Wyatt and little Chris she was astounded to find Mia elbow deep in bread dough, eggs frying on the stove, sausage in the oven, a heap on French toast on a plate and coffee, fresh brewed in the pot.

“Wow . . . wow,” was all she could say as she deposited both boys in high chairs and took the cup of coffee from Mia’s outstretched hand.

“I hope you don’t mind me invading your kitchen but cooking helps me to not think,” as she slides the bread pan into the oven.

“No, not at all. Invade anytime you want.” Piper helps her dish up the rest of the food and sets the table as Paige and Phoebe come down the stairs.

“Geez Piper, don’t you ever sle---” seeing Mia battering some more French toast amid stacks of eggs and sausage Paige says, “Oh, wow.”<br>
“Yeah, that seems to be going around this morning.” She hands each women a cup of coffee and sits at the table with her plate as everyone dishes up and Piper feeds the boys.

[mcharmed21]

Leo orbs in, interrupting the peaceful breakfast. Everyone looks up at him surprised and Mia swallows a lump in her throat, bad news is coming.

“We’ve tried everything, every book, every informant, every spell, and we could spend the rest of our lives trying to find a cure for Chris.”<br>
Piper, “What are you getting at Leo?”<br>
“Well . . . maybe we have to consider Chris lost, he was from the future and if we can save Wyatt he never will have had to come back, so he’ll be fine.”<br>
Phoebe glares at Leo, “He’s our nephew Leo, and we can’t just leave him, present or future him!”<br>
“No Phoebe, your nephew is in this kitchen with his family and older brother. Future Chris is a relative we hardly know because he keeps pushing us away. And umm, the Elders think it would be best if we just let the situation be.”<br>
“What? Leo he’s my son! How can they--”<br>
“We know something is after Wyatt, we can protect him now and as long a little Chris is okay, Chris will be okay in the future. He’s done what he needs to do.”<br>
“No he hasn’t,” Mia thinks to herself. “He hasn’t fulfilled his destiny. Elders, really aren’t as smart as everyone thinks they are. How can they think this is the right plan? How can Leo think this is the right plan?”<br>
Paige steps in at this point, “I think Leo is right. Maybe we should get on with out lives, concentrate on helping these two grow up to be good,” she tickles Wyatt and little Chris.

“No, no, he’s my son and I will never give up on him!”<br>
“Maybe it would be best if I stayed Up There for a bit,” and with that Leo orbs out. Followed by Paige.

“Unfortunately I really have to go to work. I’ll be home as soon as I can. Be safe Piper.”<br>
Mia reaches for Piper, “It’s okay, we’ll keep looking. He will know that he is loved.”<br>
At the same moment that Leo joins his family in the kitchen Calista and two of her minions join Chris. Fearing the end of his family is near he stands up readying himself for one last fight.

“Sit,” and his butt hit the chair before he could blink. One of the minions, a tall raven-haired beauty, smirks.

“Now, now Christopher it isn’t time to fight yet. I have some more questions for you.”<br>
“I already told you everything you could possibly want to know about the Charmed Ones,” he spits.

“Oh, but I’m interested in you as well. You are after all Pipers’ second son but I know nothing of your future. Tell me why you came back. What does the future hold for the Charmed Ones? Something major must happen for you to attempt time travel. Does one of them get vanquished?” She’s leaning down, her arms blocking Chris from getting out of the chair, even if he still had the free will to do so.

He looks down and then at the wall then finally into her eyes. Nothing but cold dead space stares back at him but he’s seen it before and he’s been damaged to the point that he doesn’t care what that deadness means to his wellbeing.

Calista conjures a chaise lounge and reclines on it elegantly, saying, “Start from the beginning Christopher and tell me everything.”<br>
He speaks barely above a whisper, as if he’s in a room filled with people and he only wants his friends to hear, “Wyatt was born during a time when the planets and stars were perfectly aligned, making him the most powerful being ever. He was also born on the spiritual Nexus that’s in our basement. That means he has the ability to become a great force of good, or of evil, but it is a choice. And he chose evil, or you could say power and with that power there was no room left for anything baring any resemblance to human emotion.

He was prophesized about, the only son of a Charmed One; he would be powerful, more powerful than anyone before or after him. A lot of people knew this, the Elders, the Underworld and witches across the globe. In reality no one should ever have let him be born but---” at this point his voice seems to fracture. “But it was Piper and Leo, and who could say ‘no’.”<br>
Calista is staring at him intently, behind her the minions try to look disinterested but are clearly enthralled. He takes a deep breath and plows on, “So he was born but the balance of power had been screwed with, especially if he became evil, but no one knew if he would. Except for a group of powerful seers called the Initiate, together the four of them had seen Wyatt’s future, had seen his evil, that’s where I come in. I wasn’t supposed to be born I wasn’t supposed to exist. However they needed someone who could stop Wyatt, someone just as powerful.”<br>

[mcharmed21]

“But if all that power corrupted him, won’t that happen to you Christopher?”<br>
“No, I was born for the sole purpose of restoring the balance of good and evil. I cannot be turned.” She sneers and he continues.

“But they knew if he were aware of a direct rival he would kill him, even if it were his little brother. So they cloaked my magick from everyone up to and including my parents and the Elders. Somehow though Wyatt still knew, he knew I could stop him and so he manipulated everyone against me, especially my Dad.”<br>
“Most people seem to think he went ‘bad’ when he was about sixteen. But the truth is he made that choice a long time ago, practically from the moment he left the womb. He was only consolidating his powers making sure that he was strong enough to defeat the Charmed Ones, he was arrogant but he didn’t let it blind him.”<br>
Chris shifts his position on the chair, clearly uncomfortable with the story he tells. “Then something unexpected happened and I mean really unexpected, even the Initiate didn’t know of it. Wyatt came into his powers; he hadn’t even had full use of them until he was sixteen. You would not believe what he, we had been capable of before and now he was more powerful. Totally sure of himself he killed my, our parents and aunts,” tears are dashing down his cheeks and over his chin now. “He killed them in cold blood and I couldn’t do anything about it. I-I had to watch him do that---knowing I was next, or so I thought”<br>
“I ran but he didn’t follow, he let me go, he let me watch as he leveled San Francisco, listen as he destroyed New York, Boston, Toronto, London. If anyone thinks Eastern Europe is devastated now from ethnic cleansings and centuries of civil war they should see what he does to it.”<br>
“So I am trying to survive in burnt out San Fran and he’s living high in his fortress busy outlawing witch craft and perfecting his sadistic plans. I was fourteen for Gods sake. Fourteen!” he cries, shaking now, lost in the memory.

Chapter Five

Chris felt like he had been talking for hours, the things he was telling this depraved demon were things he had never told anyone else before, had never planned to.

“Christopher, I want to know what happened next.” The way she said his name always made it sound dirty, like a one word come on.”<br>
“When he was ready he came for me. I was stupid to think I was actually able to hide from him. In reality he just didn’t want me yet, he liked to watch me struggle to live in a city gone crazy from fear. The stench of it came off the streets like a strong cologne and I was stuck in the middle, unable to use my powers for fear that I would be found out.”<br>
“I was panhandling downtown when I saw him walking towards me, casual like, just out for an afternoon stroll. I started to run, I cut down alleys, over fences, through backdoors but he was always right there. I had to stop eventually, I was sleep deprived, half starved and he was . . . pure power. And so he found me, sitting on a pile of rocks that used to be the high school, scared shitless of my own brother, coughing up blood and crying.”

He stops there unwilling to continue on, Calista notices that the truth potion had worn off but instead of giving him more she tries something new, “Christopher, tell me the rest of the story.”<br>
It’s as if all his free will just clicked off. Chris starts talking again feeling like a visitor in his own body. Yet in a way he welcomes the sensation because it means he can distance himself from the memories Calista’s command has conjured.

“He brought me back to his fortress, had his henchmen hold me as he killed a group of innocents, people we had gone to school with, just to show me he could. He didn’t do it with magic either; he did it by hand, made it painful. He beat me too; he said I wasn’t worth using his powers on. Then he through me in a room in the basement and left.”

An involuntary shudder courses through him. “I don’t know if it was hours later or days but the door opened. Only it wasn’t Wyatt standing there, it was three women.” He doesn’t want to tell her this, he’s so embarrassed and he knows she will use it against him but he cannot stop. “They drugged me and . . . did . . . you know . . . to me . . . and gods, I was just fourteen. Wyatt would come down sometimes to see me and I would be half naked, half conscious and he would look at me and say, ‘Now would you rather I had killed you?’ He especially liked it when I said ‘yes’.”<br>
“I escaped a few times, by the fourth though I realized it was all a game to him and his dominatrix disciples.” Tears had been running down his cheeks for a while and he had yet to notice. They traced paths through the blood and grit; he looked about fourteen at that point.

“And it took you eight years to get to the future?” Calista mocks him, incredulous laughter in her dead eyes.

Chris looks at her strangely and she replies, “I said that I know everything about you and your actions since you reached the future. I know your age too.”<br>
Pride overriding sense he snaps, “It only took me a year and a half.”<br>“Explain,”

Realizing too late his mistake, he’s compelled to answer. “I was sixteen when I got here, I’m eighteen now. I lied about my age so even if someone found out why I was here they wouldn’t know the exact time line.”

“Then things got even more messed up because somehow my soul mate lives in this time. So I don’t know if I’m supposed to take her back with me or stay here. I actually don’t know if I can get back.”<br>
The past twenty-four hour’s events have taken a toll on Chris and he puts his head in his hands and sighs. His memories have been scraped raw and sting his mind, like air on a cut. His soul lay bare; his secrets exposed, he thinks of his family, his new love and wonders what will become of them.

Chris looks at her and she is smiling wickedly. He holds his head higher and suddenly he no longer looks like a lost, hurt little boy but the magickal royalty he is.

[mcharmed21]

“You can’t do anything to me that hasn’t been done. I’ve been shattered and I’m still here. So do something. Get it over with. But know this, my family will take you down.”<br>
Calista throws him up against the wall with a force that made his bones rattle, “Oh Chris I’m going to do you a favour, and destroy your life at the same time. Do you think your family will forgive you for what I’m about to do?” She exits and Chris drops to the floor, the room shifting into darkness.

Later Chris awakens to silence. He opens his eyes to make sure no one is there then curls tightly into a ball. Shaking, sobbing and praying to the Gods to do something he falls asleep.

All seems quiet at the Manor, and in fact it is. Leo was still Up There; Paige had come home but was in her room, staying out of everyone’s way. Piper and Mia were taking a break from searching for antidotes and Phoebe was trying to get up the nerve to talk to Paige about her stance on finding Chris.

She couldn’t stand to see her family torn apart this way and she really didn’t know which was the best option or if there even was a best option but she knew that they had to stick together. United we stand, divided we fall. How true we’ve always known that to be.

Calista has been informed by one of her minions that the Charmed Ones and their supporters had given up the search for Chris.

“See to it that you watch them, make sure it isn’t just a ploy to distract me.” The minion nods and disappears.

Calista saunters to a door at the other side of her chamber. She chants in Latin and it opens revealing Chris, his arms tied to her bed. His eyes have the glassy tint of a drug addict’s and every once and awhile a shudder runs through him with the intensity of a small earthquake. His body is a literal battlefield of cuts and burns; they run down his chest, over his torso and disappear under his boxers.

She walks to the bed and straddles Chris picking up a candle as she does so. Dripping wax on one of his restrained wrists she whispers seductively, “Christopher, time to play.” At this his eyes refocus and he tries to form words, to say a spell, to make it stop.

I’ve survived this before. I will survive this. I have to.

Jade speaks tentatively to Calista, “But Mistress, you know that others have tried and failed to get near the child. He is protected.”<br>
“He has yet to have the right offer.”<br>
“Right offer, Mistress?”<br>
“He wants power and followers. I will offer him both."

“Very good, Mistress.” Calista departs.

Mia sits in the attic mediating, searching the minds of the world for answers about Chris.

Love.

“Huh?” startled Mia answers out loud.

Love breaks all bonds and forges new ones. It is the answer you seek.

“Thanks.”<br>
Anytime.

Filled with new resolve Mia remembers the spell she originally used to call Chris. Altering it to take her to him instead she chants:


“I call to you/ Powers that Be/ Bring Me to the One who is meant for Me/ My will be done/ So mote it be!”<br>

[mcharmed21]

A force tugs at her, followed by a flash of blue light and Mia finds herself in a darkened chamber, the only light coming from a smattering of candles near an ocean of a bed. The pain flattens her almost immediately; it’s so thick she could drink it like a milk shake, given a wide enough straw. She knows it’s him.

Quietly she approaches the bed lest any noise alert guards, or Calista herself. “Chris . . .”<br>
“Mia?” Chris doesn’t quite believe it’s her but then he feels her mind. He starts to speak again but she stops him.

“I’m here to help, shush baby.” She lays a finger to his lips as she unties him.

“No, there’s a silent alarm---they’ll come--I’ll hurt you. Leave.” Panic presses in on him now, brushing past the fear and pain.

“No. I have an escape plan and it includes both of us, you won’t hurt me Chris. I trust you. I love you,” praying to the gods that this works Mia helps Chris up, careful to mind the worst of his injuries.

“But I----”

“I love you.”<br>
"Mia, no . . . I"

"I said I love you, Chris Halliwell."

Suddenly something feels different. There are no longer two people in Chris’s head, just him and he’s calling the shots.

“How---”<br>
“I’ll tell you later now we have to go.” Too late, demons burst through the doors at either side of the room. A feeble attempt by Chris to throw them up against the walls only serves to blow out the candles, plunging the room into darkness.

It’s over. NO!

Mia doesn’t want to do it but it’s the only way, she knows it. The room seems to move in slow motion, gathering her power, channeling it, readying herself she says, “Get behind me Chris.”<br>
“What--“<br>
“Now!”<br>
Shielding him with her body she turns to the quickly advancing demons. She raises her arms and wind fills the room, the demons press on. She begins to shake, the power filling her, starting to overflow. “Not yet, not yet.” She holds it as long as she can. Then she feels a pair of hands around her waist, lending their strength. It’s enough.

“Now!” She spreads her arms, Chris still supporting her and a wave flows outwards in a semi circle of blinding red light, destroying everything in its path in a heartbeat. The demons explode and the walls beyond them, dust and debris fill the air. The acrid scent of burning flesh fills Chris’s nostrils and it’s not his.

Time speeds up again and screams fill her head. She doesn’t know it’s her until Chris grabs her and turns her around, pulling her against him with his good arm.

“It’s so bright, where did all the light come from?” Mia doesn’t notice that the light is coming from them.

“Shush.”<br>
Face the darkness. You are the light.

Piper works in the kitchen while Wyatt plays in the observatory, little Chris is napping quietly upstairs. Everything seems House and Home perfect but the occupants of the Manor have been split into warring factions.

Only Phoebe remains impartial, unwilling to take sides and possibly start a war within the family, thanks to her the family is at least still speaking to one another.

Unbeknownst to Piper, Calista flames into the observatory causing Wyatt to put up his protective shield. She walks closer and peers at what will one day be an unstoppable force of power; unhindered by conscience or emotion.

“I have an offer for you Wyatt. I’ve heard of the prophecies and I know that you are a great force of power. Well so am I and I want to be the first to offer you my allegiance and that of my followers.” Wyatt has lowered his shield and is staring at her with more intensity than any two year old should.

“Come and I will show you the first of your kingdoms.” Wyatt orbs into her arms, for while adult Wyatt may not have been blinded by his arrogance, the child was.

Calista raises a vial of potion to Wyatt’s lips and Piper calls out, “Who wants a cookie?” as she walks into the room.

Wyatt opens his mouth and Calista dumps in the potion at the same instant as Chris and Mia orb in.

[mcharmed21]

“NO! Stop!” Chris blows up Calista but it’s to late. He catches the falling Wyatt as Piper rushes to them and snatches his limp form from Chris, failing to notice that he’s clad only in boxers.

“Leo! LEO!” Piper wails a she clutches Wyatt to her breast but she knows it’s too late.

Leo orbs in and Phoebe and Paige arrive home from shopping, quickly gathering around Piper and their nephew as Chris sways on his feet. Sobbing. He collapses and Mia half drags him to the couch. Piper rocks her lifeless son, refusing to look at the other.

Leo whips around to Chris, face contorted with anger and grief, “This---this is your fault.” He walks towards Chris who shrinks into the couch.

“No, I---I tried to stop her. Dad. DAD!” but Leo’s face is hardened with a steely resolve.

Leo moves to strike Chris but instead he says, “You and your plans, your stupid plans, I bet you were a screw up in the future too. Always coming in second. You were jealous.”

You have no right to be angry with him.

Chris wills himself to be silent. And yet he can’t help it, the words just rush out on their own, “You shut your mouth! How can you say I go about things the wrong way? I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does. Just like Wyatt!”

At his name Piper looks at Chris with such a hurt look on her face that he can’t hold her gaze for more than a few seconds. He looks at the floor.

“Just stay away from me and my family,” Leo spits as he orbs out with Piper and a lifeless Wyatt. Piper doesn’t even seem to realize they are moving; she simply buries her head in Leo’s shoulder and shakes.

Leo’s words crush Chris like a blow to the solar plexus and his face crumples in on itself as he absorbs his father’s hatred.

“Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige?” he lifts his bruised and tear stained face to look at them pleadingly. “I tried . . . I---I’m--I’m so sorry.”<br>
Paige doesn’t quite meet his eyes as she hurries from the room, “I should go check on little Chris.”<br>
Phoebe sits in the chairs opposite the couch and puts her head in her hands.

“We should go clean your wounds Chris, and you need to rest.” Chris doesn’t speak but simply nods and follows Mia upstairs, his face no longer adorned by any emotion.

Chapter Six

It has been two weeks since Wyatt was murdered and Leo and Piper had still not returned from Heaven. Paige and Phoebe had quit blaming Chris and were coping the best they knew how, taking care of little Chris and trying to get through to his older self.

Chris, consciously or not was preventing anyone from entering his room, through the door or by orbing so Mia sat outside waiting for Chris to open up, his door and his heart.

“Any change?”<br>

[mcharmed21]

“No. Wait, do your hear that? I think he’s in the bathroom. Quick, Paige, get up here.” Paige appears in the hallway. “He had to orb out so maybe you can orb me in while he’s gone”<br>
All he could think of was the look on his parent’s faces as they left.

How could everything get this twisted?

He orbs back into the room, immediately feeling a presence shrouded in the darkness. He whirls around to see Mia sitting cross-legged on his bed.

“You wouldn’t let me in Chris so I had to find my own way,” When he just stares at her she continues on. “You couldn’t help what happened to Wyatt, it was his destiny and your parents they’ll realize that too. They’re just grieving Chris. They still love you. I love you.” Mia moves as to kiss him but he shifts away. “You have to talk to me about what you’re going through, I can feel it anyway. You have to deal with it Chris. It’s killing the both of us. Remember that.”<br>
Speaking for the first time in a fortnight, “How, how did you do what you did back there?” he seems a little afraid of her.

“I, err, it’s part of being an empath Chris. I can use it like your Aunt Phoebe.”<br>
“I’ve never seen her kill people with it.” His words have more of a bite to them then he intended.

“Well I’m more powerful in that respect Chris,” her words are icy. “Look I’ve never done it before, it was just instinctive. I wouldn’t have if it weren’t necessary. I would think you’d know that Chris.” And he did.

“Look, please just let me in.” Her eyes plead.

“I need to be alone. I have to figure some things out Mia. I have to fix things so that little me doesn’t grow up without his parents, again. I was supposed to save the future and my family, and then I have to go back. To the future.”<br>
“I can go with you---”<br>
“No. It’s not your time. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t be good enough for you anyway. I’m damaged goods Mia. I’m not for anyone anymore.” He hangs his head, hands in his pockets and assumes the stance of the tragic hero. You can almost picture him in a leather jacket, cigarette hanging precariously from the corner of his mouth, James Dean as a witch.

Before Mia has a chance to form another argument or offer anymore clichéd words of comfort she finds herself once again in the hallway. Paige and Phoebe are waiting for her.

“How . . . is he?” asks Paige tentatively.

“He . . . he’s really hurting,” she says as she recalls the words he used. Damaged goods.

“Is he locking us out again?”<br>
“No, but Phoebe, he wants to be alone. I’ll be downstairs.” Her eyes start to water and she leaves in a weak attempt to distance herself from Chris’s emotions.


Once he was alone again Chris swallowed the potion, it wasn’t very powerful, just what he could make from what was in the bathroom, but it would have to do. He needed sleep. Dreamless sleep.


Paige gives Phoebe’s arm a squeeze and heads to the attic. As she climbs out of sight Phoebe takes a deep breath and enters Chris’s room. She can sense that he’s asleep even before she sees him so she just sits on the edge of his bed and watches him. He looks so very peaceful, almost . . . angelic. She smiles at that thought.

Phoebe reaches out to stroke his hair but receives a vision instead. Chris sits in Calista’s lair, she can hear him speaking, “I thought so too but then I realized what I was really meant to do. No one knew that Wyatt would gain more power until it happened, so I was supposed to go back to the past and kill him before he does.”<br>
“You came back to kill your own brother and you still consider yourself to be a force of good? He’s only a child.”<br>
“I was going to make it look like a demon attack---”<br>
“Well you’ve been here for two years, why haven’t you done it yet?”<br>
“Time travel isn’t an exact thing and I came a few years too early. Then I had to at least wait to make sure I was born or the whole thing would be for nothing.” There’s more but Phoebe jerks her hand away, breaking the connection. She stumbles back from Chris and he jolts awake.

“Aunt Phoebe, what are you . . . why are you looking at me like that?”<br>
“You stay away from me mister, I know what you did. How could you he’s your brother?” She backs towards the open door but Chris; understanding now, flicks his wrist, shutting it.

Panic fills his eyes and he stammers, “Y--you--you don’t understand. I had to, please, please, don’t look at me that way. I can explain.”<br>
Phoebe tugs at the door but it remains closed. “Phoebe, you want to know the truth, take my hand. I’ll show you.” Tentatively she sits on the bed and takes his hand, immediately she’s transported to Chris’s past, her future. Chris shows her everything, his childhood, Wyatt’s rise to evil, the death of the Charmed Ones, his torture.

Breathless Phoebe comes back to the present and stares at Chris with knew found understanding.

“Chris, I’m so sorry.” His eyes fill with tears and he wills them back as he starts to pace, he would have thought he’d used up his share already but they just kept coming.

“My memories are the same, they will be until I go back, but I have some new ones now and it’s not any better. I have no parents,” Phoebe starts to speak but he simply continues, “not in any real sense anyway. They can never forgive what the future me does to their son.”<br>
“I have to go back to the future, but I’ll fix things here first, I can’t let little me be punished for my actions. I’ll put a memory charm on everyone. You’ll never know I was here. You’ll think Wyatt was killed by a demon and that’s it. I’ll bring Leo back, for good. I will fix this. And you can’t tell anybody else.”<br>
“Chris, you know that I’m not the best person for you to ask to keep a secret.”<br>
“Well too bad because you’re the empath of the family and anyways it’s just til I go back.” At this he shakes his head as if jostling it will help him think better, “I just have to get a few things sorted out first.”<br>“Will you tell Mia?”<br>
“She knows. She always knows, everything.” And Phoebe starts to grasp the full extent of her power.

“She broke the spell didn’t she?”<br>
“Among other things. You shouldn’t think that empathy is such a passive power either.”<br>
He looks up suddenly, “They’ll have another son, and his name will be Mathew. He will inherit the sword. He will be good.”<br>
Phoebe, still reeling from the fast-forwarded version of Chris’s life is having trouble following his rambling, “But why wouldn’t you get it?”<br>“I’m not supposed to exist, remember? I was created because no one else existed who could do what I was needed to do. I didn’t inherit any powers from the Halliwell line; nothing is passed down to me. I am the son; I am the heir of nothing in particular.”<br>

[mcharmed21]

“You have a good heart Chris.” He lends a small smile to this statement and sends Phoebe back to the hallway.

Later that day Mia is in the kitchen with Paige, feeding little Chris when big Chris walks in.

Paige is startled but if Mia is she doesn’t show it, “Do you mind if I leave you to finish this Paige?”<br>
“No, go ahead,” says Paige as she wipes at little Chris’s chin.

“Chris, I need to talk to you . . . in private.” There is urgency in Mia’s voice that Chris has never heard before.

“Uh, sure.” Mia leads the way to the parlor and shuts the sliding doors tightly leaning against them afterwards.

“Look, Mia I have to apologize, I was out of line.”<br>
“Did I ever tell you I was adopted?”<br>
Chris looks at her strangely.

“Yeah, I just appeared in the maternity ward of the hospital. As if by magick.” She smiles at this.

“You mean?”<br>
“I’m not from this time either. The more I think about it, yeah, that’s what I think.”<br>
Chapter Seven

Chris and Mia stand in the attic, cauldron bubbling and candles covering the room.

“You know I won’t be the same person once we go back. I’ll be a product of whatever way Leo and Piper raise me without Wyatt, with Matt.”<br>
“I know. I’ll be different too.” Chris hadn’t thought of that.

“It’s okay, we’ll still be meant for each other, right?’ He says a little uncertainly.

“Right. Did you do what you needed to Up There?”

“Yeah.”<br>
“Well we had better get going then.” Mia takes Chris’s hand and they step towards the circle. They start to chant:


“We call to you Powers that Be/ Send us back through time and space/ To our rightful time and place/ Our will be done/ So mote it be!”<br>

Orbs surround the duo and at that moment Paige walks in, “Whoa! What’s going on here?”<br>
At Paige’s shouting Piper and Phoebe rush in. “Chris, where are you going?”<br>
“Good-bye Mom,” with that Chris throws the last of the potions at the sisters and he and Mia disappear, along with the mess they had made.


Alone in the attic the Charmed Ones look at each other with confusion.

“What just happened here,” says Phoebe, always the first to speak up.

“Power surge?” says Paige.

Leo orbs in with a smile on his face. He walks over to his wife and plants a passionate kiss on her lips. When they come up for air her says, “You’ll never guess what happened.”<br>
“Oh?” says Piper, crimson creeping up her neck.

“I’m a Whitelighter again. The Elders realize now that my destiny is to look after my family.” He sighs, the moment blemished by the memory of his son’s death, they would carry that with them always, especially Piper. “I just wish it hadn’t had to happened the hard way.”<br>
“Me too. But oh Leo! Really?”<br>
“Yes really,” and he gives Piper another kiss.

Phoebe and Paige share in their sister’s happiness, the weird incident before forgotten.

It has been a month since Wyatt’s murder, two weeks since Chris and Mia traveled, back to the future, although no one even remembers that he or Mia were there, thanks to the potions he had made.

[mcharmed21]

Piper is in the bathroom being sick. “Uh, Leo.” Leo materializes from the bedroom where he had been playing with Chris.

Kneeling next to her he catches her heaving shoulders, “Piper, are you okay?”<br>
“I-I think I’m pregnant.” She looks up at him and they share that special smile, reserved only for each other.

Epilogue

She sees him in the bed and smiles. She knew he would be there. His bruised and battered body struggling within the sheets as his thoughts and dreams pulled him to and fro as if by strings. She slid into bed behind him as he lay on his side, wrapping her arms around his waist. He turned and buried his head in her breasts, sighing. She stroked his hair and then his stomach, his thigh, and together they wept. For even though they had new memories and came from good families and the future was safe they both remembered the lives they had lived.

And if you liked this one folks the sequel is now up and running. Here's a link if you'd like .