Trapped: Leo's Revenge 2 (Finished 6-2-05)

[kowa97]

Chapter 18

Watching from Limbo as the battle to decide their future, Chris and Melinda cheer on The Second coming. They watch as the bar goes up in flames and they start screaming for someone to help the mother and child that are trapped back there. Almost as if responding to the unheard screams, they see Leo orb behind the bar and save mother and son while Kay and Kristen put out the fire.
Not watching the rest of the scene, Chris turns to Melinda and says, “There you go. It’s done.”<br>“Oh, man, I hope so.” Just as the words leave her mouth, they see the black cloud dissipate from around Leo.
“There you go. That’s your proof. Good luck to you.”<br>“What do you mean good luck?”<br>“You have to go. They have got your future back on track.”<br>“Aren’t you coming with me? I mean, that’s why we did this, for both of us to get out of here
“I can’t. We’ve restored your time-line, a time-line I was never a part of. And we can never allow my time-line to be restored. So that leaves me stuck in Limbo forever.”<br>“There has to be a way.”<br>“There isn’t. But don’t worry; my alternate will be there, so you’ll still have me in one form.”<br>Starting to cry now, she says, “But I don’t want my brother to be an alternate version of you. This is the first time in my life that I’ve really felt like I had a brother. I don’t want to lose that.”<br>“You won’t. The torch of the Statue of Liberty, it’s your special place, right. From now on, it will be our meeting place. If you ever want to see me, you can find me there.”<br>“I love you Chris.”<br>“I love you too Mel.”<br>With that said, Melinda fades away leaving Chris behind, hanging his head, tears in his eyes too.

End of Chapter 18
Tom
Kowa97

[kowa97]

Chapter 19

Back at the Halliwell Manor, the sisters are waiting patiently for news, any kind of news. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, Leo orbs in.
Looking at his wife and sons, Leo starts walking towards them and says, “Piper, boys.”<br>“You stop right there. You are not going anywhere near these boys until I know for sure that you are back to your old self.”<br>“It’s me. The cousins three saved me.”<br>“If that’s true, where are they? You haven’t hurt them, have you?”<br>“Hurt them? Of course not. They brought your new bartender back home.”<br>“All three of them, why? It only takes one of them to bring somebody home.”<br>“They didn’t want to intrude on my home coming. They’ll be here any minute.”<br>“Well, when they get here and tell us that you are back to being yourself, we’ll talk. Until then, you stay back.”<br>“Fair enough. But Piper, you know me better than anyone. Look into my eyes and you will see it is me.”<br>“I did that a week ago and you turned out to still be evil.”<br>Leo doesn’t get the chance for a rebuttal as the Second Coming finally arrives. “So, how was the happy homecoming,” asks Kristen?
“Not so happy. Could you explain to them what happened. They don’t want to believe me.”<br>“Leo,” says Phoebe, “It’s not that we don’t want to believe you. Just put yourself in our shoes for a minute. Would you be able to just accept everything that you’re telling us at face value after everything that has happened over the past week?”<br>“He’s telling the truth,” says Kay. “But if you ask him, we saved him. In reality, he saved himself.”<br>“Yeah,” continues Karri. “During the fight, your bar caught on fire, trapping your bartender and her baby. Leo’s human nature shown through and he saved their lives. Committing a great good must have neutralized the great evil he committed.”<br>“But how do you know that did it,” asks Paige?
Answering Kristen says, “The inkblots exploded from his eyes just afterwards.”<br>“Yeah,” says Piper, “He’ll have to prove it to me.” Then looking into her husband’s eyes, she says, “I just can’t forget about what you have done.”<br> “You need some time. I understand that.”<br> Then turning back to the cousins, she asks, “How can we ever thank-you?”<br> “It was the least we could do,” says Kay. “After all, you saved us first.”<br> “Are you guys hungry,” asks Piper? “I could make you something to eat.”<br> “No,” says Kristen. “I think that we had better get back and make sure the future is back on track.”<br> “You sure,” asks Piper? “It’s really no trouble.”<br> “Yeah, but thanks anyways.”<br> Then, after hugging everyone in turn, The Charmed Ones step back and, in unison, say;

“A time for everything,
And to everything it’s place,
Return what has been moved,
Through time and space.”<br>
As the spell is finished, the Second Coming is engulfed in swirling whit lights before disappearing. Then as soon as they are gone, Piper gives Leo a distrustful look.

End of Chapter 19

[kowa97]

Chapter 20

One minute she is standing with Chris in limbo and the next, Melinda wakes up in her bed. “Wow, what a weird dream. That’ll teach me to eat so late at night.”<br>Getting out of bed, she heads downstairs. “Mom, Dad?” She doesn’t get an answer. “Wyatt, Chris, where is everybody?”<br>Then looking around the house, she notices that a lot is different. Pictures are missing. The furniture has been rearranged. Then running into the kitchen, she sees that all her mothers’ things are in the wrong spots. Panicking now, she runs into the conservatory. What she sees makes her faint.
Regaining consciences, she looks again at the makeshift memorial sitting on the coffee table. Walking over to it, she sees that it is for her whole family. Her mother, father, brothers, and aunts are all dead.
Not knowing what else to do, she runs up to the attic. Hurrying over to the stand where the book has always sat, she sees that there is nothing on it. That being the least of her worries, she runs over to the chest where they have always kept the candles. Pulling them out, she lights them one by one and places them in a circle.
Knowing the spell by heart already, she takes a step back and says;

“Hear my words, hear my cry,
Spirit from the other side,
Come to me, I summon thee,
Cross now the great divide.”<br>
A misty figure begins to form in the middle of the circle. After a moment, the form turns into Piper
“What is it sweetie?”<br> “What do you mean, what is it? You guys are dead?”<br> “Yeah, for almost a year now. What’s gotten into you? Where’s Darryl?”<br> “Darryl, what’s Darryl got to do with this?”<br> “Well he is your legal guardian.”<br> “Which brings me back to my original question. Why are you guys dead? Who did this to you?”<br> “Mel, what’s wrong with you?”<br> “Mom, just answer me please.”<br> “It was Madrek. He caught us by surprise and … Well divide and conquer.”<br> “What, how?”<br> “Melinda, what is wrong with you. You know all this stuff. You were there after all.”<br> “No I wasn’t. I have been stuck in Limbo for the past week with Chris, or at least a version of Chris. Before that, you were all here. Dad Wyatt and Chris were evil and they killed you and the Aunts, but until then, you were all here.”<br> “So, time has finally caught up to you.”<br> “What?”<br> “We assumed that you were freed from Limbo when the Second Coming saved your father from that fate by changing the future. We knew that eventually time would catch up with you and you would become part of our Melinda. We never dreamed that you wouldn’t have any of her memories though.”<br> “I think I do. The longer that I am here, the more I remember about this time-line. It’s sort of like our minds are merging or something.”<br> “If you are starting to remember, then you’re going to be fine. Just remember that I am only a summoning away.”<br> “No, that’s not good enough. I didn’t go through everything that I have just to find out that I still have to lose you. I have to find a way to talk to Chris. We have to find a way to fix this.”<br> “MELINDA PRUDENCE HALLIWELL, YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING. YOU SAW ALL THE TROUBLE THAT CAME FROM CHRIS TRYING TO CHANGE THE FUTURE AND THEN AGAIN WHEN YOU DID THE SAME. TIME IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU JUST PLAY WITH.”<br> Picking up the candle nearest her, Melinda says, “I’m sorry mom, but I am not about to lose you now.”
Then Piper disappears as Melinda blows out the candle.”

End of Chapter 20

Chapter 21

A mass of blue orbs appears in the torch of the Statue of Liberty. After a second, the orbs turn into Melinda.
“Chris, Chris, Are you here? Chris?”<br> “I’m here.”<br> Melinda spis quickly and says, “Chris, perfect. Hold on a second. I can see and hear you.”<br> “Yeah, we’re connected because of the time we spent together in Limbo.”<br> “But, … never mind. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that everyone is dead. You, Wyatt, Mom, Dad, the Aunts, everyone.”<br> “I know all about it. I saw it all happen.”<br> “You saw it happen? What happened? How did I survive?”<br> “After you were set free from Limbo, I checked out the timeline you were dropped into. When I realized what happened, I went back to watch it first hand.”<br> “What happened? I can’t remember yet.”<br> “Well, Madrek attacked. He went after dad first since he was the most vulnerable.”<br> “What do you mean he was the most vulnerable? Why didn’t he just orb out of the way. Because not long after you were born, dad clipped his wings. He felt really guilty about what happened and he wanted to be sure that he would always be there foe you.”<br> “Well, anyways,” continued Chris, “Madrek appeared, and using stealth tactics to remain quiet, he snuck up behind dad and killed him with a fireball. Then when mom came out of the kitchen with dinner, Madrek hid in a corner. He watched as she noticed dad and ran over to check on him. While her back was still turned, he hit her with one too.”<br> While watching the pained expression on Melinda’s face, Chris tried to keep from getting choked up as he said, “Aunt Phoebe was next. As she was walking into the Manor, Madrek was floating over the door. Just after she shut the door, he dropped a fireball on her head.”<br> Continuing, Chris said, “Paige was a little harder. Being in Magic School, she was protected. He had to draw her out by morphing into Phoebe. As Phoebe, she went to Chris, that timelines Chris I mean, and sent him to Magic School to get Paige to tell her how Piper and Leo had been attacked.”<br> “As Chris went to get Aunt Paige, Wyatt went downstairs to try to heal mom and dad. That’s when, still disguised as Phoebe, he got to Wyatt with a fireball.”<br> Looking at Melinda for the first time in several minutes, he says, “That’s when you come into the picture. Madrek saw you and threw a fireball at you. The thing that saved your life is the fact that you heard the commotion downstairs and decided to send your astral-projection down and he went after it.”<br> “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait just a sec. I can astral-project?”<br> “Yeah, you just got that power a couple weeks before.”<br> “Why didn’t I get these powers before the timeline switched?”<br> “Because you made different decisions.”<br> “What happened then? How did he get to Aunt Paige and Chris?”<br> “He was ready for them. He got to them before you could warn them.. They came through the door together and saw who they thought was Wyatt waiting to greet them. He told them that everything was alright. He had healed them and that they were up in the attic with Phoebe trying to figure out who the demons were and that they were waiting for her.”<br> Melinda continued to listen as Chris described what happened next. “Paige immediately ran upstairs. As she rounded the corner, Madrek, still in the form of Wyatt, grabbed Chris’s arm and, using an athame, …killed Chris by stabbing him in the neck.”<br> Seeing the tears in Melinda’s eyes, Chris finishes, “He did all that fairly quickly and shimmered before Chris even hit the ground. He reappeared behind Paige just as she was entering the attic. Taking the crystal out of his pocket, he placed it on the ground, completing the circle he had formed earlier. When Paige hit the edge, she got thrown backwards and fell flat on her back. Before she was able to recover, Madrek removed the crystal he just dropped into place and stabbed her in the chest using the same athame he used to kill Chris.”<br> “I have to save them.”<br> “You can’t.”<br> “What?”<br> “You can’t change this. Do you remember what we heard before we enlisted the Second Coming’s help? Madrek said that he had killed The Charmed Ones fifty years earlier. That is the future we helped create. It has to have happened like this.”<br> “You have got to be joking.”<br> “I don’t want this to have happened any more than you do, but this is the future that was always meant to be.”<br> “NO!!! I refuse to accept that. We used Limbo to create a future where everything turned out fine.”<br> “Right, but what is your idea of fine? Is fine what’s best for the greater good, or what’s best for you? Because if you think it is what’s best for you, you have a lot to learn. I mean, look at me. I’m staying in Limbo because it is for the greater good. I could have very easily tried to fix things for myself, but instead, I helped you create this future. In this future, Chris died, so there is no one for me to merge into, so I have to stay here, and I have accepted that. Now you need to too. It’s for the greater good.”<br> “How can all this be for the greater good?”<br> “The Charmed Ones fulfilled their destinies. They were no longer needed here. And losing them makes you and your cousins the people you become. And by relation, makes the Second Coming who they become. That’s why mom and the aunts lost their mother when they did. It made them who they were.”<br> But if I can change this…”
“If you change this, it could be a hundred times worse.”<br>“But I need them. I don’t know what to do without them.”<br> “Melinda, you have a tremendous future ahead of you. Darryl and Sheila will guide you in it. And I will be here for you as long as you need me too.”<br> “Thanks Chris. That means a lot to me. I hope you understand, but I have to be alone for a while.”<br> “Ok, I’ll be here if you need me. I love you Melinda.”<br> “I love you too.” With that said, Melinda orbs away leaving Chris to look out at the horizion, weeping.

The End