Title: Head For The Barricade

Author: Juanita Dark

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: Charmed S6, Valhalley of the Dolls Parts 1 & 2

Summary: The kid was cocky.

Disclaimer: Not mine, property of Burge, Kern and Spelling.

Author's Notes: I haven't seen the eps in question yet, just read the spoilers - so excuse me if there are any errors. I also think that Leo's transition to Elder wasn't as simple as a promotion but that it changed him meta-physically. But that's just my theory :)

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Head For The Barricade

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The kid was cocky. There was none of the humility or benevolence he'd come to expect from whitelighters.

During his 'incarceration' (was that the right word? Closing his eyes for a moment Leo decided it was) in Valhalla, he'd had plenty of time to wonder about the future from which Chris claimed to have come, but later his efforts to acquire details met with difficulty or silence and on one occasion a 'what do you care?' before Chris - seemingly recalling Leo's last recourse to his fists - reconsidered his choice of wording.

He sighed.

"It was a world ruled by Titans, seeing as they nearly killed you all," (here Chris waved his hand vaguely in Leo's direction, as if to indicate Leo's promotion to Elderhood) "and your magical friends, then you could only imagine what it was like for me."

Then, as an afterthought, he added: "Or anyone like me."

The last comment made Leo think of Wyatt and he looked away from Chris for a moment.

Yes, he could only imagine - and perhaps that was what Chris wanted him to do, imagine details that weren't really there.

"Must have been hard," Leo commented, flickering anger and for once missing the ambient mental chatter of his charges. Hearing their pain, or even frustration, at least necessitated he maintain a centredness, a calm - and limited introspection; not like now, when he felt like a walking wound and could do very little about it.

Of all the heady responsibilities of his new role he found control of his own emotions the most unexpected. He was either impossibly remote or floundering in the bizarre aggression he'd acquired in Valhalla. Regrettably there were few surviving Elders - none with the ability or the time to help him grapple with what could have been the end of a natural evolution or - worse - the beginning of an all-too-human bitterness. Either way, his life as whitelighter had come to an abrupt end when he hadn't wanted it to. When he had thought about it from his cage, staring at the impassive faces of the Valkyrior, it had struck him as ironic that he could now more closely empathise with Piper's dismay at becoming a witch when he was no longer with her or part of her life. The women hadn't listened to his insistence that he didn't belong and the realisation that he'd have to cut his way through warrior after warrior in order to escape had gone from terrifying to immensely satisfying. He'd considered each man down a defence of his son and family. Nothing less.

Again he bristled with an undefined anger.

Returning his glance to Chris, Leo realised that they'd both lapsed into a palpably uncomfortable silence.

The younger man nodded his head towards the Elder as if coming to a personal conclusion.

"You don't like me much, do you?"

Not wanting to admit that this was merely skimming the surface of his feelings, Leo kept his answer short, and went no further:

"No."

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