A/N: Set three years after Chris died and based on the assumption that future!Chris' soul was separated from his counterpart's.
Chris was pissed.
He'd been stuck on this damned plane for the past three years while the Powers decided what to do with him and quite frankly, he'd just about had it. Apparently dying outside your own time at the hands of a senior Elder wielding a blessed athame not to mention the whole saving your brother from ending the world thing merited special consideration. Consideration that, in Chris' opinion, took too damn long for beings who were supposed to be in charge of the whole freaking world.
He glared at Nena, the Angel of Destiny standing before him. He'd saved the world, and now he was probably going to suffer eternal damnation for it.
"So. Come to finally sentence me to eternal torture in the deepest sulfurous pits of hell?"
She just chuckled at him, "Now why would I do that?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I broke every rule there ever was doing what I did? Because the Powers That Be are stubborn bastards who never allow the means, even for a better end?"
Nena tilted her head and looked at him as one would a two year old throwing the most adorable tantrum ever, "I doubt they are bastards, Chris. Parentage has never really been an issue there. Besides, I come to reward you."
Chris' eyes narrowed suspiciously, "Reward me." He echoed, alarm bells ringing in his head.
He'd studied his family history enough to know that there might just be a worse fate than eternal damnation to the pits of hell. The Powers idea of a reward was usually everything but.
"I'm going to obviously regret this, but okay. I'll bite. What's my reward?"
"It has been decided." Nena began sagely, "You are to become an Angel of Destiny." She stared at him as if he was supposed to burst into happy song at the news.
If Chris hadn't already had enough of the Powers' particular brand of bullshit he'd have broken out into a fit of laughter because really, what were they smoking up there?
"There has to be some sort of mistake."
"Mistake?" The angel asked, expression clear but for a calm smile.
"Yes, a mistake! How high do you have to be to make me an angel of anything let alone of destiny? They should share some of that stuff they're on with us down here. Or did someone spike the ambrosia bowl again?"
Nena's eyes hardened, but her face held calm, "You are treading on dangerous ground Chris."
Chris rolled his eyes, "Oh, now I'm on dangerous ground. Demean parentage and you're fine, accuse them of drug use and it's an entirely different matter?"
Nena said nothing.
"Alright look, it has to be a mistake. You have to be on something to make someone whose entire mission at one time was to change destiny in charge of, wait for it, preserving destiny!"
Nena's eyes softened despite Chris' condescension, "You raise good points, Chris. Why would we reward someone who sacrificed their entire timeline for the Greater Good?" Her tone was out and out indulgent now, "Yes, all the Powers must be crazy."
Chris was unmoved, "The Greater Good can bite it."
A sudden wave of her hand and they stood inside Halliwell Manor's attic.
"Chris, do you know how Angels of Destiny came to be?" She asked as she walked to the Book of Shadows, closed, on its stand.
"No, but I bet I'm about to find out." Chris retorted, all the while doing his best not to look around the room.
She smiled affectionately at his tone, and placed a hand on the cover's triquetra. "Humanity's always been an interesting...experiment, certainly the most fascinating yet."
Chris frowned at that but Nena continued on without pause, "Unfortunately, free will doesn't always work out for the best." She looked up from the Book, "The first Angel of Destiny used to be human- a powerful witch gifted with the power of retrocognition."
Nena looked at him. "She did what you did. The first time-traveler. Nearly unraveled the very fabric of existence." She gave a small chuckle at that.
Chris just figured she'd had some of that ambrosia too but he let her continue, "However she did avert disaster, barely, saving the world but in so doing erased her family, her entire existence really. But even in the worst of situations inspiration strikes, and the Powers plucked her out just as time corrected itself, and hers was a new path. Our path."
He scoffed, "Let me guess, this woman was you and you've come to enlighten me, show me the merits of the job? Tell me how fulfilling it's been despite the loss of your family."
Nena outright laughed, "No, Chris. That was not my story. It was similar, though more like yours. I lived the nightmare, watched it come to pass." She shrugged as if tipping a nagging memory off her shoulders, "I did what I could, and I was rewarded."
"You call this a reward?" Chris through his arms wide, frustrated. "I get to watch my family move on without me and watch a version of me grow up and live the life I should have. Where's the reward in spending eternity with the memory of your big brother killing the woman you love? You'll excuse me if I don't jump up and raise my voice in praise."
"The beauty of it is that you get to choose to praise, Chris. You ask me if I'm here to show you the merits of your new path? I don't have to." She gestured to the Book filled with entries from his ancestors, his aunts, and his parents. "This is what you preserved. Can you sincerely tell me it isn't worth it?"
Chris didn't answer.
"The reward is the knowledge that the darkness never came to pass. But there's always more to protect."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Let's just say, your family keeps us on our toes." Nena smiled and walked to him placing a hand on his shoulder. He did his best not to flinch. She continued, "They still need you to protect them Chris; your family needs you."
Chris bowed his head and thought a moment, "Does it get easier?"
Nena's hand tightened on his shoulder, understanding his question. "No. But the pain reminds us what we protect, what we love, where we came from."
When Chris looked up his eyes were clear, but grief stricken and they would remain so for centuries to come. In the end, the love for his family would always win out.
"Fine, let's go, then."
A/N: This is probably a prequel to something, I haven't decided what yet, but it still works as a stand-alone.