Author's Note: Here we are, the fourth installment of Down the Twisted Path. As always, a million thank yous to my amazing beta, liron-aria, for all her help with this chapter.

This fic jumps around a lot between different time settings, so pay attention to the date headers on certain chapters.

May, 2026

Chris orbed into Valhalla, and then sighed at the sight that greeted him. A trio of scowling, crossbow-wielding Valkyries were blocking his path, weapons pointed straight at his heart. The leader of the trio stepped forward and gestured at him with her bow, and Chris sighed, putting his hands in the air.

"Do we really have to go through the every time?" he demanded, watching the Valkyries out of the corners of his eyes as they warily circled him. He didn't dare move with them; the one time he'd tried that, one of the younger ones had panicked and shot him in the ass. Josh still wouldn't let him live that one down.

"Search him," the leader commanded, rather than answering.

The other two stepped forward to briskly and efficiently pat him down. They quickly divested him of all the weapons he was carrying, laying them on the ground just out of his reach, and then they stepped back in line with the leader. They were silent the entire time.

Chris wracked his brain to try and remember any of their names. But, the Valkyries were an elusive bunch, even on their own island, and the majority of the demigoddesses preferred to have little to no contact with the Resistance. Leo called it sensible, Cole called it snobbishness. Chris figured it was natural caution, mixed with reservations over Josh and Prue's presence on their island. No matter that his cousins' allegiance had been to the side of good for their entire lives, some of the Valkyries just couldn't get past the fact that two of the Halliwell witches were also half demon.

'We've been here for six months,' Chris grumbled, in the privacy of his own mind. 'You'd think they could learn to live and let live.'

But, then, the Valkyries had allowed them to take sanctuary on the island despite Josh and Prue's demonic heritage, so maybe they weren't as upset about it as he'd previously thought. Maybe, despite their reservations, they realized that the two witches were powerful and valuable allies.

'Or,' a voice spoke up cheerfully, in his head, 'the Valkyries are just as affected by this Hell on Earth as we are, and they're realistic enough to realize that they have to do some damn distasteful things to survive. And for them, that means allowing a couple of demons into their sanctuary.'

'Half demons,' Chris corrected, automatically. 'Josh, I thought I told you to stay out of my head.'

'Well, it's kind of hard to mind my own business when you're broadcasting your feelings over the entire island,' his cousin drawled.

'Or,' Chris countered, 'you're just a nosy telepath with a shiny, new power.'

Then, he realized that the leader of the trio was standing in front of him, glaring impatiently, and he smiled apologetically as he focused his attention back on her.

"Sorry," he tried. "Hey, if I was really a demon imposter, don't you think Josh or one of the other psychics in the Resistance would have sounded me out, by now?"

"Open," the leader ordered, brusquely, and Chris bit back a sigh.

Obediently, he opened his mouth, and the Valkyrie held up a small vial of clear liquid, tipping a couple of drops onto his tongue. A cold sensation swept through his entire body, and he flexed his fingers to try and fight off the numbness that overtook his limbs. He glanced at the Valkyrie, who was still watching him, suspiciously.

"Tell me your name," she snapped.

"Christopher Samuel Halliwell," he answered, promptly. He didn't even bother trying to fight the truth potion; it would just make him look suspicious, and if he just let it work through his system, it would wear off faster.

"What is your mission here?" the Valkyrie pressed, insistently.

"I'm working with the Resistance to try and find a way to stop my brother, Wyatt, from taking over the world," Chris told her. "And that's what I'd like to get back to doing, if you're done with your interrogation."

"You are truthful," the Valkyrie said, flatly. She and her sisters moved aside, to let him move past them on the path. "You may go."

"Thank you," Chris said, keeping the impatience out of his voice as he gathered his weapons up and started to the huts that the Resistance was living in.

He didn't blame the Valkyries for being cautious; in their place, he had the feeling that he would have done the same thing. Had done, actually, when the Resistance had spent time running from safe house to safe house, before they'd settled in Valhalla.

And it was only now, after half a year on the secluded island, that many of their members actually started feeling safe, again. Chris had heard Parker laugh the other day, the first time in nearly a year. It had actually taken him a moment to recognize the sound, it had been so long. And there'd been tears in Josh's eyes, when he'd seen the smile on his baby sister's face.

'We have to fix this,' Chris thought, fiercely. 'We have to fix this, so that Prue and Parker never forget how to laugh.'

'We're going to fix this,' Josh sent into his mind, and Chris groaned at the realization that his cousin was still eavesdropping.

'Didn't I tell you-'

'Yeah, yeah,' Josh interrupted him. 'I'll stop eavesdropping when you stop projecting.'

'It's easier for one person-' Chris started, but then he trailed off when he saw Josh standing on the path in front of him. "It's easier for you to maintain shields against us," he said, out loud, "than for all of us to shield against you. Not to mention, you've had more practice."

"I've been trying to keep my shields up," Josh told him, sighing. "It's just this place, there's something that tears apart my control over my powers. Whatever I can manage is spotty at best."

"If your powers are out of whack," Chris asked, as Josh fell into step beside him, "then how come you're always in my head?"

"Because it's so much fun to go to the extra effort to annoy you," Josh teased him, and Chris grinned as he pulled his cousin into a hug. "Man, I missed you," Josh went on. "No one else has your sense of humor."

"What about the girls?" Chris asked,

Josh chuckled. "Prue, much to Dad's consternation, has managed to convince a couple of the Valkyries to teach her how to fight. Parker, naturally, is tagging along. Whenever they're not sleeping or eating, they're training, and none of us have actually seen them for more than a few seconds, lately."

"When Prue said that she wasn't going to be left out of the fight, she wasn't kidding," Chris commented.

"She and Parker are really throwing themselves into this whole thing," Josh replied, sighing.

"Hey," Chris said, clapping Josh on the back, "if we we're good, and we fix this, Prue and Parker won't ever have to fight."

"I hope you're right," Josh said, and then the rest of their conversation was cut off by their arrival at the large meeting hall the Resistance used as headquarters.

They found only a few of their fellow fighters waiting for them. Ava and Christy were playing chess, Ava kicking butt, like usual. Billie was curled up with a book, using her telekinesis to flip slowly through the pages. Sam and Cole were studying a series of large maps that had been spread out over the rough-hewn wooden table. Sam was gesturing to something as they walked in, his attention focused on the tattered paper as he pointed something out to Cole.

Chris was unsurprised to see more gray peppering Cole's black hair. Ever since Phoebe's death, Chris had watched his uncle age a year for every day she was gone. The only things keeping him going these days were his kids, which was why Chris was so determined to keep anything from happening to Prue and Parker.

What he hadn't been expecting, though, were the signs of age in Sam. The older Whitelighter looked like he'd been dragged through hell. There were shadows under his eyes, deep furrows in his skin, and a new scar that ran along his forehead, disappearing into his hairline.

"What happened?" Chris hissed, nodding minutely at Sam, as he and Josh paused in the doorway.

"Well," Josh said, drawing the word out, "let's see. We're constantly under attack by Wyatt's forces, the Elders assigned Aunt Paige to charges on the other side of the world and we haven't seen her in over a year, and you took on a week-long mission, after being held captive by Wyatt for the last three months. I can't imagine why Sam would possibly be worried."

"Smart ass," Chris muttered under his breath. "I'm sorry I was out of contact, okay? I was a little busy."

"Yeah, well," Josh retorted, "if you do it again, I'm going to kick your ass. And I have a feeling that Sam will be next in line."

"Followed by Prue, and Parker, and Cole-" Chris finished for him. "I get it. I'm sorry."

Glancing past his cousin, Chris saw that Sam had abandoned his study of the maps and was staring at him with an inscrutable look on his face. Chris smiled at Sam, and Sam moved away from the table to embrace him, wrapping Chris in a tight hug.

"Don't you ever do that again," Sam muttered, as he held him, and Chris relaxed at the affection he heard in his surrogate grandfather's voice.

"I missed you, too, Grandpa," Chris told him, as he pulled away. "I'm sorry about being out of contact. I won't do it, again."

"I think I remember hearing that about the first time you borrowed your mother's car, or when you snuck the Book out of the house, or when-"

"Okay, enough!" Chris laughed. "Am I ever going to live down any of the stupid stuff I did as a kid?"

"Eventually," Sam confided in him. "Right about the time your kids are old enough to start doing the same stupid stuff."

"So it's never-ending," Chris groused, good-naturedly, and Sam grinned.

"Pretty much, kid," he told him. "We missed you around here," he added, ruffling Chris's hair. "Everyone missed you."

Chris didn't miss the emphasis in Sam's words, or the pointed look he shot across the hall, to where Leo was looking through the makeshift Book of Shadows that they'd put together in the absence of the real one. His father hadn't looked up at him once since his arrival, but Chris didn't think for a second that Leo was unaware of his presence. Leo knew everything that went on around him. He just chose to ignore the parts of it that involved Chris.

"I missed the girls, too," Chris finally said, deliberately misunderstanding Sam's words, and the older man heaved a frustrated sigh.

"You, two," he started, but then he trailed off, shaking his head. "Both of you are as stubborn as a pair of mules," he muttered, under his breath, and Chris cracked a tiny grin.

"I had to inherit something from him," he replied.

He followed Sam over to the table, where Josh had joined his father. Cole was affixing small stickers to the topmost map, red for the places that Wyatt controlled, and blue for the few spots where the Resistance still had a stronghold. There were a depressingly low number of blue stickers on the map.

"That one's red, now," Chris informed Cole, tapping a blue dot near the pier, and his uncle cursed softly under his breath. "X found us."

"And you made it out alive?" Cole remarked, as he placed a red sticker over the blue. "Not that I don't doubt your abilities, kid-"

"Trust me," Chris interrupted him, "I'm surprised we made it out alive. Well, almost all of us."

"Who'd we lose?" Josh asked, scowling darkly.

"Deena and Malcolm," Chris replied, heavily. "Deena killed Malcolm."

His voice cracked on Malcolm's name, and he was swamped with grief over the little boy who'd trusted him, the little boy he'd failed to protect. He ruthlessly pushed the feelings aside; they were useless to him, and would only hamper him in the fight. There would be time to grieve, later, after they'd stopped Wyatt.

"She what?" Ava demanded, incredulously, having overheard him. "Deena was working for the demons?" When Chris nodded, Ava snarled, softly. "That bitch. I brought her in. I trusted her."

"We all trusted her," Billie said, reassuringly, as she and Christy joined the group. "What happened?" the older woman asked Chris.

"I orbed into the safe house with Malcolm," Chris replied, "and everything seemed fine. Deena and Lew were watching tv, and Cassie was in the kitchen getting something to eat." He shook his head, regretfully, hating how he'd let himself be lulled into a false sense of security. "I wasn't even there ten minutes before X shimmered in."

"She was after Malcolm," Christy guessed, and Chris nodded.

"As far as I could tell," he replied. "That has to be why she came in when she did. She was waiting for us to bring Malcolm out of hiding."

"And to deliver him straight to Wyatt," Ava said, a bitter tone in her voice. "But, wait, you said that Deena killed Malcolm. If she was working for Wyatt-"

"She was aiming for Cassie," Chris replied, "and Malcolm jumped in the way, trying to protect her. He got hit with an energy ball; he was incinerated instantly."

"How did Deena die?" Sam prompted, gently, when Chris fell silent.

"X had me in her sights," Chris told them. "I moved out of the way when I saw her getting ready to attack, I got behind Deena – she was slow," he said, still puzzled. "X is never slow, but, she slipped up, and she killed Deena instead of me. And then she ran."

"Maybe she knew she was outnumbered with you, Lew, and Cassie there," Christy commented. "Decided that discretion was her best bet, and ran away to lick her wounds."

"She didn't have any wounds," Chris shot back. "Honestly, I have no idea why she ran away. She could have easily killed us all."

"Maybe she didn't want to kill you," Leo spoke up, for the first time. He closed his book as he came over to the rest of the group, a pensive look on his face. "Maybe she was never aiming at you. Maybe she was aiming at Deena the whole time."

"Right," Chris scoffed, in disbelief. "Wyatt's second in command, his most trusted lieutenant, just happens to be secretly working for our side. I don't think so."

"You said it, yourself," Leo replied, calmly. "She killed Deena, who betrayed us. Killed her own demon. X doesn't miss."

Chris shook his head, frustrated. "It doesn't make any sense," he told Leo. "X is completely loyal to Wyatt. She would never turn on him."

"Maybe she's not," Leo said, and Chris practically growled at the cryptic tone in his father's voice. "When Malcolm died," Leo went on, "did you actually see a body?"

"What part of completely incinerated was unclear?" Chris snapped, but he found himself talking to thin air when Leo orbed away in the middle of their conversation. "Yeah," he muttered, under his breath. "It was nice talking to you, too, Dad."