Title: Path of Phoenix: Plan
Rating: R, otherwise known as M for Mature just in case
Canon: Charmed
Disclaimer: Charmed and such is sooooooo not mine.
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Characters: Chris, Bianca, Lynn, etc…
Pairing: Chris/Bianca mainly with some Piper/Leo of course.
Setting: AU with spoilers in the past with mentions of the Chris-Crossed scene, and AU little future and slight mentions of otherwise.
Summary: Knowing full well how they were changing things, Bianca and Chris made a decision when coming to the past. [Chris.Bianca It had all been a plan for the new future. [Completed
Notes: Chris is one year older than Bianca.
Changes: They never find out who Chris really is. Chris was also named after himself…
Prologue
An Early Past
Lynn Perry stared at the woman claiming to be her daughter. Sure the mark on her arm burned the familiar red and looking into her eyes was the equivalent of fighting her two-year-old, but she still could not reason why she would ask such a thing. For the past two hours, she had been running in circles with the grown Bianca about her insane plan that seemed so random.
"Mother, it's for the best" the young woman spoke-unspoken horrors evident in the undertones and eyes hard and sad behind the saucy woman.
"You're telling me to steal a child and raise him-a child protected by some of the greatest magic of good." Lynn stated; her voice had gone unusually incredulous and her eyes wide in utter astonishment of the wacky plan.
"Look Mom, I know it is weird and stupid, but things are going to change. And if what happens does what we suspect…" her voice trailed off for a second while her eyes turned sad for the possibility. She took a deep breath. "Look mom. Changing the future is desperate and there will be things happening even more difficult to understand because of it. Chris is…"
Lynn rolled her eyes. "You want me to make sure you get together with your current boy-toy and want me-"
"No!" Bianca cut her off. "I want you to be able to give Chris and I a proper childhood." Lynn blinked. "Okay, here's the thing: in my childhood I was immediately trained as an assassin and raped by a couple demons," Lynn gasped and grabbed her heart in shock. Raped? "I was flung off as stupid just because I had human form and was technically a witch." Bianca continued speaking before her mother could explain again that they were Phoenixes technically. "I was eventually used as a rookie until finally I made it on my own just before Wyatt Halliwell took control of the demon underground and either used the upper hierarchy as stooges or killed them. I worked three years under him as a simpleton until I met his brother Chris."
Lynn was finally learning to hold her tongue.
"Upon our random meeting I was already looking forward to another dance and within a month I was too in love with him to back off from his last name. I spied for him for over thirty years, four grandchildren and the deaths of everyone important to us. Until finally, now. Chris has come up with this plan to go back and change the past; to alter one basic thing and destroy our world." Bianca seemed almost proud here and Lynn could not even the grasp of feeling that being erased would be like, but felt that she would not be happy with it.
"Grandchildren?" she gasped with a high pitch voice.
Bianca smirked, and with a sad voice declared, "I was proud of them. Pip (Piper) and Po (Poseidon), our eldest twins died at twenty-two, while Payg (Paygon) and Pey (Peyton), our youngest twins died three years later at twenty-three, all in the war against their Uncle." Her voice, so sad seemed suddenly so staggeringly old.
"Two years apart? P's?"
"It's an unspoken custom in the Charmed Ones, apparently. And Chris was so close to his family growing up…" At the mention of the Charmed Ones, Lynn Perry startled to attention and quickly spoke up.
"But I don't understand." Lynn said quietly, "why should I take him away then?" She didn't bother going into the bloodline her daughter had wed and bred into, not wanting to even go into those particular the possible relativity of statistics that staying away from the Charmed Ones would entail.
"Because the only true flaw in the Halliwell family is that they overlook some things. They all loved the children in their family… but because of this then Chris will be overlooked and Wyatt will be overly spoiled and… and then he just won't be my Husband."
And eventually, with an unspoken and shaky whisper, Lynn spoke. "Okay." She raised her hand to take her daughter's hand, and together they went through the portal four years into the past.
Way Past
They stepped from the portal and into the past. And ran straight in to her past self. When the past Lynn Perry immediately raised her right hand and conjured an energy ball, the actual mother of the daughter Bianca put her hand up and made a sign. Past Lynn looked at her specutively withdrew her power.
She didn't know why, but her past self was staring at her. Looking at the other woman, Lynn Perry raised her eyebrow. "And I can assume that you too are a witch?" she asked.
Looking at her not-yet-mother Bianca realized she no longer had to look up at the woman, and gave a smirk. "You could say that," and the gloating under her tongue made past Lynn glare menacingly. Having a much better pose herself, she relented none.
Deciding to skip this odd meeting, the future Lynn simply rolled her eyes. "I'm from your future, and she is from my future." Without waiting for a reply, the mother reached behind her just to pull out a little girl not more than two years old.
"Wha-" but neither gave her a chance.
"My husband and I are going to totally erase ourselves and our timeline. We have already mapped out most of what we need to and are in the final changes."
She looked down and pulled a scrap of paper from her pocket. The spell had been made on-the-spot but it served their purposes perfectly. The paper had been lying in her pants, invisible to the world, six months since Chris left. She wore the same pair and just kept a spell on them for cleaning. Soaps of the clothing type were hard to come by in her time.
Under the notice of the Charmed Ones
We Perry family are
Even those that will be like sons
Too are protected from afar
A purple mist spread from the sheet and into the four of them-the pair of Lynns and the pair of Biancas.
"I want an explanation. Now." Lynn Perry of the past spoke heatedly. Neither of the grown up travelers bothered to negate it. And little Bianca looked at her mother confused but accepting.
"Are you ready, love?"
"Yeah," she breathed out in a long sigh. It had been a couple of long days. He pulled her back to his chest in their dreams and rubbed her soothingly. It'll all be over soon.
He took her hand and kissed it softly, a ring only visible to the two of them being wrapped around the appropriate fingers. They took them off during missions, just in case. "Ready when you are."
Memories of mine are mine to last
However faded they be
Carry them on to this changing past
So that we may still see
Mistakes of time are to be recast
To this lock let there be no key
Magic erupted from them…
And with a jolt Christopher Victor Halliwell woke up in the back office room of P3 with the knowledge that his brother had been under the impression that he'd sent his best assassin back to kidnap his brother and the information that it was almost time for another chance.
He collapsed back onto the bed and readied himself for the horror.
Soon.
/"Bianca? What are you doing here?"/
/"Oh my God, he's in love with her."/
/ "Why are you doing this, Chris?"/
/ "Don't worry. I can take care of myself." /
"Welcome home, Chris." A dark man says, stepping forward. His blonde hair is long and curly. It wipes over his eyes and the once-blue orbs are a dark blue that it looks black. Six demons spread out around their master.
"Hello Wyatt." Chris speaks clearly. Inside he is replaying the last twenty-four hours of acting so that when Wyatt reads his mind and thinks that he doesn't even know it, there will be nothing to suggest what he has really done.
"They're no threat to me," Wyatt states, spreading his hands and forcibly ejecting the demons from the premises, leaving the two brothers and the wife alone in the attic of the Halliwell Museum.
Chris wonders if this is just showmanship or if his brother really thinks that he is a comfort. He decides that it is both and goes along, ignoring Wyatt's words.
"Y tu, Chris? Of all the people to betray me…" his words fall of and the younger man hears the anger.
"I didn't go back to betray you, Wyatt." He says softly. "I went back to save you." It wasn't a lie but the truth was that Chris had gone back to save everyone, to save himself, his children, Melinda, the future in general… Bianca. He threw the thought away though so his brother would not find it. There was no use concentrating on this save for his own survival. She would be fine.
"Save me?" Wyatt asks mockingly, but not really looking for an answer. "From what?" He's fishing.
"From whatever evil it was that turned you." Chris replies and if Wyatt was ten years younger and not so corrupted he may have stopped to at least humor the younger man. Instead, he laughs and shakes his head.
"That's always been your problem, Chris." The younger Halliwell holds his tongue, knowing it would do him no good to remind Wyatt that he himself had been a big follower of that morass once upon a time. As if reading his brother's mind-and he probably had-Wyatt spoke up, following that train of thought. "Stuck in the old good versus evil morass. I'm so past that. It's all about power, as simple as that."
"And whoever has the power… wins. Is that it?" Chris is saddened to see so little of his brother left, but maybe that's for the best. If Wyatt is going to kill him, he'd prefer it was less of his brother left to feel guilty over it. They were still blood, even if Wyatt had never known… Chris cut off his thoughts before they could wonder in curious territory.
"That's it," Wyatt states, having ignored the obvious sarcasm in his baby brother's voice. "That's why I keep this museum in tact," and he raises his hands around as if showing off the worthwhile importance of this place. But Chris sees it a whole 'nother way. "To remind everyone the power from which I was born and that which I possess." Chris kept his mouth shut for a second but his blood boiled.
"Too bad the rest of the city isn't fairing as well as your little shrine here," the words were said before he could help himself, but he didn't regret them. He hoped Wyatt would at least defend himself about it, but nothing. There was only more trivialities.
"You know, if anyone else tried what you've tried, I would kill them on the spot." He mentioned, before looking at Christopher meaningfully. "But you… I've forgiven Bianca, I can forgive you too." Before Chris could think he gave the iffy part. "If you promise never to cross me ever again."
The truth was Wyatt would have killed Bianca too if Chris hadn't been in love with her. Wyatt had no idea what was between them but could see the look in their eyes when they looked at each other, could hear Bianca's voice as she slowly conned him into sending her and no one else to go after him.
"I think you know me better than that." Or he better, Chris thought. After all of the favors he had done his older brother when they were little, after all the work it had taken him to keep Wyatt from becoming a murderer before Chris himself could even speak… it had left its impact on him.
Wyatt turned to the assassin, not truly expecting it, but using the words as an underlying threat. He wouldn't hurt her unless it came down to it in the end, but he had nothing against a little torture and wordplay. He'd tortured his own brother, after all. "I though you said you could talk some sense into him?!"
"Leave her out of this." Chris demanded, stepping forward and pushing her behind him.
Wyatt raises his hand and begins choking Chris; Bianca tears up but manages to keep most of the water from falling. Telekinesis. It had been the first real opposing power the boys had shared, but the older brother had never managed to do omnikinesis so Chris had never made use of it in front of the other man.
"Pardon me?" Wyatt asked mockingly, enjoying the slow torture immensely. It was only a matter of time before he could convince him. He lifts him up and throws his little brother against the wall and into one of the cabinets. The wood bends and releases below him like paper and Wyatt is concerned only a half a second for his health as Chris is wheezing. There is internal damage.
"You said you wouldn't hurt him!" Bianca yells, coming up behind him then, the tears traveling down her face. She rushes to her fiancé, as she is forced to think of him.
"You promised you'd turn him," he back talks, "It's like I turned you, or at least I thought I had." He turns his back and walks slowly a few feet before turning back to the scene of his little brother and the woman Chris loves.
"Chris please, I didn't bring you here to die." No, you brought me here so that you would, he thinks and by the powers of chance his brother does not hear it.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," he states, getting back on his feet to face his big brother. "I think…" he begins, and that's the cue. As Wyatt begins to step menacingly forward, the squeaky floorboard creaks. Chris has a moment to renew his mental shields before running at the blonde.
He is easily tossed aside but he'd planted the red powder ochre like had been planned. "Have you lost your mind?!" Wyatt yells. He snarls and then comes to a decision. "I don't need you," and then he tosses Chris hard against the wall. But the dark brunette with storm light-blue eyes can hear the uncertainty and knows it isn't true.
Just as Wyatt creates an energy ball, Bianca comes up behind him and sticks her hand into his back, not literally but magically. Shocked, the Twice-Blessed first son can do nothing but struggle in shocked silence and watch Chris has he fights her grip.
"Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast. I can't hold him for long." She's powerful, but not enough for the Dark King. Again, Chris is thanking whatever chance there is that Wyatt had never learned omnikinesis and structure his battles more around what he could physically do.
Racing over to the squeaky floorboard, Chris hurriedly a planted sheet of paper and chants.
Powers of the witches rise
Come to me across the skies
Return my magic, give me back
All those taken at my back
At first, there is a blue light which develops around him in a blinding light show. It's the powers that Bianca had sadly taken. And then he surrounded by a pure white light and he feels whole. He hasn't felt whole in a long time.
What he'd never known was that, when he was born, magic intensified five times everywhere instead of becoming nil like on Wyatt's birthday. His parents, fearing an overload of demons and awakened powers had stripped them. They had miscalculated, however. Instead of temporarily taking half of his abilities, they had stripped over ninety percent of his power. However, growing up a Twice-Blessed lesser son with a single mother had given him an inferiority complex and a lot less natural obvious ability than either his older brother and younger Seer sister. He'd trained, a lot. And in doing so, ten percent of his power had multiplied by over five times.
He was five hundred percent now. Only… he wasn't. Because just as the white power came, it left when Wyatt had struggled free finally, and kicked Bianca. It was pure dumb luck that she'd landed where she had, though she had expected it.
"No!" he roared in a primal deep voice that Wyatt could never have connected with the younger man.
In plain black fury, Chris looked his brother in the eyes and his eyes turned white, then black, and then a second later a dark glowing navy blue before he swept his hand as if golfing towards his brother and telepathically threw him against the wall. Wyatt landed with a hard thump and couldn't even attempt to get up as he was knocked cold.
Without even bothering for the brother that had attempted to kill him numerous times, Chris rushed to his skewered wife. "Bianca! No. No. no. no. no. no…" He rushed to her fast, cradling her and trying not to get her hands bloody with the wood that had been stained red by her blood.
"Haven't we been here before?" he asks shakily, his eyes no longer cheery but saddened depressingly with what he knew without a doubt was about to happen. There are a thousand and one underlying meanings for this and only she knows them all.
"Maybe," she said in a pained voice. "We'll be here again," she says assuring and stalwart, and her eyes are almost glad as she shaken with the pain of the wound. The quick moment of shock is leaving but it won't be long. They've both been in the demonic line of business to understand wounds.
"Yeah," and then as if reassessing, he says, "No, but-" she's going to die and he does not want her to leave, doesn't want to be without her for more than a moment.
Handing back her wedding ring, it made of platinum and a rare magical gem blessed by the fae court, she closes her eyes for a moment and smiles. She doesn't have to speak to get the message across. Why not pass it on? "If you can finish what we started," she begins, but her voice hitches and blood begins to pool around them, on the knees of his jeans. "Hurry. Take the spell and make sure we don't have to exist like this." She's already fading away.
He reaches down to kiss her and she uses the last of her strength for her love. Releasing her last breath into him, he captures it and does not breath until he is sure she can no longer look at him with lively eyes. Blowing the breath into his hands, he catches it with magic washes it into the ring. A life-stone for his wife-that-will-be.
He puts back on his mask and hurries to the Book of Shadows. The sooner he gets back, the sooner he can cry and be done with it. The sooner the good days will come.
Hear these words
Hear this rhyme
Heed the hope within my mind
Only this then nevermore
Open up one last one-way door
Send me back to what I'll find
What I wish in place and time
The blue of the portal opens again and, with the book secretly stuffed away in his jacket, he rushes into it. It swallows him up when the portal closes, it turns black. And then everything falls away like broken shatters of glass.
/"Oh my God, are you okay?" Paige gasps at him. "Yeah, I'm fine," he states as he stands to dust himself off. "Nice spell," he comments. Phoebe flinches from the pain and lies in his voice and then immediately forgets about it./
/"Hey, you guys want anymore champagne?"/
/ "I don't believe this, someone is killing witches, possibly as we speak. How is that not your only priority?"/
/"Stay with Wyatt," Leo tells him. "I got him." Chris says, defending himself. But then, they all thought he was only twenty and younger than them; not over forty with seniority./
"I'm not going to choose someone over my own son-" Chris's insides hurt and something else inside him twinges. He has to remind himself that Leo has no idea but then the man had never liked him, let alone loved him.
"Don't worry about me," Chris urges. Leo has no idea about the underlying meanings and reasons. He has no idea of what Chris is saying now. "Just go get Wyatt. You save him, you save all of us." He speaks of everyone but what he means is the Halliwell family as a whole.
Paige watches this from the doorway in the attic as Leo orbs away with honorable vengeance on his face and Christopher Perry, the mysterious white lighter who they had never gotten to know about-had no idea who he was in their time. As he fades away into nothing, she has no idea that he died in the exact place his wife did in another time.
As he does, three things happen.
At first, the very future he had come from completely ceases to be save a few memories and a magic book.
Then, a young boy is born into the world with the last name, Halliwell.
Last, one mother pushes a future daughter through a portal into the arms of her future self, and of a little boy who loves her exactly how she loves him.
When Leo shows up not much longer at the hospital, he is greeted with his smiling wife and second son, the nameless young witchlighter. "What's wrong?" Piper asks, seeing the smudges on his face.
He'll tell her about Wyatt later, but he mentions that, "Chris is dead."
In this moment Piper does the only good thing she had ever done for Chris Perry. She continues. "Then we'll name him Christopher, because the white lighter really had lost everything to save our son." She says this and begins to forget the white lighter from the future who had lost everything in order to save Wyatt. Leo nods in complete acceptance as his father's name had been Christopher as well.
"Welcome to the world, Christopher Victor Halliwell."
And the world begins anew. And in some ways, for the better.
END.
No promises, but I at least have ideas for more.