Title: The Nature of Memory
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Summary: When Chris loses his memories, it's up to the sisters to try to help him. But when a familiar stranger comes to visit, can Chris remember his past before it kills him?
Chapter Two: Questions and Answers
Resistance Stronghold, 2025
"This is impossible," the girl snapped irritably, looking down at the maps in front of her. "There is no way we will ever have enough information to…" She trailed off abruptly and glanced up as the door to the meeting room swung open and a man appeared. "Daryl," she greeted with a slightly forced smile.
"I heard a funny rumor that there was a meeting," the man named Daryl said casually, his eyes hardening as he took in the occupants of the room. "I guess my invitation got lost in the mail."
"It's not really a meeting," the girl replied, glancing at the others around her. "We just all happened to be in the same place and decided to strategize." She looked up at the other man, daring him to contradict her. For a moment, no in the room dared even to breathe as they watched the two face off silently.
Finally, Daryl said, "I see Cole and Bianca aren't here. I guess they just weren't around when you wanted to… strategize."
His words, which had been meant as a simple barb, had a different effect than expected. The girl met his eyes then looked away, and said slowly, almost in embarrassment, "Cole isn't here right now. He's undercover again."
Daryl accepted this is silence, knowing it was true. He was the one who had ordered the mission sending Cole back into the Underworld just last week. It was unlikely that Cole would be back by now, it was too complicated to take only a mere seven days.
But the embarrassment… That was something else.
"Where's Bianca?" Daryl asked, a hunch growing as no one in the room answered the question. He took a threatening step forward. "Where is she?" he demanded angrily, raising his voice. It was stupid, this was a room full of magical beings, but he had vowed to Chris that he would do everything to protect the witch-lighter's fiancée, and hell would freeze over before he broke that promise.
The girl shrugged. "I don't know," she answered calmly, vaguely. "Around."
"What did you do?" Daryl asked, aghast. She didn't answer, and he crossed the room suddenly, seizing her arm in a crushing grip, refusing to release her even as she raised viciously angry eyes to look at him. "Prudence Melinda Halliwell," he snarled. "What. Did. You. Do?"
Manor, Present Day
Chris shivered slightly, watching the other three carefully. The red-haired woman seemed to be afraid of something, although he wasn't sure what. The man was staring at him thoughtfully, as though trying to figure out the answer to some strange riddle. The woman with the long dark hair, still holding the blonde child in her arms, had both eyebrows raised at him. But there was something about her, something he couldn't identify, something that made him want to trust her, even though she didn't look like she trusted him.
"Come on, Chris, you didn't hit your head that hard, did you?" the brunette asked, her tone disbelieving. She glanced at the blonde man. "I thought you healed him?"
"I did," the man replied defensively.
"Oh, you call this healed?" the brunette snapped. "He doesn't even know who he is!"
"What happened during the fight? Did he get hit by a potion or anything?" the blonde man asked curiously, glancing to the redhead.
Chris felt a sudden surge of annoyance that they were standing there talking about like he was even in the room. He didn't remember who he was, but that didn't mean he was deaf. He could hear every word they said, and somehow, the fact that his opinion didn't seem to matter to them was both strangely familiar and heart-wrenchingly painful.
"No, none that I saw. He got strangled, looked like the demon wanted to suffocate him. And he was thrown into the wall a couple times," the redhead replied. She shrugged, glancing to the toddler. "What attacked Wyatt? Was it the same demon?"
"Yes," the brunette replied.
"Uh, guys? You do know that demons aren't actually real, right?" Chris said pointedly, trying to regain their attention. "Just like dragons and unicorns and fairies. They're all pretend." He drawled the words, hoping at the very least to get some acknowledgement by annoying them.
But the brunette just waved her hand at him, gesturing for him to be silent, and said to the man, "If it isn't a potion, you should be able to heal him."
"I told you, I did heal him!" the man cried, frustrated. "Look, if he was strangled during the fight, he must have not gotten oxygen to his brain for an extended period of time. That added to the trauma of being thrown around the room… His brain might have decided that it needed time to recover and make sure it was working properly, and in the mean time, it shut off the excess parts so that his mind wouldn't be using too much energy."
"Excess?" the brunette asked incredulously. "You're calling his memories an excess?"
"It makes sense," the redhead interrupted thoughtfully. "I mean, better to lose memories then the ability to… I don't know… walk, or talk, or breathe, or orb, or whatever…"
"Orb?" Chris asked, noting that it was the only verb out of the list that he didn't recognize. Actually, orb wasn't even a verb. An orb was a spherical object. How did someone have, or lose, the ability to orb? That didn't even make sense.
"It happens a lot, you know," the redhead added. "I saw it in social work. Children blocking out entire days or weeks of their past, not wanting to remember the horrible things that happened to them." She gave Chris a long look, then said, "If the future really is as dark as he says, then his brain probably doesn't like remembering it. That combined with the lack of oxygen and the physical damage from hitting the wall…"
"So how does he get his memories back?" the brunette asked impatiently. "He kind of needs them if we're going to figure out who's after Wyatt." She glanced down at the boy she was holding, the one that Chris had now deduced was Wyatt, and most likely her son.
"My guess is he can't do it by any magical means," the blonde man replied. "He's going to have to get them back the mortal way."
"Which is…?" the redhead prompted.
"Time," the man replied. "He needs time for his mind to heal."
"Great," the brunette snapped. "Just what I need. A neurotic white-lighter from the future with too many secrets that he can't even remember anymore!"
Her words caused a rush of pain to course through Chris' body, but he didn't know why.
"Here, you take Wyatt Up There until we sort this all out," the brunette said, handing the little boy to the man. "Paige," she addressed the other woman, "go get Phoebe. Fill her in on everything." She cast a wary look at Chris and finished, "I'll stay here with future boy and see if I can help him remember anything."
"Who's Phoebe?" Chris asked, but as expected, he did not receive an answer.
"Piper," the man said, pulling Wyatt into his arms, "this might be one of those things that is suppose to happen. Maybe Chris needs this… for himself and for Wyatt." He didn't wait for a reply, but disappeared in a brilliant rush of tiny white dots.
Chris gaped at the spot the man had stood, and began backing away from the two women. "Who are you? What are you?" he spat. "Stay away from me!"
"Chris, calm down," the woman called Piper said.
"Calm down?" Chris mimicked. "What the hell did he just do?" He flung his hand wildly towards the now empty space the man had stood.
"He orbed," the other woman, Paige, said cheerfully.
Piper shot Paige an annoyed look. "Not helping," she snapped. "Just go get Phoebe, I'll take care of this."
Paige shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said, and she too disappeared in the same swirl of dots.
Chris spun around and started towards the entryway that lead to what he could only assume was the front door. He suddenly had the wild thought that perhaps he was trapped in some type of horror-movie, and every door he opened would just lead back to the same place. Before he could test this theory, however, the vase on the table near him exploded into thousands of tiny shards that seemed to freeze midair, hovering all around him.
He turned slowly, fearfully, to look back at the only woman left in the room. Piper had her hands extended in front of her, arms at chest height, and a serious expression on her face.
"You sure you really want to run?"
Chris swallowed. "How did you…?"
"Blow up the vase? Or freeze it?" Piper asked. She looked at Chris for a moment, debating what exactly to say, and then decided to tell him, "I'm a witch. A good witch."
"Magic isn't real," Chris retorted instantly.
Piper smiled gently, reminiscently. "You know, that's what I told myself. Neither Prue nor I believed Phoebe after she said she'd cast the spell that gave us our powers."
Chris glanced sideways at the door. He debated making a run for it, but that didn't seem like such a good idea right now. After all, if Piper could do that to the vase, did that also me she could do it to him? He didn't really want to find out the answer to that question.
Instead, he stalled, asking, "Who's Phoebe? And Prue? And who were the other two that were here? And the kid?"
Piper raised an eyebrow, still giving him a strange look, and he knew that this was something he should have known. As though these people were somehow important to him.
"Paige, the redhead," Piper began, "is my younger half-sister. The man, Leo, is my ex-husband and the father of my son, the little boy, Wyatt. Phoebe is my other sister. She's also younger than me, and she's at work right now. Paige went to get her."
She didn't say anything about the other woman she had mentioned, Prue, and that was something that Chris noted. But he sensed that it was not a good idea to push her on it, so he asked instead, "And are you all… witches?" It was hard to say the word, hard to even pretend to believe that witches were real.
"Phoebe and I are," Piper replied. "Leo is an angel. My son and Paige are both half-angel, half-witch." She gave Chris a funny look, then added, "And apparently so are you."
"What?"
"We were fighting demons before you lost your memory," Piper explained, gesturing to the mess around her. "We all thought you were an angel because you told us you were." Her voice hardened and she glared at him. "Turns out you lied. You used telekinesis. A witch power."
"Uh…" Chris hesitated, almost wondering if he should apologize for doing something he couldn't even remember. Then he remembered that this woman was calling him an angel-witch and explaining that magic really did exist, and he shook his head. "You're lying."
"No, that's your job," Piper retorted, still bitter.
"This doesn't make sense," Chris protested, but again some sixth sense was telling him that this woman could be trusted. Maybe not the others, but Piper… she wouldn't lie to him. She wouldn't hurt him. Would she?
He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the still frozen shards of vase. Why did he have these feelings? Did he know this woman?
"Are we… how do I know you? How are we connected?" Chris asked at last.
Piper snorted. "Well, you told us you were a white-lighter." When Chris gave her a confused look, she explained, "It's another word for angel. Anyway, you said you came back from the future, but I suppose that could be a lie as well." She gave Chris a quick look, then flicked her wrists at the shards of glass and they all fell to the ground around the started witch-lighter. "You said you were here to save Wyatt from some unknown future evil."
"I'm from the future? How is that even possible?"
"Magic," Piper replied simply.
Chris stared at Piper, then felt the almost uncontrollable urge to get as far away from all of this as possible. He wanted to be somewhere safe, a place where magic didn't exist and he wasn't listening to a stranger tell him that he was part-angel. A picture came to mind; a burst of sunlight falling across a white marble bench, the flash of an angel statue and several tall columns, the explosion of tiny flowers poking their heads through the stiff dirt and grass.
It was safe there.
He didn't even know how it happened. Something inside him shifted, pulling him apart at the seams, and the next thing he knew, he was standing in the middle of this arboretum, next to the marble bench. A feeling of peace and love flooded through him, reminding him of memories he could just barely remember, glimpses of images that flitted through his mind and faded away again.
Back at the Manor, Piper blinked rapidly, trying to figure out what had happened. If her white-lighter really had no memory of magic, how could he possibly have orbed? She did the only thing she could think of, the only thing that made sense at that moment.
"Leo!"
The shower of white lights that formed into her husband was almost immediate. Leo looked around in concern, half expecting to see demons leaping from the framework or Paige or Phoebe on the ground, covered in their own blood. What he saw was Piper, unhurt, standing alone in the middle of the sunroom.
"He orbed," Piper cried, almost hysterically. "How did he orb?"
"He lost his memories, not his powers," Leo replied, less concerned. "It was probably instinctual." He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, then announced, "He's at a… a garden, I think. He's alone. And he doesn't seem worried or anything. More like… content." He slanted a look at Piper. "What happened?"
"I was talking to him after you took Wyatt and left. Trying to explain about magic and convince him of who we are. And that we're good." She saw Leo give the shattered vase a curious look, and flushed deep red. "I… uh… demonstrated my power." She saw Leo raise an eyebrow at the words, but he didn't ask questions and she didn't elaborate on the subject. "Anyway," she continued, "I told him he was part witch and here from the future to save Wyatt, and he freaked."
Leo nodded. "You just scared him with everything you said. If he really doesn't remember anything about his past, then that was a lot of information for him to take in. He must have orbed away because his body knew that he wanted to escape."
"Why did he go to this garden?" Piper pressed as she walked into the kitchen to get the broom.
"I don't know. Maybe it means something to him, in the future. And he subconsciously knew that he liked it there… felt safe there," Leo called to Piper.
The eldest sister returned a moment later with the broom and sighed. "Well, I'm going to clean up this mess. Why don't you try to go get future boy and bring him back here. Before he gets lost or hurt or something."
Leo nodded again and orbed away.
Piper stared at the mess around her, then glanced up at the ceiling. "Why do you always have to make things hard for us?" she yelled angrily.
But even as she said the words, she couldn't help but think that no matter how hard this was for her, it was probably so much more difficult for Chris.
San Francisco Arboretum, Present Day
He felt the man's presence before he saw him and remembered what Piper had said. His name was Leo, he was Wyatt's father, and he was Piper's ex-husband. He sat on the bench, running his hand over the marble, and trying to sort out his conflicted feelings towards this man.
Leo took a seat next to Chris on the bench. "I'm Leo," he said by way of introduction.
"I know," Chris replied. "Piper told me. You're an angel."
Leo smiled a little sadly at Chris' words. "Why did you come here?" he asked, glancing around the arboretum. It was pretty, he would give it that much. But it didn't seem any different from all the other small arboretums that dotted the city. Why was it special?
"I feel safe here," Chris replied. "Happy." He glanced quickly at Leo, then looked down at his own hands. "Do you know why?"
"No," Leo answered regretfully. "You aren't really forthcoming with details about your life. We don't know that much about you."
"Do you know why I don't like you?" Chris asked abruptly. As soon as the words were out of his mouth and he saw the way Leo stiffened quickly, he regretted what he had said. Hastening to explain, he continued, "I feel very conflicted. Like I don't like you, but I want to. Or maybe I just want you to like me. I don't understand it…" He bit his lip, worried. "Sorry, I shouldn't have…"
"We started out on the wrong foot," Leo interrupted Chris. "I… I didn't like you. I didn't trust you." He hesitated, wondering how much he should reveal. But, for Wyatt's sake, he wanted to at least attempt to get along with Chris. "I blamed you for something that happened to me."
"Was I responsible?" Chris asked, and he almost dreaded hearing the answer.
"Yes," Leo said firmly. "I never had the proof, but you… I know you were behind it." He gave Chris a searching glance, then said, "I forgave you, though."
"Why? If I did something, if it was so bad…" Chris stood quickly, stepping away from Leo and letting his eyes wander to the angel statue. "Piper doesn't like me very much either. I don't think… I don't think even I like this person I apparently am."
Leo stared at Chris' face, so haggard and drawn and filled with sorrow. He looked so young and so lost that the Elder found himself completely unable to still hold a grudge for what had happened in Valhalla. His inner angels and demons had a brief and bitter battle, and the angels won.
"You're annoying and sarcastic and neurotic, but you're here for a good reason. And you're brave and determined and focused." Leo stood up as well and said, "Apparently, in the future, some evil gets to my son and destroys him. The entire world is destroyed as well. You haven't given us any details but… I do believe you. I believe that you really just want to save us all. Maybe I don't agree with your methods, maybe I wasn't pleased by how they negatively impacted my family and I, but… I don't think you are a bad person." He stopped, waiting until Chris had turned to look at him, before adding, "I think you're just a boy who has the entire weight of the future world on his shoulders, and is doing the best he can to deal with it."
He smiled encouragingly at Chris and silently wondered where all the caring feelings had suddenly come from. But there was just something about Chris, about the way he acted, how confused and scared and hurt he looked, that brought out the parental instinct in Leo. When he had had his memories, he'd been cocky and arrogant and annoying and so incredibly difficult to like.
But this Chris was just a boy in trouble.
"Come on, let's go back to the Manor. Paige and Phoebe are probably there by now. We can figure out what to do next," Leo suggested. He took Chris' hand, unsure if the boy would be able to figure out how to control his own orbing, and transported the two of them back to the house.
Manor, Present Day
"Wait, wait, wait," Phoebe said, holding up a hand to stall her older sister. "You're saying that Chris is half-witch? And he doesn't have his memories?" She looked from Paige to Piper, hoping one of them would tell her that this was all just a mistake or a misunderstanding of some sort. But their silence only served to confirm that they were telling the truth, and the empath let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Why isn't Leo back yet?" Paige asked. "I thought you said he was just going to get Chris?"
Piper nodded. "He was," she said with a slight frown. "But Chris doesn't have his memories, so maybe he wants to take it slowly. Maybe Chris is putting up a fight."
"I really hope he isn't exposing magic," Phoebe said worriedly. She ran a hand through her short hair and glanced around the room. The destruction from the fight was still obvious, and it chilled her to know how close her sisters had come to dying. Chris' witch half was an uneasy revelation to accept, but if it had in fact saved Piper and Paige, than she was at least a little relieved.
Before either Piper or Paige could respond to the statement, a shower of white lights signaled the arrival of Chris and Leo. The younger stepped away from the Elder quickly and turned to Phoebe. Eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion as he took in the other witch's appearance.
"You must be Phoebe," Chris ventured, and Phoebe nodded.
"You really don't remember anything," Phoebe mused. She slanted a look at her older sister and said, "It's gone, Piper. All his memories. I can feel it…"
Piper turned to Leo and questioned, "Feel it? Is that an empath power?"
"Empath?" Chris asked. He didn't know what that was, but he knew what empathy was, so he could guess what Piper was referring to. He was therefore a little unnerved to realize that the middle sister… Phoebe… probably had the ability to sense his emotions.
He wondered if they could hear his thoughts also.
"Probably," Leo mused, giving Phoebe a searching stare. "Memories tend to influence our emotions more than we realize. Without his memories, his emotions would be different… less vivid."
"Also, he's feeling a lot of confusion and helplessness right now," Phoebe added helpfully.
Chris grimaced and asked in annoyance, "Do you always make a habit of talking about people like they aren't actually in the room?"
"Quiet, Chris, we're trying to figure this out," Piper said dismissively, and Chris had a sudden sense of déjà vu he couldn't explain.
Leo tried to hide a smile at the belligerent look in Chris' eyes. Turning his attention back to Piper, he said, "I don't think you can really help Chris with this. He needs to remember on his own. In the meantime, focus on the demons that attacked you and Wyatt."
"He's right," Paige conceded, shooting a look at Piper.
"Fine. Go check with the other Elders, see if they know anything about the attack," Piper instructed Leo. "Paige, make up an all-purpose vanquishing potion. I'll check for the demons in the Book of Shadows."
Leo orbed away while Paige walked to the kitchen to make the potion.
"What about me?" Phoebe asked.
Piper glanced over at Chris. "Talk to Chris. Explain whatever you can. Maybe that will help him remember…" She gave a slightly apologetic shrug to Phoebe, who looked less than thrilled with her assignment, before heading towards the stairs that lead up to the attic.
Chris glanced at this newcomer, sizing her up. He didn't know where the defensive instincts came from, but something in the back of his mind kept telling him that he couldn't relax, he needed to stay on his guard. Who knew where the next threat was coming from?
"I'm not going to hurt you, Chris," the woman… the witch… named Phoebe said, clearly picking up on his emotions. Then she gave a wry grim and added, "I think I like this version of you. When you had your memories, you were so good at keeping barriers up around you mind I could never sense anything from you. Now… you're practically an open book."
"Stay out of my feelings," Chris snapped, irritated.
Phoebe raised an eyebrow. "Make me," she challenged, and Chris reacted unconsciously to her daring tone.
He wasn't really sure what he had done. He just pictured her inside his mind, and used all his mental strength to throw her out of it, slamming up what he imagined to be heavy brick walls in between her and his thoughts.
Phoebe doubled over suddenly, steadying herself on the wall. She took a slow breath and gave Chris a wary glance. "What was that for?"
"What did I do?" Chris asked, now scared. Had he hurt her? He was upset with her prying, but he certainly hadn't meant to cause her any harm.
Phoebe gave him a look. She could still sense some of his emotions, but they were fainter now, as though he'd hidden them from her. Still, even the merest glimpses that she was receiving now were more than what she had ever gotten from him before.
"You pushed me out of your emotions," Phoebe explained. "It was a little… rough." She saw the look of instant regret, followed quickly by fear, that graced Chris' face, and realization struck. He was terrified that they'd kick him out, not because he didn't want to leave, but because he had nowhere to go. This was the safest place he could be right now.
Chris turned away from her, muttering an apology as he sat down on the sofa. "I didn't mean… I'm not really able to control it… right now…"
"Don't worry about it," Phoebe said reassuringly. "It's not a big deal. Anyway, we're not going to kick you out. I don't know why you would think that." She took a seat in the chair across from him, and tilted her head to the side, silently asking for an explanation.
Chris shrugged. "I get the feeling that I'm not really welcome here. Or… maybe just not well-liked."
Phoebe chuckled dryly. "I guess you could say that." She saw the upset look on Chris' face and continued, "It isn't that you aren't liked, Chris. We just… we don't really know what to think of you. You can be very trying at times at… you're here for a good reason, we do know that." Then her eyes narrowed, "Although you did apparently lie to us about something rather significant."
Chris swallowed. "I don't know why I didn't tell you I was part-witch," he said softly, wishing he didn't feel so guilty for something he couldn't even understand.
"You're sorry, aren't you?" Phoebe asked. She could feel some of the guilt he felt.
"I don't know what to feel," Chris admitted. "But I…" He looked at Phoebe, then let his gaze wander to the stairs that Piper had disappeared up just a few minutes before. "I trust you three. And Leo. I don't know why, I can't explain it, but… I just feel like I can trust you."
"Good," Phoebe replied. "Because you can." Normally, she would have been more upset to find out that Chris had lied to them. But she could sense some of his feelings, and instead of feeling a secretive and neurotic witch-lighter, she felt only the emotions of a scared, lost boy. She still had every intention of reading him the riot act for lying to them just as soon as he got his memories back, but for now…
For now, she would be nice.
"So… how exactly did I become a witch? And an angel?" Chris ventured.
"Well, generally people become white-lighters… um, angels… after they die," Phoebe started. "That's how Leo became one."
"Wait, I'm dead?" Chris demanded, suddenly finding this all ridiculously funny. Not only did he apparently have magic, he was also dead. Could this day get any stranger?
"Oh, I don't think you are," Phoebe said quickly. "You see, Leo is dead, so Wyatt, his son, inherited some of Leo's powers. But Wyatt himself isn't dead. He's just part angel."
"So my parents are like Piper and Leo? One is an angel and one is a witch?" Chris asked. Phoebe shrugged in reply, and Chris continued, "Does that make me half-dead?"
"No," Phoebe replied with a laugh. "I think it makes you very much alive."
"So… I'm from the future?"
Phoebe nodded. "Yes, although I can't really tell you much about that." She grimaced and added, "You're not really forthcoming with the details."
"Yeah, Leo said the same thing," Chris told the empath. "I take it that's a point of irritation between us?" He had the distinct feeling that it was his secretive nature that most annoyed the sisters. Of course, now that he didn't actually remember anything, there wasn't a single thing he could do to fix the situation.
"Hm," Phoebe said noncommittally. "But we do know you are here to save Wyatt. And the world."
"Why is Wyatt important?" Chris questioned. Leo had also told him that somehow the demon getting to Wyatt had brought about the destruction of the world. But it seemed so strange that everything would rely that much on a toddler, even one with magical powers.
"Oh, well…" Phoebe considered her options carefully, wondering what exactly to say. She didn't want to overload Chris with information, and learning about prophesies and the Charmed Ones might be too much. Still, perhaps it would help jog his memory…?
Chris waited patiently, getting the sudden feeling that whatever Phoebe was about to say, it was the crux of the matter. Wyatt was somehow intrinsically tied to his identity, as though the young boy was in fact his purpose for everything he had done in his life.
"My sisters and I are called the Charmed Ones," Phoebe said. "We're very powerful. And we were prophesized… One of our ancestors made a prophesy about the birth of three sisters and how they would be one of the greatest forces of Good in the world…" She stopped, shaking her head. "I don't think I am explaining this right."
"You're powerful and you're Good and you're prophesized," Chris summed up. "I'm with you so far. But what does this have to do with Wyatt?"
"Well, he's also prophesized. He's Twice Blessed, the son of a Charmed One and an Angel. And he's the reincarnation of King Arthur and the Heir to Excalibur and the Ultimate Power." Phoebe stopped again, seeing the look on Chris' face. "I know this is difficult to understand."
"No, I get it…" Chris answered quietly. He did understand… sort of. As Phoebe spoke, he had suddenly had the strange sensation of knowing all this already. And instead of being reassured by the fact that there was someone with almost unlimited power who was the guardian of Good and whatnot, he was dismayed to find that the idea scared him. Something nagged at the back of his mind, telling him that this was not good, that Wyatt was… different.
He didn't speak his fears out loud. He knew that he shouldn't, although, again, he didn't know where that knowledge came from.
"Anyway, harming him would shift the balance between Good and Evil and screw up the world. Demons are always attacking us," Phoebe said, cutting into his turbulent thoughts.
"It's a miracle none of you have died," Chris replied, and Phoebe started at his statement.
"Yeah," she whispered, her eyes taking on a faraway look. For a moment, she seemed to forget that he was even there, caught up in her own memories. Then she looked at him again, brining herself back to the present. "Whatever gets to Wyatt in the future, you're determined to stop it. You send us on demon vanquishes all the time. It drives us nuts, especially Piper, but it is to protect Wyatt, to keep him safe. She and Leo want that, more than anything."
"What happened to Piper and Leo?" Chris asked, not realizing he was touching a sore subject. "I mean, why did they split up?"
Piper, who had already managed to find the demons in the Book and was bringing it downstairs, heard his question and couldn't help but answer in an acidic tone, "Oh, you thought it would be fun to break us up." Although she knew it was unfair to blame Chris for everything that had happened, regardless of whether or not he remembered it, she couldn't quite keep herself from being so annoyed at him.
Phoebe gave her sister a pointed look, and Piper sighed, mentally telling herself that she needed to be a bit more understanding of Chris.
Still, he was the one who got Leo promoted to an Elder, and that was why the two of them split up…
She dropped the Book onto Phoebe's lap, still open to the entry. "They're lower-level demons. Probably just making a bid for power. Unfortunately, they have the ability to absorb energy from an individual, making their victim weaker."
"So Wyatt would be a target because he has the most magical energy," Phoebe concluded. "We're going to need to keep him out of the way until we get rid of them." She scanned the entry. "It doesn't say how to vanquish them."
"I was able to blow them up," Piper answered.
"But it is an entire clan, Piper. It would take far too long to vanquish each of them one by one." Phoebe glanced up at the ceiling and said, "Hopefully Leo will know of something. Otherwise, I think we're going to have to find their lair and attack them when they're all together."
Chris watched the two of them talk, and felt something burning in his throat. Piper's harsh words bothered him more than he's like to admit, but he could also tell that he had never wanted to break up Piper and Leo. Whatever he had done at the time, that had never been his intention.
Piper nodded in agreement, then said, "In the meantime, maybe you should take Chris over to P3? If he looked through the backroom there, maybe it would trigger a memory?"
Phoebe gestured to the kitchen and said, "Paige could just orb him over. It would be faster."
"What's P3?" Chris asked, and wondered idly if he'd actually get an answer this time, or would the sisters and Leo continually ignore his presence when they were too busy discussing how to save him?
To his surprise, Piper answered, "It's my club. I'm the owner." She hesitated, then added, "You've been sleeping in the storage room there." She gave a tight smile, obviously hoping to at least appear as though she wasn't angry with Chris, and explained, "You might have some belongings there. Something that would tell you about yourself."
There was an uneasy silence while Chris met Piper's eyes, and detected the mix of emotions within. Anger, frustration, concern, annoyance, worry… His stomach twisted painfully. He had not wanted to upset her.
"Let's check with Paige. We can tell her about the demons, and when she's done with the potion, she can orb you over there," Phoebe said at last. She paused for a moment, then turned to Piper and said, "It might help if Paige or Leo tried to teach him how to control his orbing. I mean… he's a liability if he can't even protect himself."
Piper consented to this and walking into the kitchen to find Paige, indicating for the other two to follow her.
Underworld, 2025
The young woman shimmered into the cave and held her breath, listening for the sound of anyone following her. She waited, but the air was silent around her, yielding nothing but the faint echo of her own tired breathing.
The pain in her shoulder was growing. How much longer…?
The thoughts ended abruptly as the slightest movement behind her caught her eye, and she spun around, instincts kicking in, body falling easily into a fighting stance. An athame appeared in her hand and she wrapped her fingers around it, held her breathe, and waited.
The movement again.
She attacked, swiftly and with the deadly accuracy of someone who knows that it could be their last chance to survive. Her entire body slammed into the stranger moving around her, the athame raised quickly to the demon's throat. She was about to strike when she caught a better view of her victim's features, and she froze, athame still held sharply in front of her, eyes still wide.
"Damn it, Bianca. What was that for?" Cole asked angrily as he stepped away from her, rubbing his sore throat and glaring at the assassin. "Are you trying to get me killed?"
"I didn't know it was you," the Phoenix protested. "And I stopped as soon as I saw your face."
"Fine," Cole growled. "But I would have attacked you self-defense had I not seen it was you. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"Trying?" Bianca gave a cold, biting laugh. "I don't have to try. Melinda's determined to do it for me," she said by way of explanation. Dropping the athame reluctantly, she turned away from Cole. "I have to go," she said. She didn't have the time or luxury of explaining exactly what had happened.
She shimmered away before Cole had a chance to ask her any further questions, but the former Source was not about to let it go so easily. Bianca was the only one who knew exactly where… or when… Chris was, and if she was in danger, than Chris was in danger as well. And If Bianca wouldn't tell him why exactly she was on the run from apparently everything that moved, he was sure as hell going to get the answers from someone else.
His mission could wait. He concentrated on Prudence Melinda Halliwell, and shimmered away as well.
