A/N: Huge, huge, HUGE thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter! I'm delighted to say it was the most reviewed chapter of this series so far :) Just to let you know that I have much less of this story planned out and written that I did with OofA, and real life is also a bit hectic, so the updating rate is going to be slower. But I am definitely committed to finishing this story, so don't worry that it will end up as one of the millions of frustrating abandoned-half-way-through ones on this site... it won't!

Chapter Two – Chris

The girl picked her way through the rubble, hands sparkling with a fresh energy ball. Chris readied himself, then rose out of his cover, his own hands held aloft as he reached for the magic inside him, biting down on his lip in anticipation of the pain. Nothing happened. He tried again but the prowling tiger remained out of reach. The girl spotted him and ran forward, drawing her arm back. Chris knew he should run, but his feet were frozen to the floor, hands held uselessly out in front of him, panicking rising inside until it was choking him, he could barely breathe –

"Move!"

The energy bolt blazed past Chris's face, close enough to scorch the skin, and smashed into the wall behind him. Dust and various bits of mortar rained down as he was thrown to the ground, landing hard on his left knee. Wincing, he scrambled behind the cover of a wall and then pulled up his cargo pants with shaking hands. Blood was trickling down his leg from a nasty looking gash, but when he flexed his leg carefully he was glad to see the damage was mostly superficial. He'd been lucky.

"Alright?"

A girl hunkered down beside him, chest heaving. Like Chris she was wearing non-descript fatigues in neutral colours, her long hair pulled back in two bunches to keep it out of her eyes. Her golden skin was dirty and there was a cut above one eyebrow, but her dark eyes were bright with determination.

"You didn't have to push me so hard," he grumbled shakily, pulling his cargo pants back down again and flexing his leg a few more times.

The girl snorted. "If I hadn't, you'd've hurt more than just your knee. Didn't you see Amy approaching? Why didn't you fight back –"

"She caught me by surprise, okay?" Chris shifted his position into a crouch and then peeked over the top of the wall. Amy might not have been hiding before, but she was now. "Where's Bianca?"

"Haven't seen her. Been too busy keeping you alive."

"Liv, give it a rest," Chris growled.

"I should go look for her before she flanks us… think you can manage here?"

She stared at him, challenge in every line of her body, looking unsettlingly like her older sister. Chris bit back a rude word, raised his fist instead, and sent a brief mental prayer up the heavens. After an endless, painful pause, lightning blossomed around his fingers. "I've got this," he gritted out.

Liv didn't look entirely convinced but before she could say anything more, a second energy ball shot down from high above, easily missing the wall. They both ducked.

"What the –"

"I think we've found Bianca – I'll play the bait while you sneak up behind her, yeah? And keep an eye out for Amy too." Liv scampered off, eyes on the sky. A trail of energy balls blazed down from the top of the building opposite, following her progresses as she ran down an alley and disappeared.

Chris unclenched his fist. His hands were trembling, darts of pain were racing up and down his arms and for a moment he thought he might be sick. He thought he'd gotten over this. Over the last week or so he'd finally started making progress with his electrokinesis. The nightmares were lessening and he'd been able to summon and control the power with a reasonable level of success. So why was he failing now?

You just have to concentrate, he told himself sternly, recalling what he'd learned. Concentrate and let it flow through you –

The words, spoken by his brother's voice, hit him so hard in the gut that he almost doubled over. His elusive might chose that moment to respond, bursting out of him in a flash of blue and white light. The beauty of it and the intoxicating taste of power flowed through Chris and for a moment he wanted to bathe in it, to let it have free reign and screw the consequences.

Then he remembered everything that had happened the last time he'd done that and sanity, such as it was, slowly returned, leaving him feeling weak and ill. It also reminded him that he was in the middle of a battlefield and Liv… she'd asked him to do something. Something about… sneaking up on Bianca?

Grateful for the distraction, Chris poked his head over the top of the wall. Liv had been looking up when she left… there, on the top of the building opposite – he spotted a flash of light as Bianca launched another attack on her sister. It looked like she was on the tenth floor… This was an offensive powers only training sessions, which meant orbing was out, so how the hell was he supposed to 'creep up behind here' up there?

Stairs. There had to be stairs. Inside the building or… there! A fire escape. Perfect. Chris assessed the distance, picking out some potential cover spots should Bianca notice him. Her height gave her a greater strategic advantage sure, but there was what looked like a bus shelter with an overhanging ceiling that offered some level of protection. If he aimed for that…

Chris took a deep breath and shot out of his hiding place, keeping his head down and ducking and weaving as he made his way towards the building. Round the trashcan, jumping over the bench, across the road and he could see it, only metres away, and even better – it would hide him from sight as he approached the fire escape –

The energy ball hit him square on, lifting him up into the air and throwing him backwards like a rag doll. The protective amulets they were all wearing prevented any serious damage, but it still hurt like hell when he hit the ground and there'd be some road rash there he'd be feeling for days. As he lay there, dazed, staring up at the sky, Chris tried to work out where he'd gone wrong. He heard footsteps, drawing nearer, and then a face broke into his line of vision and he realised his mistake.

He'd forgotten about Amy.

It was such a basic error that he actually groaned aloud. Amy raised a disdainful eyebrow and then held out a hand. It wasn't to help him up; it was crackling with magic that she was just itching to shove in his face. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.

"You win."

He learnt later that without his back-up, Liv couldn't get close enough to her sister to make any real impact and Bianca subdued her about ten minutes after Amy had taken him down. Chris lingered in the showers as the others clattered out of the locker room, resting his head against the tiles and just letting the water run down his face. His knee was still throbbing painfully and there was a nasty rash along his right arm, but he knew he'd got off lightly. He should even be able to fix those injuries up when he'd caught his breath… although his Whitelighter powers had been a bit temperamental lately. It seemed the more control he gained over his elecktrokinesis, the more he lost it elsewhere. Nothing in magic was ever easy.

When the water had begun to resemble ice, Chris left the shower and changed into a set of clean clothes. He rubbed his towel over his short hair in a vain attempt to dry it and then followed the girls out into the communal area. It looked a bit like a typical drop-in centre, with couches, a TV, kitchen area and table and chairs, but with a twist: it could only be entered by some form of teleportation and also housed a massive magical training hall that could be changed into whatever form the user wanted. Today it had been a down-town cityscape; last week they'd been training in a forest and a network of caves. Bianca said it was all to do with learning to adapt to different situations and circumstances. Chris wasn't sure when he'd ever be doing any fighting in a forest, but it was definitely helping to sharpen his reflexes. Usually.

Liv and Bianca were gathered in the kitchen and he reluctantly joined them, bracing himself for the onslaught. Liv didn't disappoint. "What's with you today?" she complained, wrenching open the fridge and sticking her head inside. Her voice became muffled. "We haven't been beaten like that in ages."

"Yeah you did kind of make it easy for us, Halliwell," Amy agreed from one of the couches. She was flicking idly through a magazine, not a hair out of place. It was like she'd just strolled out of a beauty parlour, not gone through a gruelling magical training session. "Hardly worth getting out of bed."

Liv emerged from the fridge with a bottle of water in one hand, which she proceeded to chug down. "Are you sick? Overworked? Brain dead?" she managed between gulps. When Chris didn't reply, she gave him a critical once-over. "Looks like someone needs extra stamina training."

Amy sniffed. "Well, what do you expect from a guy?"

"Don't start that again…" Liv warned, eyes flashing.

"What else can I say when there's all this evidence?" Amy dropped the magazine on the table and stretched languidly before sauntering out of the room, Liv glaring daggers at her back. Once the other girl had gone, she let loose a frustrated noise and slumped down at the kitchen table. "I hate it when we lose to her!"

"Then don't lose to her," Bianca said helpfully from where she was leaning against the kitchen units, running her fingers through her freshly washed thick dark hair.

Liv's glare found a new target. "I didn't plan on it…" she growled, "but I can't do everything myself." She reached out and poked Chris's leg with her foot. "Explain."

Chris dodged around her and retrieved his own drink from the fridge. "It's just an off-day."

"Chris, you sucked. You sucked like it was your first time or something. Your magic fritzing out, forgetting about Amy… Explain!"

God, Liv could be annoying. She was kind of like Melinda in that way – no. No, don't think about that. Not today.

He slammed the fridge closed with more force than was necessary. "I've got a lot of stuff on my mind, okay?"

"What kind of stuff?" Liv badgered relentlessly, unruffled by his annoyance. If her career as a witch didn't work out, she'd have a hell of a bright future in interrogation.

"Just… stuff." He dropped onto the bench and tugged on the seal of the bottle.

"Stuff like… magical stuff?"

"No."

"Boy stuff?"

"Liv –"

"Bianca stuff?"

"What? No!" Chris turned his head away, aware he was blushing furiously. "Stuff like it's my birthday, okay?"

That shut her up. For about a second. "Oh wow, yeah, that one was nowhere near my list of guesses. Happy birthday!"

"Uh, thanks."

"I love birthdays. What, are you like fifteen now or something? Hey Bianca, d'you think Mom would let us have a party?"

"Sixteen."

"Probably not after what happened at Cate's eighteenth… Did you feel any older when you woke up this morning? I always feel older. Which is funny really, I mean, you're only technically one day older than you were the day before, which is the same as any other day in the year –"

"Liv, out."

Liv shot her sister an injured look. "But I was just –"

"Out!" Bianca ordered, taking her little sister by the shoulders and physically pushing her towards the open doorway.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Liv protested, slapping Bianca's hands away. She tossed her empty water bottle in the direction of the recycling can and cheered when it went in. "Hole in one! Hey, make sure he's better by tomorrow, yeah? I'll never live it down if Amy beats me again –"

Bianca shut the door in her sister's face and leant against it, folding her arms across her chest. Chris waited out the silence, sipping from his drink and trying to make his mind blank. It didn't work. It hadn't been working all day.

"You're thinking about your family."

It was a safe bet and Chris didn't bother denying it. He picked at the label on his bottle, defacing the cheery "Summit Spring" logo.

"Chris."

He twisted the strip of paper he'd pulled off around his finger. "Do you blame me?"

"No. Especially not today." Bianca moved closer, settling onto the bench opposite him. Having her this close would normally have done strange things to his pulse, especially with how much golden skin was on display around her halter top and leggings. It was a measure of how distracted he was that it wasn't until she reached forward and closed her hand over his that he really realised she was there. "It's okay, Chris. It's natural. You're only human."

Her long fingers were warm against his. Inexplicably a knot formed in his throat and threatened to choke him. "I just… it's my sixteenth, and I never thought…"

"… You'd be spending it on your own?"

Chris nodded. Bianca turned his hand over and laced her fingers through his. "You're not on your own, Chris."

"I know, but –"

"You don't owe them anything," she continued softly. "They lied to you. They betrayed you."

"They're my family," he whispered.

"They lied to you," she insisted. "What they turned you into – do you remember how that felt?"

Screaming, terror, pain – He pulled away, stung. "How could I forget?"

Bianca inclined her head. "It was wrong. What they did, it was so wrong. They treated you like a child and they took your choices away from you – and all in the name of protection? No, I don't buy it. No one has the right to do that to another person. Especially not someone they call family."

The old burning anger he'd been nursing for months sparked back into life, with echoes of 'how could they' and 'why did they' crowding his mind. For once he didn't want to embrace it. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Chris –"

"No, I'm not doing this. Not now. Not today."

Bianca was quiet for a moment. "Okay," she murmured, half to herself. "Okay. Why don't I show you what I got you for your birthday instead?"

The abrupt change of subject caught him off guard. "You got me – you got me a present?"

"I'm a traditionalist." Bianca rifled through her bag and pulled out a neatly wrapped package that she pushed across the table to him. "Here."

Chris picked up the present. The shiny black paper, with its silver and white geometric shapes, reminded him strangely of Bianca.

"Going to open it or just admire it?"

He dug his nails in and ripped the paper along the top of the present. Peeling it back revealed a slender brown box, with a gold catch on one side, that he flicked open after a couple of moments of fumbling.

Inside the box was what Chris first took to be a length of rope. Then he looked more closely and saw it was a length of intricately braided leather, looping around to form a bracelet. In the centre, held in place by several of the dark strands, was an oval stone. It had been polished until it shone under the kitchen's strip lights, throwing off miniature rainbows of colour. As soon as Chris touched it, he felt a jolt of power run up his arm.

"It's a focus stone," Bianca explained into the silence. "You can use it to strengthen spells, or to help with scrying… you can even store magic in it."

Chris lifted the bracelet out and slipped it on. The touch of the crystal against his skin was warm and familiar; it felt like it had always belonged to him.

Bianca shifted in her chair, uncrossing and then re-crossing her legs. "It's not much –"

"It's ace," he breathed, tilting his wrist this way and that, watching the stone cast a glow over the table.

She stopped moving. "Yeah?"

"Hell yeah. How do I…?"

"Just touch it like this when you're casting a spell –" She leaned across the table to demonstrate, fingers pressing against the pulse point of his wrist. All thoughts of his family fled and he was suddenly aware how close she was, how the scent of something spicy seemed to cling to her skin and how if he turned his head to the right slightly he could see the top of her lacy black bra peeking out from underneath her top.

"This is… you didn't have…" That knot was back in his throat and he tried to swallow it. "Thanks," he finished gruffly.

She smiled. "Well, had to give you something to open."

He found himself smirking back, welcoming the return of her biting wit. "Oh so this was a pity present?"

"One hundred percent."

"I'd hate to see what you buy me when you think I'm really depressed."

Bianca laughed, a lock of dark hair falling into her eyes. Chris reached out automatically and tucked it back behind her ear, fingers lingering against her cheek as he realised what he was doing. Her hand tightened around the bracelet on his wrist and then suddenly they were kissing and all coherent thought fled. They'd kissed briefly a couple of times over the last several weeks, but there was something more to this, something deeper. Bianca's free hand found its way under his t-shirt as her lips opened and he tasted the cherry of her lip balm. He groaned into her mouth, wishing that the table wasn't between them so he could feel her pressed against him.

Pleasure overrode all the memories, lingering guilt and anger, and Chris gladly whited-out for a while. When they finally drew apart, he felt like he was walking on air. Bianca, on the other hand, looked tense and shaken.

"What is it?"

Just for a second something revealing flashed through her eyes, but before she could offer any explanation a loud voice interrupted them.

"Biaaaaanca! Bianca! Mom wants you and Chris!"

Bianca pulled back as if scolded, just as the door flew open and Liv appeared. "Don't know why I have to play messenger…" she complained. "Mom wants to see you and Chris."

"I heard." Bianca rose without looking at Chris and moved to join her sister. "Did she say why?"

Liv shrugged. "I'm just the carrier pigeon. Had to come back to get my bag anyway 'cos someone shoved me out so quickly I left it behind." She slipped around Bianca and reclaimed the aforementioned purple bag, bulging with a fluffy white towel and her training clothes, from its spot on the couch. There was a little stuffed lion swinging from one of the handles that got squished against Liv's arm when she shouldered the bag. "Done my good deed for the day. If anyone asks, me and Cate are going to the movies. Laters."

She disappeared as quickly as she'd arrived, leaving an awkward silence. Chris studied Bianca's stiff back and tried to work out what he'd done wrong.

"Are you okay?" he ventured finally, grimacing inwardly at how lame that sounded. He'd never been good at this romantic stuff at the best of times, and especially not when his brain was still insisting on flashing back to the sensation of her lips on his.

"Why wouldn't I be? We'd better go – Mom likes punctuality."

She was halfway out of the door before Chris had even stood. "Hey, Bianca?"

"What?"

Her composure had snapped right back into place and she was like the Bianca he'd first met back on the school campus, all sharp angles and cutting retorts and mocking smiles. The natural warmth between them had gone and somehow that loss made him feel more alone than ever.

"Forget it. Let's go."