Chapter 3

"Chris!" Aunt Paige says through tears of happiness, she is the first one through the door and the first to reach me. Aunt Paige tackles me and smothers me with a giant bear hug.

"Hi Aunt Paige I'm glad to see you too!" I manage to get out, it was slightly difficult with her on top of me.

"Shoo, shoo let his other Auntie hug him too." Phoebe says playfully pushing her sister aside. I brace myself for the impact of my other aunt. "Hey kiddo. I'm glad you're okay."

"Hey Aunt Phoebe, I'm glad to hear that." I say relieved at least I was sure my Aunts still want me.

"We are sooo sorry for everything we said and did. Can you forgive us please?" My Aunts plead.

"Hmm, I'll have to see..."

"Chris!" They draw my name out in a whining plead.

"I'm joking. Of course I forgive you. A, I probably would have done the same thing and B, You're family and family sticks together."

They crawl off me and I see my mother standing in front of me, her hands on her hips, "Christopher Perry Halliwell! Don't you ever scare me like that again. You here?"

"Piper!" Aunt Paige and Phoebe leap to my defense.

"It's okay." I console them, facing my mother I say, "Yes Mom, I'm sorry."

Piper pretends to look stern for a few moments but she can't hold the face, plus I was using my bambi eyes on her. "All right and I think I should be the one apologizing not you. I'm sorry for everything. Now give me a hug!"

With a squeal she pounces and begins to tickle me relentlessly, "Uncle, Uncle!" I giggle. Mom stops and I squeeze her as tight as I can without hurting her, "I never want to let you go Mom. I love you more than you will ever know."

She ruffles my hair and hugs me back, "I love you too Peanut."

"Aww! That's adorable." The Auntie's say.

"Group hug!" I shout and they pile on.

I could have stayed that way forever warm, safe, and with the ones I love most in the world but we're Halliwell's so of course something had to come up... or orb in.

-/Chrishalliwell11\-

Black crystals suddenly appear in a circle around our happy family reunion, then in a flurry of dark orbs a flailing bundle of blue orbs falls yelling some very unpleasant things several pounds of Elder robes and Leo lands on our group flattening us to the dusty wooden attic floorboards. "Get off me!" I shout beneath the weight of my family plus Leo, "You're suffocating me!"

Leo, who is already off snorts something that sounds like, "Good."

Mom rolls off and my Aunts help each other off. Able to breathe again I examine our current predicament, "Crap! What's he doing here!?"

"What's wrong? Who's here Peanut?" Mom asks concerned.

"Peanut?" Leo asks confusion evident in his voice, he apparently is still in denial.

"Shush." Mom shushes him.

"Oh nobody to worry about Mom, just The Future Source of All Evil, aka my brother Wyatt."

"Not that crap again." Leo mutters anger and denial in his voice.

At the same time Aunt Paige and Phoebe say, "Wyatt's here?"

"Is that who trapped us?" Mom questions.

"Yes this again, and it no matter how much you deny it is true. Yes he's here I think and I have to guess he trapped us. Where's Baby Wyatt?"

"Victor wanted some time with him so I left Wyatt with him." Leo answers.

"I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but what's done is done."

Mom raises her hands ready to blow our way to freedom, "Wait Mom don't!" I yell.

"Why?" Mom asks

I open my mouth to answer but Leo buts in, "Because he wants us to believe he's our son and that Wyatt's evil so he can keep us trapped in here and kill us." Leo raises his hands and before I can stop him lightning bolts stream from his hands and hit the dark crystals.

"Ahhhh!" Leo, Aunt Paige and I scream in sudden agony as soon as the bolts strike the crystals.

Leo curses, "What the heck is this?"

"What I was trying to warn you about if you weren't so full of yourself!" I yell my voice full of pain as the deadly poison courses through my veins. "A demon from the future plants these crystals which are magically enchanted to hold beings of light, plus if you try to use your powers on them they just absorb it and bounce it back at you, but with a poisonous twist. Because you used Elder bolts the poison struck all those with the possibility of gaining that ability, or in this case all those with whitelighter blood." I finish with a painful gasp.

Mom reaches to touch me but I recoil,"Don't! Even though you don't have whitelighter blood or the possibility of gaining electrokinesis you can still be infected, the poison spreads by physical contact, inhalation, and ingestion. That's part of what makes it so deadly. At this point the only thing you have to worry about is physical contact so don't touch any of us who've been infected. Wyatt sent a demon from the future to capture us and take me out. This may not be Wyatt directly but it's Wyatt, this is all my fault I'm so sorry. This poison isn't only deadly it feeds on magic, if it is stopped depending on when all or most of your magic is gone. Because we are Halliwell's and an Elder this poison will suck all of our powers in twelve hours, in eighteen we'll be unconscious and in twenty four hours..."

"Death?" Aunt Phoebe says the thought I know was bouncing around in everyone's mind.

"No, in some ways worse. After consuming all the power it can find the poison triggers the shut or slow down mechanism in our bodies driving us into unconsciousness, then it slowly drains us of vital nutrients and we'll slip into an endless coma as the poison turns our bodies against us, until eventually after up to a year the poison begins it's last hurrah, a painful last month of unbearable agony as our bodies eat themselves from the least to most vital organs, cells, skin, fat and blood."

Dead silence (no pun intended) then, "You sound like you've dealt with it before." Leo says in a quiet, almost compassionate voice.

"This poison destroyed my family."

"You mean us?" Mom asks softly.

Tears are threatening to fall now, "Yes. The demon attacked on my fourteenth birthday, by the time I was sixteen I had watched both my Aunts and Uncles painful endings. Only us kids, Leo, Victor and Mom were spared. Leo, Victor and my cousins plus Wyatt were on their way when the attack happened. Mom and I were at home and the demon shimmers in with Excaliber, so I knew Wyatt was in on it, without administering the poison he ran you through with Excaliber and just laughed at my desperate attempts to heal you. Leo never could find the time to help me with my powers only Wyatt's training mattered. You died in my arms and when everyone arrived they found me in a puddle of your blood in nothing but my pants, I tried to stop the bleeding with my sweatshirt. This demon proceeded to become Wyatt's right hand and destroy and torture the most powerful magical creatures in our world. The worst thing about the coma you can't tell it's a coma until it's too late, thousands of people who were on search and rescue teams died from pulling the comatose victims from collapsing buildings or fires." The tears are freely falling now and before I can protest Aunt Paige gently pulls my head so I'm leaning on her shoulder. Aunt Paige strokes my hair and makes calming noises. Stifling my sobs I lay down the truth and just the plain truth of the situation, " We have twelve hours to get out of this cage, find and obtain a cure or The Power of Three is basically down a power and driving will become our main mode of transportation. Without a cure in twenty four hours permanent bodily damage could leave us paralyzed or worse. And during this the three of us who are infected cannot come in contact with anyone, we can't risk an outbreak." I say trying to protect them from the one fact I hadn't informed them of, in six hours all my powers would be gone and in three my orbing abilities will be all that remains, in nine hours unconsciousness would occur and in twelve hours my coma would begin in twenty four hours the 'last hurrah' would begin and in thirty six to forty eight hours I would be dead. One of the many perks of being the son of an Elder and one of the eldest Charmed Ones.