~Charmed~

"Alright," Paige said as she dumped a basket of laundry onto Piper's king sized bed. She fixated her eldest sister with a glare that warned her lying wouldn't be advisable. Piper stared blankly at her. "What the hell is going on with you and Phoebe?"

Her sisters' feud had been subtle at first and Paige blamed her crusade of trying to save Richard for not being able to see it sooner. At first it was silence in the kitchen while they prepared potions or just finding one in the manor with the other at the club or the newspaper. It was just too frequent to be coincidental. And tonight at dinner when Piper announced that it'd be just the two of them going to Wyatt's preschool interview. What about Victor? Piper had shrugged off the question, mumbling something about him being sick. But Paige had babysat him earlier that afternoon and Victor seemed perfectly healthy. He was a bit tired and fussy but nothing out of the ordinary for the one-year-old. Piper began to match socks then biting on her cheek.

"Piper! You two not getting along will affect all of us. Now what's going on?"

"It's stupid," Piper admitted after a few moments of silence. "I might've implied that the only baby who could be evil in the future might be Victor."

"Piper!" Paige reprimanded. Motherhood had changed both of her sisters. Piper always had a maternal instinct but it only intensified with Wyatt's birth but Victor's birth had done much more for Phoebe. She had become a force of nature in the crusade to protect him and prove to the Elders that it was nurture not nature that would affect the outcome of her baby's future. She spent hours researching cognitive theories and talking to her psychology professors. Not to mention researching the origin of powers.

"I know," Piper barked out. "I know! But it just came out. I was hurt and dealing and I'm still not sure I trust Chris or Ben's testimony of my son."

"And how hurt do you think Phoebe was?" Paige questioned. "She's been told since day one that her son would be the epitome of evil. Cursed since birth, abomination is how I think the Elders termed it. And yes, Piper I don't want to believe that any of my nephews could become evil but what good would it do either future boy to say it was the wrong Halliwell child who turned evil?"

Paige was not sure where her own fury was coming from. It shocked her a bit to be taking on what would normally be Phoebe's role of mediation. But Piper was not looking at her; her stare had become hardened as it gazed on something behind Paige. Paige whirled around to find Chris standing in the doorway looking haggard.

"Can I help you?" Piper asked in a not-so-friendly manner.

"Yes. Meet me in the attic." Was all he said before orbing away. Paige fought the urge to let out a string of curses. Why couldn't future boy's problem wait a moment or two? She felt as if she were actually getting somewhere. Piper was already rushing out of the door and Paige joined her, hurrying up the steps.

"Chris I thought we were done with the cryptic crap…oh my." Piper said upon realizing that Ben now sat cross-legged in a circle of charged crystals. He looked angry and smelt very much of booze. He looked up at the sisters with blood shot unfocused eyes. There was a gush above his left eye. It looked more superficial than harmful but it was bleeding a lot.

"Chris, I get that siblings can be troublesome but usually I'd recommend chatting with yours before trapping one in a crystal cage." Paige said. And not for the first time eyed her whitelighter wearily. He'd been an oddity since arriving in the past, telling them half-truths and doing some very shady things. His brother was more of an enigma. Paige had some odd suspicions about him.

"We need to question him," Chris panted out. Underneath the light of the attic, Paige could see the sheen of sweat that had spread across the whitelighter's face and the harsh bruising that had surfaced on the left side of his face. "He was sent here."

"By who or whom?" Piper asked. When her question wasn't answered right away, Piper yelled, "either you answer right now or I start blowing things up."

"Wyatt," barked out Ben from where he sat. "Wyatt sent me. Just like he sent Bianca."

That tidbit was news to them, but to Chris this was did not seem newsworthy. He was flipping through the book fervently. "We need to adapt the Truth Spell," Chris told them through page flipping, "to just tell us stuff about his mission. Where's Phoebe?"

"She and Victor are visiting our father," Piper answered. And Chris opened his mouth most likely to retort to go get her but Piper silenced him with, "we can solve this problem ourselves and you know we can't alter a spell to be that specific."

"Then torture." Chris replied he knelt by the edge of the crystal cage and picked one up. But before he could began, the crystal was covered in a swarm of orbs and landed in Paige's outstretched hand.

It took Victor a moment to realize what had happened and he was never more thankful for his Aunt Paige than at this very moment. He rubbed at his temple, wishing that he hadn't had that fifth shot of whisky. He just hadn't been able to take the accusatory glare or the silence that had filled up P3. It was just after the burn of the liquid had settled in his throat the Chris pinned him to the wall of the bar and began to choke him. For the first time in his life, Victor flamed out. It was an involuntary reaction to being in peril. He could remember learning about it in Magic school. It was the rush of adrenaline. His inexperience led him to reappearing right where he had left. The display of demonic power only seemed to set off his cousin's rage. A rage he'd only ever had heard about in rumors, but that rage scared him. Chris had never been that violent as a kid.

"We can't just torture your brother Chris," Paige repeated. "It's inhumane."

Victor could see the temptation on Chris' face. The resistance leader just wanted to shout that Victor was only half-human. But he remained silent.

"Well Miss. Paige then what are we going to do with my evil son's agent?" Piper retorted.

"We keep him here." Paige replied, "for now. Until we can find a way to prove that he's trustworthy."