This Time Love Will Find Us
Chapter Four: Trapped
Piper groaned. "This has got to be the most boring demon kidnapping ever!" She said, irritated and board out of her mind as she sat in a cave in the Underworld just waiting to be killed by the demon or rescued by her sisters. She was obviously hoping for the latter. "I mean what happened to the good old days of taunting about how superior they are and how I'll never get saved in time? All I want is some good old fashioned monologue-ing. Is that so much to ask for?" She ranted.
Chris Perry rolled his eyes in disbelief. Half an hour ago he had been sat in the Halliwells kitchen after Piper had invited him in for some lemonade and conversation. Of course he suspected she had been working on behalf of her sisters trying to get information out of him to see if he was a threat or harmless. Then they had been attacked by a demon. Of course. However Chris had had his back to the creature and hadn't seen a thing but Piper had tried to use her powers before being ultimately knocked out and transported to the Underworld.
"Did you see what type of demon it was?" Chris asked.
Piper glared at him. "A big one." She said. "How come you aren't surprised? Or panicking?"
Chris sighed. "I have faith in The Power of Three. In sisterhood. I seriously doubt Paige and Phoebe are going to let you die." He explained without really explaining.
"Who are you?" Piper asked, and it was clear from the tone of her voice that this question should not be avoided unless he wanted her to blow him up or something.
"I'm Chris Perry, a witch. I'm… from the future." He said, his eyes sliding away from hers as he didn't want to see the distrust and disbelief in them.
"I'm serious." Piper said in her no-nonsense tone of voice.
"So am I!" Chris replied, feeling fairly defensive. "Look, I was… will be born in January 2005, okay? My dad was a witch and my mom is a mortal and after my dad dies she doesn't really get magic. I mean its not like she signed up to give birth to a freak, now is it?" Chris looked away, the pain in his beautiful green eyes impossible to hide. "Look," he began again, his voice calmer this time, "I agreed to come back to the past to change specific events in hopes that it wouldn't end up as screwed up as it did in my time. Some of those events involve you; the Charmed Ones, which is why I moved in next door."
"Like what? What events?" Piper asked, still not convinced but she didn't sound so antagonistic now.
"Like Paige's death for one… it happens in a few weeks. It's a major turning point; the breaking of the Power of Three once and for all." Chris explains.
Piper looked heartbroken. The idea of losing another sister was as abhorrent to her as it was to Phoebe, and Chris could hardly blame her after all she had already lost; her normalcy, her mother, her grandmother, her sister Prue, her dreams, and her husband. It truly wasn't fair that this wise, beautiful, powerful witch had to lose so much in her life time. And she didn't know it yet but she had so much more to lose.
"So," Chris began again, his voice softer, "what did this demon look like?"
"He… he had a mark on his forehead… like a diamond but burned into his flesh. His skin was white and he was about seven feet tall and beefy. Um… he threw an athame at me but I didn't see it clearly and he used the power of Pyrokinesis on me." She explained.
"Sounds like a low level hunter demon… maybe a bounty hunter in which case he'll be either reporting to his employee in order to bargain for a price or he'll be after your sisters. It depends on the target." Chris summarized using his learning from Magic School.
Piper looked at him suspiciously. "How do I know you aren't the bounty?" She asked.
Chris gave her his best unimpressed look. "Oh yeah a bounty hunter really went to all the trouble of risking the Charmed One's wrath just to capture a male witch with the powers of telekinesis, deflection, materialising, and glamouring. Yeah, that makes sense." He said sarcastically and Piper glared at him.
"Fine then; maybe you hired the demon to capture us!" She said.
"Me? How would that help; I'm stuck here too!" He said.
"Which could be part of your plan to lure my sisters here so you would have a complete set!" Piper added.
"That's actually not a bad plan… but I'm not the bad guy here Piper. And besides, even if I was evil I would still care about Paget and by being here I'm leaving her to the mercy of your sisters." He reminded her.
Piper felt that he could be telling the truth about that. She had never seen a demon use a child that way and be able to truly fake genuine care and affection. Piper had seen Chris with his goddaughter Paget and he truly loved her. She decided it was time to talk about something different and since he had brought Paget up… "so how did you become Paget's guardian. Are you related?" She asked.
Chris smiled suddenly and it made his green eyes flash and light up. He looked so young and… beautiful when he did that. "No. When I was younger I made a friend – a best friend – at Magic School and Paget is her cousin. Later when the world went to shit her mother decided to make me her child's godfather because she knew something bad was going to happen to her. I don't really understand Paget's mother's motive but I know I will never betray the trust she put in me. Anyway, my best friend's aunt died a few hours later in an attack on the City and I've been looking after Paget ever since." He told her.
"An attack?" Piper mused out loud. "You make it sound like it was magical."
Chris gulped; he hadn't meant to reveal so much. "It was. In the future magic is exposed and a new Source rules over most of the Earth. It's pretty bad for everyone except those who follow the Source. And the worst part is that there is no one left who is strong enough to go after the Source. Al those who resist him live in what we call the City." He said, and Piper could hear he was passionate about the Resistance and upset at the idea of a new Source. Which to be fair the idea gave her the creeps and it hadn't even happened yet. That was if he was telling the truth.
"So you need to stop the Power of Three from dying so they can face the Source in your future?" Piper assumed.
Chris frowned. "Yes and no… the events that lead to the creation of the Source haven't yet occurred so by preventing Paige's death, yes I am hoping to stop the Source. But if I can stop the Source from being created in the first place, then that will be even better." He said.
"Right. Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you." Piper said, a little dazed and not just from information overload.
"And only just over a year in which to complete my tasks." Chris added. He noticed that Piper was looking very pale all of a sudden and crawled over to her. "Piper? Are you okay?" He asked softly, brushing her hair away from her face.
"It's just… I'm just a little cold… are you cold?" She asked. Chris frowned, worried. It was the underworld; no one got cold in the underworld. He touched his fingers to her forehead and winced at how warm she was.
"Are you sure you are cold Piper, because you are burning up." He said, and saw that there was a slight cut on her neck. "I think the athame may have hit you." He said. This was bad; very bad. Sometimes – Chris recalled – low level hunting demons used poison tipped athames to slow down or even paralyse their prey to make it even easier to capture and control. The poison itself often wasn't deadly but they could be fairly vicious and the only cure lay in the hands of the bounty hunter.
"Yeah… freezing." Piper said and Chris sat down next to her allowing her to snuggle into his leather jacket and share some of his body heat.
It was over three hours before Phoebe and Paige Orbed in. Piper had become delusional a while ago and had recently slipped into a coma. Chris had spent the last hour calling for Paige and Leo without hope – he wasn't a charge of theirs and he was in the underworld but he had hoped that maybe Piper's presence would make a difference. Obviously it hadn't.
Luckily they had the antidote with them and were able to Orb Piper and Chris back and give her the cure before it was too late. Still, she needed to rest and Chris needed to see Paget who he had discovered playing with Wyatt in the playpen. Well, as much as a nine month old baby and a five year old could play together. The scene sent shivers down Chris spine and he lifted Paget – who seemed unaware that anything was wrong – out and Materialised back to the empty house next door.
End of chapter four
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