"Wyatt!" My voice was hoarse from screaming.
"Chris, shouting at the ceiling won't get you anywhere." Finally getting annoyed at my roaring at the air, Phoebe snapped at me furiously, rubbing her temples. "Just sit down and help come up with a solution or something, anything but your pacing and screaming."
Stifling my curses, I walked back over to the Book of Shadows. No matter how many times I tried to sense Hope or any of the Wyatt's, I just kept coming up blank which infuriated me even more than I already was.
Then it clicked.
My head snapped up and orbed out without conscious thought. Materializing in Magic School, I mentally kicked myself for not thinking it sooner. I was searching wildly around the room for any signs of them with my guard up, when Wyatt's snug voice echoed in the empty room I spun around to face him, ready to attack.
"Took you long enough."
A couch stood in front of Wyatt, dwarfed by his height with what looked like a sleeping Hope and Wyatt lying peacefully on it.
"I can understand you taking Hope Wyatt, but why on earth did you take yourself?"
"I couldn't give the Charmed Ones a chance at finding me. I only want you here." He walked around in front of the couch, peering down at himself and Hope curiously.
"You have no idea how much your little trip will damage the future Chris. I didn't make it they way I wanted it for you and your petty jealousies to try and ruin it.
"Ruin it? Are you serious? The world was ruined even before I left; you just can't see how much of it you've destroyed!"
"You still cannot see the bigger picture Chris that has always been your problem. When are you going to see there is no such thing as good or evil? Only the powerful can survive in a just world!" Wyatt eyes blazed with disillusionment, his fists clenching and his mien growing wilder and wilder. I guess it was then that I truly saw him for what he was; a lost boy wading through the quagmire of the world he created, believing it to be perfect. I had always thought he had lost his innocence a long time ago but I now realized I was wrong. He was ignorant in the fact that he didn't know what living life truly meant. He could never understand how beautiful it was since he destroyed all the beauty, leaving a broken shell of a world all because he never got the chance to see it after he turned evil. If I could, I would have felt pity for him.
"You're world is more corrupt than the third Reich, Wyatt, when are you going to realize that?" My voice was growing more hopeless and I could do nothing to stop it. There was no anger left in me; I couldn't fight anyone. I had no fight left. I just wanted to go to a safe home with my little girl, for her to grow up in a safe world, and that world looked more out of reach than ever.
Wyatt on the other hand was growing more furious by just being in my presence. I love having that effect on him.
Unwilling tears welled up in my eyes as I asked the question I've been waiting to ask since I was thirteen years old.
"Why did you do it Wyatt? Why did you take everything from me?"
"Take? I was testing you. If you loved them strongly enough to actually hold on to them you would have. It doesn't appear that you do. What would mom say when she realized you didn't even love her enough to keep her or your daughter and fiancé safe?" He smirked knowing he had hit and chord and was waiting for the inevitable fight to break out. I turned my head to hide my tears from him.
"Please give her back to me" I held my hand out to Hope, tears falling freely down my face as I looked at Wyatt in desperation.
Wyatt looked at me with despise before growling at me. "You disgust me." He began to walk away.
"You'll never understand Wyatt! Never understand what's it's truly liked to be loved and wanted. To love them back so much that you can feel your heart ready to burst you're so happy!" He looked back at me with lingering hatred in his blazing eyes. "Instead you waste away on you're pedestal! That's not living, that's existing."
Before I could comprehend it, he was holding my throat, lifting me a foot off the ground, glaring at me. "You will not speak to me in that manner. I don't need you!"
My throat constricted as I fought for air, the world beginning to grow hazy.
Then just as suddenly I was lying on the floor gasping for breath.
"Never just leave like that again, Chris!" Leo held a hand out to me, helping me to my feet. I looked up to find little Wyatt held safely in Piper's arm and Phoebe sending kick after kick in Wyatt's direction and Paige telekinetically throwing Wyatt of balance. It was definitely a sight for sore eyes. Piper hurriedly handed Wyatt over to Leo before screaming at her sisters to duck before hitting future Wyatt with her explosive power sending him flying across the room once again.
I ran on unsteady feet, falling heavily on the couch to the still seemingly sleeping Hope. I tried to wake her, shaking her frantically and she didn't even stir. My terrified eyes sought out Leo's. "Help me!" He refused to look up from little Wyatt who he was also trying to rouse.
I could hear the banging from Wyatt being blown across the room, grateful that Piper was quicker than her was.
"Come on Hopey, please wake up" I held her to my chest and sobbed into her soft hair before I felt it. My heart warmed, spreading to my hands which lit with a soft golden glow, sending my life force into Hope's.
"Daddy, why are you crying?" My sobs grew louder as I held her more closely to my chest, laughing in relief. "Oh, god Hope, don't ever scare me like that again!"
My head snapped up when I heard the orbs of Paige orbing out with Phoebe just in time to avoid an energy ball and Leo orbing out with little Wyatt after Piper screamed at him to do so before trying to reason with her future son, before being angrily thrown out of the way.
My hand reached down on its own accord, caressing Hope's small face.
"I love you, Hope." I whispered words forming itself in my mind the longer my hand touched her skin. A spell that I had already used, one that I knew worked.
"Hear these words, hear the rhyme
Heed the hope within my mind.
Send Wyatt back you where he'll find
What I wish in place and time."
I repeated the spell over and over again, feeling the spell take affect, feeling the power course from me and filling the room making it tangible.
Howling began to fill the room along with the near silent moans of Piper.
"No!" Wyatt's arms were held up, his fists clenched "If I'm going, you're coming with me!" His voice roared through the noise that filled the room before the telekinetic noose was pulled around my neck, stopping me from saying the spell.
But the spell was never stopped. Hope's young voice filled the room in a crescendo, the words filled with power of not only her own, but mine. My magic flowed from my body and into hers through the hand that touched her shoulder and into the air, tying Wyatt down as light burst behind him. In one last desperate attempt to kill me, energy balls and explosions were aimed my way.
Then silence.
The pressure released from around my throat leaving me gasping for breath.
"I always knew you could do it little Bee" I choked out, turning to where I knew she was. "Hope?" I scrambled towards her frantically when she didn't answer, finding her crumpled on the floor.
"Hope!" I clutched her to my chest and tried to make her wake up. I called for her, desperately trying to shake her awake, wishing the glow would come back.
"Leo!" Tears were flowing freely down my face, sobs threatening to overcome me. "Leo! Come back!" My voice broke.
"Please wake up." I held her close to me and cried as if that alone would bring her back. My five year old daughter was gone. And all because of Wyatt.
"Chris?" Piper's worried voice made me lift my head. As soon as she saw my face, her expression crumpled and she hurried towards me.
"Mom, she won't wake up." I couldn't speak any more. I embraced Hope, sobbing my heart out for the one person that changed my heart and my life. Without her, I had no hope for the future. Without her, I am lost. We are doomed.