Fix It
Chapter 8: Curing Chris
"Going back to an important detail," Bianca began. "How are we going to fix Chris?"
The eight adults looked at each other. No one had any ideas.
"Maybe there'll be something at Magic School," Rose proposed. "The library there is huge and might have some potions or spells we've never heard of."
"No," Wyatt said darkly. Kali gave him an odd look. That was a rather strange reaction, especially since she knew he had gone to school there. She had learned everything she knew from her father and her mother's family. Aunt Lily always had such random ideas for teaching….
"So, what do you propose we do," she questioned coolly.
"I don't know but I don't think we should get another Elder involved," was his response. "It's bad enough Leo knows; I don't really want Gideon to know as well."
Kali frowned slightly but let it go. She wasn't sure what his issue with Gideon was but that made her curious. She had never heard any complaints about Gideon before but she did know he had been one of the first Elders to die when he had taken over. She had always assumed it was due to him being Leo's mentor but now she wasn't sure…. By the slight frown she saw on Ben's face she had the feeling he had the same suspicions. Or he could be reading Wyatt's mind.
"Well, we're back to square one," Piper said in disgust. This was getting frustrating….
"I'm going to go check the Underworld," Kali announced. "My dad and uncles should have contacts that may know who attacked Chris. That may actually be our best bet is finding out who attacked Chris and for what purpose. I doubt the demons from the park were the only ones."
She had more reasons than that, but it was a good enough excuse to get away. Kali orbed out quickly.
"Huh," commented Paige. "She seems to like disappearing a lot."
Bianca and Rose both shrugged. "It's just something she does," Rose said dismissively.
"Well, what else should we do," Phoebe asked. "According to him," she started, pointing to Wyatt, "we shouldn't get help from Gideon/Magic School. According to Dirk, there are almost unlimited possibilities as to what hit Chris and we have no clue why demons seemingly attacked Chris at random."
"Maybe they were attempting to attack witches of a certain power level," Ben proposed. "Chris is a really powerful witch, but he's less powerful than either Wyatt or Kali. They may have seen as being extremely strong but not as strong as those surrounding him."
"Unlikely," Wyatt replied, shaking his head. "For that to be true they would have also had to have tried to get at Bianca; she's weaker than all three of us. Chris was the target. I also have the bad feeling they were supposed to either kidnap or kill him once he was a child."
"And since we're in the past no one knows all of Chris's powers," Bianca said in realization. "That stupid power-binding curse he got hit with a few years back wouldn't be in effect any more he would have been able to use all of his powers."
"Wait, hold up," interrupted Paige. "Chris has some of his powers bound?" All three Charmed Ones looked confused about that.
"Yeah," Ben said with a nod. "It happened when he was about 17. None of us can figure out how to reverse it. Over powering it doesn't seem to work so he's been down to some of his most basic powers for the past few years."
Phoebe tilted her head in curiousity. His appearance was still bothering her, but her curiosity was about to win out of her not wanting to deal with anyone who looked that much like Cole.
"What do you mean by basic powers," she asked.
"By basic we mean he can use his telekinesis, orbing and his abilities to make spells and potions. He normally would have a shield, levitation and for some strange reason weather manipulation. No one's quite figured out where that one came from," Wyatt said with a slight shrug.
He left out the telepathic bond that existed between all Halliwell children. Everyone could bother everyone but it worked best between whoever worked their magic closely enough. For him it worked best with Chris and Ben, oddly enough. It wasn't as strong with Mel but her bonds were strongest with Prue and Penny, Phoebe and Paige's oldest daughters. Pam, Pansy and Patty, Phoebe and Paige's younger daughters all had a bond together. Chris had once made the joke that the bonds were based first on gender and then on age.
"Weather manipulation," Paige said with a slight smirk. "Maybe that comes from the whole 'mom was briefly a nature goddess' thing?"
"Possibly," Wyatt acknowledged. "Either way, I think it's more likely that the demons were hired to kill Chris and they saw turning him into a child as a fast and easy way to do it. He wouldn't be able to fight back, or so they would believe, and no one would know whose body it was."
Kali vomited the second she reached the Underworld. She knelt down as she did so. She had been fighting nausea for the past several minutes and took the first chance she could to escape the Manor. Kali really had planned on searching the Underworld for answers, but she couldn't deny that it helped cover her apparent illness. She'd been getting sick randomly for the past few weeks. It had started not long after they had rescued Bianca from Wyatt and she had used herself as bait. Kali refused to think about the possibilities.
She started when she felt a soft hand on her shoulder. Kali looked up and saw Azmeon. Without meaning to she had orbed into her uncle's caves.
"Hi Uncle Az," she said with a shaky smile.
Az just stared down at the adult form of Kali. He had literally just seen Dirk and baby Kali. Dirk had been muttering something about de-aging potions. For a moment he had thought Dirk was saying that adult Kali had been de-aged but he could that that was untrue.
"Are you alright," he asked worriedly. It was not a good sign when someone's first action when reaching the Underworld was vomiting, especially if it was a demon.
"I'm fine," she said, waving off his concern as she stood up. He helped her get up, earning him a mulish look from vivid blue eyes. She hadn't wanted the help.
"Why are you down here," he asked, curious. Az hadn't really expected to meet his niece at all on this adventure. He was expecting to see an adult Kali when she actually reached adulthood.
"Chris, the Charmed Ones' whitelighter was turned into a child by a potion. I came down here in an effort to see who may have ordered an attack on him and what potion was used."
Az nodded. "So that's what your father had been muttering about. I was wondering about that."
"Do you have any ideas," she asked hopefully.
"I may," he said slowly. "There's been someone down here making noise. The noise was initially assumed to be about what the Charmed Ones were up to, with so many vanquishes, but that's generally understood to have been the whitelighter's fault and is being ignored. But now there's noise as if a new Source is on the scene," Az trailed off at the sight of Kali shaking her head.
"There can't be a new Source," she said. "No one tries for the title for at least another ten years."
Az frowned as he heard that. "Are you sure," he demanded. "Because everything I'm hearing pushes towards someone making a power-grab."
"Yeah, no one makes a power-grab for another ten years," she repeated.
"What the hell is going on down here," he murmured.
Kali gave him a grim look. "That's a very good question. And I've got another; what's it got to do with Chris?"
Leo stood on the Golden Gate Bridge staring over the water. He knew the Charmed Ones thought he had gone back to heaven but in truth he had come out here to think. It was a horrifying realization for him to know that, not only had he almost killed his own son, but he hadn't even recognized his own child. In hindsight, it was obvious that Chris was his and Piper's son. He looked too much like them.
His eyes were unfocused, too caught up in his own thoughts to notice anyone else. He almost fell off the bridge when a hand suddenly fell on his shoulder. Leo's eyes widened when he saw Dirk Morgenstern standing just behind him.
The other man had an agitated look on his face. Dark blue eyes were cold and his short brown hair seemed mussed, probably from running a hand through it.
"Who amongst the Elders was least happy about your marriage to Piper Halliwell," Dirk asked abruptly.
"Why does that matter," Leo asked, confused.
"It's possible that they may be attempting to kill Chris. What better way to prove that your marriage should never had happened then to allow Wyatt to become evil? Admittedly, it is counter-productive but no one can say that Elders don't have a habit of being dumb fucks." By the way Dirk was staring at him Leo knew he was including him in the 'dumb fucks' part of the statement.
"Most of the Elders were against it," Leo admitted. "If it wasn't for Gideon I don't think they would have ever been convinced."
Dirk tilted his head, eyes narrowing slightly. "Out of curiosity, did any of the first Three get involved?"
"No, why would they have," Leo asked, giving Dirk an odd look. "And how do you even know about them?"
"I've been around for a long time," Dirk replied dryly. "You learn some things. Either way, I was wondering since if they got involved it would actually be less likely that my theory was incorrect."
Leo blinked. "Okay," he said, still confused.
"So, Gideon was the one who helped push for your marriage," Dirk said softly. "Interesting."
"Why is that so interesting?"
"It just is," was Dirk's cool response.
Leo glared at the darklighter. He really disliked the man, especially since he had ripped into him over his skills as a parent. Leo liked even less the fact that Wyatt had flat out referred to the demon as being a better father.
Leo opened his mouth to say something when he heard a soft cooing noise. He looked down and realized Dirk was holding baby Kali. She had been asleep and since he had been looking at Dirk he hadn't noticed her. Dirk was holding her on his hip, below Leo's line of sight.
"You're carrying your daughter," he asked increduosly. "Isn't that dangerous when confronting an Elder." His voice was slightly mocking.
"Elder, I would warn you against mocking me," Dirk said dangerously soft. "Especially since you were incapable of recognizing your own child when he came to the past and for probably doing many worse things than I have in the course of being a father in the coming years. It didn't escape my notice that both your sons seem to hate you, even with one being a toddler at the moment. At least I was both able to recognize my daughter and have it verified that I will be a good one. I would worry less about my parenting skills and more about your own."
Dirk moved slightly further from Leo, preparing to darkorb back into the Underworld.
"Oh and Leo," he said, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "Next time you decide to taunt me remember this; there are darklighter poisons so strong that even an Elder can't heal them. You push me hard enough and I will kill you." With that he orbed away.
Leo just glared at the vanishing orbs. He sniffed suddenly, smelling smoke. Leo yelped as he looked down and realized his jacket was on fire. Little Kali had used her magic just seconds before Dirk orbed them away to set him on fire.
"So," Piper said. "Back to focusing on helping Chris." She did not want to think on the morbid point Wyatt had just made.
"We need to find out if the demons that attacked did this alone, with a group or under someone's orders. We also need to figure out how to fix Chris!"
Rose bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. "Did you guys do a diagnostic spell yet to see what's wrong," she asked.
Paige gave her a blank look. "A what spell."
"A diagnostic spell," Rose said slowly. "You know, a spell that you cast so that you can see if someone's sick or not?"
Bianca could see this was going to end somewhere bad quickly. Rose had the unfortunate habit of pissing people off unintentionally.
"Rose, I don't think they know any diagnostic spells," she said quickly.
"Oh. Well, I don't think I can actually cast spells at the moment seeing as I'm dead but I'll try and do a diagnostic spell on mini-Chris."
Rose walked over to Wyatt and placed her hands gently on Chris. She didn't even need to do a diagnostic spell. Rose could sense a strange pulse in Chris's magical core which was more evident to her due to the whole, not fully being in the mortal plane.
"They used an age regression potion that actually has a time limit," Rose said absently. "I think I can make it fade faster though." She concentrated and informed Wyatt absently, "put Chris on the floor, he won't be happy if your holding him when he re-ages."
Wyatt gently placed Chris on the floor with Rose following him down to keep her hands on Chris. A glow surrounded the two and suddenly made it hard to see either. When the glow faded an adult Chris was lying on the floor. Thankfully his clothes had grown with him so he wasn't naked.
Chris sat up with a groan. His head was killing him. He blinked when he saw Rose leaning over.
"Rose, you're supposed to be dead," he pointed out.
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious Chris," Ben drawled.
"You're supposed to be in a coma," Chris said, stunned. How were they both here, especially in the past?
"Well, I am dead," Rose informed him. "And Ben in theory is still in a coma. He's actually just an astral projection at the moment and I'm a spirit but I still managed to fix you." She was immensely pleased that it had worked. Rose hadn't been sure it would actually do much of anything.
Chris just blinked at her. "Okay," he said slowly. He looked around the room. The Charmed Ones were giving him, what he thought of at least, strange looks.
"Um, did anything else happen while I was out," he asked as Bianca helped him stand up. He leaned some of his weight on her, feet slightly unsteady.
"Guess what Wyatt let slip," Bianca asked dryly.
"WYATT!"
"It was an accident!"
"You're still a dumbass."
"Screw you too little brother."
