Destiny 9
A cave somewhere in the Underworld...
"Piper Duck!"
Piper ducks just in time as a fireball flies over her head, scorching the rock behind her.
"Thanks Chris!" Piper says and flicks her wrist effectively vanquishing two of the attacking demons.
The witchlighter in question tosses his two remaining potions into a huge mass of demons.
"Watch your six!" Piper calls and Chris whips around ramming his athame into the demon's chest, vanquishing it.
The odds are not good for the Halliwells as soon as one demon is vanquished two more seeem to take it's place.
"Darklighters!" Paige's panicky cry can barely be heard over the tummult of battle.
"Arrow! Arrow!"
"Phoebe!" Paige suddenly cries, Chris turns to see a massive fireball heading towards her.
Phoebe turns in time and ducks, the fireball soars over her head and slams into the wall behind her.
Chris hears the barely audible, all too familiar Twang of a crossbow string being released. He notices the darklighter who fired the arrow has a red mohawk strangely enough. Chris whips around searching and spotting the arrow heading straight for it's target... Paige.
"Nooo!" Chris hollers and races for Paige.
'I'm not going to make it!' Chris realizes in horror.
Then something snaps deep within him and time seems to slow.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
"PPAIIIGGE!"
Chris tackles Paige to the ground a suprised look on her face and time catches back up. At the same time he hits her firey agony explodes in his side.
'I'm hit!'
Chris and Paige hit the sandy floor of the cave with another jolt of pain.
His world is a fuzzy, spinning haze and he's fighting to stay conscious, forcing back the encroaching black wave.
Paige wriggles out from beneath her whitelighter, witchlighter, whatever, wondering why he's still on top of her.
Paige puts her hands underneath her and her one hand lands in something slippery. She pulls her hand back, blood... and it's not hers. It's then she finds the arrow shaft.
Glancing rapidly about the cave, the fight is not going at all in the Charmed Ones favor, all their potions long exhausted. "Piper! Phoebe! Fallback!"
"That's probably a good idea!" Phoebe agrees, as she and Piper fight their way over.
Through the haze, Chris sees the sisters making their way towards him. He feels his body dissolve and he lets the black wave consume him.
"Leo! Healing now!" Piper hollers when the four of them reform in the Manor Living Room.
Leo orbs in, holding Wyatt in his arms. Upon seeing the bruised, scraped up members of his family, Leo quickly places Wyatt in his playpen in the other room. Hands glowing Leo renters the Living Room intent on healing Piper first but pauses upon seeing the darklighter arrow remnants on the floor.
"Did someone get hit with an arrow?" Leo asks.
"Yes. Chris did, he saved me but got hit himself," Paige answers.
Leo appears startled at that information but begins healing none the less.
"How did he reach you in time? He was on the other side of the cave," Piper asks.
"You're right. He was, wasn't he?" Phoebe says.
"We'll have to ask him when he wakes up," Leo says as he finishes healing Chris and moves on to Piper.
"Speaking of which, why isn't he waking up if you finished healing him?" Paige asks.
"The poison was already deep in his system, he would've been dead within the hour," Leo responds and moves onto Paige's scrapes.
After he finishes with Paige, Leo moves onto Phoebe, who's injuries were the least serious out of the four.
"He should wake up after I'm done with Phoebe, but it depends. There was something about this particular poisioning that seems different than other darklighter poisonings."
"Different? What do you mean different?"
"I dunno exactly..." Leo trails off as he finishes with Phoebe.
Leo seems to be staring at something and following his gaze their eyes land on Chris, who's chest is heaving with effort to breathe.
"I thought you healed him?!" Piper exclaims.
"I did," replies Leo walking over to Chris's side again.
Phoebe comes over and kneels besides the couch. "Woah, he's been taking some version of the empath blocking potion. This is the most emotion I've felt from him since we met," explains Phoebe.
Chris's hand slips off the couch and Phoebe picks it up and suddenly slumps forwards.
"What the Hell? Leo!"
Before Leo can heal her, Phoebe jerks upright into a sitting position, gasping and holding her side.
Leo, who is closest to her, steadies her and helps her onto the chair next to the couch currently occupied by Chris.
"What the Hell was that? Did he do something to you?" Piper asks.
Phoebe shakes her head. "Wasn't his fault entirely."
"Entirely? What's that supposed to mean?" Leo asks.
"It means that it was one major premonition," explains Phoebe.
"What did you see?" Paige asks.
"The cave we were in earlier. When the darklighter shot his arrow, I saw it through Chris's eyes, it was incredible. He heard the string release and was able to pick out the arrow flying through the air as well as the shooter. He started running for Paige, but realized he wasn't going to make it and...I dunno it's really hard to explain. It felt kinda like something snapped inside of him and then everything really slowed down. It was so weird. Anyway, when he looked at the darklighter, he got a really deep feeling of dread,"
"Why?" Leo asks.
"Darklighters don't usually have red mohawks," informs the empath.
"Shut The Front Door!" Leo exclaims.
"You know this clown?" Piper guesses, surprised at her husband's outburst.
"Maybe. Did he have any tats?" Leo directs his question at Phoebe.
"Huh?"
"Tattoos," explains, the now, highly embarassed Elder.
Phoebe closes her eyes briefly, remembering. "Possibly. It was hard to tell. It's not like I have these things on a tape that I can rewind whenever I want Leo," the annoyed witch says, glaring at her ex(?) Whitelighter.
"Not yet you don't," says a weak voice, cracked with fever.
"Chris! You're awake, you had us worried there for a second," Paige says, waggling her finger at the witchlighter.
Chris smirks and manages a chuckle before breaking off into a coughing fit. "To answer your question Leo. Yes, he had something that looked like a tattoo of a dragon on his cheek," the reply is weak and Piper, goes into 'Mother Hen' mode and leaves to get a cup of tea.
Leo waits until Piper returns with the tea that Chris accepts gratefully before continuing. "Drakonis. He's on the Elder's most wanted list."
Chris nearly spews his tea. "Most Wanted List? Elders? Pacifists my ass!"
Leo frowns at the wichlighter and scowls when Piper gives him a high five. "And here I thought you were a lying, bitchy(their words not mine), neurotic, pain in the butt, future, Elder sympathizer. Turns out your one of us here in the 'We hate The Elders' Club."
Chris frowns. "I am not bitchy."
"Yes you are," four voices respond loudly.
Chris holds up his hands in surrender, then grimaces and sips more tea.
"So, as I was saying. Drakonis," starts Leo.
"From the freakin' Elders (The Elders!) Most Wanted," Paige inserts.
'Yes, he's a former Elder," Leo tries to start again, key word Tries.
"Wow, how the angels have fallen. What'd he do? Wasn't cryptic enough?" Paige asks.
This time Chris can't stop himself and spews his tea towards Leo, Piper however is faster and freezes the flying tea. Piper grabs another glass and catches the flying liquid.
Frowning Piper hands the cup back to an ashamed Chris.
"Back to business. No Paige, he wasn't fired. He tortured someone before killing them. The others found out and were going to recycle his soul after trial, but he fell from grace and kept falling all the way to Hell, he then rose as a different type of Darklighter, taking the name, Drakonis," explains Leo regretfully.
"How did he know he was going to be found guilty?" Phoebe asks.
"Because there was a wittness, a whitelighter, who's record was completely clean, he agreed to testify."
"Whitelighter eh? Sounds like your hiding something," says Paige and Piper nods in agreement.
"I second that. Spill it mister," the empath agrees.
Leo sighs."I'm that whitelighter, yes. But I didn't come forward right away with what I knew. I was young and confused, scared at what Drake would do if he got away and found out about me, and because of that he got away."
"Drake?"
"His name as an Elder. He takes more than a dozen of us out each year. His poison it's pure genius and evil. Can't be healed fully and works slowy sometimes, other times rapidly. Sometimes the pain is excruciating other times it's quiet. No known cure either," says the Elder(?) forgetting that, in the background, Chris had woken up.
"Well that's just Great!" Phoebe exclaims in a very Piperlike manner, throwing up her hands in frustration and causing a nearby vase to explode.
Everybody looks between Phoebe and Piper. "Don't look at me, it was her emotions."
Piper raises her hands in denial. "Don't look at me."
Everybody looks at Chris, who appears to be making himself small as possible. "Funny, how the earth never opens up and swallows you when you want it to."
Four glares.
"Okay so I have Molecular Combustion, SuperSpeed, Empathy and an Orb shield as well as Telekinesis and orb- oh shit. I said that outloud didn't I?"
Four stunned nods.
Crappy end point I know. Ow! Ducks flying objects.
To my reviewers (Where'd you all go?)...
Charmedwho20: Thanks it just kinda popped in there after watching or reading something that now escapes me. Thanks for being a loyal R&R'er.
Lizardmomma: The wait is over! Mostly canon through Chris-crossed. How many lives do you think he has? Thanks for everything!
: More as requested. Thanks for those 2 words encouragement.
Any ideas on how Chris gets outta this one? Or does he loose another life. Remeber dear readers and the few who review how fast Chris goes through his lives is controlled/controls two things. 1. You have sway when he looses a life. & 2. How fast he losses his lives controls how long the story will be
Next Chapter Due Date: Before Labor Day For Sure. Reviews feed the muses.
