"Taylor?" Chris's voice was thick with concern as he opened the door to his cousin's bedroom and stepped inside. "You awake yet?"

Taylor rolled over and rubbed his eyes as he sat up. "I am now." He yawned. "What do you want?"

Chris hesitated. He could feel his cousin's confusion and wanted to help him, but he knew he couldn't push him to talk if he wasn't ready. "I wanted to see how you're doing," he finally responded. "Will you be going to visit your mom soon, or are they gonna come back here?"

Taylor stared at his cousin for a few minutes, his mind trying to process what he had said. He glanced over at the alarm clock. "You woke me up at four in the morning to ask me /that/?" He flopped back down on his bed and pulled the covers over his head. "It's too damn early! And on a weekend!"

Chris shook his head, not looking directly at Taylor. His cousin had the uncanny ability to read his mind even though he wasn't telepathic. He hadn't realized how early it was when he had woken up, pale and trembling, from his dream. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Go back to sleep." He turned and headed for the door, sticking his fingers in his ears as if trying to block out a sound that only he could hear.

Taylor sat back up immediately. "You okay, Chris?" He now seemed completely awake and gave a concerned look at the fact that his cousin was putting his fingers in his ears. He recognized the sign almost immediately. It was one their Aunt Paige usually did whenever she was assigned a new and unexpected charge. He patted the bed next to him. "Come here." He spoke in a 'don't argue, just do it' tone.

Chris sighed but moved back over to the bed. "Sorry," he said, apologizing again. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

Taylor gestured for his cousin to turn around, putting his hands on the smaller teenager's shoulder blades and started to massage them. He knew this would help with whatever Chris was feeling with his powers. "Talk to me," he instructed in a quiet but insistent voice.

Chris closed his eyes, letting the massage relax his tense muscles. "I think I have a new charge," he admitted quietly. "I've never been given one besides the Charmed Ones." He bit his lip, nervous, especially since he had a strong suspicion who his new charge was. And it confused the hell out of him as to why she would even /need/ a Whitelighter to look after her.

Taylor gave him a confused look until it clicked, like someone had turned on a light bulb in his mind. "Alianda," he whispered. He looked his cousin in the eyes and spoke a little louder, "Alianda is your new charge, isn't she?"

Chris bit his lip harder but slowly nodded. "I /think/ so," he whispered, staring at the blankets on the bed instead of at his cousin. "She was the one in the... dream... I had." He shivered lightly, still haunted by the images. "And that damn ringing that bothered Aunt Paige when she was assigned Sam is bugging the /hell/ out of me."

Taylor couldn't help it as he stifled a laugh. He didn't want to be rude, but he could remember how much of a fire cracker Sam had been to Paige over the years. He could only imagine how Alianda and Chris would be together. "Something tells me the two of you are either going to be best friends... or fire crackers to the rest of us," he said, using the term to refer to how much arguing they would do if they didn't become best friends.

Chris didn't even bother to look up, shivering again. He couldn't get the images from his dream out of his head. "Are you going to keep seeing her, Taylor?" he asked quietly.

Taylor paused in his work massaging his cousin's shoulders to stare at him. "Yes," he responded. "I plan to anyway, along with getting to know my birth father." He shrugged a little, not too excited about the latter even though he knew he would warm up to him eventually. Then, as he watched Chris continuing to shiver, he became concerned. "What did you see in your dream, Christopher?" he asked, his voice holding a tone that warned his younger cousin not to keep anything from him.

Chris swallowed hard again, closing his eyes. He wasn't sure he would be able to speak about the images, especially if he was looking at Taylor as he did it. Taking a deep breath, he finally spoke. "I was on some tropical island. It was absolutely beautiful, but something seemed really off. I was standing on the beach, staring at something on the shoreline that the waves were breaking over. I couldn't tell what it was, but then I wasn't on the beach anymore. I was still on the island, but I was further inland. There was an enormous house, and I could see your dad inside. He was trapped, doing everything he could to break free of the confines of the house. But nothing worked. I tried to orb in and get him out, but I bounced off the house and ended up on the beach again. I debated trying to find my way back to the house, but then I noticed the /color/ of the thing on the shore. I moved closer to investigate..." He broke off, quiet sobs causing his body to shake. He shook his head as if trying to get rid of what he had seen. "It was... It was... your... mom... She was /dead/, Taylor. It was /horrible/."

Taylor stared at his cousin in horror. He couldn't bare the idea of his mother dying again, but he noticed his cousin's tone of voice. The younger teenager had left something out of his revelation. He didn't do so often, but he gently prodded his cousin's mind to see what it was he wasn't saying. He got a glimpse of it, but it wasn't much. "Who was standing over her body?" His own tone of voice was deadly as he saw two shadowy figures in his cousin's dream. "Who were they, Chris?"

"I don't know," Chris whispered. "They were pure evil. One of them had black hair, and the other had white hair and blue skin. I couldn't even stand to look at them, but then they turned toward me and..." He broke off, unable to continue.

Taylor could remember something, vaguely, and he was giving himself a headache from trying to delve deeper into his cousin's memory and dreams. He hugged his cousin close. "What, Chris? What did they do?" he asked in a whisper.

"They hurt me," Chris whispered in a voice that was barely audible. "They took me to a different place and just kept hurting me." Sweat broke out on his forehead as he remembered the pain in his dream. "The pain wouldn't stop, and I woke up screaming. I'm surprised I didn't wake everyone up."

With those words, everything came rushing back to Taylor all at once, and he fell back, off the bed, screaming. He remembered all of the centuries of pain and suffering, the torture and cruelty. Everything was coming back.

Chris immediately turned around and tried to soothe his cousin, but before he could lay a hand on the older teenager a dark figure shimmered into the room and picked up Taylor. Chris recognized him as soon as he saw the vivid green eyes and black hair. "Dimitri!" He stared up in shock at the dragon, wincing as Taylor's pain mingled with his own. "What's happening to him?!"

Dimitri held the teen close and felt his heart break as the teenager, the love of his life, began to sob helplessly against his chest. His mind was unprotected, broadcasting everything he was feeling to him and why it was happening. The dragon growled at the things he was seeing. "He's remembering everything that happened to him," he answered Chris. He turned and started toward the door. There was someone he had to see immediately.

"Wait!" Chris called out, struggling to breathe against the pain. "Take me with you!" He knew the dragon would have no problem carrying them both.

Dimitri sighed before picking up the teenager by the collar and throwing him over his shoulder. "Your mother better not try to kill me this time," he muttered before he flashed them to Savitar's island. He knew exactly how to get there and walked straight up to the door, kicking his way in. "SAVITAR! ALIANDA! ACHERON! GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE NOW!" He called for the two males mostly to stop himself so he didn't go and start the Apocalypse, knowing he would need both of the other beings to stop him in his current state of anger. He set the two boys on a nearby couch, though he was reluctant to let go of Taylor, he knew he had to before he accidentally hurt him.

Chris moved immediately to take Taylor into his arms, both boys shuddering with their shared pain.

Alianda came down the stairs first, recognizing Dimitri at once despite the fact that they hadn't seen each other in centuries. She smiled wistfully as she remembered the flights they would take together with her riding on his back before she caught herself and refocused. "What's wrong, Dim? Sav will be down in a minute, but Ash isn't here."

Dimitri knew Acheron would have heard him anyway. The Atlantean would know he was serious in needing him to be there to stop him.

Acheron flashed in a few moments later, not looking happy about it.

"Dimi?" Alianda asked again, stepping forward and placing her hands lightly on her friend's chest. "What's going on?"

Dimitri growled deep in his chest, barely containing his inner rage as the dragon roared for blood. "Taylor... is remembering everything that was done to him by /your/ brother and sister!" He bit the words out like poison. "Every single thing that happened to him over all of those centuries is coming back, and Chris is feeling the back lashes of all of it." He flashed Acheron a quick, grateful, look as the Atlantean pulled him back away from Alianda.

Alianda rushed over to the couch and dropped down in front of it as Savitar came down the stairs. She barely saw Chris as she pulled her son off of the couch and onto her lap, cradling him in her arms. "Shh..." she spoke in a cooing, soothing, voice as she rocked gently back and forth. "Give them to me, Taylor. Let me take them for you."

Chris cried out as Alianda came near. The pain all three of them were suffering, mixed in with the emotions rolling off of Dimitri in waves, was too much for him. He clutched his head between his hands as he began to scream over and over. But then his pain suddenly vanished. He stopped and blinked as he looked up, not having to look up far to Taylor's hand on the skin of his wrist. His cousin was cutting him off from his empathy powers. He stared in disbelief at Taylor. The other teenager was in more pain than he was, yet he was doing everything he could to help him.

Just as suddenly, Taylor screamed in agony. His grip tightened on Chris's wrist as his teeth clenched together through another wave of memories.

Even though his empathy powers were locked away, Chris didn't need them to know that Dimitri was now going ballistic behind him as Savitar quickly made his way over to the dragon to help the Atlantean hold him down.

Without waiting for permission, knowing she was a lot stronger than her son, Alianda began to take away his memories of the time he had spent with her brother and sister and the pain they were causing him. Bloody tears fell down her cheeks as Taylor's pain began to diminish.

Chris stared in wonder at Alianda as she took away Taylor's pain, again wondering why in the world a being as powerful as she was would need a Whitelighter to protect her.

Taylor felt his pain decreasing and realized who was taking it. He immediately cut her off from it, not wanting to burden her with his pain. He also didn't want her to feel disgusted by how weak he had been to stop some of the things that had happened to him.

Acheron ground his teeth together as the dragon struggled more, damning that he couldn't see why the teenager was suffering because of their close ties to each other. "What happened, Christopher Halliwell?" he asked, demanding. He knew the teenager was part of why Taylor was remembering things now.

Alianda growled, keeping Taylor from blocking her. "Stop that," she admonished him. "I'm not looking," she stated, promising him. "I'm just taking them so they won't hurt you anymore. Let me. I don't want to do it by force."

Chris sighed, still trying to deal with his own pain as he began to remember the dream that had started everything. "I had a... dream," he whispered.

Taylor shook his head, his inherited stubbornness showing as he resisted his mother. A particular memory, extremely painful, struck him, and he screamed louder.

Savitar struggled to not only hold Dimitri down but to also keep himself from going to his son. He was more than a little surprised that the teenager was still conscious.

Alianda growled, continuing to take the memories no matter how much Taylor resisted. She knew there was no way he could stop her.

Chris groaned in pain, rocking back and forth on the couch. He was in too much pain to hear Acheron speaking to him.

Taylor shoved himself away from Alianda and groaned painfully when he hit the floor, momentarily forgetting the pain of the past before it came crashing back with a vengeance. As he had moved, he had done something very sneaky. He had taken the memories that Alianda had taken from him and pushed them far into the back of her mind, burying them as deep as possible so that no one would be able to get to them without his permission.

Taylor's groan had halted Dimitri's movements for several seconds, but then he growled louder and his eyes began to glow. It was an outward warning sign that he was about to completely lose it... that whoever he was angry with would soon be meeting an unspeakable doom. He cursed out loud as he struggled harder against the two Chthonians who held him.

Alianda stared at Taylor for several seconds, her face pinched with pain from his rejection. "I told you I wasn't seeing them," she said with a snarl to mask her pain. "Stop trying to maneuver them around in my head. You're not strong enough." Before she completely lost control in front of him, she disappeared. As soon as she was outside, the voices of Azura and Noir were back inside of her mind. In her anguish over being rejected by her son, she had completely forgotten that she wasn't protected outside of the house.

The shadows of Azura and Noir appeared on the beach, beckoning for their little sister to join them. They grinned when she complied, unable to resist them, pulling her to them and disappearing with her.

Chris screamed. "NO!" he shouted, jumping up from the couch but immediately falling over. He was already too messed up from the dream to be able to focus completely.

Taylor had felt the bitterness in her voice and couldn't help but break down into silent sobs when she disappeared off the island. He hadn't meant to make her feel rejected as his mother, only at the thought of her taking on his pain and his past. He felt like it wasn't hers to have to bear, and he still felt so protective of her despite the fact that she was so much older and more experienced than he was.

Savitar knew the moment Alianda disappeared, immediately letting go of the dragon and teleporting outside to try to find her. "ALIANDA!"

Dimitri stopped struggling completely at the sight of Taylor crying. His heart literally felt as if it had been torn from his chest and shredded to pieces. In the blink of an eye, he was kneeling next to the teenager and holding him against his chest. He also sent Chris straight to sleep, knowing he wouldn't be able to deal with both teens at once. As he held the lavender-eyed young man in his arms, he managed to glimpse a few things that seemed to be burning Taylor's mind like a hot brand. One of them stood out more than the rest, and Dimitri immediately looked up to the only one in the room that he knew could help. "/DO SOMETHING/!"

Chris was in a peaceful sleep of just black. Because he was safe inside of Savitar's house, nothing was able to get to him in his dreams the way they had before.

Acheron stepped quickly over to Chris, dropping down onto the couch and laying the palm of his hand on Chris's forehead. He closed his eyes as he searched through the boy's memories to find the dream that had started everything. He growled ferociously as the images played across his mind. Then he glanced up at Savitar and Dimitri, shock registering on his face. "The boy has been assigned to protect Alianda /and/ Taylor. No wonder he's reacting so much to their pain."

Dimitri bit down on his lip as his hold on Taylor tightened a little. "There's one other thing you should probably see." With that said, the dragon reached out and placed his hand on the Atlantean's arm to show him the memory he had seen. Dimitri, like Savitar, was one of the /very/ few people who knew all about Acheron's past, and the dragon had decided that he would be the one who would understand what he had seen the most.

The image started out in a dark room with Taylor black and blue with bruises from previous beatings. The teenager was handcuffed down to the bed he was on by his wrists and ankles. Taylor froze stiff when Azura walked into the room, a burning look in her eyes as she sat down on the bed beside him and licked her lips as the teenager tried and failed to move away from her. The next three hours had been a pure and living hell for Taylor.

Dimitri feared that Taylor might never recover from what he had experienced that day. The memory was burned so deep into Taylor's mind that the dragon was worried about permanent damage now that the teenager remembered /everything/ that had been done to him. For the benefit of Savitar, Taylor's father, Dimitri spoke out loud as he saw the look that flashed across Acheron's face. "Taylor has been raped by Azura and Noir."

Acheron growled, clenching his hands into tight fists. He looked up at Dimitri as he worked to control his breathing. "I can take the memory from him without hurting him, but you'll have to convince him to let me do it."

Savitar ran his hand through his hair, pacing the floor. He wanted nothing more than to chase after Alianda, but he knew none of them were allowed into Azmodea. For /any/ reason. Trying to distract himself until they figured out what to do, he stared at Chris. "What can we do about him? What the /hell/ are his bosses thinking, assigning him to Alianda and Taylor?"

Dimitri answered Savitar first, giving Acheron a chance to calm himself down. "They can be real idiots, you know that." He recalled when they tried to come after him, and he simply told them to fuck off. The dragon turned back to the Atlantean and sighed. "With his old man's stubbornness and his mom's too kind of a heart, there's next to a zero chance on /that/ happening while he's still conscious."

"Then knock him the fuck out!" Acheron replied, still seething and trying to regain control of himself.

Chris groaned as he began to stir.

Dimitri nodded, completely understanding Acheron's anger, before using his powers to knock Taylor unconscious. He knew it was better that he was so there wouldn't be much of a chance of him retaliating.

Taylor's eyes closed as he collapsed against Dimitri's chest, his breathing evening out and his body slowly relaxing as he lost consciousness.

The poison-eyed immortal gently handed Taylor to Acheron as he stood and faced the older version of the suffering teenager. "We need to go visit Thorn. He'll want to know what happened and get in on this trip of vengeance."

Savitar didn't speak as he put one hand on Dimitri's shoulder to take them both to Thorn's castle.

Chris growled as he suddenly woke up completely. He launched himself across the room and wrapped his hands around both Savitar's and Dimitri's arms just as the two men were disappearing. The action took him with them. He groaned, stumbling, as the three of them reappeared inside of Thorn's castle.