Disclaimer: I own nothing except my own thoughts and ideas.
Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated, hasn't it? Sorry about that, school got in my way. But now, winter break has started, and you guys get a new chapter! Yay!
I hope you all enjoy it, and please review!
:)
Leo hurried his way through the Magic School library, searching frantically for a solution, a way to bring his son back and out of the grip of that demon. His search had come up fruitless so far, every book and passage doing nothing to assuage his worry, instead, making it worse. Each passage stressed how strong this bond was, how near impossible it was to break. Using a bond like this was considered immoral, sadistic and just pure evil. It practically trapped the two beings together eternally. Their life strings were now intertwined, and if one died, the other died with them. It turned one into a puppet, the person who created the bond having control over them and their powers whenever they wanted. These words crushed Leo's hope, and the likelihood of things going smoothly seemed to be diminishing by the second.
"Dammit, Chris." Leo cursed to himself, flipping past a read page in a book. "You've really gotten yourself into one hell of a mess."
Leo ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh, looking up to the two others who were in the room with him, helping in his search. Chris' friend Zooey and her father were reading and scouring the school library as well, trying to find a solution. They had offered their help once they heard what had happened to Chris - news like this tended to travel through the magical grapevine pretty quickly. Leo gratefully accepted the offer. The more help, the sooner they'd get Chris back to normal, that's how he saw it.
"He's always getting himself into situations like this." Zooey commented from her spot across the room, scanning a page of a book, pencil and pad to her left. "You think he would have learned by now to keep himself out of trouble."
"Chris is too reckless." Leo commented. "Until he grows out of it, this is going to be a common occurrence."
"Most teenage boys tend to be." Zooey's father added. He pulled a book off the shelf as he looked back their way.
"Chris just takes it to a whole new level." The ex-Elder stated with a sigh. "Wyatt's got a bit of it in him too, but Chris doesn't always think things through." Leo paused, turned the page again, then added on. "He doesn't get that he needs help sometimes, that that's what I'm here for. What we're all here for."
Zooey nodded her head.
"I think everyone has told him that about twenty times, but he still doesn't get it." She said. "He's always been more of a loner though."
Leo gave a nod in reply, eyes falling back down to his book before flipping the page seconds later with a sigh. He'd been doing research ever since Chris and Altus went M.I.A. but all he'd come up with wasn't helpful, it worsened the situation. At this rate, the only solution Leo could see to Chris breaking the bond was being killed. The thought of that made Leo feel sick to his stomach, his thoughts flashing back to the other Chris, and the day he had been killed. God, the thought of losing his son again, after all the times they've come so close to it lately almost brought tears to his eyes. He was a usually strong man, but he had always had a soft spot when it came to Chris. Of course, the same was with Wyatt, but Chris was his youngest, his little boy. He couldn't lose any of his children, never again.
He began to wonder about how Chris was doing, where he was right then. What was Altus doing to him? What were her motive behind this, what was the big plan? The one thing he was thankful and assure of was that, wherever they were, whatever they were doing, his son's life was safe. The demon wouldn't let anyone harm him, and that was a small comfort.
Leo shut the book he was looking at and ran a hand through his short hair, feeling almost defeated. So many books, but not one could give him an answer that he needed.
"Have any of you found anything?" He asked, gaze shifting between Zooey and her father.
The two looked up from their books and Zooey shook her head, her father following with the same movement.
Leo let out a hopeless sigh, feeling ready to give up on his search. Nothing seemed to hold the key to setting his son free and returning him back to the family.
Zooey and her father both looked at Leo with somber expressions, each feeling his pain. Chris was a close friend of Zooey's - well, the two had drifted as of late, but she still considered him her friend. She cared about him, and she was worried about what would happen to him under Altus' control. What would she make him do? And how much would it change the teenage boy she knows?
"Leo," Zooey's father starts, grabbing the man's attention. "Even though we haven't found an answer, we'll find one. But for now, maybe we should just concern ourselves with getting Chris back before she can cause him any damage."
"I think, perhaps, that if you try to summon him and trap him in a crystal cage, that would keep the demon from getting him back." He suggests. "I'm not positive, but I think it would work."
Leo's eyes widened at the statement. Of course, why hadn't he thought of that? They could use the To Call a Lost Witch spell in the Book to bring him back and trap him. Chris wouldn't exactly like being trapped, but it would be for his own good. He wasn't sure, but he hoped it would keep Altus away from him, at least until they could come up with something else.
"That could work!" Leo exclaimed.
"What could work?" Paige's voice suddenly chimed in as she made her way into the library, her spirits lifting at her brother-in-law's exclamation. Had he found a way to break Chris from the demon-bitches bond! She hoped so, because the second Chris was free, she and her sisters would make sure to give that bitch one painful vanquishing.
"Have you found a way to break the bond?" She asked as she neared him, excited and smiling.
"Not yet." Leo told her, "But, I've got an idea on how to get Chris back to us, at least for a little bit. It could give us some time to figure it out, and we'd know he's at least safe from her influence."
"Anything you've got, I'm all for." Paige assured him. "I think I'm speaking for everyone when I say that getting Chris away from that bitch would be a step in the right direction."
Leo grew a small smile and nodded in agreement. "Orb us back to the Manor." Leo insisted, his eyes quickly falling onto Zooey and her father. "Thank you both for you help."
"No problem." Zooey replied with a smile. "Keep us posted.
Leo gave a nod in reply, and seconds later, the two had vanished in a swirl of orbs, ready to set Leo's plan into action.
Altus gripped Chris' hand, guiding him reluctantly through the cluttered alleyways of the Underworld Markets. For the first time, Chris was walking through the crowded streets without a hood up, his face fully exposed to the curious and sadistic eyes of the demons he passed by. Terry's death had him still left in a state of shellshocked, the realization that he had truly murdered the demon swelling in the pit of his stomach. All he wanted to do was kill Altus, make her feel as much pain as she had forced him to make Terry feel. Yes, he was a demon, like she said, but he wasn't evil. Terry had helped him out, Terry was his friend. This wasn't like vanquishing some random demon who threatened his family, this felt like cold blooded murder. It felt different, it felt like he had blood on his hands for the first time.
Chris heard the sporadic snicker from demons as he passed them, all eyes on him as he walked openly right past them. They all knew who he was, all could see the mark on his chest through his singed shirt. They knew Altus had control over him, he was her slave. They all found it so fucking amusing.
He could hear whispers of his name in passing conversations, always followed by those snickers. He tried to ignore it, but it was hard. They all saw him now not as some all powerful Halliwell, not as someone to be feared, but some stupid witch who had been tricked into becoming Altus' meat puppet. He was her slave, he realized that now. She controlled his actions, everything he did. She owned him, in a sense. Wasn't that the definition of a slave?
"What happened, little Halliwell?" He heard a demon call, eyes flying back to spot the speaker. "Looks like the tables have turned; instead of one of us being your little bitch, your ours!"
Chris' eyes narrowed and he gripped Altus hand hard, wanted nothing more but to vanquish the demon. He marked his appearance - two horns, beady eyes, chubby frame - and put it to memory. Once he was through with this and free of Altus, he'd make sure to find him and vanquish his ass.
Altus suddenly squeezed his hand hard back, causing him to look toward her. "You try to attack any of the demons in the Markets and I'll hurt you, you understand me?" She sent the warning his way with narrowed eyes.
He turned his head back and looked toward the horned demon once more before feeling another hard squeeze, this time at his heart. He shut his eyes and held back a moan, his hand reaching up to his chest. The two stopped moving, standing in the middle of the crowd. He could feel the eyes on him, knew they stared at him with pleasure, liking the image of a member of the infamous Halliwell family being tortured before their very eyes. It was embarrassing, to say the least.
"You got it?" She asked again, this time waiting for an answer.
"I got it." Chris groaned out, voice strained and stiff, shining his pain.
Seconds later, the pain began to vanish and Altus began to walk, dragging his recovering body with her, his feet stumbling along the ground while his hand still clung to the remains of his shirt.
"Where are we going?" Chris asked her, curious. He thought that when they shimmered out of Terry's store they would have gone back to the Source. Instead, they landed in a random alleyway of the Markets, one that Chris was not familiar with.
"I've got another test run for you." She stated, turning her head to look back at him as they begin to walk again. "Don't worry, he's no one you know. You won't have to get so sentimental about it like you did back there with Terry." She wore a smirk, almost mocking the fact that he felt an emotion after vanquishing his friend. "This guy owes me some money, and his time to pay up has expired."
"Are you ever going to tell me what you're really going to use me for?" He inquired, eyes narrowed and shining his annoyance.
"It'll probably come up sometime." She suspected, shrugging her shoulders. "When we get closer to acting on the plan, of course." She paused for a second as they turned the corner. "Like I said, you're not going to like it. I don't want to hear you whining for hours on end about it until it happens." She turned her head back and looked straight at him. "And trust me, it will happen. There's no way out of this one, kiddo."
"What are you going to do with me after you enact this 'plan?'" He inquired, pushing through two demons who stood in his way. "Get rid of me?"
She let out a laugh at that. "Of course not!" Her head turned back, sadistic smile shining. "The Source will want me to keep you and continue using you as his weapon, obviously. Trust me, the Source put a lot of thought into what he was going to do with you."
"I won't let you do that." Chris insisted. "I'll figure out a way out of this."
Altus let out another laugh. "Yeah, Halliwell, you keep believing that."
They made their way further down the street, laughter still trailing them, eyes still watching them move like this was some sort of show they were putting on for the crowd. A comedic act. The once powerful Halliwell son turned into the pet of some demon. Hilarious, right? Chris had to admit, if he was in their shoes, he'd be laughing at well. It was hilarious, it was embarrassing. They way he looked, the way Altus dragged him along, the way she had tortured him right in front of the entire market. It was something the Underworld had been waiting to see ever since his family became a massive threat.
Suddenly, Chris felt a rock collide with his head, causing him to stumble forward, bumping into Altus. She stopped her steps swiftly and looked around as Chris rubbed at the back of his head, feeling blood dampen his hair. He brought his hand down and stared at the smears of crimson on his fingers, trying to assess the damage. Altus' eyes darted down to his hand before darting back up seconds later, following the loud eruption of laughter that came from near a stand. When she spotted the supposed culprit, whose eyes sat right on them, watching and laughing at the sight, she quickly charged him. She grabbed his collar and slammed his head into the wooden counter of the stand near him, bring his head back up and inches away from her seconds later.
"Did you just throw a rock at my witch's head?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
The demon just stared, eyes wide, struggling to speak, stuttering nonsense. Her eyes narrowed even more and she slammed his head against the wood again, blood staining the surface now and trailing down his neck.
"Try that again, and I'll kill you, you understand me?" She warned him. "He's an important asset to the Source, and I know you wouldn't want to mess with him, would you?"
The demon shook his head frantically, eyes wide and frightened.
"Good." She declared, letting his collar go and standing up straight. She turned her head back to look at Chris, but the boy had disappeared. She looked around the crowd, trying to spot him, before letting out a snort.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" She exclaimed, raising her arms up. "Where the hell did he go?"
Piper threw rosemary into a mortar, hands reaching over to the bowl of Cypress to add that in next. While Piper prepared the mixture, Paige was placing the last of the crystals down in a circle on top of the rug. She had already placed some around the house, protecting it from any demon that would want to come in.
"That oughta' do it." Paige declared as she stood up and stepped back, staring at the circle. "He won't be getting out of there ... hopefully."
She turned and faced Wyatt, Leo and Phoebe, who each sat on the couch, waiting patiently for things to be ready to begin. She stared at each of their faces, catching onto the hope, as well as the doubt, that this plan will actually work. She hoped for the best, they all did, but she could agree with their doubt. Who knew if this would work? The bond Chris and Altus had was strong. But, there was a chance it would, and that alone made it worth a shot.
"Alright." Paige clasped her hands together and turned on her heels to face Piper. "Are we ready to start the spell?"
"Just waiting for Coop to bring me up the yarrow root, then we can start." Piper informed her sister.
Seconds later, Coop appeared from the stairs, carrying a bowl containing the yarrow root in his hands. He handed Piper over the bowl and the eldest sister thanked him, quickly going to throw in the last ingredient.
"Alright." Piper declared, standing up and grabbing the pestle, eyes darting over to her family. "Ready?"
The five of them nodded, and with that Piper began, pestle smashing into the dry ingredients:
"Power of the witches rise
Course unseen across the skies
Come to us who call you near
Come to us and settle here."
She stopped grinding and picked up the athame, pricking her left index finger with the tip. She applied pressure to her finger and allowed the blood to drip into the mortar, and finished the spell.
"Blood to blood, I summon thee.
Blood to blood, return to me."
All eyes flashed to the circle, waiting and praying that something would happen. When a swirl of bright lights began to form in the middle, each member of the family felt a surge of surprise and hope fill their chests, watching as a disheveled Chris formed in the crystal cage.
"Chris!" Piper exclaimed, relieved as she made her way to the circle, so happy to see her son again. "Thank God you're okay!"
He stared at her for a second, wide eyed, taking everything in, before quickly speaking up.
"Dammit, why did you guys summon me?" He exclaimed, running a hand through his hair, worried. "You shouldn't have done this."
"Jeez." Paige commented, crossing her arms. "A 'thanks for saving my ass' would have been nice to hear."
"You haven't saved my ass." He retorted back. "You've probably just gotten yours killed."
"Oh please." Paige responded, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "We took precautions."
Paige's gaze motioned to the ground, and Chris' eyes followed, spotting the crystals around him, his eyes flashing back up instantly.
"Put them all around the house too." Paige added with a smirk, drawing Chris attention back to her. "There's no way she's getting you out of here."
Chris took a few seconds to assess Paige's information before nodding his head and sitting down on the ground. This could work. She is a demon, so there's no way she's getting in this house. But the main word there is 'could.' Altus is an upper-level demon, and he's still not sure what tricks she has up her slimy sleeves.
"Now that we've got that out of the way." Piper cut in, crossing her arms and causing Chris' eyes to dart up her way. "Why the hell did you let a demon get that close to you so that she could do this?"
Chris just stared at her, taking in the fiery in her eyes, not really sure how to explain it. There was no way to exclaim it wasn't his fault, because it was. He trusted the wrong demon. Even that was going to get him one hell of a scolding. Trusting demons was not something Halliwells were supposed to do. There is rarely a grey area to his family when it came to demons. Demon equals evil, and nothing else. Not okay, not good, evil. That's why he couldn't let them know he was still seeing Bianca.
Bianca ... God, he should have listened to her, taken her advice. He's such an idiot.
"I don't know." Chris responded, rubbing at his temples. "I'm just an idiot."
"You got that right." Wyatt cut in from his spot on the couch, arms crossed.
Chris turned his head and looked his brother's way, almost tempted to narrow his eyes at the older boy, but he let it go. It was the truth. Instead, he just gave him a look shining his annoyance.
"Thanks for the input there, Wyatt." He commented.
"You know how stupid it was to trust a demon, Chris?" Wyatt shot back.
"Not all demons are bad."
"No," Wyatt agreed, staring his brother down. "But most are."
"Please." Chris responded with a roll of his eyes. "Like you would know."
"Yeah, you're right Chris. I mean, I don't spend my time in the Underworld Markets, getting in bar fights with demons." Wyatt spat back, Chris' eyes going a bit wide, still filled with anger.
"Wait, what!" Piper cut in, eyes flashing from Wyatt to Chris, confused and outraged.
"That's not true! You totally just twisted that whole situation. I was collateral damage. I didn't start the fight. And you weren't supposed to tell mom and dad about that. It's like brother code: you don't share things I confide to you with our parents!"
"Alright, enough with the fighting!" Phoebe cut in, standing up and raising her hands, eyes flashing from Wyatt to Chris. "This isn't really the time for you two to bicker. Right now, we need to figure out how to get Chris out of this mess."
"Did you guys find a way to break the bond?" Chris asked, looking from his aunt to his mother expectantly. He hoped they found an answer. He watched as his mother's eyes went down to the brand on his chest, staring at it with an almost unreadable expression.
"No." Leo answered, causing Chris to turn his gaze toward his father. "I've been researching ever since you and Altus disappeared, but I can't find anything."
There was a brief silence that fell over the room, all dwelling on that fact.
"Shit. I've really screwed up this time, haven't I?" Chris commented, smiling dully as he ran a hand through his hair, wincing suddenly as he rubbed against the gash in his head. He had forgotten about that.
"What happened to your head, Chris?" Leo asked as he spotted the blood on his son's hand that he hadn't noticed before.
"Nothing." Chris shrugged it off. "Just some demon." Chris left it at that, feeling no need to explain any more. "So, what's the plan here? You keep me trapped until you figure out what to do?"
"Pretty much." Paige replied with shrug. "It's the only thing we could think of."
"Do you know why Altus did this to you?" Phoebe asked. "What does she want you to do?" She had been wondering why Altus choose him, what she wanted with him that she couldn't do herself. She was a powerful demon by the looks of it, and that made her wonder what exactly the demon had in mind for her nephew.
Chris shrugged his shoulders. "They haven't told me yet."
"'They?'" Piper asked, confused. "It's not just Altus who's pulling the strings here?" A pause. "No pun intended."
Chris glared at her for a moment for her wording.
"The Source is kind of involved." Chris added in, eyes falling to the ground.
"Of course." Piper declared, shining frustration. "The Source would have to be involved. Couldn't just be a simple demon, had to be the Source as well."
"Sorry." Chris replied.
"Explains why all those demon attacks suddenly stopped." Paige chimed in. "He was focusing on this."
"Uh, not really ..." Chris cut in, drawing all eyes toward him once again. "I kind of had a part in him stopping the attacks."
"What did you do, Chris?" Piper asked, worried more than angry at the moment.
"Well, I kind of made a deal with him that I would find a way to weaken my bond with Wyatt if he stopped attacking us." Chris shyly shared, knowing that this wasn't really making things better.
"Oh, Chris!" Piper exclaimed, outraged and concerned for her son.
"Digging your hole deeper here, kid." Paige commented.
"I know." Chris replied somewhat solemnly.
"Why would you want to weaken our bond?" Wyatt asked, seeming a bit hurt.
"You know how much I hate it, Wyatt." Chris told him. "But now I really wish I hadn't done it."
Chris.
The voice in his head caused his eyes to widen and he instantly rose to his feet.
"Oh shit oh shit!" Chris hissed, pacing. "She's found me." His eyes flashed up to his mother, shining such a fearful gaze that it caused Piper so much pain to see. She had never seen him that afraid, not in a long while. She was fearful to. She wanted to keep her son here, she wanted nothing more than for her youngest to finally be safe, for all of this stuff with the Source to finally be over.
"You'll be safe here, don't worry honey." Phoebe tried to assure him, but to no avail.
Chris, it's time to go.
Her voice echoed through his head and suddenly he fell to his knees, hand reaching out to grab a crystal.
"Chris, no!" Piper and Paige screamed in unison, the first to spot what he was intending on doing.
The others watched with wide eyes as he touched the crystal, instantly being thrown into the opposite wall of the cage, body shocked. He slowly rose back up, trying to recover, as his family watched, worried and frightened.
They knew it wasn't him who was doing it, they knew Altus was causing him to reach out for the crystals, trying to get him to break the circle since she could not shimmer in. Chris couldn't fight her, they could tell that, and it pained them all to watch him.
Come on, Chris. Break it.
Chris' hand went out again and he gripped the crystal, fighting the urge to let go as pain radiated through his body. The crystal finally moved out of place, and as Chris flew back, this time headed into the wall, his body disappearing in a swirl of blue and white orbs as he flew back, leaving the Halliwell Manor once again and returning back to Altus. To his master.
Thank you all so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!
I don't know the next time I will update, but I will try to do it once again before winter break is over.
Until then, thanks for reading and please please please review!
Happy Holidays!
:)