sorry once again for the long delay. hopefully once break starts in a few weeks i'll be able to get a couple chapters up a week.

CHAPTER 10

Stranger than Fiction

Cole growled lowly, telepathically cursing at Chris in a string of words so foul that it would make any sailor proud. He continued ranting far after he had exhausted every swear word known to man. How could you be so stupid? Or maybe this was your plan all along you selfish, ungrateful, sorry, no good for nothing-

"Belthazor?" Paige questioned, her lips turning up in a smile. She started laughing. "Oh god, that's a good one. Goooood Belthazor, siiit...staaay..."

"Yeah, pretty funny, huh, Aunt Paige?" Chris said winking at his dog, who had finally stopped wishing eternal damnation on his owner.

"Bad Cole, no peeing on Piper's carpet." This time she laughed so hard her eyes actually began to water.

Oh, so she thinks this is funny does she? I'll show her funny. . . the demon swore, hackles raised.

Don't give yourself away, Stupid.

Don't. Call me stupid, Kid.

The teenager did what all teenagers do best. He rolled his eyes.

Paige wiped away the stray tears, finally calming down. "Oh, of all your smart ass comments over the years, that, my young Padawan, had to be the best. I haven't had a laugh that good in a long time."

"Well, I learned from the best, didn't I?" Chris replied offering her his world class grin.

His Aunt shook her head, "I'm being all paranoid, aren't I?"

"Kinda."

"He's just a really smart dog?" She pressed one last time.

The younger witchlighter smiled sweetly, "Have I ever lied to you before, Aunt Paige?"

A day ago, the youngest Charmed One would have been able to say without a doubt that her nephew had never lied to her. His parents, sure, but never to her. She and Chris were co-conspirers usually. She was the cool Aunt that never ratted him out. However, things were different now. If he remembered the other Chris. . .well, the other Chris spent almost an entire year lying to all of them, and he did so with such skill that his own family couldn't figure him out without a little magical intervention via one of Phoebe's visions. What if this Chris had picked up on that?

Slowly, with lingering doubts in her mind, Paige smiled, "No, you haven't."

Casting another look at the dog, the Charmed One got a shiver up her spine. There was something odd about the animal. She had always been able to sense these sort of things before. However, she didn't pick up on anything when she reached out to sense for magic in the dog. She really was losing it.

Paige let out a breath, "Well, I should go make sure your little cousin isn't giving her daddy too much trouble. Just remember, if you ever need me, Chris-"

"-Yeah, I know, Aunt Paige. Just an orb away."

"Ok, well, I'll see ya later." She paused at the door, "and talk to your parents."

"Yes, Aunt Paige," Chris droned, rolling his eyes once more for good measure.

After Paige had left the room, Chris threw himself backward on the bed. "I can't believe I did that."

You can't believe it? Do you have any idea how big of a risk you were taking by telling her that? You could have gotten me vanquished.

"Stop worrying so much. I knew that the truth would sound stranger than fiction. Besides, I used my powers to stop her from sensing anything. She just thinks she's being paranoid, but in any case, you've gotta be more careful. I mean, what'd you do to tip her off anyway?"

The dog huffed. Helped her and Leo figure out how to find you before your big brother chopped your head off with Excaliber.

"Oh...uh, thanks."

A moment passed. He sighed. "I just can't believe I looked her right in the eyes and lied to her."

The dog looked up at his young owner with respect. You did what you had to do under the circumstances. You made a choice and followed it through. That's what growing up is about, Chris.

Before the young man could respond, a soft knock at the door alerted Chris to his parents' presence. Piper poked her head into the room a moment later, a firm resolve radiating off of her. She was a mother on a mission. Leo on the other hand didn't look so determined. In fact, he looked so nervous that for once his son actually took pity on him and gave a little smile signaling for both his father and his mother to come further into the room.

Cole took the opportunity to limp his way out of the room-his leg bothering him quite a bit after all the excitement of the day- and headed to find some comfort from a kind hearted, dog loving, divorcee.

"How you holdin' up, Peanut?" Piper asked as she took a seat next to her son on the bed, her well trained eyes quickly scanning him, searching for signs of distress that only a mother could recognize.

"I don't know," Chris answered honestly. "I'm still trying to let it all sink in."

Leo swallowed and forced his feet to move to the bed, forced himself to sit down next to the son he had fought so hard not to disappoint over the years, the son he was terrified of being hated by, but even more terrified of losing. Once he had taken his seat on Chris' other side, he asked hesitantly, "What exactly do you remember?"

"Not much. Just that I went to the past to save someone I love and that I died." Chris frowned, remembering something that Cole had said before Paige had interrupted them, "And I led all types of magical and non magical beings, but I don't know what I was the leader of exactly." Chris shook his head, "God, this just gets more confusing every minute."

As much as he loathed to ask it, Leo offered, "What would you like to know?"

"Everything," his son answered firmly. "I want to know who I saved in the past, what I was the leader of, how I died...all of it."

Piper nodded and took her son's hand in hers, "Ok, then we'll tell you. You were the leader of a rebellion against. . ." she looked to Leo for support. When her husband gave her a nod of encouragement she continued, "Wyatt. It was against Wyatt, honey."

"What?" Chris pulled his hand out from his mother's and held both hands up in denial. "No way. Why would I fight Wyatt? I wouldn't."

"You had to, Sweetie," Piper went on, "because Wyatt was evil in that life."

An image sprang to Chris' mind.

Wyatt looked about the same age, but his attire was completely black, his hair was longer and his face was unshaven and rough. He held the same twisted look in his eyes that Chris had seen when the sword had corrupted him just earlier that day.

"Why can't you ever just trust me, Chris?"

Chris heard himself answer, "Because I don't know you anymore, Wyatt. The brother I knew would never have done the things you've done. You kill people, Wyatt. Innocent people. You use the world as your own personal playground."

"I do everything I do to protect us, Chris," Wyatt answered, his voice carrying a desperate edge. "I can't let what happened to Mom and the Aunts happen to you and the cousins." His voice dropped, "I can't lose you too."

"Then fight against the evil, Wyatt. Don't go working with demons, don't go taking over the whole god-damn world, killing everyone who thinks you're wrong. Just fight the good fight like Mom taught us to."

Wyatt shook his head, "Fighting the good fight is what got them killed. Playing by the rules is as good as a death sentence. Just look at our family history. Aside from Great Grams, no one lived to forty. It's all about the power, Chris. That was the problem with our family; they believed in the battle between good vs. evil, and they died for an idea that doesn't exist. Good does not exist, Chris. Anyone will betray you– kill you even– if the price is right. The only way to survive is to have people fear you, to use all the power you have to control them, to make sure they can't hurt you. That's what I'm doing, Chris, and I'm doing it for us. I mean, do you really want to die young, Chris? Do you?"

"What I want is to be able to go outside and not see demons destroying everything our family worked to protect. To not see small children crying themselves sick because one of their parents disappeared in the middle of the night. To not have our family's legacy of protecting the weak become one of destroying those who oppose us. Most of all, Wyatt, I want my brother back because you? You're a stranger. And to answer your question, if I had to choose between living in this world you've created or dying young, I would pick dying every time."

Suddenly, something snapped in the Twice Blessed. He raised his arm, and Chris could feel himself being lifted off the ground and thrown through the air only to come to a sickeningly quick halt as his body struck a wall. He fell in a heap onto the floor, his body screaming in pain. When he opened his eyes everything was blurry and spinning. He reached up with a hand and felt the back of his head. It was sticky with warm blood.

"I'll teach you, Christopher. . .only the strong survive."

In a moment the vision cleared, and Chris was back in his room, his parents both hovering anxiously, waiting for him to tell them what was going on because visions were not a power the young man possessed, yet they knew the signs of one well enough to know that must have been what their son had just experienced.

"Guess you got a new power, huh?" Piper asked, a weak smile on her lips. It faded as she asked, "Is this how you found out about the other you?"

Taking the opportunity handed to him, the witchlighter answered, "Yeah."

The father asked hesitantly, softly, "What did you see?"

Chris sighed, not really wanting to talk about it. Truth was he didn't just see it. He felt it. He felt every ounce of pain Wyatt's tantrum had caused. The entire thing had shaken him, and he was worried his parents would catch on to how upset he was, and their overprotectiveness was not something he could deal with right now. However, not talking about it would make them suspicious. "I saw me and Wyatt. Wyatt was talking about how there is no good or evil, that only power matters. I argued with him, and he got mad and tossed me into a wall using his telekinesis."

Piper winced.

"How long have you been getting these visions?" Leo asked, sounding very much like the detached whitelighter when in truth it pained him greatly to hear about the other timeline.

"Just today." He looked convincingly sheepish as he added, "I was going to tell you..."

"– but Ryak came, and everything just sort of got a little crazy, right?" Piper guessed. When he nodded, she smiled reassuringly, "It's ok, sweetie. We're just worried about you, that's all." Her voice grew soft, "Your other life wasn't very pleasant."

"So I've noticed."

Chris grew suspicious as his parents began to squirm uncomfortably. They were hiding something from him. Something important. They were guilty about something, that much was evident in the way they couldn't look him in his eyes right now, how they were fidgeting. He could practically hear their hearts beating faster in their chests. The distant voice of a woman in his mind said, "When people are uncomfortable they fidget, but when it's guilt, their hands sweat and their hearts beat faster. You can almost hear it if you try." Who was that woman? Another mystery it seemed. One at a time.

"What are you guys hiding?"

Piper replied quickly, "Nothing. We're not hiding anything, Peanut. We said we would answer any questions you have, and we will."

"Then why didn't you tell me before now?"

"It was too hard," Leo answered, pain flashing in his blue eyes. "It hurt too much to talk about him. And we didn't want to burden you and Wyatt with the other life."

Chris nodded, but noticed his mother look away when he sought her gaze. The voice returned, Don't let them hide their gaze. It's in someone's eyes that the truth can be found. "Mom? What aren't you saying?"

Piper turned back to him, her eyes watery. "I'm so sorry, Chris."

"Why? Because I died in some other life?"

The mother shook her head, the tears slipping down her face. "Not just that. But. . .we didn't know who he was for so long. . .we didn't trust him. He manipulated and lied because he was desperate to save Wyatt, but all we saw were the lies. We. . .I was horrible to him. I'm so sorry, Chris. I should have known. I should have sensed that you were mine."

"Mom, I never blamed you. I always loved you." Chris responded, wrapping his arms around the distraught woman. No one noticed how he assumed the role of the other Chris, answering for him. They didn't understand that the words weren't really his own but coming from a place somewhere inside of him, beyond even his own full recognition.

"He hated me," Leo said suddenly. "Loathed me."

Chris turned to his father, a guilty knot in his stomach. He knew he and his dad fighting all the time really bothered the man. Now he knew why.

"We got close in the end though," the former Elder continued. "But then I couldn't save him from Gideon."

The son frowned, "Gideon?"

"Leo's old mentor. An Elder."

"An Elder?" Chris questioned in shock. "I was murdered by an Elder?" He paused a moment, "You know, I'm not really all that surprised."

Piper smirked at her son.

Leo looked up at the teenager who would forever be his little boy, and his eyes shone with unshed tears, "I'm so sorry, Chris. I wanted to save you. I tried so hard, but I couldn't. And I know that I'm overprotective of you now, but ever since I lost you the first time I've been terrified that I'm going to have to see you die again. I can't do that. I love you too much, Son."

Chris then did something decidedly uncharacteristic. He hugged his father. "It's ok, Dad. I'm gonna be ok."

The mother and wife watched the scene with a warm heart. It had been a long time since Leo and Chris had been this open with one another.Perhaps now that the truth of the past was out, her husband and son would once again have that closeness that they used to share so easily when Chris was a little boy. She certainly believed that things were going to be better.

The two men pulled apart, each looking a little embarrassed about the display of affection. Piper just shook her head and rolled her eyes, thinking, Men.

"Well, um, yeah so, I guess that explains everything," Chris started awkwardly. "I went to the past to save Wy, got killed by an Elder, but everything apparently worked out ok."

"Except now you're remembering a lifetime's worth of burdens that you shouldn't have to remember," Piper pointed out, a bitter edge to her tone. She turned to her husband, "Do you think the Elders have something to do with this?"

Leo looked doubtful. "Piper, contrary to what you think the Elders are not mean or spiteful or evil."

"How can you say that after everything that's happened to us because of them?"

"Because it's true. The Elders are pure good and light, and they only want to do what is best for the greater good."

The Eldest Charmed One's eyes flashed at the mention of the greater good. "Some of them go too far."

Chris noticed the way his mother had reacted to his father's words and felt certain it had something to do with him. Those words did seem strikingly familiar to him somehow. Perhaps, it had something to do with the way he had died before?

"Some may," Leo conceded, sadness in his voice, "but not all of them. I was an Elder once too, remember? Did you think I was spiteful or evil?"

Piper pulled a face, "Fine, I'm prejudiced, but that doesn't make my point any less valid. It could have something to do with the Elders, and I swear to God that if they are messing with my kid again, there will be hell to pay."

"If you really are that worried, why don't you go ask Paige to go up there and question them?"

"I think I may do that."

Piper stood up from the bed and headed out of the room yelling, "Paige!"

The two men exchanged amused looks. There was no doubt that once Piper Halliwell set her mind to something there was no reasoning with her.

"So, are you ok with everything?" Leo asked.

Chris shrugged. "I think so. I mean, just because I see this stuff doesn't mean it really affects me. Life is pretty good, and Wyatt's an awesome brother– you tell him I said that and I'll deny it."

Leo chuckled, "Fair enough."

"I'll be ok, though. The Arthur thing is bothering me more than the other life thing is."

"How so?"

The teenager shrugged, "I dunno. I guess because one is my past and the other is my future. I don't really want that responsibility, but I don't really have a choice. You always say that we can't run from Destiny, so I guess I'm just going to have deal."

"You don't have to take on the responsibility right away," Leo pointed out, adding meaningfully, "and you'll never be alone in your burden."

Chris' lips turned up in a small smile.

"Well, I suppose I should go attempt to calm down your mother. You know how she gets when she's worried about one of you boys."

"Yeah, I do. Things tend to go boom a lot."

Leo chuckled, "Exactly."

The father rose from the bed, walking over to the door, but paused just a moment. Turning back to look at his son, the former Elder promised, "If you ever need me for anything, Chris, to talk about this, or for anything else. . .I'll always be here for you. You know that, right?"

"I've always known that, Dad," Chris answered. He added, hoping to alleviate some of his father's guilt, "He did too in the end."

With misty eyes, Leo smiled at his son before finally turning to leave the teenager alone with his thoughts.

Chris let out a breath, overwhelmed with everything he had learned, and confused about where his vision had truly come from. Something weird was going on. How did he know the things he knew? How come he felt like someone else spoke for him sometimes? And who had that voice belonged to?

"Hey, Cole?" Chris asked, looking around for his dog, unaware the animal had already slipped out. "Cole, I need to ask you some things." He flipped onto his stomach and peered underneath his bed. Nothing there. He sat up and sighed. Closing his eyes he reached out to sense for his pet. His eyes snapped open as he realized where Shadow had gone. "Damn it, Cole."

000

Paige sighed as she heard Piper calling for her. It seemed her sister was on the war path again. However, just as she was about to yell back at her big sister to stop her yelling and just hold on a sec, she saw something that made her pause in her tracks.

Phoebe was heading out of the kitchen, but she wasn't alone. Shadow was trailing closely behind her, careful not to put weight on his injured leg. The older sister shook her head and paused to pet the animal and scratch behind his ears. She looked up at Paige, "Hey, isn't he just adorable?"

"Why is he following you?" Paige asked in monotone.

The older Charmed One shrugged. "I dunno. Guess he likes me." Talking to the animal, "Yes you do. And you are the cutest little dog in the whole wide world. Yes you are."

Shadow snorted indignantly but didn't move away from her touch. Instead, he seemed to lean into it, longing for as much as he could get.

"Why is Piper yelling?" Phoebe asked, grabbing her head. "I've got such an awful headache as it is."

Paige was only half listening, "I don't know, but I'm sure it can wait a minute. So, that dog loves when you pet him, and he follows you everywhere?"

"Yeah, what's your point, Paige?"

The youngest Charmed One stared suspiciously at the animal, "I'm not sure. . ."

Shadow barked and wagged his tail, letting his tongue hang out stupidly. He then ran a circle around Paige. Barking again, he sat down in front of her and panted happily.

"He seems to like you too," Phoebe commented.

Something in the animal's eyes made Paige doubt the sincerity of his friendliness. "Maybe."

"Paige, there you are," Piper said coming down the stairs. "I've been calling for you, didn't you hear me?"

Phoebe rolled her eyes, "Piper, the entire neighborhood heard you, and some of us have headaches."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sweetie," Piper apologized, "it's just Chris got a vision of his other life, and I think the Elders have something to do with it, so," She turned to Paige, "Could you please go ask them for me?"

"Whoa, wait a second, Chris got a vision?" Phoebe asked. "That's not one of his powers. That's not even a progression of one of his powers. How is that possible?"

"That's what I want to know. Because I swear if the Elders are just making him see his other life for kicks, I'm going to go up there and kick some Elder ass because the last thing he needs is to see all the horrible, painful things that he once lived through. He's got enough to deal with as it is, and I will not have them messing with my son."

"Agreed," Phoebe said.

Paige nodded. "Yeah, sure I can go ask them what's going on. Just give me like two minutes, k?"

"Sure," Piper answered moving with a purpose toward the kitchen. "Just let me know what you find out."

"Where are you going?"

"To check on my other son," Piper answered before disappearing into the kitchen.

Phoebe sighed, "Poor, Piper and Leo. They must be worried sick about Wyatt and Chris. And poor Wyatt and Chris, this is so much for them to have to deal with. Especially Chris. If he's seeing those visions. . .I can't imagine what he's going through. The confusion, the fear..."

"He'll be ok, Pheebs. It's Chris. Nothing can keep him down."

"Yeah," Phoebe relented.

"Why don't you go lie down and get some rest. Maybe it'll help your headache?"

"Yeah, I think I'm going to. It's been a long day."

As Phoebe went up the stairs to her room, Paige watched as the dog followed her up. And suddenly everything snapped into place. The dog had mysteriously appeared just as Ryak had showed up. He bit everyone but Phoebe. He was incredibly intelligent. When she had questioned Chris he had told her it was Cole, which while it was funny at the time seems an odd response now. Out of all the demons they knew, why had he chosen to joke about it being Cole? Why, for the first time, did Paige not entirely believe Chris when he told her there was nothing unusual about his pet? Why was the dog stalking Phoebe? There was only one possible answer.

Paige blinked, "I can't believe he's back again."

tbc...