A/N: Thanks everyone for your nice reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or any of its characters.
Piper walked past the basement door, when she heard talking. Since Phoebe and Jason broke up and her sister had returned home, Chris and Melissa stayed in the basement.
"Do you think we can save Wyatt?", Piper heard Melissa say.
"We have to." Chris' voice sounded determined.
Piper stood at the door. She knew she shouldn't be listening in, but she couldn't stop herself. They were talking about her little boy.
"If we can't, we have to do the alternative", the girl said.
After a short silence Chris whispered: "Maybe."
"I don't know any more if I can kill baby Wyatt", Melissa said softly.
Piper froze on the spot. They really thought about killing her son.
"Mom would hate us for even consider it. I hate myself for even consider it", Chris said.
"Mom is gone and it might be the only way to save the world and our family."
"That doesn't mean we should do it."
It surprised Piper that it was Chris how defended her son, while his sister wanted him death.
"I'm not going back, Chris", Melissa suddenly said in a headstrong tone. "I rather jump of the Golden Gate Bridge, than go back to our time if it's unchanged."
"Don't say that! Never say that." The panic was clear in the boy's voice.
"I'm not giving up! But I'm not going back their either. I don't care about the price, but I will change it. Even if that means killing Wyatt or wiping out our own existence. Better not to be born at all than to live in hell."
Piper got a knot in her stomach. How bad was their world, to be so desperate. She was about to walk away, when Melissa said: "We also have to hurry with fixing your mistake."
"I know", was Chris' reaction, before it went silent.
– A few hours later –
Melinda walked into the attic. "Mel, think I found a poison to vanish those scabber demons."
"It will have to wait. I will be away for a few hours."
Her brother looked up from the potion he was making. He blinked his eyes a few times before he asked: "Mel, what are you wearing?"
She smiled. "It's called a dress."
"You don't wear dresses", her brother stated.
"Well, today I do."
"Mel, what are you up to?"
Melinda grinned and said: "Ruin Mom's date." With those words she glamoured into a tall blond and orbed in front of the apartment of Greg the fireman. She took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. As soon as Greg opened the door Melinda bust into the room.
"I know there was someone else", she yelled. "How can you? We are having a baby!"
Melinda's heart was beating in her throat, as she was yelling.
"Who are you?", Greg yelled. "You're nuts. Piper, I have no idea how this is." Piper just looked completely stunned by the situation.
"How can you say that? You said you loved me." Melinda felt as if she was copying a bad movie or maybe she was. Greg tried to shove her to the door, but two older brothers had learned her to fight back. Suddenly she got a flash of his memory. Greg was yelling at some redhead that it was over and that she had to leave him alone.
"Is this how you treat all your women? The woman before me you called her insane too. Was she too abandoned by you for another?" Then Melinda turned to Piper. "If I were you I would run away now. And you – she turned again to Greg – you are just a pig. Do you really think you can treat women this way?"
"You are wrong. I. Don't. Know. You", Greg yelled in her face.
Piper stood up and said: "I think, I will leave you two to talk this out alone."
As soon as Piper left the apartment Melinda relaxed. She looked at Greg: "I'm sorry, but it's better this way. You better stay away from Piper from now on." Leaving him perplexed she left. When she was out of view she lifted the glamouring and orbed to the manor.
About twenty minutes later Piper returned home, loud complaining about her ruined date. Phoebe quickly gave a listening ear. Melinda quietly listened in, hoping that Piper would blame everything on Greg and not the crazy girl she had played. In the middle of the rant Chris walked in and said: "If your date was that bad, you definitely should break up with him." He gave a quick smile to Melinda, while their mom gave him an irritated look.
"Piper, what does your gut tell you?", Phoebe asked.
"Only that is was completely insane. All of it."
"Well maybe it happen for a reason."
"I...", Piper started, but she was interrupted by Leo, who appeared in a whirlwind of orbs. "I need to talk to the two of you", he said to Chris and Melinda. The siblings gave each other a wondering look.
"I petitioned with the Elders", Leo continued. "They agree with me that it's better to send the two of you back to your own time."
"What!", Chris and Melinda yelled at the same time.
"You can't do that! Wyatt will kill us if we go back", Chris said.
"Not my problem", Leo said.
"Your right it's not your problem that your son will kill us", Melinda said with venom in her voice. "It's not like he will let us die as easily as burning us alive or decapitating us and put our heads on stick. No, we went way too far for that. He will probably torture us for days, before he will put our heads on sticks. And since he hates me more than my brother, he will probably make me watch him tortures Chris to death before he will do the same things to me."
"Don't lie!"
"Lie! My little sister just gave an accurate description of what will happen. You saw my scars and that was before we came here."
"Chris is right. Wyatt is capable of truth horrors. Take my hand and I will show you what he did to my boyfriend. A powerless, unimportant, sixteen years old boy."
Melinda held her hand up, daring Leo to take it.
"Mel, why are you even looking at that", Tam said behind her.
A sixteen year old Melinda looked over shoulder at her cousins, before turning her head back to the television screen. Soon there would be a live broadcast showing Wyatt torturing Chris.
"Because it's the only way I know he is still alive", she said more to herself then to Tamora.
Kat sat down next to her. "Chris has been captured for more than a month. If Wyatt didn't kill him yet, he is not going to."
"Unless Wyatt changes his mind or Chris collapses under the torture", Melinda said.
"Shut up. Don't be such a pessimist."
"Tam is right. You are only hurting yourself by watching. Which is exactly what Wyatt wants." Kat rose to turn of the television, when Wyatt stepped in front of the camera. "Tonight I won't show you Christopher. Instead I will show what happens when you want to join the so called resistance." With a wave of his hand a boy appeared. Blood was sticking to his dirty blond hair. He held his head up and his blue eyes looked straight into the camera.
Melinda put her hands for her mouth. "Micheal."
"Mel, put it off!", Kat yelled. They all know that Wyatt would kill the boy.
"We have to do something", Tam said.
"We can't do anything. Going there is exactly what Wyatt wants." Melinda sighted. "Our lives are more worth than his." Tears were burning behind her eyes.
"Mel, how can you say that? He is your boyfriend", Tam said surprised.
Melinda bit her lip to keep herself from crying. "Because we are the only ones that make a change against Wyatt, even if it's very small. We are the last hope for the world." Taking over the responsibility of the resistance since her brother had been captured had made her hard.
"But I have to see this since this is my fault", she said. "You continue working."
"No, we won't leave you alone", Kit said while she took Melinda's hand. Tam sat down on Melinda's other side. Together they stared silently to the screen. With every hit of a fireball Kat shrinked in. When the blood was pouring out of his wounds Tam had to look away. But Melinda's eyes never left the screen. Melinda kept watching, while the tears were streaming over her cheeks. 'Till the moment Micheal collapsed on the ground. He was nothing more than the bleeding pile of defeat, when Melinda jumped up and ran out of the room.
She pulled herself and Leo back to the present. Piper and Phoebe looked curious at Leo, wondering what he had seen. Her father had a light shade of green. Melinda herself felt like her stomach was turned upside down. Just like that day.
"This and worse will happen if you send us back", she said without any emotion. "Chris, let's go after that demon you spoke of this morning."
Leo just stared at her well she and her brother left the attic. They had hardly walked down one pair of stairs, when Melinda collapsed on the ground, crying.