Author's note... Don't hate me guys PLEASE... I'm sorry but this chapter is kind of slow... not a lot of action, a fair bit of thinking... it's a little longer than usual so I guess that's a plus. There will be more action in the next chapter I PROMISE. lol.
Chapter 11-
"Oh my godsh," Phoebe rushed out, "what should we do? Should we follow them?"
"No way, good riddance." Piper said angrily.
"What? Piper, Chris just got stabbed in the chest… and we're going to just let him walk away? What if he's the innocent?" Phoebe asked just as forcefully.
"Yes, actually Phoebe, we are. He obviously didn't want our help."
"You know Chris would never ask for our help, especially if he really needed it." Phoebe argued angrily. Both sisters turned to Paige for help.
Paige shrunk under the current unwanted attention. She glanced very guiltily and apologetically at Phoebe, "I'm sorry Pheebs… but I think I have to side with Piper this time."
Phoebe groaned in exasperation and then sobered, "fine, well at least orb me to P3 so I can go through his stuff and see if there's any proof that he's evil. Please, Paige."
Paige nodded and linked arms with her sister. Piper and Leo stood there and watched as their blue orbs faded away.
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Chris sighed partially in pain and partially in frustration. Wyatt was so cloak and dagger and such a drama queen with all of this stabbing of the younger brother and dragging him back to the future. It was quite frankly, very annoying. Actually, Chris was kind of surprised Wyatt hadn't jumped off his high horse yet and come to drag him back from the past himself… But he sent Shayne, of course he sent Shayne.
"Chris are you gonna talk to me at all?" Shayne asked his voice very annoyed.
"Dude, you just stabbed me with an athame… talking is a little hard right now." Chris said pointedly looking down at the protruding object sticking out of his chest. They were walking down a long corridor, again, Wyatt and his dramatics. At least it was a normal hallway, it wasn't all dark and shit with like candles hanging off the walls or anything… no it was aptly lit with modern fluorescent lights, however the concrete (not stone) walls were bare.
"You know he's not going to be happy." Shayne said stating the obvious.
"Duh… okay, what exactly was it he wanted me to… err… see?" Chris realized how awkward and stupid that sounded after he said it but waited for a response nonetheless.
"The night he killed your family… he was going to make you watch it over and over again until you broke… Chris, he's serious about getting you back on his side." Shayne said, for once looking serious.
Chris paled as small flashbacks popped up in his consciousness. Those hellacious three days… He shuddered thanking every deity that he had ever heard of that things had worked out the way they did because knowing Shayne, he would definitely stand there emotionlessly while he broke down… Wyatt knew how to drive him crazy… literally. But hopefully he might resort to something like physical torture… just… he couldn't watch that again… he couldn't see that again… Wyatt was cruel… but to make him see that again… that was just… low. And it meant Wyatt was getting desperate. That thought at least made Chris a little more cheerful… though he didn't think cheerful was exactly the right word.
"We're here" Shayne whispered as if it was some big secret and not something Chris could obviously tell as they had reached a rather normal looking door.
"But Wyatt's not right now…" Shayne said softly as if he had made a sudden decision. And in fact, he had.
"Listen Chris, I'm only doing this once. Never again. The source might kill me for this actually… but he doesn't have to know. There are no probes around because he doesn't think anyone would be stupid enough to do something like I'm about to do this close to him."
Without hardly moving, Shayne reached forward and wrenched the athame out of Chris' torso. Chris inhaled sharply, but before the pain set in, Shayne was… healing him? What?
"Go Chris, quickly before he comes back… you're always accusing me of not choosing a side, but I can't just hand you over to him… not again… not after what he did last time I… I'm sorry Chris… this won't make up for it… but you'll always be my best friend… but so will Wyatt."
Chris smiled sadly realizing how much Shayne was putting on the line for him.
"Shayne… I'm sorry too" Chris said reaching up to the taller man and placing his hand on his shoulder. And with that Chris was gone… leaving Shayne feeling incredibly relieved, but lonelier than he had felt in a long time.
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"Geez, he's such a neat freak. I'm surprised there isn't like a labeler or something." Paige remarked once they had gotten into Chris' room at P3. Everything about Chris' room was clean and pristine, besides the peeling posters on the walls that Piper had put there long before his arrival. His bed was made and every object that he owned was neatly in a place on the desk. It didn't look like he had much… besides a bunch of papers and star charts and what not, but it was all very neatly put away.
"This is crazy Phoebe what are you looking for?" Paige questioned in exasperation.
"I'm not sure…" Phoebe said moving around the room slowly like a bird of prey.
"What's this Pheebs?" Paige asked suddenly, standing up. She had in her hand a small but relatively thick chain. It had been laying ontop of a rather large, and rather empty bag.
Phoebe reached out to touch it and suddenly she was thrown into a premonition.
Chris' face was screwed up with suppressed pain as an unknown figure, though it looked to be a rather large, dark skinned, demon, tore the athame from his chest. And then suddenly he was on the ground and the figure was kicking him and yelling at him in an obviously demonic language. Then suddenly he reached out and threw another athame into Chris' side.
"Does that hurt, Christopher?" He asked in English as Chris inhaled sharply. And suddenly he conjured a huge dark energy ball and hurled it to Chris' open form on the floor.
"Oh my god that must have killed him… Paige… we have to go get him… please" Phoebe said almost begging.
"Wait a minute sister, what did you see exactly?"
"I saw Chris… being tortured, and maybe killed…probably killed, no definitely killed. We have to stop it!" Phoebe said looking at her sister with pleading eyes.
"We have to, Paige, he's our innocent." Paige had a very uneasy expression on her face.
"Fine… let's get Piper"
"Yes!" Phoebe yelled in extreme happiness. However something stopped her eye. It was something that was shining in the dull light inside one of the pockets in the empty bag. She pulled out what looked like a small round Crystal and a scrap of paper. Scanning the words on the paper Phoebe's eyes widened.
"This Crystal will help us get to the future and this spell… it looks like it's a one use spell to the future. I think Chris probably had it in case he ever needed to get back quickly." She said in excitement.
"Let me see that." Paige read the spell quickly. And her eyes widened.
In Chris' neat, perfect, totally-recognizable handwriting, it said,
Powers from these ancient minds,
Coming through these fragile lines,
To that future, so I will find,
What I need in space and time.
(A/N: SORRY! My spell writing sucks huh? Lol, plus I kinda cheated. Lol.)
Paige nodded in excitement, getting swept away in the moment. She grinned at Phoebe who was happy to seemingly have her sister on her side again.
"Let's go get Piper" she whispered grabbing onto her sister's hand and orbing back towards the mansion.
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"No Phoebe… I am not just jumping into a random portal… to save some bitchy ass… teenager." Piper protested.
"Please Piper, he was being killed… we have to save him." Phoebe said whiningly.
"No Phoebe, I said, no, I'm not going to the future just to get back that child that I don't even want to see again."
"Please Piper, he's our innocent. We always, always have to protect the innocent… if you won't do it for him… please do it for me."
Piper looked into Phoebe's chocolate brown eyes and couldn't find it in her heart to reject the puppy dog look her baby sister was giving her. Damn her and her puppy dog stares… always made her do things she would regret later in their youth… hopefully she wouldn't regret this… too much.
"Fine, let's get Leo, he's downstairs with Wyatt, and read the spell as soon as possible, before I change my mind."
An hour later they were coursing their way through time and space to a different, more gruesome future.
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Since there was such a great amount of reviews… I'm doing EXTRA STORY TIME!!! Woo hoo
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Chris couldn't believe that Shayne had let him go… just like that… it had been… too easy. What was Shayne up to?
"You'll always be my best friend"
That's what he had said… and yes, it was true, Wyatt and Chris had been best friends with the demon Shayne growing up, much to their parents' dismay… but Shayne had never put Chris above Wyatt like that before… He had just betrayed Chris over and over again since the war started… he had caught and handed Chris over to Wyatt more times than he could count… but for some reason he'd let him go this time and it left Chris' head spinning… And he apologized… Shayne never apologized for anything… even when they were little… he never, ever apologized no matter how heinous the crime… and what he was apologizing for… Chris still hadn't forgiven him yet, and didn't know if he'd ever be able to. The last time Shayne had successfully caught Chris and handed him over to Wyatt had been two years ago, and that day had happened. But… he had more important things to do than get lost in the past… because ironically that's where he needed to be… just farther back. He needed to stop what ever was… the sisters no doubtedly were not missing him, and Leo, he wasn't even a consideration, no matter what time or place it was Leo would just never care… no, they had let Shayne stab him and drag him through the porthole without so much as a lifted finger… and he didn't even want to think about how much that hurt… not that he wanted them to do anything reckless or stupid anyway.
Okay he must have lost a ton of blood because his thoughts were all jumbled and pretty much unrelated. He took a deep breath and continued walking through the tunnels of the underground resistance stronghold. You couldn't just orb into the resistance stronghold, there were certain orbing points that only a select few knew about and that was how one got in and out of the stronghold.
It was good to be back… but he had other priorities… and with any luck he could find a way back to the past without running into anyone he knew… he just had to get to his old office…
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"Where the hell are we?" Piper asked as she, her sisters and Leo stepped out of the portal and into… what looked like… an office… It was probably Chris' as it was just as neat and tidy as his room at P3.
"Where's Chris? He could be being tortured right now!!"
"Oh so what? It's not like we haven't been tortured before." Piper said annoyingly.
"Piper! He's 18… 18… very much younger than you, no offense." Phoebe said to her indignant sister.
Piper sighed… right now she wanted to be anywhere but there… it was just so annoying… She pretty much loathed Chris for all his lies and manipulation. That whole thing with Shayne… it was probably just an act. Hell, she didn't know what to think anymore. She didn't like the idea of the kid in danger and being hurt, she wasn't cruel, but she didn't want to help find him when she had more important things to be doing… like saving her son…
(A/N: Oh the irony, sorry couldn't resist)
"What is all this?" Paige asked sifting through the papers on Chris' desk. They were all very complicated and obviously in a different language.
"What the hell?" Came a very surprised voice in the general direction of the door way.
The charmed ones (and Leo) jerked around to see Chris standing in the doorway.
