Last of the Jedi

Hand gave no reaction when they all burst into the attic, but when Piper told her what they would do, her eyes widened in actual shock.

That is one messed up girl, Piper thought, refusing to consider what part Wyatt had had in messing her up. Surprised that someone wants to save her.

She even argued against it. Decisively.

"This is not a good idea," she stated, but Chris stopped her with a sharp gesture.

"It's our decision, not yours," he told her, and Piper wanted to hit him again. It was bad enough that the girl had been enslaved (by your son, a treacherous voice whispered in her mind), but did he have to rub it in every chance he got?

"I'm here because I want to be," she said just as sharply. "This should be my decision. And I say no."

"You came here to help me," Chris answered. "And I will decide what form that help should take."

She didn't give in. The look she fixed them with was fierce, and without a hint of fear. Would she really fight them over her rescue?

Something in Chris' face softened.

„Gideon is an Elder," he explained. „We might need your firepower. And you have experience at this kind of operation."

Piper exchanged glances with her sisters. Was this the real reason why he'd changed his mind? She didn't think that she'd like a trained assassin to join their fight, firepower or not.

But if it had caused Chris to agree to her rescue, she would be quiet like a mouse until the spell was broken.

The girl hesitated another moment, examining Chris' face and stance closely. Then, she nodded her agreement.

Phoebe, to Piper's left, sighed in relief.

"This is ridiculous," Piper stated. "We shouldn't need to argue about it! Let's get started, everybody!"

Chris slightly lifted his right hand, and the chair with the girl in it rose into the air. Piper couldn't help but be impressed at the control he was displaying.

She had never seen such an efficient, controlled use of telekinesis, and with Prue around, she'd seen a lot of what tk could do.

They watched Chris and the chair vanish through the door of the attic. Chris had refused to orb with Hand and given a terribly long and complicated explanation why that Piper hadn't even tried to understand.

Then, Piper nodded to Paige, who placed a hand on her sisters' shoulder and orbed them into the cellar.

It looked just like a prison to Piper, and she'd been on more than one Alcatraz-tour, so she knew what she was talking about.

Chris had placed a small camping bed with pillow and blanket in the middle of the crystal circle. Near the bed stood several water bottles, a small bowl with apples and bananas, and a bucket with a lid. Piper chose not to think about the last one.

"I feel very, very bad about this," Paige muttered, observing the scene unhappily.

Piper would have liked to agree, but since she was the oldest, it fell to her to uphold morale.

So she shrugged. "If this allows us to save her life, no one should complain. She least of all."

"Yeah, but…" Paige began, but fell silent when the door opened and the hovering chair began its descent.

"It's just like Star Wars," Phoebe whispered, her eyes glittering. "You know, that scene in the third movie when Luke levitates C3PO…"

Piper sent her a glare and she fell silent abruptly, but Chris snorted.

"Doesn't that make me Luke Skywalker, last of the Jedi?" he asked, with an unholy delight in his eyes.

Piper suddenly wondered if their whitelighter had been a bit of a geek in his youth.

"Hardly," she answered, and another glare told everyone present that they should be concentrating on the matter at hand. "So, how do we do this?"

Chris placed the chair inside the circle of crystals and untied the girl with a wary look.

"I'll be watching you", he told her. "And if you make one wrong move, I'll squeeze your insides to mush."

Piper rolled her eyes. The girl was a slave of Wyatt, had come to the past to help them rescue him, they had blocked her magic, and still Chris wouldn't trust her. Paranoid much?

"Chris," she interrupted him before he could think of more colourful threats. "How does it work?"

He looked up at her from his half crouch at the girl's side. There was an expression in his eyes she couldn't quite read, something like disappointment.

"You use the spell like any other power-of-three spell," he answered. "But you start and finish with the numerical sequence. And be sure not to get it wrong. The results would be unpleasant – for both you and the girl."

"Yeah, right, "Paige grumbled. "More unpleasantness. Just what we needed."

Piper sent her another warning look. Not that she didn't agree, but she finally wanted this whole nightmare over with.

"Ready?" she asked her sisters.

"Ready," Phoebe quipped, but her eyes darted between Chris, girl-assassin and Piper, as if invisible lines ran between them.

Piper stepped into the middle and raised the paper with the spell. She more felt than saw Chris walk to their side, standing between them and the girl, still ready to protect them. She rolled her eyes.

The sequence of numbers felt strange on her tongue, not at all fitting into their world of magic. But the spell was a good one, and Piper relaxed at the sensation of magic trickling out of her, readying itself to give form to their will.

Their voices grew stronger, one single body of sound and magic, until they filled the cellar with their words.

"We call upon the Halliwell line

To aid the power of three.

Correct our kinsman's heinous crime

And set this slave girl free."

When they had finished chanting, a wind suddenly rose in the cellar, whirling around the sisters. It took on a pearly glow, which grew stronger and stronger until it glistened white around them.

"Beautiful," Phoebe whispered, and Piper agreed.

But the feeling of loss that suddenly overwhelmed her as the wind vanished and reformed around the girl was anything but.

All of a sudden, Piper felt dizzy, weak, and vulnerable in a way she couldn't name. She stumbled and would have fallen, but Chris was right there, steadying them with his arms, his eyes silently checking their condition.

"You'll be fine," he whispered. "That's just the magic being drained from you. Nothing unexpected."

But Piper didn't feel fine. She felt as if she had lost something precious, as if one of her sisters had died all over again and left her behind. If this was how she felt without her magic, she'd never ever give it up willing. God, this was awful!

But whatever happened to the girl was worse. As the white glow whirled around her, encasing her more tightly, her legs too had lost the strength to support her. But she had no one to step in, and so she stumbled and trembled in a way that reminded Piper of a seizure. Her face was very white, and her lips opened to a silent scream.

"That looks… is she alright?" Paige whispered.

Chris nodded. "It's as painful as it looks, but it is a normal part of the procedure. There's no way around int."

He didn't sound as if that was really worth mentioning.

Glowing whiter and whiter, the wind coalesced into stripes of pure light, wound tightly around the girl's body. It looked as if they were strangling her slowly, squeezing the life out of her in a silent parody of a dance.

Piper made to move towards her, but her legs still weren't steady, and Chris held her back.

"This is just making the binding magic visible," he murmured. "Next, the spell will be breaking it."

And it did. As one band of light snapped around the girl, exploding into a thousand fragments of light, Hand finally screamed. It was the sound of an animal in pain, and Phoebe fell to her knees in shock, actually moaning with agony.

Piper wanted very much to join her, and Paige's face was white as a sheet. Only Chris watched the girl's suffering without moving a muscle.

One after the other, the bands of light broke and fragmented around the girl, and Piper was reminded of the servant in an old fairy tale she'd read to Wyatt the other day, who'd had iron bands around his chest to keep his heart from breaking.

The girl writhed and screamed. Piper touched her own cheeks and found that they were wet.

After what felt like an eternity, the last band finally snapped, and the light in the cellar faded to what ordinary electricity could produce. The girl had collapsed unconscious on the cold concrete of the floor, Phoebe and Paige were leaning against each other, sobbing, and Chris was observing them all with cold, unreadable eyes.

"You should go to your rooms, rest a bit," he proposed calmly. "I'll take care of her."

But Piper's sisters weren't ready to rest, yet.

"Who invented it?" Phoebe whispered. And then, her voice rising in anger: "What bastard thought of a spell like this servilis? How can a human being want to cause so much pain?"

Chris closed his eyes. A muscle in his cheek twitched.

"It was a different time," he whispered. "And it was invented out of desperate need. Don't judge too quickly."

But he didn't sound convinced himself.

"Yeah, well, if I ever meet that monster, I'll be sure to listen to his reasons before I orb his heart out of his chest, "Paige answered harshly.

Chris just bit his lips. "You should go to bed," he repeated quietly, without any of his usual energy.

Paige looked as if she wanted to argue, but Piper touched her shoulder and shook her head.

"Save it for the one responsible," she advised, and saw Chris twitch, probably with irritation. "I really need to get off my feet."

Paige's shoulders lowered as the tension left them. Without a word, she offered her hand to Piper and together they stumbled up the rickety staircase, Phoebe stumbling after them.

Piper was too tired to even look back at Chris and the girl.

oOo

After the sisters had left, Chris stood still in his place for a long, long moment. Only his eyes, flickering from the girl to the place where the Charmed Ones had stood, proved that he wasn't a statue. His eyes were very much alive, brimming with pain and anger, fixed on something only he could see.

Then he sighed, and suddenly he was just a young man again, a bit on the skinny side and entirely too weary for his age.

He crouched down beside the unconscious girl, checked her pulse and breathing, then lifted her into his arms and carried her over to the small cot.

He arranged her carefully, making sure that her blood circulation wouldn't be impaired and that she wouldn't be cold.

When he was sure that she would be comfortable and safe, he rose from her side and started to move away, only to be stopped abruptly, as if by an invisible force.

"They're right," he said, only tiredness in his voice. "I can explain it all away, of course, and I had good reasons. The very best. But in the end, I only gave Wyatt another weapon, and they are right. I am a monster."

He left the room quietly, his shoulders very tense, as if he was carrying an invisible weight.

0o0

The fairy tale Piper read to Wyatt is The Frog King.