Hey guys, got another exciting Chapter for all ya' all. Hope you enjoy.
Be sure to review at the end and thank you to all those that review,
Especially my loyal reviewers
Piper Halliwell wants desperately to yell at the halfbreed. She wants to kick, scream, call him a liar… anything. But she can't. The power of his rage, the intensity in his eyes, not even he was that convincing of a liar. She'd die infront of this boy, for this boy and wind up leaving her family behind- alone to fend for themselves. She felt sick knowing she'd give up everything for the future boy, a person she didn't even like.
Piper: Show me. Show me how I die.
Chris flinches back violently, eyes widening at the lunacy of her request. His head shakes back and forth violently, all instincts telling him to retract from that circle and do whatever it takes to not go back down that road.
Chris: You don't want to see—I don't even want to see it.
Piper: I'll be the judge of that.
Chris: This isn't about seeing how you die, this is about you not believing you'd die for me!
A broken bitter laughter cuts through the air and he steels himself.
Chris: You didn't. My Piper did. As far as I'm concerned you're a completely different person. My Piper was endearing, warm, and compassionate. EVERYTHING you're not!
Tensions that'd been mounting exploded before his very eyes and he couldn't believe the words came out of his mouth in such a fashion. Nor did he expect a disgruntled Piper to throw her hands up into that all too familiar explosive position and flick. His hands immediately go up to his chest and roam around the rest of his body looking for a point of contact. But in his mind they don't have powers.
Piper: Chris, I'm—
Chris: No you're not. (looks up at everyone) but you will be. You want to see my memories… you've got them.
Chris walks back into the center and focuses on that particular November 16th eyes never leaving the group.
Chains coming from the ceiling of the pyramid-like structure he was entrapped in suspend him in the air. It almost feels like being hung from the gallows, wrist captured in restraints and feet off the ground just waiting for death to come… or worse, slavery. Every muscle in his body aches for a freedom that may never come.
His arms ache to the point that he wishes they'd get ripped out of socket and put an end to his misery. It'd been seven days, seven long, agonizing days. And yet, he's refused to break because they'd be coming for him. He knew his father was turning over every rock with a vengeance to find him, his mother and aunts on his heels ready to risk life and limb for him, for family.
And they'd just begun.
He feels an athame travel heavily down his bare chest leaving blood trailing in its wake. It follows the contour of his last rib and wraps around to his back. Before he knows it the blade is driven into the meat of his shoulder savagely and he's screaming bloody murder. The blade is twisted all the way around and one thing flashes across his mind. 'So this is what death feels like.'
Phoebe: Oh my God!
The middle Halliwell sister had seen her fair share of gruesome, sickly sounding things but not in a million years did she think she'd witness such ruthless cruelty delivered to a boy so young. She hides her head and Cole's chest unable to watch someone she knows suffer so greatly. The moment Piper requested to see her death, Phoebe knew no good could come from it. She just didn't know how right she was. And she wasn't alone in her thought.
Paige had no desire to even enter the halfbreed's memories let alone watch death, destruction, and deceit happen before her eyes. He said his past was tortured and she believed. She'd seen enough kids at social services to know when they were lying or hiding something and when she looks at them. If her gut instinct wasn't enough proof, the scars on his back was plain writing that spelled tortured past.
Paige: Can we pause or something?
Chris: Sorry Paige. You just got to stomach it.
He really was sorry for putting Paige through this. She'd done nothing to entice this moment. She was the victim of circumstance, a person who couldn't find her voice. He cautiously moves around the circle and stands by her side for moral support.
She was going to need it…
Chris cries out one last strangled cry as the demon pulls out the blade and moves to grab his latest weapon of torture. Trembling, the halfbreed hangs feeling blood trickling down his spine and praying for unconsciousness to claim him. Fortunately God blesses him with an even bigger gift.
Piper Halliwell crashes into the ground hard, farced to be dropped instead of orbed down gently which was the plan. The area was whitelighter proofed leaving just her to carry on the battle but it doesn't matter. The moment she sees Chris hanging there, pain corroding every line of his body, she knows she'll save him or die trying.
If only she knew how true it was.
Her hands move automatically in that lethal action blowing up the demon, leaving nothing but a pile of ash and an athame dropping to the floor. She races forward to the boy taking his face in her hands and examining every feature with unwavering concern.
Chris: M'fine.
Piper: No. Not fine. We got to get you out of here, Peanut.
Chris: Sounds fucking good.
Piper: (lightly scolding) Language.
Chris: (slightly smirking) Yes M'am.
He hangs his head allowing himself a moment of rest as Piper begins working on freeing him from his restraints. As chocolate locks bob down ,a very sympathetic Piper stares at the wound on his shoulder. Her heart bleeds as he bleeds, feeling the guilt of not being able to save him from this burden. She works on the restraints, picking the locks of the heavy shackles. With the relinquish he falls to the ground kissing the cobblestone because his body's slow to react.
Momentarily, he feels the weakness taking control but then he feels the strength of his magic pulsing through his veins. Skin on fire and feeling like a million needles poking him, he lets out a pained groan. Piper sits down and rests his head in her lap instructing him to take a minute, such power is overwhelming. She had no idea. After being bound for a week, it was coming back with a vengeance.
So consumed by the situation, neither heard the demon slip into the room, draw his athame, and sneak up behind the eldest Halliwell.
Chris couldn't help himself watching the situation; his eyes squeeze shut and attention moving from the screen. He listens to the sisters yelling at future Piper to look out, knowing that it did nothing but had to do something. Why had he shown them this? He knew it hurt him to dredge these up more than him.
Suddenly her soothing words stop, causing the teen to look up and take in the red blood splatter and tip of a blade pointing outward just inches above his eyes.
Chris: NO!
The power he'd been trying to get back under control finds its way to the surface as he takes out the demons legs and springs to his feet. A deep primal growl is bellowed out as hungry hands take the demon's skull between his hands. He watches the demon's skull shatter between his hands and his body erupt in flames. Taking a deep breath he fights the screaming of his arm to stop jarring it and returns to Piper's side moving to pack the wound. He tears the sleeve off her shirt and has to use his teeth to split the fabric again finding his arm's strength depleting. Packing the wound, he finds himself moving frantically and trying hard to fight his hands shaking and do what his father had taught. There was no orbing in and if he wanted to get her to Paige, he'd have to deliver her.
Chris: I'm going to get you out of here, okay.
She was fading fast, words becoming more breathy as she speaks.
Piper: Tell Wy, I love him—just'n case.
Chris: There's no just in case. Nobody's going to die today.
Without much other option, Chris carries Piper's limp body over his uninjured shoulder in a fireman's carry bound and determined to get her to safety. She was his Aunt Piper. She baked him and Wyatt cookies every Friday for after school, let him help in the kitchen convinced he'd be Chef Christopher, she'd give him everything, anything loving him like a mother would when his was busy with work. He couldn't just let her die on the dusty cobblestone of a demonic fortress.
Chris: S'gonna be okay. Stay with me.
Piper: Love you, P'nut.
He has to fight the overwhelming desire his legs have to turn into jelly and keep moving, his feet digging deeper and deeper into the sand. Sheer will power and adrenaline feed his starving body propelling him forward and numbs the searing hot pain still ravaging his shoulder. Lips moved rambling, going through the list of names that could make it down to the underworld.
Chris: Dad, Paige, Henry, Leo, Wyatt, Charlie… Dad, Paige, Henry, Leo, Wyatt, Charlie—
The anthem was numbed by the blood pounding in his ears as he stumbles momentarily falling to his knees. A weak groan of discomfort escape Piper's lips. She's so heavy bearing down on his shoulder but he wouldn't dare leave her behind. He whispers apologies and forces himself to his feet with every ounce of strength he can muster going back to his calling. Time seemed to wretchedly drag on taking the air from his chest and sinks his heart with each and every step. Then suddenly, time sped up as he hears his name.
Paige: Chris! Piper!
She rushes towards him with his mother and father not too far behind but he can't think of anything, anyone but Piper. Hands ready to heal reach out towards his bloodied shoulder but he falls to his knees once more letting Piper slide off his shoulder and into the soft sand. He rolls onto his back lying next to her. His eyes focus in on her and the words come out in a desperate croak.
Chris: Heal her first. Au- Heal Piper.
Numbly he watches his Aunt Paige hovered her hands over the lethal wound and concentrates…concentrates….concentrates. He doesn't feel his mother take his and Piper's hands or Cole applying pressure to his wound to stem the blood flow. All he sees is what he doesn't see. There's no glow. No healing. No magic. Just death. Paige chokes out a sob but almost mechanically rotates to him holding out her hands to heal him.
Chris: No! What're you doing? Heal Piper! Heal her!
Cole: Chris!
He shouted out over the teenager's shocked and strangled pleas snapping the kid's attention back to him. Steeled eyes beg the boy to stay still, knowing that he had to be healed. Chris momentarily fixated himself on his dad but a question seems to linger in the kids eyes. Why? So his father answered.
Cole: Paige can't heal the dead.
The words send the healed teen into a frenzy. He tries to push past his mother but she struggles to hold him down, her heart shattering into a million pieces as the distraught boy fumbles for his beloved aunt. She'd lost another sister and something tells her she lost a part of her son too. The empath gives up on her struggle and lets him go falling into her baby sister sobbing onto her shoulder not noticing the teen burying his head into Piper's chest sobbing.
Chris: M'sorry! I'm so sorry.
Chills surge up and down the spine of Piper Halliwell as she watches the stilled image of the boy sobbing. The man she'd steeled herself against took the burden of her death on his shoulders, fighting like hell to save her beforehand. Her sister's latch onto her as if she'd disappear at any moment. Her eyes roam across the room to the warrior and he can't look at her. He crosses his arms over his chest and stares off into the black nothingness off right.
She moves out of her sister's clutches and to the halfbreed resting her hand on his forearm. Eyes snap over to her with a hint of tears in his eyes. She looks at him like his Piper does, sympathetically smiles at him like she does, everything about her in that moment is his Piper. His heart constricts painfully in his chest as he allows himself to lock eyes.
Piper: You know that wasn't your fault, right? None of it.
Chris: That's what they keep telling me.
Piper: Now I'm saying it. You were noble, brave, heroic. You can't save them all.
'You can't save them all.'
He's been told this line more times than he'd care to remember. But they're words only said after failure on his part. He's grown to despise the words with a fiery passion. That's probably why he did what he did. Why he chose to put selfish needs first when he arrived, claiming they were for Wyatt but also possibly bettered his future too.
Chris: Maybe I couldn't save you then but I did now. You're not going to die like your future counterpart, none of you are. I took some liberties in this timeline in an attempt to spare you from seeing this… knowing this future… living it.
Piper: What kind of liberties?
Chris: I killed them, Piper. Do it again in a heartbeat too. Everyone can be saved… including Wyatt.
Cole watches the hope gleaming in his eyes, secretly searching for a betrayal of his words and finding none. Two entirely contradictive approaches are taken with Wyatt when he is referred to by Chris. There's the Wyatt he knew at a younger age, the Wyatt he'd lay his own life down for. Then there's the Wyatt that he's the sworn enemy of… the malevolent dictator he fought against. Cole wants to know why the good outweighs the bad…Why Chris seems to find everyone worth saving, even him after all the wrongs he's committed.
Cole: If you don't mind me asking, why are you so determined to save Wyatt after everything he's done? Why not just do away with him?
Piper: That's my son you're talking about Chris offing!
Cole: It's also the Source. If I remember correctly, you had no trouble using that as an excuse to vanquish me.
Seeing the subject was touchy, and trying desperately to get his mind off the last memory, Chris returns to the center of the room and extends his hand forward remembering the kind hearted soul that his cousin was. With a smirk he turns to the people horrified of what they might see next and motions towards the colors swirling, settling into an image.
Chris: See for yourself.
Review!
Your opinions matter.