A/N- Apologies for the long gap between updates this time but in the future if you are ever curious about when the next chapter will be updated I am now keeping an up to date list of progress on all of my stories on my profile.
Chris paced the office nervously awaiting his brother's return. As he paced, he tried to figure out how he could turn these new set of circumstances to his advantage. If handled correctly the sister's arrival had the power to change everything here for the better, but he couldn't see a way of doing so without blowing his cover with Wyatt.
After his brother didn't return for ten minutes, Chris grew bored. He wanted to know what was going on. What if Wyatt had managed to persuade the sisters they could trust him? If Wyatt had even two of the Charmed Ones on his side, then Chris' job would become a whole lot harder. At least Phoebe was safe. He considered. And if he could only get a message to his sister, maybe Piper and Paige had a chance as well.
Chris quickly investigated the office, trying to find something to use to get a message to the resistance base. He found a pen and paper, but no magical spell books or potions which would transport the information. Besides, even if he could- he had worked hard to make the resistance believe he was working for his brother- they would never trust a note in his handwriting.
A new idea began to form in his mind and his eyes flicked towards the door. Wyatt had left in a hurry, and maybe he hadn't bothered raising the spells around his office again- it was worth a shot.
Hesitantly, Chris reached out for the door handle, anticipating his hand to be shocked back at any second, but nothing happened. Tentatively he grabbed the handle, and pushed down. The door swung open with no further action from Chris and for the first time in seven months; he was free. And with that freedom; came hope.
Chris wasted no more time being hesitant. He walked confidently out of the office and made his way through the network of corridors. He passed several demons who flashed him suspicious looks, but he simply met their glares and gave them a small nod, trying to seem as if he were meant to be there- not technically a lie as Wyatt hadn't told him to stay put.
He knew where he was going, and the moment he escaped the main halls he broke into a run- Wyatt could return at any minute and this was his only chance to get the sisters away from his brother.
He reached the prison block less than five minutes later and took the corridor down to the secure wing. There were no guards this far down; Wyatt had placed enchantments on every corridor making sure only the people he wanted to get in and out of the section.
Leo was being held in the most secure cell right at the end of the prison. Even though Wyatt had stripped him of his powers, he still didn't trust him. No one was allowed any way near him apart from Wyatt, Henry and Chris. Wyatt had told Chris when Leo had first been captured that he was being kept alive just for him and that if he ever wanted to see his father; he would always be allowed.
Chris had never taken Wyatt up on that offer. He'd had problems with his father even before Wyatt had set his mind on world domination. After Leo had disappeared to establish the resistance Chris made up his mind that no longer needed his father- one of the major deciding factors to stay as a spy with Wyatt when Leo offered him and Melinda spaces in the resistance. That was when Leo had cut all ties with him as well, and Chris hadn't felt any inclination to make amends. He just had to hope that Leo had insisted on accompanying the sisters here otherwise his plan would be for nothing. When he finally reached the corridor, he paused just out of the eye line from the door. He hadn't faced his father in either timelines for over seven months, and before that he hadn't exactly had a great relationship with either of them. What would he say if he found himself suddenly confronted with the Leo from his time? And how would he explain everything to the Leo of the other? Taking a deep breath, he stepped up to the barred window to his father's door.
"Leo?" He asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. He heard a scrambling from inside the room and then a recognisable face appeared on the other side. Chris started slightly. The man had grown old since he had last seen him in this time. Physically, of course, he was the same age as ever, but his time in the cell had left him with long hair and small grey beard. Chris could instantly tell that this was the Leo from the past. The Leo from his own time would not have greeted him so eagerly, and his eyes would have been filled with a sad disappointment, rather than the anxious eagerness of the Leo before him.
"Chris!" He exclaimed, gripping the bars of the door with both hands. "It's me- past me. Me and the sisters came here to find you! What's going on? How are you free? Where are the girls, have you seen them?" Chris waited patiently for Leo to give him a chance to cut in as he reeled off the list of thoughts that must have been haunting him since he arrived and realised where he was. "Chris, why am I here?" Chris took a breath, uncertain where to begin.
"The sisters are fine." He stated. "Phoebe is safe, and Piper and Paige are safe for now, but will be much safer after you've helped them."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Asked Leo, gripping even tighter to the bars of the cell. "Let me out and we'll go and help them." Chris didn't move. He couldn't let Leo out. It wasn't that he didn't think this past Leo could be of use; it was that he couldn't risk the future Leo being free when the time travellers left. Also there was the problem that if he started freeing high security prisoners then Wyatt might suspect something.
"I can't." He said simply. Leo glared a very familiar glare at him, and Chris looked to the floor. He needed a way to explain everything to Leo quickly, without really telling him anything- just enough to get him to write the note. "Look." He began, an old story his mother had once told him suddenly springing to mind. "I heard the sisters travelled to the future once before. And in a similar situation to this, Phoebe found herself in jail facing execution."
"How do you..." Began Leo, but Chris held up a hand, he could sense Wyatt's growing frustration and any second now Wyatt was going to be looking for him- he needed to speed things up.
"That doesn't matter. My point is even though the past Phoebe had done nothing wrong; she had to endure the punishment because it was for the greater good. This is the exact same situation, except you're not facing execution. If you escape now, then the people I went back in time to try and stop, will start hunting down every Halliwell they know of, and that will put everyone in danger." Leo sighed, but nodded. He walked over to the small, uncomfortable looking bed in the corner and sat down, running his hands through his long hair.
"Then why are you here?" He asked. "You said Paige and Piper need my help, but how am I supposed to do anything when I'm trapped in here." Chris smiled- glad that they were finally getting somewhere.
"I need you to write a note." He said. Leo looked up at him, apparently startled and the simplicity of this task. "I need you to write to Phoebe and tell her that Piper and Paige are in P3, that they are surrounded and that she needs to summon them to her now." Chris passed the pen and paper he had taken from Wyatt's office through the window, but Leo didn't take them.
"Why can't you write it?" He asked suspiciously. "I still don't understand how you're free and the sisters are trapped, when only yesterday it was you who needed saving." Chris groaned in frustration- Leo was wasting time they didn't have and if Wyatt or Henry called him away before Leo wrote the note, then he had no other plan to get the sisters out of his brother's grip.
"Yesterday?" He questioned. "Leo for me it's been seven months. I was a prisoner at first, but I've been able to gain their trust. The people that took me are evil. It's them that destroyed Wyatt and that I went back to your time to stop. And it's them who are surrounding Piper and Paige right now. The mention of Leo's son drew his attention, and he got up from his chair and walked back towards the door- he looked ready to write the note with only a bit more explanation. "I need you to write the note." He continued. "Because the only way I've been able to work my way into this group- putting myself into a position where I can destroy them from the inside- is by completely cutting ties with any other party trying to stop them- including the currently working with Phoebe. If this note were to come from me then they wouldn't trust it, and they would spend more time arguing over me than taking action to save the sisters." Leo nodded and took the paper. He returned to the bed and, resting the paper on his knee, began scribbling a quick message to Phoebe, but he still had questions.
"How are you even going to get this note to her?" He asked. "I don't have my powers any more, and as you never made it back to us, I'm guessing you don't either." Chris groaned internally, but knew Leo would only keep writing the note for as long as he felt Chris was finally being honest with him.
"The people who have Paige and Piper surrounded can't get inside the club so any second now they are going to call on me to talk to the sisters and get them to surrender. While I'm alone with them, I will get Paige to orb the note to Phoebe. I would get her to write the note as well..." He added, sensing Leo's next question, "…but I can't guarantee there will be enough time. Leo nodded, he folded up the note as small as he could and passed it back through the bars for Chris.
Sighing in relief that they had done it in time Chris reached out for it but as he took it, Leo reached his other hand though the bars, seizing Chris' wrist, pulling the boy as close to the Elder as the door would allow.
"Listen to me very closely Chris." He hissed, his voice suddenly menacing. "I am trusting you to look after the sisters as their white-lighter in my place. If anything happens to them..." With these words, he squeezed down tightly on Chris' wrist- pressing it into one of the bars making the boy gasp in pain. "…I will hold you personally responsible, and I will not rest until I have hunted you down and made you pay. Do you understand me?" Chris tried to keep his face as stony as possible, giving Leo only a curt nod. Apparently, however, this wasn't enough for the Elder, as he pressed down even harder, making Chris's knees buckle slightly from the pain. "I said; do you understand me?"
"Yes!" Said Chris, stumbling backwards several feet as Leo released his wrist. He quickly secluded the note in the wasteland of his trousers, and then sensed for Wyatt and his cousin. Wyatt was still standing outside of P3, but Henry was significantly closer- only a couple of corridors away. "They're coming for me now." He informed Leo curtly. "If you have anything else to say, say it now. You have about a minute before I leave here and forget all about you." Leo continued to glare at Chris for a few more moments, before his eye's suddenly softened. Chris paused for a minute, not used to this look from his father.
"Wyatt." He said. Chris sighed in resignation- of course that look had been about his brother and not him. "What happened to him?" Chris was in no mood to soften the blow for his father- not after everything both Leos had done.
"He's dead." He stated simply- and not untruthfully- the Wyatt Leo would know and recognise had died years ago- now only a monstrous shadow remained. Now it was Leo's turn to stumble backwards, he collapsed down on the small bed, his face in his hands. It was at this moment Henry finally rounded the corner and joined Chris in the corridor. He gave him a suspicious look then glanced into the cell. Apparently satisfied that Chris hadn't performed some sort of jail break, he turned back to Chris.
"Emperor W..."
"Want to see me?" Cut in Chris- not wanting Leo to have any idea that something more than simply death had happened to his beloved son. He allowed himself a small grin to make his cousin believe he had cut him off to gloat, rather than to conceal information from Leo. Henry nodded curtly at Chris' guess but he was clearly looking for any excuse to injure Chris.
Just about fighting that urge, he gestured for Chris to walk out in front of him, and Chris saw no point in disobeying. He walked quickly away from the corridor and didn't look back. His heart pounded as he felt the small, folded, piece of paper dig into his side and he considered what Wyatt would do if he found it in his possession.
Stage one of his plan was compete- but this had been the simple task. The next step was going to take all his skills in both cunning and quick talking. This was not going to be easy.