Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed

Previously…

As Chris went to follow, feeling that it had been a very, very long day, a cold voice whispered in his ear "They'll all leave you in the end… you'll lose them all…so sad… so very, very sad…"

But all Chris registered was a cold feeling in his stomach that he would always be alone…

Chapter 14

That day, for some reason unknown to them, none of the Halliwell's felt quite right. Wherever they were; Phoebe at work, Piper at the club, Paige at her temp job, even Chris, Seth and Nathan back at the Manor were feeling it, they just felt wrong.

Phoebe had been in a good mood that morning when she got to work. After all, it was a beautiful sunny day, she loved her job and things were going her way for once. She'd said a cheery hello to Elise on her way in, made herself a cup of coffee, and she'd even smiled at the mail guy. But then, sometime between arriving and lunch, everything changed for the worse.

She had been completely on target for her deadline, with all of her column written up, and all the other unanswered letters filed carefully. But as she was reading her final copy through, she felt a chill go through her, and she just knew that everything she'd written was wrong.

Phoebe had felt a wave of desperation and insecurity. Was she good enough to be a column writer? After all, who was she to give advice on other people's love life looking back at her own track record! She'd got married to a man who became the Source of all Evil for heaven's sake! She'd nearly given birth to his demon spawn!... eew… And Cole wasn't her only mistake either. So who was she to judge other people's lives?

The rest of the day passed much the same for Phoebe, her heart growing heavier and heavier as she realised she was destined to die alone. At the end of the day, she passed her column to Elise, knowing that once she read it she was most likely to lose her job, and left for home.

But of course that wasn't all that could go wrong, was it? No! She'd had Leo orb her to work this morning because of how late she'd been, so know she'd have to get someone to come and get her! Typical…

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Paige's day had been much the same. It'd started out well. She'd gone to the temp agency, and she'd been assigned as a secretary for one of the cutest guys she seen for a while. But that wasn't all, his name was Jude and not only was he hot, but he was sweet, funny, rich and charming, and better still, he was showing every indication that he liked her!

But Paige should've known that it couldn't last. After all, nothing ever did.

She saw Jude talking to one of the other secretaries who worked at his firm (or rather, his father's firm), and she realised that there was no way he could ever be interested in her. After all, she was just temping there, whereas he was practically in charge. Also, she knew she should have spent more time this morning putting on her makeup, usually she was so careful with her appearance.

However, she knew that she would always be second best to someone, wherever she went. It was the same with her sisters. She had thought that she was over it, but she wasn't, it still felt like she was living in Prue's shadow. No matter what she did, no matter how much she tried to be good at her job and a good witch, there was no way she'd ever be able to live up to Prue's standard. At least, not in her sister's eyes.

Piper and Phoebe would never truly see her for who she was, she felt that she would somehow always be a replacement for Prue. And she would therefore always be second best.

When she heard Phoebe calling her, the end of the day couldn't come quick enough. Paige checked for mortals and then orbed to her sister, she probably only wanted a lift home anyway, her orbing seemed to be all she was ever needed for these days…

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Piper felt like a terrible mother.

Life had seemed so good this morning, but as always when everything was going well, Piper had known that before long something would come along and jinx it.

The morning had all gone okay. Chris had said he would get the groceries, and she'd taken Wyatt with her to the club.

But then sometime around lunchtime, Wyatt had just started crying and wouldn't stop. She'd tried everything to calm him down, but everything that she usually did when he was like this, wouldn't work.

She couldn't understand it, what was wrong?

Looking at her crying son, Piper suddenly felt like a terrible mother She had to be, what other explanation was there? And it wasn't just about Wyatt crying either. After all, if she couldn't handle this, then she was useless. In fact, she was so terrible that her precious baby boy was going to grow up to be evil. He was going to kill and do all the terrible things that she knew she would've taught him were wrong. And because she was such a failure, her youngest son, Chris, Wyatt's baby brother who hadn't even been born yet, he had to come to the past to fix her mess.

Piper put a hand to her abdomen that was just beginning to noticeably show that she was pregnant, and almost cried. How could she have failed her children like this?

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Leo was stood on the top of the Golden Gate bridge, just as he always did whenever he needed to think. He just had one of the most boring and pointless discussions with his fellow elders that they'd had for quite a while.

After they'd all finished talking, Leo had needed to clear his head. He was just so damn frustrated with them sometimes. He knew they meant well, and that he was one of them now… but most of the time it still didn't quite feel that way. He still somehow felt like the whitelighter, the novice, on the outside looking in. But to him, that didn't really matter. If that's what it took so he could be with his family most of the time, then so be it.

He stood in the sunlight and appreciated the cool breeze, but his tranquillity was disturbed when all of a sudden his head was wracked with screams.

Every single one of his charges was screaming in pain, pleading for help. Leo fell to his knees, overwhelmed by the noise. Who should he go to first? He could hear all of them, including Piper and her sisters, and Wyatt's crying, Chris was even yelling too.

But then, as suddenly as it had started, it all stopped, and his head was silent. He couldn't feel any of them, and as an experienced whitelighter, he knew what that meant.

"They're all dead," he choked out, barely able to believe it. How could this have happened? How could all of his charges, his family even, have been wiped out in the space of a few seconds?

"Oh God," he whispered, the tears beginning to fall. Piper was dead, her sisters were dead, and Wyatt… and Chris…

However, then he felt something. Something he hadn't noticed through his tears. He reached out with his senses, and found that he could suddenly feel them all again. He sat in a disbelieving relief; they were all alive! So what was going on? How can they all have been dead one minute and back alive a minute later? It made no sense at all.

Was he going crazy?

"It's what will happen," a cold voice said, "You will fail them all. You're as much a failure as an elder as you are a terrible father…"

When Wyatt had been born, Leo had been delighted. He'd wanted children, he'd hoped he'd be a good father. But as it turned out, he'd failed his sons. He was never there for them, Wyatt turned evil, and apparently he abused Chris.

"I would never do something like that," he murmured to himself, determined to changed what had happened to his youngest,

"But you did," another cold voice came from in front of him.

Leo looked up to see Chris standing there, glaring down at him, "You hated me my whole life. But I've stopped caring now anyway, I had Mom until you failed her too… I don't need a father."

"No Chris, don't say that," Leo begged.

"Why not?" Chris shrugged, "It's true. I stopped needing you years ago, and I'm not about to start up again now. You were never there, and I hated you for it. You're too late now, you can never make up for what you've done."

"No," Leo begged, looking down at the floor, not noticing that the image of Chris had now faded away.

"Very sad," a voice whispered into his ear, "Very, very sad…"

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Seth was agitated. He knew what he and Nathan had come here to do.

Yes they'd been looking for Chris. But they'd been looking for him for a reason, and they'd been willing to travel in time to find him for a reason. However, neither of them quite knew how to break the news to Chris yet. They'd seen him here in the past, and while he was still as sarcastic, neurotic and obsessive as the Chris they knew, there was something different about him here. A certain amount of the weight he usually carried in the future was gone here, carried by the rest of his family instead.

Here, it was the Charmed Ones duty to protect the innocent from demons, not Chris's, whereas in the future, that duty fell solely onto his shoulders. Next to Wyatt, he was the most powerful witch in the world, and with his mother, aunts and cousins all gone, the legacy of the Halliwells, to protect innocents, fell to him.

But what they needed Chris to do would give him back that burden. They needed him to come back to the future with them.

In the future, the resistance was in a shambles, a hair's breadth away from collapsing entirely. They needed Chris.

But how could Seth and Nathan take him away from his family again? Would he even want to come?

Seth could almost see in his mind's eye, the resistance base, overrun with demons, everyone dead. That was what the future would be if they didn't do something…

They do something. It was ironic, but without Chris, there wasn't anything that they could do. If the barriers that he'd put there fell… it would all be over… and that was what Seth feared…

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Chris was getting too attached.

He'd noticed it more and more the longer he was here, especially now that his family knew who he was.

It was something he'd tried desperately to not let happen when he'd first arrived. He knew that when he'd finished what he came here to do, that he was going to have to leave again, and go back to a future where they may or may not even still be alive. So he'd done his best not to get too attached, and he'd failed.

He was hopelessly attached to all of them, even Leo to some degree. His father was different here in the past, and Chris couldn't imagine him being the abusive type, and this just confirmed what he'd thought all along, his father had never truly hated him, it'd all been a spell.

But while this brought relief, it also brought fear. It meant that he'd grown attached to Leo too, however much he tried to deny it. And he was going to have to lose them all one day, and he didn't want to do it again.

Chris had hoped that if he succeeded in saving Wyatt, then the future was be wonderful, a utopia almost, and everyone would be alive. But he'd come to accept that this was only a dream. He wasn't even completely convinced that saving Wyatt was possible, he was bound to fail. But that was strange since up to this morning he'd been determined that he would do it, for the sake of Bianca and the twins, the pain of losing whom had almost been too much for him, even though he was used to losing people.

But that was this morning… by now he'd realised it was futile. People always left him, that was what they did. He would always be alone, and nothing could stop that. Chris looked at the knife in his hand, and thought that he may as well give up now…

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Nathan was sitting in the living room of the Charmed Ones. To him, that in itself should be somewhat a novelty. And yet… it wasn't. He found that all he could think about was the death of his family, his failures to save them and so many others.

This was rather strange. Not because he never thought about that sort of thing, because he did. But there was something… different about what he was feeling to what it was usually. He could feel the fears of him being a failure, useless and weak washing over him… But through Chris's power of empathy, he could feel similar despair coming from everyone else in the house.

That wouldn't have been odd if it was just him and Chris. It was common knowledge that Chris blamed himself for everything. But Seth too? Now that was weird. Seth tried not to dwell on things too much, it was just the way he was. He got over things and moved on. So if he was wallowing too… then something had to be going on…

Or was this only him, trying to make some use of himself?

That horrible thought made it's way into his head involuntarily.

Also, would anyone even believe him?

Nathan fought the urge to slap himself in the head. Stop it! he told himself, they listen to you. Why are you even doubting them?

"What reason have they given you not to doubt them?" his mind seemed to answer back, or perhaps it was a voice in his head? "They only want you for your power."

Now Nathan did slap himself around the head, "Stop it," he said to himself firmly. He had to find Chris. If someone would know what was going on, it would be him.

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And as he watched the disheartened, doubting, and best of all, fearful Charmed Ones returned to their home, Barbas smiled.

He had made mistakes in the past, there was no doubt about that. But he wasn't like other demons. He learned from his mistakes, and it would seem that for the time being, everything was going his way for once. Only that witch was causing a problem to him, and he was a nobody, someone who the Charmed Ones would dismiss out of hand.

Soon enough, the Charmed Ones, the Elder and their progeny would be too wrapped up in their fears to do anything, and in time, given enough power, their fears would become reality. Their fears would literally be the death of them…

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A/N: Hope you liked that! (it hasn't been edited at all, so I hope there're no typos/ bits that make no sense). I am so so so so unbelievably sorry about how long I've left it… I mean it's been over 3 months since I last updated! But you'll be glad to know that I've finished school, and my exams (FREEDOM!!!), and I've hit a writer's block with my other story, and slightly unstuck one with this so… yeah. Not sure if I'll have time to update again before I go on holiday, but I'll do my best!

So, please review and tell me what you thought… or just review and yell at me for taking so long… edges away from angry readers