Chapter 21: The Calm Before The Storm

After they had spent so much time in the underworld, Paige was actually surprised as she and Chris reappeared in an ordinary apartment corridor. The walls had once been painted in a soft brown color, but that had obviously faded a long time ago. Wood was splintering off several of the door frames, giving the entire building a very run-down appearance.

The hum of the elevator filled the air for a few seconds, but stopped as the metal doors slid open and revealed Chris' past self.

But Paige quickly noticed that he wasn't much younger than the Chris she knew now, meaning that they had skipped a larger portion of her nephew's life. But Chris wasn't alone and his aunt was briefly startled as she recognized the young woman at his side who now stepped out into the hallway with him.

"Bianca!" She uttered in surprise and glanced over at Chris who was watching his memory almost entranced.

"Yes," he merely confirmed with an absentminded nod and for the first time since they had started their trip into his past, there was a sincere smile on his face.

Paige watched the two versions of her nephew and realized that the expression on both of their faces was almost identical. Chris was in love with the witch, then and now.

"Where are we here?" She finally asked, but it was the conversation that played out in front of them now, that answered her question.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bianca asked as they kept walking down the hallway. Chris looked at her and reassuringly wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Grandpa's gonna love you, I promise." The young woman smiled briefly at this, but then became serious again and shook her head.

"No, that's not what I meant; but thanks. I just mean that we kept our relationship a secret for a reason, even from your grandfather. If Wyatt finds out we're together, he'll know I'm helping you. He'll be after both of us." Chris remained silent for a moment, thinking about her words, but finally answered.

"I know it's a risk, even or maybe especially now that we're so close to going through with our plan, but… I just need him to know, can you understand that? Grandpa's practically been my only family for eight years now and I know he's constantly worried about me. So in case something goes wrong-"

"Don't say that," Bianca interrupted him, but Chris continued.

"Just in case something goes wrong or I don't make it back I need him to know that right now I'm happy. And that you're the reason why."

"You truly loved her, didn't you?" Paige asked quietly as she watched her nephew's past self kiss his girlfriend gently. But Chris didn't answer her immediate.

He was having the weirdest sensation. He looked at Bianca and he remembered how strong his feelings for her had been and he remembered her. Everything about her.

How they had met and fallen in love, how they had come up with the plan for him to go back in time and stop Wyatt and also how she had betrayed him. And he remembered how she had changed her mind, protected him from Wyatt and paid for it with her life. She had died to save him, to make sure he finished his mission and Chris gasped slightly as everything came back to him.

His arrival in the past, his first meeting with the sisters and Leo and how painful it had been to be so close to them, but still be a stranger in their eyes. How he had hated to keep up the pretense of not knowing them and how relieved he had been when Piper had forced him to reveal the truth.

Sure, it might still mess up the future, but he would pass that bridge if he ever came to it.

"Chris?" Paige's voice suddenly pulled him out of his thoughts.

Pulling himself together, the young whitelighter turned towards his aunt, appearing to be positively choked up.

"Yes. Yes, I did. And I remember again."

"You remember what?" Paige asked, not sure if Chris really meant what she thought he meant.

"Everything."

Not really knowing what to say, except how glad she was, Paige pulled her nephew into a hug instead, she, too, still shaken by everything they had seen. Both of them were so distracted that they didn't even noticed the Chris from the past knocking on one of the doors and were slightly startled when a twenty years older Victor Bennet suddenly open up and greeted his visitors.

"Chris! What a wonderful surprise to see you. And who is your lovely companion here?" Past Chris promptly introduced Bianca to his grandfather, obviously a little embarrassed by his exuberance, but nevertheless smiling as the three of them entered the small apartment.

Paige had let go of her nephew by now and they followed the group inside, knowing that they probably didn't have a choice anyway. Inside, Victor let them into the kitchen and started to put on the water for some tea, while his grandson passed the time by filling him in on some of his recent activities.

Only when all three of them had set down at the table, did he start to tell his grandfather why they had really come. About the trip to the past to change history itself.

Victor's expression became increasingly worried and disbelieving with each word until he just stared at his grandson in silence even after he had finished his explanations.

Chris threw an uncertain glance at Bianca who encouraged him to go on, so he continued, trying to sound as reasonable as possible.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but we're going to go through with this. There is no way we'll ever be able to beat Wyatt here in this time, so changing the past to keep him from ever becoming evil is pretty much our option. And who knows how much will be changed by saving Wyatt. It will probably alter the world and prevent countless people from dying."

"You mean… maybe the girls and… everyone?" Victor asked tentatively, barely even daring to hope for a world where his daughters and their families could still be alive.

"I honestly don't know." Chris answered, shaking his head. "But this is bigger than just our family. Wyatt is a threat to the entire world and he needs to be stopped. But he's still my brother, so I want to do that by saving him."

Victor looked at Chris quietly for a moment before smiling fondly.

"You really do come after your parents, did I ever tell you that?"

"You mean after mum, right?"Chris asked, obviously not liking the idea of being compared to Leo.

"No, I mean after both of them. Your father might have changed a lot, and not exactly for the better, but he was a good man once. Do you think I would have let him marry my daughter otherwise?"

Felling like she was intruding on a private conversation, Bianca excused herself and asked for the bathroom. Victor pointed her in the right direction and Chris watched her leave almost eagerly.

As soon as he heard the bathroom door close behind the young woman, Chris lowered his voice and started talking more excitedly.

"Speaking of that, there is something else I had wanted to talk to you about. I got this for Bianca." He pulled something out of his pocket and held his hand out to his grandfather. As his fingers opened, they revealed a plain but beautiful engagement ring, causing Victor to gasp in surprise.

"Chris, that is a very big decision you're holding there."

"I know." The young whitelighter answered honestly.

"So you're sure about it?"

"Absolutely." He answered with a smile. "I'm going to the past so I can have a future here and I can't even imagine Bianca not being a part of it."

Victor's expression lightened up as he heard his grandson's determination and he leaned over to pull the young man into a hug.

"Then congratulation and I wish you both the best of luck."

"Well, she's got to say 'yes' first." Chris tried to placate him, but his grandfather didn't seem too worried about that.

"Oh, she will, I'm sure. She loves you dearly, that much is obvious." He smiled proudly at Chris and clasped his shoulder in a fatherly gesture.

The emotional moment was interrupted however, when Victor suddenly started coughing violently. When it didn't subside after a few moments, Chris got up, filled a glass with water from the tap and handed it to his grandfather, an extremely concerned expression on his face.

After he drank the water, Victor recovered slightly, but he still looked weary as he nodded in gratitude to his grandson.

"Thank you, that really helped."

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Chris asked hesitantly, obviously dreading the answer.

"With cancer at this stage, it's not going to get any better, Chris. And before you ask again, no, I still do not want you to talk to Leo about this. This is not something a demon or some spell caused; I've been a smoker for most of my adult life, so it's not really in the area of responsibility of a whitelighter or Elder to cure me." Noticing Bianca, who was just coming back into the room again, Victor straightened himself, stood up and headed towards the kitchen shelf where he stored a few bottles of liquor, a smile on his face.

"But now, let's not spoil this moment with such serious talk. It's not that often that I get a visit from my favorite grandson and his beautiful girlfriend, so we should celebrate this properly. And I'm not taking 'no' for an answer." He finished in a jovial tone, retrieving three glasses from a cabinet and putting them on the table.

But Paige and Chris didn't get to see anything else, as another white flash of light let the world around them disappear once more.

As Chris tried to open his eyes again he was immediately greeted by a splitting headache, causing him to close his eyes tightly again and let out a soft groan. It took him a few seconds to start another attempt, but this time his surroundings became clear and to his immense relief he recognised the ceiling ornaments of Magic School above him.

They were back in the empty class room, so it was finally over and he and Paige were back in the here and now.

Paige! Chris looked around the room searchingly until he finally found his aunt on the ground behind the teacher's desk. She, too, was just about to get up while holding her head with a moan; apparently she could completely relate to his headache right now. The young whitelighter got up from his seat to help her up, as his eyes fell on the clock on the wall. Reliving all of these memories had obviously only cost them a few minutes even though it had felt like an eternity for Chris.

"Are you okay?" Paige was looking slightly worse for wear, but nodded absentmindedly while she, just like Chris before, looked around their surroundings in surprise.

"Yes, don't worry, I'm alright. But are we really back? Are you sure that this isn't just another memory?" The witch looked at her nephew sceptically before letting her eyes wander around the class room they had retreated to once more.

Chris was sure that this was reality and no mere memory, but to convince his aunt he slowly laid a hand on the teacher's desk and at least inwardly he had to admit that he, too, was relieved when he felt the surface of the wooden table against his skin.

"Well, my hand doesn't go through objects anymore and I also have a splitting headache. I don't think it gets more real than this."

The young whitelighter paused briefly, as he thought once more about the events of the past few, as it turned out, minutes and tried to determine in how far all of that had changed his feelings or his point of view. Originally he had thought that he would have to actually relive his regained memories and that during this they would once more have an impact on him. But during each new part of his life that he and Paige had witness, for him it had really just been what it was; a memory. Something that had happened a long time ago and even though he obviously didn't want to see his family die once more, the pain hadn't been the same as back then. In contrast to Paige, he had had years to deal with their deaths as far as possible, and that was the reason why he now turned towards his aunt again with a worried expression.

"Are you sure you're alright? I mean, you have every reason not to be. After everything you saw from my past." Paige nodded, but at the same time avoided his gaze. Instead she kept looking around the room almost frantically, as if searching for something at which to direct her attention.

"Yes, I'm fine. It's just... I..." She interrupted herself and hesitated for a few seconds, before finally pulling herself together and facing Chris again. "I can't get rid of the images." The witch shook her head about herself as if it were completely ridiculous that the events she had witnessed were still haunting her.

"I keep telling myself that it didn't happen, yet, and that if we save Wyatt it might never happen at all, but to see how they all... die..." Paige broke off as she wiped a hand across her face to remove the tears she couldn't hold back anymore.

Chris looked at her sympathetic, before crossing the short distance between them for the second time today and pulling his aunt into a tight embrace. And this time she didn't hesitate, but wrapped her arms around her nephew as well and gave in to all the grief and desperation that had built up inside of her.

As they stood like this for a while and Paige wept bitterly against his chest, Chris couldn't help but feel responsible for her pain. It had been his memories and they had been meant for him and for no-one else. No matter what the Book of Shadows had shown them, he should have never agreed to this.

"I am sorry that you had to live through all of that. Please forgive me for pulling you into this." Paige rolled her eyes and took a deep breath before breaking free from Chris' embrace and looking at him incredulously.

"Oh Chris, but that wasn't your fault. I mean you were against me casting the spell in the first place and then you even tried to send me back, how many times, twice. You're not to blame for me having inherited the Halliwell's stubbornness." Chris had to smile at this involuntarily, but didn't look completely convinced, yet. So Paige continued emphatically.

"And let me spell this out for you one more time: For none of the things I saw today were you at fault. Neither for Piper's death, nor for mine and most definitely not for the decisions of your brother. You are here, because despite of everything that happened and what he did, you still believe in Wyatt and want to save him and that is more than anybody could ever have asked of you."

Chris seemed to be fighting back tears now, too, but gathered himself again quickly and finally nodded.

"I know. She didn't die because of me, and neither did you, but..."

"No 'but', Chris! Believe me, in this case there is no 'but." Her nephew hesitated briefly, but finally nodded again and this time much more convincingly, much to the witch's relief.

"Good." Once again, she ran a hand across her face to get rid of any leftover tears, before straightening herself, taking the Book of Shadows and turning to leave. In the process she linked arms with Chris and pulled him along unceremoniously.

"Then let's head back to the others. After all, we've still got a demon to kill and the world to save."

"And that's news how exactly?" Chris asked with a sarcastic smile on his face.

"It's not. Everything's business as usual. More or less, at least." Paige finished, all the while hoping that dealing with Jinny would really be as easy as she had just made it sound.

There was a strong desert storm raging all around them, but Piper Halliwell didn't feel any of it, because everything was just what Gabriel was showing her. And even the three figures in front of them, who were preparing for a battle against one of the most powerful beings in the history of magic, were nothing more than an image from about two thousand years ago.

The demon Zankou, the Avatar Alpha and the Elder Gabriel were standing, hidden from view, in the middle of this storm a few miles away from Zanbar and were going through their next steps one last time. Each of them was carrying a crystal amulet around their neck that was emitting some kind of force field, protecting them against the force of the storm.

"I assume that each of us knows their assignment. Usually the Source would already be able to sense our presence even over this distance, but the amulets conceal us as long as we don't use powerful magic. So we should also be able to use our respective abilities to get to the city and take positions without him noticing us. But I cannot say how long we will be protected from a direct attack. Even our united powers with which we blessed the crystals will most likely not be able to withstand him for more than a minute, so we will have to be fast." Gabriel ran a hand over his beard while watching their surroundings thoughtfully.

"Maybe the storm will give us a few more seconds before he spots us, but I wouldn't count on it. But we cannot delay this any longer. Is everyone ready?" He turned towards the other two again, receiving a nod in agreement from both of them.

"More than ready." Zankou was obviously eager to attack and finally take his rival out for good. He had been waiting for this day for far too long already.

"And I assume that our agreement regarding the concealment of magic will be carried out even if we should not survive this attack. There is an Avatar standing by to fulfil the pact in case I should lose my life today."

"The Council of Elders is prepared to send a substitute as well. If the power of the Source is broken today, at whatever the cost, we will make magic disappear from the world of the humans forever. My side will hold up the arrangement even in the case of my death." Both the Elder and the Avatar looked over at Zankou expectantly now. After all they both knew that beside the reign of the Source there was hardly any structure in the realm of the demons and it must have been hard if not impossible to find someone else to support their plan.

"I'll admit, it wasn't easy and cost me a good deal of persuasion, but I found someone to take my place should something fatal happen to me. He is waiting in the cave where we last met."

"Good. Then nothing is standing in the way of our attack anymore."

"Did the other two survive as well?" Piper, who had been watching in silence for the past few minutes turned to face the Gabriel from her time, who had been completely focus on the events in front of them as well.

"By some miracle, yes. We had had to realise pretty quickly that we could neither kill the Source nor destroy the nexus itself. So we settled for sinking the city and erecting powerful banning spells around it. By doing so the connection between the demon and its source of power was disrupted and he lost almost all of the strength he had gained from the city. As he realised that he fled and we had reached our goal."

He had barely finished as their surroundings changed once more and they were now directly outside of Zanbar, next to past Gabriel. After a few seconds, as if on some invisible cue, he began to recite some ancient incantations and after only a few moments Piper could hear the sounds of explosions in the distance, muffled by the roaring of the storm.

"But see for yourself how hard-won this victory had been."

"Are Piper and Gideon not back, yet?" Paige and Chris had just entered the library of Magic School and the witch looked around the room expectantly, but had to realise disappointedly that the two weren't there. As they entered, Richard tore his eyes away from the ancient looking book he had been studying and looked at his girlfriend and her nephew in surprise.

"No, but you've only been gone for a few minutes. Who knows how long it will take until they've discussed everything with the Council."

"Right, of course." The witch had to remind herself once again that their little trip into Chris' memories had really only taken a few minutes even though it had felt so much longer to both of them. But it was actually for the best, as time was of the essence right now if they wanted to get one step ahead of Jinny.

"Did you find anything, yet?" Chris had walked over to Richard and Sigmund at the table and let his gaze wander over the countless books the two men had piled up in front of them.

"There are a lot of texts talking about the Source, but only very few authors seemed to have any knowledge about his origin." Sigmund pushed the volume he had just been reading away, resigning. "And nothing we have learned about the nexus so far seems to be of any help."

"Was there not even anything in your books, Richard?" Paige looked at her boyfriend hopefully, but he only shook his head in disappointment.

"Not yet, so we could really use some help here." With that he pushed one of the books from the table into Paige's hands, causing her to roll her eyes in annoyance.

"All right, all right. We'll help." She looked briefly over at Chris who was just picking up some reading material as well, and already started to skim through the pages. She could only hope that Piper and Gideon would have more success with the Elders.

Over an hour had passed since Paige and Chris had joined the others again and Paige was now sitting in a corner of the library with a pile of books as her eyes fell once more on her nephew who had made himself comfortable in a quite cosy looking armchair. On the floor next to him he had at least half a dozen books stacked haphazardly, just like Paige, but in contrast to her, Chris hadn't made any progress in a while. About ten minutes ago, the book which had been lying opened on his lap, had dropped from his hands and the witch had finally realised that her nephew had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

And who could blame him for that after everything that had happened within the past 24 hours? Now that Paige thought about it, she, too had the feeling of being able to sleep for a week, but she would only allow herself to get some rest when they knew what they would do next. But despite this resolution she couldn't quite stifle a yawn and so she finally got up and walked over to Sigmund and Richard who were still standing at the table in the centre of the library. While walking she rather unsuccessfully tried to rub the tiredness from her face with her hands.

"Hey Sigmund, is there maybe somewhere here in Magic School where I can get a cup of coffee? I feel like I'm going to fall asleep standing."

"What?" Sigmund lifted his head in surprise. He had been so absorbed in his studies, that he hadn't noticed Paige at first. "Oh, of course. Please forgive me, I am a terrible host. One cup of coffee, coming right up!" With that he moved his hand though the air a few times above the table until suddenly a large, rather old-fashioned looking cup with a steaming dark brown liquid appeared out of nowhere.

"Thanks a lot. You're a real saviour." The witch took the cup in both hands and immediately held it under her nose to absorb the aromatic smell, her eyes closed in delight. She sighed deeply as she finally took a careful sip of the hot beverage.

"Do you want me to get one for your nephew as well? He looks like he might use some caffeine, too." Sigmund asked while looking over at the sleeping whitelighter, but Paige decisively shook her head and denied the proposition.

"No, who knows when we'll get another chance for a break and Chris earned himself all the sleep he can get."

"But I'll take a cup." Surprised by this, everyone present turned around as they suddenly heard the voice of Piper coming from behind them. The witch and Gideon had returned to Magic School, but they weren't alone. Next to them were Leo and two other Elders, Roland and another much older looking one that neither Paige nor Richard had ever seen before.

"Piper, finally! And I see you even got us some backup. Leo, I hope you can be of some use as we could really use some help here right now." She nodded to him briefly, a gesture which Leo returned, before she turned to his companions, slightly puzzled.

"It's good to be back here. I'm sure you remember Roland. He is here to give us the full support of the Council. And this is Gabriel. He was there when Zanbar was buried in the desert all those years ago and I'm sure he can help us find a solution this time, too."

Paige and Richard greeted the other Elders and after these formalities had been resolved, the new arrivals were immediately briefed on the current state of research, while Leo turned worriedly to Paige. He had noticed the sleeping Chris and regarded him now carefully as he spoke to the witch quietly.

"Is everything alright with Chris? Or is he still weakened by the darklighter's attack?" Paige glanced over at her nephew as well, before answering Leo, glad that she could avoid looking at her ex-brother-in-law that way. She knew, of course, that she couldn't blame anyone for their deeds in the future, but in spite of that she still wasn't quite able to suppress the anger that had built inside of her ever since she had seen Chris' childhood memories with her own eyes.

"No, he recovered from that pretty quickly, but it just was an awfully eventful day. I mean first there was this whole thing with Bosk, then Jinny turns out to be a demon and now she's invincible and almost killed all of us. And somewhere in between all that chaos we even had a run-in with Barbas, too. So as far as I'm concerned, we might just all go on and hit the sack for a few days."

The witch had sounded completely chipper during her little tirade, causing Leo to react all the more shocked to the revelation that the sisters and their whitelighter didn't just have to deal with Jinny and her former master, but also with one of the most dangerous demons of the underworld.

"Barbas? When did you encounter Barbas? Piper promised to call me if you get into any serious trouble, so why don't I know about this?" He stared at Paige intently and obviously waited for an explanation on her part, but the witch was definitely not in the mood to give the Elder an account for anything.

Instead, she returned his stare just as fiercely, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Oh, don't worry, we can deal with someone like Barbas. But tell me, when Jinny stole Phoebe's bottle and one of her henchmen almost killed Richard, where exactly were you? If I recall it correctly, Piper called for you about a dozen times, but without the slightest reaction. If I hadn't developed my healing powers just in time Richard would be dead now, so don't complain to me that we would inform you too late."

I was completely quiet in the library now and everyone stared at Paige in shock as she kept fixating Leo with an unconcealed look of reproach.

Leo was stunned. Of course, he knew that the witch had no reason to lie to him, but her accusations still came as a complete surprise. How could she think that he would ever abandon his family in a life-or-death situation? He briefly glanced over at Piper, but she had her arms crossed as well now and looked at him as expectantly as her sister. The Elder took a deep breath and chose his words carefully before answering his furious ex-sister-in-law.

"I am sorry that you were on your own and I don't have an explanation for it, but I swear to you that I did not hear Piper's cries for help. I think you know me well enough to know that I would never deny you my assistance."

Paige looked at him indecisively for a moment, but ultimately dropped her arms and shrugged her shoulders unconsciously. She had been focusing so much on Leo in her anger that it felt difficult to trust the Elder once more. But he was right, despite everything she had learned about his future self, this Leo had never betrayed her trust before.

"Yes, alright, but how can it be that you of all people have not heard Piper calling for help? And as I said, she didn't just call out for you once." But before Leo had the chance to venture a guess, Roland beat him to it, to everyone's surprise. The Elder had stayed in the background so far, but obviously thought it necessary now to get involved in the conversation.

"Paige, I can assure you that Leo is indeed in no way to blame for this incident. I regret deeply that your friend almost lost his life and am relieved to see his health restored", at this point he nodded briefly to Richard, who acknowledge the gesture slightly baffled, "but in the light of the increased threat the darklighters are posing at the moment, we saw ourselves forced to restrict any communication with our charges on earth.

"And that even applied to me? I'm an Elder like you, Roland, so how dare you and the others to isolate me from my family?" Leo had turned around to the dark haired man and stared at him with a mixture of disbelieve and anger. He couldn't believe that the other Elders had betrayed him like this, and apparently he wasn't the only one, because before Roland had even had a chance to answer, Piper had already planted herself in front of him.

"So now that, for once, things actually get dangerous for your kind you hole up 'up there' and just bail on all those witches on earth who depend on your help? I remember how we fought to save all of you not to long ago, because we thought you represented the good in this world, but I see that that's obviously been a mistake." The look Piper was giving the Elder showed all too clearly that right now her opinion of his kind wasn't better than that of some demon from the underworld, but Roland hurried to appease the witch.

"You are wrong, we did not bail on you or any other of our charges, but it was important, that none of us, neither whitelighter nor Elder", he pointedly glanced at Leo at this point, "embarks on a daring rescue mission on their own. And because of this only Elders from the inner circle of the Council are able to hear the calls of witches under our protection."

"So at least someone of you heard Piper. Then why did Richard still almost die?" Paige's voice had taken on an icy tone. While most of her doubts concerning Leo had been resolved, she was starting to get increasingly unsure regarding her trust in the Elders, and Roland's next words didn't do anything to help, either.

"I suppose neither you nor your sister are going to agree with our motivations, but as much as I regret it, in dangerous times like these we are forced to prioritize. And your friend is simply not one of our charges. Had one of you been injured, you could have been assured of our assistance, but much to my chagrin, given the current circumstances the risks predominated."

"Much to your chagrin…", Paige uttered the words angrily and seemed about to physically tackle the Elder, had Richard not held her back in time. He put an arm around her gently but firmly and pulled her back a little while talking to her calmingly.

"I'm fine, okay? I'll admit, it was closer than I would have liked, but you saved me from death and finally found your healing ability. So at least something good came from all of this and we can't really afford to argue about the past. We'll hopefully still have time for that once Jinny is vanquished."

Gideon used this opportunity to get everyone's attention back on the task at hand.

"Richard is right. I understand your frustration about the Elder's decision, but only when we have disposed of the demon Jinny we'll be able to do something against the increased threat posed by the darklighters, making these cautionary measures obsolete again. That is why I propose we focus back on our primary problem, the destruction of Zanbar."

After both Paige and Piper had agreed to this more or less convinced, everyone turned their attention back to the books and ancient documents that were lying on the table between them. Sigmund had already brought the new arrivals up to speed on their current stage of research so it was now up to Gabriel and Piper to tell the others about the events the Elder had only recently shown to the witch.

While Paige listened to their explanations, fascinated, her eyes wandered to the corner of the library where Chris had retreated to repeatedly, and she noticed not without envy that her nephew hadn't even noticed all of the commotion as he was still sound asleep. But on the other hand she didn't know anyone so deserving of some peace and quiet as the young whitelighter, so she already planned to ask Sigmund for a blanket for him in an opportune moment.

To be continued