Chapter 34
Tools for Resistance
The lights flickered, as if in response to Grams transformation, and he glanced up at the kitchen light as an idea came to him. He now remembered the detail that had been escaping him, electricity, the demon couldn't handle it. He glanced quickly around the room for everything he knew would give off a charge and tried to build the device he wanted in his mind. A genius at magical theory he might be, but he did have nearly as much knowledge about mortal sciences.
Leo was still staring at Grams when he came back to himself and he grabbed the older man's arm, "Leo, could I talk to you for a second, please?"
Leo nodded and then hesitated before holding his brother out to the flighty woman before him, "Do you mind holding him for a second?"
"Of course!" Grams simpered as she took his brother and snuggled with him "Come here Moonbeam."
"Wyatt," Leo corrected forcefully, "His name's Wyatt."
He was leaning on the kitchen island when Leo finally came over and he glared at his great grandmother, "One of the sisters must have changed the past because Penny clearly never made the change from flower child to demon hunter."
"Clearly," Leo said thickly as Grams started to sing a sixties protest song to his brother, "Think the girls can fix the timeline and get back here?"
"I don't know," he sighed as he walked back around the island to look at the laundry room door as it was covered over with slime. They were being boxed in and he looked back at his companions. "But this thing is trying to back us into a corner. Take Wyatt and Joan Baez here into the conservatory. I'll get what we need to fight it off."
As the two fled the kitchen Chris grabbed a blender and began dragging equipment quickly from the kitchen to the dining room. As he moved it he made sure they stack it in such a way that it was easily interconnected. Leo watched for only a moment before walking into the kitchen as well to help, thankfully not asking questions. It was nice that Leo finally had enough trust in him not to question every breath he took.
"Why isn't it attacking?" Leo asked as Chris looked over his Frankenstein creation of electrical appliances. Off the top of his head, he could see almost ten fire hazards in the mess, "It's like it cornered us and now it's just waiting."
Chris ignored the question, "I think we need the toaster oven."
Leo immediately moved to grab the toaster as Grams looked on disapprovingly while they built their electrical death trap, "You know, that's a disaster waiting to happen."
"That's the idea. You saw how the slime reacted to electricity in Wyatt's room," he said distractedly and Leo raised an eyebrow as he added the toaster to the pile. Chris was far too focused on his task to realize he'd been the only one to have noticed that fact, "Well, if we can get it to attack this pile, maybe we can zap it."
Leo looked along the power lines and cords for an open space, "if I can find a place to plug it in."
"No offense, you know, but my dear Allen would have taken the path of peaceful resistance." Grams said with a frown as she bounced Wyatt a little and he rolled his eyes, "Have you tried talking to the slime?"
"No, I haven't, and you shouldn't either." Leo snapped at her and then turned back to him. "But if you're up to some light conversation, maybe you wanna tell me what happens to Wyatt in the future."
"Ha, nice try," he said as he reconnected a few appliances in a different order. If this worked then his mother was going to yell at both of them for breaking all her kitchen equipment, but at least they'd be alive.
"Got it," Leo said and he plugged in the toaster, which overloaded the one socket everything was connected too and he could hear the fuse box blow somewhere in the house as the power cut out.
"Damn it!" Chris yelled before he threw his head back and groaned loudly while Leo leaned heavily on the table.
"I told you, boys," Grams said in a cheery voice, "violence is not the answer to anything."
He pushed down his more violent tendencies and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "where's the fuse box?"
"It's in the basement," Leo muttered glaring at his grandmother-in-law, "Find a flashlight in the laundry room."
The laundry room was of course blocked off so he had to search the kitchen junk drawer for the flashlight he knew was hidden at the back. It was old, battered, and on the cusp of dying as he opened the door and stood at the top of the stairs. He had to hit it a few times trying to make it work before it finally did and a solid beam of light lit the area before him. It was something he quickly wished he hadn't done when he saw what was at the base of the stairs.
"Leo!" he yelled as he ran out of the basement, slamming the door shut behind him, and breathing hard. He'd more than underestimated the intelligence of this thing.
"What is it? What is it?" The Elder asked as he ran into the room.
"The slime, in the basement, feeding on the Nexus," he said as he took a deep calming breath as he handed the flashlight to the other man.
"How big was it?" Leo asked as Chris stepped away so that he could open the door and then just as quickly shut it again as the slime lashed out at him. "Big."
"Yeah," Chris said with a slight growl in his voice, "Big"
0ooo0ooo0ooo0
"Read'em and weep boys," Brandon put his cards down on the table with a cocky smile. Chris glanced over and rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the many resource books surrounding him and his half created blueprint. John and Zack just groaned at the royal flush presented to them and the sandy blonde pulled the pile of pistachios' to himself gleefully.
"I honestly can't believe you guys are playing for nuts," Sean muttered incredulously not looking up from his book on the far side of the room.
He sat there sprawled out on a lounge-like area he'd made from cardboard boxes full of paper they'd retrieved from Staples. That half of the room was devoted to the massive amounts of office supplies they'd collected. Chris could just barely make out Parker who was coloring away safely in a fort of boxes they'd made the still silent girl. She hadn't spoken a word since 'The Fall' and it was starting to worry him.
"What the hell else are we going to play for?" Zack looked uninterested as he grabbed the cards and started shuffling again. "The world's ended so money's just paper. At least almonds have sustenance value."
"You could not play, maybe do something productive" Duncan replied from his place on the floor near the back hall.
He was carefully sharpening the edge of one of the many hundreds of blunted blades they'd been able to get. The stockpiles in the back had grown over the last few days thanks to the whitelighter teams, and they now had a pretty formidable arsenal that included at least ten of every weapon under the sun. That sword, though, was the sword he'd picked out as his own so he'd taken it upon himself to take care of it. Rather than leave it in the hands of the seven dwarfs who'd been put in charge of the hideouts armory last week.
"And that would be?" Brandon rolled his eyes looking bored out of his mind. "We've been grounded until Chris finishes with those spells for him and Sean, and we've already got our equipment."
"Actually, I'm out," Jon said as he got up and started to walk to the back hall, "I'm going to practice my aim outback some more."
"Sword work?" Zack asked Brandon after the older boy walked out to practice his chosen fighting style.
Jon had decided over the last few days that his illusions made him a better distance fighter, then a hand to hand one. Thus he'd started practicing archery, sniping, and crossbow work. He'd even jokingly called himself the team's future Hawkeye.
"Meh, fine, it's something to do," Chris watched them leave and then mouthed 'thank you' to Duncan when he moved to follow as well. The dark-skinned boy winked in return.
"Oh good," Sean grumbled. "The noise is finally gone, how's that going by the way?"
Chris looked up at the fire starter flatly. Obviously, the younger boy hadn't realized Duncan had just tricked their friends out of the room so he could focus without distraction. That or he didn't care, "Yours is done, we just have to field test it. The one I'm working on now is mine and it's annoying the fuck outta me."
"How so?" Sean asked as he rolled to a standing position before crossing the room to sit across from him.
"Because this link is part of who I am. It's always been there for me and my magic instinctively wants to call out to him because we were supposed to be a team. You know, had he not turned into a kill-crazy bastard." Chris said gesturing dramatically, unintentionally doing a perfect imitation of his mother when stressed. Then he bit his lip and glared at the wall to the left of him, his eyes sad. "This ward needs to be designed to hold me back just as much as him."
"So that's what happened in the church, it wasn't just you got distracted. You got hurt and your magic reacted before you could stop it," Chris rubbed the bridge of his nose and nodded. Sean made a low whistling sound, "Wow that sucks man, I'm sorry, but he's blocked completely here right?"
"It's different. Here the ward's protecting a space, not a person. Spaces are easier, static. People are more complicated. That goes doubly because of what's involved. I know it's possible because the hideout does work. I just have to figure out how." He rubbed his eyes this time trying to think of a good analogy. "It's kinda like having a giant pile of puzzle pieces and needing only a few of them but you don't know which ones or how they fit together."
"That sounds time-consuming, boring, and headache-inducing." Sean rested his chin on his upturned palm as he looked at the finished circular design Chris had made for him. "This is mine then? Looks cool, the way the symbols are laid out it looks kinda like fire."
"That's the idea, you get your own." He tapped the page with his pencil, before looking back at his uncompleted one. "That'll keep both your essence and your magic hidden, people are going to need to see you to know you're there."
"If it works you mean," Chris raised an eyebrow but didn't look up from his magical puzzle. "Too bad there's no tattoo artist around, this would be a damn cool one... Hey! Why don't we get them tattooed on instead of you just re-drawing them all the time?"
"Security," Chris replied, his voice distant, still not looking up. "The marker is easier to get off so if we get caught Wyatt will have a harder time figuring out how to beat it. There's nowhere you could put a tattoo, especially one that size, that it wouldn't be found."
Sean frowned at him just watching the other boy work. If Chris had looked up he would have recognized the calculating expression in his friend's eyes. The room was silent for several minutes before he started. "A tattoo on the back of the head under the hairline with a built-in cloaking spell, and some anti-mindfuck wards to give it a little extra kick."
He'd been gnawing thoughtfully on the end of his pencil when his friend's words clicked in his brain and the writing implement fell from his fingers to clatter on the table. He looked up slowly into triumphant honey-colored eyes, "Where the hell did that just come from?"
"Well you said it had to be somewhere hidden, on the scalp under the hair is hidden, and the cloaking spell is extra protection. I dunno the anti mindfuck stuff was just a suggestion. I mean if we're going to go all out and shave our heads to get these things, might as well make it multi-functional."
Chris just stared and Sean began to laugh at his astonished friend.
0ooo0ooo0ooo0
Grams had come in and given Wyatt back to his father as Chris broke apart a battery-powered boombox box he'd found at the bottom of the entertainment center in the Conservatory. His brother had to do something like this for a science class when he was in tenth grade and Chris hesitated several times. He was trying to remake something someone else had made from a half-remembered memory running on two weeks of little sleep. It was a miracle he hadn't shocked himself to death at this point. Finally, a spark appeared when he knocked two of the wires together and he let the breath he'd been holding go. It wasn't a strong charge, but hopefully, any electricity was too much for this thing.
"Where'd you learn to do this?" Leo asked him and for once the question was actually curious instead of suspicious.
"My older brother," he muttered without thinking and then held up the two wires, making them spark again. "If the demon comes at us, I'll try and hold it off with this."
"Don't be afraid of us," they both spun around to find Grams standing at the top of the basement stairs trying to talk to the demon. "We won't hurt you."
"Penny, get back!" Leo cried as he made a dive for the old woman but he was too late and the slime shot out from below to grab her and drag her down the stairs.
Chris made it to the door in two quick strides to slam it shut again before the slime could come back for more food. Leo, angry and worried, grabbed his electrical device and put it on the counter next to him before running off to put Wyatt somewhere safe. As soon as he was out of the room Chris started to feel a rumbling from below his feet and grabbed the doorknob, holding it in place, as it started to rattle.
"Wyatt's secured in the living room," Leo said as he came back and leaned against the door, helping to keep it in place. "There's no sign of the demon in the rest of the house."
"I figured it was distracting us before so he could feed on Nexus," he snapped angrily at himself for not seeing this ploy. After all, it was one he, himself, had used against Wyatt once before. After this was done he was going to head to his hideout and take a knockout potion, his lack of sleep was affecting his ability to think.
"What about Penny?" Leo ground out as he pushed against the door, "Is she...?"
"I don't know," he growled and looked down to find the slime slipping out from under the door. Quickly he grabbed his device and started to shock the substance causing it to retreat only to come back again. It wasn't enough. The Nameless was far too powerful for such a weak charge to do more than making it flinch, "I can't keep up with it, you've gotta get out."
"No, we have to keep fighting," Leo said through grit teeth as he was forced to push even harder on the door to keep it closed. Chris looked up at him and he smirked, "it's what Penny would want us to do."
"Yea and who's going to protect Wyatt if you stay?" he snapped back as he gave up trying to shock the demon and instead just held the door shut.
"Get out of here," Leo ordered as the door started to crack, "go."
Chris glanced at him and then away again, shifting his feet to brace himself better. It didn't matter whether he left or not, if Leo died now he'd die too. "Not without you."
Leo looked stunned by the solidarity Chris was exhibiting, "this thing's gonna swallow you whole."
"Most likely," Chris said as he felt more entertainment than fear in the face of his death. After all, he'd survived, and done he was going to be done in by a blob of green goo. Wyatt would certainly find it endlessly hilarious if nothing else.
"Stand back, fellas," Piper shouted from behind them and Chris's head whipped around to find all three sisters standing on the other side of the kitchen. Relief coursed through him as he grabbed Leo and jumped back out of the way.
"Drawing on the power of three, destroy this evil entity," Paige said as she grabbed her sister's hands and the house shook as a bright green light appeared around the edges of the door. The Nameless was gone, and with a pretty poor spell too. Maybe that was why they were so lackadaisical about their work, having that much power meant they didn't have to work as hard as others to achieve the same results.
"Where's Wyatt?" Piper asked as she looked around and he could see her starting to get a little panicky.
Chris held up his hands in a placating gesture, "he's in the living room."
"What about Grams?" Phoebe asked with a raised eyebrow.
Leo hesitated and he looked away, "she didn't make it."
The sisters looked stunned and seemed like they were about to start yelling when the basement door flew open. The woman in question was coughing as she stumbled out of the doorway followed by green smoke, "Nonsense! You can't damage an old warhorse like me. I'm already dead."
"Yay, Grams," Phoebe cried childishly as she ran over to give Grams a powerful hug, "I'm so glad you're back."
Her sisters smiled as they looked on and then Piper scurried out of the room as Wyatt began to cry. He watched her go with trepidation, knowing what waited for her in the dining room. He was distracted though when Paige walked up to his father and smirked at him. "Hey there, the sun god."
Chris was faintly disturbed as he looked back and forth between the two of them mouthing the name. What had happened in the sixties that, that , would be the first things she'd say to him? Leo himself seemed deeply perturbed by the joke as well which didn't make the scenario's his mind was coming up with any more palatable. "Hey, ah, that was a long time ago. Let's just keep that between us, okay?"
"Hey, I wanna thank you two for not giving up the fight. I'm really proud of you boys," Grams said distracting him from Paige's gleeful face and there was an honest smile on the old woman's lips. It made him smile brightly at her in return, "you did good."
It was the best assessment of his skills he could have hoped for given his lackluster performance today. The happy moment was quickly ended however as his mother started yelling from the dining room. The commotion drew everyone into the other room but him and Grams as she held him back when he moved to follow, she looked uncomfortable.
"I wanted to apologize for earlier," she said and he could tell what it cost her to say those words, "I didn't give you a chance and it wasn't fair."
"It's ok," he said with a self-deprecating smile. "I've been overtired and off all day, it's my own fault. I'm just glad you're ok…I mean I know how much you mean to them and all."
Grams eyed him suspiciously, "How do you know Prue?"
"What?" he asked and took a surprised step back, which made her fold her arms and glared at him.
"Prue, she asked me to go easy on you," Grams said with some incredulity, "Why would she do that, I've been trying to figure it out. She wouldn't tell me."
"Chris get your ass in here!" Piper yelled from the other room and he hesitated before quickly fleeing from the room. As soon as he was in the room she started to yell gesturing at his mess, "What the hell was this supposed to be?"
He shifted from one foot to the other, "an electric bomb that didn't work?"
"Electric Bomb?" Paige gasped and stared at him like he had three heads.
"It didn't like electricity," he said with a shrug, this was a simple equation, "Without water to make potions it was the only thing I could think of. It wasn't like they were coming up with ideas."
"He's right," Grams said as she walked into the room still watching him with calculating eyes, "he was the one with the ideas…no matter how insane."
"I'll clean it up and then fix the fuse box," he said quickly and began carrying things back into the kitchen.
It was a much better task than being available for questions and Grams was suitably distracted by the sister's stories from the past that she couldn't remember to continue questioning him. It took less time to put everything back than it had to pull it out and he'd waved off Leo when he asked if he needed help. Then he headed down into the basement after pulling out the replacement fuse from the drawer he knew they were stored in. Within twenty minutes the damage he'd caused was fixed and the house had power again. He leaned back against the wall beside the box and closed his eyes. For a moment he lost track of time until he heard his name called from the basement door and he forced them open again.
"Hey Phoebe," he said tiredly as he trudged up the stairs and she looked at him with a frown.
"What's wrong," she asked and sounded genuinely surprised, if not a little worried about his demeanor. "you suddenly look like you haven't slept in weeks."
"I haven't," he grumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I was already running on fumes when that thing almost sucked me dry earlier. I need to go sleep this off. Talk to you guys later ok?"
"Sure," she replied and he noticed the shadows of worry on her face as he faded away. His glamour must have faded away or he was sure she would have tried to play twenty questions with him like she always did.
In his room at his hideout, he undressed and grabbed a bottle of light blue potion off a shelf then downed the contents. It worked fast, faster than he'd thought it would, and he barely made it to his bed before he lost consciousness. When he awoke again he found himself sprawled out at an awkward angle and groaned into the blanket underneath him. Carefully, his neck stiff, he rolled on to his back and blinked hazily at the stone ceiling above him. He still felt exhausted, but significantly better than he had when he'd taken the potion.
He lounged around for a while longer before he rolled out of bed and threw on a clean-ish set of clothes. He was starving and had no idea how long he'd been asleep. It was why he tried to avoid using the potion as much as he could. He didn't want to develop a dependency and it forced him to sleep until the magic was satisfied he'd had enough. Which in his situation had the potential to be world-endly disastrous. Now dressed he debated the merits of getting food and then checking in on Piper but decided to check in on her first. He wasn't sure how long he'd been out and he wanted to make sure everything was ok. He orbed into the kitchen to find her at the oven, the room smelled fantastic, it made his stomach gurgled.
"Hey," he called when she was out of danger of burning herself and she spun to look at his hands up, "Sorry, did Penny get sent off ok?"
"Chris?" Piper gasped as she lowered her hands and then cocked her head to the side, "Yea, over a day and a half ago. Where the hell have you been?"
"A day and a half?" he squeaked and then cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, "I…I – ah- I took a sleeping potion, I guess I needed more than I thought. I just woke up."
"Sleeping potion?" She asked walking around the island to look him up and down and her brow furrowed, "Why would you need that? What's going on, Phoebe said you left here looking like a Mac-Truck had hit you?"
"It was nothing," he said and felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny. He had so many memories of her looking at him like this growing up and with the good came the bad. He'd rather not remember that right now, "I just haven't been sleeping well for a while and it was starting to affect my performance so I took something to fix that."
Piper's eyes softened and she placed a hand on his shoulder, "You mean nightmares, don't you? That's why you've been higher strung than normal the last few weeks."
"Something like that," he muttered and shrugged off her arm, then he gestured to the finished meal on the island, "You need any help?"
Her eyes widened as she looked back and forth between the half-finished food and him, "You can cook?"
"My mother was teaching me before she died," he said carefully, not looking at her, "I'm ok at it."
"You can cut the peppers, diced please," she said after a moment's thought and they both walked over to the island. They didn't talk for a while and he made quick work of the peppers the way that she'd taught him. "Wow, you are good at that."
"Thanks," he muttered softly a slight smile on his lips, his mind oddly detached from the situation he found himself in, "Cooking with her was one of my favorite things to do growing up."
"Really," Piper sighed and she got a dreamy look on her face as she looked at Wyatt in the small kitchen playpen. "I learned that way from Grams, I hope someday Wyatt wants to learn too."
Chris snorted, his brother had been far from a culinary master, and she glanced at him, "I mean, I'm sure your son will love to learn from you someday. So it's Mexican tonight?"
"Right," she said slowly and with some suspicion before handing him an onion to dice as well. "And yes, would you like to have some, considering your helping me make it."
"The girl's still here?" he asked conversationally and she shook her head.
"No, they headed home, it's just us," she turned away to check something and she seemed suddenly really lonely.
"I'd love to," he said quickly before he could talk himself out of the family moment, "I haven't eaten in a while."
Piper smiled softly at him and they continued cooking in silence. Seven months ago he wouldn't have been able to do this, hell he'd avoided Christmas for that very reason, but, after today he found he just wanted to spend some happier, quiet, moments with his family even if they didn't know him.
