In a fraction of a second, they landed somewhere completely different and Chris' body vanished from between their hands. They found each other in the kitchen at the manor. Unable to detach himself from where his mind had been a moment ago, Wyatt held on to the edge of the kitchen sink and broke down crying, Sam held on to him shedding bitter tears by his side unable to utter any words that could even remotely make him feel better at the moment.
There were voices coming up the dining room, but they seemed to be far away, unimportant at the moment. "How do you do it?" Wyatt whispered to Sam. "How do you breathe again?" his pain choking him at every word. Sam caressed his back in an attempt to comfort him, then reaching to caress his face and hair as she did so often.
"I'm still asking myself that very same question every time I think of him" Sam felt a pang in her gut as she pictured her brother in the previous memory. She put her forehead to his. "We won't let her do this, any of this" her voice broke as they realized once more they had to stop the Megan in their reality at any cost.
"Mom? Dad? Are you coming? Uncle Henry called. He's on his way here" said Angela, Julian standing just behind her, holding her by the shoulders, staring at their parents.
"Give us a minute, sweetheart" said Sam wiping her own tears away. They nodded obediently and left the room without another word.
"We'll put a stop to all this. I promise you. We will change it, somehow, for all of them" said Sam. Wyatt pressed his head against her shoulder for a second, gathering strength, holding her hand before he led her out of the kitchen. She wiped his tears on her sleeve before finishing wiping her own.
They stopped abruptly as soon as they stepped into the next room, confused by the sight. The table was out of the way, secured against the wall and in its usual place there were cots spread all around in rows. They walked between them and could see more spreading along the different rooms in the house. The whole ground floor seemed to have become a shelter of some kind, even though they were all still empty.
"Take these to the Solarium, would you? We're still setting up our beds up there" said Piper meeting them at the bottom of the stairs loaded with folded blankets and sheets. Her face was pale and you could easily see traces of tears that had run dry on her cheeks. Wyatt gave her a hug putting down the sheets on the cot right behind them, before she walked back upstairs. She held him tight only for a second and then turned around without a word.
"Let me help you with those" said Edward picking up the blankets. Wyatt squeezed Sam's hand, getting a very real and bitter picture of what she had been feeling last couple months. They would still go back and find a way to save Chris, but Edward was gone and there was nothing they could do about it now.
"Uncle Henry should be here any moment with the mortals" said Kai.
"Stop calling them that!" said Melinda. "People, just say people"
"Why? Isn't that what they are?" said Penelope rudely.
"Don't bite her head off just cause she isn't all bittered up" said Bianca just as rude.
"Easy for you to say. Your husband is still alive. He wasn't killed by the people"
"They're scared. That's all"
"Tell that to my kid, who still has nightmares about his daddy being shot dead by the mortal army" Penelope said with disdain.
"Enough" said Phoebe to her daughter Bianca. Penelope meant to argue some more, but her brother Henry gave her a meaningful look and she stormed upstairs.
"Please, forgive her. She's still grieving" Henry Jr said.
"We all are" said Sam.
"And the only way we'll get through this is if we stick together and don't turn on each other" completed Wyatt.
"Tell that to Uncle Chris" Wyatt felt his heart shatter at the sound of his name.
"Do not talk to your parents that way, Kai" said Leo coming down the stairs with a few more pillows. Kai said nothing, just sulked away from them.
"I'll take these to the living room" he said patting Wyatt on the shoulder. His face seemed to have aged beyond possible. He had smiled but it looked somewhat painful on his features.
"OK, honey. Nice and slow" Coop's voice made Wyatt and Sam turn around and walk back to the kitchen. Paddy was using her gravity control to take a tall metal pot onto the backyard, led by her father, closely followed by her sister Praline who was carrying plastic bowls of different colors and shapes. "All set back here!" Coop called out to them giving them the thumbs up as he spotted them.
"Great honey!" Phoebe answered back. "Where's Dylan? I wanted to kiss him goodnight before people start arriving" she told Wyatt and Sam as they walked back to the entrance hall by the stairs.
"Upstairs, Aunt Phoebe" said Sam, without any clue how she knew that.
"I'm guessing a lot of these people will be starving after a few days out there"
"Whose 'tarving, gramma?" said a little girl levitating her way into Phoebe's arms.
"Oh, just people who need our help, sweet face" Phoebe said as she kissed her all over. "Is your brother sleeping? He is?" she said after her little head nodded. "What are you doing up then?"
"It's Christopher's doing, I'm sorry. He kept asking for one of grandma's cookies and he started a riot up there" said a woman with a little boy in her arms, who was the exact image of a younger Chris. Wyatt's heart dropped even lower if at all possible.
"Oh, it's OK. I think there are still some from the last batch Piper made this morning" Phoebe kissed her granddaughter's little hands.
"Could you hold him for a second?" the woman told Wyatt, and even after almost 20 years into the future there was no mistaking her face, it was Ama.
"Am…"
"Bianca, why don't we get them some milk too?" said Phoebe to the woman standing in front of Sam.
"Me, mom?" said her daughter.
"No, honey. Your cousin! Of all the names!" said Phoebe smiling. Ama, who now they knew was named Bianca, followed her to the kitchen, leaving little Christopher in Wyatt's arms.
"Is daddy comin?" he said with the saddest eyes. "I wanna story" Wyatt's eyes burnt like hell as he struggled not to break down again. "Can you bring him back, uncle Wyatt?" he caressed Wyatt's face.
"I would if I could, buddy" he kissed his little forehead.
"I'll read you a story, Christopher" said Melinda coming to get him from her brother's arms. He stared at them both all the way up the stairs.
"Ok. Settle in this area here, we don't wanna spook people any more than they already are by orbing anything in our sleep" There were faint chuckles. Wyatt and Sam followed Paige's voice into the Conservatory, all the windows had been properly boarded up and the cots in there were being occupied one at a time.
"You can go grab a nice bowl of hot soup if you're hungry" said Wyatt. "Go through the kitchen, through the laundry room and out" he pointed the way.
"I thought there would be more" said Patricia to her mom coming for a hug.
"Me too, but they've been targeting White lighters last couple days. So, they were the only ones I found and were willing to come with me, the others still alive didn't wanna trust me" said Paige sadly. "Can't say I blame them"
"You did good" said Wyatt encouragingly.
"OK. This way please" Henry was saying at the front door, closely followed by a group of people of all ages, from elderly to kids crying, holding for dear life at their mother's side.
"Don't be scared. You're safe here" Phoebe was leading them in. "Lie down, get some rest. If you're hungry, you can go out back and have some hot soup" People smiled shyly visibly afraid of them.
"Mommy?" said a sleepy Dylan coming down the stairs. "I can't sleep" Wyatt held his son up.
"Aunt… Bianca… is bringing you all some delicious gramma cookies" Sam told him. Their little boy looked just as old as he had on their last memory so it couldn't have been long after.
"If anybody is in need of medical attention, please let us know" Edward was telling the new arrivals. A couple hands went up in the air. "Wyatt?" he nodded and followed him to a young boy and his mother. He had a severely burnt arm and her leg seemed to be broken, held steady by a wooden stick roughly tied with rags. Sam was shushing Dylan, who was sitting on her lap on the first landing, trying to stay out of the way of passing people.
Unfortunately, there was a bigger reason for Wyatt and Sam to have landed in that particular memory and it was far from pleasant.
About half a kilometer away, army men were preparing their attack on the house. Elak had reassured them there were demons hiding in there, and given the present situation, they weren't ready to take any chances. "Fire!" the bomb slid into the mortar and in a matter of seconds the front door was blasted along with big part of the façade, sending everybody in the vicinity away along with a heavy load of debris.
Wyatt coughed trying to shake that unfathomable ringing in his ears, he put a hand to them and felt blood running down the side of his face. People were running around, some others on the floor unmoving, half covered by chunks of the wall. He could see Paige running to Henry mouthing his name. Edward was holding Michelle shaking her violently. As the house began to creak under its own weight, Paddy ran to the front of the house to try and keep it from crumbling down on top of them all. Julian started restoring chunks of it here and there, looking over his shoulder as he did; Piper froze half the block from the second floor, trying to buy them some time to catch a break from whatever was out there, giving her grandson not only time but opportunity to get the building mended. Nevertheless, his attention drifted at the sight of his Uncle Edward begging for help, running to him to try and bring Michelle, his wife, back to no avail. Wyatt got shakily up to his feet and started looking for Sam, she had been thrown back against the first landing wall and a lot of wreckage had reached them both her and little Dylan. He staggered and ran to them. A lot of wooden bars from the rail had sunk deep into them, he started healing them as he removed the debris from their flesh. Sam healed alright but little Dylan remained asleep in his mother's arms for good. They both broke down and cry in despair holding their little boy as tight as they could only to feel him vanish between their arms and appear somewhere else.