Chapter twelve: The New Power

"You, you killed her?" Phoebe gasped, after hearing Katie's story.

"I had to; she was going to kill me." Katie shot back. "It was self defense."

"Against my daughter, your cousin." Phoebe yelled.

"She may have been related by blood, but she was not my cousin." Katie yelled back. "She deserved what was coming to her."

"She deserved to die?!" Phoebe yelled, not believing what she had heard.

"Yes." Katie stated firmly, "If you knew her, you would say the same thing."

"Time out." Piper stepped between Katie and Phoebe, keeping them away from each other. Katie stepped back, and Phoebe did the same, reluctantly. "I don't want to have to play mediator between the two of you as well. So stop it and don't talk to each other."

"It's official, we're stuck."

Piper turned to Leo, keeping an eye on her sister and niece. "Still can't orb out?"

"Nope, and I'm done bouncing off the wall." Paige replied before Leo, rubbing her back.

"That stupid bounty hunter. He trapped us in here." Phoebe complained, still glaring at Katie. "If we had the book maybe..."

"What? I didn't think we need the book to go vanquish a pathetic bounty hunter." Paige answered, knowing Phoebe had directed the statement towards her.

"Fighting isn't going to help and you're waking up Chris and Wyatt." Leo whispered loudly looking to the two babies asleep on his and Piper's jackets.

"What happened to big Chris anyway?" Piper asked. Everyone glanced at Katie.

"What, I don't know."

((Meanwhile...in the manor attic))

Wyatt stood at a window, his back to the attic doorway where he knew his little brother would be coming through any second. Wyatt knew Chris was coming, he could sense it. Chris always carried all that pain, anger, and jealously with him.

Chris tried not to make a sound, coming into the attic. He noticed Wyatt, and made to sneak up behind his brother. Carefully, he picked up a heavy book from a dusty table, meaning to hit Wyatt over the head with it.

Wyatt turned, taking note of the book and making no move to rid Chris of it. Chris froze, fear creeping up the back of his neck. "Doing a little summer reading, Chris?" Wyatt asked a cocky tone in his voice. "You know, if someone were to walk in here, they would probably think you were going to hit me with that book and we both know you wouldn't do that." Chris, knowing he was out powered, set the book down. "Good boy, Chris."

Chris looked at his older brother, realizing what Katie had meant when she said he was worse. "Wyatt, we should talk about this before..."

"I'm with done talking with you, Chris. You've betrayed me before, and now you won't get away with it." An energy ball formed in Wyatt's hand, and he fired it at Chris.

Chris threw a potion at it. The potion met the energy ball in air and both disappeared.

"Nicely done. I didn't know you could make a potion like that."

"I didn't." Chris replied, "Katie's father did."

"Ah, good old Katie never lets you done, does she? I wonder if she and Melinda are having any fun." As soon as Wyatt said this, a loud crash came from downstairs. "Sounds that way to me, what about you?"

"Not really," Chris answered, throwing another potion at Wyatt. The potion exploded at Wyatt's feet, sending him backwards.

"That's a cute trick," Wyatt said, standing up. "But then, it doesn't compare with actual powers." Wyatt waved his arm, throwing Chris back.

Chris landed in a pile of dusty old things from back when Grams was still alive. He coughed, climbing back to his feet. He reached into his pocket again, not bothering to see which potion he had pulled out and threw the vial at Wyatt.

Wyatt saw the potion flying his way and waved his hand slightly. The potion veered off course and exploded on a wall. "You know, Chris that is really getting annoying."

"I don't really care." Chris countered, throwing another potion.

Wyatt waved his hand, bored, and again the potion missed and flew into a wall. "We could do this all night."

"Okay," Chris agreed, throwing another potion again. He wasn't worried about the potions missing, he had plenty.

"While we're playing this little game of yours, why don't we have a chat?" Wyatt waved his hand again, another potion went flying. "How about we talk about that stupid little whore of yours, Bianca?"

Rage clouded Chris's face as he abandoned throwing potions at Wyatt and tackled him. Throwing punches at each other, the two brothers fought. Each was soon covered in cuts and bruises, until finally Wyatt pushed Chris off and stood up. "I see I've hit a nerve with you, Chris. What's the matter, watching me kill the little witch too much for you to handle?"

Chris glared at Wyatt, "Don't talk about Bianca like that."

"Why not? You obviously still care for the girl even though she died because of you."

Chris's eyes narrowed, "What are you talking about?"

"I wouldn't have had to kill her if you weren't stupid enough to go back into the past to try and save me. Face it little bro, if you hadn't betrayed me, your little witch wouldn't have died. If it weren't for you, she would still be alive."

"That's not true. You killed her, you did it. You're the reason Bianca's gone."

Wyatt shrugged, "Maybe so, but you are all at fault for the way Katie is."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Have you not noticed? The girl is an emotional wreck. She's traumatized, a nervous bomb just waiting to go off. And if she had come with me, she wouldn't be like that."

Chris shook his head, "No, she'd be just like Melinda, a whining little pest." "Melinda may whine but at least she doesn't rely on me to survive." Wyatt answered, taking a step towards Chris. Chris stepped back.

The grandfather clock chimed downstairs, echoing throughout the manor. A sudden silence filled the house as the fighting downstairs stopped momentarily. Chris noticed being able to sense Katie's emotions again. His brow narrowed, as he tried to figure it out. Then he realized that Wyatt had said the spell was temporary. That meant it had worn off if he could sense Katie's emotions. With a new look of confidence, Chris turned back towards Wyatt.

"Katie doesn't need me to survive but Melinda apparently needs you."

Wyatt looked confused until he heard Melinda scream. Seconds later, she yelled again, then was silenced. Another crash came from the downstairs, this time waking up baby Chris and Wyatt. Wyatt felt a twinge of pain as Melinda disappeared from existence. He could feel half of his power leaving him and Chris's growing.

"It seems like I have the advantage, big brother," Chris said, walking over to Wyatt. "Welcome to the new power, Wyatt. I hope you enjoy the stay." Chris was going to kill Wyatt with his bare hands, then decided not to seeing an old rusty sword in the pile of stuff he had been thrown into earlier. With a sweep of his arm, the sword lifted off the ground and drove straight into Wyatt's back. Wyatt yelled curses at Chris and Chris just stood there in front of him, a cold look in his eyes.

Light began to emanate from Wyatt's dying body. He lifted a hand, seeing the light from his fingers in disbelief. This couldn't be happening to him. Not him, he was the most powerful being in the world, the universe and his meddlesome little brother managed to kill him. Wyatt yelled as the light tore through his body, exploding him in the process.

Chris covered his eyes from the light when Wyatt exploded. A shock wave came out of his brother, sending Chris backwards and shattering windows. Then it was over. The light disappeared as soon as it had arrived, filling the attic in darkness. The candle that had been creating light when Chris first entered the room was out, lying on its side by the book.

Chris looked at the book. It was still in its rightful place on the stand. He stood and walked over to the book, resting a hand on its thick leather binding. With a slight flick of his hand, the candle lighted, casting light over the triquetra. Chris smiled, it was over. Now where was Katie?

A/N: Okay, I got the feeling that some people didn't like how I killed Melinda and I'm going to bet that some of those same people aren't going to like what happened to Wyatt. But look at it from Chris and Katie's point of view, if they didn't kill the other two, the other two would have killed them. Also, after reading a review, I just want to add that I write all of my fics by myself unless it's posted that someone helped me. If you have a fic like mine, then great minds think alike is all I have to say.

A/N 2: Now that your done listening to me clarify some things, don't hesistate from pressing that really pretty purple button and submitting a review.