Disclaimer: If I had a million dollars, (If I had a million dollars)… I probably wouldn't use it to buy Charmed, which, by the way, I don't own.

Chapter 6

Later that afternoon Piper was very distractedly trying to cook dinner. Phoebe and Paige were sitting at the table watching her with concern. Phoebe had tried to convince Piper to lie down and let her cook, but Piper seemed determined to do something to keep her hands busy. Cooking had always helped calm her before, but it didn't appear to be working today.

Leo orbed in and looked around. "Where's Chris?"

A loud clatter came from above them and Piper barely glanced up. "Your son is up in the attic. He's shut himself in there all afternoon trying to get his powers back." She said, chopping the vegetables a bit more vigorously than she had before. "I don't remember any of those spells involving things breaking in the past." She added sourly.

"Don't mind Piper, she's just a little upset right now because Chris won't talk to her, or any of us for that matter. He's still pretty upset and now he's obsessing over what's going on with his powers." Phoebe said.

Leo's face fell as he said "Then he's probably not going to react well to the news I've got. Oh well," he sighed, " better get this over with." Curious, the girls followed him out of the kitchen.

"Powers of the witches rise,

Come to me across the skies,

Return my magic, give me back,

All my powers that I now lack."

Nothing happened, of course. It was probably the twentieth time he'd recited that spell today. He'd tried every spell in the book that could possibly be altered to restore his powers. He'd even written a few new ones, but nothing worked. He was beginning to doubt that even his inherent ability to cast spells was working.

Chris picked up the first heavy thing he could find and threw it in frustration, breaking the chair in the attic for what must've been the millionth time. He didn't understand why Piper kept fixing it.

Everything that had happened was just too much to take in, it all hurt to much to deal with, so he'd chosen not to. Instead he was pouring all of his energy and concentration into a problem he thought he could deal with, his missing powers. Only that plan was working out so well. He could start to orb, so he knew his powers were there, but he just couldn't seem to access them.

He was standing behind the book gripping the pedestal tightly with both hands trying to calm himself down when he noticed his family standing in the doorway staring at him. He took one look at Leo's face and his stomach dropped. "What is it?" He said quietly. He couldn't handle any more. He silently begged for Leo to say "nothing," but one thing he knew well was his father's "I've got bad news" look. He took a breath and steeled himself.

"I went to see the Elders to see if they knew what was going on with your powers. The good news is there's nothing wrong with them." Leo said, obviously hoping that Chris would see this as positive.

"Oh no?" Chris retorted, waving his fingers at the nearby broken chair, which remained completely still. If he'd thought there was a chance they would work, he would have been aiming at Leo. Good news! Was he crazy?

Leo took a deep breath. "When a witch is born, they often don't have the use of any of their powers yet. When they do, it's usually only one or two powers. The Elders are in charge of deciding when a witch has learned to master the powers that they have and are ready for the next step in their power progression."

"Yeah, I know all this already, Leo. Get to the point, will you?" He was impatiently drumming his fingers on the book. He hated when Leo beat around the bush to put off having to give bad news.

"Ok, well, it seems that when Wyatt was born with the use of so many of his powers, no one had been prepared for that. They were expecting him to grow into his powers just like every other witch. This caused quite a stir up there about whether a child could handle that many powers at once and led to the split that drove Gideon to… try and stop him."

"The Elder's disagree on Wyatt's powers. Old news. What does that have to do with me and my current state?"

"When they found out Piper was pregnant, they were scared that you would be born just as powerful as Wyatt. They were having enough trouble dealing with the implications of one extremely powerful child, they didn't want to add a second child to the arguments. So, they took steps."

"What kind of steps, exactly?" Chris asked warily.

Leo looked Chris straight in the eye. "While Piper was still pregnant, they blocked your powers. They decided that they would give them back to you slowly, when they were sure you were ready. That way they could avoid the trouble they've had when it comes to Wyatt."

"Wait, Wyatt's too powerful so I get my powers taken away? How the hell does that work? If Wyatt's powers were the problem, why didn't they just take his powers away?" "This is so typical." he thought. "Wyatt does something wrong, and I end up getting punished for it, even before I'm born. How does Wyatt get away with everything?"

"They can't take Wyatt's powers away. Once a witch has a power, the only way the Elders can take it away is by tribunal decision, and for that the witch has to have greatly misused their power." Phoebe reddened slightly. "With as much controversy as Wyatt's powers have brought, he hasn't misused them other than that one dragon incident and that wasn't really a misuse, it was a baby not understanding what he'd done. You didn't do anything wrong, Chris. They blocked your powers as a precautionary measure because they couldn't do anything about Wyatt's powers."

"Ok," Chris seethed. "But, I'm obviously not a baby who doesn't know how to control his powers right now, am I? So go tell them to unblock my powers!" The Elders were really pissing him off. They were supposed to be allies in the war against evil, but instead they seemed to dedicate all their time towards making life more difficult for the good guys.

"They- won't unblock them." Leo said nervously.

"Well, why the hell not?" Piper snapped. Up until now the girls had remained in the back, listening quietly, but they'd had it.

"If the Elders did this, they can damn well undo this!" Paige said.

"We have no idea how long this mess is going to take to sort out." Phoebe chimed in. "Chris may very well need his powers soon. We don't exactly live the quiet life here."

"Well, actually it's up to us when Chris gets his powers back." Leo said unhappily.

"Ok, so then what's the problem? Orb your butt back up there and tell them to unblock him." Piper lectured.

"It's not that easy. The Elders don't know we'll continue to try to bring the baby back and they said that they refuse to run the risk of unblocking Chris's powers and then having us rescue the baby, leaving the baby unblocked." Leo took a deep breath and looked into his wife's frustrated face. "They said they would give Chris back his powers if and when we come to the decision there's no way to bring the baby back. I tried to argue with them, but they've made up their minds." The family was stunned. The sisters exchanged confused looks. How could the Elders possibly ask them to make a decision like that?

Chris plopped down on the couch and grabbed a pillow. "This is just great." He muttered. "Those Elders are a real help."