Disclaimer: Don't own charmed. Guess what I DO own? Chris's new powers! They are mine! Because the stupid writers of the show never thought to give them to him
Author's Note: I need to SERIOUSLY thank NiceHobbitses and Stony Angel for beta-ing this chapter. I had trouble polishing it for some reason and their help made it 100 times better! NiceHobbitses, you should be doing this professionally. I've had writing professors who weren't as helpful as you. So, I'm sorry to make you guys wait so long, but here's the big finale (though there is an epilogue coming)! Maybe you guys will forgive me since this chapter is twice as long as any of the other ones?
Chapter 13
Piper was sitting on the ground, staring at her hands, the wall, at anything but Wyatt. She couldn't bare seeing what he had become. She was so conflicted. This man, no matter how evil he had become, was her son. She was supposed to love him unconditionally, but all she could feel for him was hate for what he was doing, for what he was obviously planning on doing to Chris. What did that say about her as a mother? Why couldn't she make herself stand up and open her arms to this man, saying, "Son, I forgive you. Come home with me, and we'll work this all out." She found she had a new respect for her youngest son. As much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't sure she would have been willing to sacrifice everything to come back and save the man standing before her now.
His mother's blatant rejection of him angered Wyatt. He was having a very hard time keeping his temper in check. What right did she have to judge him? To look at him in that cold stare and pretend he wasn't actually her son? It angered him that he cared what this woman thought. He thought he'd gotten past that back when he was young enough to figure out that she would always favor Chris, and he would always be an afterthought. That he cared now was ridiculous. This was one of his demons he had slain long ago, literally. He had to keep telling himself that he needed her alive and unharmed until Chris got here. "Come on, Chris. Where the hell are you?" Wyatt growled impatiently.
"I'm right here, Wy. Have you been waiting long," came a voice from behind him.
Wyatt stood, spinning around with a malicious grin on his face. "Yes, in fact. This is long overdue," he said, throwing an energy ball at Chris.
Chris didn't even attempt to block it or get out of the way. Piper jumped up with a scream as the energy ball crashed into Chris and then gasped as it went right through him, crashing into the wall.
"You know, most guys would greet their brother with a hug," said Chris's voice from the other side of the cave.
Wyatt spun again. "What the hell?" he said, as he lifted his arm to telekinetically choke his brother. Chris smiled as Wyatt's attempt had no effect.
"Care to try again? Third time's a charm."
Wyatt spun to face the third voice and was immediately thrown across the room. His face was riddled with confusion. "How did you . . . But you don't have your powers! And even if you did, you never developed your astral projection. How could you have this much control over it?"
All three Chrises had been walking towards him but now faltered. "Wait," said one of them. "You knew astral projection was supposed to be one of my powers?"
"Of course I knew." Wyatt sneered. "I'm the one that stopped you from developing it, along with all your other powers."
His concentration shattered, the two extra Chrises disappeared. "No," Chris said, shaking his head in disbelief. "It was the Elders."
"At first," Wyatt agreed. "But Mom and Dad wouldn't stand for it. They kept arguing with the Elders that they were putting you in danger by blocking your powers when there were demons attacking the house all the time. Finally, Mom, Dad, Phoebe, and Paige all threatened to quit, to bind everyone's powers, including mine, so that the manor would fall off the demonic radar." Wyatt looked at him coldly. "You almost cost me my magic, my destiny."
He paused, sneering, "The Elders panicked and finally came to a compromise. They unblocked your orbing, telekinesis, and sensing so you could defend yourself and get away."
Wyatt stood up and collected himself, taking control of the situation once more. "After they granted you a few of your powers, things went back to normal for a while. As we were growing up, though, I could tell that you were firmly rooted in your sense of right and wrong. That, I assure you, was a problem I never shared. I knew that soon the Elders would give you the rest of your powers, trusting that you wouldn't misuse them. I also knew that when they did, you'd be a match for me. I really didn't need the competition, so I eliminated it. I took over the block and made it a bit more… permanent. I did remember to thank the Elders for the idea before I killed them all."
"How could you do that to your own brother?" Piper asked quietly. She already knew the answer, but needed to hear it from Wyatt.
"Look at him. With his powers unblocked we're pretty evenly set. It was a risk I couldn't take. But it doesn't matter. It just means it's time to break out the big guns," Wyatt said, smiling broadly. He held out his hand. "Excalibur!" he called.
Wyatt laughed at the look of fear on his brother's face as the sword started to coalesce through a mist of blue orbs, when suddenly the still forming sword flew from his hand over to where Chris's hung limply by his side.
Chris gasped in shock as he instinctively closed his hand over the gleaming hilt of the now fully formed Excalibur. He held the sword up in surprise, when a warm gust of wind ripped through the entry-less cave, knocking Wyatt and Piper against the wall as it ruffled Chris's hair. The sword began to glow.
"What happened?" Piper asked, bewildered. "How did you do that, Chris? I thought the sword was supposed to be Wyatt's!" She was gazing at the sword in her son's hands.
"NO!!!!" Wyatt screamed in outrage, rushing Chris, who easily fended him off. Wyatt started throwing energy balls at Chris as fast and as hard as he could. "That's my sword, you bastard!"
"Excalibur was never meant to be yours, Wyatt," Chris said, finally understanding. He was blocking Wyatt's energy balls with the sword, as if by reflex. He wasn't even paying attention to Wyatt's attack; he was now looking at his mother.
"But Wyatt has already used the sword. It came when he called it, both when it first came into his possession and just now," Piper said, confused. "He would never have been able to do that if it was meant for you"
"It makes sense, Mom. Wyatt took the sword from Morduant and then from me the same way Morduant took the sword from you: by sheer force of power." He paused, trying to put the last missing piece of the puzzle in place. "I think the sword has a reciprocal power relationship with its holder. The more powerful the holder is, the more powerful the sword is and vice versa. By keeping me weak, Wyatt had no trouble controlling the sword. Now I'm finally strong enough to take it back."
"Well, I don't need the sword to destroy you! I don't even need to touch you!" Wyatt roared, enraged that his brother was fending off his attacks without paying the slightest bit of attention to him. Chris turned to him just in time to see him hurl a large energy ball directly at Piper. Chris was caught completely off guard.
"NO!!!" he screamed and threw out his hand as if to catch the energy ball. In an instant, everything froze. Chris watched wide eyed as Wyatt and his mother dissolved into the familiar blue orbs and reappeared in opposite positions. As soon as they did, time resumed.
Chris stared at his hand, unsure of what he had just done. Piper looked around, trying to get her bearings. Wyatt opened his mouth to sneer something at Chris, but left it open as his eyes widened, taking in the sight of his own energy ball flying towards him.
He tried to dissipate it, but he wasn't fast enough. The energy ball hit him full force in the chest, ripping a hole clean through. Piper screamed, and Chris ran to his brother's side, tears streaming down his face.
"Oh my God, Wyatt! What did I do? I'm so sorry. I didn't mean… Wyatt? Can you hear me?" He tried desperately to heal the wound, knowing it was already too late. Wyatt just stared up at him blankly. His head rolled back as he slowly started to fade away.
Chris just sat there, staring at the spot where his brother had been, crying. "This is not how it was supposed to end." He sobbed. "I was supposed to save him, not kill him."
Piper came up behind Chris, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace. They sat there in each other's arms, rocking silently for what felt like a lifetime, tears freely streaming down their faces.
Finally Piper spoke up. "It's okay, Chris. You didn't kill him, not really. Even in the little while that I was alone here with him, I could see it. His heart seems to have died a long time ago. Now that you're here, you can make sure it doesn't die again."
Chris melted into his mother's embrace, wanting with all his heart to believe what she was telling him.
"Come on, Honey. Let's go home," she said, stepping back and holding out her hand to him. Chris waved his hand over towards Excalibur, sending it off in a shower of orbs. Then he stood up, took a deep breath and smiled at his mother.
"Yes, please. Let's go home," Chris replied, slowly. His chest ached as he realized he finally had a home to go to. He pulled his mother into a hug as he orbed them out of the cave.
Phoebe was leaning against the large rock now sitting in the attic. The girls and Leo were trying to figure out why it had suddenly reappeared- without Excalibur.
"Wyatt must have called the sword," Leo said.
"Do you think he used it… on Chris?" Paige asked nervously. Wyatt was extremely powerful on his own. Was Chris really that much more powerful now that Wyatt had felt he needed the sword to defeat him? And was there any way Chris could have survived a battle like that?
"Aaah!" Phoebe jumped up as the sword materialized in the stone inches from where she was leaning. "That was close," she said.
Paige's eyes widened. "Does that mean…"
"The battle's over? Yeah, it does." Chris finished for her.
There were audible sighs of relief from the girls. Leo was on top of Chris and Piper in an instant, smothering them in an extremely tight group hug. "Thank God!" he breathed into Piper's hair, trying uselessly to hold back the tears that were already streaming down his face.
"Um... Dad… Air!" Chris gasped, smiling despite himself at his father's fierce show of affection. "Some of us do still need to breathe," he joked, as Leo loosened his grip, though only slightly. Soon Paige and Phoebe had joined in on the group hug and everyone was laughing with relief.
As the scene broke up, and Paige and Phoebe started fawning over Chris, Piper took Leo's hands in her own and looked up into his face. He forced himself to meet her gaze. "I'm so sorry, Piper. I had to make the call. I wanted to save the baby, too, but I just couldn't let him…"
Piper put her finger against his lips to silence him. "It's alright, Leo. I know you had to do it. I forgive you. More importantly, I think Chris forgives you." She looked over at her fully grown son, trying to fend off his over-attentive aunts. He glanced up at his parents, giving them a pleading look. Piper and Leo chuckled at Chris's predicament. Chris sighed and turned back to his aunts' stream of questions, knowing his parents weren't going to bail him out of this one.
Piper turned back to Leo. "We may not be able to give him a better childhood, but we can at least give him the satisfaction of knowing he's accomplished what he came back here and died to do."
Piper took a deep breath before continuing on. "I think we should bind Wyatt's powers until he's old enough to take responsibility for them." She looked into Leo's face, trying to judge his reaction before continuing on. "And I think we should let Chris be his whitelighter. He'll be able to protect Wyatt from any demon attack while his powers are bound."
"I still don't like the idea of binding Wyatt's powers, but after what we just saw…" Leo nodded slowly. "I agree. It needs to be done."
Leo and Piper looked over at Chris. He was unsuccessfully trying to disentangle himself from Phoebe, who had him in a vice like grip and was kissing him repeatedly on the cheek. Paige stood next to Phoebe saying, "Will you let him go, already? You're happy he's here. He gets it!"
Chris gave his parents an even more desperate pleading look and mouthed "SAVE ME!" The couple laughed. Piper came over and took Chris's hand, pulling him away from Phoebe. "This has been a big day for all of us. I think we've earned a little fun time. Let's all go out to celebrate. We've got the nanny for the whole evening. Anybody up for sushi?"