Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed, okay?? I'm just a low-life freakish teenager addicted to fanfic like the rest of the authors on this site!! IS THAT A CRIME?? DO I HAVE TO OWN CHARMED TO RIGHTFULLY SERVE A PURPOSE IN THIS WORLD?!?! Lol, okay...BREATHE...heh heh.
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Phoebe watched Chris lying there for about an hour or so. He was still bleeding and shaking and he appeared to be asleep. She didn't want to disturb him, but his breathing seemed to get fainter and fainter...
She got up and headed to the kitchen to get something to eat. Maybe that would distract her for a little bit...
It appeared that she wasn't the only restless one in the house. Paige was burying her face in a mug of coffee, trying to hide her worry.
"Don't drink away your problems," Phoebe tried to joke.
Paige didn't laugh. "How's he doing in there?"
"I—I don't know. He's pretty out of it right now, that's for sure. He fell asleep an hour or so ago. Where are Piper and Leo?"
"I orbed them to their room," said Paige. "They're not awake yet."
"Oh."
The two sisters sat in silence for ten minutes or so.
"I don't want to lose him," said Paige after a while. "I mean, we just barely found out two days ago who he was, and now this? What if he doesn't survive? We don't really even know him yet, at least for what he is on the inside...And this is after all we've said to him since he came here, before we knew who he was..."
"He's not going to die," Phoebe asserted. "Nobody is going to die."
"Bianca did."
"Paige...Chris is a fighter. You know that. He'll be fine." Even as she said these words, though, Phoebe bit her lip uncertainly. Fortunately her little sister didn't see.
"What can we do?" asked Paige hopelessly.
"His powers are bound. Try unbinding them with a potion or something. I'll watch him."
Paige nodded, heading up the stairs. She was almost a little nervous to create another potion considering what the memory one had done to her nephew, but she decided that this one would be practically flawless. It was pretty simple. Not much could go wrong, if you knew what you were doing.
But then she paused, about halfway up to the attic. This was not at all fool-proof. Chances were that he'd have powers that were bound when he was little or something that could be unleashed...He'd never ACTUALLY shown them his rapid acceleration (note: he showed Piper, not the sisters) before. It could be bound. Along with other things.
She stopped on the steps, sitting down on the last one right outside the attic. This was much too complicated. She didn't want to make a mistake with this spell. Besides, Piper may have a better head when it came to spells like these. She'd wait until Piper was awake. It wasn't like Chris needed them NOW.
She buried her head in her hands. At this rate, he wouldn't need them...ever.
Just in case, she went back down the stairs to check on Piper and Leo. They could be awake, or close to it. She opened the door loudly, not bothering to smother the sound. Maybe the noise would wake them up.
Or not.
They slept soundly on the bed, faces expressionless. How nice it must be, not to dream, not to think, not to worry...She sighed. If they knew what was happening they wouldn't be so peaceful.
"Piper," Paige called loudly. "Piper, wake up."
No response. Paige almost thought she saw a twitch, but other than that she was silent.
"Leo! Leo, please. Please wake up."
Neither of them moved. She shook them vigorously but knew that she was getting nowhere. They would at least be asleep for another hour or so, depending on the amount of sleeping dust Wyatt had used.
After a moment of thought she decided if anything, she'd try a spell.
But not a spell to wake them up. And not a spell to unbind Chris' powers. She had to know whether or not they were bound...
So she'd visit Chris' future again.
"Sorry, Brian," she said with a shrug. She recited the spell from memory and a very hostile, menacing Brian appeared in the hallway.
"What the hell is your problem?! First the whole, 'Let's go to the future' crap and then Piper comes back for more—now you, too?!" he demanded, infuriated.
"Piper came back?"
"ARGH! YOU THREE ARE IMPOSSIBLE!"
Paige couldn't resist—she stepped on his foot. Hard. "Shut up, alright? I don't want Phoebe to know you're here. When did Piper go back? What did she see?"
"Just some childhood issues, no big." He sighed. "Alright, master, what do you wish to see?"
"What we missed when we had to come back to save Chris."
"All of it?" he whined.
"All the stuff that matters," she said pointedly.
"You can't—aren't there some kind of labor laws—?" He tried desperately to stop her. "But...but I..."
"You know, you were a lot nicer when we first met you," Paige retorted.
"Maybe that was because I wasn't expecting you to linger for half a century, okay?" He groaned. "Stupid pacifist rules...I'd KILL you all..." He grabbed her arm. "Let's go and get this over with." They orbed away.
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"Here we are," Brian sighed.
("I was in the past," said Chris weakly. "I saw mom...She...she thought I was an innocent, but Aunt Phoebe said I looked familiar..."
"Slow down, Chris," said Leo. "It's okay now, you're safe. You're back. We're going to make sure that Gideon never lays another had on you again."
"Maybe..." Chris trailed off. He looked at Leo with his same sorrowful green eyes. "Maybe he was supposed to kill me."
"No, Chris, no," Leo insisted. "What would ever make you think that?"
"I'm never going to be able to stop him."
Bianca stood up. "Of course not! You can't defeat him alone!" she exclaimed. She held out her hand to him and helped him up. "We're going to defeat him, Chris, and we're going to do it together. Got it?"
"Do you really mean it?" asked Chris.
"I really mean it. From now on, nothing will stop us.")
"This is where you left off, right?"
"Yeah," said Paige. "Speed it up, alright? Just to something important."
"You three are the nosiest trio I've ever had the unfortunate—"
Paige cleared her throat loudly. "Get on with it!"
He opened his mouth, about to make a comeback...then decided not to. "Alright," he grumbled, orbing them away.
They orbed into a dark, damp cave. Three candles illuminated the two sweaty faces in the room, both sickly and pale.
"Chris is eighteen, Bianca's seventeen," Brian informed her, and added before she could ask, "They live here. In the cave, hiding from Wyatt. Right now they're sick."
"Where's Leo?"
"Um..."
"Bianca, you okay?" asked Chris. By now his features looked about the same as they did in the 23-year-old Chris she knew in their time. He was just a little younger, a little weaker. And a lot paler.
"I'm fine. You?"
He nodded, though it was clear that neither of them were fine.
"This sucks, you know?" Chris laughed bitterly, obviously trying to make light of the situation.
"Yeah, I know," she laughed, nudging him.
"How many days do you think have passed?" asked Bianca wistfully.
"Huh?"
"You know...since we hid here. It seems like forever since I've seen the sun. Or...seen Leo, for that matter."
"I'm sure he's fine," Chris consoled her. "And as for the whole sun-thing...does five hundred years seem about adequate?"
They laughed weakly.
"About." Bianca paused thoughtfully. "But it has been awhile since Leo came to train us. Like, a week or something."
"We'll call him later. Just not now. He'll be busy." He shivered, a chill running up his spine. "Later...but for now, let's just get some sleep."
Bianca nodded in agreement. They both clutched thin moth-eaten blankets around their bodies and blew out two of the candles, leaving one flaring in the darkness.
Just enough light to see Chris remove his blanket and drape it over Bianca's sleeping form before returning back to sleep himself.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Paige whispered.
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A/N—Sorry it's been so long!! I was on vacation the whole time, for like, a week and a half. I will update more, I swearses. I've been busy. I'll update "A Future Remolded" and "Meteora" soon, and with any luck, "Numb" and "Aftermath" as well. See ya on the flipside!
Pink-Charmed-One.
Oh yeah—I forgot to mention (again, cough cough)—I LOVE REVIEWS AND YUMMY INVISBLE NONEXISTING COOKIES!! Lol.