Chapter 19

Down in the living room, Clark and Chris had settled in for the night.

Clark had decided to take the sleeping bag on the floor. As tall as he was, he knew he'd never be comfortable on the couch.

While Chris was almost as tall as Clark, he insisted the couch wouldn't be a problem for him. "I can sleep pretty much anywhere. And, believe me, I've had plenty of practice sleeping in worse places."

Half an hour ago, they turned off all the lights and laid down. But Clark was still wide awake. His mind was still buzzing from all he'd heard. So, hands behind his head, he stared up at the ceiling. Something that had become pretty common since Chris's arrival.

He was thinking about the Halliwell's. They were so different from his own family. Whenever the Kents discussed Clark's powers or his origins, there was always an air of seriousness about it. Of gravity. His mother became subdued, his father grim and solemn. All of the bad things that could happen if anyone found out Clark's secret hovered in the air around them, like a dark cloud. A slightly paranoid dark cloud.

Well, Clark figured the Halliwell's would be in just as much danger if anyone found out they were witches. One of their ancestors was burned at the stake, after all. Yet, there just didn't seem to be that same dark cloud hanging over them. They talked about what they were, and what they could do, openly and freely. No fear, no uncertainty. In fact, they seemed to look at the weirdness that made up their lives with a touch of humor. Especially Phoebe…

Blushing slightly, Clark shook his head. He was so used to being the weirdest guy in the room. Really, no matter how strange someone else's life story might be, Clark always figured his would be more bizarre. But the Halliwell's had him beat, and in spades.

As he heard blankets rustling, Clark turned towards the couch. Thanks to the moonlight, he could just make out Chris's faint outline.

"Hey," Clark said, keeping his voice low just in case. "You awake?"

Chris's blankets rustled some more as he turned over. "Yeah, barely. Why?"

"Nothing, really. I just can't sleep."

"Yeah, me either. I guess I'm a little wound up from seeing my mom and the aunts."

Clark didn't blame him. After all, he'd been separated from his family for nearly a week and, whether he'd admitted it or not, he must have been worried that he'd never see them again.

"I still can't believe Piper's your mom," Clark said. "Or that, you know, you're in there."

"Yeah, it boggles my mind too. But not as much as the fact that I know exactly where and when I was conceived. That's something a kid just shouldn't know, you know?"

"What?" Clark yelped, rising up on his elbow. "You know what?"

Chris laughed. "Well, see, on the day I was supposed to be conceived, I started to fade away. You know, cease to exist. Apparently, I'd tampered with the timeline so much, things weren't happening between my parents the way they were originally supposed to happen, if you get my drift."

"Uh, yeah," Clark said, almost wishing he didn't. 'Parents' and 'sex' were two subjects your average teen didn't want to think of together. Even if they weren't your parents, because it sort of circled around to being about your parents anyway. "So, what happened?"

"Well, Mom and Dad had no idea what was going on with me, because they were trapped on the ghost plane, being chased by an assassin."

Clark opened his mouth to ask what the ghost plane was, and why Chris's parents were being chased by an assassin. But he figured that, if he kept doing that every time Chris said something he didn't understand, they'd be up until dawn.

"Anyway," Chris continued. "I figured that was it for me because people fighting for their lives wouldn't really be in the mood for romance, right? And, eventually, I vanished all together. But, then, suddenly, I was back. And, since I pretty much know what had to have happened in order for me to re-appear…"

"I get it, I get it," Clark said, falling back onto the sleeping bag. "You really don't have to explain any more."

"Thanks, because I'd really rather not."

Clark grinned. Chris wasn't exactly a teen-ager, but it seemed the whole 'parents' and 'sex' combo bothered him, too.

After a brief silence, Clark said, "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Shoot."

"Well, I heard Paige teasing you about never wanting to reveal too much about what's going to happen because you don't want to mess with the timeline too much." Which, given the story he'd just told about his almost non-conception, Clark could understand. "But, I just gotta ask…What's the future like?"

There was a long, heavy pause. So long, Clark started to wonder if Chris was ever going to answer. Then, finally, he said, "It's not like this."

Clark frowned. Somehow, Chris managed to make those four simple words sound ominous. Chilling.

"But it's a different dimension, remember?" Chris continued. "I'm sure the future here won't be anything like that." Then, voice dropping, he added, "And, if I can do what I came back to do, the future in my dimension won't be like that, either."

And, for the first time, Clark really thought about what Chris's future must be like for him to travel back more than twenty years into the past to try to change it all. He had the feeling it wasn't very pretty.

"What did you come back to do?" Clark asked.

Chris sighed. "It's really complicated, and I'm way too tired to get into it right now, okay?"

Which Clark translated to mean, 'I don't want to talk about it, so could you just drop it?!'

"Okay," Clark agreed.

The silence that fell over the room was far from comfortable. The quiet, easy mood that had surrounded them just seconds earlier had been disturbed by tension. Deciding he didn't like the change much, Clark brought up something else that had been on his mind. "You didn't tell your family about me."

"No. There didn't seem to be much point. Plus, I know how you and your folks feel about people knowing."

"Oh. Well, thanks. But I, uh, I just wanted you to know that, if you wanted to, uh, to tell them, I wouldn't mind." But his voice shook with nervousness.

"You don't sound too sure about that, Clark."

"Oh, I am. Mostly. It's just, I've gotten so used to hiding the truth, you know?"

"Yeah," Chris agreed. "I've learned a thing or two about keeping secrets this past year. It kinda sucks, doesn't it?"

Clark let out a long, exasperated breath. "Tell me about it."


He was running through the streets. Streets that were dark, and wet, and empty. Most people knew better than to be out this late at night.

His legs were tired, burning from exertion. There was a stitch in his side, a sharp pain that got worse with every step he took. He was panting, his lungs straining for air. He wanted to stop. To just stop. But, if he did, they would catch him.

Chris had caught a glimpse of one of the things. It didn't look like the probes he was used to, the relatively harmless ones Wyatt designed to scan public places for witches. No, the thing he saw looked like a floating nightmare, as sleek as a shark. And just as deadly.

So Chris ran, waiting with dread the mechanical whir to fill his ears. For the agonizing heat from of a laser to stab into his back.

He had to get away. If he didn't, he wouldn't be able to go back to the past and warn his family about what Wyatt grew up to become. If he could just get to one of the hideouts nearby, the ones renegade witches used to escape pursuit and capture. Every hideout was shielded by cloaking magics, so no probe would be able to find him there.

Chris splashed through a puddle, barely noticing the ice-cold water that soaked into his jeans. Just another block, and he'd be safe.

Chancing a glance over his shoulder, he saw there was nothing behind him. Allowing himself to feel a moment's relief, he turned a corner…and was blinded by the beam from a probe's mechanical eye.


Chris woke with a start, a silent scream lodging in his throat. Heart pounding in his chest, he sat up on the couch, frantic eyes searching the dark for the things in his nightmare. It took a full minute to remember that there were no probes here. Not in this time, not in this dimension.

Actually, not in his time or dimension, either. He'd never seen a probe as nasty as the one in his dream. That had been purely a figment of his imagination. Unless Wyatt had created some new toys Chris hadn't known about.

Taking a deep breath, Chris wiped a hand across his sweat-dampened brow. He'd lived through plenty of real, nightmarish experiences in his lifetime. Why his mind felt the need to make something up was beyond him.

Checking to make sure he hadn't woken up Clark, Chris laid back down, determined to go right back to sleep. Hoping he wouldn't have another nightmare.

He had no way of knowing his eyes were glowing.

(TO BE CONTINUED)