Secrets Within
Chapter Three: Real Story
Piper, Phoebe and Paige were calling to their whitelighter and Leo. They just weren't coming. Then a swirl of lights revealed two men. They sighed in relief. Then they saw Chris, eyes rolling back in his head, tears streaming down his face, hair sticking up like he'd had an electric shock, clothes with burn marks on them, and skin pale. Piper immediately went to feel his forehead, and pulled her hand back straight away, he was burning up. Little bolts of lightning were running up and down his body, and he fell down in a sprawled mess on the carpet. His skin was delicate, and this rough movement broke it and blood was rushing out in masses. Leo wore a worried look on his face, and his eyes screamed pure terror.
"What happened to him?" Demanded Paige.
"Uh," said Leo, reminding himself that he couldn't tell the sisters about any of his abilities without his permission. "He got hit by lightning."
"And why didn't you heal him?"
Leo kneeled over him, and tried to heal, the girls saw this was not working and asked Leo why. He had to say something "I can't heal self inflicted wounds, you know," he said.
"Wait a second," said Paige "You're saying he did this to himself?" she asked incredulously
Leo nodded, uncertain "He was angry with himself" he said. "But we shouldn't be worrying about this; we just need to get him to the hospital." He said, using his logic. they all tried to orb Chris, but couldn't, and had to drive to the hospital. They went into the emergency services, and were seen immediately. They described it as 'some kind of freak accident' and left it at that. He was in the ICU for a week before he woke up. The girls all wanted to know why he had done this to himself. They went in, and Leo stood behind them, wondering to himself what kind of a father Chris had, for him to neglect him so much, and for Chris's magic to kill him without him wanting to. Leo knew that that kind of uncommanded magic required a lot of hate. He felt sorry for Chris, I mean, how he could have decided to have pain, when the shield could have easily absorbed it and done no harm. He hadn't told the girls exactly what had happened, or what Chris had told him, that was up to Chris to tell them.
Chris was lying in bed, looking perfectly healthy. Leo walked up to him "Chris, how're you doing?" he asked concerned.
Chris looked at him, a wild panic apparent in his eyes "Dad?" He looked around the room "Mum? Aunt Paige, Aunt Phoebe? Why are you here? You're dead." Chris gasped, "I'm dead aren't I! Wyatt killed me? Is that what happened? How? I can't seem to remember. And why does the afterlife look like a hospital?" He asked confused. To Piper, Leo and Paige, he was quite obviously delirious.
"He's crazy," they said automatically. "The lightning made him crazy" but Phoebe looked at them
"No, he's not. He's not lying. He's telling the truth as far as we know."
"How do you know that?"
"I can get a reading only of authenticity"
"He's delirious; he thinks he's telling the truth." Piper said, "Leo, heal his mind"
Leo did that and Chris looked at him "Holy Shit! I came back to the past, didn't I?"
"Yes," Leo told him.
"Leo, did you tell the girls what I told you?"
Leo shook his head "No" Chris nodded, and waved his finger. Instantly forgot what they were talking about, and what Chris had told him.
Piper, Phoebe, and Paige looked at him in amazement "How'd you do that?" They asked him simultaneously
"Ahh, let me explain. Every magical being that ever existed, demon, whitelighter, witch, warlock, fairy, leprechaun, unicorn, pixie, etc, somehow made it's way into my family. Some of these were… millenniums back even. Some, not so far back. I don't know how, but I got every single power that ever came into my family, and well… yeah"
"That still doesn't explain it" said Phoebe. No magical creature has that ability to heal or repair memories of what they weren't supposed to know"
"My youngest aunt married one of the cleaners" he said
Paige started laughing, "Oh my God, that would be so funny! I don't know how anyone could be attracted to a cleaner! They are soo not hot!" Phoebe laughed with her. Chris looked upset. Piper cleared her throat. Leo told Paige and Phoebe to stop laughing at Chris, and they looked guilty. "Sorry," said Paige.
"Oh, don't worry. You'd be surprised at what everyone said when she told them, she'd said exactly the same thing as you" Paige looked warily at him.
"Whatever, Future boy" she said, unsettled. Piper cleared her throat again.
"Yeah, whatever, Future boy" Phoebe mimicked. Piper cleared her throat for a third time.
"Did you just erase my memory?" asked Leo "Why?"
"Future consequences"
"Oh"
Piper cleared her throat once more "If you don't mind, I've got something to say!"
They all turned to her, surprised at her outburst, "What is it?" They asked in sync
"Finally, you're listening to me now!" she said. Then she got nervous "I just want to say… that I'm pregnant!" she was grinning from ear to ear. Leo stared at her in shock. So did Paige and Phoebe. But Chris just smiled.
"Chris? Did you just hear Piper? She's pregnant. Aren't you going to say how happy you are for her?" Asked Paige "Aren't you even the least bit surprised?"
"No. I already knew. It has just cleared up a few things for me though"
"Like what. And how did you know?"
"I'm from the future. Why wouldn't I know?"
They all looked at him for a moment before agreeing. He was from the future. He would know. But still, what did Piper's pregnancy clear up for him?
"Congratulations Piper, Leo you're going to be parents again" he said, although belatedly. He orbed out.
"Chris! Come back! You just orbed out of a hospital and you're the patient remember!" Piper yelled at the ceiling.
"Don't worry," said Leo "No-one will even remember he was here, and it's best because he doesn't exist yet, so they can't have any records of him." Leo knew that Chris had used one of his powers to fix that problem, but didn't say this to the girls. Instead he said "I'll go after him," and orbed out.
"I've had it with them!" growled Piper "Time to put plan A in action!" She grabbed Paige's hand, and Paige grabbed Phoebe's "Lets orb" she shouted to Paige, and they orbed out, to GGB. The moment they had finished orbing, they saw that they were on the GGB, and that Chris and Leo hadn't noticed their arrival.
Piper thanked Paige for orbing them, "Actually, I was just about to ask you that. I hadn't even had time to locate where they were going, let alone orb there."
"So how did we orb"
Paige just looked at Piper's belly as an answer. "Oh" said Piper. "Thankyou… little child in there" she said to it. Then to Paige, "How did it know where they were?" she shrugged.
"Don't ask me." Piper rolled her eyes.
"Whatever" They turned their attention back to Chris and Leo. Piper was concerned. Weren't they a little close to the edge? What would happen if they fell off? Then an enormous gust of wind came up behind them, and they were blown off the edge.
"Watch out!" She screamed, and both the men turned around in surprise. Piper realised her mistake when she saw they had complete control over their movements, as they were blown a little closer to her.
"What are you doing here? I thought I blocked my presence," Chris said quickly, and then he looked at Piper's stomach for a moment. "Oh, yes, I see, mini me brought you here."
"Mini me" Leo, Piper, Phoebe and Paige repeated simultaneously.
"Oh-oh" Said Chris "You weren't supposed to know about that," he said sheepishly
"About what? You have some explaining to do, Chris"
"I know." He sighed. "You'll want to sit down for this," he said, using the wind to blow them into sitting positions. Stubbornly, the wind kept blowing Piper back out, probably because of little Chris. Finally, Big Chris got the wind under control, made a nice, warm, protective circle around them. He sat down in the circle.
"Now it's time to tell the real story. Wyatt was two when I was born. He was a good kid, but he really hated people calling him the twice blessed child, and all that. So, when I was about ten and he was twelve, he asked me to bind his powers. I didn't know how, and asked you to do it for me, Piper," Chris smiled at the memory "You went off your head, and forbade us to even talk of binding our powers. We didn't. Until I was fourteen, that is. Then I asked Wyatt to bind my powers, because they caused more problems than they were worth. Wyatt did that for me. He was supposed to leave orbing, telekinesis, and healing, but he made a mistake and blocked healing as well." Now he started talking to Piper "You were never supposed to know, mum, because I only ever usually orbed or did telekinesis on the demons. But that day you asked me to blow him up. I tried, and when I failed, I had to tell you about the binding. You blew your cork, and blew him up yourself. You gave me and Wyatt the lecture on how we needed to have as many powers available at all times. But soon you calmed down, and after a year, you realised that not as many demons were coming. They still came, but a lot less. We assumed that this was because there wasn't as much power to go for. We assumed wrong. It was Wyatt's doing. He went on a demon killing frenzy, and every night he killed one, without us knowing. One time, a demon actually got him to join his side, by activating the seed of evil that had been planted inside him when he was a baby. He wasn't fully evil though. He warned me of his switch of sides, and made me promise that I would save him, if he killed any innocents. I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. Around the city, people were dying every day, and it was assumed to be the work of a mass murderer. Soon though, magic was revealed to mortals. My cousin and I went out to try and stop what we thought was a demon, from destroying the world. But then we came across Wyatt, killing innocents, and I remembered what he had said to me. I told my cousin, and she told me that she was coming with me" Chris paused for breath.
"Hold on" Said Paige, "if your cousin was coming with you, where is she?"
"Let him finish talking!" Demanded Piper.
"I couldn't go until I was older, as at the time I was only fourteen. We waited for a few years. She came with me to the portal, and Bianca convinced her that she should look after the innocents in my time, because she had more powers than me, since mine had been bound. So, I went through the portal, and came back to save my brother from having the seed of evil planted in his heart. Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige had forbidden me to do this, because they needed the power of a Charmed One to look after the innocents, but I told them that if I saved Wyatt, I could save heaps more lives than if I stayed to protect the innocents"
"Charmed One? I thought I was a Charmed One!" Paige interjected
The girls and Leo agreed with her. "I'm part of the next generation of Charmed Ones. Wyatt was too, and my cousin, but with a Charmed One corrupt, there was no point in my staying anyway. I had only a few powers, and Wyatt was hardly likely to help vanquish himself."
"What's your cousins name, and who's her mother?" asked Paige, curious
"You know I can't answer that, Aunt Paige!"
"It was worth a try" she mumbled. "You could at least tell me her name"
"Oh, alright, her name is Penelope Cleaner"
"Penelope Cleaner. Cleaner! You said your youngest Aunt married a cleaner, which means me, right? And that could mean that Penelope is my daughter!" Chris nodded.
"Could do, but not necessarily" Then they noticed that Piper was just staring into nothingness.
"What's wrong, mum?"
"What's wrong! What's wrong! What's wrong is that I just found out that my firstborn son is going to become evil, and that I have anther son who came back from the future to save him, and is now sitting right in front of me, that's what's wrong!" she burst out, and started crying "My life is in ruins!"
Leo patted her back, and looked sympathetically at Chris. "It's okay, Piper, It's gonna be alright" he turned to Chris "So you're my son. Let me ask you something. Everyone else is in your story, except me. Where was I?"
Chris shrugged "Probably Up There, that's the only place you ever were"
"Sorry"
"No need, you haven't done anything yet. And this time you won't do anything." He said, and with that, the wind swept him off the bridge.
"Wait up" cried Leo, and Paige, and Phoebe "Let us come" Piper was still crying, but the wind picked her up softly, and carried her onto the wind, soon enough, they all discovered they liked it.
Paige floated over to Chris, when he asked her to. Paige, predictably enough, started asking about her daughter. Chris refused to say anymore. Then she asked him something he hadn't expected "What did it clear up for you, Chris?"
"Now that Piper's pregnant, it means that my powers are recreated, and therefore giving me my powers, so that I can use them, because mini-me exists with powers in this time, I have powers, though only half the strength of what they could be, because we are sharing them. Therefore, it unbinds my powers!" he concluded. Little had he realised, but mini-him had blown everyone over to hear their conversation, and they were all staring at him, shocked at how powerful he was, and that was only half his powers.
