Secrets Within

Chapter Seven: Stardusting

George, having never orbed before, staggered around, getting his balance, when they arrived at the manor. He looked around curiously, observing the scene around him silently.

"Chris!" cried a woman with long brown hair. "I've been worried sick! You really shouldn't have gone out after those demons,"

"Mum, relax," said Chris. "You shouldn't panic, it's bad for Me." he said. George came to the conclusion that this was Piper. Piper smiled down at her belly, patting a slight bulge softly.

"I know Chris, it's just..."

Chris softened, and his face was more sympathetic than George had ever seen it. "I know mum, I know. Anyway, I dare say by now the elders are fair angry with me."

Piper looked alert and confused. "Why would they be angry with you?"

"Well let's put it this way. They didn't like it when it was just one person coming from the future, namely me.

Now we have Harry, Penny, Pia, Patty, Phil, and we have just discovered that somehow George here got pulled through the portal as well. He wasn't supposed to come, but he did, so well, we have no idea of what's actually going on.

There could be hundreds of other witches from the future out there.

Not all of them will be as merciful when they find out that Wyatt was the one who destroyed all their lives. Some of them are crazed, mum. They'll want to kill Wyatt. And of course, there's all that elder bull about balance, and timelines not interfering." Chris explained

Piper sighed "Oh, Chris,"

"Mum, you don't understand. We need all of us around Wyatt at all times from now on. Hundreds of witches, who have had their lives ruined by Wyatt, will be out to stop him before he can even grow up, the moment they find out that they are in the past."

Piper looked panicky. "But Chris!" She moaned, shaking her son's shoulders. "That isn't my Wyatt! Not my Wyatt! We're going to save him! They can't kill my little boy! I swear I won't let him turn into that merciless killer" Piper was really panicking now. Her eyes were wild with fear and anxiety.

George was starting to wonder what he'd gotten himself into. This family was turning out to be stranger than he'd imagined.

First of all, they were witches.

Secondly they'd broken the rule that said Witches and Whitelighters couldn't marry.

Thirdly, they talked about time travel as if they'd done it several times.

Fourthly they were the Charmed Ones, well, some of them were anyway.

Fifthly, Chris, and his cousins, had more powers than he'd ever seen in any witch. And he hadn't known that Chris had a brother. He supposed that this was because Chris didn't want to be connected to Wyatt, who had caused his life to be so bad. But he did wish that Chris had told him, after all, they were best friends.

But then he supposed, he hadn't told Chris that he was a witch.

Chris had calmed Piper down whilst he was thinking, and now she turned to George.

"Are you okay? I assume you must be George. Do you want to stay here, or do you want to go back to your hometime."

"Uh... I'll stay here if that's alright."

"Of course it is. Now, Chris says that you're a witch. What powers exactly do you have?"

"Um... I can blow things up and telekinesis."

"Cool," said Piper, Chris, Phoebe and Paige.

"What about you guys? What powers do you have?"

"I have freezing time and blowing things up" said Piper

"I have premonitions, levitation, and empathy" Said Phoebe

"I have orbing and telekinetic orbing" said Paige

"We have telekinesis, astral projection" said Pia. "time freeze, blow up" said Patty "premonition, levitation and empathy" said Phil.

"I have Orbing, Telekinetic Stardusting, and Sensing." Penny told them

"Harry has orbing, telekinesis, call demons, send away demons, levitation and astral projection" said Chris

"What do you have Chris?"

"Um, well, I have a lot of powers, but, I haven't used a lot of them for a long time, so I'll just tell you the ones I've used recently."

"Okay..." prompted everyone, because all of them were wondering what powers Chris had.

"I have Telekinesis, Telekinetic Orbing, Orbing, Sensing, Future Portal, Freeze time, Element Control, Memory Wipe, Oxygen Production, Blow Up thing, Energy balls, Premonition, Cloak Location, Invisibility, Call any Demon, Send away Demon, Make People Hear Things, Shield, Flying, Protective circle, Summon Warmth, Create Food, Read Minds, Empathy, Telepathy, Truthread, Stardusting, healing... Uh... I can't remember all the others." He said sheepishly.

(Okay, I know what you're thinking. Mind Reading and Telepathy are the same thing, well, technically, they're not! Telepathy is when you can make a connection with a person, which allows you to communicate without words. Mind Reading is what it's name suggests. Reading someone's mind, often without their knowing or permission.)

Piper, Paige, Phoebe and George's mouths dropped open. Penny, Pia, Patty, Phil and Harry were used to his extensive powers, so weren't as shocked.

When Piper recovered she said to Chris. "What exactly is Stardusting?"

"Uh, Stardusting is a cleaner's power, it's sort of like their own brand of orbing"

"How'd you get it then? You have no cleaner blood in you, only Penny's got cleaner blood."

"Didn't I explain this already?"

"Not really, all you ever said was that you got every power that ever ran through your family."

"Well I suppose I had best explain, don't you?"

"Yes!" everyone chorused.

"When I was about seven... I think... I was getting some more powers, I already had orbing, and telekinesis, healing, and sensing, but I was learning to fly.

Anyway, mum took us to a Wiccan gathering, and, needless to say, there were some really weird people there. One of them was a prophet. The moment he saw me, he went into a dreamy state, and said:

'The one who is born second to the blessed,

The one whose name will save us

The one whose blood swears him to protect

The one whose power sleeps

All be powered he need, all be powered he come

The blood that runs in the veins of his kin

Will swear him his powerful fate in.'

At first, no-one understood what it meant, and mum rushed me away from 'that weirdo'. But when Dad found out about it, he checked it up with the elders, who confirmed that the guy was for real.

First, we all thought it meant Wyatt, but when mum took it to an acclaimed prophet decipher, this is what it meant:

The one who is born second to the blessed, meant the person born after the blessed, which was what we called Wyatt.

The one whose name will save us, meant that this person would save the world.

The one whose blood swears him to protect, meant that 'the one' had whitelighter blood.

The one whose power sleeps, meant the one who didn't have all their powers yet.

All be powered he need, all be powered he come, meant any power that he could ever need, he'd have

The blood that runs in the veins of his kin, which meant, anybody who married into the family, or was born into it, or whose descendants married into it, one way or the other, their blood and their powers.

Will swear him his powerful fate in, meant that these bloods would give him every power that person had.

Mum examined it several times, and finally came to the conclusion that that person was me."

Chris was looking at his feet by the time he had finished, and his face was red. Everyone else was looking at him in awe. Chris couldn't stand everyone looking at him. "Um..." he mumbled, before Stardusting away.

Leo orbed in, seeing Chris disappear.

"Where'd he go?" asked George.

"I dunno" said Piper. "But we're about to find out." She grabbed everyone's hands, and looked at her stomach. They all started Stardusting

They could feel their bodies compact up, and swirl, before they reappeared. Orbing, they all agreed (Apart from Penny, as she was used to it), was much preferable. Their heads were spinning, and they staggered around dizzily. Chris and Penny were looking at them amusedly. By the time they had all finished staggering around, Penny and Chris were both in fits of laughter.

"What?" asked Piper defensively.

"Sorry, mum" said Chris

"Sorry, Aunt Piper" said Penny

"It's just," said Chris. "That you guys looked so funny, like ducks waddling around in circles"

"Ducks?' asked Piper, raising an eyebrow.

"You know... Little fluffy things" he said. Piper still had her eyebrow raised. "Okay, I give up" he closed his eyes for a few moments, and when he opened them, he waved his hand in front of him. A hologram appeared, and it showed several ducks waddling around in circles. Chris waved his other hand, and another hologram appeared, this time it showed them all Stardusting, and then them staggering around. This just made Penny laugh even harder, she was rolling on the ground clutching her stomach. Chris was turning really red, from holding in his laughter, so he quickly chucked on his invisibility cloak. They could all hear the disembodied laughter.

"Chris" said Piper "please take off that invisibility cloak."

Chris sighed, and pulled it off after a few moments, looking perfectly calm.

"Where'd the invisibility power come from anyway?" asked Piper. "No-one in our family has ever had that power before."

"Ahh... interesting tale that,"

"Well, you gonna tell us?" said Phoebe, grinning, and sounding as if she could wait no longer.

"if you insist" he sighed. "Well... remember Petal and Patrick?" he asked them.

Penny, Pia, Patty, and Phil nodded the affirmative, and tears prickled in their eyes.

"Well, you know how Patrick was um... an orphan..." they all nodded again.

"Well, anyway, I accidentally found out that he too, was half whitelighter, half witch."

"What?" they all exclaimed incredulously, apart from Piper, Phoebe, and Paige, who didn't understand. "No, he wasn't!"

"He was." Continued Chris, unhindered. "How did I stumble upon this, I suppose you want to know." He waited, as everyone nodded. "Well, it happened like this:

Flashback:

Chris orbed into magic school. He knocked on Gideon's door. Nothing could be heard from inside. He listened at the door. No sound was emitting. He opened the door, hoping that Gideon was okay. He had requested a meeting with Chris, after all. What he saw surprised him. There was a crystal scrying ball, glowing pink. Gideon was staring at it intently. Chris blinked, putting in action his power to zoom in.

What he saw was strange, he could think of no reason why Gideon would want to see a vision of Petal and Patrick. He could see Gideon's lips moving, so he enhanced his hearing.

"My Baby Boy" whispered Gideon. Chris's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"Sir?" he exclaimed.

Gideon whirled around "Chris!" he said.

"Sir?" Chris asked. "Why did you call Patrick 'My baby boy'?" he asked, uncertainly.

"I'll tell you if you promise you won't tell anyone, you must promise this, it's very important"

Chris nodded. "Yes, sir"

"It was like this, as you know, I am an elder. I, unlike your father couldn't ever be allowed to love.

But I did.

I fell in love with a witch, whom I had been told to watch over, as she was in danger. I was under no circumstances to reveal myself. She was kidnapped by a demon, and I, I couldn't just watch as they killed her.

I saved her. She, in return for my love, loved me back. She knew I could never be with her, but that didn't stop us. She fell pregnant, and the other elders found out about our relationship. They decided to punish us.

Lola, which was her name, was trapped in the underworld, while she was still pregnant. I pleaded with the elders, and was allowed to save her, but she would have to be killed once she had the baby.

I was not allowed to keep the baby, instead, I had to give it to an orphanage. I left him at the door, with only a tag with his name: Patrick Magus. I didn't use my real sir-name, or I could be traced. That was the only one time I was ever allowed to see him.

I bound his powers, so that no-one could unbind them until it was time, and placed a spell so that I could watch him when I wanted to do.

He can never know this. There is nothing else to it"

"Okay, sir."

End Flashback

"And that was how I found it out."

"Gideon has a son?" asked Leo.

"Well, technically, not yet. Patrick was born on the same day as me."

"Really? So this girl, Lola, is still alive, and she's pregnant?"

"Exactly. Thing is, I don't know how much I stuffed up the timeline by coming here, and I think that now, Gideon won't be told that Lola is being trapped in the underworld, and he mightn't be able to save her, and Patrick won't exist, unless, of course, we go save her."

Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Penny, Pia, Patty, Phil, Leo and George shook their heads "Time travel is so confusing." They all said, and burst out laughing that they had said exactly the same thing.

"Who's Petal anyway?"

All the future people froze. Phoebe had just touched a forbidden subject.

"Just...someone" Chris said stiffly.

"Doesn't sound like just someone," she said.

"HE TOLD YOU! IT'S JUST SOMEONE!" screamed Pia, Patty, and Phil. "SO LISTEN TO HIM!" they choked back tears.

"Don't yell at me!" shouted Phoebe. "I'm your mother! I command that you tell me who Petal is!"

"NO!" shouted all the future people, including George, because he knew who Petal was too, only thing he hadn't known about his companions was that they were magical. Phoebe shook, and the air vibrated with their screams, and Phoebe fell over from the force of the sound waves, and because of her surprise. Everyone else looked at the time travellers, amazed.

"Look, just don't talk to us about Petal," said Chris apologetically. Everyone nodded.

"Well!" said Paige brightly, trying to lighten up the atmosphere, and failing dismally. The only reaction she got was glares from everyone. They all sat there, looking very, very uncomfortable. Suddenly, Piper jumped up.

"Wyatt!" she exclaimed

There was a sharp intake of breath. Chris stardusted everyone to the manor, where Wyatt had last been seen...