BEFORE NIGHT AWAKENS

By Sickle Sword

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Disclaimer: Don't you give me that look. I never said I own them!

A/N: Here you go, another chapter! I finally arranged things in the chaos that is called my head and was amazed to discover that there are only 2 more chapters to go! I've never believed I would reach that far!

Nemesis' Arrow: thank you for your support. I have read your fanfic but refused to allowed me review. Go figure. I have to disagree with you- I am NOT a better writer than you. Just a way crazier one. . . .

denna5 : Chris is coming back this chapter. Yohoo! I hope you will enjoy this chapter too!

It should have been me who had told him the truth, even when I didn't know the meaning of the word truth, for I have lived in a lie. I should have held him close to my arms and closer to my arms and even when he chose to go away, I should have followed. It should have been me who died. Not him.

Chapter 13: Last Shreds Of Sunshine

From the moment you are awakened to the world of living, you know that you have failed. The future stayed just the same, only you died, and Wyatt had to resurrect you.

You are only given little time to gather your breath when he comes to question you, demanding answers you can not give. That you will not give. You swore.

So now you are forced once again to see him angry, eyes fuming like about to explode and head bent in a dangerous position. He's not happy with you.

Yeah, well, you mentally shrug, it's not like you expected otherwise.

"Why wouldn't I kill you on the spot, Chrissy?" you hear your worst nightmare taunting you. Chrissy. You struggle not to get angry. You hate that nickname.You really do.

But there are worse names. You were called many of those in your life- good, bad, witch, whitelighter, family, stranger. Every one of those names which are engraved on your soul were used by the people whom opinion you hold dear, your parents.Every time the hatred words trickled into the fragile armor you've fought so hard to build, you swore you would never let yourself get hurt again. Every time you forsaken your vow, giving another part from your soul to the devil, the same devil your family thought you were. You've spent your entire life fighting for their approval, so you are too tired now to fight for your dreams.

And now, you are too tired again. You don't have power anymore for his games. You don't want to fight him any longer. You only want to be left alone for awhile, collect the shreds of your life before you will figure how to fix them, and how did they become broken in the first place. So you tell him the truth. "Because you don't want to kill me" you see him flinch and continue, can't force your voice to sound victorious or arrogant, anything but tired. "Because I don't want to die. And because you can't".

Here, you have crossed the line, broken the sacred unspoken promise about what shouldn't have been mentioned.

You still remember that day, like it was yesterday. How cliché is that?

It was when you first joined him, grateful that he saved you from being taken by the angel of death in the explosion that took the rest of your family away. At the beginning you chose to close your eyes but in time, in time you were wiser. You were enlightened, in lack of other phrase. For it had nothing to do with light. You rebelled against your brother then, demanding explanation in front of his minions. He was so angry that you thought he would kill you at the spot. Only he didn't.

Not that he didn't hurt you. You have suffered greatly for your insolence, you still have the burning scars, as well as the mental ones. But you were off lightly. It could have cost your life. Many others paid that price, and the only difference between you and them was that something inside your brother's heart pitied you.

You chose to take the truth somewhere else, though. Making it as if he COULD'T kill you. It sounded more glamorous than being simply saved by the tyrant's sudden goodness.

And it can help you now.

You wait for your brother's anger to rise, to finish what he had started. And you keep waiting, embracing the inevitable only to find out it doesn't. He doesn't do it. He comes closer to you, your eyes meet his, and you see an almost human expression crossing his face. Before it is gone. There is only coldness there now, and the eyes of a stranger.

"Is that what you think happened, Christopher? That I COULDN'T kill you because my power wasn't up to yours?" he devilishly snarls, gritting his teeth like an ambushed animal in the middle of the hunt. As soon he says that, you're sorry you have spoken. However, you also aren't. You have planted inside your worst enemy the seed of the doubt. You know your brother well by now, he will not kill you unless in competition after you declared him as weak. He will do all that in his power to change your perspective, to make you understand that he is the most powerful being upon earth, and you are no one. Easy to be squashed.

You have an advantage on him. He will try with all his might to prove you something you already know as true. Only, he will never get that out from you as long as you live.

If he's meant to kill you, he will do it. It is easier to die in the hands of your worst enemy than by a random demon. It's comforting somehow, because then there is a meaning to your death. It's cleaner too.

You are getting ready for him to strike. Your body is locked in a long formed defensive mechanism. You only wish your voice to go away. You don't want to scream. You will not give him that satisfaction. Some said that your stubbornness will kill you someday. Maybe. You only wish today isn't it. You wait for the pain.

It doesn't come.

You glare in wonder at his frozen face and turn just in time to see your mother stand there, her pregnancy with you still concealed, but you know, or hope, it's there. He knows it too.

You consider for a moment if the fact that they are here is making the situation more strange than it already is, or more dangerous. For either of you's.

Then you stop thinking. It really doesn't matter. They are here now and that's a fact. You'll just have to deal with it and survive. Like you always had. You only have to make sure the three of them will be alive when coming back to their time. Preferably, without a clue of who you are. You don't need them to mourn too much about you if something happens, and you always have to be ready for something to occur. They have to be strong for Wyatt. So he won't become the same monster your time conceived.

"Hello, Mother" he says coldly, his figure radiating self control and heart of ice.

"Mother? " you see her pale for a moment, refusing to believe her innocent son had changed so much yet it is as if she were ready for it, as if she already knew.

"Piper" you hurry to introduce her before something bad will happen. You don't know why and what. You simply know that if you don't step in, something nasty will happen. "Meet Wyatt"

They both understand. Piper repeats Wyatt's name over and over like if she says it enough times, he will return to be her baby- innocent and sweet.

Your brother always had a sharp mind. He knows she doesn't know and that you don't want her to know, timeline consequence and crap. From the way his head turns, you realize he will make the most from the situation. If by not knowing the truth she sacrifices one son to save the other, he will take advantage of that. If she chooses to fight both, she won't have a chance.

"Why are you fighting?" she is crying now, and though her tears are stinging your gut, you know you have no choice but to harden your heart and to see her as the same stranger she were in the past months. And though it eats you like acid, you know the only way to numb the pain is to contrast it- base. Apathy. This is the only way for you.

"Go away, Piper. You can't understand" you cry out to her figure, your mind wanting her to go away, not to witness the slaughter. And your failure. "Return to your time. Save Wyatt" and you don't even know if that is what you really want to do, or if that's your testament. Your last will.

"Save me?" Wyatt looks amused. You know what he finds funny. That you still haven't grown up. That you are still caught in the whole saving him scenarios. He thought time would mature you. You know nothing can, you are his younger brother, after all.

You see his face hardening, steel is being molded to his eyes as he locks them in yours so you can see the brutality and hunger in them. The animal hunger for human flesh. Yours.

Knowing your mother's stubbornness, hell, you inherited it; you know there isn't a damn thing you can do to make her go away.

"Come on, Wyatt, let's get this over with" you tell him in an almost triumphal manner, knowing that at least your time of death will be set in your terms, and brace yourself for the strike that will soon come and relieve you from the need to save him.

Then there is a loud noise. And after that- quiet.

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