In the distance there was the wailing of a baby crying in the still night. The cold was settling into the brick walls of the small church and there was a slight stillness to the place that didn't usually exist except for times like these when at war. It was hard to close your eyes at night and pretend to be in paradise or to be at peace. You were lucky to even get a good nights rest with the things that went on there.

"Trouble sleeping?" a calm voice and soft voice he'd become familiar with in a such a short time asked from behind him.

Chris peered up over his white pillows with half open jade green eyes to see her standing in the doorway. Her body was holding shadows of darkness inside the golden light from the hallway.

He was surprised to see her so soon after the last outbreak with Phoebe. His Aunt had really went off the deep end this time. She had started repeating lines from Alice In Wonderland as she'd giggled the whole time and then she had started to hit herself in the face as she screamed about something coming. It had taken three of his men to hold her back from hurting herself further. Now, she was in her little room that they had basically baby proofed so that she wouldn't harm herself.

He couldn't stop thinking about the look in her pale brown eyes when it had happened. It was so blank and yet so intense. He didn't know what to do. He didn't; know what to do with her now. He knew Phoebe was breaking down faster then he had expected and she was a weak link. He knew that in order to survive she had to go before she did worse. He couldn't let his men watch over her in twenty-four hour sessions when they were needed for everyone's security outside the church.

Which had brought up the cold hard fact that he couldn't just drop her off at some other church or asylum so that someone else could take her in. She had magic and they would hurt her for. Besides, real churches and asylums didn't exist anymore. The very idea of killing her to put her out of her misery and make it easier on everyone else had just come to him in the last few minutes of sleeplessness, and in those last few minutes he had started to sell the idea to himself more and more.

Then, she had appeared in the doorway blocking his light and entering his world all over again.

She always came to him when he needed her. Whenever he was half crazed with endless unanswerable questions and not knowing how to handle life anymore… whenever anything looked so bleak that he didn't believe there was any way to win… It was times like those that she came to him.

She would appear like a phantom who could read his chaotic mind and she would sit with him. Her hands sometimes over his as she reassured him that hope was the best peace of mind anyone could ever ask for. Sometimes she would hold him after the infinite nightmares that always woke him back to the existence he was living in in this dark world.

He could cry with her. No one else could see him weak. Not even for a moment. He was the leader now. He had to be strong no matter what happened and no matter how it happened. He had to have a plan, he had to be prepared for anything, and he had to give people the strength to still keep living day in and day out when he didn't even think he could do it himself.

It was times like those that she would come to him. Appearing like a fallen angel at his side, her hazel eyes that often changed colors depending on her moods would be filled with some much sadness as well as compassion. She knew everything he did, she had all his memories, and she could feel everything he did. She was connected to him more then anyone had or ever would be, and she had been given to him by the Elders whether he liked it or not. Which he did at night when he could be alone with her and she could give him her strength to go on.

Chris shook his heavy head slightly as he tried to ignore her by pretending he was merely asleep and closed his eyes pretending to snore as if that would draw her away from him.

"I'm pure not stupid." she replied to his pathetic snoring noises and then she came to his bed side and sat on the edge of it. Her leg curled beneath her as she lifted an used pillow from beside his head and whacked him lightly in the head with it.

Chris turned onto his back to watch her. His eyes fully open now. The light poured smoothly over her like moonlight pouring onto a rare opal. Her pale skin glistened in the warm glow of the hall light as her wet reddish orange hair fell down her shoulders. Her pale eyes falling over his as she gave him a rare smile and raised her eyebrow at him.

"You don't have to say anything." she told him softly as she played her hands over his tousled brown hair.

He knew that. He knew a lot of things he didn't want to. He had lived many things he hadn't wanted to and now he wanted to scream about it. When she had first came to him he had been willing to just stay quiet and just relish the thought that he wasn't alone anymore because he had her with him.

He knew too well though that nothing was forever. Everything was temporary and he wasn't going to let her get into his heart anymore then he would his Aunt's recent attacks on herself. He was just willing to pretend he was someone else for five minutes while some beautiful girl he barely knew much about but knew everything about him sat beside him on the bed. His own little angel there for him and only him.

He wished he could stay in this little dream world that he had concocted but he couldn't.

But he couldn't handle it anymore. He felt it coming as it boiled to the surface. He knew she was the only one who would understand. So he let it out. He let it all explode out of his mouth just as she quickly jumped off of the bed and closed the door to the silent hallway where anyone could hear what he was about to say.

"I can't believe this!. I just can't believe this is happening to me. What did I ever do to deserve any of this? First, mom dies then dad basically says 'screw you' in less then two words by just going 'up there' to be around them. He never listened to me when he could have and look what happened! 'No, Chris you're wrong'. 'Chris stop being so jealous of your brother he can't help being twice blessed'. 'Chris, what you are saying is blasphemy'. That's all he ever said to me when he actually realized I was even there. Then, mom dies. Paige too. Then Phoebe goes completely insane cause she can't take everything. Who has to deal with any of this? Me! I have to deal with it. I have to deal with it alone. Wyatt doesn't care. He's too busy ruling the world and making the world hell on earth. Then, I'm stuck here barely surviving it all. Dad's 'up there' playing freaking Elder like he actually does anything. He's lucky Wyatt didn't kill him…" Chris yelled. The words just torn themselves through him as he tried to keep calm. The longer he tired to keep calm though the worse it got. His voice went from regular to a yell in a matter of seconds as he jabbed his hand up at the sky as if in accusation.

Before he knew anything else, she came from beside the door. Her hand ran smoothly down his forehead to his temples to his cheek and as it did calm ran into his sore body. Her touch was as intoxicating as water would be to a dehydrated victim. Her eyes were now the color of the blue sky at dawn as she took a deep breath and pulled her hand slowly away from his face.

For a moment, he felt completely stupefied. He was just staring at her like she was from another world and he didn't know what to do or say to her. She was from another world altogether though. For as much as he hated his father for placing him in this position of fighting his own brother, the source of all evil, he had to be thankful just for her. She was the only one keeping him sane.

Her small hand fell onto his and she lead him back to the bed. Well, the bed was more like a lumpy cot. They had found an old abandoned church that he had found favorable for his little rebel base. Chris knew that Wyatt hated anything religious so he knew he wouldn't look for him there. There was that fact and the fact that it was a part of town that Wyatt's gang had been in too many times to care about overlooking it anymore. Basically, Chris was in Wyatt's backyard and his brother didn't even know it. So he hoped that it was an ingenious idea for him being there at that moment then a stupid idea that would come back and bite him in the ass later.

Well, he hoped. Unless, of course, Wyatt was just letting him stay there to keep his hopes up since he thought he was the biggest bad the world had ever seen.

"What a way of saying nothing at all." she joked lightly.

"I can't do this forever." he replied. "I can't be at war with my brother. I can't."

"I know." she agreed. "Somehow one of you has to end it."

"One of us will have to die for that to happen." Chris spit out angrily. His jade green eyes burned in frustration as well as hot jarring tears that didn't fall as he looked into the distance.

She didn't disagree or agree with him. She merely stayed quiet. "You're exhausted. Chris, when did you sleep last?"

"It doesn't matter."

Days, maybe a week. He replied to her quietly, but he didn't feel like her mothering him at the moment. So, instead of replying he just ignored her question as he tried to push her away from him.

"Don't." she replied.

"It doesn't matter. Don't you get it.. It never did. It never does in the end."

"Everything matters or we wouldn't be here." she whispered.

He shook his head stubbornly. She knew his mood had slackened into depression. It always did when he hadn't had enough sleep and the midnight hours were upon him. She did the last thing that he expected her to do. She threw him down on the cot and sat over top of him as she straddled him in place. Looking down at his surprised, but barely feeling jade eyes she leaned down to him and kissed him lightly on the forehead letting the world into him.

It was the only way she knew she could get her point across.

She was connected instantly with his third eye. Before he knew what was happening she ad sent him an array of pictures of people who he had saved. Children who were with their parents. A child who's father he had returned to him. A pair of sisters that were alive and married to their true loves. Anything and everything she could give him to help him realize what he was doing was good she threw at him.

"I hope you're right," he whispered as the images ended.

As he whispered to her, she felt something hard sweep over her like a cold steel blade running over her own throat as if in foreshadow of battle yet to come. For the first time, she felt fear.