The path narrowed, winding through the thick wood, to a crossroads. He pondered the decision, wondering which would be the wiser choice. The trail to the right could lead to safety and the freedom he longed for, for so very long. The left could lead to imminent death, the one thing he had been fighting. To some the choice of which road to take would be trivial, but to him it was crucial.

Deciding to follow his gut, he ran with a fast pace down the trail on the right, hoping that he had made the right decision. As he made his way to a clearing he saw a specter hovering before him. He couldn't make out the face, but the misty ghost seemed familiar in some odd way.

"Look past appearance, see what's really there." the voice rang out, sounding distant. The familiarity frightened him, but Chris just stared at her all the same.

As the spirit faded from existance, a new person appeared before him and his heart stopped in his chest. As the dark orbs disappeared the visage of Wyatt Halliwell appeared, with a smile that gloated. He had been dreading this moment ever since the day his brother had turned to evil.

Wyatt didn't say anything, just tossed a high voltage energy ball at him.

"I should've taken the one on the left."

Chris awoke from the nightmare drenched in sweat. He had been having weird dreams like this for the last six years, and he hated them more and more every night. His head throbbed, like always, a side affect of the mental trauma he suffered during his dreams. As if he didn't have enough to deal with, without painful nightmares plaguing his dreams. He couldn't even escape his brother's wrath when he slept.

He pulled the covers off of himself and got out of his bed. When he got into the bathroom, he turned on the sink and made sure the water was cold. Like every night, he opened the sink mirror and pulled out the small bottle of extra strength aspirin, and filled up his cup with the water from the sink. He pulled off the cap, after some struggle, and cursed the people who invented child-proof caps. Popping the pills into his mouth, he took a gulp of water and swallowed. Knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep now, he walked into the living room and flipped on the television.

Despite all that was going on in the city, people still managed to broadcast news and televisioin shows. Chris figured this was mostly because Wyatt wanted people to see the damage he caused and the havok he wrecked. It was sickening, and even more so when a story about one of his brother's latest raids appeared on the screen. He listened to the newswoman as she told about how the women had been brutually murdered, her body found with multiple burns. From what it looked like, Wyatt hadn't committed the murder, but one of his assassins had.

Chris' late night television watching was interrupted as a swirl of bright orbs entered the room, revealing his uncle Kyle. The whitelighter smiled slightly, almost hiding the sad expression that usually adorned his grievesticken face. His uncle hadn't been the same ever since aunt Paige had been killed, but even so he stilled remained to support Chris. Leo had been murdered by a darklighter, protecting Chris, five and half years prior. It still amazed him that, being the only adult in the family that survived, that his uncle still went on everyday.

"Have another nightmare?" Kyle asked with caring eyes.

"Of course, it must be becoming quite the routine. You've been coming the same time every night." answered Chris with a slight smile. He tried to look stronger than he actually was.

"Yeah, I've been trying to find a way to help you with the dreams but so far I've come up short." said Kyle, "I have some bad news though."

"Oh great. Just when I thought I might get some time off." joked Chris.

"The Mantecore that I bribed to give us information was vanquished earlier this evening. My source told me that he thinks it was a woman, no doubt one of the assassins Wyatt has, so we should probably check it out." said Kyle with a sigh as he told him the bad news.

"Okay, let me get dressed." Chris told him before standing up and walking into his bedroom to change his clothes.

Moments later, he walked back into the room wearing a navy blue longsleeve shirt and khaki pants, and stood waiting for instructions on what he should do.

"We should probably call a meeting and check in with the other witches, tell them to be alert and not the leave the hidden areas for a couple days." suggested Kyle thinking that was the best way to start.

Chris walked over to his telephone, the reciever was handing on the wall, and picked up the small handset. He dialed 555, for an all-call. "Everyone please go the Meeting Hall." he said before hanging up. He pulled a piece of brown hair out of his eyes.

"Meet you there." said Kyle as he orbed out.

Chris did the same.

Appearing in the meeting hall, Chris watched as a few witches walked in. They all looked at exhausted and he felt guilty for waking them all up, but knew that they would want to know about anything that concerned their safety. The meeting hall was a building in the center of the small neighborhood and everyone had been there enough to know where it was.

Chris' best friend, Kendal, walked into the hall yawning loudly. She slowly walked to his side, her long brown hair swept up in a ponytail. She was clad in flanel pants and a teeshirt. "What's going on?" she asked him, before yawning once again.

"The Mantecore was vanquished yesterday, so obviously Wyatt has been second guessing a lot of our moves. We just wanted to warn everyone, keep them alert." he explained to her with a sigh.

Kendal nodded. "Oh, are you gonna go check it out?" she asked.

The two of them had been friends since preschool, and her kindness never ceased to amaze him. Kendal was always there for Chris, no matter what was going on. Her father had been killed by Wyatt and her mother by one of his assassins. Kendal had dealt with a lot of pain in her life yet she still supported Chris. She was such a kind person, and would never let anything happen to her. She was the one person that he could really talk to, and Chris was glad to have her as a best friend.

"Yeah, you wanna come with me?" asked Chris with a raised eyebrow.

Kendal nodded again, stifling a yawn."Sure, just let me get a shot of expresso and change first." she told him with a smile.

"Okay, I have to tell everyone else what's going on anyways so you can go and I'll pick you up in a few minutes." he said as he turned to the crowd of witches in front of him and looked upon their tired faces.

Kendal turned on her heel and walked out of the room, toward her house.

Chris turned to the gathering witches, feeling guilty. Though he was getting used to bringing the burden of bad news, he still hated seeing their faces when he told about it. They were getting better at accepting the hardships, but that was mostly because a lot of them had given up on hope and were just waiting until the day that Wyatt finally found the hidden homes. It pained him to see people like this, but he was the leader and that was just something that came with it.

"The Mantecore that Kyle bribed was vanquished yesterday." the Halliwell said, looking upon the many tired faces in the hall.

Looks of dismay and worry were exchanged between the fellow witches before anyone spoke up. "What're we going to do now?" a man in the front of the crowd questioned.

"Kendal, Kyle and I are going to check it out. We'll see if we can get any leads on which assassin did this and hopefully get some information on Wyatt's next move in the process." replied Chris, he was used to answering all sorts of different questions now.

"You best be going then dear, be careful." cooed an elderly witch in the back. She was a kind lady, she made Chris and Kendal cookies quite frequently, and he was glad that she was still doing well.

"Okay, meeting adjourned." said Chris.

The burn ached, hours later, as she shimmered into the underworld. Wyatt had really changed the place to suit his taste, that was for sure. Bright torches hung on the cavewall, with the image of Wyatt killing the former Source playing inside the flames. He had fused the world's evergrowing technology with magic and some of the things he had created were awesome.

Bianca walked comfortably, as a good magic sensing maching scanned her, another one of Wyatt's great inventions. She was used to it by now, which was something that did not please her. The assassin was disgusted with herself, to tell the truth, and couldn't stand looking in the mirror in the morning. Knowing what she had become sickened her, though she had no choice in the matter, Wyatt was unstoppable. It didn't help either that she was his favorite. He often hit on her, flirted with her, though she resisted his sexual come-ons. No matter how low she considered herself, she would never stoop to that level.

Coming up to the large gleaming doors to Wyatt's chamber, Bianca stopped and glared at the guards, who looked at her their arms folded across their chest in defiance. She placed her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrow at the naive demons in front of her.

"Do we have to go through this everyday?" she asked rudely conjuring an athame that she twirled carelessly in her hand.

"Password." the bigger of the two said not letting up.

"Dying children." mumbled Bianca in disgust. The guards smiled and moved aside. They knew that the password bothered her and they took pleasure in hearing her say everytime she had to report back to Wyatt.

Eyeing them, Bianca stepped through the theateral doors and into the large chamber.

The Twice Blessed Source stood, gazing into a large crystal wall, showing glimpses of the city. Yet another magical invention. He turned, grinning, as he sensed her enter the room.

"Bianca, I do have to say, I'm surprised." said Wyatt still grinning. "Going up against a Mantecore and coming back unscathed is quite the challenge."

"Whatever, give me my money." snapped Bianca with distaste.

"Don't talk to me like that. You'll get your money...and a promotion." he told her.

"What?" asked Bianca, not liking where this was going.

"I have a new job for you...one that only you can do." he said. He waited a moment and she didn't say anything, so he continued. "My brother. I need to hurt him, and you're just the person who can help me do that. I want you to make him fall in love with you, and then I want to betray him. I want you to break his heart."

"Screw you!" she spat.

"Well, its either that or another job. A human I need killed." Wyatt said knowing this would get her. "Remeber your first kill...I do."

His shape changed, molding him into the form of a small middle aged woman. "No! Please, I have a daughter! No, no, no!" he screamed.

Bianca lowered her head, remeber the day in clear detail, and hating herself. She had vowed that day to never kill again."Stop!" she shouted.

Wyatt changed back to himself. "So, we have a deal?"

"Fine."