WARNING: This chapter has some very violent actions.
A panicked orb often meant a messy landing. This time was no different; Chris landed on top of his Mother's end table, and crashed to the floor. Piper jumped up and ran to her son's aid. She stroked his head and tied to mother his wounds - which had obviously not been from the landing. All while Leo healed his son's bumps and bruises. His aunts and cousins came running into the room, shocked and worried at Chris' status.
"What the hell happened?!" Shiri blurted out, then looking to her mother, she covered her mouth quickly.
Phoebe, trying to ignore her daughter's distressed language; she took her own turn asking questions. "What did this to you?" Assuming it was a demon.
Chris couldn't bare this. His family just wanted him to say that it was a demon, some evil creature that had crossed his path. His Mother looked at him longing for an answer that didn't involve her eldest child. Chris wanted her to be happy. He wanted her to feel loved and to know just how well she'd raised them. If he was to tell her that her beloved oldest son was literally crazy with love and hell bent of destroying both good and evil – she would be destroyed. The whole family would fall to pieces. He wouldn't allow Wyatt's selfish actions to ruin his family. If he was destined to go to the future and stop him, then maybe that's what he'd have to do.
"I don't know." Chris said at last, unable to speak the truth. "It attacked me from behind." He explained, with a slight hesitation.
Leo sensed his son was hiding something, but knew not to press him. "Don't worry, we'll look into it." He assured Chris, patting him on the back.
Paige watched her nephew go upstairs, and ushered her daughter, and Shiri with Victor to follow him, and told them to do their homework. Then she turned her back and sighed deeply. She looked at her sisters. They had vanquished thousands of demons, destroyed a total of six sources, some more powerful than anything the world had ever known. They had managed to survive it all – but this – something about this was wrong. It felt dirty, like a betrayal. She didn't know for sure, but she just knew that something about this was connected to Wyatt, and she feared that this time, was the time that Wyatt would fall from grace.
Looking back through the years, her sons had all been wondrous children, full of spirit, joy and goodness. Piper had been blessed with sons beyond any measure of what she could have hoped for. She and Leo had managed to raise them together, to stay in love and stay true to what they had promised one another. Yet, as she thought back to the days when her children were growing up, she remembered times when Wyatt would be enraged, beyond reason.
One such episode of rage was when Wyatt was only six years old. It was Chris' fifth birthday and Victor was still safely within his mother's womb – almost ready to be born. Wyatt had been acting normally all day, with nothing to key the family into a problem that might appear. Chris was being sung to, and he was about to blow out his candles when all the lights went out. At first Piper had thought it was a mere shortage, but she soon realized that the lights had gone out all over the neighborhood. Still, they didn't know what had caused it. Again, trying not to ruin their son's big day, Piper lit his candles and started the birthday song all over again. Once more, right as Chris was about to blow out his candles, something odd happened. This time, it was obvious who was behind the strange occurrence. When Chris went to blow out his candles, Wyatt telekinetically orbed his cake from the table, and dropped it from the stairs. He then started to smash toys, and ruin presents. By this time, Chris had begun to cry, he couldn't understand why his big brother would be so mean. Frankly, neither could anyone. When asked about why he would hurt his brother's feelings like that, Wyatt refused to answer, stating only that he hated him for his love. Confused by his answer, Leo had tried to explain that love was not something to hate, but Wyatt would not talk about it. Piper now believed that Wyatt didn't hate Chris because of his love, but instead he hated him for the love the family bestowed upon him. Piper realized that the trauma of loosing Chris when he was an adult had caused them to shower him with affection, especially in the early days. Perhaps in giving Chris their attention, Wyatt's child eyes could not see that they loved him just as much. The guilt washed over Piper. She felt like a horrible mother!
Sighing, Paige sat down across from her sisters and Leo. "You guys might not want to hear this."
"Not now Paige." Piper was ridden with guilt and sorrow.
Phoebe shook her head. "I know, but they need to hear this..." She muttered just loud enough for them to hear her.
"Thanks for reading my mind Phoebes, but would you mind not sharing them with the class!" Paige protested.
Blushing, Phoebe nodded. "Oops, sorry."
"What do we need to hear?" Leo asked, sheepishly.
Paige crossed her arms. "I think this has to do with Wyatt. I don't know what, but... there is something."
Phoebe closed her eyes, trying to use her powers to sense her nephew and possibly even read his mind. However, nothing came of it – as usual. She'd never been powerful enough to read Wyatt.
Leo too closed his eyes and waited. He sensed his son was physically ok, but got nothing from him other than that. He opened his eyes, and Piper knew immediately that something was wrong.
"Maybe I should go back in time and change this..." Piper ventured.
Leo took his wife's arm. "No. We all know too well the repercussions of time travel."
Phoebe sighed. "Maybe just enough to find out where he went..." She suggested.
Paige disagreed. "Any alteration in the time line could cause things to get worse."
"Well, then what should we do? I can't just sit here!" She began to raise her voice.
"I hate to admit it, but if we don't go back, how are we supposed to find Wyatt?" Phoebe asked them.
As if on cue, a thunderous swarm of blue and white orbs flooded the room. In a wave of orbs and thunder Wyatt appeared, with Excalibur in hand. His face had changed. He'd become empty to look at, almost soulless. Piper shuddered, that was not her son. But it was.
"Wyatt!" Piper ran to hug him out of instinct.
He pushed her away and drew his sword. "Stay where you are!" He took a breath. "I am here to rewrite the universe! Good and Evil will no longer exist. All that will exist is power!" He raged.
Leo motioned to take the sword from his son. Before he could manage the feet, Wyatt used a wave of energy to slam his father into the couch, letting him tumble over the furniture and hit the floor behind. Piper motioned the freeze him, her power did nothing to him, but aggravate him to the point of total rage. She too was swept into his powerful wave of energy and settled beside her husband on the floor. Frantic to keep Wyatt from escaping, Paige tried to mentally orb crystals around Wyatt, but he anticipated her act and quickly orbed the crystals around them instead. Laughing at their crisis, he sat on the couch and watched Paige and Phoebe tended to his parents. Carelessly he began to clean his sword.
Hearing the commotion, Chris, Shiri, Ryan and even Victor came running downstairs to find Wyatt watching over the other's with a cruel, evil glare. Chris silently orbed in behind Wyatt and then used telekinesis to scoot one of the crystals away from the circle. Startled by the sudden motion, Wyatt spun around to find his brother ruining his fun – yet again.
"Stop this!" Wyatt whined. "You always take everything. You've ruined my life, but you're not going to take this!" He cried, and locked all of the kids in a barrier, forcing them to watch as he moved to his next phase.
Piper was unconscious, as was Leo. Phoebe and Paige were not however. Chris violently threw himself at the barrier as Wyatt stalked ever so close to his parents. Then, taking their mother by the throat he caressed her face and brushed the hair out of her face. For just a moment, he was himself – loving and sweet to his mother. Then, in a split second, as if someone else was deciding his will – he snapped back into his lunatic persona and began to grip his mother with hatred, not love. Chris knew this wasn't Wyatt, something was wrong, Wyatt may have his wild rampages sometimes, every teen did, but this was different. Maybe it was the sword, he over head Mom retelling how it changed her back in the day – maybe Wyatt wasn't as strong as he thought.
"You gave me life, but you couldn't give me love." Wyatt muttered, then violently snapped Piper's neck.
Her head swung to the left, beyond it natural reach. Her body relaxed, and when Wyatt let her go, she hit the floor with a cold thud. All of the children began to cry, Phoebe and Paige sobbed without control as Wyatt turned to his brothers next.
"Wyatt what have you done?" Phoebe cried; her body shaking as she touched Piper's cheek.
Wyatt smiled without emotion. "What I have to." He then orbed out.
As he left, the kids were released from their cage and ran to find Leo just barely waking up, and Piper lying motionless on the ground.
He orbed back into Amy's home. She rose to greet her boyfriend with great joy. Wrapping her arms around him lovingly, she kissed him.
"How did it go?" She asked.
Wyatt smiled back at her. "Just like you wanted."
"Next time you need to get rid of the competition – that means your brothers have to go." She said blankly.
Wyatt nodded, completely smitten by her, and totally under her will. "I agree."
He began to awake to the sound of crying, shrieking and screaming. His head pounded but he managed to sit up. As his eyes focused on the scene before him, he realized that it had been Phoebe, Paige and all of the kids crying and making noise. He looked down to his side and found Piper lying beside him, obviously dead. Her neck was snapped, her head was lying at an angel that was not natural, and quite gruesome to look at. Her eyes were shut, and relaxed, indicating that she died in her sleep – or rather – when she was unconscious like him. Did Wyatt do this? The thought sent a mixture of emotions, rage and sorrow, disappointment and terror. It was a swirl of crazy thoughts that made him want to hurl.
"Piper?" Tears began to well up at his eyes. "No... wait. We were supposed to be forever." He begged quietly, his tears hitting her face.
"Can you fix this?" Paige cried.
Victor ran to his mother and shook her, as if to wake her up. "Mommy? Mommy?"
"I will, I have to." Leo was determined.
He closed his eyes and let his hands hover over her neck. Everyone held their breath, watching as Leo prayed that the powers within him would grant him this miracle.