One More Time - Chapter 10
by shjohnso.
Summary: Future Chris risked his life to save his brother from a fate worse than death—evil. But did it work? Or will he have to do it all over again? This is my take on the events that followed his birth.
Rated PG
Disclaimer—I
don't own charmed, or any of the characters from the show, so don't
sue me because I get no money from this.
Chris paced nervously across the floor of Sheila's living room, trying to come up with a solution. He kept muttering over and over, "I didn't think he would do it. I know he hates me, but I didn't think he would do it."
Leo stopped his son with a gentle touch to his shoulder, relaxing him instantly. "Calm down, Chris. We'll get through this."
"You don't understand, Dad!" Chris told him with a pained expression. "The last time I saw him, he made it a point to remind me that the hunter units were always instructed to pretty much leave me alone. But as of last time, he was rescinding that order—and if they ever caught me again, they were to treat me no differently than the rest of the resistance. He sent them back here to kill me!"
"Chris, you don't know that," his father tried to comfort. "Maybe he knows that there's something going on back here and that his younger self has been kidnapped."
Bright green eyes bore down on Leo's hopefully, "You really think so?"
"Anything is possible. We'll take things as they come along. For now, let's just worry about getting the children back and we'll stay out of the hunter unit's way."
Darryl suddenly looked up in dismay, "You need to get into the attic to scry for them, don't you?"
Paige pulled the athame out of her purse that they had used earlier to wound the demon and answered his question before turning to her friend, "We can do it from here. Do you have a map of the city?"
The taller man glared down at the younger witch suspiciously, "And what about that crystal thing? Don't you need that too? How the hell are we going to get back in there to get it?"
Sheila stared down at her feet guiltily before turning to the girls, "I still have the ones you gave me in the curio cabinet. I'll go and get it." Her husband grabbed her arm as she tried to hurry past him. She turned and scolded him defensively, "What, Darryl? I kept it for emergencies, ok. And it's a good thing I did since now we have an emergency and need to give it to them."
"We wouldn't be having this emergency if it weren't for them!" he yelled back at his wife, ignoring the uncomfortable looks on the others in the room who had made themselves scarce.
Shrugging out of his grasp, Sheila fired back, "If it weren't for them, we'd probably all be dead already with all of the demons that run around this town. They're family, Darryl. You don't turn your back on family just because things get a little difficult for you. Maybe you do, but I DON'T. And I'm certainly not going to raise my children that way. Now get out of my way so I can help them find our kids!"
Looking down shamefully, Darryl silently watched his wife get to work on helping the sisters from his place on the opposite side of the room. It was Chris who noticed his withdrawn behavior and sat down next to him, speaking quietly so that only he could hear. "You know, Uncle Darryl—I know it's hard being a part of all this, part of our extended family, but it does have its good points. For one thing, you're probably safer with us than all of the other innocents out there. And we have some really great family get-togethers." The young man smiled wistfully as he watched the flickering guilt cross the older mans features, "I think the picnics on the fourth of July are usually the best. You know, you've been my Godfather since the day I was born, and honestly—I couldn't ask for a better one. And I couldn't imagine growing up without you both in my life. Besides, I think I needed some discipline in my life and they're all pushovers. One bat of my eyes and they let me get away with anything. You're the only one who ever busted my butt for getting into trouble."
Darryl only replied by shaking his head and laughing quietly, thinking over the young man's words.
On the other side of the room, Paige was frustratingly trying to scry for the creature before finally dropping it disgustedly. Phoebe picked it up, "Here let me try." Moments later with no luck of her own, she handed off the crystal to her oldest sister.
Piper only got the same results before yanking her hair back in frustration. "Damn it! We already knew where he's been. I want to know where he is now." She looked to her son to try his luck, who walked over to her a bit calmer than she and her sisters were.
He held the crystal over the map, narrowing his eyes curiously as the pointer continually landed on Sheila and Darryl's house.
Piper grunted, "See, this is useless."
Chris stared at his Godfather inquisitively, "Maybe not."
The man shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, "Why are you looking at me? I certainly didn't have anything to do with my own son's kidnapping!"
"I think that's where you may be wrong. Where we're going wrong. Think about it guys—this creature is from the future, we're pretty sure of that much. It's humanoid in form, and it pretty much hates our guts. It's definitely not in the house now. And we know we're using it's blood to scry for it, so there's no reason why it would keep coming back to the house since scrying only finds the current location of the blood's owner."
"So you're thinking that Darryl—"
Chris finished for his father, "May be the creature we're looking for."
The man in question jumped up in outrage, "WHAT! This is ridiculous. I'm human. There's nothing wrong with me!"
Chris quickly amended, "Not you right now. But the you from the future. When I went back, Wyatt told me that you and your family had been killed by accident by the Hunter Units, but then some of the resistance told me that they weren't sure what had happened to you. Only that you were suicidal when you went looking for Wyatt."
"By accident huh? Well if I was turned into this thing, then it must have been Wyatt's fault! See, I told you nothing good can come out of any of this!"
"Only in the bad future, Uncle Darryl. We're going to change it. But even in the bad one, Wyatt always held you and your family under his protection—even gave you a mansion in his complex to live in. The Hunter Units sometimes make mistakes, so it's possible that Wyatt didn't do it on purpose."
"Oh yeah, but you were so convinced just a little while ago that he had sent those things after his own brother. So what would make us any different?"
Chris stood there staring with his mouth gaping open, unable to counter the man's accusations since he himself had many of the same doubts.
Piper stood in between the two, her arms automatically wrapping around her son protectively. "Look Darryl, we don't have time to fight amongst ourselves right now. If that creature is you from the future, then you have to go with Paige somewhere far from here—at least for the moment until we can get a lock on that thing. Scrying will never work with you being in the same vicinity if you both have the same DNA. We'll bring you back once we find them. Paige?"
Nodding succinctly, Paige immediately placed her hands on the protesting man's arms and orbed them to another part of the world.
"Now let's try this again," Piper stated firmly.
Everyone present watched the crystal swirling around the map intensely, waiting for it to drop and confirm their suspicions. When it finally landed on a section in the warehouse district, Piper murmured, "Got'cha" before she looked up smiling proudly at her son.
Warehouse district…Meeting up with Paige and Darryl outside of the newly found location, Chris and the Charmed Ones stalked over to one of the windows to look inside.
Paige wanted to verify, "You left Sheila and Leo at home with the baby, right?"
"Of course. Maybe you should take Darryl home before any of this goes down too," the Eldest Charmed One answered.
Darryl pulled out his gun, checked the clip and shook his head adamantly. "Absolutely not. If my son is in there, I'm going to get him back and there's no way you're going to convince me to stay outside."
"Alright. Just keep your head down. And don't face off with yourself. He's a whole lot stronger and he probably won't recognize you. Just focus on getting Robbie, and we'll take care of the rest."
Phoebe was perched up on a crate trying to get a better look inside when she suddenly spotted movement in one of the corners. "There!" she pointed out in a hushed whisper. "There's someone else inside, and it's not just creature Darryl."
Chris climbed up next to her to see what she was referring to. He pushed her head down and ducked himself when the man spun around, but not too quickly that he couldn't see his face. "Renat."
Piper raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Ren-what?"
"Renat. He's Wyatt's right hand man. I know he hates Wyatt, and was always secretly trying to overthrow him. He even worked with the resistance a few times just so that Wyatt wouldn't have the upper hand. He must of set this all up—to find a way to get rid of him before he could take over. Maybe that's why Wyatt is here."
"How powerful is he?"
"Extremely. That's why he's Wyatt's right hand man."
Piper frowned. "Then this changes the plan a bit. I think we're only going to get one shot at this, so we're going to have to split up. We'll probably need the Power of Three to vanquish him, so we'll go after him. Chris, Darryl—I hate to say this, but you two will have to take Creature Darryl. Just throw the potion to make him visible and keep him occupied, and then after we've vanquished Renat, we'll use the spell to send him back and grab the boys. Do that fire thing…"
"You got it, Mom."
Inside…Renat cursed out loud to the sound of orbing, not the sound of dozens of marching feet that he wanted to hear. Directly in front of him, he fired off several fireballs at the retreating witches, all the while ducking and moving to avoid the blasts from the eldest one's hands and the objects that the youngest one kept throwing his way.
At the sound of the commotion going on in the center of the room, both boys awoke startled and backed into the corner further, shrinking away from the roaring creature that now advanced on them.
Behind him, Chris listened for the sound of the roar while he tried to follow the boy's eyes. Taking his best aim, he threw one of he potion bottles he carried and jumped excitedly when the liquid hit its mark. Now he had something to work with as he focused his telekinetic fire power on the creature.
The creature Darryl spun around angrily at the intruder, slicing at him viciously until he fell backward, knocking him unconscious before getting the chance to use his powers. With its arms raised to strike the prone form, the creature was barely phased when a succession of bullets tore into its leathery body. Turning toward the distraction, it extended its claws again at the man firing the gun. The creature growled in satisfaction as the man fell to the floor, a deep gash across his arm as the weapon skidded across the floor.
With both men temporarily out of the way, the creature Darryl spun around again in the direction of the crying children. Somewhere deep inside of him, he recognized the older one as his own, but the other, he recognized as the source of all his problems. A blinding rage overcame the creature as he charged for the toddler, pushing his son out of the way to get to him.
Meanwhile in the center of the room…The Charmed Ones were growing weary from their battle. He wouldn't stay frozen long enough for the three to finish the Power of Three spell. The sound of shimmering all around them made the women turn in surprise.
Renat was sure he could command the newcomer with the magical implant he inserted in the child version of his former leader. He demanded, "Nice to see you again, Wyatt. Now kill them."
"I don't take orders from you, traitor. That's right. I've already deactivated your little tracer, Renat."
Piper heard the man speak behind her, the voice sounding much like her husband. She turned, almost afraid of what she would see. The prospect of facing her evil son didn't appeal to her in the slightest bit. The coldness in his steel blue eyes even made her shudder a bit.
Wyatt strolled closer to his former second in command, grinning at the demon's discomfort. "I'm so glad you—requested—that I bring the Hunter Units. Now I don't have to get my hands dirty. You know what they do to traitors…" He warned his mother and aunts with wry grin, "I'd back up if I were you."
As the Charmed Ones retreated, the swarm of Hunter Units closed in on Renat, most powering up a host of fire and energy balls, while some even conjured a variety of knives and other torturous looking weapons. The women turned their heads to the terrified screams of the demon, his death more brutal than anything they could have come up with.
As the last of the echoing screams faded from earshot, the Charmed Sisters raced over to help Chris.
Chris closed his eyes for a second, silently begging his Uncle for forgiveness of what he was about to do. Extending his hands toward the creature that held his toddler brother in its grip and prepared to end the child's life with its massive claws, he focused his telekinetic fire on his future uncle. As the flames erupted from the creature, it dropped the boy to the floor unceremoniously and howled in pain. Still, Chris did not stop until the creature was a pile of ash on the floor of the warehouse.
With the child crying so hysterically, Chris walked over and scooped him up, cradling his head to his chest and whispering in hushed tones to the boy. "Shhh. You're ok, buddy. I'm not going to let anything hurt you ever again. I promise." He rocked him gently as the child gripped onto his neck tightly, unwilling to let go. 'This is a good sign', he thought to himself. He looked up to the sound of the footsteps approaching, only to find his mother, aunts, and a very irritated looking older brother with an entourage of demons following close behind.
A feeling of dread loomed over him and he grew steadily more nervous as they approached, afraid of what Wyatt might do when he got his hands on him. Within a few feet from him, his older brother began to change in appearance mid stride. The dark attire he wore quickly faded to light colored clothing; his unruly hair smoothed out and grew shorter and groomed. Behind him, the Hunter Unit demons simply vanished into thin air.
Paige commented in shock, "What's going on? What just happened?"
In amazement, Chris eyed the mop of curly blonde hair that nuzzled into his shoulder. By his older brother's sudden change in appearance along with the mysteriously vanishing Hunter Units, he quickly surmised that the future had changed. He had done it. Finally. He smiled in relief, stroking the soft blonde locks to comfort the child, "We did it. He saw that he could depend on someone beside himself for protection. He trusts me again now. I think everything's going to be ok now. And I didn't even have to get myself killed this time."
Wyatt looked around in confusion, "Mom? You look so young? Wait—what just happened? Where are we?"
Before Piper could answer, Chris jumped in and asked his brother hesitantly, "Um—Wyatt? You don't' have the urge to say, throw an energy ball at me, do you?"
Wyatt gave him a most curious expression, wrinkling his nose before responding. "Why would I want to do a goofy thing like that? Chris, what's wrong you, man?"
A large toothy grin spread across the young man's face as he spoke more confidently this time. "Ok. Now I'm sure everything is going to be ok. He would have never uttered the word, 'goofy' before and let anyone live to tell about it."
Wyatt shook his head at the strange ramblings, still not understanding. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted his uncle lying on the floor struggling to get up. The angry red slashes on the man's arm made him hurry to his side. Extending his hands over the wound, Wyatt asked him, "Uncle Darryl! Are you ok?"
The older man was still in shock after seeing his future self get vanquished. He never thought that he would be capable of hurting an innocent—let alone a defenseless child. Yet his future-self-turned-demonic-creature attempted to do just that. That creature was blinded by anger and hatred, and that was something he never wanted to go through.
He was drawn out of his reverie by the gentle tussle on his arm. He looked up into the concerned blue eyes of his first godchild as the man hovered over him anxiously.
It was in that moment that Darryl realized that he had to let go of his anger toward the Halliwells. He heard his wife's voice echoing in his mind, 'They're family, Darryl. You don't turn your back on family just because things get a little difficult for you.' Sure, things had gotten a bit crazy lately, but he remembered that he had always been able to count on the Halliwell family. And none of them had ever intentionally caused him any harm. He had just gotten caught up in something that they had no control over. But when push came to shove, they were decent, honorable people that he genuinely liked. People that he was actually proud to call friends.
With that thought in mind, Darryl offered a warm smile to the young blonde man helping him up. He spun around suddenly in search of his son. "Robbie?" he called out before racing to the boy crouched under a table. "Come out of there, Robbie—it's ok now. It's all over…" He slowly coaxed the boy out, checking him for injuries and hugging him tightly.
"I'm fine Dad," Robbie said trying to pull away, a little embarrassed by his father's affection. "Can we go home now?"
Darryl looked to the others, all silently agreeing before linking hands to orb home, "I think that's a great idea, son."
Back in the Halliwell Attic…Wyatt sat listening with rapt attention to his younger brother explaining where they were, leaving out many of the details of his brother's alter ego. He looked stunned, "So…I was evil?"
"The key word is WAS, Wy. You're not now. So it's time to go back and see what kind of future we've made for ourselves."
Sounding a little unsure of himself, Wyatt voiced a simple, "Ok." He rose to his feet slowly before saying his goodbyes to the younger versions of his family members.
As the portal began to glow, Piper found it difficult to let go of either of her adult sons. "Are you sure you have to go now?" she asked pleadingly.
Christopher planted a gentle kiss on her cheek before taking her hand. "Don't worry, Mom. We'll be ok. If things are good, I'll make sure I send you a message back. Just to let you know we're ok. I promise." He turned to look at his brother, who stared back at him just as hesitantly as he felt.
Taking a deep breath, Wyatt playfully punched his brother in the arm before walking into the portal side by side.
TBC…