Love and Fear

Chapter 7: The bound is broken

"How's Chris?" Phoebe asked her older sister when she saw her walking into the attic.

"Better" Piper answered simply. Though her son really seemed to be feeling better, she had the annoying feeling that something was going to happen. Something really bad.

"That doesn't sound very convincing" Paige said, noticing her sister's distress.

Piper sighed and decided to ignore her. Instead she asked "Did you already find something?"

Phoebe nodded. "Yeah, we can use the spell we've used to vanquish the source, but we also need this potion" she said, holding up a vial with dark liquid.

"You've already finished everything?" Piper asked surprised.

Phoebe and Paige nodded. "When you're ready, we can try to find Barbas and then we vanquish his sorry ass."

"Okay, then let's get this show on the road" Piper stated determind and took on of the vials.

In the meantime Chris was still sitting in his mother's bed with Leo beside him and Wyatt in his arms. It was hard to imagine that this little kid would grow up to be the man Chris had grown to despise. In the beginning from his stay in the past he had considered to kill his brother if he'd fail with his mission, but in the last months he had realized that he could never hurt this innocent, sweet little version from his brother. This wasn't the evil, cold dictator Chris knew and if he did his job right then he would never become that man.

"This must be very weird for you" Leo said suddenly, while he watched his two sons.

"What?" Chris asked startled.

Leo pointed at Wyatt who was trying to grab Chris' hair. "I mean seeing your older brother as a baby."

"Not weirder than seeing mom being pregnant with myself" Chris said and then he looked at his father with uncertainty. "I mean, if it's even going to happen..."

Leo sighed at this. He and Piper haven't really talked about how things would be between them from now on, but when he looked at his son's dejected face he knew had to say something comforting. He opened his mouth to speak, but then he saw that Chris' dejected expression suddenly turned into one of shock and fear.

"Chris, are you okay?" Leo asked concerned, scared if Barbas was here again.

"Wyatt" Chris gasped and climbed out of the bed hurriedly, passing his brother to his father.

Leo frowned confused and put a hand on Chris' shoulder, while he hold Wyatt with his other. "What's going on?"

"Wyatt's here" Chris said, panic evident in his voice.

Leo looked down to the toddler in his arms and then back to Chris. "Of course he's here. Chris, what..."

"No, I mean Wyatt from my time" Chris interrupted him, before he orbed to the attic.

"Wyatt is here" he blurted out, once he appeared there, but he was too late. The sisters had just orbed away. "Damn!" he cursed a seond before Leo appeared on his side with Wyatt in his arms.

"How do you know that Wyatt is here?" he asked immediately, getting straight to the point.

"We share a bound. Since I got here I couldn't feel it anymore, because we are in different timelines, but now I can feel it again and that can only mean that he's here" Chris explained and tried to sense for his brother to figure out what he was doing.

Leo also seemed to be scared now. "And what does he want here?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"I want to catch the little traitor" came a voice from the other side from the attic.

Leo and Chris turned around to the voice and saw a tall man with blonde hair standing there. Chris immediately reconigzed him and Leo also knew from the terrified expression on his younger son's face that it has to be Wyatt. Out of instinct he moved to get in front of Chris to protect him, but Chris shoved him away. "Get outta here" he hissed, his eyes never leaving his brother.

"No, I'm not leaving you alone with him" Leo contradicted.

Wyatt took a few steps into their direction and baby Wyatt immediately raised it shield to defend himself, his father and Chris. Wyatt raised an eyebrow and smirked. "That's really cute" he said mockingly. "I can't believe it that I once wanted to protect you little brother, but then I didn't know that you would betray me like this."

"I didn't betray you Wyatt" Chris said heatedly, while Leo still stared at his adult firstborn with his mouth wide open in shock. He just couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"You're trying to kill me, if that's not betrayel, then what is?" Wyatt asked angrily.

"I am not trying to kill you!" Chris exclaimed. "I'm trying to save you!"

Wyatt snorted in disbelief. "You're still on that kick? I don't need saving, Chris."

"No? Just look at you! Even your baby self thinks you're evil" Chris pointed out, hoping against his better judgement that Wyatt would understand.

"Well, that's not going to help him – or you" Wyatt said and concentrated a second to channel his other self's powers. When he did he forced him to put down the shield. Then he orbed the baby out if his father's arms and into the playpen that was standing in the attic.

"Wyatt, let's just talk about it, okay?" Leo asked, speaking for the first time since Wyatt had appeared.

"Still that wise elder" Wyatt scoffed sarcastically.

Leo ignored it and tried again to reason with him. "Listen, why don't we..."

Wyatt rolled his eyes, having enough from his father's try to have a conversation and sent him flying over the floor.

"No!" Chris yelled, while he rushed over to Leo, but was thrown into the other direction from his brother.

"I give you one last chance, Chris" Wyatt offered while he looked down at him. "Come back to the future and join me."

Chris shook his head. "Never!" he yelled, before he used his own powers to throw Wyatt against the next wall.

Leo watched horrified how his sons fought against each other, not knowing how he should stop them. This was so wrong in so many ways. They were brothers, they should help each other and not fight. He couldn't stand the thought that one of them would probably kill the other if they continued with this battle, but it didn't seem that either one of them would give up. His sons had clearly inherted the determination and stubborness from the Halliwells, but Leo was for the first time since he was a father not proud of this fact.

With a furious roar Wyatt threw an energy ball at his brother. Chris had been still recovering from another attack and was caught off guard. The energy ball hit him into the chest, sending him flying into the next wall. When he crashed back down on the floor he remained motionless.

"Noooo!" Leo screamed out and ran over to his younger son.

Wyatt immediately send him away again from Chris and walked over to his brother. He knelt down next to him and turned him around so he could see what damage his attack had caused. When he did so, he could see that it was bad. Chris' whole chest was already covered with blood and Wyatt knew that he didn't have much time left. If he wanted to save his brother he had to do it now. After a second of hesitation he hold his hands over Chris' chest and healed him – not completely, but enough so he would regain consciousness.

Leo wasn't sure what to think about the situation. Why did Wyatt heal Chris after he just tried to kill him? Maybe there was really a chance to save him, maybe things like this was the reason why Chris thought that there was a chance to save him. He watched slightly reliefed how his younger son opened his eyes again.

Chris' first instinct when he opened his eyes and looked at his brother, was to get away from him. So he orbed to the other side of the attic, near the playpen, where baby Wyatt was still sitting, crying slightly about what had occured in front of him. "You know that I will never join you, so why didn't you just kill me?" Chris asked, searching for a logical explaination.

"You will join me" Wyatt said convinced. "And if I have to torture the hell out of you until I break you, then so be it" he finished with an evil grin.

"You'll leave him alone!" Leo yelled in shock and panic.

Wyatt turned to say something to Leo and didn't notice Luther shimmering next to the playpen. Luther didn't waste any time and conjured an athame, ready to kill baby Wyatt. Chris turned to look at them just in time. Acting again out of instinct he orbed himself between Luther and the baby version of his brother, taking the athame in his chest. Luther seemed for a moment stunned, but quickly removed the blade to attack his intended target.

Wyatt heard his brother cry out in pain and immediately turned to see what was happening. When he saw Chris falling to the floor lifelessly he furiously threw a fireball at Luther, vanquishing him with the immense power from this attack. He didn't even hesitate a second this time to ran over to his brother to try to heal him, but he already knew that it was too late. The bound he shared with Chris was broken and if they were in the same time it could only mean that he was dead.

TBC... (In the next chapter: What are the sisters and Barbas doing all this time? And will they find a way to save Chris? And if not, what will Wyatt do? Want answers? Review! ;) )