Love and Fear

Chapter 11: I killed my own brother

The Charmed Ones and Leo orbed into an old, dark building and looked frantically around to find Chris and Wyatt. They couldn't see them though and Piper started to panic slightly. "Where are they, Leo?" she asked scared.

Leo wanted to close his eyes to sense for his sons, but then they could suddenly hear muffled cries from the room left to them. Piper was immediately running over to it, with her sisters and Leo behind her. She pushed the door open and stopped dead in her tracks when she took in the sight in front of her. Next to a pile of ashes, which were obviously the remnant of a demon, were her sons, the younger one holding his brother in his arms, who was lying motionless there, while Chris sobbed into his shoulder, unaware of the people who had entered the room.

Leo, Phoebe and Paige also remained standing in the doorway, unsure of what to do. But hearing her son's cries caused Piper to walk over them and hesitantly she knelt down next to her sons. She tried hard not to look at the pale face of her oldest, but turned her attention to Chris, who was still sobbing, obviously still not aware of her presence. Piper took a deep breath to calm herself down, before she spoke softly "Chris, sweetie, what happened?"

Chris finally noticed her and his head jerked up in her direction. He looked at her for a second with red and puffy eyes, before he turned his gaze back to his dead brother. He couldn't look into his mother's eyes, not after what he just did. She would hate him. And she had every right to do it. Another sob escaped his lips, while he stared at Wyatt. It was almost like he was staring at baby Wyatt. His brother looked so peaceful and innocent, there was nothing evil left.

"Chris, please, look at me" Piper pleaded desperately, when her son continued to cry.

"I – I killed him" Chris choked out, not daring to look at his mother. "I killed my own brother…"

At this Piper couldn't stop herself from turning her gaze to Wyatt. Chris was half leaning on his chest, but she could see that there was a lot of blood covering his black shirt. She couldn't believe that Chris was the one who had done this. It didn't make sense. How should he be able to kill Wyatt without his powers? And Chris wouldn't harm him, even if he could… at least she had thought that. She reached out with her hand to touch her older son's face, tears coming to her eyes. He might be evil, but he was still her son.

Leo however watched his younger son worriedly. He knew what was going to through his mind. He had seen how much Chris feared that they hated him and it was more than obvious by the way he didn't look at Piper that his fear had returned with full force. He inwardly cursed Piper when he saw that she kept looking at Wyatt and didn't do anything to comfort Chris. Leo was also afflicted by the sight of his older son's dead body, but when he thought about how less Wyatt had cared for Chris, he knew that his younger son had probably just tried to defend himself.

Paige had to steady Phoebe, who was again channelling Chris' emotions. There was so much guilt, fear and pain coming from him that she stumbled a bit backwards to put distance between herself and her nephew so the emotions would stop coming to her. She and her younger sister, who was still supporting her, watched from the doorway how Leo knelt to the other side of Chris.

"Chris, it's okay, you've done nothing wrong" Leo said soothingly and put a comforting hand on his son's shoulder. "You just…"

"Nothing wrong?" Chris exclaimed, while he tried to shake his father's hand off. But that wasn't so easy, because his whole chest still hurt from his brother's attacks. "I killed my own brother! I killed your son! How can you say that this isn't wrong? Because it sure does look wrong in my eyes!"

Leo instinctively grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away from his brother so he could embrace him, but he gasped when he finally noticed that the blood that was everywhere wasn't just Wyatt's; Chris was also bleeding heavily from several wounds on his chest. Leo quickly held his hands above them to heal him, but he was just half finished, when Chris flinched away.

"Stop this! I killed your son! You shouldn't be healing me! You should be glad if I would pay for what I did!" Chris yelled, finally snapping Piper out of her trance.

"Chris, no. Leo is right" she managed to say, turning her look away from Wyatt to her younger son.

"No, he's not! I killed him, mom!" Chris repeated, his tone harsh and loud. "I took a fucking piece of wood and stabbed it through his heart!"

Piper couldn't help, but had to break the eye contact with Chris and turn again to Wyatt. Her mind drifted to the innocent, sweet little baby she had raised the last year. She couldn't believe that this should be his fate. Growing up, terrorizing people, killing innocents, fighting with his own brother until one of them finally killed the other one. She couldn't hold back the tears anymore and started to cry heavily, unaware of the bitter smile that crept across Chris' face at this.

"Seems like you're not so proud of me now, like you told me the last days" he whispered to Piper, but Leo could also hear him.

"Chris, you have to stop beating yourself up over this" Leo said, trying to get his younger son to understand that he had just done what had been necessary. "He was evil. And he tried to kill you. You just defended yourself. There is nothing wrong with this."

"I came back here to save him and not to kill him" Chris spat angrily. How could his father act like he hadn't just killed his son?

"And you can still do it. You can still save him, Chris" Leo said softly. "You can spare both of you a horrible life and save a lot of innocents. You're a hero."

Chris snorted. "Yeah, sure. I take a piece of wood and stab it through my brother's back right into his heart. That's really very hero-like" he said sarcastically, his eyes drifting back to Wyatt, who was still lying in his arms. He closed his eyes, he couldn't bear it to look at him. But with his eyes closed the memories of what just happened came back to him.

FLASHBACK / A HALF HOUR EARLIER

Chris had never felt so much pain than in this moment. His brother was slowly electrocuting him to death and that wasn't really a good feeling. He needed to get away, he needed to break the connection quickly. He closed his eye, whishing that some miracle would happen that would rescue him. The next thing he knew was that he was lying a few feet away from the wall he had just been chained to. Had he just orbed?

Wyatt groaned frustrated when he saw this. He hadn't been able to steal his brother's whitelighter powers too, but that didn't matter anymore. Chris was too weak to orb out of the building. "It's time to say goodbye, little brother" he said, while he watched how Chris tried to scramble away from him. He held out a hand to form an energy ball, but to his great surprise nothing happened. Confused he concentrated harder, but still his power didn't work. Trying to suppress the sudden fear that came over him, he tried to blow up the old wooden book shelf next to Chris, but again nothing happened.

Chris watched confused how Wyatt conjured an energy ball, before he made it vanish again and blew up the book shelf. He held his arms over his head to protect himself from the pieces of wood that were flying across the room. He then looked back over to his brother and nearly shrieked when he saw Barbas standing behind him. Now he knew what was going on. Barbas was using Wyatt's greatest fear against him. The fear to loose his powers. Chris ducked as quickly as he could when Wyatt shot ice into his direction. The power missed him and hit the wall behind him. "Wyatt! That's Barbas who's doing this! Just turn around" he yelled instinctively, fear gripping his own heart. He knew that Wyatt just tried to kill him, actually he was still trying it, but he didn't want Barbas to kill his brother.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Wyatt yelled back and threw several energy balls in every possible direction, not even aware that he was really throwing them.

Chris screamed a bit when he felt one hitting his left leg, but concentrated on Wyatt. "You idiot! Just use your brain, or at least what you have of a brain, and think about it! Who could possible steal your powers in less than a second and without you noticing it?" Chris yelled at him, hoping that Wyatt would understand.

Wyatt frowned. His brother was right. And he could also still feel the power inside him. "So what are you saying?" he asked confused.

"Barbas is using your fear against you. He's right behind you and by the way, it seems like he's going to flee" Chris answered, watching how Barbas wanted to flame away.

But he was too slow. Wyatt had turned around and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him up from the ground. "Did you really think that you could kill me?" he hissed threateningly.

"If your brother would be dead already then I would have succeeded" Barbas said, reading Wyatt's other fear. The fear that he actually needed his little brother.

"He will be dead in a few minutes, but first you're going to pay" Wyatt said and threw Barbas to the ground, before he used his new elder powers to kill the demon of fear, once and for all.

In the meantime Chris tried hard to orb away, but he was too weak. He just managed it to orb a few feet away from his old position, before he reformed and landed painfully on the floor again. Suddenly Barbas' screams stopped and Chris looked over to his brother who was now turning his murderous gaze back to him. But he had just saved Wyatt's life, didn't that mean anything to him? Obviously not, because Wyatt was quickly approaching him with a cold grin on his face.

"You know what, Chris? This little time I thought I have no powers made one thing clear to me" he said and caused Chris to look at him a bit hopefully. He laughed and knelt down to his little brother. "I want to kill you for your betrayal with my own hands" he then said and the look of hope on Chris' face quickly turned into one of dread. In the next second Wyatt slammed his knee into Chris' stomach.

Chris gasped in pain, but didn't get the chance to catch his breath, because Wyatt put his hands around his throat and squeezed tightly. He struggled to break free from his brother's grasp, but Wyatt was much stronger than him and he was firmly pinned down by his weight. He tried desperately to gasp for breath, but Wyatt only tightened his grip around his neck. Chris' vision started to blur and he frantically searched with his hands for something he could use as a weapon. Finally his fingers touched something. It had to be a piece of wood from the book shelf Wyatt had blown up and he quickly took it in his hand. He hesitated a second before he lifted his hand and stabbed the wood into Wyatt's back.

Immediately his grip loosened and Chris gasped for breath. He was relieved for a moment, but when he looked at his brother the feeling quickly faded. Wyatt was lying motionless beside him, the wood sticking out of his back and his chest. Chris' eyes grew big in horror. He hadn't noticed that the wood was so long. He wanted to pull it out of Wyatt's chest, but suddenly white lights came out of him and hit Chris. He immediately knew what had happened. He had his powers back. But that would mean…

Chris quickly used his telekinesis to push the wood out and took his brother into his arms, ignoring the pain from his own wounds. He frantically searched for any sign that Wyatt was still alive, a pulse or a slight breathing, but found nothing. Wyatt was lying absolutely still in his arms. Dead. For the second time in a minute Chris found it hard to breath. What had he done? He had killed his own brother. The one he had sworn to save here in the past. Tears came to his eyes while he bent down his head into Wyatt's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Wy" he sobbed. "I failed you. I swore to save you and I failed… I'm so sorry…"

END OF FLASHBACK

Chris was again crying on his brother's shoulder, but this time he didn't flinch away when his father pulled him away from Wyatt to heal him. He didn't have the strength to fight anymore. He wasn't sure if there was anything even left fighting for. Leo finished his healing and pulled him into a hug, all the time telling him that he had done nothing wrong and that he loved him. Chris couldn't deny it that his father's words had an affect on him, but he didn't want to think about it. All he wanted was to get the images and realization of what he had just done out of his mind…

TBC… (Just one chapter left. Hope you liked this one! Please review!)