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The Ties That Bind
Chapter Eighteen

Two weeks. For two weeks he, his brothers and sister and cousins had been hiding out in an old unused store a few blocks from what used to be P3, the club his mother used to own. Two weeks.

Two weeks -fourteen days and seven hours since his cousins were orphaned and they all lost their mothers.
Fourteen days and two hours since Imy, Danny, Nate, Eveyln, Ben, Bren, and Cadey couldn't sleep without knowing where everyone was.
Fourteen days and one hour since Danny stopped talking.
Fourteen days and five minutes since he stopped crying.
Fourteen days and three minutes since he vowed to look after them all.
Fourteen days and two minutes since he started to try and disassociate the words 'brother' and 'Wyatt' in his head.
And it was proving to be a much harder task than he'd originally hoped.

Of course trying to convince Cadey that he'd still be there when she woke up was getting no easier either.

Finding food for eleven kids with no money and a brother with Gods knows how many spies wasn't any fun on any scale for that matter.

In fact… life was just so peachy, that exactly what he didn't need was a certain selectively absentee father trying to orb through the protective barrier… but it would have been selfish to ignore the persistent ringing -he was probably coming to see Cadey. Or the twins. Maybe even Ryan.

"What the hell did you do? You useless -"
Hold the press! Alert the electronic media! It's me! Hi dad, nice to see ya. I'm fine thanks, in no part due to your help of late, how are you?
"-son of a bitch! Why didn't you heal her? Why? Tell me Chris! To make a point? You sick, twisted little boy! You let your mother die! You let your aunts die! You let your uncles die! You as good as killed. Them. Yourself!

"I can't heal! You never taught me!"

"Wyatt can!"

"You took the time to teach him! He's the special one! Remember? Why don't you go and ask him why he didn't answer our calls until they were way too gone? Or better yet, why didn't you come at all? Until NOW!"

"Don't you dare try to put this on your brother! Wyatt is a good boy! A good witch! I've asked him where he was -he was following a lead on what had been attacking your mother and aunts -he was in the Underworld! Saving innocents! YOU. You on the other hand. You. Make. Me. Sick! I wouldn't be surprised if you organised the attack!

And that, that was when Chris ran to their tiny bathroom and threw up what little he'd eaten that day into the toilet.
No tears came, just more dry heaves and a bitter taste.

There was a jump then, the world blurred and dimmed and sounds faded, becoming murmurs that came and went and he heard the lullaby his mother sang when they had nightmares…

"And we mustn't forget what a failure you are either: your mother, your aunts, your uncles, your pathetic attempts to save me from my destiny."

Eight blocks to go.
Chris ran through the street, hurdling over debris from what used to be a tree and tossing aside his doubts.
It may have been a freezing morning, and he may have been wearing only well-worn combats and a thin sweatshirt and he may have only been fourteen, but he was a teen with a mission.
Save Kevin Newman.
Five blocks.
After Melinda's premonition during their watch last night it was all he could think about: she got it when she touched him -that was his reasoning when they all begged him not to go. The youngest ones were the hardest to resist.
They were all so scared. Who could blame them? He was petrified. They'd lost all their mothers, all their aunts, and two fathers between them.
And Leo?
He was as good as dead to all of them now, not just to him.
That left he, Chris, as the eldest.
That was the worst part. He had to look after everyone knowing he had already let five people die.

Everyone.
And that included whoever Kevin Newman turned out to be,
One block to go.

Skidding right down an overshadowed street Chris wished briefly for his freezing power: three demons, two upper and one lower if he was guessing correctly, and Wyatt were beating down on Kevin's position behind an overflowing, reeking, dumpster.
A greying leg hung out the side, scratches still evident where the socks had been pulled hastily off.

A distraction; that was what he needed.

"HEY! PEA-BRAIN!"

Oh boy. Worked more than he wanted it to actually.
The nearest demon hurled an energy ball straight at his head.
Nearly hit it too.

Chris dived to the floor, stubbornly ignoring the stinging pain when his palms raked across the uneven floor and stones bit into his skin. He also tried to push down the conflicting ideas that he probably could have pushed it away, but knowing that he had never had to rely on only his telekinesis in a situation like this -he didn't trust himself yet. What id he pushed the ball at Kevin? The very guy he was trying to save?
And that was why his knee was now throbbing and his whole right arm felt weird.
Note to self: land better.

"Look who's here to save the day," Wyatt drawled, "Did Mel get a premonition? I'll have to put an end to that, it's a trifle annoying when she knows what I'm going to do before I even do it?"

Chris didn't bother to respond, just made added another 'to do' to his very long 'to do' list. Warn Mel that Wyatt was after her.

"You won't win, you know. I always get what I want -that's the way it works. I see something, I want it, and then, I have it. I mean, come on Christopher, what kind of imbecile do you take me for? I wouldn't go after Kevin here unless I knew I would succeed."
A cold and heavy feeling settled in his throat. He did not like where this was going. Slowly, he edged closer to Kevin, an inch at a time.
"You see, Kevin here will see the light soon, just like I have. And if he doesn't, well," The cold smirk spread over Wyatt's features, "He'll be mine anyway."

Chris threw out his hand, intending to force all four onto their backsides, but found himself being flung into the side of the dumpster instead, leaving him breathless.
Hand still outstretched, Wyatt called what he wanted to him unnecessarily, "Kevin Newman!"
Shocked, Kevin disappeared in a circle of orbs and reappeared in the hands on the upper-level demons, who shimmered away without another thought.
"Don't you get it Chris? You'll never win. You can't."

"You didn't even manage to save Melinda either, did you? She died at Wyatt's hand because you couldn't save her. And don't forget about Sam and Shawn, no we mustn't forget about them. If you'd only tried harder, they would probably still be alive. Do you remember that day? I believe I shall replay it just in-case."

He struggled against the chains that chafed his wrists, cutting into the raw and bleeding skin deeper still.
"Wyatt don't!"

"They tried to kill me, Christopher. You all know what the punishment for that is."
That smirk filled his face again, and Chris screamed something unintelligible at the thing doing the smirking.
"Oh come now, brother. Speak sense."

"Let them go!" Blood trickled down his hands. Wyatt raised a casual hand, played with an energy ball. "Wyatt!"
All he could see when he looked at Ben and Brennan were the little kids who came into his bed during stormy nights.
"Wyatt kill me instead of them!"

The smirk dimmed a little, and returned full force, "Where would be the fun in that? I like you Christopher; you're my only sibling really…the rest just happened to live with us."
His oldest brother, the one he was supposed to look up to, sauntered to the chained and gagged twins, hung like medieval prisoners to the opposite wall. Two identical pairs of fearful, trying to be defiant, eyes stared back at Wyatt. He carried on talking.
"Sure, I didn't like you for the first few months -it used to be just mom and me. But you were all right. You didn't kick up a fuss every time she left the room: you were happy just to be with me. But the others… Chris there's such a thing as too much family. Hello? You, mom and me. Perfect. Then you had Aunt Phoebe, Uncle Jason, Aunt Paige, Uncle Richard, Melinda, Nathan, Evelyn, Juliette, Imogen and Danielle? Plus dad whenever he felt like showing up. So add Ryan, these two and Caden and there was never any time for me and mom. She was always looking after some screaming kid.
You were always nice and quiet though, Chris. What happened to that? You should be quiet more often.
"If you'd have kept quiet, who knows? Maybe these two idiots," he pulled on the nearest -Brennan's- hair, "wouldn't have joined that stupid Resistance, which I will end as soon as it ceases to amuse me, rest assured of that, and just think. If they never joined the Resistance, they never would have got the stupid idea into their heads that it was possible to even hurt me.
"And they never would have had to die."

A flick, and Brennan was gone. Blown into pieces too small to even splatter.
Wyatt's smirk never even flickered. Unlike Ben, whose screams couldn't be muffled entirely by the gag in his mouth, Chris had no such gag. All the better to talk to Wyatt.
His screams echoed through the barren room, into the corridor and radiated though the walls.
Dead.
"You both knew the punishment, Ben. The only exception is Christopher, and you are no Christopher."
It was an energy ball this time, rolled around his fingers until he threw it with such power that, like his twin, Ben was nothing more than a memory.
Dead.
"Damnit you son of a bitch!"
Dead.
"Oh come now Christo -"
Dead.
"I swear to God, I will stop you!"
Dead.
Wyatt laughed, but too Chris there was nothing funny about the humorous tone, or the situation. Wyatt had just killed their baby brothers.
Dead. Will the sun come out tomorrow when it realises the twins are gone and dead and no more and never again and dead dead dead?

"Don't you get it Christopher? You are a disease. You infect, you weaken, and you kill. The only way you can save your remaining family members is to surrender to me. Return to the future, and stay. Till the end of your days.
It's. All. Your. Fault.
"

Piper beat on the barrier as Chris repeated the words Kalister poisoned his mind with, but no sound of her fists or her shouts were heard on the other side.

"'s' my fault."

"But you can stop more deaths."

"Save them?"

"End the Resistance, once and for all. Join us, in the future."

"Save them… join you? J-j-join Wyatt?"

"End it all."

"Wyatt… Wyatt's dead."

"Wyatt is not dead. Lord Wyatt is ruler of a free world."

"Wyatt's dead. Not join you. Not Lordy Wyatt. N-no." Voice weak from screams, Kalister had to strain his ears to hear the defiance. "Only w-wa-one way to s-stop me."

"Oh? Do share?"

Christopher Leo Halliwell, also known as Perry, looked at the man once called Kevin Shea, with eyes that echoed Benjamin's empty ones from two years ago. "Eh-end forever, th-then Ry-ra-ryan and Cay-Caden will b-be s-s-safe.

Kalister shook his head, "Well that's not any good. Your brother wants you alive kid."

"I WANT TO DIE!"

"And I can't have that." Kalister stepped around the high-backed chair, tightening the now-slick ropes that bound the witch-whitelighter's scraped and chaffed wrists.
It was the only opening he needed.
The ground jolted to the left, carrying Kalister barely a metre away. Chris threw himself in the opposite direction, biting through his lip when he landed on his shoulder, popping it wrenchingly out of place, also knocking away the itching blindfold.
It gave him a peek behind, enough to throw Kalister further away, a bolt of lightening lit from his hand tight on his heels.
Served a dual purpose of singing completely through the ropes and to his wrists.
Pain, not Death.
But he deserved to die. It was his fault that mom was dead, that dad was dead, that Aunt Phoebe was dead, that Aunt Paige was dead for the second time, that Uncle Jason was dead, that Uncle Richard was dead…. All his cousins… his brothers… all his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his faul-

"Chris?" Piper spoke cautiously from behind the barrier, hands pressed against it, ignoring the tingle. "Honey? Honey, say something, please?"

His fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his-

"Perry? You're scaring us!"

His fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault -

"Phoebe, can you sense anything?"

Phoebe shook her head,
"I'm being blocked still."

His fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault-

"He's in pain." Leo's voice was strained, he held Wyatt to his chest.
His fault his fault his fault his fau -

Phoebe span around,
"Since when could you sense emotions?"

His fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault hi -

"I, I don't know. I've never been able to sense his like I can Wyatt's before."

"You can sense Wyatt's?"

"They are my sons, Piper. The longer I spend with them, it must increase it."

"Can't you fix him, Leo?" Caden asked hopefully.

His fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his -

"It's not that simple."

"Make it that simple! Something's wrong with him!"

His fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his fault his f-

"Chris."

Save them save them save them save them save them save them save them save them.

Chris knocked out the stones and scuffed the herbs that reinforced the barrier, effectively destroying it.
His fault his fault his fault. He had to make it better. Had to fix it. Save Ryan and Caden and Juliette. Save Piper and Leo.

"There's only one way."

-----------------------

Author's Note: -phew- in a weird way this was fun to write... but i'm very freakish like that. on the up-side i'm going to Bradford tomorrow for a day on the Horror genre, so if i can translate any of the movie stuff from that to this, i will indeed! Gawd... pulled an eleven and a half hour shift yesterday (where'd my life go?!) so i apologise for any grammar/spelling mistakes i missed towards the end :S

Review Thank You's and Replies To:
Nemesis' Arrow: And i love reading your reviews :D

Magical Princess (x2): It's his memories, but it's the only way i could think to show them to you guys :) How did you like the latest installment?

ilovedrew88: As long as you're feeling bad too i must be doing ok! I thought this update was pretty quick.... :)

TurNArounD: Nah Chris didn't literally kill Piper, but that's the tricky thing with guilt...

Sparkling Cherries: okay i won't ask about toodle pip, lol. But man do i sympathise and completely understand about all the work!

Kelie: I don't... but then again... i'm the writer -laughs evilly-

Pruedence.Halliwell: gladly!!

Anna G: Lol yes ff is a stupid s.o.b. most of the time, isn't it? glad you liked it so much to persist in trying :D :D :D