Just let me die
Chapter 2 - Another time
A/N: I don't know if I've pointed this out sufficiently, the Charmed One's are in the time during Chris-crossed, but with the lack of a squeaky flooboard.
Disclaimer: I don't know if it's necessary to do this at the beginning of every chapter but just to be sure, here it is: I don't own Charmed or any other TV Show for that matter. I only do this for fun and I'm not making any money with this. But the characters that might show up later on that do not belong to the series are mine.
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Piper was the first one to cross the portal. Leo followed her right afterwards.
Paige eyed the indeed huge doorway to the future suspiciously. "Has anyone thought of how to get back?", she asked her older sister.
Phoebe tried to give her a reassuring smile and to ignore her own doubts. "Chris said he used a spell to come here, we'll just use that one", she said and patted her sister on the back to motivate her to go through the portal as well. As soon as she had passed through Phoebe got cold feet. 'Maybe someone should stay with Wyatt', she thought. But no. She had to go as well.
She shut her eyes tightly and stepped through the portal on the wall.
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Pier looked at her surroundings.
It was the attic of the Halliwell manor, that was for sure. But what the hell had happened to it? Everywhere there were velvet ribbons that led a way through the room. Piper passed one of the restrictions to look at the information board, that was pinned before a projection of the book of shadows. She read the writing on that board.
"The Book Of Shadows
The Book of shadows was started in the 17th century, by the first witch of the Halliwell clan, Melinda Warren. (More information on her in "A witch in Trial" by Carrie Turner, available in our gift shop and every good library) It was the main instrument in demon vanquishes by the Charmed Ones.
The members of the Halliwell family wrote in their new found spells and demons, warlocks or witches they encountered. Over the centuries it became the best informed guide on magical beings, potions and spells of the known world.
The Charmed Ones themselves wrote significant parts of the book. Almost two thirds of the book nowadays have been written by the three sisters.
The original book is kept in a safe place, as it is still used by the present members of the Halliwell clan
Replicas of the book can be purchased in the gift shop. "
The first thought that crossed Piper's mind after reading this was, 'What the hell do they put our book in the gift shop for? And where is that shop?' Before she could further think about that gift-shop issue however, Leo said something.
"Looks like a museum" He looked at an information board, that told the visitors about how often the grandfather clock had been broken. 'Didn't we keep that thing downstairs?' he asked himself when he saw it standing near the board it was described on.
"Creepy", was Paige's first comment after stepping out of the portal.
"Yeah", Piper agreed, still wondering if she could find that gift-shop.
"But, if that's a museum, where are future us?", Paige asked a little concerned.
Piper looked up from the hologram of the book that currently showed the first page that contained the call for the power that Phoebe had read out over six years ago. Then Piper reminded herself, that they were in the future. What had Chris said? Twenty years or so? So the time when Phoebe had read that incantation had been a lot further back. As she looked at Paige's worried face she said, "We may have to get used to the idea that there is no us, in the future"
Finally Phoebe stepped out of the portal and opened her eyes. "Whoa, what's that now?", she asked curiously and looked at her sisters in confusion.
"What took you so long?", Paige asked with a slight grin on her face. "Got cold feet?"
"Of course not", Phoebe lied hastily, but she could clearly see that Paige didn't believe her. And honestly, why should she?
"Sure", she answered her smile growing wider.
"Girls, let's focus. We didn't come here to buy our book in the gift-shop, but to help Chris, so let's find him and get home", Piper interfered before Paige could tease her sister further.
"Right", Leo agreed. He just wanted to say something more, when a voice coming from downstairs interrupted him.
"Of course the original book does not lie here for display. It's way to valuable and still of too much use in the magical world to be displayed in a museum. But from the projection and the replicas of our gift-shop you should get an idea of what it looks like." , the person from outside the room said. Phoebe's eyes widened in shock, while Leo tried to think of a way to not be detected by them.
But he wasn't fast enough. Before he could even think of cloaking them, the door was pushed open and the guide, a brunette woman in her late thirties entered the room with a fake smile on her lips and continued to talk to people that were obviously behind her.
But when she turned and looked inside the attic, she stopped dead. Her eyes widened and she dropped the clipboard to the floor that she had been holding. She just stared at the Charmed Ones as if she was seeing ghosts. What was not really wrong.
Neither the sisters nor Leo knew what to do now, as they were as surprised as the guide.
Before they could react however, the guide regained her senses and called out loud, "Security!"
Immediately three demons shimmered in and looked at the intruders. They were as surprised as everyone and hesitated a moment. That was the perfect opportunity for Piper to blow one of them up. As soon as she did that, the remaining two demons began to shoot fireballs at them. Paige called "Fireball" and thus redirected it to aim at its thrower. The demon, that had clearly not expected this was vanquished. Meanwhile Phoebe channeled the anger that the other demon had used to create his fireball with and used it to return the magical weapon to its sender.
The visitors that had only seen a small part of the scene screamed as the demons were vanquished, while the guide looked as if she was about to cry.
"Let's get outta here", Leo told his former charges and grabbed their hands to orb them somewhere safe. He looked in his mind for a safe place and orbed to the first place that came into his mind. The Golden Gate Bridge…
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… and that turned out to be a very bad idea. He had expected to be standing on one of the main supports, but he wasn't. In fact, he and the sisters were not standing at all. The part of the bridge that Leo had wanted to get them to, was gone.
He heard the girls scream in fear, as he reached for Piper and orbed her out of her fall, while he saw that Paige was doing the same with Phoebe.
They rematerialized on a meadow opposite of the bridge, and looked at the ruin that used to be the best known place in San Francisco.
"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again.", Piper breathed heavily, as she tried to get over the shock of being orbed right into the sky.
"Don't worry", Leo told her with his eyes fixed on the former beautiful place, "I've learnt my lesson"
"I hope so", Paige said, and let go of Phoebe. Both of them were still shaking.
"I think I never screamed that loud in my life", Phoebe pointed out and let herself drop to the floor, enjoying the comforting feeling of the grass on her butt.
"But what happened to the bridge?", Leo asked as he couldn't stop staring at it. One of the pillars was completely missing while the other one was only half existent anymore. The driveway was torn apart.
"Looks like it happened a long time ago", Piper stated as slowly began to breath normal again.
"But who would do such a thing?", Phoebe asked, still sitting on the floor, refusing to rise ever again.
"I have no idea", Paige remarked and sit next to her sister.
"But it doesn't really matter now. We came here to help Chris, so let's find him, help him and then get the hell out", Piper interrupted. She finally understood why Chris didn't like to talk about the future. It was indeed awful. So she didn't want to know more than necessary about it.
Phoebe had finally calmed down, but she still didn't want to stand up. She looked up to Leo and questioned, "Can you sense him?"
Her brother in law finally stopped staring at the bridge and closed his eyes. After concentrating for a few seconds he opened them again and said: "no. He doesn't seem to be in this world"
"Well maybe that means he's 'up there' or in the Underworld", Paige said hopeful.
"Or it means he's dead", Piper added, earning a look of death from both her sisters.
"No", Phoebe said determined, not wanting to even consider that possibility.
"The spell was supposed to bring us to him, it wouldn't have gotten us here if he was dead in this time", Paige agreed and glared at her sister for her negative thoughts.
"She has a point", Leo said to keep the sisters from arguing. "I propose I go up there and see if I can sense him there, and Paige can go Underworld and try to sense him from there. Then we meet again here."
Paige looked at him and pouted, "Why do you get up there and I only get the stinking underworld?"
"Because you're not allowed to go up there, but no one's keeping you from going down there", Leo argued and wanted to orb out, as Phoebe grabbed his arm to make him stay.
"Didn't you guys notice something weird? We still have our powers."
"Well yeah, but you don't wanna go complaining about that, do you?", Piper asked and raised a brow.
"No, of course not. It's just strange, usually you loose your powers after timetravel", Phoebe said with a serious look on her face.
"Well Chris still had his", Paige reminded her sister.
"Yeah well, that's right. It's just worrying me a little, that's all", Phoebe said and let go of her brother in law's arm.
As soon as she had done so, both Leo and Paige orbed away.
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Chris woke up out of an unsettling dream. He tried to remember the details, but they slipped away before he could memorize them. He didn't know when he had fallen asleep, but then again, it didn't really matter.
He looked at his surroundings once more. He didn't know how long he had slept, but he had no way to find out. The dark room didn't have windows, and it was probably underworld anyway, so he couldn't count days.
The only thing that ever changed, thus the only way for him to see the time passing was his the slow decomposing of his former fiancé's head.
He looked at it again. The spike that Wyatt had magically forced through it was to be seen on both ends but the red blood that had covered it once was now merely a brown cover that was easy to peal off. Though he tried not to touch it.
He still remembered every detail of how that thing had been done. Wyatt had put a spell on Bianca so she remained conscious through the entire torture session where she had been killed. He still remembered the horrified and painful screams, that his fiancé had cried when the huge nail pierced her brain and he remembered the disgusting evil smile that was to be seen on Wyatt's face when he heard her beg for mercy. When he heard her beg for death. He tried to force the images to stay out of his brain, how he had helplessly watched all this, but he couldn't. The only thing he did was break down silently once again, the way he had done so many times in the past years and he sobbed dryly, but just for a short time, till the comforting darkness of unconsciousness surrounded him again.
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The two remaining Halliwell sisters waited silently for their whitelighters to return. Phoebe looked over the Bay, and noticed that the entire city looked as after a most devastating earthquake. But she had the feeling, that no natural catastrophe had caused this destruction. If it had, the destroyed parts of the city would most likely have been rebuilt by now, as the damage seemed to be some years old.
After some minutes Leo orbed back in and Phoebe immediately got a vibe from him that told her something was wrong. "Was he there?", she asked carefully, as both she and Piper eyed him curiously, while he looked quite disturbed.
"No he wasn't", Leo managed to say while he looked at the floor looking incredibly pale.
"So what's wrong?", Piper asked him with a concerned look on her face.
"There's nothing there. No elders, no whitelighters, nothing. Everything's been destroyed", he said and looked so very sad. Phoebe stood up and patted his back. "Don't worry sweetie, once we get home to our time we'll change all that, I promise" He thanked her with a weak smile, but he was still very shaken up, because this time the damage was even worse than when the Titans had attacked.
Just when Piper wanted to say something comforting, too, Paige orbed in with a triumphant look on her face.
"I sensed him!", she said, proud of herself.
"Oh, thank god, that means he's alive", Phoebe said relieved.
"So, is he alright?", Piper asked and stood up, too.
"I don't know, I didn't go where he is, I just got down, sensed and came back. I thought we'd go there together", Paige explained and held her hands out for her sisters. They nodded in agreement, and took her hands. Then she orbed them down, with Leo following on his own right away.
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A/N So that's it for today. I'm very happy because of the reviews. To answer the questions:
The variance between the perception of time of the sisters and Chris is due to timetravel issues. I'm gonna say more about it in the next chapter.
Kitten: His secret will be revealed. I'm not sure yet when, but it will. About the happy end… Let's wait and see… ;)
And I'm trying to get rid of the typos.
Well thanks to everyone for reviewing and for telling me what tbc means so here it goes…
TBC
Oh just one last thing, I'm probably not going to be able to keep up with my current speed in the future, I'm only trying to make you keep on reading at the moment. So please don't always expect daily updates, for example I don't know if I can do another one tomorrow. We'll see.