A Mission's Worth

Standard Disclaimers apply.

Author's Notes:

You like it! You really, really like it! cries in happiness

Legend/Key

blah blah ... thoughts

"blah blah" ... dialogue

"blah blah" ... action during speech

blah blah / "blah blah" ... emphasis

blah blah ... sound/action outside of dialogue

#FLASH#

blah blah ... a flashback

#BACK#

((Pssst...)) ... I'm talking to you..

All warnings and notes about the timeline and content, blah blah blah, were handed out in the first chapter. So if you read something offensive, the warning for it is probably in the first chapter underneath that nifty little heading of: Warning. Just a thought.

Now on with the fic.

A Mission's Worth: Chapter One: Mom?

#FLASH#

"Hello Wyatt."

Oh how he loathed the man before him now. No, I don't hate him, he told himself, I just need to get him back. Things can be how they are supposed to be, I just need to make him see…

"They are no threat to me."

This was his brother and the last thing he wanted was to see him dead, but damn it, if he couldn't stop him from doing what he was doing then… He looked into his brother's steely eyes. Such power in those eyes. If I can't save him, then I will stop him. There was such potential there, so much that had yet to be fulfilled for him. But alas, his brother was too blind. He couldn't see that what he was doing was wrong, all wrong. His quest would accomplish nothing. He was going down the wrong path in life. It was so obvious. If only you could see that, he said mentally. If only I could save you from yourself.

One brother walked by the other, circling him partially. "Et tú, Chris?"

Silence.

Everything after that seemed to happen so fast. Why did he have to fight? Why couldn't he just let himself be saved? But nothing in life was that easy. At least, nothing in his life. He went through so many things to get to this point, but now… Now it all seemed so hopeless. His eyes silently pleaded with his brother behind the mask he wore. Don't do this to me brother.

A dark-haired man grasped at his throat, apparently being strangled, as an older blond one threw him back without ever touching him. Glass shattered from the impact and a beautiful woman, an assassin actually, rushed to her love's side. "I didn't bring you here to die," she told him tearfully. Such love, such loyalty. It was such a shame that she could switch sides so easily.

It wasn't over though.

The blond man in black argued with the woman for the dark-haired one's life. I wish I could save you brother, but now…I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe, you can't be saved after all. The blond looked about ready to finish the other man off, before searing pain struck his chest. It was the woman. She was holding him, draining him, telling the other man to hurry with whatever plan he had. He couldn't move, but all three present knew he would break free eventually. And then there would be hell to pay. Assuring the woman that he had some sort of idea, supposedly, the dark-haired man yanked off a loose floorboard and scrambled to unfold and read the paper's words.

"Power of the witches rise
Come to me across the skies
Return my magic, give me back
All that was taken from the attack"

The blond witch-whitelighter flung the woman away from himself, not even glancing over to see if she would be down for a while. He did look at her though, when the dark-haired one ran over to her. His expression revealed nothing as he watched the other cry over her wood-impaled form. They exchanged a few last words before her body went limp.

"Bianca!" The man sobbed over her still body for a few seconds. Dead silence, no pun there, then reigned. The blond took on a confused expression as he beheld the worsening storm outside. Though the sky was always bleak and gray in this world, this storm was just odd. It had come out of nowhere. Who would dare practice such magic with him as the ruler here? His blue eyes flicked over to the eerily still and silent form of the dark-haired boy. No, that wasn't possible. He didn't have that kind of power, never did and never would either.

The blond's musing was disrupted as his brother made a dash for the book. Angry and pained tears in his eyes he flipped threw the pages as the blond man slowly recovered from the drain and his surprise at the recent happenings. The brewing storm blossomed and released rain and lightning, thunder clapped loudly, but nothing could be heard through the recently sound-proofed mansion-turned-museum.

"Hear these words, hear the rhyme
Heed the hope within my mind—"

A low-voltage orb nearly hit him as the dark-haired one finished the spell with,

"Send me back to where I'll find
What I wish in place and time."

A portal opened and both men stared at each other as if time had just stopped. Chris snatched out the spell and made a run for it. Wyatt roared with what Chris believed to be anger and threw another low-voltage orb at him. This one hit home, but it was too late the boy had already made it through the portal. As the portal closed, the two brothers shared a thought. Goodbye brother.

#BACK#

((You know what? I bet you thought that those thoughts up there were from Chris' P.O.V. didn't you? Hah! It wasn't. Those were Wyatt's thoughts, go figure. Think about it people… What's that? You say I didn't fool you? pouts Aw…you're no fun…))

Chris felt searing, white hot pain shoot from his injured shoulder to the rest of his body. He landed with a painful thud, mind reeling from what had just happened. He laid there, mind replayed Bianca's death over and over and over… She's dead. His mind held that thought, dissected and studied it, but without fail…reported the same thing to his broken heart and nearly-shattered mind. She's dead. She's dead, she's gone, and – thanks to Wyatt – she was never coming back. Not unless he succeeded with his daunting mission to save Wyatt, his older brother, from whatever evil that had turned him to the dark side here in the past. Chris felt searing, white hot pain shoot from his injured shoulder to the rest of his body. He landed with a painful thud, mind reeling from what had just happened. He laid there, mind replayed Bianca's death over and over and over… His mind held that thought, dissected and studied it, but without fail…reported the same thing to his broken heart and nearly-shattered mind. She's dead, she's gone, and – thanks to Wyatt – she was never coming back. Not unless he succeeded with his daunting mission to save Wyatt, his older brother, from whatever evil that had turned him to the dark side here in the past.

But now…now that mission had just become so much harder. It just seemed so impossible now, almost pointless. There was no one there for him in the future now; no one that was on his side anyway. Nobody left for him to use as a means to convince himself that he still had someone important to save. Now don't get him wrong, the innocents were important and everything but… What difference did it make to save a bunch of strangers that he couldn't expose himself as their hero to? Who cared if you saved the world if you're still all alone in the end? If he failed and went back, which he would have to do, all that would be waiting was…nothing. Nothing and no one would be there, but a world with an evil Wyatt that would officially be beyond saving. And Chris wasn't sure if he could take that, if he could live with that.

Blood, blood, everywhere. On me, on her, on the wood, on the floor. Blood, blood, blood!

He thought he had heard something, had thought someone was calling him, but no…no one was calling him. Where was he again? Here? Where was here? Where was he? What was going on? Chris' mind just couldn't take all of this right now and seemed to have vacated the premises of his head. Blood, blood, blood. Look at all the blood! Chris believed now that his logic, the one thing that he had clung to consistently all these years, was leaving him now. His thoughts were nothing short of disturbing and he couldn't seem to think of anything else.

It was all slipping away, just as he tried to grab it. Nothing made sense anymore and Chris' broken mind was slowly convincing him that none of that had happened. Wyatt was not evil, had never been evil, and never would be. His mind said that everything was fine, that he had done a good job and now he could relax and let go. But things, memories from the two other timelines somehow broke in. Those memories said that this horrid, awful nightmare was real.

It said that life was all about Wyatt- always had been and always would be. Okay…I can live with that. I just don't want to be alone…

It told him that there was nothing, no one, left to care for and love him anymore. The memories said that there had been few to none to begin with and now there really was no one left to go back to. Chris liked his broken mind's logic better. It told him that that was a lie. That all he needed was his mother's love, nothing else. His broken mind said that it didn't matter who that mother was anymore, as long as she loved him, as long as she cared for him. Yeah… All I need is my mother's love…just this one time around…please…

The memories from the two timelines said that his family didn't want him, that he was just the result of a desperate one night stand, a mistake. No! No, I'm not. I deserve better than that! I deserve to be loved too!

This whole mental war was breaking him down at a swift pace that alarmed him and Chris just wanted it all to go away. The pain…it all hurt so badly. Somebody…please, make the blood all go away… He wondered what all the shaking was, not knowing his body was convulsing and only stopped when the war in his broken mind ceased– for now. He didn't know that his powers, heightened even more since his father was now an Elder – just in time for his possible birth –, were reacting to his distraught pain. He was unaware of the storm he was unintentionally summoning outside.

And then, suddenly, his battered soul felt comfort, warmth. Someone was holding him, and he felt their warmth, their concern for him. He craved the attention, needing that right now. He shied away from it at first, finding that he was able to feel again and it wasn't mental pain either. Physical pain registered with him and he groaned from the pain. He could still feel that emotional warmth being offered to him as he did his best to open his eyes.

A beautiful woman with short, dark hair and warm eyes, So caring…, looked down at him. Her voice, so soothing, said, "Hey there." So warm… She wouldn't hurt him right? Was this her? Was this the mother his broken mind had promised him? She looked like she cared about him, or at least was concerned about him. He turned his head, or rather it lolled to the side, to see another woman. Her hair was dyed, but she was pretty, but not as pretty as this woman he hoped was his mother now. Who was she? His broken mind whispered to him, telling him not to worry about it, that his mother would make it less confusing.

Chris turned his pounding head to look at the beautiful woman again. He was so confused, and hurting, and nothing made any sense to him right now. Nothing but this. This had to be his mother now. The woman that had waved at him, well, he looked nothing like her. And the other lady, the one standing behind the one with dyed hair. She…she seemed familiar. But his mind recoiled from her, making him want to inch back in distress. But he was too weak to move. She didn't look like she liked him very much. She was almost glaring and she just seemed so…cold… His gut said he was missing something, something very important, but he no longer cared. He had followed his gut for a while and look where it had gotten him.

Confused, lost, and feeling uncomfortably hot, Chris was just wishing that someone would fix it for him and make the bad pictures in his head stop torturing him with a life that he didn't want anymore. He looked up at the short-haired woman he had seen first. Hoping that his broken mind was right, he spoke, voice weak.

"Mom?"

How do you like that one? Do we all see how short these chapters are going to be in this fic? We do? Good. No? Well, you'll get it eventually.

What happens next chapter? Meh, you'll see…if you read it! R/R.