Chapter Seventeen

Monday 6:15 P.M.

"He's using wormholes, or natural time portals, in the space/time continuum to send demons back, to travel through time. The portals are kept open using the earth's own power, but the only places with enough energy to sustain wormholes are magnetic and psychic hot spots. Usually, when you find a hot spot, you find a wormhole."

The day had gone by relatively well. Phoebe waited until after lunch and after Brett and Chris woke up—actually, she waited until Chris woke up so he could wake Brett up—because she felt she just couldn't find it in herself to separate the two boys. Looking back, that might have been a mistake. Piper and Paige ended being stuck in their jobs for the rest of the day, so it was up to Phoebe to do something. She showed them where the healing potions were kept and fixed Chris' eye along with the promise of not telling Piper.

After, she took them shopping because Brett was still slightly smaller than Chris, and it wasn't like he could keep wearing the blood-stained rags he came in. She had a good time—of course, new shoes always equals a good time, but...whatever—but she could always feel a tension in the air. It was evident in the way the two boys kept looking at each other. It was evident in how Brett always seemed uncomfortable when people got slightly closer than they should have been. It was evident in how Chris just seemed to hover around him. It was evident in the way that when Brett tripped and fell into Chris arms, the only thing he seemed to want to do was get out of them as soon as possible.

If she was honest with herself, the whole day made her feel uneasy, as if she knew that something was lying just beneath the calm surface. Even before her empathy—hell, even before she had premonitions—she could always tell when something was off. It was like a shift in the weather or atmosphere to her. The air would seem colder, the hairs on the back of her neck would stand up, her skin would tingle, and that raw feeling that you get in your gut when you know you did something wrong was grumbling.

Right now, hers was screaming.

"What about the other way?" Paige asked.

"The only other way Wyatt travels through time portals is by making them himself. He's literally punching holes into the time stream. He keeps them open using his own powers channeled through an Orthorian orb crystal. Unfortunately for him, it's draining, the orb I mean. The demons usually come back as soon as possible, and the portals close after the demons step back through them, but..." Brett trailed off. "If he's kept the one he has open on his side to this time for this long, he's probably expecting something's off, which means I'm running out of time."

"What do you mean you're running out of time?" asked Phoebe.

Brett sighed again and stopped his pacing where he was wearing a trek on the attic floor, arms folding over his body.

"Wyatt's time portals stay open until he willingly stops it or a body steps back through them," Brett explained. "If he hasn't realized that his demons didn't return yesterday by now, chances are they're still open on his side, in his time, which means he could come back at any moment if he doesn't overlook it."

"Do you think he will?" asked Piper worriedly.

"Wyatt's overconfident, not idiotic," Brett smiled sardonically. "It might take a while, maybe even years, but he'll eventually figure it out."

"How long have you been running?" Paige asked.

"Wyatt's been chasing me for three months now," Brett said in a weary tone. "At first I had the advantage because I knew what I was doing but, eventually, he found a way to keep his own time portals open for an extended period of time. The only thing keeping him from finding me right now is the fact that he can't control what time the time portals take him to. It's random for him. You see, he doesn't have the luxury of exactitude, nor have the finesse of time travel. Basically, he just opens a lot of them and sends his demons out to find me." Brett laughed pitifully.

"I had a run in with him a while back, two weeks ago, and I managed to trick him into going back to his own time and smashed his crystal. I expected that to slow him down, at least for a little while, but he had another one up in a couple of days, which means..."

"...which means he's desperate," finished Paige, a look of understanding in her eyes as hers made contact with Brett's. Phoebe, Piper, and Chris looked at her in surprise and Brett just faintly smiled.

"What makes you say that?" asked Piper warily.

"The Orthorians were destroyed during the Sorcerer Wars thousands of years ago, along with any and all of their remaining magical talismans," she explained barely above a whisper. "If Wyatt is using an Orthorian orb crystal, he's pulling out all the stops. If I remember correctly, they're dangerous. Really dangerous. Orthorian orb crystals act like some sort of energy-sucking device, kind of like a battery, and the person using it is like...the recharger. Not to mention that the side effects are still unknown. The last person reported to use one was said to have been driven insane and fed to demons. If Wyatt's willing to..." She turned to Brett and looked at him with pity and regret as she trailed off. "He must really want you back."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the attic and morbidity was not lost on anybody in the room.

"How do you know all this?" Phoebe asked Brett in a quiet voice. "I mean, if he's started all this to hunt you down, after you left...how could you possibly know?" Brett gaze hardened and he sneered at her.

"I'm not always as nice as I was yesterday."

The room was quiet as his harsh words settled in.

"But, wait," said Chris quietly after the pause. "We know how Wyatt's demons got here, but how did you get here? How'd you time travel? I tore the time spell out of the Book before I came back."

Brett faintly smiled this time. He took a small red vial from the pocket of the jeans, and tossed it to Chris.

"It took a couple of years and over a hundred attempts, but...hell, I figured someone would be dumb enough to try it," he said smirking slightly, face still tight with anxiety. "It works differently than the spell you wrote. It's more...exact. It can send you to whenever and wherever you want, right down to the coordinate pair and second. It's how I've been jumping from one time to another without risking exposure to Wyatt's goons."

Chris smiled slightly.

"You seem to know a lot about this stuff," prompted Piper.

Brett's gaze hardened and his eyes grew darker as they fell to the floor. Chris suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy and guilt and decided to step in.

"Growing up...Brett didn't exactly have the best powers to vanquish demons with, so...he studied the Craft a lot, in between his karate training with Aunt Phoebe. He's the only one I know of who knows our Book of Shadows, as well as his own, better than I do. He's the best potion maker in the house..." Chris trailed off, smiling sadly, as if hiding something.

"So you specialize in potions?" Piper asked, slightly amused, not noticing their stances, or at least not acknowledging them.

"Go with what you're good at, right?" asked Brett, eyes not betraying a thing as Chris' smile vanished and his eyes fell to the floor.

Phoebe smiled faintly, almost nostalgic. "I trained you? You lived with us?"

Brett's eyes only softened slightly as he turned to look at her. "Not for long."

Another silence enveloped the attic as the unsettling news seemed to sink in.

Ignoring the awkward moment, Paige tried to take control of the meeting. "So, I get that you've been running for a long time, but...what are you doing here? Why did you risk you're life to come here, especially now? Why not three months ago?"

Brett's eyes broke away from Chris' sad ones when he answered her question.

"I've spent the past few weeks looking through prophecies, records, archaic patterns and designs...basically, anything I could get my hands on. The few weeks before that, I was hiding in the future. I went around collecting the status of individual bases of the Resistance..." Brett trailed off and turned back to Chris as if asking for permission.

Chris nodded and asked sullenly, seriously, "How bad is it?"

Brett gave him a solemn look. "A lot, actually. None of it's pretty. Wyatt's attacking all the Resistance's bases, now, including the lookout points. His armies are everywhere.

"He's trying to take down everything. The Elders...they've fallen, the vampires are on the run, almost all the fairies have been captured...even the goblins and Thesulac demons are scared, and they live in other planes."

Chris started to pale. "What about the sub-bases?"

"You mean the ones protected by the Sources?" Brett asked almost mocking, but kept his most grave tone. "They're all under attack. I got word that they won't be able to keep their shields up for long, a couple of months, maybe. A few are already beginning to be breached."

"The Sources?" asked Phoebe warily.

Brett sighed, but didn't look at her. "Yes, the Sources. The Elders and the Lords—"

"The what?" asked Paige.

Brett sighed again, but his voice was so soft from the exhaustion of it all. "The Sources—and the Triad, before Belthazor vanquished them—were your counterparts in everyway. They have to answer to their own version of the Elders, too."

"The Lords?" guessed Phoebe.

Brett nodded. "Well, when Wyatt started went after demons and witches first. Both the Elders and the Lords eventually figured that they would be sought out after soon, so they formed the Resistance. Both sides agreed that the best thing to do was to get the strongest players on both sides, so...they agreed to revive the all the Sources that ever lived, the Fifteen that ruled the Underworld, and have them stand as the respective leader and protector of certain sub-bases."

"What about the one the Slayers and Neos protect?" Chris asked, not caring that he interrupted, his eyes cast to the floor. "The one in New York. What about Raine?"

Brett's face was crestfallen, his voice barely above a whisper.

"New York was the first to fall. They just got through a tough battle a couple of weeks before where they lost a lot of their best ones. Raine had a lot of new people come in though, but...there just wasn't enough time to teach them. A lot of them didn't even know the basics of magic. They couldn't..." Brett trailed off.

"The Slayers...they didn't even stand a chance, so most of the battle consisted of the Neos against Wyatt's army. He didn't attack with the simple demons this time...he came in with warlocks, evil witches, and upper level demons. Raine tried to get everyone out, but..."

"What happened?" Chris asked carefully, eyes darkening further, as he struggled to stay up.

"Some of them...got out," said Brett warily. "Alex was eventually able to get them to a new location, but...Raine...she...she didn't make it. She ended up fighting with Wyatt, and, at first...I heard that she stood a chance, a good one even, but...in the end...it turns out he was just playing with her. He tore her apart." Brett eyes locked with Chris'. "New York wasn't a strategic win; it was a massacre."

Chris looked like he was sick

"Slayers? Neos?" Paige asked tentatively. "What do those mean?"

Brett stared hard for a moment. "Do you remember that old television show, I think it was 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer?'"

If this was a normal situation, Phoebe would have laughed, but...

"Yeah."

"Well, the '90s producers must have been on to something. They got really close to exposing Slayers to the world, but, since the Cleaners don't bother with the lower level exposure risks—hell, Slayers don't even get whitelighters—I think the Elders made it into a T.V. show to throw everyone off. Of course, there are slight differences, but...their powers are mostly the same: super strength, healing, senses—even a few extra ones—and predisposition to fighting...although, there can be more than one at a time, and they don't have to be predominantly female. Basically, they're hunters of the more non-inclined to magic demons."

"And Neos? asked Paige.

"'Neos' are short for 'neophyte witches.' They were innocents who learned and became part of magic. They aren't innately magical, but few can become quite powerful or at least strong enough to help...to make a difference."

"Like Raine?" prompted Phoebe timidly.

Brett just chuckled sadly.

"No. No way. Raine...Raine was in a league of her own. I don't know how, but...she could do almost every spell written—well, most of that was basically because Neos don't choose a side, they don't have to because they weren't born into it like we were—but...yeah...yeah, she was special," said Brett. "She was one of the more powerful players on the Resistance's side...and without her..." he trailed off and looked expectantly at Chris who reluctantly caught his eye.

"What else?" asked Chris faintly.

Brett swallowed the lump in his throat before answering.

"...Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila, London, Montreal, Houston, Barcelona, the Himalayas, the Mun Lunn Mountains, Sydney, Rome, most of Egypt, Cairo, the Amazon, the Andes, Antarctica...all of them are under attack as we speak," Brett said weakly.

"He's using strategies and playing on the Resistance's weaknesses: firestartes vs. nymphs and forest spirits, furies and harpies vs. the Sources, Sleepers vs. the gypsies, Witch Hunters vs. lower level witches and Neos..." Brett trailed off, suddenly unable to finish with the lump in his throat.

"They're barely hanging on. There isn't anyone alive who can't fight anymore. Those who aren't being hunted are dying by lack of food or diseases or God knows what else," Brett's eyes flashed for a second and Chris couldn't help but look away. "The shields Matt taught them to make are wearing down, and it's only a matter of time before..."

A small silence settled over the room again and for a second time since Brett had been there, everyone thought the attic was more depressing than they originally thought.

"They need help," Brett finished as he slowly caught Chris' eyes again.

Chris stared at him in confusion.

"That's why I came," Brett added seriously.

Chris eyes twinkled and both of them ignored the gasps coming from the couches.

"I came to take you back."

I'm very sorry this took so long. You have no idea how hard this chaper was to write! It was so annoying because you want to put in so much but you can't because it's too frivolous and then there are those pesky possiblitites and then you just can't seem to pick one way to do it. Plus all the books I had to read and crap...it was just...Ugh! God, it was frustrating.

But, that's fine. It should be, more or less, smooth sailing now. Sadly, though, classes start tomorrow, so...

We'll see how the rest plays out. I've got a lot of good ideas for some flashbacks, so, you know...excited!

Thanks. Bye.