Chapter Twenty

11:48 P.M.

"How's it going?" Piper asked she waddled her way into the kitchen.

"Not so good," Paige answered, face scrunching up as she lowered a very tired arm from swinging an amethyst crystal. "I can't get a fix on him anywhere. It's like he just vanished."

Piper's eyes rolled in exhaustion and she landed heavily on one of the kitchen chairs. "Well, keep trying. He has to be somewhere."

"Did you have any luck with the Book?" Paige asked, already returning to the monotonous gyrating of the scrying crystal.

"No," answered a very disgruntled Piper. "I can't find anything that could help us find him, and I already tried every summoning spell I could think of. Chris says that it's because Matt's powers are stronger than mine," groaned Piper. "We're going to need the Power of Three."

Paige's eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated on the map again. "Well, how's Phoebe doing?"

Piper's nose scrunched up. "Not so good. She can't seem to get warm enough. She put on all the extra blankets I had in the linen closet and tucked her self under so many comforters I think I'd get lost in it, saying she's still cold," Piper said with a sigh.

"Piper?" asked Paige, voice suddenly distant, as if thinking. "What do we do if we do find him? I mean, do we just send him back? Can we do that?"

Piper drew in a large breath and exhaled audibly. "To be honest, Paige? I don't know. I have no idea what do right now. Personally, the first thing I want to do is send that ass straight back to where he came from after that stunt he pulled, but...but then I think about Matt and Chris and what they must have gone through and then there are yours and Phoebe's kids and ...I just...I have no idea..." Piper said, trailing off.

Paige just waited patiently.

"...And then...then I think about asking Chris. Chris, my son, who I just realized was my son after nearly a year of thinking he was some jackass with a mysterious agenda, my son, who I just saw play with his big—little—whatever—brother, who, by the way, can't be a murder, much less capable of matricide, because he's just so innocent, two days ago, Chris, my son, who I can't even talk to right now because when I think about him, just...think, I think...'why?' or 'what happened?' or a thousand different—" she said, her breath hitching, causing her to pause, but finding she didn't really feel like talking anymore.

Paige quickly crossed the room and curled her arms around her sister who clung back with all the strength of a seven-month old pregnant woman.

Paige didn't seem to mind.

"Shh. It's alright. You're okay," Paige whispered. "Everything's going to be okay. We'll get through this," Paige assured her, even though her own voice was starting to crack, which wouldn't exactly the most convincing thing she could do. "We always do."

"But, what if we don't?" asked Piper. "We've been lucky too many times, Paige. I mean, we already know our luck's going to run out and all the good karma in the world won't be able to save us, but what happens if something changes it? I mean, what if now, by simply knowing, makes it so we die sooner? We could have just screwed things up even more."

"I...I don't know, sweetie," admitted Paige, hesitantly. "I don't know what to say to that. I guess we just have to believe that...everything happens for a reason."

She felt Piper chuckle softly against her stomach. When Piper pulled back, her face was twisted in some parody of a smile. "That's it? That's all you've got?" she said, good-naturedly. "I expected more from a half-whitelighter."

Paige decided to play along with the levity Piper was trying to hide the pain behind. "Yeah, well, I'm tired and cranky and I'm pretty sure what we had for lunch wasn't sushi. Sue me."

Both of them laughed lightly for a while, trying to take in the humor of the moment before the distraction wore off. Eventually, they quieted down and both of them just stayed there staring at everything and nothing and Paige could swear she heard the wheels in Piper's head beginning to slow down.

"I wish Leo was here," Piper whispered sadly.

"We could—"

"No, we can't," insisted Piper, suddenly. "Chris doesn't want to let Leo in on this, not yet, and I think, in this case, he's right. We don't need him yet. Everything Leo knows about magic should already be in the Book or in our heads after all the years he's lived here. It has to be. It's like...osmosis or something."

Paige just laughed lightly and gave Piper a small smile. They stayed like that for a few seconds, both desperately stalling for time neither really had because dealing with their current positions was just too much to handle.

Finally, "I think I need to take a break," declared Paige. "I'm going to go see if Phoebe needs anything or if she's feeling better than I'm gonna try again," she said as she crossed the kitchen floor, softly patting Piper on her way out, turning only to give Piper one, supposedly pointed stare and quickly saying, "You should talk to him," before making her way for the stairs, leaving Piper alone in a kitchen that didn't suddenly feel so homey anymore.

He could hear her coming to him long before she hesitantly knocked on the door of his room.

More importantly, he could feel her coming to him before she knocked on the door of his room.

"Chris, sweetie?" she asked.

"Don't," he answered quietly, his voice shaking a bit, back turned to her. "Just...don't. Please."

"What..." she started, confused, as she slowly crossed the floor.

"Don't ask," he stated simply, but vaguely. "Not that question. Because...I don't know. I just...don't know. I mean, I just played with him the other day and I just can't seem to understand how he could just...how I couldn't...why he..." he trailed off.

"Chris?" Piper nervously prompted as she lifted her hand to softly touch his back before deciding to just put it down.

"After five years of knowing, half a decade, and I still don't know how I couldn't...and how he could...and I just saw him the other day and I remember thinking 'Wow, he must be one of the best kids I've ever seen,' and my mind just can't grasp around the idea that he..." he trailed off to look at her and Piper swore she felt her heart break at that very moment.

"Oh, honey," she whispered as he felt her draw him into her.

And they stayed like that for a while, minutes melting into a bonding both needed as much as they wanted it; both looking for comfort that nothing but a warm, embracing body could give.

The hug was awkward and painful. She had to stand on her tip-toes to reach behind his neck, a difficult task for a woman with something close to a basketball for a stomach—which created its own obstacle by the way, and he had to bend down just so he could wrap around her middle, causing a dull ache at in his spine and neck, and before that, she had jabbed him in the gut with an elbow and he had stepped on her toes.

They both thought it was perfect.

After a while, Piper small chuckling could be heard again, coming from the folds of Chris' shirt. He pulled away sharply, as if burned, but when he saw her face, knew the laughter wasn't pointed directly at him.

"What?" he asked cautiously, although a hint of a laugh was already forming in the back of his throat.

She chuckled again and smiled as her eyes met his.

"It's just...I just came to ask what you wanted for dinner."

The statement worked it's way through Chris' solemn state of mind slowly, but once it did, he couldn't help but join her.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry," he said. "I feel like an idiot."

"No, don't. It's alright. I think...I think I needed to hear that," she said, almost whispering, and by the emotions—the faint wisps of barely lightened tension the empathy blocking potion let slip through the cracks—he felt coming off her, he knew she was telling the truth.

They were quiet for a second longer, but eventually Piper had to ask.

"Chris? I know that you may not want to talk about this, but...what are we going to do about Brett? What do you think he'll do if we let him stay here? I mean, you know him the most and you come from the future, so..." she trailed off.

His heart tightened and his muscles screamed but, for some reason, he didn't flinch, something the other could see—and was grateful for, and he didn't know if he could answer this question without mind shutting down all over again.

"I...don't know," Chris answered truthfully. "He was hellbent on killing future Wyatt, Mom. I've never...seen him like that before. He's changed so..." he trailed off and she just waited for him to continue. "If I still know him, the 'him' he used to be, he'll probably be looking for a way to beat Wyatt."

Piper's eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you said it was nearly impossible."

Chris huffed, frustrated, as he ran his fingers through his hair, pulling loosely. "That's just it, he's supposed to be."

"Well, can you think of anything that could beat Wyatt?" she asked cautiously.

Chris sighed again, frustrated. "If anyone could, it'd be Brett. He knows all our secrets, all our strengths, all our weaknesses...it'd have to be him, but he said he wasn't strong enough so..." he trailed off and Piper knew she heard the wheels in his head begin to make snapping and cracking sounds. "If he wants to take down Wyatt, he'd have to get a major power increa—oh shit."

A figure stalked across the a dark hall, opening into a large dusty room with dark shelves filled with books and potions that littered three large tables positioned in a qausi-semi-circle, surveying a large black cauldron. Ignoring all these, the figure reached up and plucked a book from the shelves, opened it, and threw it when he didn't find what he wanted. He picked up another book, only to throw it away when he didn't find what he wanted. He tried again and again at different spots along the shelf even as a smooth sultry voice started behind him.

"They're running out of time," it said. "They can't wait any longer. They'll have to strike or move soon because your damn barriers won't hold anymore."

He didn't even slightly acknowledge her when she started talking, seeming as if he knew she was there since he walked in, which made her angry. "Didn't you hear me? You're people are going to die, so what ever plan you've made has to be executed. Now."

"Don't bother me. Not now. Besides, they're expendable," he returned slowly. "All that matters now is Wyatt."

"He wants you back, you know," the cool voice said, a tad bit colder. "He's sent Alden back with four of your guards."

He caught the innuendo, but didn't rise to bait. Instead...

"Why, Lexa, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous." He heard her snarl behind him and caught a flare out of the corner of his eye.

Seconds before the fireball was to hit him, he dodged out of the way and turned invisible. Her head flailed wildly, trying to catch some glimpse to indicate where he was. It wasn't until she felt cold steel against her throat did she give up, nostrils flaring, eyes dark, and lips so thin, they looked like a single drawn line.

"Go back," he said to her, voice unnaturally calm. "Tell the last remaining Avatars of Power to ready their forces. Tell them that one way or another a Prophetic Power is going to come back."

He stalked off before she could question him closely. "What do you mean? I thought the youngest was killed."

"He was," was his curt reply.

"Well, then? And where exactly are you going?" she said, feeling naked, defeated and dumb, left in the middle of the room.

He answered her vaguely just before stepping out of the room, prize in hand.

"I'm going to see a man about some powers."

"Chris?" Piper asked cautiously.

"God, that's it!" Chris yelled. "That's it! I can't believe I missed it!"

"Chris?" she tried again, but he didn't seem to hear her.

"Mom, there's something you need to know about Brett, about his family. They're not like us, or like normal witches. His family is famous in their own right, too, Mom. They have some of the most powerful spells and postions created in their Book. Thing is, they only have one power—the illusion power—in their family and each of them passes it down."

Piper only nodded vaguely and Chris continued.

"Here's the tricky part. When they die, a family member can pass on their powers to the last person they were with before they died, regardless if they're a demon, an innocent, a whitelighter, or another witch."

"So?" Piper asked cautiously.

Chris' eyes bugged out. "So?! So, they've been passing it down in the family for nearly five hundred years now! It's like a...famous heirloom for them. Between all of them, all those powers, the psychic energy increases and, eventually, they're illusions start to become real or thought projection."

Piper started to see where he was going with this. "So you're saying that, whatever he wanted, he could make happen?"

Chris thought about it for a minute. "I don't think so, not if he wanted to unmake people—there's no way he could have that much power—but between two hundred and fifty years worth of psychic powers from his family, then adding on Matt's, he'd come pretty close. If he got his family's powers...that'd be one hell of a power boost."

Piper's eyebrows furrowed as she thought over what he said. "Two hundred and fifty years? I thought you said..."

Chris' face fell a little more in sadness and shame now rather than concentration. "When Brett's parents died, when he came to live with us...let's just say there's a reason why he resents you."

Piper's silence said it all.

"Brett wouldn't kill his own parents before he was born so he must have gone after his uncle in Manhattan. He's the only other person left and has half of their family's legacy. If Brett gets to him before we do, if Brett gets those powers..." Chris trailed off.

Their silence was interrupted by a loud bang from downstairs.

Suddenly Paige orbed in a swirl of blue lights and smoke, looking ashen and smudged with a bright smile on her face.

"I found him!" she said excitedly. "He's in New York."

I'm sorry I didn't update sooner (I hate school)! From now on, I'm going to update every Sunday night/Monday moring so it'll be ready for the week. That would feel good.

Also, I know this chapter sucked, but it does have it's purposes in the future, so...keep that in mind.

Thank you.

Devil's Archangel.