Chapter Twenty One
2:48 P.M.
"Are you sure this will work?" Piper asked.
"It's all we got so far," answered Paige.
"Do we have the potions?" asked Phoebe.
"Yeah," answered Chris. "Mom and I just finished them." He took a vial of different colors and pointed separately at each. "We got one for freezing, one to make you invisible, one for binding, one for blasting, and one for scalding," Chris said with a grimace.
Everyone else was just kind enough not to point it out.
"Okay," breathed Piper. "Let's get this show started." She rubbed her hands together as if to clean them and then smiled at Paige. "Do you have the crystal cage?"
Paige nodded. "Yup. All set up and ready to go. Although, it would be best if you and Phoebe blessed them, too. Just in case."
"We don't have time," said Piper hastily. "Besides, if we do this right, we should have more than enough time to get the rest of the stuff ready by the time he comes to."
She looked over the circle that had formed in front of her as each of them picked up several potions and various other magical weapons.
"Okay, you guys," she said, trying to sound as confident as possible despite the faltering her voice just did. "Let's do it."
A figure slipped through the darkness of an empty foyer so large that it could easily serve as a hurricane shelter if needed. The figure shifted quietly through the entrance, quickly making its way to the enormous staircase in the middle of the room leading up into the upper half of the house, seeming as if it knew, by heart, the insides of the rather large labyrinth.
The figure paused halfway up the stairs to look around the many various portraits on the walls surrounding the circular room with its high ceiling, bathed in the blue light of the moon from the French windows from higher up, as if studying them with new interest or a familiar nostalgia. It could be seen shaking its head underneath its hood and then continue its long march up the stairs when, suddenly...it paused again, cocking its head in a manner that suggested it detected something only it could hear.
"NOW!!!" someone screamed and the figure frantically searched the spacious, but clear and uncluttered room for the owner of the voice. It was able to dodge two very close potions and a levitated kick before it flipped up the stairs to look back down and reassess the situation before he was quickly ambushed, only to find that there was no one there.
"NOW!" the voice screamed again and, this time, the figure only managed to dodge three out of five of them and was knocked off balance as another kick came his way. Piper, Paige, and Chris grew closer from the base of the stairs as Phoebe started drifting away, moving her hands up and down her shoulders in a warming motion, muttering something about "cold" and "ice" and that "it was so cold."
The figure still laid, sprawled on the floor, and Chris jumped up into a flying tackle in his attempt to in it down, but when his hands should have connected with ratty, old cloth, they went straight through. Chris jumped back and then the figure drew its hood, revealing face that held a smirk and the coldest eyes he had ever seen before disappearing entirely in a flash of white.
"Chris?" Piper asked worriedly from the bottom of the stairs.
"Run!" Chris cried as he made his way for the bottom of the stairs, barely dodging a boulder-sized ball of light following him down. The ball of light kept going, passing Chris and the sisters as they ducked and connected with the front door, completely disintegrating it where it stood.
"I'm disappointed, Chris," a voice from high up said. "Did you really think you could catch me that surprised?" it said, lips curling into a smirk, a parody of a hurt expression, as a second figure floated down from the high ceiling. "Really, Chris, you wound me."
"Again!" screamed Piper as she and Paige uselessly began throwing potions at the figure while Chris could only stare in shock and Phoebe collapsing on the ground, gasping for air, her breath icy.
The figure waved an arm, easily deflecting the various potions hurdled towards it, and then waved his other arm, sending the girls sliding across the floor of the room.
"Mom!" Chris yelled, missing the figure turn invisible for a second, floating above the middle of the stairs and reappearing behind him.
"Now, this should be fun," it said, darkly amused, as one hand curled around Chris' wrist, twisting his arm behind his back, as the other brought a silver athame toward his throat. "Yeah. Real fun."
"Chris!" Piper screamed, not for the first time cursing her current state and how it hindered her movements. "Chris!" she screamed as a light slowly developed around them, springing up to form a barrier around the two.
"We'll see you really soon," the figure said in a mock-innocent voice as the two slowly vanished in the swirls of blue and white light.
"Paige!" Piper yelled as her was sister already turning into a swirl of lights, attempting to orb past the barrier, only to be bounced back and thrown to the wall when she tried. "Paige!" Piper screamed again from where she was on the floor, only this time her tone had a more concerned pitch to it.
"I'm alright!" Paige yelled in response. "A little disoriented, but alright."
"No," muttered Piper. "No! I can't lose him now! I won't lose him now!" she screamed as her thoughts once again focused on her son. She slowly got up and attempted to blast the barrier down, and was wonderfully surprised when it didn't bounce of as well and blast her. She tried again and again and again and again and...again, all the while making no progress.
"Sweetie," she heard Paige whisper against her, wrapping her arms around Piper's. "You're not getting anywhere. Stop."
"No! I can't! I have to—sniffle—save him," she said, shaking off Paige's hold and trying once more and shattering the barrier to reveal...nothing.
"What? But...where are they?" Piper said, eyebrows furrowing in bewilderment.
"They're long gone," said Paige quietly, again wrapping her arms around her sister in comfort. "This must have been a distraction. There's nothing here," she said matter-of-factly. "Phoebe's down, the baby may be hurt...Piper, we need to regroup."
"No, I can't" Piper started.
"You can't help Chris if you make it so there won't be one in the future!" Paige snapped, then looking defeated. "We need to go."
Piper turned and began to make her way towards her other sister on the ground when...
"Did you hear?" she asked as she cocked her head.
"It sounds like...fighting," Paige answered slowly. "Brett."
"Chris," Piper said breathily. "Where's it coming from?"
"Upstairs."
"But that could take forever," Piper snapped. "I mean, have you seen the size of this house."
"It's coming from the attic," Paige said, eyes never leaving the staircase.
"How do you know?" asked Piper.
"Because," Paige answered equal parts amused and tired. "It's always the attic."
The figure stepped in close and kicked at Chris' head, but was blocked by Chris' left hand. It tried a split second punch to his face with its left hand, but Chris' blocked with his right. The figure tried with his right arm but was met with a cross block with both hands as they curled around its arm and was sent hurdling towards the opposite wall where it fell, crumpling to the floor.
It laughed.
"Oh, Chris," it said with general amusement. "You haven't practicing. I gave you, like, three openings right there."
"I don't want to hurt you," Chris replied curtly as the other half snorted, half scoffed.
"Funny, 'cause I want to hurt you!" it yelled before launching itself into the air, barreling straight towards Chris' chest, who just happened to orb out, causing the figure to miss entirely. However, the figure anticipated this and already began twisting itself mid air and using its levitation power to propel itself for a few more precious second as it caused a rain of white, jagged lights down to where Chris had reappeared.
Chris managed to deflect them in time, but they must have been a distraction because a second later he was suddenly sprawled over the attic's Persian rugs, blood oozing out of his mouth where the figure had kicked at his cheek, his arm, and his mid section.
"You know, you should really avoid the hurt look because, let me tell you, it's not very becoming on you," the figure said, nonchalantly as it walked in a oblivious manner toward Chris. "Sexy as hell, maybe, but...not becoming."
"Why?" Chris asked as he surreptitiously shifted his good hand, the hand that hadn't been crushed when he blocked a kick, around to his side. "Why are you doing this?"
The figure snapped. "I told you. I'll do what you couldn't, what you refused to do. I'll take your responsibility to your family and kill that son of a bitch for what he's done," the figure spat as he rounded on Chris, kneeling down and grabbing him by the color of his shirt. "And if that means I have to step on a few ants to do it, well...let's just say I'll get the job done."
"I won't let you get away with this," Chris deadpanned and the figure chuckled.
"Huh. That's funny, because, last time I checked, you were in no position to stop me," it said mock-warmly as its hand trailed down to Chris' already developing bruises on his rib cage and pressed down cruelly as Chris screamed.
Chris conjured a Light bomb and flicked it at the figure's chest, but was intercepted by a barely erected energy barrier which caused the other to be thrown across the room and into a wall, once again falling in a heap of ratty, old robes and played limbs.
It laughed.
"Don't you get it by now, Chris?" it said amused as it used its levitation powers to pick itself up from the floor. "Between Matt's powers, our psychic techniques, and my fighting styles and mind, you haven't got a chance, especially when you've yet to take that unbinding potion," it said disapprovingly. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. What are we going to do with you?"
Chris, who had just picked himself off the floor, knew that, normally, he would have felt his blood boil in rage or chill in fear, but all he could muster was...sad surprise.
"What happened to you?" Chris asked once more, a tinge of desperation in his voice.
He saw Brett's mask crack for a second, just a second, but crack it did. "Now, Chris, we already played this game. Really, you're starting to bore me, and you know how much I don't like being bored."
Chris felt the vice around his heart tighten just a little more.
"Was it Porter or Megan?" Chris asked hesitantly. "Because, we can still find a way to bring to bring Megan back, and we can find Porter, he has to be somewhere—"
Chris saw Brett's eyes flash and darken. "Shut up."
Chris stepped forward, scared, but unwilling to back down. "Is it Prue?" he asked, voice serious, "Because, last time I checked, she was fine at the sub-base in the Mun-Lunn Mountains. She has her own level, without anyone and there are wards on the walls so she can't feel anyone else's—"
Brett's eyes flared. "I said, 'SHUT UP!!!'" he yelled, waving his arm, hand in a scratching motion.
Chris felt the harsh sting on his chest felt the blood drip through the slits of his shirt. "Was it Matt?" Chris asked, taking another step. "'Cause...I don't know what to say about that," he said, eyes watery. "I'm sorry you had to—"
"SHUT UP!!! JUST...SHUT...UP!!!" Brett yelled as he sent Chris flying into several bookcases and walls until his arm grew stiff from the tension he kept there.
Chris got up, bloody and red from places he knew would bruise. "Was it me?" he asked, taking a difficult and painful step forward. "Did you feel like I abandoned you?" Chris asked slowly, tears falling feely now. "Because I'm sorry if you felt that way. It's just...even if I had Bianca and you were my best friend...it just...it still hurt to see you and Wyatt together...happy."
"STOP IT!!!" yelled Brett, a voice so strong and determined echoed through the attic's high ceiling. A white light surrounded Brett's body, pouring out of him with such a force, that when Chris fell against the wall that, had it not been for his ability to move his legs, he would have thought it severed his spine.
"Stop it!" yelled Brett again, but the light already started waning, and Brett started swaying on his feet, energy spent. "Just...stop it," he said breathily. He lifted an arm to wipe the tears on the sleeve of his robes just when the sisters orbed in.
"Chris?" Piper asked when she saw his figure, bloody and bruising, slumped on the floor and Brett's arm held high in the air. Misinterpreting the situation, Piper threw a potion just when Chris looked up.
"Mom! No!" Chris yelled trying to deflect the potion but was too weak to do anything.
The potion caught Brett's left arm and he let out a primal sound that shook the attic.
"Ahhh!!!! That hurts!" Brett grimaced as he looked at Chris and then Piper. "I guess that's what I get for playing," he said as he locked eyes with Chris again. "Lesson the first, Love. 'Never let your guard down.' I can't believe I did."
"What..." Chris asked, disbelief coloring his face.
Piper and Paige threw more potions his way but Brett easily dodged them by levitating. He flipped his way higher up and, just as he was coming out of a tuck, he uncrossed his arms sending a shower of white, jagged lights again that Piper and Paige had difficulty stopping.
He locked eyes with each of them, including Phoebe who was gasping even stronger now, breath visible, before locking them with Chris'.
"This isn't over," Brett said, coldly, but thankfully, this time, without the mock-endearment of an insane person.
A burst of smoke surrounded him and explosions circled the girls, although they weren't under any pain. Just as suddenly as it had come, the explosions vanished and smoke in a bright white flash and the faint sound a door slamming could be heard coming from downstairs.
"Chris?" asked Piper quietly. "Chris? Honey? Are you okay?" he heard, but, somehow the words weren't registering, even as warm arms and steady hands enveloped him in a hug and began inspecting his many wounds.
All he could see was the replay of what happened in the past ten minutes, and Chris couldn't help but feel like an idiot.
It wasn't until he thought about it—really thought about it—did it occur to him that he saw Brett's eyes flash. It didn't occur to him until seconds later that they must have flashed—for the first real time since Brett had been here—by their own accord because at the time Brett was too busy trying to kill Chris for Brett to worry about a minor and off-subject matter as eye-flashing is.
Chris smiled.
Here you guys! Sorry if it was a bit late, but, hello, labor day.
Anyway, I hope you like it.
Devil's Archangel.