True Power

Chapter Three: Considering the Truth

Piper

Phoebe's dinner table is dead silent, two chairs at the end left empty. The twins dutifully pick at the food on their plates and Mel solemnly stares down at her lap. Phoebe is fidgeting with the frilly tassels on her shirt sleeve and David is watching her absent-mindedly. Leo, sitting beside me, is shaking, either from rage or worry or some strange mixture of emotions I've never seen come from him before.

Whatever way you put it, the grand meal that is set before us is being ignored.

"Where are the boys?" I ask Leo quietly.

"I don't know," he snaps. "How would I know? I don't know!"

"Excuse me," I mutter, finally giving up on food and walking over to Phoebe's dishwasher so I can empty it before the load from dinner goes in. It makes a good distraction. "The least you could do is call them."

"I called Wyatt. He's at the manor. Busy, he said," Leo informs me.

Phoebe clears her throat in surprise. "Busy? With what?"

"Probably homework." Leo meets her skeptical gaze. "What? Are you accusing my son of doing something wrong?"

Phoebe jumps up in her chair a bit, straightening her back. "N-no—"

"Because there's nothing wrong with Wyatt, got it? He's a teenager. He had a little mishap this morning, but he knows what he's doing," Leo says confidently.

"Leo…" I say warningly. "You have to admit that it's been more than one little mishap from this morning. Wyatt's been a little out of control lately. Maybe we should go check on him."

"My son doesn't need to be checked on," he persists.

"Where's Chris, then?" I question Leo. "We haven't heard from him since the collapse this afternoon. What happened to him?"

"He's thinking about his irresponsibility. He should never have brought Mel and the twins on that bridge."

Mel drops her fork and pulls out her chair, standing up to face Leo. Her face is bright red and she appears to be holding in every urge to cuss Leo into oblivion. "Y-you know what, Uncle Leo?" she stutters. "You d-don't get it, okay? You just don't get it. Chris is the only one that teaches us anything. Just shut up, okay? Just shut up."

"Mel—" David gasps.

"I don't want to hear it," she hisses, stomping up the stairs. All is silent until we hear a door slam from her bedroom.

"Maybe I was a little hard on him," Leo admits.

"Leo, Chris can't even orb. How do you expect him to get back home? What you did was downright cruel—you left him in the middle of San Francisco without a ride or money or anything, for that matter."

"I'll go get him," he says sheepishly.

We wait for him to orb out. His eyes close in concentration, sensing for Chris. Finally he frowns at us.

"I can't sense him anywhere."

One of Phoebe's plates slip out of my hand and crashes to the floor before I can freeze it. "Try again," I demand.

"I can't," Leo says, panicking. "He's not on the radar. He's either in another world or…"

The twins glare at Leo in anger, simultaneously rising from the table to join Mel and whispering something to each other in urgent little peeps.

"Or dead," Phoebe finishes once they leave. "Oh, Leo, what have you done?"

Chris

When I finally open my eyes and straighten myself, I'm shocked to see that I'm no longer on the beach. The sirens have faded and the chaos has been replaced by dark, musty cave walls radiating a terrible stench of death. Immediately I realize I must be in the Underworld. My senses snap on in a heartbeat and I leap to my feet.

"Who are you?" I demand, knowing that there was no way I could've ended up here myself.

A soft chuckle came from behind me. I whip around and see nothing.

"Show yourself, coward," I accuse, focusing on the spot from which the laugh came from. A demon forms next to me, looking mousy with gray hair and yellowed teeth.

"No reason to panic," he says airily, his voice sickly sweet. "We're in the Underworld, my boy. But surely you figured that out by now."

"Take me back."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Don't threaten me," he laughs when I raise my hands. "You're a fool of a boy without a shred of power to your name. Even I can see that—but I also see potential that you're wasting. No, you're not leaving the Underworld. Do you think you could go back after what you did?" He leans in a little closer to me, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. "That's right, Chris. The bridge. No one will ever treat you the same…"

"What happened wasn't my fault," I insist, though my voice wavers. "You get away from me!"

"Ah, it seems as if you don't want to face the truth. Well, when you're ready, I suppose we'll begin your training. Until then…" He shrugs. "Enjoy the misery of being all alone."

He pops out, but I remain still. Training? Does he expect me to work for him or something? I grimace, but make no attempt to escape. This demon is powerful, and for all I know he's still in the room.

"Thanks a lot, Leo," I mutter, throwing my back against the wall to sit in disgust. "You never could believe me."

Leo

"I'll get the scrying crystals," David volunteers, knowing that it's the only assistance he can offer. He scurries out of the room. I watch him go, suddenly envious. His kids aren't messed up—they're all perfectly fine upstairs. Well, actually, they're downright pissed off…but that's my problem, too.

"Paige!" Phoebe calls. "Paige—!"

Paige orbs down, a little flustered. "What? Something else happen?" She looks around the table. "Where's Wyatt? Did he—"

"No, Wyatt didn't do anything," I say for the millionth time, it seems. "I can't sense Chris. He's missing completely."

"What? What do you mean, Chris is missing?" Suddenly she's gone pale; I imagine her expression matches my own as we realize what this means. "How could he be missing?"

"Leo abandoned him," Piper says simply, though the anger in her voice could be heard from miles away. She stares at me as if thinking what an easy target I'd make for blowing up. I feel myself beginning to sweat.

Where could Chris be? What would happen if we never found him? What if he really was…dead? I shake the thought off. This is Chris we're talking about. Chris wouldn't let anything kill him, he was too smart for that. Wasn't he?

"Abandoned him?" Paige asks.

"Ditched him in the middle of San Francisco right after the bridge collapsed," Phoebe explains.

"I heard about that. But what does Chris have anything to do with it?"

"They were out training on the bridge when it happened," says Phoebe, eyes meeting Paige's. So, they knew about their little training sessions. They didn't bother to tell Piper or me about the meetings with the other kids from the Embassy, figuring it was all dandy and safe.

"You knew," I accuse.

"We did," Paige says carefully. "We always knew. They were never hurting anyone. I don't think they had anything to do with it—they've been meeting up there for years, and in the library, too."

"And you didn't tell us?"

Phoebe shrugs. "You didn't seem too eager to know. Thanks," she says to David as he comes back with the crystals and the map. She turns back to me. "Besides, Leo, I hate to say this, but we were afraid you wouldn't understand."

"And we were right. You didn't," Paige adds.

My fists clench. "You never gave me a chance to understand."

"Yes, we did. You were always so intent on blaming Chris for things that were Wyatt's fault, that we thought we shouldn't give you an opportunity to blame him for anything else. Look at what you just did to him! You left him all alone and now some demon's probably—"

Piper drops something loudly in the sink. "Just start scrying," she commands, eyes beginning to fill with tears. "Find him. Call Wyatt to help."

"Wyatt!" I call. "Wyatt! Wyatt, we need you!"

I can sense Wyatt. He's still at the bridge…but he's not answering. I orb out to see what he's doing.

And then I see him: my son, standing, staring at the wreckage and turmoil, his face curled into a sickening, pleased smile.

That's when I know that Phoebe and Paige are absolutely right. None of this was Chris' fault.

It was Wyatt's.

Chris

I realize upon opening my eyes that I must have fallen asleep. Was it a dream? The bridge and the demon?

I look around. Nope, it was never a dream. It was very much real and now I'm trapped inside some ugly demon's lair without a hair of a chance of escaping.

And I can't move, either.

I look down and realize my wrists and ankles are chained to the floor uncomfortably. The skin is raw and throbbing, obviously from squirming when I wasn't awake. Well, this sucks, because now not only can I not get out, I can't make any means to defend myself when that demon comes back.

"Awake, now, are we?"

Speak of the devil. "What the hell do you want from me?" I demand.

"I believe I made that very clear. I want your cooperation and your power."

"Go look somewhere else, you bastard," I tell him. "I don't have any power. I see the future and feel emotions. Big whoop. Let me go, would you?"

The demon cackles under his breath. "No power? Aren't you the boy that blew up the entire Embassy?" He pauses, obviously glad to have surprised me with his knowledge. "Yes, that's right. I know everything about you, Chris Halliwell, including that you have many, many powers yet to be unleashed."

"Why do you know so much about me?" I ask. "Why can't you just use Wyatt?"

"I make it my business to know things about people. And I can't use your brother because his powers have already chosen a destiny for him. Yours, however, are quite neutral."

My eyes widen. "Wyatt's—"

"Evil," the demon finishes for me. "That's right. Surprising? I shouldn't think so. I will admit that it was your brother that sent the bridge hurtling down, not you—but the point I'm trying to make is, you have enough power to do so much more than that."

"I'm not evil like you, you scum."

"You say that, Chris, but even you know your mind is conflicted. You're thinking, 'The elders were supposed to be good, and look what they did to us.' You're thinking about all the doubts your parents have about you, all the times they've blamed you. Deep in your subconscious, you know that you're not ready to completely sentence yourself to good. And that's why I'm here. To take your doubts and mold them into something so much better."

"Evil," I hiss.

"Power," he corrects me.

"I don't have any doubts about whether I'm going to be good or evil," I tell him, "so you can find some other kid and annoy them."

"Think about it," he orders me, blinking out of the room.

And despite my struggle against it, I do think about it. Everything he said was true. Was good really supposed to be all about people doubting and blaming you for every deed gone wrong? Was good really supposed to be sixteen children trapped Up There, two of them now dead? Was good really supposed to be evil like Wyatt sneaking around?

I know I could never assist a demon…but maybe good isn't all that it was cracked up to be.

TBC

I am so so so so so sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've totally been busy. I've got swim team and babysitting and community service for school and National Junior Honors Society work plus all this homework and a million projects, so I've beenall over the place this past month or so. I just managed to squeeze this chapter in this morning because, you know, it's Easter, and I don't have to be ANYWHERE. Whew, does that feel good. And if one of my sibs doesn't demand their turn on the computer, maybe I'll be able to update a second time...or at least start half a chappie.

Anyways, thank you so much for all these great reviews! I totally don't deserve them after not updating for so long, but you all make me feel so special! Lol. Well, until next time...

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