Chris orbed into the manor and began looking through the attic, "There has to be something!" Chris said desperately.
He scanned the book of shadows, nothing! He needed to stop the voices.
"Get out of my head!" Chris hissed, "I can't help you, I just can't!"
He threw the book across the room, "Just stop it!"
He crouched down in the corner and began rocking back and forth, "I can't help you." He cried, "Why can't you see that? It's just not in me anymore."
His head was so cluttered, voices and visions clouded his mind, he had no idea what were his own thoughts. He was lost.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
They found him in the darkest corner of the attic mumbling a string of incoherrent words, "No. I can't help you. He doesn't love you. Leave me alone. You're dead!"
"Chris, what's going on?"
Chris chuckled as he stood up, "They weren't supposed to come back. All the voices, all the visions-" his head snapped to the side, "Piss off! Can't you see I'm talking here?"
"Who are you talking to?" Paige asked, concerned about the whitelighter's appearance.
He began to clear the attic, "No one important. YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT NEEDS HELP!" he shouted.
"Chris why don't you sit down?" Phoebe suggested, "Relax a bit." The empathic readings she was getting from the boy were very loud.
"Not calm, they come when I'm not busy. When my thoughts aren't my own…I need to keep busy."
"Chris you're going to sit down." Piper said sternly, "Now."
"I told you I can't!" Chris said softly, "I just want the voices to go away." He said, tears streaming from his eyes, "I just want them to stop."
"LEO!" The sisters called, "GET YOUR ASS HERE!"
"No shouting! Please no shouting."
Chris hit his head with the heel of his right hand, "Get out! You're not mine!"
Leo orbed into the attic and saw Chris pacing frantically, mumbling something he couldn't understand. And the sisters desperately trying to calm him down.
"What's going on?"
"Chris has lost his mind." Paige said, "We found him like this."
"No, no, no, no, NO! I'm not crazy! You made that mistake last time, all the drugs they don't work. You locked me up and they couldn't help me!"
"Chris just stop okay, the voices aren't real. They're in your head."
"They are real!" Chris shouted, "And… oh shut up! You don't know everything!"
Paige orbed the rocking chair up from the nursery, right behind Chris and the frightend man looked up, "What are you doing?"
"One way or another you'll relax."
"Just make them stop." He begged, "I just want to be left alone. Please make 'em stop."
"We don't know what's wrong Chris."
"The only person who knew how to stop them won't help me anymore." Chris said quietly.
"We'll make it better honey, I promise." Piper soothed.
"Just make them stop. Please make it stop."
Leo blew some sleeping dust in his face and caught the boy as he slumped foreward, "I think we need to restrain him." Leo said.
"Why?" Paige asked, "You know how he's feeling. How do you think he'll react if he's tied up when he wakes?"
"I know, but look at his arms." Leo said, gesturing to the scratch marks, "He could hurt himself."
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"Just make them stop. Please make it stop."
Wyatt woke drenched in sweat, Chris' powers had returned. The voices were so loud in that brief connection Wyatt could barely hear his brother's plea.
"Damn it."
Wyatt rose from his bed and pulled on a pair of jeans, a tee shirt and a jacket (All black of course.) that potion he made was meant to work for at least twenty years. It was supposed to bind all perceptive powers keeping only the link between the two of them and his ability to sense.
"Wyatt my love." A voice came from the bed, "What's the matter."
"You're going to be in charge for a while my dear Persephone. I have some things to take care of."
"What kind of things my Lord."
"My brother, he's ill."
"Ill? Are you going to bring him home?"
"No…" Wyatt laughed, he'd actually uttered those words. All his plans were to bring his brother home. All the plans, and he wasn't going to bring Chris home?
Persephone climbed from the bed, her hand across her pregnant belly, "Wyatt…there's something you're not telling me."
"The voices have started again."
Persephone let out a small cry, she remembered what had happened to the boy the last time his powers had taken hold. Chris had almost killed himself and his Aunts and Uncles had bound his powers and had him committed. Chris had been in Springwood for two years before Wyatt was able to get him out, the potion she and her husband had made was supposed to last for twenty years. It had only been six years…if his body had built up a resistance to the potion…she couldn't bare to think of the consequences.
"Don't worry my love. I'll make it better."
Persephone kissed his cheek, "I hope so my love. Your brother needs your support. I remember when you first got your telepathy…but Chris has that along with empathy and the ability to talk to the dead all at once. He was so young, all that power bought on by a powerful kind of grief…"
Wyatt kissed her and instantly put her mind to rest, "I will protect him." He promised.
"Well, we'll be waiting for you." She grinned, her face hardened for a moment, "I suggest you go."
Wyatt knelt down, "Daddy will be home soon little one. I just have to go make your Unkie Chris all better. Until I get back protect your mother."
Wyatt looked up at his wife and for the first time in years, orbed to the manor.
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Chris awoke, his arms felt like they were on fire and he screamed bloody murder. Waking Piper who was laying beside the rocking chair on the sofa, "Chris what's wrong?"
"They're burning!" Chris cried, "My arms, they're on fire!"
"No they aren't sweetie."
Chris struggled in the bonds, "Lemme go! Please mummy, I'll be good, just let me go!"
"Chris it's for your own protection."
"BUT IT HURTS!"
Upstairs Paige, Piper and Leo were discussing the problem at hand, "Do you think a demon did this?" Paige asked.
"I think Chris' non stop demon hunting may have pushed him over the edge." Leo muttered sadly, "The Elders say there is nothing they can do."
"There has to be something we can do." Phoebe said, "Chris has come this far, we can't just give up on him!"
"I still think a demon's responsible."
Nobody noticed the portal opening, "A demon isn't responsible. They're his powers."
They all turned around and saw the tall man standing before him, messy long blonde hair and blue eyes showing signs of worry.
"Who are you?" Leo asked.
"Don't you recognise me Dad?"
"Wyatt?"
"You're not kidding." Wyatt sighed annoyed, "Where is my brother?"
"Who?" Leo asked, still in shock.
"You know, six one, dark hair green eyes. Cocky, sarcastic and neurotic as all hell, right proper pain in the ass. Hearing voices and generally seeming pretty crazy right about now."
"Why is he going crazy?"
"He's not. He just has his powers back."
"Wait, what powers?"
"Chris is a telepath, empath and medium…"
"What?"
"Chris, he's almost as powerful as me…but there are powers he can't control that were brought about after Piper died in his arms. They're his powers but instead of growing into them he was thrown into the deep end. You three didn't even realise he had those powers, you just bound his powers and shoved him in Springwood." Wyatt hissed, "He wasn't crazy, he was drowning."
Wyatt stopped when he heard the scream from downstairs, he orbed the four of them downstairs where a still tied up Chris was thrashing about trying desperately to get out of the bonds.
"Let me go!" he screamed, "It hurts!"
"That's just about enough Christopher." Wyatt snapped.
The younger man stopped dead and looked up, his green eyes shadowed by his hair, "Wyatt?" he whispered.
"Yes. Now quit acting like a little girl."
"Wyatt they're back! You said they wouldn't come back!"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Wyatt shouted, scaring the already frightened Chris even further.
Chris dropped his eyes and began to cry, Piper looked at Wyatt, "Did you have to be so mean?"
"You don't understand." Wyatt said as he guided her out of the room and closed the door trapping Chris in darkness. Wyatt waved his hand and the room Chris was in was muted.
"What is going on?" Leo asked.
"When he's like this, he doesn't understand niceness. The voices in his head are so loud, so angry sometimes and his head's like a broken mirror."
"But if they're voices…"
"He's a telepath. The voices seep into his head and he can't shake them. The potion my wife and I created was supposed to last for at least twenty years. Obviously his powers have built up a resistance to it; it's time for a different approach."
"What kind of different approach?"
"Wyatt please! It burns!"
Wyatt frowned, "Chris? What's going on?"
"She's hurt, he's hurting her…fire…fire and brimstone. Wyatt it burns!" Chris sobbed telepathically.
Wyatt snapped out of it, "This is worse than I thought. Chris is picking up pain."
"Huh?"
"Chris' empathic abilities, because Leo's an Elder, all his powers are heightened, have an extensive range, it's why I had to move the prison from the mansion…Chris actually takes on the pain, almost as strong as the person who is experiencing it."
Chris pulled at the ties, he needed to get out of here. His head was killing him…
Taking a deep breath he whispered, "Thoughts and feelings that are not my own, leave now, go home, no longer to my mind will you roam. Spirits of beings past, I beg of thee…leave me be. 'Tis my will, so mote it be."
It all went quiet, no voices, no visions just him.
"WYATT!"
Chris' scream echoed throughout the manor. Wyatt raced back up the stairs, he could see the grin, "What?"
"It's quiet." Chris laughed, "Quiet."
Wyatt undid the bonds and helped Chris to his feet then orbed them downstairs and helped Chris into one of the chairs around the dining table.
Piper pressed a mug of hot chocolate into his hands, "How are you feeling sweetie?"
"Mokay." He murmured taking a long sip, "I'm a little sleepy."
He heard a low chuckle from the seat next to him, he saw Wyatt trying his messy hair up in a ponytail Chris frowned, "Why are you here?"
"You are a pain in the ass. I woke up with you screaming in my ear. So I decided to come back see how you were doing."
Chris frowned as he started to hear whispers, his arms started to burn again, "Oh no…"
"Chris what's wrong?" Piper asked, worried about the look in her baby's eyes.
"It's starting again…my arms are-" He looked over his shoulder, "You know what? Fine! State your case, if you know where she is tell me!"
