Disclaimer: No, scratch the plastic spoons. The security guards just laughed me off the set...so if you're too slow to figure it out, then no, I don't own Charmed.
Leo reached out his arms to orb the baby to him, but the boy threw up his shield and the orbs bounced away harmlessly. He gawked at the maniacally grinning teenager. Only one person in all of his years could do that.
"Wyatt," Leo breathed.
"That's right, father," he said sweetly. His tone didn't change at all when he added lightly, "Take a step closer and the baby dies."
The room froze in fear.
"Please, Wyatt," Chris begged. "You can't kill me. I'm your brother!"
Wyatt scoffed. "Anyone who chooses to use enormous power such as yours to do good is not related to me," he said simply.
Chris was furious and shaking all over. His knuckles were white, clenched into fists. "Oh, I see," he said with a quivering voice that slowly became louder. "So that's why you killed all those innocents? That's why you killed our mother?!"
Piper gasped. She'd known that she would die, but not because she was murdered by her own son! Her eyes flashed over to her toddler. No, it wasn't true. It couldn't be.
"I may have killed her, but the fact that she's dead is every bit as much your fault as it is mine." Wyatt smirked, watching Chris' face turn blank and white. "Yes, Chris. If only you'd learned to heal, hm? Maybe if you practiced using powers more often you could've defended her. But you were too weak."
Chris' glazed green eyes just stared at Wyatt. "It's not my fault," he protested faintly.
Wyatt met his little brother's gaze. "Yes, Chris, it's all your fault."
Chris' hands clutched his head. "It's not true!" he yelled. "Stop it! Just go away!" A yellow light emerged, surrounding him. It began to grow bigger as he fell to his knees.
To the Charmed Ones' and Leo's surprise, Wyatt's eyes grew wide with fear. "Chris, don't—"
"I—I can't stop it!" he cried. "Help me!" Chris seemed to be struggling to hold the energy back, but little by little it was still growing. He held his head in his hands, shaking even harder than before until the ground itself was shaking.
"It almost killed you the last time," Wyatt said to himself under the noise, unaware that Leo could hear. "Maybe if I'm lucky, it'll kill you for real..."
The light burst, temporarily blinding the room's occupants with the intensity. Chris yelled in pain as it flooded the attic. Leo squinted, seeing Wyatt disappear and the knife dropping to the floor.
After a moment the light subsided. On Chris' face was a dazed expression, almost lifeless, before he collapsed on the floor.
"What happened?" Piper cried.
Leo rushed up to Chris and began healing. He began breathing normally again but he was still pale and unconscious on the floor, unmoving.
"I've read about this at Magic School. It was in a prophecy used as a lesson for unscrambling symbols in the advanced classes. It said that a vibrant light would be given to a chosen one because he alone could change anything with it. Time, space, fate—you name it. I think he just sent Wyatt...to the future," said Paige, awed. "But there's a catch. The chosen one can only alter three things in his lifetime and then he will die."
"Why isn't he waking up?" asked Piper, leaning in to take a closer look at her son. By now Phoebe was rocking baby Chris and little Wyatt was at her side.
"I heard Wyatt say that it had happened before," Leo informed them gravely. "This must be the second time. He said that last time it almost killed him."
"He thought it was his fault I died," Piper choked. "Leo, why would he think that? What have we done?"
"I think the question should be what I did to him in the future." Leo waved his hand, orbing Chris to their bedroom. He sighed. The same bedroom where Chris had died by Gideon's athame. The same bedroom where he disappeared.
Leo couldn't help but wonder where his son went.
-
A few hours later, Chris had woken. He felt weak and drained, and it took a lot of energy for him to lift himself up. He knew where he was, the instant he had opened his eyes. He knew he was trapped for the time being, too. No pun intended on the "time being" part.
He remembered using that power he'd discovered only a week ago. He remembered the pain, the frustration, the anger all bursting out. It was such a display of weakness and he was mad at himself, but he still couldn't cry. He never cried.
"Chris, are you up?" asked Piper. She walked in and a concerned look crossed her face. "You look horrible. Go lay back down, okay? Are you hungry?"
Come to think of it, he was starving. "Y-yeah," he replied, confused. The Piper he knew wasn't ever chirpy or happy and didn't have time to be concerned. She was always relentlessly trying to turn her wayward son back to the light, up until the very moment he'd killed her. This Piper...she didn't seem to be so sad.
He obeyed her command and sat down on the bed, exhausted. A few moments later she came back with some waffles and gave them to him.
"Thanks," he mustered. It had been a long time since Piper had been able to cook a meal in his time. "These look delicious."
Piper laughed, sitting down beside him on the bed. Her expression looked uneasy. I, well, ask you a few things?"
"There are a few things I want to ask you, too. I don't know what I'm doing here. I don't know why I was sent back."
She cleared her throat. "Me first. How old are you? What's going on in your time?"
Luckily, the younger Chris didn't really think through the whole future-consequences idea. He flinched. "I'm fourteen."
Piper almost gasped, but held it back. The kid was way too small to be fourteen. Eleven, maybe, but not fourteen.
"Wyatt's sixteen. In my time, the titans attacked and killed Aunt Paige before I was born. Then came me. It was a well known fact that the first signs of Wyatt's turning occurred at my birth, so I guess...I guess Leo sorta blamed me for it," he said uncomfortably. Piper wanted to reach out and hug him but he continued. "Everyday was chaos and hell. Monsoons, tornados, floods, earthquakes..." He winced again, remembering something horrible, and involuntarily shivered. "But Wyatt defeated them and took over the world when I was five."
There was a moment that she stopped, soaking this in. "And he...killed people?"
Chris nodded, staring into his lap. "Mortals and those who didn't support him. My own dying self sent me back here, saying that I needed to save him." He paused. "But—but Leo wants me to stop him and I can't. He won't listen to me."
He looked defeated, broken. Piper couldn't help it. She embraced him, letting a tear roll down her cheek as he told the story. They separated after a moment.
"Wyatt killed me, didn't he?"
"You were in his way," Chris whispered shakily.
"Chris, it's not your fault. It was Wyatt's. You didn't do anything wrong," she insisted.
"But I couldn't save you! I wasn't strong enough to heal and that stupid power kept going crazy and—"
"Your power? The one you used here?"
Chris nodded. "It only works on evil, though."
"When did you first use it, Chris?"
"When the demons came and—and killed you." He looked down again, unable to meet her eyes. "You told me to go upstairs, but I didn't. I stayed in the middle and tried to stop some of the demons. I saw them hurting you and I kept wishing that they'd go away...then I was blinded by this light and the demons all disappeared. Right before I passed out, I saw that—that you were...dead. I stopped the demons, but...I couldn't save you."
"Don't blame yourself, Chris, you didn't do it. Wyatt made the demons come, not you. I'm sure that the Piper in your time knows that, because I know it for sure." She didn't want to tell him about the power. She didn't want him to know that he'd die if he used it again. "What happened after that?"
"It was a week ago, for me. I woke up a day later and I couldn't move. Finally I managed to get back up on my feet and Leo orbed in." He sighed. "He was crazy—he wasn't right in the head. He took me by the shoulders and shook me, demanding to know why I didn't...why—why I couldn't..."
"He was wrong. He didn't know that you were innocent, Chris. He loves you."
"I attacked him," Chris admitted. "I threw him at a wall with telekinesis. It was an accident."
"I know. Don't worry about it, alright? Everything's gonna be okay. I'll leave you alone for a little while. You can ask me your questions later."
Chris nodded, taking a few bites of the waffles before pushing it aside. He didn't feel particularly hungry anymore. He laid his head back and fell asleep again.
You are not to tell them any more...
"What? Tell who? What am I not supposed to say?" Chris asked the voice, looking around the endless white space stretched before him for its owner.
It's me—or you. It's Chris again, from the future further than yours.
"But you're dead! How can you be talking to me?"
I can still guide you. You are here to save Wyatt after a failed attempt. The mission is to destroy the lantern.
"Lantern? What lantern? I don't know what you're talking about!"
The lantern holds the power. It's in the attic. Find the lantern before Wyatt does.
"What does it look like? What will it do?"
It once belonged to Melinda Warren. She used it to seal her powers inside of it before she was killed, saving it for another generation. Wyatt is not supposed to have it; it gives him the power, it makes him evil.
"Wait—why was I sent to do this?"
You're the only one left.
Chris shot up in bed in cold sweat, gasping for air. The lantern, the lantern...
He had to start searching! The future was at stake!
Did you enjoy the chappie? Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Homework. Ugh.