Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait! - I've been away doing extra mural study for my degree. I'd hoped to have this chapter finished before I went away, but unfortunately didn't have time. However, here it finally is! Updates should now be regular.

Part 5: A Fine Line Betwixt Friend And Enemy

The blue-white orbs dissipated into the gloom, leaving Chris staggering into the wall, the Underworld tunnel spinning wildly around him. He braced himself against the rough stone and took several deep breaths.

His dizzy thoughts settled enough for him to realise he was already immensely glad he had come alone. He'd fortunately been able to fend off the sisters' attempts to send Leo with him as a guard puppy on sick nurse duty. 'My harmless informant will only cooperate if I'm alone' worked much better and painlessly in its suitable argument than 'future consequences' ever would in its own context.

Chris wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead with a hand that trembled only slightly and cautiously pushed away from the tunnel wall. The dimly lit, rugged surroundings remained still and his stomach was happy to lie still for now at least. Satisfied that he was ready, the part-witch walked under the nearby arched entrance and its concealed charms.

Appreciation point number two: orbing to a spot outside of Hychek's chambers. It meant that his informant hadn't seen his moment of weakness, either. Furthermore, setting off his little intruder alert talismans would sweeten him up, combating most of the annoyance and anxiety he would feel at a second visit so soon after the previous.

Hychek greeted him with moderately nervous eyes and a disgruntled expression. However, as Chris stepped around a sack of gemstones and into the bright candlelight of a rusty chandelier, shock replaced all previously displayed emotion. The demon gaped and Chris realised he perhaps looked as bad as he felt.

"Woah! Man, you look like crap!" Hychek breathed, taken aback.

Chris shifted uncomfortably, trying to draw his shoulders back and give the appearance of strength he didn't have.

"What happened to you? The Nightmare demon?"

"Yeah, and you were wrong." Chris vented some anger into his words. "He's after me, not Wyatt."

"That's what I told you," Hychek protested.

"No, you said he was interested in my brother."

"Asking questions, yeah. But it was your back I told you to watch."

Chris fumed and accused the demon of speaking in riddles, but accepted the wooden chair offered to him.

Hychek sat opposite, a small circular table between them. An uncorked bottle of wine and some glasses stood in the centre, but were left untouched by them both.

Fingering the chipped mahogany of his chair's antique arm, Chris took a moment to reflect on the first time he'd sat in this seat.

It was ironic how he dreaded that the sisters would drug him with a truth potion, but hadn't seen it coming from a lower-level demon.

He had failed to foresee Hychek's nervy desire to know everything. The wine had smelt, looked and tasted normal, its secret added ingredient hidden in the crimson depths. He'd watched Hychek pour two drinks from the same bottle and drink heartily from one of the glasses. If Chris were a friend, he would drink too; only a foe would refuse the hospitable gesture.

He'd only taken a sip.

That had been enough to have him spouting out everything, on his knees as he fought futilely against the potent truth potion. Meanwhile, Hychek had been smugly unaffected and answered nothing he cared not to answer. The demon had boasted of his achievement in developing the potion and immunising himself by taking its specifically designed antidote – naturally, also created by his genius - prior to drinking it.

Chris had outwitted him. He'd managed to get a hold of himself and orb out with his glass of spiked wine (before Hychek could finish his personal question about Bianca). By analysising the contents he was able to procure the recipe for the truth potion and produce an antidote.

He had gone back to Hychek, refused to drink or eat anything, and used some impressive telekinetics to put the demon in his place.

However, the damage was already done: Hychek knew Chris's full identity and his connection to Wyatt.

But Chris didn't vanquish Hychek.

Sometimes he doubted his decision, but not enough to throw the little bottle of green liquid. Not yet, anyway. It meant another risk, another danger, another fear pulling taut his shredded nerves, keeping him awake at night. However, Chris didn't allow himself the luxury of easing his stress, for that was no justifiable reason to lose a valuable source of Underworld information, not in his eyes.

Chris knew Hychek was very unlikely to tell anybody his big secret: (a) because no one but the Charmed Ones would give a damn and there was no way the coward would get anywhere near them; (b) because he feared Chris would whip his ass with a vanquishing potion before whatever demon he sold him out to, who was interested for some obscure reason, could kill him.

Sometimes it was nice to speak aloud the word 'brother'.

But that was neither here nor there.

Chris looked over the table at the lower-level demon. His wiry, carrot-coloured hair was sticking to his knobbly forehead.

"What do you know about the Nightmare demon after me?"

Hychek sighed and looked away. "To be honest, not much."

"You're never honest," Chris said, bluntly. "What do you know?"

"Look, Chris, this isn't something I want to get mixed up in. This Nightmare demon is willing to turn on one of his own." Hychek was apologetically dismissive, with a hint of pleading.

"So are you." Chris didn't bat an eyelid at the demon's reluctance to talk.

"I'm a petty trickster after money, luxury, material things, not power. This nightmare guy has much higher aims." A look of anguish filled Hychek's face as he watched Chris thirstily drinking in his words without any sign of relenting his questioning. "He plans to rule the sleeping world and then, once your brother grows up into an all powerful, dark ruler of the waking world, he intends to gain control over him through his dreams."

"And thus the waking world too," Chris added, grimly. The Nightmare demon had wider aims than he had let on to him.

"Exactly."

"What about the Underworld?"

"He isn't interested in us. He has no power down here – demon's don't dream."

"Wait… You said he was asking questions about Wyatt. Where? Here?"

"Of course. I'm not one for visiting the sunny topside now, am I?"

"You mean you spoke to him?" Chris stood up, angrily grabbing across the table for the demon's neck. "You told him about Wyatt and me!"

"No! No!" Hychek cried, leaning back out of Chris's reach.

Chris's arms withdrew, but his hands formed frustrated, threatening fists.

Hychek gulped. "Well, sort of," he amended. "But don't worry, you're big secret is safe!" he quickly added. "I didn't tell him anything that any other demon couldn't have."

Chris restrained his anger, forcing himself to sit back down. He would come back to Hychek's betrayal at a later date.

"But how could he question you?" Chris asked, his mind racing.

"Oh, because we don't dream you mean? And he sure as hell can't come waltzing down here in person since he exists in a different plane!" Hychek laughed at the thought, though he was alone in finding the humour in it.

"Yes," Chris said through gritted teeth, fighting to keep his patience. The pounding in his temples wasn't letting up and fatigue hung around his shoulders like a lead cloak. It was a constant struggle to keep the worst of it hidden.

"Well…" Hychek licked his half-grinning lips and leaned forward, his eyes alight. "He used a human vessel. Had the guy in some kind of sleepwalking state. He orbed down h– "

"What!" Chris gaped in surprise.

"Oh, yeah, the sleepwalking guy was a young Whitelighter," Hychek explained.

Horror had struck Chris. "He's got even more power than I thought…"

"Which is exactly why I don't want to be having this conversation." Hychek slipped off his chair and went over to finger his gemstones for comfort.

"Do you have any idea how he can be stopped?"

Hychek looked across at the young man still sat at his table. "Killing a sleepwalker he's inhabiting might do it. 'Course, you'd have to get him to do that zombie trick and then there's that issue of how you are about killing – what do you call them?"

"Innocents. I won't kill an innocent." It wasn't an option.

However, it did remind Chris of a detail of his last encounter with the Nightmare demon. The demon had released him when he was on the very brink of death. Perhaps there was more to his flippant 'can't have dead bodies littering up the place' comment than met the eye. Maybe if he died while the Nightmare demon was still connected to him, the demon would die too. It was a possibility to keep in the back of his mind, in case it came to the need to take such a path. The Nightmare demon must have plans to kill others after he was done with him, for he was very unlikely to be content to be idyll until Wyatt grew up. That thought led Chris on to wonder if perhaps this was the demon that turned Wyatt.

Chris kept these thoughts quiet and asked aloud, "How did the Nightmare demon know about Wyatt?"

"He said a witch he'd been messing with the dreams of, knew about a twice-blessed child – a boy with greater power than the world had ever seen before," Hychek replied.

"And then he found out the rest by asking questions in the Underworld and you answering them."

"Other demons told him stuff, too," Hychek declared, defensively. "It wasn't just me."

"That doesn't excuse you," Chris told him, coldly.

Hychek was silent and still.

"I need to know more about the Nightmare demon," Chris said. "There has to be a way I can defeat him in my dreams."

"He did vaguely mention something about the dreamer's belief," Hychek told him, hesitantly. "I got the impression that the person's belief in him was connected to his power."

"The stronger the sleeper's belief in the demon, the stronger the demon's power?"

"Maybe."

"Well, that doesn't exactly do me much good! I know the demon exists."

"Perhaps its more to do with belief in the demon's power…" Hychek's face was screwed up with thoughtfulness.

Chris was deep in thought as well. "If I believe that a dreamt cut can make me bleed, I will bleed?"

Hychek shrugged, suddenly becoming utterly noncommittal.

"I really don't know. This is all guesswork," the demon said, frankly. "And I for one don't like making a move based on guesswork."

"I haven't got a choice," Chris replied. "It's all I have."

He got up to leave.

"Be careful," Hychek warned.

"What do you care?" Chris asked, scornfully.

"Hey, you might not be my friend, but you're as close to one as I have."

"That's sad. I should vanquish you just for that."

"And I don't think I'd fare too well in a future with a twice-blessed, Excalibur-wielding overlord," Hychek added.

"I can assure you, you don't."

No one did.

Chris orbed out.