.III.
Chris could hear laboured breathing. A few moments later, he realised that it was his own. The dark mist slipped away a little more and his eyes focused on the jagged ceiling of a cavern. He had no idea where he was…
He turned his head to the side to look around, the movement making his temples throb. His vision blurred, the shape of a little, fair-haired boy swaying in front of him. Groaning, he fought to focus, eventually managing to clearly see and recognise Wyatt.
There was a distant pain in his abdomen, a fiery pain, which he remembered having felt for quite a while. The magic had gone from the wound now though, he'd been aware of Gideon reversing it…
He recalled Leo bringing him to the underworld, searching for Gideon…he must have found him.
Chris's vision dimmed, darkness encroaching again. Each breath was a struggle, each beat of his heart a little more unsteady. The wound wasn't a magical injury anymore, but it was still a stab wound. He was still dying…
Afraid, Chris fought to stay awake and stared at his brother, wondering what had happened, what had gone wrong, where his father was. Then something caught his attention.
Wyatt had something in his hand.
The boy was holding an iridescent blue stone. A crystal.
Matching crystals were scattered on the ground, three around his little feet and a fourth a few metres away against the wall. A crystal cage had been broken. Wyatt was free.
"Wyatt…" Chris croaked, dragging his limp arm out across the ground and weakly raising his wrist in an attempted beckoning gesture.
The boy's blue eyes flickered over him, his head moving to the side in a thoughtful fashion. Then he licked his lips and dropped the crystal. Eagerly, he toddled over.
Wyatt sunk down heavily onto his little knees beside Chris's chest. He looked the man over, his chin jutted out slightly.
"Help…please…" The words were breathy and frail, a dying man's last plea.
Chris watched in amazement as Wyatt shifted along on his knees until he was level with the bloodstain. Then the young boy reached out and held his little hands out over the wound. Bright, golden, glittering light cascaded down, passing into Chris's body.
Slowly, Chris felt his breathing ease and his head clear, and the burning pain in his stomach faded away.
A few minutes later, Wyatt withdrew his hands and sat back on his heels, waiting for the man to move.
Chris obliged, stiffly sitting up and wrapping an arm around his aching stomach. Settling himself in this more upright position, he took his arm away and looked down at his stainless t-shirt. He lifted it up, just to be sure. His hands touched his abdomen – his unscratched abdomen. There was the usual ache associated with a freshly whitelighter-healed injury, but nothing more. Wyatt had healed him.
Chris grinned at his brother. "Thank you."
Gideon was on the ground, shuffling backwards, his shoes catching on his robes, trying to get away from Leo who was steadily pursuing him. He was terrified.
"Leo, please, you have to understand! I'm only doing this for the Greater Good, I swear!"
"You murdered my son!" Leo roared. "And you want to kill my other one, too, my infant child." He lunged forward and grabbed hold of Gideon, pulling him up so he could glare right into his face. "How is killing a child ever for the Greater Good, huh? And who the hell are you to decide it is, huh?"
"I'm an Elder! So are you!" Gideon cried, trying to reason. "It's what we do!"
"Well, then I'm not one of you anymore."
Gideon conjured an athame, but Leo knocked it from his grasp and threw him across the room. He hit the wall a good few metres above the ground, then dropped, landing in a heap on the floor.
Gideon dragged himself to his knees. "Leo, listen to me," he begged, and wiped at a split lip. "You know what happens. You know what Chris came here to stop. Let me finish what I started. Let me save the future, the only way it can be saved."
"You're the reason the future's threatened, Gideon," Leo told him, coldly. "Not Wyatt, but because of what you do to him."
"No…"
"I'm about to make sure neither one of you get the chance again. Mirror!" Leo waved his hand and the mirror appeared, leaning against the wall. It showed the Evil Leo standing amongst the greenery and colourful petals of his version of the underworld.
"You ready?" the Evil Leo asked.
Leo nodded. "Remember, you can't do anything. I have to do this alone."
"I know."
"Do…do what?" Gideon asked, his voice trembling in fear.
A cruel grin distorted Leo's face, as he looked down at his son's murderer. "A Great Evil."
Phoebe and Paige were sat on the plastic chairs in the waiting room for the maternity ward.
"What's taking him so long?" Phoebe asked, anxiously.
"The nurse said he would be out in a minute," Paige said, twisting her hands in her lap.
"No. Yes, I know. No, I mean Leo," Phoebe clarified. "Do you think he's found Gideon yet?"
"I hope so," Paige replied, quietly. "Chris didn't have much time left…"
"It's been over an hour. Do you think…?"
Paige looked away, blinking back tears.
"Oh." Phoebe looked down at her hands.
They heard a door open and a man dressed in scrubs came down the hall towards them, removing a surgical mask from his face as he walked.
"Dr Roberts, how's Piper?" Phoebe asked, quickly standing up, Paige rising alongside her.
The doctor smiled, the peculiar grin that everyone was sporting these days. "Well, that depends on how you look at it, I suppose," he said, cheerily. "Me, I like to think she's moving on to a better place."
"What?" Paige stared at him in alarm.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Phoebe pressed.
"Well, I think you know what I mean. She's hemorrhaging." The doctor gave a highly irritating and inappropriate chuckle. "We can't stop it. It's everywhere! But let's all try to think positively, shall we?"
"Now, you listen to me," Phoebe insisted, angrily. "You get your ass back in that room and save my sister and her baby! Do you understand me?"
"Security!" Dr Roberts called.
Two security guards looked up from down the hall and came striding towards them. The two sisters winced and turned away.
"Ok, they shoot people here, remember?" Paige hissed.
"We have to get Piper out of here," Phoebe whispered. "We need to get her to Leo."
"We can't. We don't know where Leo is."
"Well, we can't just do nothing!"
They looked over at the guards, who were reaching for their guns. Then suddenly everything slowed right now. Around the sisters, the world moved in a sluggish manner that was too slow to be natural.
"What's going on?" Paige asked, looking around in confusion.
Phoebe just shook her head, equally bewildered.
Outside the windows, the sky darkened into night and lights flickered on all over the city. Then the world got back up to speed, like someone had just taken their finger off a button. The security guards walked right passed the sisters, without giving them a glance.
"Everything's back to normal?" Phoebe wondered aloud.
She and Paige turned back to the doctor.
He was frowning with concern. "I'll do everything I can. I promise."
Paige nodded, sighing in relief.
"Excuse me," he said, and hurried back to the operating room.
"Leo must've done something," Paige concluded, turning to her sister.
Gideon dropped to the ground, landing as a bundle of smoking robes next to the mirror. The mirror showed the same image of him, though the Evil Leo stood off to one side, having done nothing.
"You have no idea…what you've done," Gideon rasped, glaring at Leo one last time.
Then the Elder's eyes closed, his breathing hitched and he slumped. Almost at once, his form crumpled, turning to ash.
"Didn't know you had it in you," the Evil Leo piped up from the mirror.
"Our worlds can never cross over again," Leo said, seriously.
"Take care of your family."
"You too."
At the same time, the two Leos blasted the mirror with blue energy from their hands and it exploded.
Tiny, shining shards of glass spun in the air, catching the light as they turned and slowly made their way to the ground, clinking against the rock.
Leo lowered his arms, his shoulders sagging and his expression that of grief, now that his anger was gone.
"Dad?"
Leo turned and saw Chris standing in the entrance to the cavern, holding Wyatt.
He staggered forward in shock. "Chris! You're alive…"
"Yeah, thanks to this little guy." Chris grinned and bounced the child in his arms. "He healed me."
Leo was upon them at once, embracing them both, his eyes wet with tears of relief and joy. Then he took Wyatt out of Chris's hands, and held him close, kissing the child on the forehead.
"Who's a clever guy, then?" he cooed, tickling a smiling Wyatt on the cheek. "Yes, you are. Yes."
Chris smiled. They'd done it – Wyatt was safe. Then suddenly Chris's smile dropped, his eyes rolling up into his head, as he wavered dizzily. He tipped forward.
Leo caught Chris with one arm, stopping him from falling. "Chris? Chris, what's wrong?"
"Woah…" Chris gripped hold of his father's shoulder, nausea washing over him in turbulent waves.
"Here, sit down." Leo guided his trembling son down into a sitting position, his back against the wall.
Chris had turned a sickly pale colour and his skin was slick with sweat. He tipped his head back, resting it against the rock, and took some ragged deep breaths.
"Something's happening. I…" Chris's words broke off, and he flashed out of existence for a second.
He reappeared, only to then seem to judder between solid form and vanishing. He was there for a fraction of second, then gone. Flashed into translucent appearance. Then gone. Then back and solid. Then gone.
Leo could do nothing but watch in fear, Gideon's earlier warnings echoing in his mind.
Finally, Chris appeared and stayed visible and solid. His head slipped to one side, eyes closed, his lips blue and parted as he gasped for breath.
With Wyatt still in his arms, Leo knelt down and reached out to brush a soaked strand of dark hair off Chris's feverish forehead. "Chris?"
The young man's eyelids fluttered, finally drawing back to reveal green eyes that focused on his father.
"It seems I'm staying here…" Chris muttered, weakly. An exhausted smile appeared on his lips.
Leo responded with a much broader grin. "It looks that way." He touched Chris's shoulder. "Do you think you can stand up?"
Chris nodded, slightly. "I think so."
With help from his father and the cavern wall, Chris managed to get to his feet.
Leo wrapped an arm around Chris's shoulders. "I think we have a new arrival to greet into the world," he said.
Chris was only half listening. He frowned, thoughtfully looking down at his hands and flexing his fingers.
Leo turned to Wyatt, smiling, and jostled him up a little higher in his arms. "Are you ready to meet your little brother?"
TBC...