Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed

Chapter 4

A street had replaced the bedroom in front of them. To be more precise it was a dark alley, surrounded by partially destroyed buildings. Chris instantly recognised it as one of his few regular hiding places that he had used when he was only about 14/15, before he found the resistance.

The rest of the group however, they looked around in shock at the part of the destroyed city they were standing in.

"This is the future?" Phoebe asked incredulously (and rhetorically).

Chris had said that the future was bad, but they had never thought it would be this bad. They could hear sounds of things being destroyed, people screaming, but only the odd siren. They could see ruined buildings, parts of some were still on fire, and to their surprise one that was still burning had someone standing by it, probably trying to keep warm. They couldn't feel the cold, seeing as they weren't really there, but they drew closer to the figure, and the fire, out of curiosity. Chris lagged behind, knowing who they were about to see, and dreading it.

When they finally got close enough to the figure, they saw that it was Chris again. This time he was about 15 and had clearly been on the streets for a while. He was wearing dark coloured, ill-fitting clothes that were torn and covered with dirt and blood. There was a particularly large rip across his shirt over his abdomen and around it his shirt was absolutely soaked with blood. Obviously, he had been wounded, or still was. Despite the fact that it was freezing cold, he had no gloves and they were also shocked to see, when he brought his hands up to blow on them, that they were covered with dried blood. He was painfully thin, and his face was white, probably from the cold as well as tiredness and malnutrition. His hair was too long and dirty with grime and dried blood from a large gash on his face, one that stretched from his forehead, over his right eye, down to his cheekbone.

But it wasn't only his physical injuries that seemed to be hurting him. Young Chris's entire demeanour was defeated and desperate.

Just as the ones from the past were trying to put their thoughts into words, young Chris's head suddenly snapped round and he stood very still, as if listening to something. The group strained their ears, but couldn't hear anything. He evidently could though, because at that moment, he suddenly disappeared from view, the same way as he had in the maze. A few minutes later, a gang of about 7 or 8 demons rounded the corner into the alley.

The group held their breath, hoping that there was no way that they could be sensed there. Inside the sisters were also hoping that young Chris wouldn't be found. As angry as they were with the older Chris, they weren't angry enough at him to wish even more harm on his younger self, especially seeing as he had obviously already been through so much.

Fortunately, the demon's were completely oblivious that there was anyone else in the alley apart from them, and so passed through without causing any bloodshed.

Once they were gone, everyone heaved a sigh of relief and younger Chris reappeared. He didn't hang around though, as he took one more look at the demons who were fading into the distance, the heavens opened and it started to pour with rain. Young Chris listened carefully for any more passing demons, and then sprinted off in the opposite direction to the way the demons went.

Paige, Phoebe, Piper and Leo were just wondering whether to follow him or not, when there was another flash of light and again, they were somewhere different.

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The previous scene had shocked the ones from the past, but they were horrified by the one they saw now. They were standing in a long, dark, damp corridor, but all down one side there were cells with bars across. It couldn't even be described as a prison, it was a dungeon.

They looked at Chris, but he wasn't volunteering any information, after he had answered their questions in the first scene, he had remained stubbornly silent.

So, they walked down the corridor, secretly hoping that they wouldn't find the younger Chris locked up. In the cells there were various different people, men, women, elderly people, witches, other magical folk, and there was even one cell that had a group of small children in it. All of the people locked up looked harmless, most were injured, sick or otherwise incapable of doing much damage to anything.

As much as they wanted to stop and help, the group forced themselves to keep walking, Chris following behind. Further down the corridor there was a tall figure in a black robe standing outside one of the cells, he was talking to someone in the cell. As they drew closer, the figure turned away and left, his back turned to them. Then they heard Chris's voice shout from the cell, "You should just kill me Wyatt! I'll never join you!" His voice was hoarse and angry, but desperate, almost as if he genuinely wanted to be killed.

However, once they had heard what he said, the ones from the past turned on Chris, all talking at once, demanding answers.

"That was Wyatt?" "How can that be Wyatt?" "You're lying, admit it!" "Tell us what's going on, now!"

Chris waited for them to stop before he started trying to explain. He really hadn't wanted them to find out this, but at least they couldn't accuse him of lying about it, they had seen the proof with their own eyes.

"I didn't come from the future to protect Wyatt from getting hurt…"

"A HA! I knew it! I knew you were lying, and now you've admitted it!" Leo announced smugly.

Chris glared at him, "I came back to stop him from turning evil. He grows up and terrorises people with his powers. I mean look at what he's done!" He said gesturing around the dungeon.

"He certainly got you good." Phoebe remarked, looking into the cell they were standing by. Chris was inside. He looked like he was in his late teens, and he was not n a good way. They had thought that he was a mess when he was on the streets, but here, he had clearly been tortured. He was covered in small stab wounds, burns, lacerations on his skin and was black and blue all over. His clothes were barely rags and most of his skin that wasn't injured was scarred. He even had a scar on his face of the wound that they had seen in the previous scene. As they watched, the imprisoned Chris broke down into tears of anguish, muttering "why won't you just kill me?"

"Yeah, I was here for over a year." Chris said stonily. He was almost completely ignoring his younger self.

"Wyatt can't be evil." Leo denied, then at Chris's look, he continued, "There must be a good reason why he did this. You probably deserved it."

"Oh really?" Chris said incredulously, arching an eyebrow, "And I suppose those little kids that we saw back there, they deserve it too?"

"Well, I don't know but…"

Before Leo could try to explain away everything, Chris interrupted him. "Do you know what their so called 'crime' was? Their parents were good witches and refused to join Wyatt. In fact, that's what most of these people are in for. Either they refused to join him, or they annoyed him, or they're related to someone who did. Explain that Leo."

But Leo was speechless, all of the ones from the past were.

Luckily, at that moment, there was a flash of light and they found themselves back in the maze.

"Hmmm," the demon said, "I think it's going to take while to find your most painful memories, you simply have so many. But wasn't that interesting?"

Chris ignored him.

"Fine, be that way. I'll be back later!" And the jovial voice disappeared.

"Just so you know Chris. I'm really sorry about everything that you had to go through in the future, but I still don't fully trust you. You just have too many secrets." Piper stated.

Paige agreed, Leo did too, but more emphatically, and claiming that he still thought that Chris was in league with some sort of demon.

Phoebe saw the hurt look on Chris's face, and even though she felt none of it, she knew that he was hurting. So she said, "I trust you Chris. I still don't like all of your secrets, but I believe that you're here to save Wyatt, and that's good enough for me."

Chris looked slightly relieved that not everyone was completely against him, and Phoebe felt slightly guilty because deep down she still didn't completely trust him.

"Come on, I think the demon's this way," Chris muttered, starting to walk down the tunnel.

"I'll lead," Leo announced, pushing past Chris, "Then at least you won't lead us into any ambushes."

With that, he set off down the tunnel, the Charmed ones following. Chris shook his head with disbelief before following them.

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A/N: Hey everyone! A double update this time! This and Chapter 3 started off as one chapter, but I thought that it was getting too long, so I split it. I hope that you enjoyed it! I'm sorry for bashing Chris around so much, but that's what I do to all my favourite characters – MWA HA HA HA! ahem, ok, anyway… Please review and tell me what you thought of it!