A/N: Wow, this story is turning out to be much more popular than any of my others. Enjoy this chapter, and anything in italics is a premonition, mind voices, a spell, or memories. I'm sorry if this story is confusing, by the way. It's my first Charmed fic.
Chapter 7-
"Listen, Chris, I need you to concentrate," Zach said urgently. "Mum, Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige are going to do a spell and I need you to focus on strengthening our bond."
Chris opened his eyes. "Concentrate?" he repeated weakly. "I'm too tired to do the test today, Zach. Tell Mum I'm staying home from school..."
Zach groaned in frustration. "Chris, come on, I know you're injured, but you have to fight it, okay?" he said, gently. "We need to get out of here."
Chris closed his eyes again. His hair was plastered to his face with blood and sweat and his breathing was shallow and ragged.
"God, Wyatt, it'd be a lot easier if you just freaking healed him!" Zach said angrily. "I think he has concussion."
Wyatt scowled at his youngest brother, then reached forwards and slapped Chris on the face.
Chris' eyes flung open. "Huh?" he said groggily.
"He's awake," Wyatt said smugly, ignoring the death glares from Zach.
"Can you understand me, Chris?" Zach asked loudly and clearly.
Chris winced and put a hand up to his head. "Of course I can understand you. Don't be so loud."
"Sorry," Zach said sheepishly. "I need you to concentrate, okay? Try and fill up the gap there was in our minds when Wyatt broke the bond between us."
Chris nodded and closed his eyes again. "Tired," he muttered.
"I know, Chris," Zach said desperately. "You'll be fine soon, but right now I need you to focus. It's our only way of getting out of here!"
"Okay... don't know if I... try my best." Chris' muttering was barely inaudible.
"Chris?" Zach said loudly, in front of Chris' face. He shook him slightly. "Damn, he's asleep again."
"No, you idiot, he's unconscious," said Wyatt. "Focus for a moment."
Zach closed his eyes and concentrated. He could feel Wyatt and Chris slowly replacing the bond they used to share.
"How's Chris doing that?" Zach asked in awe. "He's unconscious."
Wyatt shot Zach a sneering look. "You really aren't very clever these days, are you, Zachary?"
Zach could slowly feel the gap in their bond closing, and he realised how lonely he had been without his brothers' presences in his mind. Just as he felt the last inches that had been separating them close, he was thrown into a premonition.
Two men were facing each other, in what seemed to be some kind of hall. One man was wearing long robes, and was kneeling on the ground, clutching his chest in agony; his dark hair covered his face. The other had blond hair and his blue eyes were deadly cold. It was Leo.
"Why did you do it?" he asked furiously. "WHY DID YOU DO IT?"
Leo pointed his hands at the first man, as lightning bolts shot out of them. The man screamed in pain, then fell to the floor, lifeless.
"I'm not sorry," Leo said harshly, as he kicked the man's dead body. "But you all will be. Someday."
Zach opened his eyes, shuddering. He looked at Wyatt, and was surprised to see absolute shock on the usually emotionless face.
'Did you see that?' Zach almost jumped, hearing Chris' voice in his head.
'How are you doing that?' he thought. 'You're unconscious.'
'Ask Wyatt, he seems to have figured it out,' Chris' voice came, seemingly annoyed.
'Why did Leo kill someone?' came Chris' voice again.
'More to the point, why did we have a premonition about it?' Wyatt's mind voice was uncharacteristically dreamy.
'Why did we have a premonition at all?' Zach replied.
'Still haven't figured that out, dear Zachary?' Wyatt replied patronizingly. 'I can use my powers now, too.'
'We all can,' said Zach. 'But I still don't get how it works. None of us had the power of premonition before.'
'When Prudence, Palmyra and Patricia died, we inherited the power of three,' replied Wyatt, smugly. 'Thanks to my terrific spell-work. It was a pity I couldn't inherit it entirely by myself, but this was close enough.'
'WHAT?' Zach's mind voice was furious, and he could feel Chris' anger.
'Don't annoy me, Zachary,' Wyatt said cheerfully. 'I'm in a good mood, but if I need to use my powers on you, I will.'
'No time for that,' Chris' mind voice broke into their conversation. 'For some reason I managed to dig into Zach's powers without him specifically focusing on it. I think it's your spell, Wyatt. Anyway, I astral-projected downstairs so I could concentrate properly, and Mum, Aunt Paige and Aunt Phoebe are about to do the spell. You have to try and talk to them, Zach. I'm not strong enough at the moment to keep my astral form that long, and we can't let them find out who I really am. As soon as they say the spell get ready to go, Zach. You're our only hope.'
'Okay, then,' Zach replied. 'Get ready to focus, guys.'
Zach closed his eyes, as his body became limp.
"Ready?" asked Phoebe nervously. She had a bad feeling about this, but she swept it away with her curiosity to find out about Chris' past. And her future.
Piper and Paige nodded eagerly, and chanted the spell they had come up with.
"Hear these words,
Heed this rhyme.
Send us three,
Through space and time.
Send us through the mind of Chris Perry,
His memories we wish to see."
They each felt as though they were being broken up into tiny pieces, but before they had time to muse at the strange sensation, they had been reassembled, but it another place.
They were standing in a cold dark, dungeon. Their dead sister Prue was lying next to the wall, her wrists in chains. Her clothes were ripped, and they could see from her large stomach that she was clearly pregnant. A boy of about ten with a mop of brown hair and sea-green eyes was standing besides her, and the sisters recognized him as Chris.
"Aunt Prue!" he said, his voice desperate. "I- they're not answering my calls."
Piper, Phoebe and Paige all gasped.
"Aunt Prue?" Piper repeated.
"That's right," came a cold voice. Zach. "Are you happy now you've managed to start prying through Chris' memories? Does it satisfy you to see the pain other people have gone through?"
Piper opened her mouth to ask him how he got there, but closed it when she heard her sister start to speak.
"Chris, its too late, sweetie," Prue said, her voice weak. "The baby's gone, and I will be too soon. I'm proud of you though, you did everything you could. The demon won't be able to hurt anyone else now, thanks to you, and that's all that matters."
"No! You can't leave me!" Chris said, urgently. "Look, I can't orb here, but I can try and find a way out, and then I'll take you to a hospital-"
"No, Chris. It's too late," Prue said sadly. "That arrow was fatal, you know that. I love you though, and I always will. Tell that to my sisters and your brothers and cousins too, okay?"
"No!" Chris yelled, as her eyes closed and her breathing ceased. He sank to the ground, sobbing, and his head in his hands.
"Does that mean- Chris is the son of one of us?" Phoebe asked, though still shaken after seeing her sister die again. "We were so horrible to him!"
Zach shot them an unreadable look. "Would you really believe me if I said no?" he asked cryptically. "But you might have adopted him or something."
"No, he's definitely a Halliwell," Piper said, wiping her eyes. "But whose child?"
The images swirled again, and they found themselves in the dining room at the manor. A little boy with curly blond hair and sparkling blue eyes was sitting at the table, a cake in front of him. He looked about eight years old. Chris, who looked about six, was sitting besides him. Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Prue and Leo all stood around the table. A boy, who looked about two, and very much like Chris, was sitting on Chris' lap and there was a little girl with a heart-shaped face and long brown hair being held by Phoebe.
"Daddy will be back soon," Phoebe whispered to the little girl. "He's out with your uncle and baby cousins."
"He's always out," the girl replied sadly. "He doesn't care about us."
"No, that's not true, Melly," Phoebe replied cheerfully. "He loves us. He just wishes he was more involved in the family."
"He thinks we don't love him just because he's a witch doesn't he?" the girl Phoebe called 'Melly' said sadly. "I know; I could feel his hurt."
Phoebe's grip tightened slightly on the child, but she just turned to Piper. "Should we cut the cake now?" she asked. "Remember last year, you accidentally blew it up."
Piper winced. "Um, yes, you're right, we should," she replied.
They listened to the family singing happy birthday to the blond boy, who turned out to be Wyatt.
"Why were all the other conversations muffled except Phoebe's?" Piper asked.
Zach shrugged. "That's what Chris remembers about this day, I guess," he replied.
"Who's the father of my child?" Phoebe asked, her mouth still open slightly in surprise.
"I can't say," Zach said apologetically.
"Do I-" Paige began, but she was interrupted by Zach.
"No," he said. "We have to get out of this memory. I only came to tell you how to free Chris, anyway. Wyatt's blood is no longer required, as he is with Chris, and his presence there is tied to Chris' life. You need to find something happy to remind him of."
"You're the one who knows him!" Piper snapped.
"I've barely seen him the last year or so!" Zach replied, annoyed. "And since then, almost everything he cares about has been ripped away from him."
"Make a wish," Leo said, smiling at his eldest son.
Wyatt thought for a moment, and then closed his eyes. A small horse appeared besides the table, in a swirl of blue lights.
"What's that?" Piper asked, jumping back. Her sisters laughed in amusement.
"My wish," Wyatt said as though it was obvious.
Leo patted Wyatt on the shoulder. "That's my boy!" he said, his voice brimming with pride. "The most powerful witch in the family." He glanced at the boy on Chris' lap. "But it looks like your youngest brother will be pretty strong too. He can already orb!"
The look on Chris' face was heartbreaking.
"Youngest brother?" Piper cried. "Chris is my son?"
Zach nodded, almost guiltily.
"We were horrible to him!" Piper sobbed. Phoebe hugged her.
"What about the other boy?" Paige asked, a glint in her eye. "Who's he?"
Zach shifted uncomfortably. "I can't say."
Paige smirked at him, and he realised she knew who he was, even if his mother and Phoebe didn't.
"I can't believe Chris is my nephew!" Phoebe said, a hand over her mouth. "Oh, no! I totally hit on him when we turned into goddesses."
"Ugh," Zach said in disgust.
They could feel themselves moving, as the memories changed again...
Wyatt sat there, next to his two brother's unconscious forms. He could see several of Zach's thoughts float through his mind, but Chris had a tight shield on his.
'I can't do this much longer,' Chris' mind voice broke into Wyatt's thoughts, and he knew Zach had heard it too. 'I'm getting weaker.'
There was a pause. 'Aunt Phoebe says the spell has to wear off,' Zach told them, and both his brothers could feel his frustration.
'Have they found out anything?' Chris asked in a panic.
Another pause. 'Uh, we'll talk later, okay, Chris?' Zach said, before entirely shielding himself from Wyatt and Zach's thoughts and mind voices.
Wyatt was startled as he saw Chris regain consciousness. "I'm drawing strength from Zach," Chris muttered. "But I'm not sure how long I've got. If I get seriously injured, I might not be strong enough to get back to my body."
Wyatt said nothing, and Chris tilted his head slightly to look at him.
"Why do you hurt everyone, Wy?" he asked, wearily.
Wyatt felt a stab of guilt, which quickly turned to anger as he remembered that Chris was the only one who could make him feel like that. Well, Chris and Zach. He felt himself wanting to say something to reassure Chris, but he couldn't think of anything.
"You should be grateful!" he snapped. "I've made the world a better place for you to live in?"
Chris gave a shallow laugh. "Better? You killed the Charmed Ones- both generations –the last hope the world had left."
"Chris, I- I didn't kill Mum," Wyatt muttered, staring blankly at the wall.
"Do you really expect me to believe the sob-story about the demon you told everyone else?" Chris sneered.
"I made a deal with a demon," Wyatt said. "A Shape-shifter, to be more precise. They tried to kill me, and they would have, but I offered to kill a Charmed One in exchange for my life. I killed Aunt Paige, since she had developed healing powers, and would have interrupted my plans anyway. They said then, that since I killed one of the demons in the process, they were going to kill Mum as well. An eye for an eye. I made another deal, to kill Aunt Phoebe instead of Mum, but the Shape-shifters turned into me anyway, and killed Mum, pretending I did it. By then I was powerful, and the only people I cared to tell the truth to didn't believe me. You and Zachary."
"That's rubbish, Wyatt!" Chris snapped. "I saw you kill her!"
Wyatt shrugged. "Believe what you want. It doesn't matter now."
Chris closed his eyes. He was tired. So tired. He could feel Zach getting weaker, from the energy he was collecting from him, and he knew he would have to stop soon.
"I'm going to die soon," Chris said softly. "But it's not like you'd care, is it? Have you figured out a way to drain my powers, yet?"
Wyatt swallowed. "I care, Christopher," he said, though his voice was cold. "But if you hadn't defied me, I wouldn't have injured you. It's your fault that you're suffering."
"I'm not ready to die," Chris muttered, choosing to ignore Wyatt's words.
Wyatt felt another pang of guilt for putting his brother like this. He put a hand on Chris' face and brushed the hair out of his eyes. A golden glow appeared, and Chris' face healed. Wyatt jumped back like he had been burned.
"Why did you heal my face?" Chris said, almost angrily, trying to sit up. "I don't need your help!"
"I didn't mean to!" Wyatt protested.
Chris sighed, and sank back to the floor.
"So..." Leo said, trying to think of something to say to Cole.
Cole swished the coffee around in his mug, and stared out the window.
"Nice day, isn't it?" Leo asked, gesturing wildly towards the sky, his eyes on the floor.
"There's a thunderstorm going on," Cole said, shooting a strange look at Leo.
"Um, yeah," Leo replied, looking out the window for the first time that day. "I didn't realize."
They sat in silence for several minutes, Cole staring out the window, and Leo looking everywhere but at Cole.
"More coffee?" Leo asked.
Cole nodded, and couldn't help feeling thankful when Leo walked out of the living room.
What a strange guy, Cole thought.
"Bastard," a teenage Chris spat towards his father.
"Chris, the Elders vanquished Onathe for your own good," Leo said patiently. "You were in danger associating with him. He was a demon."
"Half-demon," Chris replied angrily. "And he was my friend! He didn't even know his demon father; his mother raised him! It wasn't vanquishing it was killing! Your pathetic Elder buddies murdered him in cold blood!"
"Why are all these memories bad?" Piper asked, feeling sick to her stomach, having just seen her son witness his best friend's murder.
Zach met her eyes. "Most of his life was bad," he said quietly.
The image swirled, yet again. Piper was standing in the attic, Chris besides her. He looked about fourteen, and Wyatt, looking slightly older, was standing in front of them with an athame.
"Ready to die, Mother," he sneered, maliciously.
"No! DON'T!" Chris yelled, running throwing himself at Wyatt, but it was too late...
A/N: Sorry if that was confusing. If you have any questions, just PM me. Please review!