Okay! First, I'm so sorry for the delay in this update. There's a very reasonable explanation about that. You see, my sweet beta-whitelighter and i were handling the last details about the update when a really worried elder appeared out of nowhere and pleaded us to help him... it seems that a devious demon called Hotmailrrruuummm was trying to get rid of humanity. Sure you can understand our awkward position... there, trying not to look at the elder golden gown (out of fear of burst laughing), with lots of work to do and, indeed, being needed somewhere else. We couldn't but to obligue and start the hunt for the devious demon Hotmailrrrruuummm... it lasted for what seemed weeks, searching through the underworld like a mad dunadain, asking and bullying eery single demon... but at least we finished our assignment. Our first intention was to come back hastly and end the update, but the elders asked us to go upthere and made a celebrtion with champagne and sandwitches and music and lots of elder all in golden gowns. They looked like a gospel chorus... On our defense I must say that we just stayed there for a couple of hours and just leave. We had duty to do... so that's it... nevertheless, we're sorry, for we understand that saving the worl is no excuse for a delay, but we hope you'll forgive us.
On the other hand, I can't but love and adore all the reviews you've post. Reviews are like oxygen, reviews lift us up where we belong... all you need are reviwers... !!
Do I'm so sorry for not answering them here, but the advebture have left me exhausted and damn Windows have just shuted himself down for the fourth time while I was trying to write them down... I swear that I'll post it later
"Chris, baby Wyatt is missing, ok? And you took him away just some hours ago. Now, can you drag us to him now? You know, he's a toddler and you could have put him in danger". Although her voice was kind of quiet there were sharp edges in the whole sentence. As if she was trying to menace him in a very subtle way. That was disturbing, Aunt Phoebe usually preferred the direct threads.
"Why would I take Wyatt away for?" he asked finally, trying to gain some time to figure what the hell was going on.
Oh... his mom, his real older mom, was going to kill him so much the moment he managed to come back.
And up with the story..."Don't give us that crap, Chris!" Blurted out Phoebe. "Look, I really don't mind you being 12..."
"13, I'm 13. And I'm going to be 14 in a few weeks!"
"Whatever... What I mean is that I don't mind you looking like an obnoxious kid." Phoebe's face was only a few inches away from his. "From my point of view you're still the obnoxious excuse for an adult and I'm going to treat you exactly like that..."
Chris was starting to be very afraid of her aunt. That, by itself, was a big signal that something was wrong. Then again, she didn't knew that he was her nephew... he was only the guy who had kidnapped Wyatt, and both her aunts were very protective of their nephews. Or were going to be... Or... whatever. Anyway, what was that nonsense about him being an obnoxious adult?
"I'm not obnoxious" He complained and then, remembering something else, added." And I'm not an adult... yet."
The Charmed Ones glanced at each other, would telling him the truth be a good idea?
"Maybe if he knows, he will remember something else..." pointed out Leo. Chris being a young boy seemed to have cooled his homicide instincts for him, even if he was the kidnaper of his son. He was certainly not going to start bullying him, even if that seemed to be Phoebe's current tactics.
"If I know what, exactly?" asked Chris.
"That you are actually an adult now." was Piper's answer. "You're a grown up adult that came from the future to save Wyatt, or so you say". The witch ignored the part about Wyatt being evil, maybe they could learn something of this Chris after all, if they played their cards right.
"I'm a grown up?" Chris walked over a window and looked at his reflection. "I don't look like a grown up. And I don't have beard... are you sure?"
"Yes, we're sure. You just have kind of... erm... changed back to your early teens due to the spell we casted to find Wyatt" explained Paige.
"Why would a spell you casted to find Wyatt affect me like that? What did you tried to rhyme?"
"We... er... kind of casted it on you." responded Paige with a sorry smile.
"W- WHAT????" asked the kid, shocked.
"Hey! You kidnapped him first!" exclaimed the not so blonde witch.
"I did what?!"
"You took him away... without telling us anything. Then you came back... well, we brought you back, and casted a truth spell on you..." Paige tried to explain.
"A truth spell? What are you, retarded?!"
"I beg your pardon?" Piper snapped back, furious. Shamefully, none of them noticed Chris going pale in a 'me and my big mouth' way.
"Sorry... I meant... I meant that casting a true spell is not a good thing. It always backfires, you could even have fried my brain." And Chris was quoting directly his mother there.
"Oh god... I'm devastated by that..." answered she sarcastically.
Chris breathed deep and closed his eyes, trying to remind himself that she wasn't his Piper, his mother.
"Hey, are you alright?" He opened his eyes to find that Leo had half kneeled in front of him and was watching him with concern and a sympathetic look.
"Look," said the elder. "I know that this is weird, and that you must be concerned. I want to find Wyatt, I really do. And I think that you can help me, us. Anyway this must be very confusing, so maybe you should take a moment to relax and try to understand all the information. And we don't wanna push, but we love Wyatt, and he is in danger not only by being away but because he's... special."
Chris backed away. He usually avoided any kind of proximity with his father, and more than ever when he was in the speech mode. Bla, bla, help me find the twice charmed and oh so special Wyatt, bla, bla, bla, I'm trying to be nice with you so you will help me, bla, bla, bla, oh, I love so much to hear my own voice, bla, bla, bla... bla. He just hoped that boringness wasn't something genetic.
On the other hand, and focusing what was actually happening... all that stuff about future present past of himself... that was weird; however, not the weirdest thing he'd ever seen. It wasn't worse than when Elvis ghost possessed Wyatt, and his brother spent a whole weekend singing and 'twist and shouting' through the manor.
Very confusing? Moment to relax? Chris snorted, there was no time for confusion living with the charmed ones. So the kid just made a smug smile and got over it.
"How old am I?" he asked, openly giving his back at the elder and facing Paige.
"We don't know... in your early twenties." she answered.
Early twenties? That was...
"Cool. Am I gorgeous?"
The youngest Charmed just rolled her eyes with a very tiny smirk; this Chris sure was different than the one they knew.
"Forget that, of course am I..." The kid dismissed the question and returned to his main concern. "And you say that you casted a spell on me... because I had took Wyatt away?"
Paige nervously lifted her weight from one foot to another.
"More or less...You weren't telling us why you'd done it, and you wouldn't take him back." Telling us anything at all, in fact... she thought. After all, the spell had been written to force Chris to tell them the truth about the future. But there was no reason to tell him that was there? He would get quite angry at what she'd already said, not that he had any right to be angry with them. But Chris reaction was not an angry one, instead he just laughed.
"I see" was Chris's simple answer. He wasn't angry, how could he? He had kidnapped their baby, the Charmed Ones were only doing what was necessary to get him back. And now that they were explaining him what was happening, he was far less worried. After all, didn't Wyatt always say that, with enough information, Chris would work a way out of any situation? And that with enough time he'd get all the information? Okay, maybe Wyatt usually added that after all the plan had been settled and ready to go Chris would become, in fact, the King of the Last Minute Improvisation, due to one of those little and annoying surprises their lives seemed to be filled with. Little surprises like this one.
"So you're just saying that I haven't travelled in time, but my twenty and something self has " the kid resumed " or will for that matter. And then he, that's me, just changed into his early teens, that would be me now, who, by the way, just doesn't remember a shit about all that 'saving Wyatt by kidnapping him' thing. Correct? "
The adults were silent for a moment, trying find the sense in the kid's words.
"That's it, 'Chris Perry's Easy Guide for Time Travelling' is equally dense when he is thirteen." gave up finally Paige. "Let's say that's a yes, you're right."
"Chris Perry?" asked Chris, confused again.
Paige half smiled mischievously.
"So that's your name, am I wrong?"
Chris blushed, caught in the lie.
"Well, Perry is... it is my grandmother maiden name. "He lied hastily. Too hastily for the matter, he'd better change the subject "Have you tried to scry for Wyatt?"
"Of course we've tried" was Phoebe angry answer who earned, again, a curious glance from Paige.
"Call him?"
"Done".
"Sense him?"
"Checked."
"Summon him?"
"No way, the book isn't helping us, we're running out of options here."
Chris thought about some solutions. "Writing your own spell?"
"No, without the Book of Shadows its not possible" Phoebe shrugged hopelessly.
"Says who?" asked the kid, stunned. "You certainly don't need the book to look for Wyatt... he's Piper's son after all. A power of three spell should unblock anything I've done to screw the sensing."
"And how a young and healthy boy would know that much bout the power of three?" asked Paige, trying to get some answers.
"Being a half witch with no extra school curriculum leaves you time to learn." Chris half smiled, his lack of initiative in sports or any kind of extra work after classes that wasn't hanging out with his friends or stalking their new and hot like hell neighbor were a common theme of discussion back at home.
"Anyway, it should lead you to Wyatt..." Which, Chris thought a little too late, may not be such a good idea. After all his older one had tried to prevent them finding Wyatt. On the other hand his older one wouldn't want Wyatt to be alone wherever he'd left him, would he? Or maybe that's exactly what he'd wanted... He cursed mentally, he hated being in the dark... how could he take the right decision if he didn't knew what was happening?
"Exactly, why didn't we thought of this before?" wondered Piper, watching Phoebe writing down a quick spell.
"We did," said Paige. "In fact it was you who said what a horrible idea it was, don't you remember?"
Piper frowned; she remembered it... in a very weird dream like way.
"I don't know, maybe..." answered the witch after a while. The nerves were getting her stomach in a knot again. "I only want to find Wyatt... I don't know why Chris took him, and I'm not even angry at him... no that much. I should go down to the underworld and start blowing demons until I find my son..."
"We talked about that, remember?" Paige massaged her sister's back. "That would be like publishing an advertisement in big neon lights in the middle of hell, like organizing a hunt the 'twice blessed' picnic day. And we don't even now if he's there, separate now would be a horrible idea..."
"I know why I'm not doing it Paige, but that hardly helps." snapped Piper.
"Yeah, sorry honey."
"No... I'm sorry... You're worried too..."
"We all are." Paige looked across the room at Leo and remembered that stuff Phoebe had published some weeks ago. That thing about how going through a hard situation together would bond a couple. "You know... Leo is trying to play brave there, but Phoebe just told me before how much worried Leo was, how near of a break down she could sense him."
Piper turned to the elder. Leo had left a little after they had decided to try and write the spell, he had gone to see Gideon, to ask for help. He hadn't said a thing since he had come back, he had just shook his head and sat in the chair. He had always been her anchor, the one thing that stayed safe and right when everything went wrong. Watching him so lost, made her feel guilty and sick. They should be trying to work this out together. No matter how ended Leo thought that their marriage was. No matter how wrong things had gone between them two... they were Wyatt's parents, they had faced evil and worse and they had survived because they had always worked better when they were together. Things wouldn't fall apart when there was the both of them to fight it. Whatever happened later, they would not find their son unless they worked on it united. Piper got up, sick of her own stupidity around Leo, of her childish behaviour for Leo leaving last Saturday. Leo needed her, and she needed him... more important, Wyatt needed the both of them. But her stomach had a very different opinion in it, because before she could make a step towards him, the witch felt suddenly sick in a far less spiritual way and ran out of the attic again.
"That was not the plan." whispered Paige, watching her oldest sister leaving the room. So let's make a new one, she thought to herself, getting up and approaching Leo.
"I think that now would be a good time to go and see how is she feeling..." she said with a smile.
"Even if you're not married anymore, she needs you, you know?"
The elder raised his head to look at her, sadly smiled back and orbed away. Hopefully he was going to talk with Piper... but again, being these two idiots, who could know?
"I think that I've got it" said Phoebe, holding a piece of paper.
She read it.
She read it again.
She checked the back of the paper, looking for some other writing.
"You must be kidding me, Phoebes..."
"What?"
Paige showed her the paper.
"This spell is awful. If Piper sees this she will go nuts!"
"C'mon, is not that bad!"
"Some of this words doesn't even exists..." the youngest charmed threw her arms to the air in exasperation. " you can't just make up words so a spell will rhyme!"
"I' didn't made up words." complained Phoebe.
"...and do it schlock" read Paige "Schlock? Can you tell me again what does Schlock means?"
"Hey! If you're so perfect, just do it by yourself." Phoebe answered childishly.
"Of course I will redo it... Wyatt would do it better..." The half whitelighter threw the spell in the basket without a further look at it. "But from now you've lost your place as the best spell writer in the family. No more VIP entries to the toilet for you."
Phoebe's only answer at that was a long stare that ended with a mischievous smile.
"You're right... I'm the best of us with this stuff, aren't I?"
"Not anymore."
"I should be doing it, shouldn't I? I'm the writer with 'Ask Phoebe' and all that." The columnist smile widened in a cat-chasing-mouse way.
"Now you're scaring me, honey" Paige started to back away.
Chris had been quietly watching in a corner while her aunt tried to play cupid with his mother and Leo. He left the place and knelt down next to the basket, picking up the paper. He had heard Paige saying that Wyatt would have done it better... well, she had never seen Wyatt trying to write a spell. Every inch that Wyatt had of twice blessed and power, he lacked it in rhyme or tempo capacities. His spells sounded like a Teletubby speech, and had even less sense.
He read the spell.
He read the spell again.
He checked the back of the paper, looking for some other writing.
That was awkward even in Wyatt's standards. Even his brother and his "Now rhymes with so" theory would beat that. And what kind of word was Schlock?
"What are you doing?" snapped his youngest aunt behind him.
"I was reading Phoebe's spell" he confessed with a smirk. "It's pretty awful, isn't it?"
"What are you talking about? It was awesome. " And with that last word, she left the attic following Piper's steps.
"I knew it... too much hair dye is not good for her..." muttered the kid, turning towards Phoebe and trying to guess her actual mood. She looked back at him.
"How good are you at spells?" asked the empath.
"What?"
"You're a witch too, aren't you?"
"Yes... yeah... er... I hope you already knew that..."
"Well, then just help me with this, would you?" pleaded his aunt "My head is spinning and I can't put two words together here..."
"You want me to... help you? Wasn't I an obnoxious kid?"
"Well, you gave us this idea of the spell, didn't you? C'mon, I kind of even trust your older version."
Chris simply nodded, wondering why nobody had told him that his family were on drugs before he was born. That would surely explain some of actual Wyatt's psycho behaviours.
Meanwhile, on the first floor, Leo was standing in front of the bathroom door, knocking and trying to get his ex-wife to open the door. But the damn stubborn woman was ignoring him.
"C'mon, Piper, open this door. Piper? Ok look, I'm worried about Wyatt too, but we'll find him. You don't have to hide your grief, I know how anxious you are." the elder knocked again. "Please Piper open the door, I want to see you, ok? I need to see you! I'm sorry for what happened last Saturday, I..."
The toilet door opened and Piper's head appeared behind it.
"You?"
"I mean... last Saturday... When I woke up and you weren't there..."
"You woke up and I...?" started to say the witch before she threw up; which, from Leo's point of view, was a good metaphor of what she was going to tell him, but a disgusting one nevertheless. Piper darted back to the bathroom leaving a much more depressed elder with much less clean clothes.
"That was disgusting" said Paige walking behind him and going to the kitchen. "Come with me, there must be something useful in the Old-boyfriends box and you can clean a little downstairs. Then you can come back and try to heal her from whatever virus she's caught".
"Changing would be good..." he said following his former sister-in-law. "But I don't think she'd want me to heal her..."
"You're right, she's very mad at you." were Paige's not so reassuring words. "And not that you can complain on it... I mean, after what's happened to Wyatt. Even Phoebe is mad at you." Leo never saw Paige smiling at the guilty look in his face.
"I should have never left them. I should have fought becoming an elder." Leo picked up some random trousers and a sweater from the box and started changing into it.
"C'mon, don't be so mad at yourself... that was what you'd always wanted, even before you knew her... you were just blind..."
"But they are more important than that!! And I wasn't blind at all, I knew that Chris was hiding something, I felt it. I just... just..."
"You didn't want to see it? To lose your opportunity?"
"No! I..."
"We've got the spell." Chris's outburst from the top of the stairs gave a sharp end to the conversation. Paige ran upstairs, followed by Leo who met a very pale Piper in the first floor. The elder hastily continued to the attic, avoiding her eyes; loosing her half reassuring smile.
"You've got it, sure? And what's this chalk mark in the floor?" Paige asked when both, Leo and Piper arrived.
"Yep" Phoebe handed the piece of paper over with a smile. "Here it is, wrote and ready for us to find Wyatt. And the 'chalk mark' is an invocation symbol from the ancient Celtics." Paige's relief at her words rushed over the middle sister like cold water. What the hell was happening with them all today?
"Okay!" Piper busted between them and took the paper. "Find Wyatt now, gloat over your genius later..."
"Come here." Phoebe dragged her sisters to the middle of the circle, placed a map in the floor and holded the crystal over it. "Now... let's try."
There's a hidden we must find,
but a power holds his trace,
Let's our force release our kind,
bring Wyatt back to this place.
For some minutes everyone waited expectantly for something to happen. For the crystal to find him, for Leo or Paige to sense something... But the time past and soon it was obvious that there was no trace of Wyatt.
Phoebe turned to Piper full of concern, her sister was breathing deep, trying to keep calm while Leo was looking around, as if waiting something to happen. He found something, for the elder had stopped dead and was looking with wide eyes to the corner of the attic. Phoebe looked at the place where the kid was before the spell and found... someone who was in his lately teens and was staring at them with a stunned face."What the...? Chris? " asked Paige. " I think he's changed again." She whispered to the sisters.
"Hail, King of The Obvious" groaned Piper also in a low tone, worried for the half whitelighter who was giving a blank stare at them.
"Chris, I think you know us," said Leo in a high slow voice that would have been funny being another the circumstance." but..."
Chris moved at last, turning to Leo, and smiled as if hearing a very good joke. But the moment the elder moved towards the young man the smile fade again into a grimace that bordered dangerously with madness. Before anyone could do anything to stop him, Chris waved furiously his arm sending Leo violently to the wall.
"Leo!!" screamed Piper.
"Crap!" cursed Paige.
"Chris!!" exclaimed Phoebe.
"Ouch!!" complained the elder.
"You must be kidding me." said Chris in a high-pitched voice, forcing them all, even Leo who was trying to stand up, to look at him, wondering what was he talking about. But the boy was just looking over their heads, as seeing something through a misty glass. "You must be kidding me!!!" He repeated, yelling now.
"Chris..." tried Paige. "Look Chris, let me explain..."
"Shut up, you bitch!!!!" Chris flicked his arm again, sending the witch to the wall. "How dare you? HOW DARE YOU???"
Piper looked at Phoebe briefly and her sister nodded in agreement.
"Chris! Look here, I've to tell you something"
The young man just turned to her, his grimace became the essence of hatred as he just laughed bitterly.
"This must be so funny, isn't it?" he said, approaching the witch.
"What's so funny?" asked the older sister walking slowly to the right, forcing Chris to move with her.
"You, you're funny. And he's even funnier... although pathetic would be a closer word."
"He's pathetic? Who is he?"
Chris's eyebrow raised and he just waved again his hands, sending Phoebe ,who had been trying to make a surprise attack, in to the wall, also colliding with Paige.
"Do you really think that I would fell for that? Your boss should know me better than that..." the half whitelighter motioned for the whole room "better than this, in fact..."
"Our boss?"
"Drop that, you damned demon... I don't know what made him think that I was gonna fell for that, but this is lame. Do you hear me?" yelled Chris to the ceiling. "Are you listening you sick bastard!? You son of a bitch!? I'm not falling, so stop this!! STOP THIS NOW!!" and with the last exclamation he just motioned again to Piper and the witch levitated a few feets and flew across the room, crashing in an old armchair. Before she even touched the floor, Chris threw her again through the air, to the wall.
"Chris, stop, you're going to kill her!!" exclaimed Phoebe, trying to get the teenager's attention and gaining it.
"Oh... you can bet I'm going to kill her..." and again to the ceiling. "Do you hear me? I'm going to kill 'em all! And then I'm gonna go after you and snap your twice damned neck! So make them disappear!"
"Who the hell is he talking to?" asked Paige before orbing an old flower pot at the young man head's who fell to his knees but kept consciousness and counteracted the attack by throwing what remained of the armchair at her. One of the wood pieces stabbed her in the stomach.
"One down!" cheered Chris lightly.
"Paige!!" screamed Leo, throwing a lightning through the room, hitting Chris and sending him to the floor, out cold. Once the boy was down, the elder ran to his sister-in-law and placed a hand above the wound, healing her. "Are you alright?"
She nodded.
"I didn't knew he had it on him..."
"The homicidal instincts?" Piper half walked half stumbled towards them. "I said that I didn't like him, remember?"
"And you know what?" asked Phoebe, approaching cautiously to the nearly unconscious Chris. "I bet he doesn't remember yet where's Wyatt..."
"And he's pretty dangerous, don't you think? Maybe we should put some crystals around him..." suggested Paige. "Just to be sure that he wont start playing tk with us again."
"However, the spell you cast is still affecting him..." pointed out Leo. "This is an older version of the Chris we just met..."
"And he doesn't likes us..." said Phoebe "And maybe is the wall-hit head talking here, but I like his younger version better, even the older one was far more sociable. At least none of them tried kill us..."
"Not that we know." added Paige earning a general nod of agreement. "And who the hell was he talking with?"
Piper shrugged, complaining when her arm gave her a twitch of pain.
"Let me." offered Leo, holding her briefly. After the known sparks and glows she was healed.
"Thanks".
"You welcome".
In the floor, Chris laughed humourless, regaining his consciousness.
"This is touching... really, I'm going to start to cry any time soon." he said softly "And now you should kiss her... I bet that that's in the play too."
Slowly, he opened his eyes and glared at them with even more hate than before. The emotion was so powerful that Phoebe felt it like an actual wave of force that made her stumble. She would have fell if Piper hadn't caught her.
"He hates." she said, answering her sister silent question.
"You mean that he hates us..." pointed Paige out.
"Yes... no, I mean that he hates. Us, the attic, the sky, himself... life..." she backed away hastily. "I feel so much hate in him that it's even hard to breath."
The sisters shared a frown, after their neurotic worried one and the neurotic cheerful... now the neurotic psycho... how many Chris had been in his whitelighter's live? ((( I don't get it)))
"We should decide what do we do now..." Leo got her attention back to Chris whowas still laughing and was trying to stand on one elbow, getting forces out of pure stubbornness.
"I'll get the rocks." volunteered Paige. But before she could move, Chris regained his forces and waved at them again. As he had been half expecting this new attack, Leo stood hastily, trying to block the young man attack with his elder powers should be easy. Unfortunately, the tk wave was not directed at them but at the carpet under their feet that slid away, throwing them to the floor.
"So much for some common shape shifters?" said the half whitelighter with a smirk, tking the old potions armchair to his enemies in the floor. "So sorry, but the Charmed Ones wouldn't of fell for that."
And with those last words the young man signalled to the lying Piper and closed his hand into a furious fist.
In the floor, covered in dust, wood and potions ingredients, the witch awoke to discover that she couldn't breath. Hopelessly she turned to her sisters and Leo, still unconscious, and then to the crazy Chris who's closed fist was pointing at her.
"Be happy, for you're going to die faster than what you deserve." he was saying. "And then I'm going to kill'em all... also quickly, of course... and with god help or without it I will find Wyatt and I'm going to kill him." Chris attention went again to the ceiling. "Do you hear me, Wyatt? Do you? Once I've killed I'm going to find you and I'm going to kill your sorry ass!!!"
Wyatt? The loss of oxygen was making Piper think slow and painfully, but even with that she heard Chris menace to his son. With her mind unable to fully distinguish between reality and delirium, she looked at the half whitelighter with a plea. Whatever he understood in it just made him laugh even harder.
"What happened, you bitch? Are you feeling some kind of moral obligation for him now?"
As the reality started to fade away from her, Piper tried desperately to fight Chris hold, to break free of it. But that just made his smile grew wider and crazier.
"I will get him... do you hear me?" unable still to get up, the whitelighter crawled to her. "No matter what I have to do, no matter where I have to go or who I have to face... I will get him and then he'll pay in a very slowly and painful way."
Suddenly Piper snapped her head up, looking at him in the eye. He was saying he truth, it wasn't just the wish to kill but the wish to harm and destroy. To harm Wyatt. Her son. With the last force she could manage, the witch gestured to Chris blowing him away and into unconsciousness. Freeing herself from his grip before everything went black and she died.
I really hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Thanks again to As always, and sorry again for th delay.
