Chapter two
Emerald green eyes scanned the book of shadows once again, looking for a missing clue, hoping against hope that somehow a new entry would magically appear and help bring his brother home.
"Chris you won't find anything in the book that we haven't already tried kiddo." Paige said from the door.
Pained green eyes looked up at his aunt, "I know…but it's not what I'm trying to do."
"Kid, I know what day it is. And we all know what you do today."
Chris nodded, "Yeah, yeah. Its Chris goes crazy day."
"Honey you have a mother, father and younger brother who need you. Danny needs his older brother-"
"Did you ever think that maybe I need mine?" he snapped.
"Peanut…" eyes flicked up to his mother, who was standing in the doorway, "Come have breakfast."
"Not hungry." Chris picked up Excalibur and orbed out.
"Damnit!" Paige swore as she realised what was going on, she turned to her sister, "It's not just my imagination right? He was dressed for the hunt."
Piper nodded, "Yeah."
"We have to stop him Piper. I mean he's barely slept or eaten in the last week…he shouldn't be down there alone."
Piper looked at her sister, "It's one day Paige. What harm can one day do?" she smiled ruefully, "There'll be a few hundred less demons to contend with by the end of the night."
She walked over to the book of shadows and saw the entry her son had been reading, "Paige, get Phoebe."
"Piper, what's going on." Piper pointed to the page and her baby sister read the entry.
Tarlack demons,
Upper level demons who specialise in the entrapment of witches and magical slave rings. Usually the Tarlacks will attack in cover of darkness, stealing small children and breaking them, using their long tapered fingers to reach into the mind of the being and remove their memories.
There is no known vanquishing spell or potion for these demons, extreme caution must be taken when approaching a Tarlack.
"You don't think Chris would go after them himself do you?" Paige asked. There was a pause before she corrected herself, "Of course he would. Question is, what's our next move?"
"Family meeting. Then a family vanquishing then a very pissed off Charmed one is going to ground her eldest son!" Piper left the room in a huff.
Paige sighed heavily, "nice one Chris."
In the Underworld
The tip of the sword carved a trail in the dirt as the dark haired witch walked through the catacombs of the Underworld, finally he was halted by two guards, "What do you want?" One asked gruffly.
Placing the sword on the ground he made a slight jerking motion and stopped both their hearts, "It's not like you didn't deserve it." Chris said as he focused on the lock on the gates.
He could feel the bolts sliding and when the gates swung open he waved his hands and orbed the bodies to the manor. Picking up Excalibur he continued walking, down the corridor in which he was now walking he could hear a large commotion.
He walked into the cave and the entire room stopped dead, they could all sense the power radiating from the young man, no one could tell if it were good or black magic flowing through his veins and that made him dangerous.
Chris' eyes settled onto the man in the middle of the room, ankles chained to two poles, his wrists shackled above his head. Strangely enough the man didn't move as the whip came crashing down on his back.
He cleared his throat, "Who do I talk to about slaves?"
A Tarlack demon rose its hand, "It is me you seek."
Chris walked over to him, "I'm looking for a witch." He said casually, focusing his interest on things around him, he stopped behind the man and ran his finger down his back and the man shivered.
"Well do you want anything specific?" the Tarlack asked as he walked forward.
"A boy, well he'd be a man now, taken in 2013."
"That's very specific." He mused, "Can I ask why?"
"It is of no consequence to you. All I want to know is if you have one."
He gestured to the man behind Chris, Chris walked in front of him and cupped his hand under his chin tilting his head up.
Blonde hair fell over the man's face, "He's a bit scrawny don't you think?" he said as if he were talking about an animal, "And dirty."
"Well, he is a slave. He's been here since he was nine years old, he's fed on scraps alone, and that's only every couple of days."
Chris was doing his best not to lose his cool, "Does he have a name?"
"Essentially it's boy. There are a string of human profanities that tend to go along with it; but you get the idea."
He nodded, "I see."
Chris brushed the hair out of the man's face and looked into his eyes, it took all his power not to recoil in horror as he stared into the blue eyes that seemed to stare through him. He took his hand away, letting the man's head to fall back down.
"What's his history?" he asked, again sounding like he was asking about a dog.
The Tarlack smirked, "Son of a Charmed one."
Chris' eyes narrowed, "I see."
"It took us six months to break him, he was such a strong child. But granted he was nine, most of our slaves are collected younger."
"So does this son of a Charmed one have any powers?"
"No. We literally bathed him in a mixture of a power stripping potion and a cloaking potion so no one could find him. One of my better plans may I add."
"Your narcissism doesn't interest me. This man on the other hand," A smile slipped across his features, "This man…he interests me."
"Sorry. He's not for sale."
"I wasn't asking." He replied icily, he pointed the tip of Excalibur's blade at his neck, Unchain him now."
The Tarlack waved his hand and the man fell to the ground with an unceremonious thud.
"You can't just walk out of here. What do you want with him anyway?"
Chris looked down at the sword, "Do you know what this is?"
The Tarlack looked down and then back at the man holding the weapon, "A sword?"
Chris nodded, "Very good. But let me give you a little hint, it's Excalibur."
The demon's eyes opened wide, "You're the dark haired boy from that night, aren't you?"
"Son of a Charmed one." Chris smirked. With a wave of his hand half the demons were killed, and with a second wave silver collars wrapped around their necks, they all tried to pull them off but stopped when it electrocuted them.
"What have you done to us?"
"Sit down." Each demon promptly sat down; he smirked, "They're enchanted rings, make you do what I say. And now, I want you to all burst into flames and die."
There was a sudden howl of pain as each and every one of the Tarlacks were vanquished. Chris dropped Excalibur and moved to the man's side.
"Hey…"
the man flinched when Chris went to heal him, "Listen buddy, I'm not going to hurt you. Look around, they're all gone. You're safe with me; just let me heal you."
He leant forward and Chris held his hands over his back and cried out as he saw all the scars. The angry welts began to disappear, once he was healed he sat down next to the man, "I hope to God I'm right about you." Chris said, "I mean if you're who they say you are…"
"CHRISTOPHER PEREGRINE HALLIWELL!" both men flinched.
"Hey mum." Chris said meekly as he saw his whole family standing at the mouth of the cave.
"I give you this one day to do what you like. I allow you to come down here in the hope you'll work through your grief and you go after a bunch of witch enslaving demons! No more! You are going home right now mister and your witchlighter ass is so grounded!"
Chris hadn't noticed that the man beside him had scampered back, pressing himself against the wall shaking.
"Chris, who's that?"
Chris got up and crouched in front of him, "Listen it's okay. That's my mother, she won't let anything happed to you, she's just mad because I came here by myself. Take my hand and I'll take you home."
He looked at Chris and shook his head, Chris sighed, "It's a safe place, I promise." Looking into his eyes he begged, "Trust me."
He nodded and stood up, warily he took Chris' hand and they walked over to Piper, "Let's go home."
They dissolved in an array of sparkling blue orbs and reappeared in the manor's guestroom.
"You can sleep here okay?" Chris said to him, who was looking rather bewildered. Chris telekinetically opened the door and pointed to the room across the hall, "That's my bedroom. If you need anything at all you come to me okay?"
He nodded and promptly lay down on the bed, within seconds he was well and truly asleep.
Chris watched him from the doorway and sighed heavily, "Chris who is that?"
He closed the door and orbed them to the conservatory, sitting down he said, "Mum, I'm pretty sure that's Wyatt."
