"When three planets burn as one over a sky of dancing light, and magic will rest on a holy day to welcome a twice-blessed child."


Neurotic


Disclaimer: If Charmed belonged to me, someone would have died of brain failure by now.

Summary: His name isn't Chris Perry. It's Christopher. Christopher Halliwell.

Happy birthday Teal-lover! (hugs)


Chapter the Twenty-Ninth

Endgame


The scream echoed on and on in the house even though the screamer was long gone.

Chris felt disbelief rise within him,like a bubble bursting to get loose, and he ran for the door, skidding down the steps, just in time to see Wyatt orb away with Pippa.

He faintly registered Paul and Piper at the bottom of the stairs, shouting, but he couldn't hear them. He could only hear his own heart-beat. It sounded like guilt to him, and he shook it away. He had to find her. He had to tell her he didn't mean to hurt her like that.

He closed his eyes, trying to sense her, and failing. He locked gazes with Paul, who was running to him, who was staring at the spot on the carpet where Pippa had been, who was shaking Chris, and Chris looked up at him with dead eyes, uncomprehending.

Bones suddenly turned to liquid, and he fell to the floor, with Paul still hanging onto him. Maybe Paul was hitting him now, trying to wake him up, but he just wanted to sink down, down, down... Let me be!

"Chris, we'll find her, we'll find her, I promise, I promise."

...and Paul was babbling, and still shaking him, and Chris couldn't do anything.

"She's gone." Chris was surprised that the words were his own. The voice sounded foreign to him, the words even more so. He looked up at Paul, and suddenly Paul was ten years old again to him, fragile and needing protection from his older brother. He blinked, and then Paul was older than him, and he sought comfort from that presence. His vision swam again, and he just stared at a blank section of wall. She's gone.

"Freaking out won't get her back," Paul was saying, with a dark look on his face. "This is my fault. If I'd just kept pretending I was bad, I could have kept him away from her..."

My fault? The words filtered through to Chris, and he looked up at Paul, heavy-lidded. "My fault," Chris repeated, and hung his head. "I said some bad things. I said some really bad things, Paul."

Paul's eyes were muted in understanding as he clung to Chris' elbows, holding him elbow.

"I said she- I said she wasn't-"

"Sshhh." Paul yanked Chris closer. "Sshhh, it's okay. She knows you didn't mean it."

"How?" Chris yanked his head up, and his eyes were reddened and bloodshot.

"I know you didn't mean it," Piper said, unsteadily, not quite sure what she was saying. "Worst comes to worst, and this happens to me in the future- We all know we say stupid things when we're angry. Hell, I do it all the time."

Chris lowered his face, and nodded through tightly screwed-up eyes. "Yeah," he whispered brokenly, and lifted his tear-stained face to her. "Well, if that happens, sorry in advance?"

Piper nodded, feeling the hurt radiating from him. "Yeah. But right now, we need to focus. We've lost Phoebe, Paige and now... me. There's got to be a reason for that and it can't be good. We need help."

"I'll call Cole at the club," Paul said, reluctantly releasing Chris as he got to his feet. "He can take over from me with the book if I explain what he needs to do. We need all the magic we can get to find Phoebe and mom."

"Right," Piper said. "Chris, you and I will scry for Pippa, okay?"

Chris nodded, suddenly brisk and business-like. "It might help if we scry with Wyatt." His eyes darkened.

"Wyatt?" Piper's eyebrows rose. "Won't we just get- here?"

"Hopefully there'll be two spots of resonance," Chris said absently.

"I'm just going to pretend I understood that," Piper said awkwardly, squinting at him. Chris smiled slightly, sheepishly.

"Come on," he said, as the sound of Paul dialling filtered up the stairs.

"I'll just get Wyatt," Piper said, turning to go and fetch him.

Chris put his hand on her arm. "I'll do it," he mumbled. She looked at him with curious eyes. "You shouldn't be lifting anything heavy at the moment."


Chris entered with Wyatt to find Piper had already spread the map out. He glowered at her as he sat down with Wyatt in his arms, but she glowered right back.

"I'm pregnant, not incapable," Piper snapped.

"Sorry," he said.

"You don't sound sorry."

Chris narrowed his eyes, and picked up the scrying crystal. Letting the crystal fall, the string tautened in his grip, and the crystal started to move around the map.

"I'll try and put more emotion in it next time," he said dryly. The crystal started to judder over the position of the manor, and Chris edged with his wrist. It began to circle again. His eyes worried over the map as it moved. "Piper?"

"Yes?"

"I-" He bent his head, and his hair fell in front of his eyes likea heavy curtain. "I should- I should tell you-" But the crystal shuddered to a halt, and he lifted his head like a startled gazelle. "It's there!"

He leapt up, and looked down at where the crystal had landed. "It's a park near Chinatown," he said, looking up at her excitedly. "It's-" He froze.

Piper watched the excitement fade out of his face until he looked completely drained of colour. "What? Is it- in a bad place? A demon hive? A hell mouth? A Walmart?"

Chris managed to return to life enough to throw a wan smile at her. "No." With a shaky voice, he looked at her. "Do you notice anything different in this room?" He paused for emphases. "Something missing?"

Piper frowned at the question, unsure of what he was asking. Even Wyatt had quietened, and was sucking on his thumb as he idly looked between them. "No," she said. "I don't see anything missing except for my sisters."

Chris moved his gaze to the corner of the attic, and she followed his gaze to the large boulder that sat in the corner. The large rock was casting a hazy shadow onto the floor, and it's curved surface seemed even craggier when highlighted by the attic's lighting. Piper's mouth dropped open in a hazy realisation. "Excalibur," she whispered, but it sounded so loud in the attic that it echoed in her ears. "Excalibur's missing."

She turned to see Chris' reaction, and he was looking physically sick.

"What's the matter?" Piper asked, even as she felt dread in the pit of her own stomach.

"Wyatt only ever used Excalibur in the future," Chris said unevenly, "for the really big kills."

Piper let the news sink over her, and she nodded slowly. "Leo," she said. "We need Leo."


Chris raised his eyes at Leo's speechless reaction. Leo looked completely flumoxed, like he'd been blindsided by a flying pixie.

"He's going to kill her," Chris said, and his voice broke. Paul looked at him with concern, and moved closer, impulsively taking Chris' hand. Chris looked at him gratefully.

"I wish I could help," Cole said, a little unsuredly. "But Paul's right, having him there is better than my presence." He looked at the book in his hands, and clicked the biro he was holding. "I'll try and help Paige and Dan out of here as quick as I can."

"Thank you, Cole," Piper said, her eyes large with worry.

"And I'll babysit Wyatt too, if you want," Cole said, as he thought of it. "I'm sure I can write and look after him."

Chris nodded his thanks, after feeling awkward that he hadn't even thought about Wyatt's younger self. The two were divided in his head, and the same. It was confusing to say the least.

"We have to accept that it's a trap of some kind," Chris said, his voice stronger now even while indecision was written in the despair in his eyes. "Wyatt wouldn't stay in one place unless he wanted us there."

"I've still got my powers," Piper said. "And three of you can orb - we can get out of there if it's something we can't handle." She smiled widely, but a hint of nervousness shone on her face, and her hand strayed protectively to her stomach. "Besides, we haven't met anything yet that has taken us out."

"I picked up some of the potions Paige made before she left," Paul said, displaying a cloth bag of vials. "They're some of the general vanquishing ones that Chris advised her to make."

"From the Map," Leo said, his mouth quirking.

"You and your Maps," Paul said, rolling his eyes. "But if Wyatt's enticed a lot of demons to attack us we should be able to beat a fair few of them back with these."

"We should all take some," Piper said, and Paul quietly doled out some of the vials.

"We ready?" Chris questioned.

"Yeah," Piper said. She reached out and gripped Leo's hand tightly, who looked down at her with a similar worry brewing in his eyes. This is our son who's gone psychotic. We have to fix this.

"Let's go."


The first thing Piper saw was a mass body of clear sparkling water. It was the kind of blue you only ever really saw on a film when a blue filter had been applied. It was beautiful, and was only enhanced by the delicate pink blossoms that intruded along the edges of the water.

Beautiful trees arched over the cool blue surface, with intricate blossoms and branches that stretched forward like prayers. Beside her, Chris was fidgeting a little, and that was when she realised what kind of blossoms they were.

Cherry blossoms.

"This isn't- This isn't where your mother died, is it?" Piper asked, suddenly worried.

Chris blinked, surprised. His voice was quiet. "No. I've never been here before."

"There's no one here," Paul said stupidly, blurting it out as he looked around.

"Then Wyatt must be hiding for some reason," Chris said, shrugging. "Maybe he's waiting for something." Chris stepped forwards, and Piper shouted in surprise as a bright light surrounded him and suddenly he looked ten years younger.

Chris looked down at himself in bewilderment, and Paul burst out laughing.

"Shut up," Chris ground out, stepping backwards and returning to his previous self, looking intrigued despite himself. "This must be one of those time distortion phase thingies Paige always used to go on about."

"Dude," Paul said, stepping forwards. Instantly he became a floppy haired moppet, about three-foot tall and round-faced. Chris sniggered a little, and Paul stepped out. "Cool!"

"I don't think I'll try that," Piper said warily, looking at the slightly shimmering area of space. "As much as I'd love to be twenty-odd again, I'm too worried for my baby."

Paul glanced shrewdly at Chris, who pulled a face, and probably would have retorted with something had he not spotted what he had.

An inky blackness swelling in the clear blue depths of the water.

"He's forming a whirlmire!" Paul shrieked in horror, stumbling backwards. Chris fell back too, and Piper and Leo exchanged a look.

"A whirlmire?" Piper blurted, confused.

Leo bodily took hold of her and yanked her backwards. His eyes were shuttered and black. "It's a way of distorting water with magic. It's instant death for any who touch its surface."

They retreated to a safer distance.

"Thought you'd find me here."

They looked in horror as adult Wyatt strode out as if from nowhere, standing in front of the growing whirlmire, a spinning pool of deepest black. A bound and gagged Pippa was being dragged along in one hand, and in the other Excalibur glimmered.

"This is only a warning for you," Wyatt said calmly. Pippa did not struggle. The sweat standing on her bowed forehead attested that she was probably drugged. "I do not take betrayal lightly." He raised the arm holding Excalibur back.

"NO!" Chris jerked forwards, and Leo dived forwards to hold him back. "Let me go, you bastard!" Chris hissed to Leo, his eyes burning with fury.

"Paul, stop!" Piper screamed.

Wyatt just laughed, and flung his arm forward. The blade slid through Pippa easily, and her body twitched as it skewered her. Her cropped black hair fell forwards, covering her face. Wyatt yanked the blade out and lifted her body into the air, before easily tossing it behind him. She fell with a graceful arch through the air, landing in the roaring whirlmire and disappearing.

"NO!" Paul screamed his time, and Leo wasn't quick enough to hold Paul back.

Chris howled and struggled uselessly against Leo's firm grasp.

Paul ran, his dark eyes blazing, and he pelted full speed towards Wyatt. A door closed in Wyatt's eyes, and he lifted blood-stained Excalibur easily. Paul's fragile body had no chance as the sword flashed in the air, and speared through his stomach. Crying out softly, Paul dropped to the floor. Wyatt gestured easily, and Paul's body slid from the sword before being slammed through the air. His body fell at an awkward angle before making contact with the whirlmire, and then he was gone.


T - 24