"And when it happens this where I wanna be. I love you."
Neurotic
Disclaimer: Charmed does not belong to me.
Summary: His name is not Chris Perry. It's Christopher. Christopher Halliwell.
Updates won't be daily, but they'll be as fast as I can manage. Thanks for your patience.
Dedicated: to Vera, Amanda, Alyssa and Sharon, whose kind words in this time of need have kept me going.
Chapter the Forty-Three
"Panic"
As soon as they heard Paul yell, Chris dashed into the kitchen, just in time to see the arrow let loose from the Darklighter's crossbow. Unable to do anything in time, he watched almost in slow motion as the arrow smashed through the air towards his Aunt Paige. It was only Dan's quicker reflexes that saved her - for the umpteenth time since he'd returned into their lives, he pushed Paige out of the way, smashing them both to the ground.
It was only after his strangled cry that Chris realised Dan had been struck by the arrow.
Wasting no time, Chris angrily brought his hand up and smashed it through the air. The Darklighter flew backwards and thudded bodily into the fridge.
He twisted his hand, squeezing the Darklighter's throat telekinetically, and the Darklighter gasped, its fingers twitching uselessly until it dropped its crossbow. Chris wasted no time in storming over to it, and using his hands now to push the Darklighter into the dented refridgerator.
"Who sent you?"
The Darklighter narrowed his dark eyes, and spat into Chris' face.
Chris' mouth set into a line, and he pulled one hand back. The Darklighter undulated out of his grasp, but it was too late; Chris squeezed one hand in the air, imploding the Darklighter's heart, and fire engulfed him. The Darklighter's scream echoed in the kitchen, and Chris looked coolly down at the dark stain the vanquish had left on the floor.
"That's going to be nasty to get out," Chris quipped, brushing his hands briskly, turning around to clinically survey the scene. A vein in Paul's neck was pulsing softly, but Paul was stood rooted to the spot, staring down at Dan bleeding on the floor as if there was nothing going on there at all. Paul was absolutely frozen to the spot.
Frowning, Chris edged a look to Piper, standing worriedly in the doorway, her hand over her bump protectively. "Did you freeze him?" Chris asked. Piper quickly shook her head, doe brown eyes flickering over the scene in worry.
Chris stilled, taking a slow breath, before moving over to grasp Paul by the shoulders. Paul moved his eyes to look at Chris, but it was a deadened expression. "I-" Paul started, before faltering. His gaze fell to the floor, and remained there, as if Chris' shoes were the most interesting items in the whole world.
Indecision wavered on Chris' face for barely a second before his eyes darkened determinedly. He raised his hand up like he had to smash the Darklighter across the room.
"Chris, what do you think you're doing?"
Chris ignored Piper's outburst, and delivered a solid sharp slap to Paul's face.
CRACK!
The noise sprang out like a gunshot, and it startled the room with about the same effect as a gunshot would have had.
Paul's eyes flew to his, his cheek instantly going red, but it had succeeded in knocked Paul out of his shock. "Oh--- Ohhh---" Paul drew in a great shuddering breath, and Chris put one hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"Dan needs your help," Chris told him a low, kind voice.
Still slightly trembling, Paul nodded and dropped to the floor next to Paul. He looked up at Chris, and a silent communication passed between the two boys.
"This is gonna hurt," Paul advised Dan, who managed a gruff noise of affirmation. Paige was gripping Dan's hand tightly, and her face was gaunt with worry and consternation.
Chris twitched his hand, and the arrow came out from Dan and embedded itself in the destroyed fridge. Dan spasmed, a small grunt of pain coming from his mouth, sweat standing out from his forehead, and a nerve pulsing in his neck. Chris felt a sudden floating sensation, as if something very profound had just occured, but he couldn't think what it could be, and before he could re-examine what he'd just thought, Paul had brought his hands to Dan and had healed him, and Dan was up and on his feet - bewildered, bothered but alive.
"We're going to need a new fridge," Piper said weakly.
"Um, or you need a new brain," Paul said, dodging nimbly away from the small reproving thump Chris was angling in his direction. Chris wondered at Paul's sudden chirpiness.
"What are you doing?" Chris demanded, folding his arms across his chest.
Paul levelled one of those looks at Chris that only a younger sibling can manage successfully, the "am I really related to you?" glare. He held his hands over the fridge, and 'healed' it.
"Oh." Chris' voice was small and sheepish. "Yeah."
Piper was staring at Paul with new eyes. "You mean we've been buying new furniture, and Leo could have just healed it for us?"
Paul smiled, although it was restrained. "Well, I'm not under employ of the Elders in this time, so I don't have to adhere to their rules." He wrung his hands slightly, and he couldn't even look at Dan as he tried to apologise, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me... I just couldn't move."
"No worries," Dan said warmly, moving over and squeezing Paul's shoulder. Paul looked up at him with wide, startled, rabbit-caught-in-headlights eyes. "Besides, I think I might just have been struck with something." Dan grinned, all teeth, and Paige thumped him in the shoulder.
"Not funny," she ground out.
Dan wouldn't tell them his idea until they'd all sat down in the conservatory, in a circle of the plastic chairs around a table and Paul had set up a silence barrier. Chris almost felt as if they were in a powwow circle. Dan seemed to be pleased with the idea he'd been hit with, and not at all resentful that he'd just been hit with an arrow. Then, that had always been what Chris had admired about him, 'back when'. Dan was fidgeting with his hair, pushing it out of his face as if he didn't know he was doing it, and Chris felt a surge of almost-relief. In Chris' past, and hopefully still part of this timeline's future, it usually meant that Dan had come up with something ingenius, although Dan would never apply that label.
"The Darklighter meant to kill one of us," Dan said eventually, quite simply.
Chris stared; this wasn't the surge of genius he had expected. However, he waited, trusting in the fact that Dan had always been consistent. He wasn't going to dismiss him out of hand.
He knew, though, that one person in the powwow circle would dismiss him, and he leant over and comfortingly touched Piper, just above her elbow. She looked at him curiously, and he shook his head slowly, 'don't.' She realised what he meant, and the sarcastic comment that would have probably slid out died unspoken on her lips.
"But instead, he's given me a new... idea... on who may turn Wyatt." Dan's voice was strong, and he looked across at Piper thoughtfully. Piper's face faltered to a paler shade of white.
"Who?" she asked Dan, her voice trembling, her hand gripping her arm so tightly in suspense that when she lifted it away there was a white indent of where her fingers had been.
"I don't know exactly who," Dan said, "but..."
"But what?" Paige asked, her eyes dark and piercingly trained on Dan's face.
"The Darklighter intended to kill, but he failed, and he gave me an idea. A good idea. Now it couldn't have been what the Darklighter intended at all, but it was a side effect of the attack." Dan's voice was even. "Same as what you've told me about Darryl Morris. You only intended to do good, but you inadvertently managed to turn him against you all. You didn't mean to, it's a side-effect."
"Oh, god." It hit Chris like a punch to the stomach, and he looked at Dan, his eyes wide and his heart thumping against his chest. "We've been looking for people who may intend to turn Wyatt evil, but what if turning him evil isn't what they want? What if his turning is just a side effect?"
"Exactly," Dan said, to Chris' surmisation of what Dan had figured out.
"But who would want to- to kill Wyatt?" Piper, in shock, stuttered out the question that completely baffled her.
"Er, apart from the entire Underworld?" Paige said, sarcasm lacing her voice but genuine worry on her face.
And then, the answer struck Chris as deftly and surely as a Darklighter's arrow finding its target. He turned to Paul, his face drained of all colour, and an expression of self-beration clearly on his face. "Paul, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I think so Brain, but I don't think pink's your colour," Paul said with an air of quoting, absolutely confused.
"No!" Chris turned back to the circle, his face glowing with a hint of exultation. The answer! Could this have been the answer all along? "When Wyatt struck the last of the Elders down... oh god, you weren't there Paul, it was just your clone... but... One of them said, he said, oh--"
"You know, I'm going to raise you to speak English in this timeline," Piper said furiously, determinedly.
Chris sent a withering look at her. "The Elder said that we should have got rid of him when we had the chance. I assumed that he meant- well, there was a time the Elder's could have killed him, but Leo managed to stop him- anyway..." He waved his hand dismissively. "What if they meant now was the chance?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Piper said, dismissively. "The Elders would never kill Wyatt. Besides, Leo would have heard about it."
"Wouldn't they?" Paige leant forward on the edge of her seat, almost toppling off the fragile plastic chair until Dan quickly pushed down on the back to keep her safe. "How do we know it isn't a few of them, anyway. Elders have to have votes - we know this - so obviously not all of them agree. What if it's just a group of them, planning to kill him-"
"-and obviously they didn't suceed, because he was there, in our time," Paul said. "So what if the side-effect of the Elders trying to kill him, who are supposed to be on our side,
who are supposed to be the most good beings we know... is him turning evil?"
"So I assume we're discounting Leo from our suspicions?" Piper said, slightly bewildered by what was going on, but feeling a small burn of acceptance slide through her. It made so much sense and it shouldn't.
"Yeap," Chris said, and he slid like liquid to his feet, danger playing on his face and in his poise. His hands were tensed, ready for action, and a mien of severe displeasure descended around him. "Paul, you have to be thinking what I'm thinking now."
"This time," Paul said, his voice low, "yes." He got to his feet too, flanking Chris by his shoulder.
"Chris, what's going on?" Piper pushed the chair back, lurching to her feet, confusion splayed on her face.
"Simple," Chris ground out, flexing one of his hands, "we're going after the one other Elder we know who would be in a good position to do this. One who for my whole life we've reckoned could never hurt a fly."
Paul nodded grimly, and Chris spoke the name with conviction as Paul dispelled the silence barrier, just before they orbed away together. "Gideon!"
T-10
