Disclaimer: Running out of sarcastic and overdramatic things to say here… hm…

Yeah, nothing's coming. So, as much as it pains me to write out 'normally', I don't own Charmed. I only play with its characters…

WARNING: the 'F' word again. Somebody needs to wash that teenager's mouth out... :)

The sisters stopped calling their future whitelighter abruptly as multicolored orblights exploded in the room and materialized into the boy in question. They gaped. Then Paige burst, "No way! How come you get customized orbing and I don't? I'm only half whitelighter, too!"

Chris snorted. "Nice to see you, too." Then his eyes found Phoebe and his mouth came open slightly. "Phoebe?"

"What," asked Paige, grinning, "does she look really, really old in this time or something?"

Chris laughed. "Are you kidding? She should come with a red stamp on her forehead that says, 'This product has expired'!"

Paige, Piper, and Leo all burst out laughing while Phoebe looked close to murder. "Why, you little--" she began, advancing on the teen.

"Just kidding, just kidding!" Chris instantly said, holding up his hands in surrender and backing away. "What I really meant to say was that I love your hair!"

Phoebe beamed. "Really? Well, that's much better. Even if you are lying, you little liar."

Chris smiled, rolling his eyes. "Ah, well. Anyway, you guys called? Which, by the way, is extremely weird seeing as I only hear charges…"

"Yeah, well, that's because--" Phoebe began, but Piper cut her off with a warning look.

"We can't tell you that," she said, noticing how her sisters and husband looked indignant because she got to say his catch-phrase in this ironic way and not them. "Anyway," she continued, ignoring the way Chris seemed to be watching her like she was an unstable bomb that might explode at any given moment. She wasn't really sure because of the sunglasses thing. "We called you because we're going to summon me… er… your mother, me. From the dead… For an explanation."

Chris continued to stare at her. Phoebe, misinterpreting the look, felt required to explain, "Chris, sweetheart, this Piper--"

"Is from the past and she's not going to hurt me," he finished for her, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I got that. But this time's Piper isn't from the past and does commit unprovoked acts of hostility against me."

"Unprovoked acts of hostility," repeated Paige thoughtfully. Then, "I like that. I'm going to use it again before the day's over."

Chris arched an eyebrow. "You do that." After a further moment of giving his aunt a look, he shook his head, steadying himself again, then asked, "Okay, what makes you think she's going to cooperate?"

"She's dead," said Piper without the awkwardness expected when talking about her own death. "She'll have come to her senses and found out why she… did what she did. Because she'll be a good, probably angry, person again."

Chris looked like he wanted to laugh. "Believe me, she was an angry person anyway."

Piper gave him a look which immediately wiped the want-to-be smile from his face. "You know what I mean."

"Assuming they're right, dumbass," Chris said indifferently.

"What?" chorused every voice in the room, staring at him, surprised and confused.

He glanced up at them expecting them to clarify what the problem was, when it appeared to hit him. His mouth fell open. "Oh! No-- I wasn't-- talking to you, I was… not planning to say that out loud, either… anyway, not you. Nevermind. What were we talking about?"

They continued to give him looks. "Chris, there is no one else in the room you could be talking to," said Paige bluntly. When he merely gave her a look, not answering, she sighed and shook her head. "Anyway, we wanted you here to hear what she has to say. We promise if she's not… nicer, we will send her right back. Deal?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Yes," said Leo sincerely, actually managing to surprise Chris.

"What? Really? Cool."

"He lied," said Phoebe. "If you say no, we'll drive you crazy until you say yes. So really he's just trying to be nice."

"Oh," he said, looking momentarily crestfallen, then seemed to resign himself and make the best of it. "Okay, then," he said somewhat lightly.

Piper smiled. He looked so cute when he was resigned and lighthearted at the same time. Still beaming slightly, she stepped forward. Her sisters took the hint and did the same. They each took a hand.

She could feel Leo's anxious yet supportive gaze on her and took confidence from it. She could vaguely see Chris take a few steps back and lean against the wall, watching from a slight distance, and took determination from that. She took a deep breath, strengthening her resolve, and led her sisters in the chant.

Almost instantly, a figure appeared, but the figure dove behind the bed before they could even make out her face.

"People, get between us!" the woman commanded of her past relations, shielding her eyes, back to them.

Piper, Phoebe, Paige, and Leo all shared confused looks but did as she asked.

When the human shield was sufficient enough to hide Chris from her view, the Piper of the future removed her hands, allowing them to see her face.

Of course it was Piper seventeen years in the future, but she only looked a little different. Her hair jumped out at them first-- it was cropped off just below the ears in a shorter version of the style Phoebe had had last year. Her eyes were far more lined than any of the other future Charmed Ones' and had obviously seen a lot more, and that was about the extent of the alterations.

"It took you long enough to think of summoning me," she snapped, but she was smiling. She didn't look angry or scary in the least. "I've been waiting to talk to you since you got here."

"Wait, wait, wait," Piper interrupted. "Why are you hiding from Chris?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I don't want to hurt him."

"Are you sure you got the right Piper?" Chris asked from behind them, clearly not eager to meet his mother face-to-face again, either.

"Shut up you little brat!" The deceased Piper all but screamed. "Was anybody talking to you?"

Chris pulled a face. "Nevermind. That's her." At her continued heated silence, his unhappy countenance deepened. "Fine. I'm sorry for speaking out of turn, ma'am."

"You should be," the woman spat, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Piper, would you please tell Christopher that I'm very sorry for being ugly to him."

"Er, okay," said Piper, frowning. She turned around to face her future son. "Chris, she said she's sorry."

"I heard," he replied, looking just as lost as she was. "Could somebody please explain to me what the hell is up with the split personality?"

"Not for your life, I wouldn't," spat the eldest Piper venomously. Again, she had to close her eyes and take a deep breath. When she opened them, she looked at her past self and spoke to her only. "This is what I'm talking about."

"You are under a spell, then," said Leo, eyes round in relief. "What kind of spell? Who cast it? Why didn't Prue find it when she was looking?"

The woman smiled bitterly. "You're not going to like this. At all." When everyone just watched her, waiting expectantly, she sighed and continued. "You know how Leo used his Elder powers to take away my pain from him leaving?" she asked. They nodded. "Well… they also have the power to take away other feelings… and give other feelings. There was a group of Elders who used their good power to give me… strict indifference towards Christopher when he came back to us after living with them. They wanted just enough of… that quality in me so that I would keep him in line without so much remorse at disciplining him."

"But why would they want you to keep Chris in line so badly?" interrupted Piper. Though that sounded just like something the Elders would do, it just didn't make any sense.

"Because," her future self replied with that wry smile, "he and Jessie were supposed to be able to turn evil because of something little. They felt that if Christopher was disciplined to stay on the side of good no matter what, they wouldn't have to worry about Jess. But they gave me indifference towards him… so I didn't care about him. So therefore, I started neglecting him without even realizing it. And because I didn't care, when he did something wrong, like all little kids will do, a tiny little slap on the wrist was fine by me. But obviously, a little slap on the wrist isn't going to make someone as stubborn and reckless as Christopher change his ways."

"I am not," Chris protested before he could stop himself. Jeez, Chris, think you'd know better by now not to argue with you're mother?

"You are if I say you are!" his mother yelled angrily, making him cringe.

The younger Piper, still acting as a human shield between the two, looked over at the boy with an apologetic look. "She's sorry, again, sweetheart."

"Sure she is…" he said. God this is weird, he thought, mind spinning. The Elders, as in: The people who had practically raised him, had been behind this. The Elders. But they knew him! Why would they want his mother to 'discipline' him?

Gee, I dunno, said Wyatt's voice in his head. Maybe because, as you said, they know you!

Shut up, Wyatt. I thought I told you to get out of my head, anyway.

You didn't say please, came the snide remark. Chris physically scowled. He hated his brother's power to get into his head. Of course it was a two way thing, but Chris couldn't kick Wyatt out, like Wyatt could he. It was so not fair. And, though he would never admit it even in un-verbalized thought, he was terrified of what Wyatt might see inside his head. The location of this safe-house? Resistance code-words? Certain supposedly dead people…?

"Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," came his mother's voice, breaking him out of his mental argument and growing inferiority complex. "The Elders' indifference addition hadn't really given their desired outcome, so not too long afterwards, they decided to add something else to make me want to make him stay in line. They added the part about heartless, overdramatic bitchiness, so when Christopher… I don't know, I think he pronounced some English word wrong, but anyway, I decided to get that group of Elders to help me drown him. And they thought it was a good idea too, and much easier than changing my emotions all the time, so we tried to drown him."

Chris burst out laughing, making everyone from the past turn to stare at him. He quickly stifled it, but his face was reddening slightly from the suppressed mirth. They continued to stare at him, and Wyatt's voice said, Yeah, what's so funny about why you are terrified of fish? Fish… ha. That never gets old…

Shut up, he mentally deadpanned.

"What?" Chris demanded lightly, though really he was starting to get the urge to cry, now that he thought about it. This really wasn't funny. They were still staring at him, waiting for an answer. "It's just the way she said it, like it was the simplest thing in the world, or something…"

"What, did you miss the part about heartless, overdramatic bitchiness?" demanded dead Piper harshly. "Honestly, just try actually listening for once, will you?"

"Tried it. Wasn't half as fun as trying to come up with elaborate yet wild guesses," deadpanned Chris ignoring the looks that everyone from the past gave him, asking with their eyes if he was insane or just plain stupid. They didn't know how often he and his mother used to have these type of conversations. Now it was her turn to lecture him about rhetorical questions and then say something about if he had to answer, he should at least keep his sarcasm to a minimum.

"You sarcastic little brat! Did you actually think I was asking you? Rhetorical questions are me just trying to be nice while trying to get something through that thick, smart ass skull of yours!"

See? Exactly what he'd had in mind. "Well excuse me and all my mentally challenged-ness."

"Challenged-ness isn't a word," his mother growled darkly and her past self knew that if looks could see through human-body-shields and kill, Chris would be pushing up daises right about now. She was glad her future self could do neither.

She decided to interrupt before feelings started getting hurt. "Okay, you two, cut it out," she barked in her best no-nonsense voice. Chris, who had opened his mouth to make another retort, instantly closed it then crossed his arms. Piper continued, "Um… Piper, go on with whatever you were going to tell us."

The eldest crossed her arms but continued her explanation, nonetheless. "Well, obviously Christopher lived. By the time we got home and Phoebe and Paige saw that Chris wasn't with us, they cast a truth spell to figure out what we'd done. It didn't take them long to trace the bread crumbs back to that Elder power, and Paige orbed us all Up There to get them to reverse the magic. The group of militant Elders were only a little over halfway done with me and Leo when the other Elders found out what that group had done and ripped them out of the process to go to a hearing. We all thought they had finished because we weren't exactly having murderous feelings towards our little boy, so we went ahead and left. But, as you all must know, when there's no one there to remove the power's effect, it starts multiplying. At first, I didn't want to murder Christopher again, but I didn't exactly feel love for him, either. Then, after time--"

"You started to incredibly not love him, until it became hate and you wanted to make him pay for his very existence because, as we all know, it was his fault he was born in the first place. Not his parents' fault for not being educated in the area of safe sex," finished Chris, speaking in third person quite casually though his voice was icy, and added, "I do not believe this."

Piper (from the past) knew that Chris should be feeling anger, and therefore, his voice should be loud and, well, angry. His voice was soft and cold. Something about him seemed… calculating. Like he was checking the major points and making sure they added up and this wasn't all some (extremely creative) fabrication. She knew he had pushed most of his feelings aside for the sake of coming to a logical conclusion.

She herself was not using such techniques. "Those bastards!" she all but screamed. "How could they be so heartless? Trying to drown a little child they knew-- they lived with-- they raised! HOW COULD THE VERY ESSENCE OF GOOD DO THAT? I'm going to vanquish their asses, right now! Give me names! GIVE ME THEIR NAMES NOW, WOMAN!"

Her future self opened her mouth, seemingly very pleased to see that she was going to vanquish the ones that had caused so much pain and misery. "G--" was about all she got out before Chris cut her off coldly,

"No. Don't. I don't want to know. We can't vanquish them now, anyway."

Every person in the room turned around fully to stare at him. Phoebe and Paige were just as pissed as Piper, but Leo was shocked into stunned silence. Of course he would take it the hardest. His friends-- people he knew, respected, admired were going to turn around and try to kill his baby son. Then they were going to cause that little boy they were going to take in at age zero to five, endless years of anguish, agony, fear… How could they? But it was only a group of them… only some of them, and not the majority. That many he could live with because that many he could vanquish.

"Chris, what do you mean you don't want to know who they are?" demanded Paige incredulously. "And of course we can vanquish them now! They deserve a hell of a lot more than being vanquished, too! Maybe some graphic torture the author would be suspended for posting under a teen rated story…" she let her voice trail off, glowering contemplatively, mind creating several new methods of agonizing torture she'd like to use on their Blessed asses.

Five pairs of eyes stared at her. "Paige, what the heck are you talking about?" asked several random voices. But Paige didn't respond. She still seemed to be lost in whatever evil thought she was imagining at the moment.

Leo was the only one looking at Chris unbiased, now. He was hoping, praying that his to-be-son had found a flaw in this explanation. He had seen the calculating mien same as Piper and for once there was hope that he had found a possibility that made this all not true. Leo knew in his heart of hearts that if he had to face the fact that his friends, his teachers could so something like that to him and his family… he'd break. He wouldn't be able to handle it. He wouldn't be able to understand why.

"Chris," he asked softly, drawing the boy back out of his thoughts with unintentional abruptness judging from the way Chris jumped. "Please tell me you found a way to prove she's wrong." There was a pleading tone to his voice that no one could quite miss.

Chris forced himself to look at Leo and briefly wondered why. Nobody could see his eyes anyway. But his mind wasn't really on his eyes. He didn't want to answer. He didn't want to be here anymore. He didn't want to face this problem. Not now, not ever. He'd spent the last two years of his life trying to bury his past not only from everyone who dared to ask, but from himself as well. He didn't want to remember it. He didn't want it to be his… He didn't want his past…

And the Elders. The Elders, the Elders, the Elders. As if he didn't already feel betrayed by them enough for casting him down from grace when he killed Piper, betrayed by them for killing… killing Free Style. They had made his mother abuse him, too? And Jess… They killed the last part of Jessie's soul with their zail… they had indirectly caused her death as well…

Oh god, his mind could barely whisper to itself. He felt his face flushing into a whiteness similar to a sheet of paper's and couldn't help but close his eyes and turn away. They couldn't see the tears that threatened to fall. They couldn't see pain he was in, the pain he was trying to suppress already.

Everyone was watching him, waiting for him to answer and he felt it. How on earth could he explain to them the concept of the greater good? How could he explain to them why he had to keep the Elders around so they could help him fight this war and save innocents and heal victims? How was he explaining it to himself?

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, calming himself enough to keep his tears in check. He unconsciously scanned his mind for signs of his older brother invading his mind, but he knew Wyatt had tapped out for some demonic meeting or another that required his undivided attention just after Chris had told him to shut up. He hadn't heard any of the final explanation. Thank God for small miracles.

With another deep breath and slow exhalation, Chris faced his 'family'.

"I don't want to know who they are, Paige, because I wouldn't be able to work with those people, knowing they're the reason I'm so fucked up.--"

"Oh, come on," soothed Phoebe. "You're not that--"

"You know I am so just shut up and let me finish," he cut her off quite calmly and ignored his mother's harsh scolding for speaking to his aunt like that, no matter how much her words secretly stung his heart. But he had to move on. He had learned not to dwell on pain if he could help it, and he would try his damn hardest not to. "And I can't let you vanquish them because we need them. It doesn't matter what they've done in the past. They thought it was for the greater good, anyway. But we, the side of good, need them now. I know in all actuality they don't help us a lot, but they give us direction and they give us whitelighters that can actually heal--"

"You healed Paris," pointed out Piper, trying to make him feel better about himself, but he brushed it off.

"Yeah, that was a first and probably one-time thing. I've never been able to heal before, and if I haven't learned in seventeen years--"

"How would you know unless you've tried before?" challenged his mother icily, denoting the childhood rule that he wasn't allowed to use magic.

Though Chris still couldn't see her through the bodies of his past family, he could feel everything she was throwing at him through her steely gaze. At it hurt. He hadn't seen her in two years, since he'd killed her, and going through this again… now… after everything he'd done, everything he'd gone through… everything he still had to do and accomplish… He closed his eyes, feeling his eyes burning with unshed tears. It felt like there was a metallic something lodged in his throat that he couldn't swallow back. Couldn't breathe through it… "Please, not now, Mother," he choked thickly through the tears, the emotions, just trying to keep some degree of control. He turned away, struggling to force everything back and failing miserably. He blinked fiercely, swallowing hard. "…Just not now…" he whispered

It seemed to be all the ones from the past could do: stare at the teenager. It was the first time they'd heard him address her and call her… mother. What kind of a kid called their mother 'mother'? It was Mom or Ma or Mamma or even Mommy. Mother was so impersonal, yet it was coming out of their neurotic whitelighter's mouth and addressing… Piper. This was all so weird and messed up…

"Piper," said the future Piper, breathing deeply to keep calm, apparently. "Tell Christopher--"

"JUST STOP IT!" Chris yelled. "I AM NOT CHRISTOPHER AND I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY TO ME, NO MATTER WHAT FREAKIN' SPELL YOU MAY BE UNDER! I DON'T CARE!" Even knowing everyone was shocked at this outburst of violent emotion, Chris didn't care and flung out his arm in pure anger and intention. The wall, plywood, plaster, sheetrock, installation and all, exploded backwards as though hit by a truck at two hundred miles an hour, leaving a huge, gaping hole in the room. Without another word, Chris walked out through his custom made door, never once tripping over the scattered chunks and bits of wall.

For a moment, they were left gawking at the humungous void in the wall. Prue would never in her wildest dreams have been able to do that when she was alive. Future Piper seemed to be thinking about Prue, too, for as soon as anyone could speak again, she said quietly, "This must be how Dad felt when Prue would scream at him about his lack of fathering abilities and storm out."

The past Piper smiled slightly at that. "Yeah… he does remind me a lot of Prue. Parental issues but especially the workaholic part."

"Um, guys," said Paige somewhat timidly, "not to be rude and cut this conversation short just because I don't know Prue, but what are we doing standing around and talking when we have a shattered nephew slash son and an abusive sister slash wife slash self running amuck?"

"That's a lot of slashes," commented Phoebe while quietly wondering what she had been sensing from Chris. It had been not the mental block she could usually feel from him, but something… physically blocking her. Something physically restraining a part of his power, too. She could sometimes sense power with her empathy, and a lot of his hadn't been there during this… conference. But even without all his power, he'd still blown a wall to Kingdom Come.

Prue was right. That boy had a heck of a lot of power backing him up. She vaguely wondered why the Elders (the soon-to-be-dead-Elders, if she had a say in the matter) hadn't sensed his power when he came to the past. They were always warning the Charmed Ones about Rising Powers and Massive Power Surges. Were they discriminating against Chris already? Okay, so maybe Phoebe was a little angry…

"We've got to go after him," Leo declared passionately, moving to go after his son, but was stayed by Future Piper's hand on his shoulder.

"Leo, wait," she said quietly. "I should have done this first and we wouldn't be having this problem. I need you to finish removing the… problems from my head. I know you have the power."

Leo stared at her for a minute before nodding and walking to stand in front of her. He took a deep breath and put his hands on her shoulders. After a second, Piper began to glow and after only a few more seconds it faded away. The older woman gave him a soft smile and a thank you. "Now call your future self and fix him too," she said with only a faint smile at the word choice. "I'll explain everything that happened to him later. He still has no idea."

The ones from the past shared looks before calling the man they had personally seen hit their baby. Future Leo didn't appear happy, but he came anyway; and without a word, Leo walked to his future self and forced the glow into him, too. There was a heartbeat of a pause after the glow faded and the older man just stood, staring into space. Then his eyes began to get rounder. Then his mouth began to come open in shock and before they knew it, his knees had given in and he folded to the floor.

"What have I done?" he breathed, green-grey eyes filling gradually with tears.

Chris was just turning the corner of the hallway, ragged emotions churning, escaping, and flying everywhere, when he heard his father's voice calling his name. Racing footsteps echoed loudly throughout the deserted hallway. He couldn't orb away again-- those two times had been mistakes… who knew when the Source would trace them, now… -- and he didn't want to flame. He didn't like flaming anymore. It felt… wrong. He wouldn't.

So he had no choice but to stop, trying to smother as many emotions he could as he did so. He didn't turn around. Not until he heard them pant his name again, halting a few steps behind him, giving him his space. Closing his eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted, Chris turned and faced the people that had the audacity to call themselves his parents.

A/N: Thank you, Sparkling Cherries, for your review last chapter. It really meant a lot to me.

And I'm so sorry, xxLie to mexxI'll-love-you-for-it I just found your review for the fictionpress story in my Bulk Mail Folder, whatever it was doing there… Thanks for the support, and I promise Fishy Chrissy is my first priority. Thanks again!

Review, please! And I'll get to the adult Chris soon enough... just have to even out some time issues first... REVIEW!