Back to the Past
by Lady Dawson
Chapter Four: Secrets and Threats
"Jaina!" Chris yelled when he saw his fiancée being orbed away with Wyatt. He tried to get to her, but a demon tackled him from behind and by the time he had vanquished it, she was gone.
The last sounds of vanquishing emerged from the living room as he got to his feet. "Where's Matt?" Jared demanded, looking horrified. Chris looked around the room for his middle son, but to his panic, there was no sign of him.
Calm down, Chris, he told himself sternly. He's with Jaina and she won't let anything happen to him and he won't let anything happen to her. They'll both be fine. But Chris knew better than anyone that they weren't safe, not while they were under his brother's custody.
Perry swore loudly as Leo and the sisters emerged from the living room. "I cannot believe this," he grumbled. "We have to go find them."
"No, you are not barging off without some kind of plan into the Underworld," Piper warned him. "We'll find them, but we have to be prepared."
"Grandma, are you kidding me?" Jared asked incredulously. "Do you have any idea what Uncle Wyatt is going to do to Mom? Or Matt, for that matter?"
"Jaina won't let him hurt Matt," Chris said reasonably. "And from the sounds of it, Wyatt won't hurt Jaina. At least not physically. Emotionally is another story."
"Hold on a minute," Paige interrupted, looking at the two boys in utter amazement. Her eyes returned to Chris for a minute before looking at them again. "Did you just say Uncle Wyatt?" Her mouth was open slowly as she stared at them.
Chris stared at her, wondering if she had hit her head, but then remembered that only his mom had heard them explain who they were. Everyone else was busy fighting the demons.
"Yeah," Perry said warily. "Hi, Aunt Paige. Can we get on a move here, please?"
Paige ignored him and looked towards Chris, a smirk on her face. "Wow, this has got to be some kind of cosmic payback or something," she said teasingly.
"Very funny," Chris grumbled. "Now can we please focus on saving Jaina here, before my psycho brother decides that he would rather kill her than keep her alive, despite that stupid prophecy thing?" he asked as he started heading up to the attic.
"What prophecy thing?" Leo asked as he and everyone else followed Chris up the stairs.
--
"OW!" Matt complained as Jaina applied pressure onto his wound. He winced as she bound it from some of the skirt on her wedding dress. "Jeez, Mom, do you have to have to push down so hard?"
"Sorry, kiddo," Jaina said with a wry smile, reducing the pressure slightly. "That better?"
"Yeah," Matt grumbled, pulling his arm out of his mother's grip. Still wincing slightly, he glanced around at the cage that they were imprisoned in. Every once in a while, a demon would come by and look at them cautiously before going off to presumably report to Wyatt. "So, I don't get it, how come we can't orb out of here or use our powers outside the cage?"
"It's a magic-blocking cage; Wyatt uses them all the time when he captures magical beings," Jaina explained. "This is the first time that it's happened to me, though." She let out a deep breath. "Oh, jeez, your dad is going to be freaking out."
"My brother, too," Matt agreed. Jaina looked at him. "Perry is just like Dad, Mom. You say that he's just a miniature version of him. It's a good thing he's Dad's namesake. His full name's Christopher Perry Halliwell," he explained when he saw the confused look on Jaina's face. "Everybody just calls him Perry, so not to confuse him with Dad."
"Well, at least we know what to name him," Jaina said wryly, glancing down at her still-flat stomach. Matt glanced to where she was looking and his blue eyes widened with realisation.
"Oh."
"Yeah," Jaina agreed, making sure that there were no demons around to overhear. She glanced back at her son. "So . . . you guys are from the good future, right? The one where we saved Wyatt?"
Matt's eyes lit up. "Oh, yeah! He's the best uncle we could've asked for!" he answered lightly. Jaina smiled and leaned back as Matt bantered on about the changed Wyatt and what he did with the boys. She almost forgot about where they were.
But it came back to haunt her when the evil Wyatt appeared, his cold crystal eyes landing on the cage where Jaina and her son were imprisoned. "Now, why can't things ever be nice and simple?" he wondered out loud. He walked over to the cage, placing a hand on one of the bars. "What did you bring him for, Jaina?"
"I didn't. You brought both of us here, unwillingly, I might add," Jaina informed him, a hot rage flying through her. Calm yourself, Jaina, she told herself. You have to protect your sons. Both the one from the future and the small child in your womb. "Not to mention the damage the you might have inflicted on your nephews, your brother, your aunts, and, oh yeah, your parents."
Wyatt waved a careless hand. "It's no matter to me," he said lazily. "He led the Resistance against me, my parents tried multiple times to turn everything around, to turn me into something I wasn't. As for my aunts, they were just a nuisance and their children were no better. And speaking of those nephews, they'll never exist, so why should I bother trying to care about them?" His cruel laugh filled the cave. "But if it makes you feel better, those demons were merely a distraction, so that I could get you safely away."
"You call this safely away? For the love of toads, Wyatt, you're keeping me here against my will! You're trying to obliterate my sons' existences and stop us from saving you! How do you call that safe?"
"Save me?" Wyatt shook his head in disbelief. "From what? Oh, don't tell me you two are still on that whole good versus evil nonsense." He snorted. "When are you going to learn, Jaina, that there is no such thing as good and evil. The only thing that matters is power."
Jaina looked at him tiredly. "If I thought that it would do any good, then I would knock some sense into that thick skull of yours," she told him.
"You always were amusing," Wyatt said, narrowing his eyes. "Like father, like daughter, I suppose. William did put up an extraordinary sense of resistance against us during his imprisonment. This cage," he added, "is one similar to the one that he was put in. And this was is build with even stronger spells than the one he was in. I know better than to put you into a simple Whitelighter holding cage."
"Grandpa William escaped from your stupid cage, though," Matt pointed out sweetly. Jaina pressed down on his shoulders in warning.
"True enough, boy. Which is why there's more spells on this cage along with guards. Even if you escaped the cage, you won't be able to orb out of this room or the maze that surrounds this place. The guards come by here too often for you to get far away and you'll never find the way out before we caught up with you. Besides, we'd only bring you back here. What's the use to fight, pretty Jaina? Why not just submit?"
Jaina only looked at him, her blue eyes like daggers. "You already know the answer to that."
Matt looked up at her as Wyatt let out a snicker. "Ah, yes," he said softly. "Your everlasting fight for peace. That's the problem; you've gone too soft. Too much of a pacifist."
"Mom? A pacifist?" Matt muttered under his breath. Wyatt heard him, though, and glared at him. "What? She's the best mom anybody could ask for, but she's no pacifist. She's a fighter, like Dad, and everybody else in our family."
"Do you want me to teach you a lesson, boy?" Wyatt growled at him. "Any more lip out of you and I'll bring you out and give that to you. Understand?"
"Not unless you want me to kill you with my own hands," Jaina warned him, her voice sweet as honey, getting to her feet. "You leave my son—your nephew—out of this, Wyatt. This is between you and me. Harm him and you'll answer to me."
Wyatt glanced at her. "Well, if I won't be able to harm him, then I'm going to have to go after your little boyfriend, Jaina," he said, shrugging. "One way or another, I'm going to have my way. One way or another, your little boys are going to cease to exist."
"No," Jaina said, her voice calm and still. "One way or another, you're going to become the man that we know you can be. Because like it or not, something did turn you evil when you were a kid, Wy. And Chris and I are going to save you and we will get married and we will have our sons."
"Not if I kill my little brother first," Wyatt warned her. Without another word, he orbed out of the cave, leaving Jaina with her son.
"He's not really going to kill Dad, is he?" Matt asked, white-faced and ashen. The middle brother looked up at his mother with some fear.
Jaina pulled him into a tight hug. "It wouldn't be the first time that he's tried," she said softly. "But your dad can take care of him. He's one of the strongest people that I know, Matt. And he's got Leo and the sisters and your brothers with him. They won't let anything happen to him. Besides, Chris won't go down without a fight. And Chris Halliwell always comes out on top."
Matt nodded, some colour coming back into his face. Looking over his shoulder, Jaina thought desperately, Chris, please don't get yourself killed. I couldn't bear it if I lost you. Please, I need you to be safe. Keep yourself safe, for all of our sakes.