Death lurking within

Chapter 2 – Calculated doom

A/N: So sorry for the long delay, but getting settled in the ordinary routine of school life is harder than it looks. Besides, this story has been slow going for me ever since the very beginning. Took me forever till I had the first chapter finished as well, just back then no one noticed. I hope at least the chapter is good enough to not be so angry at me for taking so long anymore.

Thanks a lot for all the reviews I had never in my wildest dreams expected to get so many. I love you guys! I hope you'll keep on reviewing after this chapter.

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Wyatt looked into the crystal ball and was unable to take his eyes of it.

That was not because it was such a fascinating thing to see, not at all, but more of the opposite since the show some of his demons were putting on highly disgusted him. They were some weird kind of demons with large fangs whose name Wyatt had forgotten who loved eating humans. At the moment they were eating some unfortunate guy they picked up on the street who was begging for mercy while the blood splashed everywhere.

He only kept on looking at it to keep his mind off the things that were really bothering him.

He refused to carry on the train of thought that would lead him back to his worries so he concentrated on what he was seeing there.

Sometimes he had the feeling he wasn't thoroughly qualified for the post of evil ruler. Somehow his stomach was protesting to the program he was watching. But he had to do it, the demons wanted to show him how fabulous they were and he needed to keep them all happy to make them stay working for him.

Somehow he even felt pity for the guy down there, but he tried to push these feelings away. The guy didn't matter.

He immediately jumped up as he heard the door to the dimly lit room open. To his satisfaction and disappointment at the same time it was exactly who he had wanted to see all along.

"Mylord", the small demon said and bowed deep. It was not a very powerful guy with a furry face whose expression reminded Wyatt of an overgrown hamster.

"Finally! Why did it take you so long?", Wyatt asked impatiently and tapped on his watch with his fingers. It had indeed taken way too long.

"I am so sorry milord, the calculation took longer than expected", the demon tried to excuse himself and bowed again to express an apology.

"Why? It's simple, you have the progression rate at the normal time and the rate it had when the elders slowed it, so you just had to… Nevermind, what have you got?" Wyatt decided not to go through all the mathematics but to get the information he had been wanting to get but at the same time dreading to receive right away.

"He should have about a month after the time he went back to before he reaches the final stage", the demon said and bowed yet again. Underlining every statement with a bow could get really annoying, especially if everyone you talked to did it. Wyatt tried not to show any reaction to the given information, but rather keep an unmoved impression.

"Very well, you may go", he commanded in an icy voice that told the demon he had to leave immediately. The demon was one of the rare kind which was incapable of shimmering or flaming, so he rushed through the door as fast as his short legs were willing to take him.

As soon as the demon was gone Wyatt flung the door shut telekinetically. He didn't want anyone to see what he was doing now.

Now that his company had left his face paled considerably and he had to ease himself into the chair he had been sitting on at first while his brain tried to process what had been said. Chris was going to die just a month after their encounter.

Suddenly Wyatt regretted everything that had happened back then. It was mere three days ago for him and he had felt sorry for his behavior for quite a while now, but now felt even worse.

He had never meant to hit Chris or to hurt him in any way. The guy is sick you bastard and the best thing you can do is try to choke him. Way to go, mister, he scolded himself but it didn't change the facts. He also hadn't meant to kill Bianca. For a short moment it had felt good for him that at least the bitch had died, but then he had remembered how much Chris had loved her. He was truly a bastard, not only to hurt his brother but also killed the love of his life.

And now that brother was supposed to die before Wyatt could apologize?

Some people would ask now, why he cared, but his younger brother was someone special not just to Wyatt but to everyone, the older witch was just not under the impression Chris knew how much he truly meant to many people.

Chris' trip to the past had made everything a lot more complicated. On some level Wyatt even understood Chris' idea in going back, even though he didn't appreciate the fact that Chris did so.

Wyatt had made it his main goal to find a way to heal his brother. He had made the decision on the evening that pitiful elder had told them about the young boy's fate. He needed to save Chris. If the twice blessed one couldn't, who could? Chris liked to remind his older brother that the disease wasn't called incurable without a reason and that no one could heal it, but Wyatt didn't care.

He had done more research about the disease than anyone, at least he didn't know anyone who had spent more time studying it and the various records there were of its progression. He had even visited some other victims to study the disease. He was not going to let his brother down, no matter what.

But now that the enchantment the elders had made to slower the disease was gone, Wyatt's hope was fading. He needed to work fast and what he had so far was some very amazing data but quite far from a cure. Of course it was time travel and in theory he had any time he wanted to have, but when magic was involved you could never be sure whether it really worked the way you wanted. So it was better not to take any chances.

He looked over to the large cabin where he collected everything he had ever written down concerning the disease. No one was allowed to look in that cabin, and Wyatt was pretty sure that not even Chris knew how much Wyatt had truly worked for this.

He searched the dark wood for anything that could help him, even though he was well aware of the fact that he indeed needed to open the doors, to see anything useful.

But then a sheet of paper that was hurled on the floor caught his eye. He immediately recognized what it was. It was one of his latest attempts to develop a cure, but he had not judged it to be a very hopeful possibility.

Unless…

What if it could work?

It was not based on any stupid ideas and was logical. But could he dare to take his hopes on this? He didn't think so.

But still… something about this had caught his attention and he had learned to trust his instincts over the years. He shoved the crystal ball of the table and looked for a pen. Then he took the piece of paper and read it over and over again.

With a click he uncapped the pen and started to add new notes to the already existent ones.

He needed this to work. It was the only hope.

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Piper tapped her foot anxiously. There were two reasons for the fact that she was not in a good mood. For one she needed Leo to come soon so she could finally go to P3 while he watched Wyatt. One of her bartenders had called her and told her that there was some problem with the delivery of toy ghosts. And she didn't even have an idea what on earth a nightclub would need a toy ghost for. She really needed to sort this out.

And the other thing was that she finally wanted to find out why their neurotic whitelighter wanted them to get a new one.

Her sisters were both in the living room with her. Only their curiosity about what Chris was doing was keeping them on the couch they were sitting on. Paige actually had to attend her next temp job and Elise was expecting Phoebe to be at the Bay Mirror.

Finally Piper's former husband orbed in to relief them of their tension. "Finally! What did he say?", were the first words Piper had for her former lover.

"Uh… he basically said it'd none of my or your business and that it has nothing to do with Wyatt or any other member of this family", Leo admitted. Just when he said it out loud he fully realized what a waste of time that inquiry had been. And he felt a little embarrassed about the fact that he hadn't managed to get any useful information out of the boy.

Paige stared at him incredulously. "That's it?", she asked with a voice full of disbelief. Was this what she was risking loosing her work for the temp agency for?

"Yes", Leo replied and was suddenly very interested in looking at his shoes. Which, now that he realized it, desperately needed some cleaning. Were on earth did they get so dirty?

Piper glared at her watch and threw up her hands in defeat. "That guy is driving me crazy! I need to get going!"

"Are you sure he didn't say anything else?", Phoebe asked hopeful. She really needed to know she wasn't just wasting her time here, even though she knew that she was.

"Yes, very sure", Leo told her. "Look, I…" he started, but before he could say "need to get going" they were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.

"Oh not now", Piper almost screamed. As if she had time for this. But still she made her way to the door and ripped it open.

"What?", she bluntly asked the teenaged girl who was standing in front of her.

"Where is Chris?", the girl asked immediately, without caring about the rudeness of the older woman.

"How do you know him?", Piper asked and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Maybe he had slept with her and never called her back or something. But she didn't really believe this, since she had the feeling he was avoiding ordinary humans from this time period. But what if this girl was no ordinary human?

The girl hesitated for a moment. She didn't think it would be very intelligent to tell the truth right away, but she seriously doubted her ability to come up with a decent lie in time. Finally she admitted, "He's my cousin"

"your cousin?", Phoebe repeated incredulously. She had never even considered the possibility that Chris could have family. Now that she thought about it, that had been pretty stupid of her.

"So you're… from the future?", Paige asked with more than a hint of doubt in her voice. Another person popping in from the future was not really what she wanted at the moment. Then she realized how stupid she was. What if that girl knew nothing about magic? In that case she had just made a very stupid mistake.

"Yes", the girl said while doing her best to avoid looking the sisters in the eyes.

"That doesn't sound very credible", Piper stated determinedly. "If you are from the future, why did you ring the doorbell? You could've just orbed in or something" She crossed her arms. She was really not in the mood for some new magical stuff to take care of, but what choice did she have?

"I wanted to be polite", the girl said irritated. She had thought it had been a good idea not just to pop in, but she also knew that the Charmed Ones weren't very easy to predict.

"Oh", Piper said. It made somehow sense, but she was absolutely not used to politeness of magical beings.

"So what do you want from him?", Phoebe asked puzzled.

"It's…", the girl started, but then hesitated. What was she going to say? My cousin could die in less than a week and I need to prevent it? Didn't have that good a ring to it, and she was well aware of the fact that Chris would be completely mad if she told them this. He always wanted to keep everyone out of his business, and she was very certain, that he applied that rule a lot more to the people from the past than from the future.

"We're waiting…", Paige announced impatiently. She was constantly glancing to her watch, even though she knew that even by orbing she wouldn't be at her temp job soon enough. And she was pretty certain, that calling in sick again would not make a very good impression on her boss.

"Well…", the girl started yet again, but then something unexpected happened. She felt him. Immediately she knew where he was, even though he had been blocking himself off her radar ever since he had been 8. And she knew he only would put that blocking off if he was too weak to keep it up. That was a bad sign. A very bad one.

"I gotta go!", she said and shimmered out, leaving the Charmed Ones and their former whitelighter to stare incredulously at the spot where she had been standing.

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She was here.

He felt it from the beginning. And he knew that it was just a matter of time until she found him. Keeping up the kind of block he had created was very straining.

Her name was Phenola Paige Halliwell. She had only gotten that name for the sake of the P. She was Phoebe's and Cole's daughter. Until she had been 12 none of the younger Halliwell generation had known about the fact that Cole was a demon, or well, technically half-demon, but then she had started shimmering, which had, at the beginning scared the hell out of her and Cole had been forced to admit to his demonic routes.

She and Chris had always been very close, up until the point when Wyatt turned. They had both started fighting against Wyatt's rule, neither aware that the other was trying to stop him, too.

When they had both found out that the other was against Wyatt, too, they had started to work together and form a resistance against their mad relative.

She had always had a soft spot for him, ever since he had gotten his disease. And she had been 3 back then.

Even though he liked her a lot and she was the only relative he had left on his side, he didn't want her here. He didn't want her to know when it happened. It would make everything so much harder. And it was already hard enough.

He took a deep breath and leaned his back against the tree he was sitting next to at the moment. He had orbed away from P3 only to find himself lost with nowhere else to go. He had found a nice spot far away from any human population. He had no idea, where exactly he was and would not have been able to point at it, had someone given him a globe. It was colder than what he was used to, so he figured it could be in Canada or Finland, maybe northern Russia even. But what did the location matter if the demons where going to find him anywhere? And Phin was able to do so, too?

Before he could carry on with his train of thought he was thrown into another coughing fit. It didn't last too long, but it hurt like hell. He was feeling as if his lungs were on fire. He pressed a hand against his chest after he was done coughing. If he did so, it hurt a little less. But the difference was barely noticeable. He looked at his other hand which he had used to cover his mouth with and found it to be full of blood. He wasn't shocked at all. He just knew that it was ending. He was ending. And somehow, on some deep level of his mind he was ok with it. No one was going to save Wyatt now, but his fight was over, regardless of the consequences. It was not like he had a choice, but maybe, just maybe if he did have one, he wouldn't have made a different one.

When Phenola orbed in the sight her eyes were picking up almost instantly broke her heart. Her cousin, the one she had always looked up to, the only member of the family she could always tell everything was leaning with his back against a tree, sunken down with blood on his hand and judging from the look on his face obviously in pain. She had to restrain herself to not start crying right there.

He felt her presence, but he didn't react. He kept on staring at the grass which was wet as he now noticed. Apparently it was raining, but under the thick cover of leaved above him, he hadn't even noticed it yet.

Phin moved closer to him cautiously. She could imagine he knew that she was there, but she was not taking any chances, she didn't want to scare him. She reached out to touch the bark of the old honorable tree, and then knelt down beside him. He kept avoiding her gaze.

"Hey", she whispered softly and finally he turned around to face her. He was looking even worse than she had expected. He was completely pale while the areas of his eyes which were usually supposed to be white were full of read. Keeping herself from crying was getting harder by the second. You're going to save him, don't worry, focus! She scolded herself, but it was not of much use.

"Why did you come?", he asked her with a soar voice. Talking hurt. It hadn't when he had talked to Leo. This was strange. But inevitable.

"To save you", Phin said with a pleading look in her eyes. This simply had to work. He had to stay alive. Otherwise she was certain she would break.

"You're wasting you're time", Chris announced bluntly. He could see her being hurt by these words but he couldn't avoid it. It was easier for both of them if she just left.

"No, I'm not", she contradicted almost immediately.

He let go a heavy sigh and looked at her sadly. "Yes you are. And you know it. Have known it for 12 years, so please just make it easier for both of us and leave", he almost commanded. He didn't really want to see her here. Because her presence reminded him so much of everything he was destined to leave. Of everything he would never see.

"No please, listen. Wyatt found a way to cure you. It'll work, I'm certain of it, it's really good, you just need to come with me and then we can save you and you can continue your mission", she told him with a hint of hope in her voice.

He looked at her startled for a moment. "Wyatt?", he repeated incredulously.

"Yes", she admitted reluctantly. "We are on a temporary alliance, just long enough to save you. I haven't turned I swear, I'd never do that", she told him, completely missing the point he was so surprised about.

"I thought he didn't care…", he whispered and looked at the grass again. He didn't know what to think of it, but somehow he felt his mood rise. Wyatt cared. He wanted to save him. Maybe he wasn't completely lost to evil at all. If that was still there… But it didn't matter much. He was wasting his effort on a long lost cause.

"He does. And I do, too. It will work, I know it", Phin confirmed.

"Tell him… I really appreciate the gesture, but it's useless. Thanks for the offer, anyway. It's nice you two are working together on a good thing. Keep that up", Chris said and looked at her with eyes that seemed to scream at her that all hope was lost. But she was not giving in. Not yet.

"No, we are going to save you. Don't talk as if everything was lost", she started, but he interrupted her.

"It is lost", he emphasized.

"It's not!", she argued.

"Of course it is. What part of incurable did you two not get?", he asked and almost got angry. Why didn't she see it? Why didn't she just leave him in peace?

"It doesn't have to be", she pleaded.

"But it is", he almost yelled. Than he started coughing again. It was even worse this time than ever before. He almost felt as if the coughing would never stop and his head started spinning. When he was done Phin could finally feel the tears welling up in her eyes when she saw all of the blood.

"Please", he continued a lot quieter than before. "Just leave me in peace"

"But…", she started only to be interrupted again.

"I don't want to make it harder. It's hard enough as it is, both for you and me and apparently Wyatt. I don't want you two to get your hopes up only to be disappointed. This would just make it so much harder for you and for me. Please just let me die alone", he pleaded. The way he looked at her was too much for her. She couldn't stay here. She couldn't see him die. And she couldn't deny his wish.

And with these thoughts she shimmered out.

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"She shimmered! Did you see it? She shimmered?", Piper asked and was close to hysterics. "He has a demon in the family, maybe he is one himself!", she yelled. She couldn't believe it. What if the guy they had always mistaken as their whitelighter was in reality a demon? She felt sick to her stomach at the thought how close they had let him get to their family.

The club and the problems there were completely forgotten. If this guy had really tricked them she already knew he would have hell to pay. No demon fooled Piper Halliwell and lived to tell about it. She was damn serious about that.

"Could you get a read of her?", Paige asked Phoebe. She was just as shocked about the shimmering as Piper was, but she couldn't really believe she could be related to Chris.

"No… it was weird, I knew her presence I knew feelings were there, but I couldn't sense anything detailed", Phoebe admitted. She didn't like it when she had no real control of one of her powers and the fact that she hadn't gathered any information was making her feel very uncomfortable.

Just then the girl shimmered back in. "You lied to us, didn't you?", Piper immediately yelled at her. "You're not his cousin, you're one of his demon friends aren't you?"

Phin was completely confused by that, but she did get the most important detail and immediately shouted back, "Chris has no demon friends!" She tried her best to hide the tears that were rolling down her face.

"Pity, huh?", a deep voice from behind asked, before the argument could escalate. Everyone in the room spun around immediately, to look at the tall blond man standing in the doorframe.

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TBC… Please review!