Sword and the City (in which a prophecy takes on a new meaning)
I'm back! Thought I would post in honour of Valentine's Day. I debated whether or not to include this episode, as Chris isn't in it. Ultimately, I decided to do it because honestly, this is one of my favourite season six tropes (other than Chris revelations) and it ended up being one of my favourite chapters so far. I tried to do something a little different with this, because I know it's been done a million times, so hopefully it paid off.
I have already decided that I won't be doing the other episode Chris was missing from (Used Karma) - I honestly don't have any revelation ideas for that episode because I always skip it in my season 6 rewatches. So, we'll be going from Prince Charmed to the Legend of Sleepy Halliwell.
No Phoebe and Paige again, but I'm hoping to be able to incorporate them more into the next couple. The next chapter is half-written, but I'm not entirely happy with it, so it will probably be a while before the next update. Hope you enjoy this one though!
"Chris! Chris! Get down here."
Piper's frustrated voice sounded in Chris's mind. Technically, he shouldn't have been able to hear it, what with Leo reassigning him, but what the Elder didn't know was that, assigned or not, Chris would always be able to his future mother's voice.
Sighing, Chris threw a vanquishing potion at the demon he'd been interrogating and orbed away, leaving the demon alone to burn in the back alley of P3. He reformed beside Piper in the Manor, appearing mere seconds before Leo.
"Leo, what are you doing here?" Piper asked, her frustration giving way to confusion, "I didn't call you."
"The better question is, what are you doing here?" Leo asked Chris pointedly, "How did you even hear Piper? I reassigned you."
Chris shrugged casually, "Guess it didn't take."
Leo narrowed his eyes, not buying the excuse for a second. Chris didn't give him a chance to question him further though, turning his attention to Piper and asking, "What's the deal, Piper?"
Piper gestured frustratedly towards the sun room, "Can either one of you take care of that?"
Chris and Leo both looked in the direction she'd pointed, surprised to see the growing crowd of assorted magical creatures. Chris's face drained of colour as he realised why they were there.
"You gotta get that thing out of here!" he pointed at the sword in the stone panickily, "You've gotta get Excalibur some-"
The words died in his throat as the most extraordinary thing happened. Excalibur disappeared from the stone, reappearing in Chris's outstretched hand in a flurry of orbs, as if it had been called. Only that wasn't how Chris's telekinesis usually worked. Unlike Paige, Chris had always felt more comfortable using his telekinesis the traditional way, the way Prue and Grams had. He rarely bothered with calling things with his whitelighter power.
Automatically, without Chris even consciously thinking about it, his hand wrapped around Excalibur's hilt. The sword glowed, and he was suddenly overcome with warm feelings of rightness and goodness. All of the magical creatures in the Manor dropped to their knees.
"Your Majesty," one of them said.
Chris looked from Excalibur to the creatures and then back to Piper and Leo, his expression one of pure horror.
"How is that even possible?" Leo asked incredulously.
"I- I don't know," Chris choked out.
His mind was screaming at him, telling him to drop the sword and get the hell out of there, but he couldn't seem to force his fingers to move. In fact, it felt as if his grip on the sword tightened the more he told himself to let it go.
This was the source of so many of his nightmares from the future. One of the most powerful weapons of good, capable of corrupting all who wielded it except for its true heir. And Chris was most certainly not its true heir. Which was why it made no sense that he should be able to call the sword from the stone in the first place. Only Wyatt should've been able to do that.
He remembered the story of his mother's first encounter with Excalibur, which Chris was just now realising was supposed to have happened today. It was a story he and Wyatt had heard many times as children, whenever Piper felt the need to remind them how easily power could corrupt.
It was as Chris was recalling the story that a man appeared in Manor and made his way towards him.
"I bet you didn't expect this when you got up this morning."
Chris narrowed his eyes. Mordaunt. He remembered this part of the story well. Without consciously deciding to, he thrust Excalibur towards the unsuspecting sorcerer, who was vanquished immediately.
Ah, well, that's this day completely screwed up, he realised, watching the sorcerer vanish in a wall of flames.
Piper and Leo both gasped behind him.
"Chris!"
"He was after Wyatt," Chris replied shortly, "Trust me, I just did you a favour."
"How could you possibly know that? He didn't even look at Wyatt," Piper pointed out.
Chris was silent for a moment as he slid the sword back into the stone. It was then that he realised that the magical creatures who had all gathered to try their hand at drawing Excalibur were gone, obviously having cleared out while Chris was grappling with the ramifications of what he'd accidentally done.
"Chris?" Piper prompted him when he didn't answer.
Anticipating a lengthy discussion, Chris sat on the sofa and looked up at Piper and Leo.
"Because I know how this day was supposed to go."
Both Piper and Leo's mouths opened in surprise at that, and they both took seats near Chris.
"I thought you said you didn't know which demon was after Wyatt," Leo said suspiciously.
"I don't," Chris replied, "That wasn't the demon. Just a demon after Wyatt."
"And you know that how, exactly?" Piper asked.
"I told you, I know how this day is supposed to go," Chris replied, "It's pretty legendary in the future, the day the next heir to Excalibur draws the sword."
"But how can that be? You drew the sword," Piper pointed out.
"Yeah, how exactly does a whitelighter get the kind of power required to draw Excalibur from the stone?" Leo asked, narrowing his eyes at Chris.
Chris sighed, letting his head fall into his hands for a moment as he pondered how to explain what was supposed to have happened today, without giving any of his secrets away.
"Okay," he said after a moment, lifting his head back up to look at Piper and Leo, "I'm gonna try and explain this as best I can without ruining the future. Obviously, I wasn't supposed to draw the sword today. You were, Piper."
Piper stared at him in astonishment, "Me? That's ridiculous!"
"Actually, it's not so ridiculous," Leo countered, "It makes more sense for a Charmed One to be the heir to Excalibur than a whitelighter from the future."
"Except, you're not the heir to Excalibur, Piper. You're the Lady of the Lake," Chris said.
"Okay, that somehow sounds even more ridiculous," Piper replied incredulously.
"It just means that you're meant to pass the sword onto whoever it was meant for," Leo explained, "Are you saying that that's you, Chris?"
Chris ignored the question, continuing with the story, "In the original timeline, after you pulled the sword out of the stone, Mordaunt, the sorcerer I just vanquished, showed up claiming to be a mentor for the wielder of Excalibur. But he just wanted the power for himself. He let the sword corrupt you, convinced you to recruit a bunch of powerful demons to be your knights, and then stole their magic in the hope that it would give him enough power to wield Excalibur. Which it did, until the true heir vanquished him with the sword."
"The true heir?" Leo asked.
"Wyatt. That's why Mordaunt was after him. In the original timeline, he wanted to kill Wyatt before he was old enough to truly become one with Excalibur, so that he could keep its power for himself."
"So, Wyatt's the true heir to Excalibur? If that's the case, how come you were able to orb it out of the stone?" Piper asked.
Chris sighed, "I really don't know the answer to that. I've never touched Excalibur in my life. I wasn't even trying to call for it. I don't know how it happened."
"But it did happen," Leo pointed out, still not entirely believing of Chris's story.
"I'm as surprised as both of you. Whatever I've changed in the past, it shouldn't be enough to interfere with Wyatt's destiny," Chris replied.
"Maybe Piper should try drawing the sword then?" Leo suggested, "See how much has really changed."
Chris hesitated. It was a good idea, and so long as she put it straight back in the stone, she wasn't likely to be corrupted by its power. And yet, there was a tiny voice in the back of his mind that was screaming, She can't! Excalibur belongs to me.
Chris swallowed, wondering if the short time he had wielded Excalibur had corrupted him the way it had corrupted his mother in another timeline.
In the end though, his opinion didn't matter, because Piper stood and made her way over to the stone. She wrapped her hand around the sword's hilt and pulled with all of her might. Excalibur didn't move.
"I guess I'm not the Lady of the Lake anymore," Piper wrinkled her nose at the ridiculous title, "Does that mean you are?"
The corners of Piper's mouth quirked in amusement at the thought of Chris being the Lady of the Lake. Chris frowned, not in response to the title but the ramifications that came with it. It didn't feel at all right that he would be Excalibur's guardian. He was its true wielder's younger brother - how could he possibly guard the sword until Wyatt was ready for it? And yet, a part of him wondered if the real reason it felt so wrong was because of the dark influence Excalibur had already had on his soul.
"It doesn't make sense," Leo argued, "Why would Chris be the guardian of Excalibur if it's really meant for Wyatt? He doesn't even exist in this time."
Chris's eyes widened at that. How the hell did Leo know he didn't exist yet? As far as Leo knew, Chris was a full whitelighter, destined to die somewhere between now and the next twenty-ish years and be given his wings.
"How do you even know that?" he asked accusingly.
"Don't look so surprised, you know I've been looking into you," Leo replied, "You're not a whitelighter yet in this time, and there's no one by the name of Chris Perry even on the Elders' radar. So either you don't exist yet or you're using a fake name."
Leo looked at Chris as if he wouldn't put it past him to lie about his name. Chris chuckled inwardly. If only Leo knew, he had hit the nail on the head with both assumptions. Not that he could let him know that.
"You're right. I haven't been born yet," he admitted, figuring it was the best way to get Leo off his back without revealing too much of his true identity.
"How did this Mor-whoever guy even know that Wyatt's the true heir?" Piper asked, shifting the conversation back to the matter at hand.
"There's a prophecy. It says that the next wielder of Excalibur would be the child of a Charmed One," Chris replied.
"It makes sense," Leo mused, "Excalibur's meant to be wielded by the Ultimate Power."
"And that's Wyatt. Trust me."
Even as he said the words though, Chris was overwhelmed with a sense of wrongness. That same voice in the back of his mind was still screaming at him, urging him to claim Excalibur as his own. It made it difficult to keep his focus on the conversation.
"Okay, so the sword is meant for Wyatt," Piper said easily, "We know that now, so none of us will touch it and we'll put it somewhere safe until he's ready for it."
Leo nodded in agreement.
"We can't," Chris sighed, "Those demons that came after the sword before, they're still after it. And the only way their leader can be vanquished is with Excalibur. That's why he wants it so bad."
"You can't wield Excalibur. It'll corrupt you," Leo pointed out.
WRONG! the voice in Chris's mind screamed. Again, he tried to silence it and push the feeling of wrongness aside.
"I know."
"Well Wyatt sure as hell isn't going up against this- what did you say his name was?" Piper asked.
"I didn't. He's called the Dark Knight. There's an entry on him in the Book."
"There is no way Wyatt is going up against this Dark Knight! He's a baby!" Piper declared.
"No one's suggesting that, Piper. But we need to do something or else the Dark Knight is going to keep coming after him," Leo replied.
Chris closed his eyes as Piper and Leo debated the best way to protect Wyatt and vanquish the Dark Knight. He wondered how things had gotten so complicated. He still couldn't understand how he had been able to call Excalibur to him without even meaning to. He shouldn't have been able to pull Excalibur from the stone even if he tried. But drawing it unintentionally. It didn't make any sense.
And he was really becoming worried about the increasingly strong feeling of wrongness he had at the thought of Wyatt wielding Excalibur. He knew that it had taken longer for the sword to corrupt Piper in the original timeline, but she was a Charmed One. She was much stronger and more powerful than her second born. Chris was just an ordinary whitelighter-witch, or as ordinary as he could be given that he was the only one of his species that wasn't a Charmed One or the Twice-Blessed witch.
It was as he thinking on the stories of Excalibur corrupting its unworthy wielders that an idea occurred to him.
"What if Wyatt draws the sword and then I use it to fight the Dark Knight?" he asked, interrupting the increasingly heated argument that Piper and Leo were locked in.
Leo narrowed his eyes at Chris suspiciously again. Chris could see what he was thinking, that he just wanted the power of Excalibur to himself.
"There are stories of King Arthur being able to lend Excalibur to his knights without corrupting them," Chris explained, "So maybe if Wyatt gives me the sword, I can defeat the Dark Knight and then put it back until he's ready to use it."
"That won't be for a very long time," Piper muttered under her breath.
Leo was still looking at Chris suspiciously, though less so than before.
"How are we going to get Wyatt to give you Excalibur though?" Leo asked, "He's a baby."
"In the original timeline, he was able to use it to vanquish Mordaunt," Chris shrugged, "I think we can get him to do it."
Piper pressed her lips together unhappily, "I don't like this."
"Honestly, neither do I," Chris replied, surprising them both, "I really don't want to be corrupted by the sword. But if we don't do this, the Dark Knight will come after Wyatt."
Piper sighed, knowing Chris was right. They really didn't have a choice.
"I'll get him," she said finally, walking out of the room towards the stairs.
Chris watched her leave. Once she was out of sight, he took a couple of deep breaths, trying to squash down the feeling of wrongness he still hadn't managed to shake.
"Nervous?" Leo asked suddenly, a hint of suspicion still in his tone.
Chris looked over at Leo, wishing for a moment (just a moment) that he was looking at his father. The Leo of his future had so rarely been there for him, but he had memories of Leo comforting and reassuring both Piper and Wyatt. It was something he'd longed for as a child, but given up on ever experiencing himself as an adolescent, once he had finally admitted to himself that Leo was never going to be the father he was to Wyatt, the father Chris wanted. He just didn't have the time for both sons, so of course he chose the son with the greatest destiny, the one who needed the most guidance.
But sitting there now, feeling as though he were on the brink of falling over the edge into the darkness he was so desperately trying to save his brother from, Chris felt as though he really needed his Dad. It wasn't a feeling he'd had in a very long time, nor was it a feeling he liked, so he swallowed it down as best he could.
"Yeah, I am," he said softly, fixing his gaze on Excalibur, "That sword…"
The words dried up in his throat. How could he tell Leo that this sword, this so-called ultimate weapon of good, was one that haunted his dreams. He could barely bring himself to think about the memories he had of Wyatt using a blood-soaked Excalibur in terrible, truly evil ways to keep control over his dominion, much less talk about them with Leo, who didn't know the truth of what Wyatt had become in Chris's future.
And never would, if Chris had anything to say about it.
"I know what you think of me. I know you think I want the sword. But I've seen it used for horrifying things in my future. If I had my way, I'd orb it into a volcano and we'd be done with it," he whispered.
Leo was confused by Chris's words.
"Is this- is this part of what happens to Wyatt?" he asked, "Does someone manage to get the sword and use it for evil in the future?"
It made sense when Leo thought about it. They'd been wondering for weeks what could possibly happen to Wyatt as a baby that had such ramifications on the future that warranted sending a whitelighter back in time to change it. But Excalibur falling into the wrong hands would certainly be a drastic enough event to explain it.
"Something like that," Chris replied. Anticipating more questions from Leo, he added, "I shouldn't say anymore."
Leo nodded, accepting the excuse. Though he disliked all of the secrets, he knew that Chris was right. There was only so much that he could tell them of the future. To know too much could put the future at risk of changing too much, and potentially becoming worse.
"Okay, how do we do this?" Piper asked, as she re-entered the room with Wyatt on her hip.
Chris hesitated. He thought that if he asked Wyatt to give him Excalibur, he probably would, but if he was wrong, he ran the risk of activating Wyatt's shield and breaking what little trust he'd managed to build with the sisters and Leo thus far.
"I guess we just ask him," Leo answered, unwittingly solving Chris's dilemma.
Piper looked unconvinced, but looked down at Wyatt.
"Okay. Wyatt, you see that sword there," she pointed to Excalibur, "Chris needs to borrow it so he can fight a bad man who wants to hurt you. Will you lend it to him?"
Wyatt blinked up at her, making her feel pretty foolish. He was a baby for Pete's sake. How was he supposed to understand what they were asking him to do?
But then Excalibur disappeared in a flurry of orbs.
Only to reappear back in the same spot, lodged firmly in the stone.
Chris's breath caught in astonishment, as he tried to ignore the part of him that was satisfied that Wyatt had failed to remove the sword.
"Maybe he didn't understand what he needed to do," Leo suggested, "Should we try again?"
Piper took a deep breath and looked down at Wyatt again, "Good job, sweetie, but we need you to move the sword out of the stone. Can you do that for Mommy?"
Wyatt looked at the sword again. He seemed to be concentrating, though Chris wasn't sure if that was really possible, given his age.
The sword disintegrated into hundreds of tiny orbs again, then reformed in the stone.
"You're sure Wyatt's the true heir to Excalibur?" Leo asked Chris, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Positive. He was able to use Excalibur to vanquish Mordaunt. Only the true heir could do that. Not to mention the prophecy."
"Then why can't he draw the sword?" Piper asked.
"I don't know," Chris replied honestly.
They fell into silence for a moment, none of them really sure how to proceed.
"Why don't you try pulling Excalibur again, Chris?" Leo suggested finally.
Chris shot him a look that suggested he thought the Elder was crazy, "If Wyatt can't pull the sword, there's no way I'll be able to, guardian or not. Not to mention the whole corruption issue."
"In your timeline, when Piper was corrupted, she was able to be brought back right?" Leo asked.
"Yeah," Chris nodded.
"Then I'm sure we'll be able to bring you back too."
Chris frowned, not feeling quite as sure with the voice back, screaming at him to pull the sword. He was a little thrown by Leo's sudden faith in him as well. It didn't align at all with the suspicion and distrust he'd been on the receiving end of since travelling to the past.
Chris looked at Excalibur and then up at Wyatt and Piper.
What is going on? he wondered, Why can't Wyatt draw you?
"Come on, come on, before the Dark Knight comes after us," Piper said urgently.
Taking another deep breath, Chris stood and made his way over to the stone. Turmoil swirled inside of him, as one part of him was screaming at him to draw Excalibur and the other was telling him to run away. Slowly, he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the sword and pulled with all of his might, expecting resistance.
The sword came free easily, as if sliding out of butter rather than stone. Chris stumbled from the sudden momentum and stared at Excalibur in his hand in astonishment.
"That's not possible," he said, shock colouring his tone.
Leo and Piper both stared at Chris too, but he barely noticed them. His eyes were fixed on Excalibur, which was still raised in his hand. For a moment, it was as if nothing else existed but him and the sword. And then he came back to himself and dropped Excalibur as if it had burned him.
I can feel it corrupting me, he thought, though strangely, he didn't feel any darkness or drive for power. Only a desire to become one with Excalibur.
The sword clattered to the ground, landing beside Chris's feet.
"Wyatt's not the true heir," Leo declared, "He can't be. There's no way that you could draw Excalibur in his presence for your own use if he was."
"Huh?" Chris looked up from the sword at Leo, not understanding what the Elder was trying to say.
"You're the heir, Chris," Leo told him.
Chris shook his head, "That's not possible! I told you, Piper's the Lady of the Lake and Wyatt-"
"If Wyatt was the heir to Excalibur, he would have been able to draw it from the stone. He would have been able to orb it out the same way you did. It's not Wyatt. It's you. Now, why exactly would a whitelighter from the future be the heir to Excalibur?" Leo asked, the suspicion returning, "In fact, why would any whitelighter be the heir to Excalibur? We're supposed to be pacifists."
Chris was silent, still trying to process Leo's declaration that it was him and not Wyatt who was the heir to Excalibur.
"He's not a whitelighter," Piper broke Chris from his thoughts, catching Leo's attention too.
"What-?" Leo tried to ask.
"He's a witch," she said, her eyes fixed on Chris.
A deep sense of panic and dread sat in the pit of Chris's stomach as he noticed the look on Piper's face. She knows.
"He orbs, Piper," Leo pointed out.
If Chris hadn't been so panicked, he probably would have chuckled at how obtuse the Elder was being. Or wondered if he was being deliberately so, not wanting to admit to himself what Piper had so clearly just realised. But he couldn't do anything. He just sat, silent, still as a statue, staring at Piper.
"Half-witch, half-whitelighter, right Chris?"
It was phrased as a question, but there was a knowing gleam in Piper's eyes that told Chris she was certain of it. Still he said nothing, wondering if he kept quiet, if maybe it would all go away. Maybe Piper would come to the wrong conclusion and his secret would still be safe.
"The prophecy said the next heir would be the child of a Charmed One," Piper said.
Or maybe not.
Leo's eyes widened as he too put the pieces together.
"Christopher, after my father," he said softly. He'd always wanted to name a son after his father, though he'd never raised it with Wyatt because he'd been sure Piper would want to follow tradition and give him a 'P' name. And then after he and Piper had separated, well, he'd given up on the idea.
Chris closed his eyes tightly, as if it was a dream he could wake from. But when he opened them again a moment later, Piper and Leo were still standing there, staring at him.
"Are you our son?" Piper asked.
For a second, Chris considered lying. But the knowing looks in both Piper and Leo's, his parents' eyes told him it would do him no good. He could deny it all he liked, but they would never believe him now if he said he wasn't their son.
"Yes," he said finally, sounding as though the confirmation was being pulled from him painfully.
Before anyone could say anything else, pockets of space around the sun room shimmered. The room was quickly filled with demons.
Chris leapt into action instantly. Instinctively, he stretched his hand out towards Excalibur, which disappeared in a flurry of orbs only to reappear in his hand. A wave of acceptance washed over him; Chris accepting Excalibur at the same moment Excalibur accepted him. He was immediately drawn into a fight by a group of Executioner demons, but somehow, despite having next to no experience with a sword, it was like he knew what to do. Or at least, Excalibur did.
Wyatt's shield had gone up as soon as the demons shimmered in, sending a group of them flying into furniture, and some even to different rooms in the Manor.
"Leo!" Piper cried.
Leo was already on his feet, orbing into the shield beside Piper and taking Wyatt from her. With her hands now free, Piper also jumped into the fight, flicking her hands at the closest demons and blowing them up.
"Get Wyatt out of here!" she cried, breathing a sigh of relief when she heard the sound of orbing, and her son's shield disappeared a second later.
Her eyes flickered to Chris, just for a second, and her heart clenched. He was her son too, and if she had her way, he'd be upstairs with Wyatt and Leo, safely out of the way. But even though he was new to her, he wasn't new to the world. He was her baby, but he was also a young man, as much as she didn't want to admit it.
A young man who could, apparently, take care of himself, Piper observed, before turning her attention back to the Executioner demons who were pulling themselves up from where they'd landed after Wyatt's shield went up. She focussed her mind back on the task at hand, pushing down her fear and her worry for Chris, and flicked her wrists again, blowing up three more demons.
Chris had disposed of the first wave of demons who had attacked him with minimal effort, and only a thin cut to his bicep where a sword had swiped him. He knew he should probably be feeling tired as the second wave of demons descended on him, but as he dodged and swung Excalibur to meet one of the swords headed towards him, he just felt invigorated.
The second wave of demons were defeated almost as easily as the first. Chris narrowed his eyes at the final demon left. The Dark Knight. He had been a few steps away from the battle, observing his opponent. But now he was all that remained. One last chance to seize Excalibur, the only weapon that could kill him.
Chris stepped towards the Dark Knight, Excalibur raised defensively. He watched as the Dark Knight swung his sword, and swung Excalibur in response.
The two swords met with a loud clang that rang out through the Manor and the fight began.
Piper watched anxiously, wishing she could jump in and defeat the Dark Knight herself, but knowing that this was Chris's battle to fight. She'd done all she could to help by vanquishing as many of the other demons as she could. Now she just had to trust that Chris knew what he was doing.
It was a tougher fight than the previous two. Chris could feel Excalibur trying to help him, whispering when to block and when to try and strike, sometimes even seeming to act of its own accord to block an attack from the Dark Knight. His earlier invigoration was fading though, and Chris could feel his body tiring. He thrust Excalibur forward, trying to strike the Dark Knight's heart, but missed, the demon shimmering out just before the sword touched him. He shimmered in behind Chris a moment later, which somehow the whitelighter-witch had been anticipating.
He was already halfway turned around when the Dark Knight reappeared, Excalibur raised in the air. The Dark Knight swung his own sword forward, using Chris's momentum to force him to stumble and fall onto his back. And then everything began to happen very quickly. The Dark Knight raised his sword directly above him. Excalibur had been knocked from his hand when he had fallen and instinctively, he knew he wouldn't have enough time to call it before the Dark Knight's sword plunged into his chest.
He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the end.
Except the blow never came. Chris's eyes flew open. The Dark Knight's sword had moved only an inch and then frozen, as had the rest of the demon. Realising what had happened, Chris looked over at Piper, who had her hands raised in a familiar manner.
"Hurry!" she urged him.
Chris reached his arm out towards Excalibur, which orbed itself into his hand. Without hesitation, he thrust the sword up, straight through the demon's head. Immediately, the Dark Knight erupted into flames.
Unfortunately for Chris, what didn't erupt into flames was the Dark Knight's sword, which promptly unfroze and embedded itself into Chris's chest.
"Ugh," he gasped as all of the air in his lungs was expelled and pain exploded in his chest.
"Chris!" Piper shrieked, running to him.
She fell to her knees beside him. Tears filled her eyes and began to roll slowly down her cheeks. She looked into his pain filled eyes, those green eyes she'd never really taken any notice of before, but now recognised as familiar. Prue's eyes, some distant part of her brain noted. Then her eyes dropped to the sword embedded in his chest (Thank god it missed his heart. Just.) and the sticky red blood that was staining his shirt. Blood, there was so much blood.
"Leo!" she screamed, taking the hand that wasn't holding Excalibur in her own and squeezing it tightly.
She placed her other hand on Chris's cheek, stroking it gently.
"It's okay Chris, it's going to be okay," she whispered as the familiar chimes of a whitelighter orbing in sounded behind her.
"Oh my god, Chris," Leo gasped, falling to his knees beside Piper.
Leo wrapped his hand around the hilt of the sword and pulled it from his son's chest.
"I'm sorry," he said apologetically when Chris groaned.
The blood began to flow quicker now, seeping through his already drenched shirt. With no time to waste, Leo dropped the sword onto the floor behind him, and then turned back to Chris, hovering his hands above where the sword had been. He and Piper both breathed a sigh of relief when the golden glow came from them and the blood began to disappear from Chris's shirt. The thin gash on his arm also began to heal, disappearing faster than the larger wound.
He held his hands there until the last of the blood was gone and he was sure that the otherwise fatal blow to the chest had knitted itself back together. Only then did Leo pull his hands back, both he and Piper watching Chris anxiously.
Chris pushed himself up into a seated position, almost finding himself flat on his back again when Piper immediately threw her arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder. He hadn't been expecting such an emotional reaction from her, and he didn't really know how to respond. It had been so long since he had been shown any kind of affection, especially from family, and truth be told, Piper acting this way made it harder for him to keep her separate from the Mom of his childhood who he'd lost so many years ago.
Chris was even more startled when another set of arms wrapped around him and Piper.
Leo, he realised, as the Elder pulled them both in close, Well this is different.
"Guys," Chris choked out, "Can't breathe."
The words had the desired effect, as both Leo and Piper pulled back from Chris, giving him the space to breathe again. Chris shifted uncomfortably. His right shoulder was soaked with tears and he could feel his shirt sticking to his skin. He looked down at his hand, realising that he'd somehow managed to keep hold of Excalibur throughout it all.
Piper followed his gaze, her heart constricting at the sight of the sword.
"Put it back in the stone," she said forcefully, wiping the last of her tears from her cheeks.
Chris's eyes widened at her sharp tone, which contrasted so greatly from the emotion she'd just shown him, but none the less waved his other hand over Excalibur, returning it to the stone in a swirl of orbs. Piper breathed a sigh of relief with it gone.
"That is going in the attic for a very long time!" she declared, "And we're gonna get you some really strong armour before you use it again!"
Chris didn't say anything, his brain trying to process what the hell had just happened. The adrenaline was fading and even though he'd melded with Excalibur so easily during the fight, he still struggled to understand and accept what that meant.
A string of unrelated thoughts ran through his brain on a loop, I'm the heir to Excalibur. But I can't be. Piper and Leo know. It was never Wyatt. But it has to be. Piper and Leo know. I'm the heir.
"Chris," Piper's gentle voice drew him from his thoughts.
"I- I'm the heir. How-?" Chris voiced the last thought to have run through his mind, still feeling too shocked to really understand what was going on.
"You said it yourself. The prophecy said the child of a Charmed One. I guess in your original timeline, we just got the wrong kid," Leo replied.
Chris scoffed softly as he realised that when he'd shared the prophecy with Piper and Leo, he'd unintentionally given himself away. He'd been so convinced that Wyatt was the heir. He never would have told them about it otherwise.
"But I'm not the Ultimate Power. That's Wyatt," Chris said, "I'm just a regular whitelighter-witch. This has gotta be a mistake."
"Maybe everyone misinterpreted what 'Ultimate Power' means. Maybe it doesn't mean the most powerful person, maybe it means something else," Leo suggested.
Chris frowned, not entirely convinced of Leo's explanation.
"I could always check with the other Elders. See if they have any ideas."
Another rush of surprise flared through Chris. He wasn't used to Leo being so helpful in any time. It would be good to get an explanation though, to help him put to rest the niggling feeling in the back of his mind that was telling him this was all a big mistake and Excalibur was going to corrupt him.
He nodded at Leo, "Yeah, okay."
Leo clapped a hand on Chris's shoulder firmly, holding it there for a moment. It was weird, Chris decided. This was not the Leo he was used to.
"I'll be back," Leo promised, standing up.
"Hey Leo," Chris said, catching the Elder's attention right as he was about to orb, "Thanks."
Leo flashed him a small smile and then he disappeared in a flurry of orbs.
"Come on," Piper said, pulling herself up, "Let's get you onto the couch."
She held out her hand to Chris. He took it and let her help him stand up.
"I'm okay Piper, really," he tried to reassure her as she all but herded him over to the couch.
"Sit," she ordered.
"Not a scratch, I swear," Chris argued, gesturing to the spot on his torso where the sword wound had been.
"You just took out a whole pack of demons. Healing or no healing, that takes some recovery time. Sit down."
Chris sighed, but recognised the fiercely determined tone Piper had adopted. It was one his Mom had used on him and Wyatt a million times in his childhood. He hadn't been able to fight it then, and he was powerless to fight it now. The only thing he could do was obey.
Piper sat beside him, her body angled so that she was facing him as best she could. The adrenaline and charged atmosphere from the fight and its aftermath was fading fast, and she really didn't really know what to say or do next.
Neither did Chris. So they sat in awkward silence.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Piper asked finally, startling Chris slightly with the suddenness with which she'd broken the silence, "All this time, you never said anything."
"Honestly, I didn't think you guys would believe me. You were suspicious enough when I first got here, and Chris Halliwell doesn't exist yet in this time. It was just easier to be Chris Perry," he said.
"Where'd Perry come from anyway?"
"It's my middle name. A 'P' name," Chris added in response to Piper's curious expression.
"Ah," Piper nodded.
They fell back into silence again.
"So, when will you exist, in this time?" Piper asked.
"Uh," Chris hesitated, "I don't know if I should tell you that."
"Oh come on, I already know I have another kid. What harm could it do to tell me when to expect you?" Piper pointed out.
Chris chuckled. He couldn't fault her logic there.
"November 2004. That's all you get," he said.
"Okay. Two kids under two. Wow," Piper thought about it for a moment, wondering how much different her life would be in a year's time, "Are you guys close? You must be, to come back to save him."
Chris looked away, shifting uncomfortably on the couch. He stared at Excalibur as he answered, "Yeah, real close."
Piper pressed her lips into a thin frown. She could tell that he wasn't telling her something. It was strange, Chris was normally a much better liar than this.
Before she could call him on it though, orbs filled the room, quickly reassembling themselves into Leo.
Chris looked at Leo eagerly, grateful for a reason to steer the conversation away from his relationship with future Wyatt.
Never thought I'd live to see the day where I was eager to see Leo.
"Did the Elders know anything?" he asked.
"They- we think that the 'Ultimate Power' actually doesn't have anything to do with power," Leo replied.
"So, what then?" Chris asked.
"We think that what its talking about is the power to wield Excalibur without becoming corrupted."
"That doesn't make any sense. The sword doesn't corrupt the heir. Doesn't that mean that theoretically anyone could wield it if Excalibur thought they were the heir?" Chris asked.
Maybe that's why Wyatt could wield it in the future, Chris thought.
"No. Only a truly incorruptible soul, someone with a pure and noble heart, could be the true heir," Leo explained.
Chris scoffed, "If that's true, then someone has really screwed up. There's no way that's me."
"Chris," Piper protested.
Chris shook his head, "Seriously, this is gotta be a mistake."
"Ignoring the fact that we both saw you wield Excalibur and you still seem perfectly fine and uncorrupted," Leo said, "What did you feel when you first held Excalibur?"
Chris thought about it for a moment.
"I don't know. It felt good. It felt right. But how do we know that wasn't the sword corrupting me?"
"The fact that you're worried about the sword corrupting you proves that you're not corrupted," Leo pointed out.
"But- no, in the original timeline, both Piper and Wyatt could draw the sword. That shouldn't be possible if I'm the heir," Chris replied, still unable to believe what Leo was telling him.
"You didn't exist yet in the original timeline. Excalibur must have recognised you in Piper. That's why it allowed her to draw the sword. In theory, I should have been able to draw it too. But it wasn't meant for Piper, that's why she became corrupted," Leo explained.
"It still doesn't make sense," Chris argued, "Wyatt used Excalibur in my future. If I'm really the heir, he shouldn't have been able to do that."
"Did he ever draw Excalibur in front of you?" Leo asked.
Chris considered it, "Not that I remember."
"Did you ever try to call Excalibur?"
"No!" Chris shook his head vehemently. He'd never even considered calling Excalibur away from Wyatt. He would have never even thought it was possible. And there was the corruption issue. It had become one of his greatest fears after Wyatt turned, that he would someday turn too and be just like him. That alone had stopped him from ever trying to wield Excalibur.
"How was Wyatt able to wield Excalibur in your future without being corrupted?" Piper asked.
Chris tensed, looking down at his hands in his lap so that he didn't have to meet either Piper or Leo's eyes. He'd really been hoping they wouldn't put that together given all of the information he'd so thoughtlessly revealed when he'd thought Wyatt was the heir. How could he tell them that Excalibur hadn't corrupted their son because he'd already had darkness brewing inside of him long before he ever drew the sword they'd all believed was his birthright.
"You said you've seen Excalibur do terrible things," Leo said slowly, "I just assumed…"
Chris said nothing, hoping that if he stayed silent, Piper and Leo would draw their own conclusions and save him coming up with a lie. It had never worked for him before, but maybe it would work now.
True to form, it didn't work this time either.
"Chris, did Excalibur corrupt Wyatt?" Piper asked, "Is that what you came back to save him from?"
Crap.
"But- if Excalibur had corrupted Wyatt, wouldn't you have known that he wasn't the heir?" Leo pointed out, "Unless… he was already corrupted before he drew the sword."
Chris looked up at Leo, his eyes wide in astonishment. He really hadn't expected them to put the pieces together that quickly.
"Oh my god," Piper breathed in horror, "Oh my god."
"What happened?" Leo asked, also horrified.
"I don't know," Chris admitted, "I don't know. I came back here blind. All I know is that whatever it is that gets to him does it before I'm born."
"God," Piper squeezed her eyes shut, remembering Chris's earlier admission.
One year. Whatever it was that turned her baby got to him within the next year.
"Obviously, this is part of the puzzle," Chris gestured towards Excalibur, "I guess I didn't really think about it before because I didn't think Excalibur could corrupt him, but he definitely got worse once he started using the sword."
"Why didn't we do anything? Why did we wait so long?" Leo asked.
"You didn't know. None of us did. Not until it was too late. The evil, it sat inside of him, dormant, for a really long time," Chris explained.
Images of his mother's death entered his mind, and he squeezed his eyes closed, trying to banish them from his thoughts.
"Why did we send you back? Why not one of us?" Piper asked.
Of all the questions she could have asked, that was the worst one. Chris struggled for an explanation for a moment, before one finally occurred to him.
"It had to be me," he said, "I'm the only one who doesn't exist in this time. It would have been dangerous for anyone else to come back, to have two versions of one of you in the same time for the amount of time it was likely to take."
He breathed a sigh of relief inwardly when Piper and Leo both seemed to accept that easily enough.
"And that's all we have to go on?" Leo asked, "Something gets him before you're born?"
Chris nodded.
"When-?" Leo began to ask.
"Next November," Piper cut him off, anticipating what he was going to ask.
Leo's eyes widened, coming to the same realisation Piper had a few minutes ago.
A year.
"Never being able to relax, the constant research and demon hunts, it's all because of this isn't it?" Piper asked, "This deadline."
"Yes," Chris replied softly, "I just need to get to my birth date without anything happening to Wyatt, and then the future should be changed and I can go home. In the meantime, I've just gotta vanquish as many demons as I can and hope that I get whoever's after him before they ever try anything."
Piper and Leo looked at one another, noting that the sadness reflected in the other's eyes matched their own. They both felt as though they'd failed their boys. One son succumbed to evil and the other forced to travel back through time and risk his own life to save him. It wasn't fair.
Piper took a deep breath, recognising that her sadness and regret wasn't at all helpful or productive. She got to her feet, surprising Chris, but not Leo. Piper had never been good at sitting back and letting things happen, which in this case was a very, very good thing.
"Okay, so a year. We've got a year to find whoever's after Wyatt," she said.
Leo straightened up, realising what she was getting at, "We'd better get to it then."
"First thing's first," Piper gestured towards Excalibur, "We've gotta find somewhere to put that thing, because I am not keeping it in my living room."
"Where?" Leo and Chris asked simultaneously.
Personally, Piper would have happily had them orb it to the bottom of a lake or into a volcano. They could all feel the power radiating from Excalibur, even in the stone, and she had a feeling that once Chris eventually drew it for real in the future, it would be a beacon for all kinds of evil to come after him.
But it was his destiny, apparently. And what kind of mother would she be if she denied him his destiny for her own peace of mind?
Two sons with powerful destinies, she thought wryly, Just my luck.
There were really only two places. The basement or the attic. There were reasons against hiding Excalibur in both rooms. The basement contained the Nexus and was a beacon for evil. But the attic contained the Book of Shadows and despite vanquishing almost every demon who'd ever set foot in there, it was a well-known fact in the Underworld that the attic was where the Charmed Ones practiced most of their magic. It too was a beacon for evil.
"The attic," Piper said finally, figuring that at least with the amount of foot traffic in the attic it would make be easier to protect the sword.
Piper and Leo both turned to Chris expectantly. Chris swallowed.
"You know, I'm really not good with the orbing stuff," he said nervously, "I don't really use my power like that. Honestly, orbing Excalibur was a total fluke."
"It's technically orbing Excalibur again, you're just orbing the stone with it," Piper pointed out, "Preferably away from any furniture."
"I'll try," Chris replied, unconvinced.
He waved a hand over the sword in the stone, watching as it disintegrated into thousands of tiny blue orbs. He tried to direct it to the attic, to a corner he knew was empty. It was the same spot where Excalibur had sat in Chris's future. He winced when the orbs disappeared through the ceiling, waiting for the crash, but it never came.
"Good job," Piper commented.
"I don't know, I think we should check it actually made it to the attic and I didn't accidentally orb it somewhere else," Chris suggested, still not entirely confident in his ability to telekinetically orb something as big as the stone.
Not waiting for either Piper or Leo to respond, Chris orbed up to the attic. Piper and Leo followed, orbing beside him a moment later.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Excalibur and the stone, sitting in the corner of the attic, just as he'd intended.
"You should have more faith in yourself," Leo said.
Chris bristled slightly. The words were innocent enough, but coming from Leo, they rubbed him up the wrong way. He said nothing though, watching as Piper stepped forward and covered Excalibur with a spare sheet.
"I want you to promise me before you draw this thing for real, that you're gonna have a normal childhood. Play with normal toys, play sports, make friends. Maybe we can even get a dog," she said, turning back to Chris.
Chris chuckled, "I did all of those things already. Except for the dog part," he wrinkled his nose, remembering his interactions with Paige's dogs a few months ago.
"Okay, not a dog then," Piper replied, "But I want you to have as normal a childhood as possibly before that thing comes out of storage."
"Well, it won't be me technically," Chris pointed out, "And Excalibur could be really useful against whatever demon's after Wyatt."
Piper narrowed her eyes, "Nice try! I meant what I said before about armour."
Chris rolled his eyes, "Wyatt never had to wear armour."
"Wyatt has a forcefield," Piper replied, "Do you also have a forcefield?"
"No," Chris replied sulkily, the familiar feeling of inferiority flaring up.
"Then you're wearing armour!" Piper declared, making her way over to the Book of Shadows, "I wonder if there's a spell or a potion to strengthen metal here in here."
Chris looked to Leo, flashing him a look that said, A little help here?
"I don't think there's any getting out of this one," Leo said softly.
Chris groaned, realising how inconvenient it was going to be having Piper know his identity.
Embraced my apparent destiny, only to be grounded by my Mom. Naturally.