Disclaimer: Nothing in the Charmed world belongs to me and no copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 9 I'm a What?
"You know, I'm sort of here to stay, so we might want to consider a little more information sharing," Chris suggested to his dark self.
"You might be staying," Dark Chris reminded him. "I'm sure I can figure out a way to get rid of you if I wanted to."
"That's probably true, but if I'm no threat to you, why bother going to the trouble of getting rid of me when ultimately I might be able to help you with certain things." Chris was only guessing that the ploy he was working on would work but it was worth a risk.
"Oh and how is that?" his counterpart asked sounding almost bored with the conversation as he continued walking through the underworld checking that his minions were still in line with his plans for the future.
"I have this strange feeling that you have spent most of your life developing your active powers. But what about spells and potions? You should know that we have access to them with our power," Chris said dangling the bait.
"Why would a demon who could do this…" with that he formed a fireball and slammed it into the nearest wall blowing away a good portion of it and taking out the hapless demon who was standing near it. "…need potions and spells?" he finished casually.
Chris frowned. Had he never even learned anything about magic? Wait he said demon. Sure he was possessed by the Source but wouldn't he be considered to be a dark wizard anyway? He decided to test that notion. "Well what about your powers from before you became a demon? Aren't you ever tempted to tap into them?"
Dark Chris stopped moving and turned his entire attention inward. "What the hell are you talking about? I've always been a demon." Then his suspicions turned on full thrust. "Haven't I?"
Chris was shocked by those words. How could this be? Not only was he evil, but also he had no clue who he even was. 'It would have been nice to know that one' he thought to himself wondering why his brother hadn't mentioned it. But he had to concentrate on the task at hand. "Okay, this is exactly why I wanted to start the sharing of information thing."
"Well, you open your mind and I'll open mine," Dark Chris sneered deviously.
"Not likely. Remember I'm you and just as suspicious as you are. Why don't we try a twenty questions style thing here? I'll ask you something, you answer, and then you get to ask me something and I'll answer," Chris suggested.
"How do I know you won't lie?" Dark Chris asked always the pessimist.
"Because you should know if I'm lying. I am you after all." Chris knew that wasn't necessarily true but he was willing to try it.
"Fine, but I get the first question," Dark Chris insisted. "If I haven't always been a demon than what was I before that?"
That was something that Chris was pretty sure would be safe to answer. "You were born a witch."
"A what? You have got to be kidding me!" Dark Chris was livid with the revelation. He killed Witches every day. How could he have not known he had been one himself at one time?
"My turn," Chris said ignoring his other self's rage. He knew he'd have to start out small if he was ever going to draw his counterpart out. "In this version of time who is our main enemy?"
After a few more minutes of muttering angrily to himself Dark Chris decided to answer the question so he could ask another of his own. "That of course would be the Charmed Ones and their brat, Wyatt."
No surprise there. Chris waited for his counterpart's next question. "Same question to you."
Okay, Chris had to think about that one. Wyatt had been his main enemy but if he was to continue to get Dark Chris on his good side he'd have to think about this a little differently. As if he really was Wyatt's second in that other time. "A group called the Resistance. Witches, magic folk, a few mortals, even some demons that didn't follow our rule."
Chris decided to try a round about way of getting the information he wanted. "How come you thought you were always a demon?"
Dark Chris let loose a low growl before answering. "Because I was raised by them, and how come you thought you were a witch?"
Chris saw the irony of that question. "Because I was raised by them."
Dark Chris swiped his hand at a boulder in front of him and it flew into the wall beside him. "Enough questions," he growled out continuing to walk forward.
But that one action was enough to give Chris some hope. His powers were still in this body somewhere, that meant that the witch that Dark Chris once was, was in there somewhere too.
"Okay, well I guess it's time," Wyatt said looking to his family a weak smile on his face. He had decided to erase the Triquetra that Chris had started to draw on the wall the day before and draw his own. Somehow he felt the need to do this all himself. He needed to build up his own courage if he was ever able to accomplish his task. He had reworded the spell that Chris had used to go back through time and now was able to use it to get back to his own time.
"Good luck, son. We'll see you in less than six months," Leo said placing one had on Wyatt's shoulder squeezing it tight. He knew how nervous his son was and how little faith he seemed to have in his own abilities. It was actually a surprise. For some reason he had figured that Wyatt would have grown up with more confidence than he seemed to possess especially after seeing how much the evil version of his son had possessed, but then again, maybe not having Chris there growing up with him had changed him. Maybe he had needed Chris somehow to push him into becoming a stronger, more confident person.
Piper also stepped forward along with her sisters and they all wrapped him in one large hug. "We have faith in you." Phoebe said, hoping to bolster her nephew's spirits.
"You can do this," Paige added smiling from ear to ear.
"We love you," Piper added last kissing her son on the cheek.
"Thank you all. I needed to hear that," he finally said pulling out of the hug and his smile seemed to strengthen as he accepted the courage they were offering him.
With that he turned away from them and started to read the spell he had reworded.
Hear these words,
hear the rhyme,
heed the hope within my mind,
Send me forth to where I'll find,
My home in place and time.
With those words the Triquetra lit up a brilliant blue and Wyatt stepped through it with only one look back.
As he stepped out of the portal he could see three figures waiting for him. None of them looked all too happy.
"Okay, where exactly did our plan go wrong?" Piper asked staring at her oldest son. "Welcome home by the way," she added stepping forward and hugging him.
"Thanks," he said hugging her back. "And our plan went wrong when we assumed that Chris would do things our way."
"Ohhhh, why did we not consider that?" Phoebe asked also stepping up to hug her oldest nephew.
Paige just stood back shaking her head. "Maybe because we forgot how neurotic 'our Chris' really was." They all considered the version of Chris that they knew from before to be 'their Chris'. The one that had grown up to be evil in this time was still a part of their family as far as they were concerned but it was hard to lay claim to someone you barely knew. So they had taken to calling the first Chris 'their Chris'. It just made things easier when discussing the whole ordeal. "He'd never stand back and let someone else handle the problem if he thought he had a solution himself."
"Apparently he thinks he's got one too," Wyatt said shaking his head imagining just what was going on with his brother at that moment. "He says that he's going to find out who took him and then let me know somehow. Then I have to go back in time to right before it happens and stop it by vanquishing the demon."
"But, if he's merged with his other self… isn't he evil now?" Paige asked in confusion.
"As far as we can guess, not yet. He and … Dad had a talk about it and they figure that as long as he fights the merge he should be able to keep a separate semblance of himself inside of his evil counterpart," Wyatt answered sighing deeply. It wasn't hard to hear the pause before he said the word 'Dad'.
Piper drew in a deep breath at her son's words. "And what did you tell him about his Dad?" she asked once her heart had stopped beating a mile a minute.
Wyatt shook his head. "I couldn't tell him. I didn't want to lay one more thing on him that he'd feel guilty about."
Piper nodded in understanding. Parts of this she had already known. The minute Wyatt had saved Chris in the past things had started to change. They had started to gain new memories of him living and Wyatt coming back to save him. But not all of the memories had caught up yet and she was slightly confused as to how Chris had decided to come back to their own time. She knew it would take time for the old memories to fade and be replaced by the new ones. "Okay, do you know how he's gonna contact you?"
"No, he didn't say that in the letter he left us," Wyatt explained.
"A letter. He snuck out and just left you a letter. Why am I not surprised?" Paige asked remembering just how sneaky her nephew could be when he wanted to be.
"Paige, would we have let him go if we had known what he was going to do?" Phoebe asked knowing the answer was a resounding No!
"Of course not. I'm just mad that he messed our plan up," Paige confessed scowling at her sister. "Why do I feel like he's taking charge again like he did when we first met him?"
"Because he is," Piper answered smiling very pleased at the notion.
"I'm not going on any marathon demon hunts. I'm getting too old for that," Paige said turning and leaving the room realizing that they'd have to participate in the waiting game now.
This brought a smile to the other two sister's faces. They knew it was Paige's way of saying that she was glad her nephew was back in charge, but she'd never say it out loud. It just wasn't her way and she'd never give Chris the satisfaction of knowing it.
"This is gonna work. Don't worry so much, Wyatt," Piper said running her hand through her son's unruly blonde curls. "We'll have your brother back in no time."
"I hope so, Mom. I really hope so," Wyatt answered hugging his mother even closer.
A/N: A little note here. I am sure you have all noticed the difference between the future version of the Charmed Ones and the Past Version. Doesn't the Future version seem a little bit more confident in Chris' abilities? Well there is a reason behind that. For twenty years now they have built Chris up to be this most awesome hero that sacrificed himself for his big brother. So in their minds that Chris is almost invincible. And he's also quite a lot for Wyatt to try to live up to. And no I'm not gonna say what has happened to Leo yet. It's a surprise. So don't ask.