Disclaimer: Nothing in the Charmed world belongs to me and no copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Well I do apologize for the long wait on this story but now that I've finished Be Careful I can get back to this one. I will warn though that I will only be updating about once a week, unless I just get really industrious. At this time I am writing a novel to publish so that is taking up a lot of my time. But I still love writing Charmed fics. They calm my nerves and keep the writer's block demons away. So with that said, next chapter is up. Italics in this chapter represent a flashback.

Chapter 11 Confrontations

"Hey, Sweetie, wha'cha doing?" Piper asked her oldest son as she stepped into the attic. She was becoming increasingly concerned about him as the time ticked by since he returned. Wyatt had always been her loving little boy. He always seemed happy with his life, well most of his life, but since returning from the past his demeanor had taken a change. He seemed almost sullen.

It was easy to see that he was flipping through the Book of Shadows, again going though and trying to find the demon that took his brother. "What am I always doing, Mom?"

Yeah, she had to admit that about ninety five percent of the time she and her son spent in the quest to save Chris, and if a stray demon or two got killed in the process, oh well, they shouldn't have gotten in the way. "Maybe you need a break from this, Wyatt," she suggested worrying over her son's health. He needed to spend some time with people his own age and try to have some semblance of a life outside of the quest to save his brother. His aunts and the rest of the extended family had managed to somehow do that but Wyatt didn't even bother.

He looked up at her with a shocked look on his face. "When we are this close, you tell me to take a break?"

She moved across the attic and placed one hand over where his rested on the Book. "You need it, Wyatt, and besides Chris is taking care of it. When he's ready, he'll find a way to contact us. You need to rest between now and then because the only one who's gonna be powerful enough to vanquish this demon is you."

Wyatt could see the utter faith she had in Chris and, though it was nice to know that she trusted him so much, Wyatt still couldn't help the fear bubbling inside of him. He pulled his hand out from under hers and walked across the room and slid down onto the couch. "Mom, I know you've got it in your head that the Chris from your past is this big hero and all and he really is. I don't deny that at all, but I think you are counting way too much on the image of him that you see."

Piper's eyes crinkled in a slight bit of confusion. "What do you mean, Wyatt?" she asked hesitantly.

Wyatt was trying to explain this without severely ticking his mother off and one thought came to mind. "In the new memories that you've received since we came back, do you remember Chris' reaction to all of this?"

She frowned trying to concentrate on the new memories she had recently received. "Well, I guess he was shocked and upset but to me it seems like such a long time ago. I know you just lived it a couple of days ago though, so you should remember it better than I."

"Mom, he was really freaked out and if you look at it the way I am you'll understand that it was just a couple of days ago for him too. I'm worried about whether or not he can handle it." He knew that in his mother's mind the memory was faded and she apparently only remembered Chris taking charge in the end and doing things his way but Wyatt remembered all of the pain his brother had felt and the fact that for a few moments Chris was ready to give up. "Mom, I know you love Chris for everything he did and believe me, I do too, especially after meeting the Chris you remember. He is just awesome but I think you are all expecting too much from him. He doesn't want to be a hero and he needs us to help him in any way we can."

Piper bit her lip thinking for a moment. Had she been fooling herself all of these years into believing that her second son was invincible? Of course he wasn't. Hadn't he died the first time around before Wyatt went back and changed things? That memory was slowly fading from her mind to be replaced by Wyatt saving him but she knew that it had originally happened. But Chris had done so much for them and all of the sacrifices he made to save his brother and basically the whole damn world. Was she putting him on too high a pedestal and if so how hard would he fall? "Wyatt, has it been that bad?" she asked quietly.

Wyatt understood exactly what she was asking. "Living in the shadow of a brother who died for me? Yes and no. Your perception of him is really hard to live up to but since it was the only way for me to really know him I'm not complaining about it. Believe me, I'll take whatever I can get."

She walked over and had a seat beside her son. "Chris really would hate it if he knew the way we think about him, wouldn't he?"

Wyatt actually had some idea of how Chris would feel since he had partially revealed their feelings to him when they were still in the past. "He'd certainly tell you to lay off the whole hero thing. I think that embarrasses him to no end. But I talked to him about the rest and it made him really happy to know how much you all still love him even with everything that's happened."

Piper smiled at that. She could still remember the look that he sometimes gave her when she was being too much of a proud mother during the short time they had had together in the past. That look was a cross between exasperation and disdain and she knew it well. She could only imagine that look crossing his face every time he thought of them calling him a hero. That was not something that Chris considered himself to be at all. "You know seeing everything that has happened since then I'm glad that we had the time we did with him. It really helps to know just what type of son he could have been if given a chance. Not saying that we wouldn't have loved him anyway. We would have. It's just that…" At that she paused not sure how to continue.

"I understand, Mom. It helps to know exactly what you're fighting for," Wyatt finished for her.

Piper nodded in agreement giving her son a thankful smile. He did understand. "So, what do you think we should do to help him?" she asked moving on to what needed to be done.

"Well first I'd like to even be sure that he's still there. What if Dad was wrong about time travel and none of Chris' old memories survived the merge? I hate thinking about it but it's always a possibility." What would they do if the Chris they all truly cared about was just gone?

"You want to go find him, don't you?" she asked her voice trembling slightly. She remembered the last time that Wyatt had sought out his brother. It was just a few days after Leo had disappeared and Wyatt was sure that Chris had had something to do with it so he had went searching for him.

"Where is he?" Wyatt screamed in anger facing his brother in an underground cavern.

Chris had stood smugly with his arms partially crossed but he held a fireball balanced on one of his palms ready to toss it if necessary. He hadn't expected the Halliwell brat to come looking for him. It was a bold move on his part. "What has you in such an uproar now, Witch?"

"You know exactly what has me pissed. I want to know what you did with my father. You know, Leo Wyatt, The Elder. That ring any bells?" Wyatt asked his hands up and ready to deflect his brother's attack when it came and he was positive that it would come.

That gave Chris some pause. A group of Elders had tried to kill him a few days before. He had actually killed them all except for one of them. It had been a shock when one of them had turned and tried to defend him against the others. He had never imagined that an Elder would betray his own, especially not to try to protect him. Now what had those other Elder's called him? That's right it had been Leo. "Oh yeah, him. If I remember right he is in my dungeons. The least I could do was to spare him after he betrayed his friends to save me. So how does it feel to have a traitor for a father?"

"You bastard," Wyatt screamed and flung his hand out tossing Chris across the chamber with his powers of telekinesis.

Chris had been slightly surprised by the veracity of the attack. Every other time that he had fought the witch it was almost as if he was holding back; but not this time. 'So the witch has a weakness' he thought deviously to himself. With that he stood and threw a fireball at him. "My if I only realized how you'd react I might have invited him to this little get together."

"I want him back and I want him now," Wyatt called tele-orbing the fireball back at his brother, not bothering to redirect it so it wouldn't hit Chris. Time for pulling punches was over.

Chris easily dodged his own weapon and aimed two more directly at Wyatt. This was a little trickier to deflect but still Wyatt did so, not even getting singed. "Oh, but I like having him as a guest. It's not many a demon that can boast of having an Elder for a pet."

Wyatt growled in frustration. This was getting him nowhere. Unless he could threaten Chris with worse bodily harm he would never learn where he was holding him. 'So let's take this a little bit closer' he thought to himself orbing across the room and reappearing just inches from Chris. With that he struck out with his fist landing a sound punch to his face and knocking him backwards to the ground.

Chris' eyes widened in astonishment. He had expected spells. He had expected potions but never had he expected hand-to-hand combat from the witch. What a surprise that was. But he was no good at that kind of fighting. He had truly never took the time to learn.

Wyatt didn't give him time to react. He knew he had to keep Chris' hands immobile if he was to survive this encounter. So he dove on top of him pinning his arms to the cavern floor with his knees. Within seconds Wyatt had a potion in his hand held over Chris' head. "Don't even try to move."

Chris just scoffed at the threat. "You know that won't kill me. Do you think the Source can be vanquished by just a simple potion?"

"I'm not trying to kill you. But if I pour this potion on your face you'll have some wonderful scars to match that twisted soul of yours." With those words Wyatt flipped the cork from the bottle with his thumb and tilted the vial just barely, ready to empty it if he needed to.

Chris had been fighting until those words were said and then he suddenly stilled. Many demons were scared and disfigured. It was a part of the job. The original Source had even looked like something out of a child's nightmares but that didn't mean he wanted to join the ranks of the permanently damaged. 'Live to fight another day' he thought bitterly to himself and then shimmered from under Wyatt and into his own private chambers.

"Damn you, Chris," Wyatt screamed throwing the harmless vial of water at the cavern wall. It had been a bluff and it hadn't worked at all to his advantage as he was hoping. He had never figured that Chris would run. That just didn't seem right to him somehow. Halliwell's didn't run from a challenge. But how much Halliwell was really left in him?

Chris was seething in anger. How had the witch brat gotten the best of him? That was something that had never happened before and he had certainly never ran from a fight before. He growled in anger and formed a fireball throwing it at the cavern wall scorching it black. "Damn all you Halliwells," he cursed bitterly.

"I know it worries you, Mom, but I don't see where I have a choice. I have to know if our Chris has managed to find a place inside of that monster," Wyatt said in complete determination.

Piper nodded knowing she couldn't convince him otherwise or hold him back from what he needed to do. "Just please be careful."

"I will, Mom," he answered her as he gave her a tight hug and then orbed away.

A/N: Well what have I done? Poor Leo always gets the shaft in my stories. I really like the guy, I promise, but it's just so tempting to abduct him for some reason. But you must admit the Valkyries did it first so it's all their fault. Next chapter should be up within a week.