Author Note: Hey guys! Again, sorry for the major delay; I have no excuses… you know, except for the evils of college homework and whatnot. Also, pure laziness – I'm the queen of lazy. Anywho, on with the chapter!

Summary: A new power is rising on the side of evil and it will stop at nothing to destroy all that is good. Chris needs to protect his family, but are they really the ones in danger? As he fights to protect his future and his loved ones, secrets will be revealed and life will never be the same for the Halliwell family. Takes place prior to the girls and Leo finding out that Chris is a witch and, at this point, no one is really a fan of poor Chris.

Recap: Last time on Dangerous Talisman,Chris went to the underworld and ordered a potion to block his malfunctioning powers. Chris, Leo, and Piper were attacked by demons with the power to regenerate. Said demons are now, understandably, pissed after their defeat and are now gunning for Chris under the impression that if they take him out, the sisters will be easy(ier) pickings. Oh, and Chris was invited to his first family dinner in the past!

Chris made a face at himself in the mirror as he finished buttoning up one of the faded flannel shirts he had found in Piper's room. It obviously belonged to Leo and Chris was none too pleased to be wearing it. He looked longingly at his long sleeved shirt lying on the floor; he had considered keeping it on when he realized exactly whose clothes he would be borrowing, but he figured Piper would go into a snit if he tried to sit down to dinner with demon guts hanging off his clothing. Besides, the shirt was beyond saving. With a casual flick of his hand, Chris sent the shirt careening into the wastebasket before heading down the stairs.

He did not want to have dinner with his family tonight. In fact, he never wanted to have dinner with his family – at least not in this time line. There was no use in becoming comfortable with his family here. He was determined to save his brother, his family, and the world with his mission, but if he failed and had to go back to the future he saw in his dreams every night, it would tear him apart. Another, smaller, part of him whispered that he was lying to himself. That wasn't the real reason. Any second he could spend with his family was precious, even if he had to go back to that hell on earth Wyatt had created.

If he were honest with himself and, let's face it, he and honesty hadn't really been the best of buds for quite a while, he was scared. No. That was a lie. He was terrified. He remembered the world as it used to be and he remembered his family as they used to be. He didn't fit anymore and he probably never would again. These people didn't live in a world shrouded by evil; a world where demon armies covered every inch of the globe. A place where good magic had been pushed almost to extinction and Chris' small resistance was the last hope for the world as it was today. If they knew about even a fraction of the things he had done, he knew that no matter who he was, they would never want to see him again. Hell, he wouldn't want to see him again. But he also knew that if his family rejected him like that he wouldn't be able to survive it. Distance was necessary.

He should have fought harder against staying for dinner. He was too tired and too vulnerable with his emotions and powers on the fritz. But when Piper had asked, that slight look of concern on her face, he had been reminded of his mother, his Piper, as she had been before the world spiraled out of control. He hadn't been able to resist. But he had to. He had to. He would just have to tell Piper that he was tired or something; anything to get out of this blasted dinner. Then he hit the bottom of the stairs.

The smells and sounds of his childhood assaulted him and tore down all the defenses he had just spent the last minutes carefully constructing. Chris took the moment to savor the feeling of warmth and safety those sounds and smells brought him. Suddenly he was thirteen again; his mother was alive and his older brother's sanity was still intact. The smell of his mom's famous lasagna just coming to perfection in the oven, the melodic sounds of his aunts' laughter, and his father's deep baritone. Chris frowned at that last one. Leo was not part of his childhood, his family, or his life. Thinking of that man should not give him warm fuzzies in the same way thinking about the rest of his family did. Leo had never been there for him. Chris could count the number of times his father had come for dinner on one hand and even then the man had normally left half-way through. Frowning, Chris attributed the minor aberration to the general wonkiness of his life lately. Once he got his powers under control, everything else would go back to normal too, including his crazy emotions.

Drawn by those happy feelings from his childhood, Chris had walked into the kitchen before he even realized what he was doing.

Leo looked up from where he was bouncing Wyatt on his knee to see his least favorite whitelighter come into the kitchen. The boy had a strange expression on his face; it was somehow… Leo didn't know the word… relaxed. That wasn't quite right, there were other elements as well… he just couldn't figure out what they were. Frowning, Leo placed his son into his highchair and made his way over to the young man; he had quite a few things to discuss with the boy. "Chris, can I talk to you for a moment," Leo said.

Chris slowly turned to looked over at the older man, his face shifting instantly from the odd expression to the carefully blank mask he had worn since he had arrived at the Halliwell house all those months ago. Leo was frankly amazed at the young man's ability to school has expressions. He supposed he had seen Chris do it before, but this moment stood out. The expression Chris had previously had on his face was more open than Leo had ever seen before that the change in expression was startling. Chris shrugged, "I suppose", he said, turning around to amble out of the room again.

Leo followed the younger man, marshalling his thoughts as he went. He really had to play this right. He had done some thinking while he was Up There with Wyatt. Piper was right, he really didn't have anything concrete on the girls' whitelighter and he certainly wasn't going to get anything out of him by throwing accusations at him every time he saw the kid. A new plan was in order. Leo did not trust Chris and he probably never would. He knew Chris was hiding something and he was sure that those somethings did not bode well for the Halliwells; hidden agendas never did. So, instead of using vinegar to catch Chris he was going to bring out the honey. It wouldn't be easy given that he and Chris had disliked each other almost on sight, but he knew how to lay on the charm. He had been an experienced whitelighter before becoming an Elder and part of that job included lying. Not to mention, he hadn't been called the Sun God in during the 60's for nothing.

"So…what did you want to talk to me about?" Chris asked, turning to look at the Elder, arms crossed and shoulders back; the picture of defiance.

Leo chewed on his lower lip, looking down at his feet as if unsure as to where to begin, this isn't going to be easy. I have to play this right. He needs to trust me and think that I trust him. "Chris," Leo said softly, "I've been thinking a lot lately… and…well, I think I've been unfair to you." Here Leo sighed, trying to convey his reluctance in the sound; Chris would be suspicious at a total 180. Glancing up at the younger man, Leo tried to gauge his reaction. There was no real change in his posture, but his eyes held a hint of confusion and the beginnings of hope. It's working! I've hooked him, now I just have to reel him in.

"We… well… I didn't trust you when you first came here because I was upset that you were taking over my place in the girls' lives and then everything with Piper happened… of course Valhalla didn't help any, but I was just blaming you because you were there and I didn't know who else to blame…" Leo sighed again, "I want to start with a clean slate. After everything you've done for me and the girls even when we haven't been the most supportive…I know now that I was wrong and that you were only trying to protect the girls… what I'm really trying to say is that I trust you, Chris."

Leo looked up at Chris again. The whitelighter's eyes still showed a hint of distrust and shock, but the predominate emotion there was hope. His posture lacked its earlier defiance as well; his shoulders were more relaxed and his hands were hanging loosely at his sides. Leo had been afraid that he had laid it on too thick at the end, but his words seemed to be having the effect he wanted. If you tell people what they want to hear, they tend to believe you, Leo thought, it seems sneaky whitelighters from the future are the same. Time to wrap this up. "I know that this won't fix everything, but I'm hoping this is a start. I was wondering… do you want to get a drink tomorrow at the club?"

"…I … um… yeah… t-that would be good." Chris mumbled

"Great!" Leo said brightly giving Chris a slap on the back. "So I'll meet you at 6 tomorrow at the bar. We better get back to everyone else or they might start thinking that I've done something awful to you in here" he chuckled. The Elder turned and began walking back into the dining room.

Chris stared at Leo's back as he walked out of the room. That had been… unexpected. It was strange, suspicious, even. But Chris wanted to believe that his father, that Leo, was coming to trust him. It would make his job much easier. I can't trust him though, Chris thought to himself, he's already taught me that I can't. He would have dinner tonight and get a drink with his father tomorrow in order to cement this new direction, but he would not, he would not, let himself get caught up in the moment. He had dealt with Leo's false promises his entire life and he wasn't about to forget the lessons of his childhood so easily.

Chris sighed as he let himself fall backwards onto the couch and buried his face into his hands. No, no, no. Leo couldn't do this to him now. When Leo had invited him out for a drink, even though he wanted to deny it, he knew his heart had almost leapt out of his chest. His father had never, ever invited him out to do anything. This was something he had wanted for most of his life and just when he was coming to terms with the fact that his father would never care about him like he cared for Wyatt and Piper, Leo did something like this. No matter what he told himself or how many times he warned himself not to let himself get too close, he was definitely in danger of losing control of his emotions when it came to his family.

Chris felt like he didn't know up from down when it came to his father. He wanted Leo to love him like a father should, but he also knew that was impossible. It had to be impossible. His father hadn't loved him when he knew Chris was his son, how much more should he hate Chris now? When he didn't even know who Chris was? When Chris had first arrived in the past, he had hoped that his family might recognize him; that they would feel some kind of connection and know that he was a Halliwell too. Those hopes had died quickly in the face of their unrelenting suspicion. It had hurt. It had hurt so badly and he had just wanted to straight back to the future. Even though the future was literally hell on earth, Bianca and the rest of the freedom fighters were there … and he at least had good memories of his mother and aunts in the future, while here he had three strangers who hated him. But he got through their hatred then and he would get through this sudden change of heart now. Chris sighed as he got up to go into the dining room – the only problem was that he wasn't sure he could survive it if they suddenly turned on him again.

Piper looked up as Chris came back into the room. He had a very strange expression on his face. It was closed but he also looked… hmmmm… what was the word? Anxious? Scared? Maybe a combination of both, she decided. Glancing over at her ex-husband who had a rather smug look on his face (she could tell. To anyone else it looked "Elder Serene," but Piper knew Leo's expressions like the back of her hand) and wondered what on Earth he had said to Chris. She was slightly worried about what might be going on between the two of them. Leo could be sneaky when he wanted to, and Chris was probably his least favorite person at the moment. She chewed her lip in concentration for a moment before opting to let it play out by itself. She didn't like Chris and she trusted Leo not to do anything too horribly awful to the boy. Besides, maybe Leo's plan, whatever it was, would help them figure out a little something about Chris. She was getting tired of the "enigmatic whitelighter" shtick.

"Dinner's ready in five," she announced, "could someone set the table?" Looking around she didn't expect anyone to start moving without a little more prodding from her, but to her utter surprise, Chris immediately moved towards the plate cabinet without hesitating. That was… odd. How did he know… Oh, well at least someone has manners, she thought glaring at her sisters until they started to move with the requisite groaning.

Finally the last plate was on the table and the lasagna was sitting in the middle of the table. Piper looked around as everyone sat down in their usual spots. "Chris, I'm going to go get you a chair from the conservatory, just wait a second, okay?" Piper called over her shoulder at him. He looked like he wanted to say something, but she cut him off with a glare. He was not getting out of this. She pulled the chair into position between her place and where Leo was sitting.

"You know," Chris started, "I really should do some more work and I don't want to intru—"

"Nope," Piper interrupted cheerfully, "you have to stay for this. Besides, you said you thought you might be coming down with something so you shouldn't be doing anything but resting anyway. This is resting. So sit." When Chris still looked like he was going to protest, Piper went over, grabbed his wrist, and physically dragged him over to his chair. Part of the reason she was insisting so hard that stay for dinner was not entirely altruistic since he would serve as a buffer between her and Leo. He would also serve as a distraction for her ex.

"Dig in," she instructed, serving him a rather large helping of her lasagna. The expression on Chris' face plainly said 'I would rather be anywhere but here' while the expression on hers just as clearly said, 'you are staying for this entire dinner and you are going to eat everything on your plate and LIKE IT'.

Chris looked at the steaming pile of lasagna on his plate and sighed. He knew that look. He had seen it on her face every time she told him that he had to finish his homework before messing around online or that he needed to do his chores before going out to the movies. It was a look that told him that he was not going to win. Picking up his fork, Chris resigned himself to a long night with his family. Someone Up There really hated him, and he hated them right back. Arrogant bastards.

Sending a glance in his fath— in Leo's direction, Chris tried to work through what had happened earlier. What the heck did this mean? There was no way this was legit, right? Or maybe it was… Leo had seemed pretty sincere, but that didn't really mean anything. Leo had been sincere when he had promised Chris he would be there for his 7th birthday party, or his soccer match in 9th grade, or when he had told Chris that they would go camping for his 14th birthday. None of it was true… but… but, this Leo was different. He might really mean it in this time period… grrrr! He hated time travel. Why the heck were people so different here?

"—is, Chris, Chris"

"Ah, what? Sorry, Paige, I guess I was just thinking about something."

"I'll say. You seemed to be off in your own little world. What I wanted to ask what kind of things you liked to do – ah! Don't take it like that," she said, seeing his face cloud, "I don't want any future consequences stuff – more like… hobby stuff. You know, since you're our whitelighter and we really don't know the first thing about you and all."

Chris sat there for a second in confusion. Hobbies, they wanted to know about his hobbies? What was up with today?

"Oh, come on. Are your hobbies really going to give us all the dark secrets about the future?" Phoebe said, exasperated.

"Um…ah, no. I was just… surprised," Chris said, scratching the back of his head, "I'm thinking."

"You have to think about what kind of things you like to do," Paige asked, slightly amused.

Chris wanted to blow up at her. Yell that he had been essentially on his own since age 14 and oh, I'm sorry. I guess I just haven't had time to figure out if I like tennis or soccer better with the world falling apart! But he didn't. They didn't understand here. He hadn't been asked a question like that in years. He couldn't imagine many people answered those sorts of questions anymore in his future. Of course, it was kind of nice to think that people could still care about that sort of thing here. So he didn't yell and scream and complain, instead, he calmly said, "I guess reading… I read a lot."

"Smart guy, huh," commented Phoebe, "what do you like to read?"

Demonology textbooks. "Mostly non-fiction, I guess." Chris shrugged, where are they going with this?

After a few more awkward questions to Chris, the sisters finally realized they weren't really going to get much out of him and nothing that was going to get the conversation going, so they turned to other subjects and Chris was relieved. Some of this sort of thing was okay, it was… cathartic – too much and it just painful, but this little bit was okay, he thought. He wasn't like them. He could pretend all he wanted, but he wasn't and never would be. He let the conversation flow around him without really listening. He was really tired and he couldn't be bothered to worry too much about his mission at the moment. Tomorrow, he thought, letting his eyes fall closed

Leo looked over at Chris to ask him a question, but was surprised to see that his breathing was deep and even and that his eyes were closed. "Huh, looks like he really was tired," Leo commented.

"He's asleep!" Piper exclaimed, looking over at her whitelighter and then grumbled, "at least he finished his lasagna." She got up and took Chris' plate with her to put in the dishwasher. To fall asleep at the dinner table when he was normally so alert and anxious, he must have been really exhausted.

As she walked back into the dining room, she caught sight of Leo studying the sleeping whitelighter with an odd expression on his face. She was still conflicted about both Leo and Chris, but after today she was feeling just a little bit more charitable towards her whitelighter. It wouldn't hurt to be a little nicer to him, now would it? "Leo," she said, moving over to her ex-husband, "could you orb Chris up to one of the spare rooms, please?"

Leo made a face, but put his hand on Chris' shoulder in order to orb him upstairs. Chris, however, immediately startled out of his sleep and stumbled out of his chair, looking around blearily. "Sorry," he croaked out, sleep coloring his voice, "what's going on? Where's the demon?"

"Nowhere, Chris," Piper said gently, "Leo was just about to orb you up to the guest bedroom to sleep."

Chris blinked at her owlishly while his sleep fogged brain tried to process that sentence. "Oh…uh, well, no need for that now. I'm going to head back to P3. There's some stuff I need to take care of," Chris said, already beginning to orb, "Later."

Piper humped as blue orbs spirited her whitelighter away, "that boy works too hard. He's going to make himself sick! Maybe we should try to be a little nicer to him" She mused as she turned and walked into the kitchen, Leo following.

"Piper," Leo began, intent on warning her that trusting Chris was the wrong thing to do. He knew that despite her tough exterior, Piper had a soft spot for helpless things. Chris might look helpless right now, but Leo knew better. The boy was a viper, just waiting to strike.

"Yeah?" Piper asked, looking over her shoulder.

"It's just that Chr—"But then Leo stopped. He wanted to warn her and tell her exactly what Chris was and his plans to uncover the ruse, but he realized that it wouldn't do anything but exasperate her. Nothing had changed from earlier in the day when she had reminded them that he had no evidence on Chris. It would be easier if Piper just though he was following her advice. Looking up at Piper again he saw she was giving him a strange look.

"Yes, what about Chris," she pressed.

"Oh, I was just thinking that you're right about him. He really does work too hard." Leo gave her his best 'I'm an Agent of Goodness and I Always Tell the Truth'look. "He did look really sick today," Leo continued.

Piper looked surprised and then a little suspicious, but she shrugged and turned to take some cookies out of the oven.

Leo looked at his wife… his ex-wife. He really did love her. She was so beautiful and strong and caring. He would do anything to have her in his arms again… he sighed. That wasn't going to happen anytime soon, he knew. He was needed Up There and the need to fight for the 'Greater Good' trumped everything else, no matter his personal desires. And just in time to reinforce this thought, he heard the other Elders jingling in his head.

"Piper," he said, softly, "I've got to go. They're calling."

Piper didn't turn around from where she was mixing cookie dough at the counter. "So go," she said, "I know they need you."

Leo gave his wife one last sad look before orbing out to do his duty.

Piper continued to mix the batter as hard as she could. Willing herself not to cry. After spending so much time with Leo tonight in a way that they had done together hundreds of times as a family, she was reminded of exactly what she was missing when he left again.

After orbing back to P3 and collapsing on his couch-cum-bed Chris slept fitfully and woke up feeling almost more tired than he had before he had fallen asleep. He sat up and rubbed his eyes and tried to not think about that "family dinner" at the manor. He needed to concentrate on defeating as many demons as possible. Protecting Wyatt was the only thing that mattered. As long as his emotions weren't affecting his work, he didn't need to think about them. The only problem was that they were affecting his work. Damn it. Everyone knew that your emotions and your powers were connected. Until he got control of himself or got that potion, he would be in for a rough time.

Chris rolled to his feet and strode over to his desk. He could at least get some research done. Chris jerked to a stop when he saw the strange box on his desk. He could feel it from here. He was surprised he had been able to fall asleep with it in the room; the thing just exuded Dark Magic. Cautiously Chris started to make his way forwards; he needed to be careful – he didn't know what this thing was, who it came from, or what it would do to him if he got too close or he touched it. Chris let a tendril of his magic out to caress the box, probing it and exploring it. It was much safer, though not exactly safe, to use magic to examine the thing instead of his hands.

Touching just the edge of the box with his magic, he didn't exactly feel pain, but he knew the box wasn't benign either. Deciding to chance it, he delved deeper with his magic. And then he felt it. There was something in there that was calling out to him. Chris reached out a hand before he even knew what he was doing. His fingertips were just hovering over the box when a loud crash from outside the room and a great deal of inventive swearing brought him out of the trance. He let out a breath. God damn that thing was dangerous. He resolved not to touch it until he learned a lot more about it. Books first, he resolved, after that then he could mess around with the Dark Magic Box to his heart's content.

He looked up as he heard another thump. Maybe that was Jack, coming in to set up for the night. He looked at his watch and frowned; it was a little bit too early to be setting up for the night, but Chris shrugged and started out into the main bar area to see if he could help out. He didn't really want to deal with the box now. Doing something besides demon stuff was just what he needed right now.

Opening the door Chris realized he should have gone with his instincts to be suspicious. There must have been twenty demons out in the main bar area. Shit, he thought, I can't take on this many right now and get all of them without all my powers. Leave just one alive and the whole Underworld will know that the Charmed Ones' Whitelighter was not exactly what he seemed to be. Before he could do anything else, an energy blast from the biggest demon threw Chris back into P3's office.

"Well, well. Hello, Little Whitelighter," the demon said, "what do we have here. All alone without protection? Well I guess this will be easier than I thought." He gestured to someone behind him and a Darklighter Chris had failed to notice at first entered the room and closed the door behind him.

Chris looked up at the demon from his prone position on the floor, rage coursing through his veins. "Hardly," he hissed, flicking a hand at an athame sitting on his on his desk so it flew straight at the Darklighter, impaling him in the heart and turning him to ash instantly.

The demon looked at him in surprise, "you shouldn't be able to do that," he said, advancing on the Witchlighter still on the floor, "how in the Underworld did you do that?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out," Chris replied, orbing behind the demon and blasting him with the molecular combustion power he had inherited from his mother. The demon stumbled forward, falling onto his knees, but he didn't seem anything more than a little scorched.

"Crap," Chris said succinctly.

"Not very good at that are you?" the demon asked, tossing his blond hair out of his eyes, "guess I won't need my friends after all."

No, Chris reflected, he wasn't very good at that; not even in the future when his emotions hadn't been wreaking havoc with his powers, but still, it should have worked better than it had. This guy didn't look that powerful and the blast should have killed him. He needed to get his powers fixed. Stat. Then the second part of the what the demon had said filtered through is mind. "Where are your buddies," he asked, almost conversationally.

"Oh, they're waiting for me," the demon replied, smirking as he walked towards Chris again, "I wanted to do this without their help – only Charlus, the darklighter you killed, would have shared in my glory. But I suppose I can bring you back to Lord Vikron myself. More glory for me."

"Oh, sounds like a plan," Chris said, leaping forward and plunging an athame deep into the demon's chest, "or not."

As the demon crumbled to ash beside him Chris flipped the athame and tucked it back into the holster hidden under his sleeve. Sneaking over to the door he cracked it open a little and peeked through. All the demons were just sitting there looking a bit bored. Actually, they were sitting there, drinking Piper's booze, and looking a bit bored. Morons, Chris thought scathingly, well time to go get the Charmed Ones. He sighed an orbed out, never noticing that, at some point during the fight, he had picked up the mysterious box from his desk.

Author's Note: So, I hope you all enjoyed that chapter. Hopefully it didn't have many mistakes – I wanted to get it posted quickly and didn't do as thorough a job proof-reading as I maybe should have. Anyway, Things should be, hopefully, picking up from here on out. I just want to let you all know that the extra powers Chris has actually do have something to do with the story – Chris won't just randomly be EpicPowers!Chris – though I do like EpicPowers!Chris. He'll have more powers than he had in the show, but he won't be All Powerful and he won't just have extra powers with no real explanation. There is a method to my madness. Erm, anyway, sorry about the major delay on this chapter; I have no excuse. I'm just lazy. And I can't promise that the next chapter will be more timely; all I can tell you is that I'll never abandon this story and that at some point in the nebulous and amorphous future, the story will be completed. Anyway, I'm graduating from college in May (provided I don't fail Oceanography), so I hope to have another update before that happens (but no promises).

REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! If you do, maybe I'll be motivated to update before the world ends in December!