Sword and the City Rewrite (Part VII)
Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or any of the characters… although, I really wish I did own at least a certain slightly neurotic, but charmingly adorable future Whitelighter. Unfortunately they belong to someone else. So does the episode Sword and the City.
Author's Note: This was a little wild hare of mine… and I just had to get it out. The episode Sword and the City originally ran in Season 6 of Charmed… one of only two episodes that season that didn't have Chris in it. I figured, there must have been some reason for it, right? Anyway, here's my altered version… Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this so far. It's really encouraging!
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"Ow," Paige complains softly from the chair she is laying on in the Manor's conservatory. Leo is crouched next to her while nearby Phoebe is already trying to scry for Piper again.
"Feeling any better?" Leo asks Paige.
"No, I'm pretty sure 'ow' signifies that I am not in fact feeling any better," Paige grumbles as she sits up, "I'm getting tired of this whole soul separating from my body thing. It's getting to be a disturbing pattern."
"It was pretty close too, your souls were getting ready to move on," Leo says.
"Move on to where exactly?" Paige asks slyly.
Leo glances at her, "Nice try."
Paige shrugs in the manner of a girl who can't be blamed for trying.
Phoebe lets out a breath, "I can not believe Piper. Did you see that look in her eyes?"
"Hey, at least it looked like she was having fun for once," Paige offers optimistically.
"Find her yet?" Leo asks.
"No, nothing," Phoebe responds.
"Alright, keep trying. Just like last time, they can't do anything until they resurface," Leo says.
Paige rubs her temples, "Yeah, unless Mordaunt wants her to help him rule the underworld."
"There's gotta be another way to get her out of this," Phoebe says.
"I just wish we could get Chris back here. If he's the next King Arthur… and we need to separate Piper from the sword, what better way than to have the person she's supposed to give it to take it?" Paige questions.
Wyatt gurgles from the playpen, causing Phoebe to get an idea and she looks towards the other two adults in the room. "Leo… you said the ultimate power on earth right? We can't find Chris, but, well… what about Wyatt? His birth was prophesied, the Twice-Blessed child and all, he's a pretty powerful little tyke, could he…?"
"Oh, yeah, that'd be a brilliant idea, Phoebe," Paige snipes, "Take the sword that is turning Piper evil and give it to the two year old so that he becomes evil. Nice." The redhead rolls her eyes and shouts, "Chris!" Whether he responds or not at least it makes her feel better to try to draw him back to the Manor again.
Phoebe lets out an exasperated sigh, "Well, we don't know who Chris is Paige, he may not even be born yet, and after the look on his face this morning, I don't think he had any interest in wielding Excalibur. Besides, he's not answering us. You've been trying to call him. He doesn't want to come back." Phoebe looks towards Wyatt again, "We've got to do something." A pained groan from Leo snaps Phoebe's attention towards him, "What's the matter?"
"It's Piper, she's hurt," Leo answers through gritted teeth.
The crystal in Phoebe's hand drops, pointed to a spot on the map. Phoebe gets up, "Harding Park, let's go."
Paige gets up as well, walking over to the playpen, "I got Wyatt."
With Paige offering to stay with Piper and Leo's son, Phoebe and Leo orb away.
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Mordaunt lowers Piper to the ground in Harding Park, leaning over the mortally wounded witch. "Don't worry, it'll all be over soon. Once they come for you, I'll go for him." He smiles cruelly at Piper, lifting the sword so that she can see it.
Chris orbs in, moving towards Mordaunt and his mother. The sword sings softly, Mordaunt frowns at the blade noticing the strange pull that it has for a moment. Mordaunt looks towards Chris, having expected someone else. As he does, those that he had expected orb in behind Chris: Leo and Phoebe. The man's hand tightens around the blade held in his hand and he inclines his head at Chris, Phoebe and Leo. The evil man smiles, disappears and leaves Piper on the ground.
Phoebe gestures frantically at Leo, "Hurry, hurry."
Leo brushes past Phoebe and Chris, dropping quickly to his wife's side to heal her.
"Where did you run off to, Your Majesty?" Phoebe asks Chris.
"Don't call me that! I'm not even bor…" Chris just shakes his head, moving away from Phoebe towards his parents, unable to keep the worry from his voice, "Is she okay? She's gonna be okay right?" Never mind that if she wasn't okay, he wouldn't be standing there any more. He'd have faded into nothing. "What's taking so long?"
Leo doesn't answer as the golden glow springs to his hands and begins to repair Piper's wounds. Piper gasps as she opens her eyes and places her hands where the wound was. There's no longer any evidence of it. She looks up at Leo, then at Chris and Phoebe standing behind him, "That crazy maniac thinks the sword is meant for the son of a Charmed One… where's Wyatt?"
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Mordaunt appears in the Conservatory of the Manor, intent on destroying his competition. Brandishing the legendary blade, Mordaunt crosses towards the playpen, "My apologies, King Wyatt. I guess it just wasn't meant to be."
The man plunges the sword downwards into the lumpy blanket that rests in the playpen. It didn't feel like he had expected it to feel, certainly not the way it had when he had used it to slice through the child's mother. Narrowing his eyes, the man lifts the bundle up, discovering that it is just a teddy bear wrapped in a blanket. Angrily the man shouts, "What!"
Paige orbs in on the other side of the room holding Wyatt, "Ohh, and that's his favorite teddy bear."
Piper, Phoebe, Leo, and Chris orb in. Piper takes Wyatt from Paige, glaring towards the man that had just attempted to murder her son.
"Bet you didn't expect this when you got up this morning," Piper says, turning Mordaunt's earlier words back on him.
Mordaunt smirks, "But I've still got Excalibur."
"Not for long," Phoebe says.
Leo nods towards Chris, "Go for it, Chris."
Chris raises his eyebrows at Leo, looks once at Wyatt held in his mother's arms and then turns to look at the sword held in Mordaunt's hands. Holding his hand out towards the blade, Chris calmly tries to call it to him, "Excalibur." The sword sings as it jerks away from Mordaunt and sails into Chris's waiting hand. The young man moistens his lips, swallowing down the nervousness over the fact that it had actually worked. The resolve he had found earlier still remains, overshadowing the apprehension of finding himself in possession of Excalibur once again.
The golden glow encased the sword for a second time as the song rang through the room so that even Mordaunt and the sisters could hear it. Chris sets his mouth in a grim line, adjusting the blade in his hand without even looking at it. It was true that he didn't want it, but destiny doesn't always ask what the recipients want for themselves. If this helps keep Wyatt from turning into an evil tyrant, then he is still accomplishing what he came here to do. As usual, his thoughts weren't about himself, but for those that he cared about. His family.
Mordaunt gapes, completely taken aback and looking at his empty hand that had only a moment before held the sword. "But… but…" he lifts his eyes to look at the young man holding the sword. Not the infant being held by Piper. "How is that possible? You, you're a grown man, you can't be the son of a Charmed One… you can't be her son."
"Can't I?" Chris asks quietly, hearing the soft intakes of breath from his family behind him. Piper's muted gasp, though audibly the quietest is the loudest in his ears. "You're perfectly right though. I'm not born yet. I'm not even conceived yet. But that's the funny thing about time travel…"
Mordaunt's eyes widen and he continues to stare at the dark-haired young man in shock. Authur was blond. Arthur was blond! He looks from the dark-haired young man to Wyatt and his brow creases in confusion. "How… but…"
"You shouldn't mess with my family," Chris says, releasing the sword and directing it towards the man with telekinesis. Mordaunt starts to take a step back, breaking his frozen-in-shock stance, but it is too late. Excalibur plunges into the man who had tried to steal it from its rightful owner and with a scream he explodes and is vanquished. The sword drops to the floor.
Piper hands Wyatt off to Leo, the first of the sisters to break free of the shocking revelation that Chris is a part of their family. She doesn't say anything at first, walking past the young man from the future to grab the sword. Then, looking towards Chris as if seeing him in a different light, though not entirely convinced yet, she says, "Well, then, until you are born, we'll just keep this someplace safe until your present self catches up with your future self, hmm?" Lifting Excalibur from the ground, Piper carries it over to the stone and pushes the blade back into it.
Phoebe whispers quietly, still staring at their whitelighter from the future, "…wow." She too is looking at Chris in a whole new light and the realization of what's just taken place. "…wow…" she breathes under her breath. He had to be Piper and Leo's son. She could see it now, the undeniable resemblance to Piper, that he was a Whitelighter or rather, she realized now, half Whitelighter. There was no way to deny that Chris was a Halliwell now. Next to her, Phoebe could see Paige reaching the same conclusions. And on her other side, Leo holding Wyatt with an astonished look that spoke volumes of how completely pole-axed he was. The Elder's green eyes, Chris's eyes, Phoebe noted were wide.
"You've got some serious explaining to do Mister," Piper says somewhat sharply to Chris.
Chris swallows hard, looking ready to orb out quickly to avoid the questions. To avoid the sudden urge to wrap his mother in a hug and just blurt out everything. He wants to apologize to her, to actually have that reunion moment with a woman that had been dead since he was fourteen. But the other part of him, the part that had been forced to take over so that he could survive holds him in check. That side tells him he should go before he risks changing more than he already has… but everything has already been turned on its head. Before he can orb out, Piper grabs onto his arm.
"Ah, ah, ah. Not this time, buddy," Piper says. This time her tone is a bit gentler, as if subconsciously she too is noticing the family resemblance in him. Something of her own features, of Leo's eyes, of the small mole on the side of his nose that reminded her of Prue. She is still trying to deny it. No child of hers would behave in such a way, so manipulative of his own family, so secretive. Piper turns to Paige, "Paige, do you think you could orb this into the attic?"
Paige finally gives a start. Piper's question had pulled her out of her own analyzing of events. "Absolutely." The sword and the stone orb out of the conservatory.
"Away from any furniture," Piper adds belatedly. Everyone hears the crash from upstairs.
Paige winces, "Sorry."
Piper sighs, "Don't worry, I'll just add it to my list. Now, Chris… would you care to explain?"
"All I can say is that I can't explain any more right now, not yet," Chris says as the unspoken 'mom' hung in the air. Chris looks at her, the inner turmoil shining in eyes that are temporarily more blue than green, "There are future consequences. I know you hate when I say that, but it's true… and… I need to finish working this out in my head." He looks up at the ceiling, towards the attic where he knows Excalibur is now. "I really need to finish working things out in my head. I… I'm sorry."
The apology takes them all aback, particularly Piper, who isn't used to hearing apologies come out of his mouth. Chris looks towards Wyatt, then to the woman holding his arm that appears in painful denial that he is her son, that she can possibly be related to him. They must all hate him. Pain gnaws at his heart and he clenches his teeth together, as he looks down at Piper's searching chocolate brown eyes. No matter what he says, it still won't save her. He'll still have to return to a future without her, without his family. Impulsively he leans forward and gives her a kiss on the cheek, unable to stop himself. "I promise I'll come back and explain what I can. You have my word. But I really need to be alone to try to sort this all out again before I can talk. I'm sorry..." Again the word 'mom' hangs unspoken in the air after his words.
Piper releases his hand and Chris immediately orbs away.
Phoebe watched him go and put a hand to her heart, "He's so sad… and he loves you Piper, but it makes him painfully sad. I felt that before he left. He must have taken that Empath Blocking Potion that he gave to the two of you, I'm almost sure of it, but his emotions are so strong now that they over power it."
Paige blinks and lamely starts to question the conclusion that everyone has begun to come to, "…you don't think that he's…"
"Piper and Leo's son," Phoebe says in a voice that sounds certain, "Mordaunt said 'the son of a Charmed One' and it would explain a lot of things. Why he can't heal. He's only half-whitelighter. How he knows so much about the house. About us. Why he came back to save Wyatt from some evil coming after him… if Wyatt is his big brother… no one except family would care that much. Don't you see the resemblance?"
"No," Piper says softly, but trying to be firm about her denial. A beat before she adds, far less convincingly, "…no." She knew. In her heart she knew. Her hand lifts to her cheek where Chris had kissed it before he had left and she feels tears well up in her eyes. Her other hand moves of its own accord to rest over her stomach. She looks towards Leo. "But we're not together any more. How could he…? Leo? He split us up to begin with."
Leo looks at Wyatt, then at Piper, "I don't know Piper… but if he is our son, then he's risked his own existence by some of the things he's done. I've made some very bad misjudgments against him. We all have…"
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Author's Note: So, what do ya'll think of that? Now they know Chris is their son and that the sword is meant for him. Next Chapter: a heart-to-heart and wrapping this rewritten episode up! Thank you to everyone who has read this so far… and please, be kind to the author, send me a warm review to brighten my day!