Chapter Seventeen:
After having set Prue free Wyatt immediately brought his brother down to the underworld where he intended on keeping him. Unlike where he kept Prue though, Wyatt had set up a comfortable, homey looking prison for Chris. Wyatt had magically created a luxurious makeshift apartment, with all the comforts of home for Chris to stay in. The only problem: Chris was still a prisoner.
As soon as they had orbed to the underworld, apartment Wyatt began to address his brother. "This is where you will be staying, it is magically sealed so you will not be able to orb out. I will come by and visit as often as I can. If there is anything that you need that is not already here, just let me know and I will take care of it." Chris was not impressed. "Just because you are not keeping me in some dirty dank cell does not mean I am grateful. You can give me all the material things in the world, but it won't change what I think of you." Chris stared his brother down as he said those words.
"Don't worry I wasn't expecting any instant gratitude, but in time that will change. You will see what using power to help yourself is all about. In time you will not be worrying about pathetic innocents or personal gain. You will embrace what my kind of life can give you." Wyatt confidently made the speech truly believing what he was saying. "I wouldn't count on it." Chris retorted, but Wyatt just ignored his remark, before continuing to let Chris know the ground rules.
"If you wish you can leave this area, and go out into this corner of the underworld, which is heavily guarded by my best demons who are instructed to call me if you should try anything. I want you to come see how I run my territory and get to know some of my most loyal subjects, after all soon you will be ruling at my side. Until I know that you have seen my way of things you are restricted to this apartment, and the surrounding area, but by all means I want you to have everything you need. I am the ruler of the world, and as my younger brother you will be treated as royalty."
Chris just gave his brother a strange smile, before protesting. "Right, like royalty, except I am a prisoner." Wyatt did not like his brothers attitude. "One more thing Chris, you don't want to get me angry, or I will have to take it out on your pathetic little friends and family." Chris was clearly angered by Wyatt's threat. "If you hurt them, I will make you pay, remember that." Wyatt just laughed at his little brother's remark. "Whatever, I will be back later." And with that Wyatt orbed out.
After Wyatt left Chris decided to look around what was his new prison. Wyatt had certainly not held anything back. He had provided Chris with a huge entertainment system in the living room, A huge bedroom with a king size bed, and a luxurious kitchen with all the modern appliances, as well as a huge stock of all of Chris' favorite foods. Chris was really not surprised that Wyatt was trying to "buy" his affections, as in Wyatt's own twisted way he still cared about his little brother. After inspecting his apartment Chris went to check out the surrounding area in the underworld.
As Wyatt had informed him there was a whole hoard of demons in the lair surrounding his apartment that were to keep Chris from leaving. What Chris didn't expect was that this was Wyatt's main chamber where he conducted all his underworld business. Not long after Chris had come out to look around Wyatt showed up, and summoned his most trusted assistant, Granchus. Although Wyatt knew his brother was listening he continued to conduct his business as usual.
"I need your opinion on choosing an elite assassin to take care of one of California's senators who isn't too pleased with my control of the state. I gave him a chance to change his mind, but he has refused, so the situation has to be dealt with. Plus I don't want the murder to appear as if magic were involved, I need someone who does clean work." Granchus nodded at his leader. "I know just who you need. One of the Phoenix coven. She is great at what she does, and has never failed at a job." Wyatt seemed pleased, knowing who Granchus was referring to. "Perfect." he answered. "Bring her to me."
After hearing the conversation Chris was sickened by how cold his brother was, but more important, he was frustrated. He knew his brother was planning to kill an innocent man and there was nothing he could do about it. "I have to find a way to get out of here." He thought to himself, although he had no idea how he would manage it. Since Wyatt had finished his conversation he walked over to where Chris had stood listening to the exchange.
"Hello little brother. You will be glad to know that once a certain senator is taken care of I will have firm control over San Francisco and the state of California." Chris simply chose to ignore the statement. He was not in the mood to deal with his brother at the moment. "Whatever." Chris said shrugging his brother off. "I am going to go back to my glorified prison cell now." With that Chris headed back to the apartment that Wyatt had provided for him, hoping he could find a way to escape his prison.
Back at P3 Brian had retreated to the presently empty back stage area of the club. He sat there alone trying to figure out just how his life had changed so much in a matter of days. The sounds of foot steps eventually jolted him from his thoughts. He looked up to see the young witch Danielle walking over to sit beside him. "What are you thinking?" she asked him. There was a rather long silence before Brian responded to her question. "Just realizing how much my life has changed. I used to have a regular schedule, working the night shift at my job, coming home and going to sleep. Now me and my sisters are here, hiding from a world that has discovered and now fears magic. It's amazing how one being can turn our world upside-down." The young witch gave him a clear look of understanding. "Well with any luck eventually everything will change back, and life will be simple again. Until then we just have to fight. We can't let the source win." He looked up, it was hard for him to think that Wyatt Haliwell who was destined to be the most powerful good witch of all time had become the source of all evil.
"Right." Brian replied trying to sound a little more animated, he was not usually one to sit around and sulk. "I am going to go and check on my sisters and see how they are doing, want to come?" "Sure" Danielle answered and the pair walked into the clubs main room, to check on Brittany and Bridget.
Bridget was over in the corner with Prue trying to calm her down. "We need to try something else, there has to be a way to get Chris away from Wyatt." Prue exclaimed. Bridget had finally convinced her friend to take a short break from trying out different spells to rescue Chris. Prue however could not get her mind off of her cousin's predicament. "Relax Prue, we know that Wyatt is not going to hurt Chris, he wants his brother on his side. In time a solution will present itself. The last time you were like this you came up with one of your crazy plans and look how that turned out."
Prue face immediately fell after hearing her friends words "Don't you think I already know this is all my fault." Bridget immediately regretted what she said, she had not meant for it to come out that way. "I didn't mean that, I am just saying we shouldn't do anything rash, we need to be smart about this." Prue finally began to calm down, she did not want to worry her friend, especially after her plan had almost gotten them both killed.
It was then that Brian came over to see how they were doing, but before he could ask them anything Devon shimmered in. "He was rather surprised to see Prue because as far as he knew Wyatt was still holding her. "Prue your all right that's great." he said before asking where Chris was. "I have some information that might help us stop Wyatt." Brian was the first to answer the half-demon as the girls did not know what to say.
"Chris gave himself up to Wyatt so he would release Prue. We think Wyatt is holding him somewhere in the underworld." Devon was surprised by just how affected he was by the news, he had not thought that Chris was that important to him anymore. "Oh" he said not wanting to show too many emotions. "Well I came here to let you all know that there is a rumor going around down there that Wyatt is planning to eliminate one of California's senators, who seems to be unhappy with Wyatt's rise to power." Brian nodded at the information. "Well we need to stop it, any politician who opposes Wyatt is our ally, and we need to keep him around."
Prue agreed, happy that there was something she could do. "We'll go listen to the news, try and find out which of the senators it is that Wyatt is not all that happy with, then we'll try to locate the senator." "Good idea" Brian said "and I will go tell Leo what is going on and see what he wants to do." All glad they finally had some purpose, they each went there separate ways to each complete their own tasks.