Chapter twenty-one:
After a few days past, Chris found himself back in his make-shift apartment, angry for not having found any way to escape the underworld and get back to P3. When it came to demons, even when they were incredibly powerful, they usually made mistakes because they simply were not smart, or they let their anger lead them to their end. Wyatt however was a completely different story. He had the power and the brains, and he knew not to underestimate his little brother. Chris had exhausted all his options and there was simply no way out.
Wyatt had cast an anti-orbing spell on Chris' living space as well as the surrounding cave. Only demons could transport themselves in and out form that section of the underworld. Moreover, there was only one exit to the cave that led to other areas of the underworld, which at all times was guarded be at least ten of Wyatt's upper level demons. Also there was an alarm system, similar to the one his Aunt Paige had set up to detect demons. However, this one was designed to detect beings of good magic, and the alarm went off whenever Chris got within ten yards of the exit, making it impossible to at least take the demons by surprise.
As much as Chris considered trying to take them anyway, his better judgment kept him from doing so. Even if he managed to put up a good fight and perhaps at least incapacitate some of the demons, Wyatt would be alerted in no time and that would be the end of his escape attempt. Chris may have been powerful, but next to his brother, he was nothing. As Chris was angrily pacing, Wyatt orbed in to pay Chris one of his regular visits- to see if Chris had come to see his side of things.
"Hey little brother." Wyatt said, greeting Chris, pretending as if holding Chris against his will was completely normal. "Wyatt" Chris replied, not even looking his brother in the eye. "Everything is going smoothly with our plans," Wyatt continued ignoring the brush-off Chris was giving him. "In no time the entire world will be ours. We will be in control of everything." Chris finally decided to address his brother. "This is your twisted plan, but you know all the power in the world won't fill the whole where your heart used to be." Wyatt simply laughed off the comment. "Oh… my feelings are so hurt." he scoffed.
"By the way I thought you would want to know that in addition to putting some of my own time in I have one of my best recruits out looking for our cousin and that pathetic band of witches you gathered. It wont be long before they are located and then the senator can be eliminated and the witches punished for their interference." Wyatt was acting as if they were merely having small talk and it angered Chris, but he refused to let his brother provoke him. "I don't think so Wy, they are well cloaked. It will be a long while if not forever before you find them." Chris refuted. "Oh I will find them sooner or later." Wyatt declared. "More like later" Chris answered "…and we also know eventually I will find a way out of here. I guess we will just have to see which happens first."
"Oh Chris…Chris …Chris you know you cannot beat me, you have no choice but to join me." Wyatt answered not at all impressed with his brother's confidence. "You know Wy, when it comes to you versus me, you may be more powerful, but this is not just a battle between us, it is between good and evil, and good will win every time." Chris shot back. "Well there you go again with the good and evil crap. What you need to see is the only relevant thing here is power and how much we can gain." Wyatt insisted. "You really are twisted Wyatt, call it whatever you want, but craving power is selfish, and selfishness is the root of all evil." Chris was simply appalled by just how lost his brother was. "Whatever, Chris. You an call me whatever you want but if you insist on challenging me your so-called good will not prevail." Wyatt confidently declared. "Yes Wyatt it will, and you know why, because we are both leaders and although both fear and love may inspire loyalty only one keeps it from waning, and it isn't the one you have."
"Oh little brother you have way too much confidence in your allies. Besides it wont matter how loyal they are if I find them and kill them while you are down here and powerless to stop it." Wyatt spewed. "Unless I escape first." Chris shot back. "We'll see" Wyatt proclaimed before orbing out. "Right we will see." Chris said to himself. He simply refused to let his brother get the better of him.
Over the next couple of weeks it was almost as if the two brothers were racing each other, each intent on their cause. Wyatt was hoping desperately that Bianca would come through for him and locate Prue and the others, he himself had been rather busy with securing his political power to put much time in himself, but he figured sooner or later he would mage to find them. Chris meanwhile kept himself alert at all time hoping to get an escape opportunity, without much success. He was relieved however that Wyatt had not yet found Prue and the others. Bianca had kept him updated on her supposed search for the witches as for weeks Wyatt had left the search solely in her hands. Today though, she would have to give Chris bad news.
After speaking with Wyatt, Bianca immediately sought Chris out to tell him what Wyatt had said. "He says that he is sick of waiting for me to come through for him in the search and that he is assigning several other of his best demons to search as well. Chris I can no longer put him off with my deception." Bianca told him. She truly felt bad about the situation. Over the past few weeks she had started to truly think of Chris as a friend, although she would not admit it to him. What was more though is that she liked the way it made her feel to finally be doing something good for once.
"He also plans to start searching himself." She told him gravely. Chris knew that was really bad news. Wyatt was the powerful being alive and with his mind to it he would eventually break the magical cloak he and the others had cast over P3."Dammit" Chris spat under his breath before putting his head in his hands in defeat. "You cannot give up Chris." Bianca urged him. "He hasn't found them yet." Chris looked up surprised by how invested she seemed. "Dare I say it but you actually sound good." He told her.
Having displayed a bit of vulnerability Bianca immediately changed her demeanor. "Don't push it." She told him. "What matters most to me is looking out for number one." Chris could see through her facade. "I don't think I believe that anymore." he muttered looking her straight in the face. Their eyes stayed locked for several moments before Bianca finally broke the silence. "Well I need to go. Besides we don't want Wyatt or any of his demons to see us together." She told him. "Right" he said and with that she shimmered out, laving Chris alone in his own head, dreading what could happen next.
Back at P3, the group of witches had been lying low, as Wyatt had halted much of his supernatural action to pay attention to politics. They all were beginning to feel defeated however. Even though they had saved many lives during Wyatt's initial attacks on the city, and had thwarted his attempt to assassinate the senator, overall they had not really hindered Wyatt's plan to take over.
Prue herself was especially in bad spirits because she could not help but think of Chris almost all the time. It had been almost two months since Chris had given himself up to Wyatt. All of her attempts to locate Chris also had been unsuccessful, and it was clear that he probably would not find a way to escape himself after all the time had passed. Prue simply hated to imagine what Chris must be going through. She knew Wyatt would probably not physically hurt Chris, but she also knew that Wyatt could still hurt his brother in other ways. Hell, Prue knew that it hurt Chris just to see Wyatt. Before everything started going down Chris always avoided Wyatt as if his life depended on it. Prue knew exactly how it felt too, facing Wyatt always brought up so much pain.
She was now in the back office alone trying hopelessly to scry for Chris for the umpteenth time, even though it hadn't worked yet and she knew that it wouldn't. She needed to be doing something however and since they were out of ideas, she simply continued to scry. In the middle of another fruitless attempt, Leo orbed in with a rather concerned look on his face, immediately grabbing her attention.
"What is it?" She asked him. "Myself and the other elders, over the past view days have begun sensing something rather disturbing, although our foresight is rather clouded. Something bad is going to happen and we suspect that Wyatt is close to locating you all here." Such news was just the last thing Prue wanted to hear. "Well, what should we do," she asked. "Well, me and all the elders think it is best that we set up a backup base to move to in case Wyatt does attack." "Fine," Prue agreed "Let's do it."