Disclaimer: Blah blah. Not mine!
Chapter Sixteen: A Greater Good
6:05
Twenty three years exactly since the last time Leo saw Gideon. Twenty three years for any latent grief or anger to seep out of him as he mellowed further with old age. He should be able to remember that time with some sense of removal. He expect that much from himself at least. However, here, staring at the man, after witnessing everything that he had caused... it was almost too much.
Gideon took a slow step forward, sensing the tension in the air, head tilted in that concerned way he always used to, "Leo..."
"Stop." Leo bit out the word, hand wrapped so tightly around the door handle he could barely feel his fingers anymore. He doubted his expression was any less tense, and probably more than a little alarming, if Gideon's sudden change in posture said anything. Leo let him stand there in confusion as he collected himself, fist clenched.
"Leo if-"
"Don't. Talk." Leo cut him off again, the white room dimming with his rage, "Don't move. Don't talk. Don't breathe."
Gideon was no fool, he paused, shifting his feet cautiously to compensate for the occasional tremor the room let out. That was the thing about the Underworld and Overworld, they didn't obey the laws of physics as the normal world did. They were pure expressions of purpose. They were meant to reflect its occupants as they changed. If there were fewer members, rooms or caves just simply faded off into nothing.
Or they were supposed to.
When they had closed the Overworld to keep Wyatt from melding it together with the other two planes, it had frozen it in time at that exact moment, right after the majority of the Elders had died, before the plane could change and shrink their influence and power. With only the two of them to maintain it, the realm had become... unstable at best. The slightest heightened emotion could do irreparable damage.
It hadn't been a problem before, but now... when Gideon looked at Leo, he had a feeling that would change.
"You need to calm yourself, Leo, remember our pact? This will gain us nothing!" Gideon stepped up the first stair, hand held out imploringly. The room trembled again, as Leo's glare strengthened. Gideon looked back down the hall, watching the distant end skew and slant oddly, the effects of Leo's temper already showing in the architecture.
"Our pact?" Leo said coldly, disbelieving.
Gideon stared, suspicious, "... It was your idea, was it not? To maintain the stability. To keep the planes from collapsing together." He searched for some sign of recognition and found nothing, "Emotions, Leo! The slightest provocation could bring this place down around us, we did what was necessary."
Leo's grip slackened slightly around the door's handle as he realized what Gideon meant. The room stopped shaking as he did, the end of the hall stopping at a 45 degree angle, making it look like some demented Escher painting.
"We cut off our emotions..." Leo said numbly, sinking in the connotations. Sitting up here for years, heartless to nothing but the hope that they could prevent change in their own little empty world. He'd intentionally cut of the part of him that would care about his sons, in favor of... this?
"Yes," Gideon smiled calmly, looking relieved that Leo had regained his senses, "For the greater good. Now, Leo, are you sure you're alright? I'm not sure how they summoned you out of here, but you look... changed."
Leo didn't move, staring down at the only man he had truly despised in his entire existence. He hated this man more than any demon in the world, it was their nature after all, they were evil. Gideon... he didn't just betray every bit of trust any of the other Elders had put in him, he had betrayed everything that was good. He hated this man.
Yet, looking at him, the only thing he could think of, was the fact that he, Leo, even an alternate Leo, had knowingly trapped himself in a plane for all eternity with this very man. He had been catching glimpses of this old self from his time here and before. The small hints he could get out of Chris. Out of some morbid curiosity, he wanted to know more, just to try to piece the jagged picture of himself back together into something recognizable.
"Sorry, old..." Leo swallowed around the word, "friend... I think they did something while I was down there, I can't remember, but this seems familiar. I don't understand. Could you talk me through it?" He wrung out every single drop of acting he had, almost reluctantly.
Gideon quirked an eyebrow slightly, concerned, but thankfully didn't question. "You did a noble thing all those years ago, when you volunteered first. You knew that in order for us to make knowledgeable and logical decisions, we couldn't be clouded. We were the last! We had to hold the world together!" He waved his hands emphatically, obviously still proud. "Besides, walling away your emotions wasn't such a chore after you gave up that foolish attempt at being a father. You were as lucky to be as detached as you were, or you likely would have been dragged down beyond repair by those two."
The two Elders were nearly deafened by the sound of marble snapping, the walls and pillars creaking and groaning as the back portion of the hall literally broke away. Gideon stumbled in the quake, landing on the stairs crookedly, trying to peer around to see the damage through the cloud of dust. As it filtered away, he gaped at the damage.
Where the end of the grand hall had been, there was only the jagged edges of the walls and floor and then a steep drop off into... nothing. A stretching black void was beyond it, empty and hopeless. Gideon whipped back around, looking back to the cause of the disturbance.
"Leo," Gideon stood up and stumbled over to the man, meeting only a glare and clenched fists. "They did something to you, didn't they? You must come to your senses, remember your purpose! We have to survive through this time to continue on to another. Those two have done nothing but hinder the greater good, don't waver because of their word."
Leo wordlessly took a step forward, making Gideon shy back an equal step. "You think my boys, my sons, don't do anything for good? How can you dare say that when you are sitting up here, hiding, while the world is ending?"
Leo took another step forward, making Gideon's posture a little more frantic, but he managed not to lose any more ground, "It's a spell, Leo, you can fight this! You know Wyatt is evil, take a look at the world! And Christopher has been nothing by a passive participant in this all. He had the opportunity to end this early and has had several since then and he failed."
"You're seriously trying to blame Chris because he didn't kill his brother?" The walls cracked again.
"No!" Anger bubbled around Gideon's choke hold on his temper, some of the cracks in the walls belonging to him now, "I blame him for not killing a great evil. It is his duty as a witch. He forced us into this corner with his decisions, leaving us only with the option to retain this plane and hope the next generation is not as foolish as this one!"
Gideon barely saw Leo lunge for him, but he was well aware of it once he hit the stairs, Leo's knee in his stomach and his back arced into the jagged steps. He flexed his fingers on reflex but stopped himself from using magic, knowing that the room was so unstable now that it would surely collapse if any more magic was added into the mix.
Leo loomed above him, a menacing picture cut against the jagged horizon of the hallway and the black oblivion behind it. What surprised Gideon was his expression. He was no longer angry, but instead he was showing a look of contentment... somehow that was scarier.
"I'm going to make this clear, Gideon. I do not blame Chris or Wyatt for any of this." Leo said calmly, "I blame myself. I blame myself for not being there for my kids, for thinking that anything was more important than them. I blame myself for not seeing, or believing, or for any self deception to make me think that something wasn't wrong here. I blame myself for not being down these past years, shoulder to shoulder with my family, trying to find any solution better than run and hide."
Leo stopped only for a moment, to see if any of this had sunk in, "But what I blame myself most for? It's that I didn't see you for who you really were back at the start. A bitter, hurt, old man who has twisted the idea of good so far in his mind only to distract himself from his many failures. Just because you can't stop your own son from going evil you try to kill someone else's."
Gideon went rigid, eyes flying open in realization. "How..."
"Did you know Chris has been helping innocents for years? Innocents who hate him for what he is and he does it anyway?" Leo dug the words in further, "Did you know he hasn't been 'passive' this whole time but he's actually been fighting for a way to fix this without any help other than who he can turn from Wyatt's army? Did you know he found a way to go to the past, suffered through suspicion and outright hate from his own family, fought demon after demon, and almost made himself not exist trying to keep Wyatt from turning evil?"
"That's impossible!" Gideon broke in, "that boy was evil from the start!"
Leo smiled with pride, "and he succeeded."
Gideon couldn't find any words.
"He helped us stop you from kidnapping his brother..." Leo's expression went dark, "and you killed him for it. Wyatt has grown up without a hint of evil in him. I'm from that timeline, Gideon, a world where my boys have dedicated their lives to helping people."
"Impossible..." Gideon breathed. Leo happily ignored him.
"That world? It exists in spite of us. We owe the greater good to my boys, a handful of Valkyrie, and a Phoenix Assassin of all things. Even the Wyatt of this time knew better than to kill his own brother." Leo laughed humorlessly, "They are all far better people than you could ever be."
With that, Leo stood back up, leaving Gideon sprawled on the stairs, stunned.
"Now, you're either going to help me unlock this place or you can take the walk down the hallway and see how far of a drop it is at the end." Leo shrugged, "Your choice."
6:30
"Oh! Cra-!" AJ skittered backwards when she rounded the next corner, arms pinwheeling for a split second until she clamped them over her mouth. Wyatt took the hint immediately, flagging the rest of the malnourished stragglers back before he insinuated himself in front of AJ, Excalibur drawn. He slid quietly down the wall next to her, angling the sword up so he could see around the corner in the reflection. Sure enough, down the hallway was what had to be a whole troop of demons lining the hall, two on each side, thirteen rows deep, all mid level demons at least, as far as he could tell.
Wyatt frowned at it, before quietly dropping the sword to a more ready position. 26 Demons at once? Yeah he could do that, if he had Chris with him and they somehow managed to transport the entire attic's worth of backup vanquishing potions. Oh, and if he didn't have to worry about using his stash of evil overlord powers which he didn't really know how to use and didn't want to in the first place. Theoretically the hallway should give him an advantage, but the damn thing was so wide it was practically a room, plus the distance between the guards and them was practically the length of a house so surprise attacks were out too.
Thankfully, because of that distance, the guards seemed unaware of them at least. Wyatt sunk farther, looking over at AJ who had huddled next to him, knees to her chest, with the funniest look on her face. It wasn't quite fear, nor confusion, it was an unholy mix of the two.
"Yeah, so that seems like a bad hallway to go down. Is there another way out of here?" He spoke lowly, keeping an optimistic look on his face so the emaciated tween witches following him wouldn't worry. He smiled quickly at them, which seemed to make them look even more uneasy, before he looked back over at AJ for an answer. She, however, had different ideas.
"Is that the real Excalibur?" She hissed, pointing at the sword in his hands.
Wyatt opened his mouth to say yes like usual before he realized that, maybe, that was a very bad idea. Only one person was allowed to carry Excalibur: him, and if he was trying to pretend to be someone else, that wouldn't gel. He really didn't want to break what little trust he had with these kids and he most definitely didn't want to go back to being fake evil again, it just felt too... easy.
So he tried to lie. Unfortunately all that came out was, "Uh... so why's this hallway so important?"
AJ's face twisted to an even more ridiculous proportion before she quietly sighed, "It's a choke point. All the dungeons, cells, and the guest room have only one way out. Here."
Wyatt nodded in understanding until that last one, "Guest room? Seriously?"
The hint of tired, bitten humor slipped right away at that, "It's his idea of a joke, I think," AJ shifted uncomfortably, "It's where Lord Wyatt puts his brother any time he catches him. He says he wants to be as accommodating as he can while still being... convincing. Sometimes I can hear the screams in my cell..."
Wyatt felt abruptly sick.
"That hallway," AJ pressed on, "It goes straight up into the sigil room. Makes it easier to bring us up there, I guess."
Despite his best judgment and at risk of having nothing but nightmares ever again, Wyatt sent her a questioning look. The only upside of this was that the kids were starting to seem amused at his lack of information and a few were full on giggling at him.
AJ just lifted up her arm showing what looked like an old scar, "Virgin Witch Blood. It's a component for finishing the sigil spell." She shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal, "Drained us nearly dry last time but there's more of us now so it shouldn't be as bad."
"-Holyshit...and yeah that's enough information for today." Wyatt lurched a little in his spot, held up a hand, and pointed back down the hallway to the previous bend they'd just come around. "Go and hide, I have to go kill something."
"Wait, you're going try to fight, you can't-"
Wyatt forcefully shook his head, half to tell her no and half to just get the images that were still lingering in his head out, "Uh-no. Go hide. I'll be fine. If you see anything demonic heading your way, run. I'll find you after. Be safe and for chrissakes don't let anyone bleed you over any evil alters."
Thankfully the kids didn't feel the need to argue much more, though AJ did give him a look that accurately described her distaste for his choice in strategies. He stayed there, hunched against the wall until they disappeared around the corner, not because of any stealth reasons, he simply didn't know if he would be able to stand up at that moment.
Slowly he pulled his arms close to him, hands still wrapped around the hilt of Excalibur for strength. He stayed that way for a second, just trying to stop the shaking in his limbs. He wasn't scared, he'd never been scared of a fight in his life, but the anger, guilt, and outright disgust at this whole world were enough to set him over that edge.
Wyatt pressed his hands against his brow, the sword's cool pommel pressed against his forehead, and tried to find his center. "Come on Wyatt." He urged himself, "This isn't you. This will never be you." Slowly his hands stopped shaking as he pulled on all the swordsmanship and wisdom being Excalibur's bearer had afforded him. "Raise some hell."
The disgust fueled the first two kills, the two demons going down without much of a fight, too distracted with his appearance to think of doing anything else but stare. The next string of kills was driven by the guilt, that he should have found some way to stop his alternate self somehow, that it shouldn't have been possible for him to be evil in the first place. By the fourth kill the demons had started fighting back after one cried imposter on him. They were wrong and right at the same time. By the sixth kill, he found some upper level demons who didn't fall quite as easy, as a matter of fact, this one in particular seemed entirely unaffected by the loss of his arm... that's when he tapped into the anger.
Wyatt rushed the demon, ramming Excalibur through his ribcage and straight through into the wall behind him, pinning him there uselessly. The rest of the demons took the opportunity and swarmed him, pulling him away from the sword and down the hall. At first he tried only using telekinesis, that, at least was a neutral power, he thought, but they just kept coming, and anger was feeding him in dangerous ways, the darker powers teasing the edges of his senses like flames.
"Hey!"
Wyatt whipped around at the sound even in the haze of battle and recognized AJ's form at the end of the hallway, waving her hands to catch the attention of a few of the demons intent on dog piling him. Wyatt turned on a heel to head them off but another couple managed to grab his arms.
"Run, you idiot!" He called, elbowing one of the demons and feeling the satisfying snap of bone.
AJ held her ground for a second, shifting from foot to foot nervously, waiting for the demon to come within a few paces of her. Then she dropped, hands hitting the stone floors with a resounding smack. The floor liquified in a second, and the demon sank into it to his shoulders only for the floor to solidify again around him as soon as the witch removed her hands and jumped back to her feet.
Wyatt had time enough to see AJ punt the demon's head like a football before he caught an energy ball to the chest and skidded halfway down the hallway. The next moments were nothing but a blur of teeth, claws, and magic, the dark flames taunting him with their power. He could clear this room in a second if he wanted to. Just a flick of the wrist and anything organic would be cinders. It would be so easy...
Another demon tried to jab a severed tusk (that used to belong to one of his demonic comrades, how thoughtful) straight into his heart but Wyatt caught the arm in time, spinning around and throwing the beast into the wall with a resounding thud. He continued the spin and found himself staring down a bloody athame. He didn't know what battle instincts told him to pause his usual counterstrike for half a second, but he was glad for it.
It was that half second that allowed him to trace the arm back to its owner, and found himself staring at a pair of familiar green eyes. Chris. It took a second longer to notice that he looked absolutely terrified.
"Chris?" He managed to get out in the din of the battle, not that he was sure his brother really heard him. As a matter of fact, his eyes had gone unfocused, his grip slackening on his athame until it dropped, and Chris started falling with it. Wyatt managed to grab him before he hit the ground and drag him to the wall for support in time to blast another demon away with a wave of telekinesis even as another one took his place, trying to drag him farther away from his brother.
To his credit, Chris was managing to keep upright, leaning heavily on the wall, both hands clutched in his bangs like he had one mother of a headache. Another demon tried to pull Wyatt away again and, in his distraction and anger, he shoved a black ball of flame into the demon's face. The demon soon dropped into a pile of ash, skin peeling away like burnt paper.
Wyatt lurched back, as if he could get space between him and that power. He felt the sensation of it singing in his veins, he couldn't let it happen again. He didn't notice the demon behind him until the thing screamed in pain, clutching at the place were Wyatt assumed some vital organ or another had been crushed with telekinesis.
"You're welcome." Chris remarked dryly behind him, wincing slightly and still slightly sagging against the wall.
"You gonna be alright?" Wyatt asked cautiously, scanning the ring of eight remaining demons who were now noticeably more cautious about taking a run at them. They were certainly puting up a good show, snapping and biting at the edges of Wyatt's reach.
Chris pushed himself up from the wall and rolled his shoulders tensely, ducking for a moment to retrieve the athame he'd dropped and flipping it over in his grip. "Yeah," He said tired, "Just as long as I don't look at you, I'll be fine."
"What? Why?" Wyatt frowned but didn't look back over his shoulder in fear that the demons would take advantage of the distraction. To his relief he heard Chris chuckle lightly.
"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to." Chris stepped in formation so his back was against Wyatt's, one hand holding an athame the other poised for telekinesis. The demons started looking increasingly nervous. "I've got your back, Wy."
Wyatt nodded even though Chris wouldn't be able to see it, the smirk was really more for intimidation purposes anyway, "Right back at ya."
The disadvantage of not looking at each other wasn't really a disadvantage at all, the demons found out. The brothers knew each other so well that they could fight together blindfolded. Even with the fact that Wyatt had never necessarily seen Chris fighting with an athame before, and with Wyatt only willing to use Telekinesis, it still fit into the program seamlessly.
First one to catch the demon disables him, a cut up the leg, couple broken bones, the second cleans up the mess, if the demon is of a high enough level where that doesn't necessarily do the whole job, you down them to the point where they can't do any harm and deal with them last. It's a whirlwind of confusion for any opponent, let alone thug guards like these.
They were nigh unbeatable.
By the time that Chris buried his athame up underneath the jaw of a demon who looked quite unfortunately like a purple Jay Leno and Wyatt was reducing another into a pile of goo, the last remaining demon decided he didn't want to play anymore and ran.
...right into Bianca.
"Ooh. Looks like you boys missed one." She smiled sweetly as the demon practically ran onto her athame and crumbled into a pile of sulfur. The gaggle of tweens behind her all gaped in awe at the scene, staring at the various piles of goo and dust on the floor like it was Christmas.
"Oh good, just what I need," Wyatt sighed, "Snarky Phoenix."
"Watch it Wyatt." Chris singsonged the words tiredly, once again digging the heels of his hands into his eyes like he was trying to get rid of a headache. Bianca smiled wryly before pointedly stepping over to Chris, running a light soothing hand over his forehead. Then the light clicked on in his head, in all the things with the evil world he'd forgotten they were dating, or at least that's what he'd come to assume. Assuming it and seeing it however, two entirely different things.
"Yeah, that's gonna be weird for a while..." Wyatt commented, feeling oddly like he was invading their privacy. Bianca smirked lightly at him before turning back to Chris, speaking to him in low tones Wyatt couldn't hear. He took the opportunity to turn back to the kids, scanning the heads for AJ, he found her lurking in the back of the pack. At first he was just happy to see that she hadn't gotten herself killed with her little distractionary tactics, but the look on her face wasn't anything particularly reassuring.
"Hey you," He called out jokingly to AJ, "next time I say run and scream from the demons like a little girl, you realize you should actually do that, right?"
AJ's frown didn't change, eyes seeming accusatory. She stepped forward in the crowd, hesitantly coming closer to him. Every single step seemed to take a drop of happiness from her, the desperation on her face taking over.
"AJ, you alright?" He asked cautiously.
"You're him, aren't you?" Then she just sunk, tears streaming down her face, hitting the floor heavily with her knees. "What sort of game is this?" She looked up at him briefly before flinching back down. "I can't do this anymore, I just can't. Just kill me already, I can't play these games." Her shoulders seemed to cave in around her and she fell forward, pressing her forehead to the ground and sobbing.
Wyatt was frozen, staring uselessly. The best he could work up was a halfhearted shake of the head. The kids behind her had frozen, eyes looking up at him like tiny deer chained to the train tracks, "I'm not..."
"Yes you are," AJ's voice broke, her fists clenched next to her temple, "You have Excalibur, you can't shapeshift that! I saw you use the black flame!" She sniffled wetly, "Don't give me hope and then take it away. I can't... I just can't...Don't put me back in that cell."
Wyatt shook his head again, staggering back a step. "I... why would anyone do that?"
Chris stepped up next to him, looking anywhere but at him, Wyatt could still see the lines of pain around his eyes slightly so he didn't press it. From the tilt of his head Wyatt knew he was talking to him. Chris gave him a tense smile, like the on the doctor gives you right before he tells you the test results, "On off days or special occasions," Chris snorted, "Lord Wyatt would pretend to let a block of prisoners go... and then he and a chosen squad would hunt them." Chris shrugged lightly, not mentioning that this was what he'd actually used to escape last time. Seeing it first hand... he could understand how AJ felt.
They let you far enough out you could see the sky again then they drag you right back in. It was torture. Chris stepped around him, giving a pat of reassurance on his shoulder as he passed even though he was still pointedly not looking at him. He knelt down in front of AJ and pulled on her arms so she'd look at him.
"AJ. Hey, AJ, just look at me for a second." Reluctantly she obeyed, looking absolutely miserable, "Do you remember me, you remember who I am? I used to come and visit you guys at magic school with my Aunt, remember?"
Weakly, AJ nodded, "You're his brother."
Chris sighed, the bitterness in his tone only halfway joking, "I have a name." AJ didn't seem all that amused by the joke, "Look, you know who I am, right? If he was Lord Wyatt, why in the hell would I be anywhere near him."
AJ considered this for a second before shaking her head vigorously, "No, no, I'm not falling for that. You could have turned finally. I heard you last time! I know what it sounds like when someone is close to breaking!"
All three of the adults reacted visibly to that statement. Wyatt staggered back again like he was punched, Bianca's crossed arms were suddenly crossed a little too tightly, fingers pressing white circles into her tan skin. Chris, well, he was busy trying to fight off the memory she'd called up, an intensely painful and entirely useless one. For some reason the memories just seemed so hard to push away when Wyatt was close by, just his presence served to reinforce them.
Chris took in a deep breath and let it hiss out, eyes pinched shut until it passed.
"Whatever," He finally mumbled out, inching his eyes back open to scan the crowd, "If you won't believe me... hey, Carter, come here for a second." The smallest boy in the back of the crowd froze instantly, only moving when his compatriots shoved him to the front.
"You're a telepath right?" The boy nodded slowly, "Do you know how to read for intentions yet?"
Again the boy nodded shyly, "Yeah but I gotta hold their hand..."
Chris smiled at him, "Good, I need you to get a read and tell AJ what you find, okay?" Intuitively the boy reached out for Chris's hand only to have him yank it out of his reach before he could. The boy jumped at the sudden motion, skittering back a few steps until Chris coaxed him back forward. "Sorry. No, believe me, you don't want to be in my head right now. Read Wyatt."
The boy's eyes immediately opened to full on saucer size.
"He won't hurt you, and if he does, I promise I will hold him down and you can draw whatever you want on his face. Alright?" Chris shoved the kid over, amused, tossing instructions over his shoulder at Wyatt, "Let the kid in. He's good."
It was the weirdest image Wyatt had ever seen, an oppressively short, dirty, emaciated, and likely orphaned witch child walked up to him on timid steps. He reached up and grabbed onto his fingers... and then it was like the lights came one behind his eyes. They became distant and close all at once, like they could see the universe in that one instant. There was a rush, the odd feeling of wind sweeping through Wyatt's senses, and then the kid let go.
Cheerfully he grinned and sent a little wave back to his friends, "Yeah, he's cool, guys!" Carter moved to leave before spinning on his heel to look back up at him, "Mister, I think you need a girlfriend." Then he hopped off to rejoin the pack.
Bianca was trying very, very hard to not laugh, but the mortified look on the elder Halliwell's face was absolutely priceless. Wyatt shook his head slowly and tossed up his arms, "I give up. Nothing good happens on this day. Chris, I believe you now, your birthday officially sucks. We should just build a bomb shelter and stay in it ever time it rolls around. You win."
For the first time since that morning, Chris managed to look him in the face with a smirk, "I dunno, I'm kind of finding it funny right about now." With that he climbed to his feet, gently taking AJ to stand with him. She sniffled a little, but they were fading.
"I don't understand." She said, looking between the three of them listlessly, "How..."
Chris shrugged hesitantly taking an experimental glance again over at Wyatt to see if the visions were leaving him alone at the moment. "You know anything about time travel?"
Wyatt snapped over to look at his brother in surprise. He'd heard his parents saying things about this when they'd left him to guard the fort way back earlier in the day, he hadn't actually considered... The group mostly shook their heads, except Carver who was nodding like it wasn't a big deal.
"Yeah, thought so," Chris sent a look for help back at Bianca who merely shrugged and nodded to her watch, "I came from this timeline, I went through all the stuff you guys have and everything you've heard. So I wanted to fix this. I went back to the past, and changed it so he never went evil. Understand?"
Chris could feel the stare of disbelief coming from his brother but he refused to look at him again until he'd finished the whole thing, this was hard enough to boil down as it was.
"So everything was going fine, no one's evil, you guys are all actually still at magic school in our version, then a warlock came and cast a spell that turned it back to this timeline and put us in it." Chris pointed illustratively, "Now we're going to fix it... again."
AJ stared at him, running a hand up and down her arm nervously, a little more of her typical dry incredulity creeping in, "Just like that?" Chris shrugged and nodded, "You promise?"
Wyatt broke in then, more sure of this than anything, "Yes."
Chris turned a smile to his brother for a second, before looking back to AJ.
"We promise."
A/N: Oh my holy hell readers. I swear I caught the plague. Good news is this chapter is super long so I hope that makes up for some of the wait. Good and/or bad news is there should only be about one more chapter and an Epilogue after this. Then maybe... seeequalage. If and when I do another story I will be writing four or five chapters ahead of time before I post anything just to make sure I don't change my mind on something big in the beginning and then kick myself for posting it.
Aaanyways, reviews, as always are love. They kept me coming back to this monster of a chapter even after it repeatedly kicked me in the teeth. I apologize for any typos. I usually wait till the next day to check for them because I can spot them better but I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer than I already have. Please, please, please, tell me what you think about some of the things in the chapter today, it might very well have an effect on what I do in the next. I'm kinda teetering on two options so. Yes.
Also everyone go thank the movie Ink for making me all creative again. You can watch it for free on Hulu it is awesomesauce and independent and deserves way much more love. I was listening to the soundtrack the whole time I was writing this.