Disclaimer: Blah blah. Not mine!
Long chapter. Consider it a two hour long finale.
Chapter Seventeen: You Don't Know
7:00
Slowly, carefully, Chris counted out his breathing. Four seconds in, hold, four seconds out, repeat. Listen to nothing but the silence of the empty hallway, look at nothing but the flashes of color on the inside of his eyelids, feel nothing but the floor beneath your feet and the wall at your back. In that spare moment, there was no pressure, no doom and gloom, no ticking clock. He needed that, just for a moment. It was skill of his, to find the one thread of order in all the chaos, one slip of sanity to cling onto. All he needed was a second of silence and everything would snap together.
Or he used to be able to it. He was out of practice. His second time around, demons or no, was considerably more peaceful, or at the very least, involved far less monumental snafus than the first. Now, when he tried to find that moment of peace, things kept sneaking back in. What ifs. What if this doesn't work? What if it does? How were they supposed to go on living after the fact, pretending that this didn't effect them? How was he supposed to live with these memories? How was Wyatt going to get over the fact that all it took was one kidnapping as a child to turn him batshit evil?
Chris growled inwardly, halting the thoughts, the growing crease in his brow seeming to intensify his headache. Stubbornly, he kept his eyes shut, curling his fingers against the wall. One, two, three, four. He needed clarity, just a moment...
He didn't have to see Bianca to know she was there, he also didn't have to look to know she had that worried look on her face.
"I'm fine." Chris breathed out, rolling his head back to hit the wall before he bothered opening his eyes. Bianca settled next to him, leaning on her shoulder, posture screaming disbelief.
"Sure you are." She commented lightly, though she didn't press.
"Is Wyatt almost done?"
"He's just making sure all the kids are well hidden," Bianca tossed a look down the hallway, still slightly messy from the earlier fight. Her expression softened a little, "It's good for him, them trusting him... He's worried, you know."
Chris nodded, knowing the question wasn't really a question. He was worried for Wyatt, and he wasn't used to that either. Usually all that would take is a little brotherly heart to heart, a punch on the shoulder, and an order to cowboy up, but frankly Chris didn't trust himself to not lapse into memory land and make the whole situation worse. The last thing Wyatt needed was Chris flashing back to a session with the other Wyatt "convincing" him of some point or another. He honestly didn't know how he'd held those memories back so far either, probably just pure desperation.
"What if he doesn't get over this..." The words escaped him, even after his little exercise.
Bianca tilted her head slightly, taking the question seriously. She knew first hand how Wyatt was feeling, and she wasn't the one who turned into the Source. "Honestly?" She whispered, leaning over to rest her cheek on his arm, "I don't know exactly... but he's got you, and your family. Time fixes the rest."
"Time does a lot of things..." Chris mumbled before letting the topic go and looping has arm around her, leaning in for support as much as she was leaning on him. In that moment, he found an instance of silence. The what ifs didn't matter. For everyone, for the entire world, he owed it to them to make sure this time was permanent. Fixing it was all that mattered. End of story.
They stayed like that until Wyatt's footsteps broke the silence of the hallway shortly followed by him rounding the corner. Completely on reflex, Bianca shifted to move away, but Chris simply frowned and looped his arm around her tighter, surprising her. Catching the glint of the ring now on her other hand, she supposed she shouldn't be. The time for instinctive secret keeping was over.
To Wyatt's credit, the only giveaway to his own surprise at the two of them was a slight hitch in his step as he got closer. Well... until he got close enough to talk.
"Please don't tell me you guys are going to be one of those insufferably cute couples now, cause if you are, I reserve the right to use grade school tactics. I.E. the K.I.S.S.I.N.G. song and that simulated barfing motion." Wyatt demonstrated.
Entirely unbothered, Chris just pulled Bianca closer and gave Wyatt a face that clearly said "Bring it on." The Phoenix witch couldn't help but smirk slightly, "You're all class, Wyatt, has anyone told you that?"
Wyatt made a show of looking offended, "Oh yeah, speaking of that. Chris, I don't like to tattle tale on people, but your girlfriend was mean to me earlier."
"You probably deserved it. He deserved it, right?" Chris answered without missing a beat, his own satisfied grin growing.
"Oh yeah." Bianca nodded.
Chris shrugged at his brother like there was nothing he could do, "Case closed."
"Yeah, yeah," Wyatt tossed his hands up, "Moving on. So do we have a plan bigger than 'destroy the sigil' or are we just winging it? How do even destroy that thing anyway, it's like thirty feet across..."
"We've done as much prep work as we could, the Valkyries have got most of the demons out of building. Judging by how many demons were here, there's probably more inside," Chris looked over at the door at the end of the hallway leading into the sigil room. "We've got to hold them back long enough to get at the center of the room. In the middle there's this crystal that's focusing the spell..."
Wyatt nodded, "and Excalibur plus crystal equals goodbye sigil, goodbye evil timeline?"
"Yes," Chris withheld the 'Hopefully' part of that sentence. Wyatt picked up on it anyway but knew not to poke that elephant in the room.
Bianca pulled away from Chris's side gently, conjuring three athames into her hands and wordlessly held one out for Chris. Wyatt followed suit and pulled Excalibur out and ready. It was their silent signal. They'd said everything they needed to say, anything more would be just delay what they had to do.
Quietly, they each took a side of the door, pressed out of the way in case they walked into a hail of fireballs. With a quick nod at his brother, Wyatt eased the door open, leaned in so he could see the room beyond, waiting for the kaboom.
There was none. From the sliver of a view Wyatt had, the room was completely empty.
"Alright..." Wyatt frowned, scanning the gigantic room, "Not what I was expecting."
"Trap?" Bianca asked.
"Probably," Chris sighed sharply, "Bianca, could you..?"
"On it."
Before Wyatt could ask what the plan was, Bianca had shimmered out from between the two of them.
"Aw, that's so cute." Wyatt mock crooned, "The whole knowing each other's battle strategies. Couples who infiltrate evil magic castles together, stick together."
"Shut up, Wyatt," Chris sing-songed, more than used to Wyatt's pre-battle jokes. Chris kept trying to tell him it was a coping mechanism. Wyatt preferred that he was just funny on all occasions. After getting his own look at the empty room, Chris shot him a reassuring look, "Trust me, she'll be there when we need her."
Wyatt sighed despite himself and, for the first time, realized he didn't doubt that she would. "Well then," He smiled, "Let's give them a show." Chris's smirk in return was all he needed before he hauled back and kicked the door open as loudly as possible, compounding the impact with a bit of telekinesis to make the dust rattle off of every surface. The two of them walked out with every ounce of bravado the held in them. If they couldn't see the threat coming, they might as well make them think twice about challenging them.
"Attention all evil minions!" Wyatt yelled into the seemingly endless balconies above them, twirling Excalibur over in his hand. "This apocalypse is now closed. Please find the nearest portal and/or chasm and go straight to Hell. If anyone has a problem with this new direction we're taking, we'll be right here taking suggestions."
Chris sent him a quick eye roll, though the bright grin on Wyatt's face was clearly echoed on Chris's. This was how they usually played things, how they had been playing it since before they'd technically got the green light on demon hunting. Wyatt stirs up the crowd, gets them mad, careless. Chris was the precise one, he'd clean house while they were too busy worrying about Wyatt to watch anything else.
This was the same, Chris used the distraction Wyatt was making and eased over closer to the middle of the sigil. Their main advantage in this was that the demons didn't know exactly what they were after. The longer they could delay that realization, the better.
Chris looked everywhere but where he was headed, half to keep track of the still uncharacteristically empty room, and half as a distraction. It was only that characteristic tense feeling in the air that warned him he wasn't fooling anyone. He quickly turned, finding the person he hoped wouldn't show up standing between him and his goal.
The pale man stood tall, smiling benignly but otherwise, he seemed completely uninterested in playing another round of time freeze tag. Chris flicked a look over at Wyatt, confirming that time wasn't frozen. Wyatt had already flipped tactics, his way to the center of the room wasn't blocked. Chris would be playing distraction today...
"Apparently you're stupid," Chris glared at the pale man, hand already dipped in his pocket, the necklace wound securely around his fingers, "Didn't you get the point last time?"
The man's smile didn't waver, he didn't look scared or even bothered. Nothing like a completely serene bad guy to make you know something was very wrong. Chris had the feeling he didn't want to figure out what. Wyatt was sneaking closer to the white glint in the middle of the floor. They just needed a few more seconds...
"You don't know." The man's smile grew impossibly, showing teeth.
Chris shifted on his feet, just enough to keep attention, "I don't know what?"
"It took me a while to figure it out. I took me so long to remember, so many years, so many memories. I had to dig so far to find the memory, how exactly it worked. Then I realized. You don't know either." the hysteria in the man's voice grew with each word.
Some sharp instinct prodded at Chris, this wasn't a bluff. This was important. Whatever this was, he needed to know it now. He pulled the necklace out, the triquetra glowing brightly. The man's eyes flickered to it, showing a moment of worry before that confident smile was back on his face.
"They'll hate you." The man whispered, "Fear you... break you. Your brother was right. It's an illusion, the balance of good and evil. All that matters is the balance of time."
Chris felt that familiar temper start to build. There was something specific that he was dancing around... "Would you just make sense, for once in your life." He bit out, barely paying attention to how close Wyatt was getting.
"No, thank you," He answered back politely, he glanced back to the necklace again without fear, "To use that, you have to get close enough to me, and I made a new friend while you were away."
Seconds after, the center of the room seemed to explode into flames and the Pale Man disappeared. Chris didn't get to spend a whole lot of time looking for him as he was too busy not getting set on fire. He staggered back to a part of the room that wasn't nearly as charred, and looked around. Wyatt was a little bit away, crouched behind a dimming shield.
"Wy! You alright?"
"Slightly toasted, but yeah. What the hell was that?" The twice blessed staggered back to his feet and rolled his shoulders. The flames had started to recede, having nothing to fuel them but marble floor. It did allow Wyatt to answer his own question though. "Oh wait... never mind. Explains a lot."
Standing in what should have been ground zero of the fire was Rubiec, the Pale Man standing happily at his side giggling like a court jester. Chris cursed under his breath.
"Smug child," Rubiec narrowed his already dark eyes on Wyatt, clucking his tongue condescendingly, "I just heard the most interesting story. You aren't who you say you are..."
Slow as he could to avoid drawing attention, Chris moved closer to Wyatt, or attempted to. He was shortly cut off by a fireball at his feet.
"And you." Rubiec glared, "You are far more effective than I gave you credit for. I'll say that."
"Always good to be appreciated," Chris spoke dryly.
Rubiec moved in a blur, his hand around Chris throat before he could even think of moving. Didn't mean he couldn't move after the fact. With the demon's unnaturally hot hand dug into his throat, claws already slightly imbedded over arteries, Chris lashed out with the athame in his hand, cutting a surprised Rubiec across the ribs before he caught Chris' hand, twisting it around until his fingers slackened and Chris dropped the weapon.
Rubiec ran a finger along the cut, the parted skin seeming to sear itself closed. Chris tried another last ditch attempt to pull free only for the demon to yank him up higher so his toes barely grazed the ground. Chris had no choice but to occupy his hands with pulling his weight up a bit so he could breathed.
"Stay there, Halliwell," Rubiec said loudly, making Wyatt stop in his tracks. The demon quirked a scarred eyebrow at him, "You know how many ways I could kill your brother right now?"
Wyatt didn't dignify that with a response, frozen in his place with a look of utter hatred burning in his expression. Rubiec watched with interest, catching the twitches in Wyatt's fingers, the shifting grip on Excalibur. All indicators that the twice blessed had no intention of staying put the minute Rubiec turned his back on him. He needed a little more convincing.
"Five ways, without even moving all that much." He spoke the number with dark pleasure, demonstrating each oh so slightly as he spoke them, "Just shift my grip a little farther and I could cut off his airways. Dig in a little deeper and cut open an artery. A little sideward motion would easily snap his neck. Decapitation, of course. Ah, but my favorite..."
Rubiec's held out his free hand demonstratively, the color of his palm shifting from its usual tan to a dull orange, to a glowing cherry red so hot that it distorted the air around it.
"Seeing as you apparently don't remember anything about this world, I'll remind you about this little power of mine. I can focus heat in my hands to any temperature I want. So imagine this..." He spoke conversationally, even as he eased his now white hot hand closer to Chris, "On your poor little brother's throat."
"Stop it!" Wyatt growled the order, fist clenched.
"I DON'T TAKE ORDERS FROM YOU ANYMORE!" Rubiec howled back, the force of his voice raising the temperature in the room another hair. Wyatt rocked back slightly on his heels, face pale under his tan. Wordlessly, he plunged Excalibur into the floor of the room, embedding it a few inches before dropping his hands to his sides. The usual gesture of hands up wasn't a good non-offensive posture to take in the magical world.
"Fine." Wyatt just said stiffly. "Could you just let him breathe?"
Rubiec's eyebrow raised again.
"Please." Wyatt bit out.
Ever so slowly, the demon lowered Chris down, not entirely on to his feet, but enough where he could support his weight on his toes. Chris couldn't help but bring in a gulp of air and mumble out a jagged curse. Rubiec's scarred face stretched into a grotesque smile, "Here's how this is going to go. My short, annoying friend over there explained how this works. We just have to sit and stay until the time runs out and this world is stuck, and you two are going to behave until it is."
"Five hours?" Chris grunted, shifting his feet so there was less pressure on his throat, "That long? We have other plans, Rubiec. If you keep us occupied, it won't help. There are other groups out there, changing things."
For a moment Rubiec looked concerned, only a moment, "Clever boy, but bluffing."
"Pardon me!" The Pale Man broke in politely, completely unperturbed by the whole show. He looked down around his feet at the sigil and back up, "I think I can fix that, either way. This sigil, I can use it to focus a spell."
Chris cursed inwardly. Now the bastard decided to start making sense.
"What spell?" Rubiec growled unamused by his new friend.
"Every timeline has a pivot point, something you need to change to shift it one way or another. Killing those who should be dead, changing environments, shifting people from good to evil. All things they are no doubt doing as we speak." The Pale Man shrugged, "With a sigil of this power, I can simply focus them into one person or object. Then the only way they could change things is if they destroyed or killed that focus, effectively foiling whatever plans they have."
Rubiec frowned, squeezing tighter on Chris's neck as a pastime, streams of blood snaking down into the collar of his shirt. Wyatt cursed harshly and was completely ignored, "Sounds risky..."
The world chose that moment to shudder and shift. The sigil room around them turning into a parking lot in the middle of a business district, city lit up as the late night activities started. Then, quick as it came, it shifted back, dropping them back into the sigil room.
"What was that..." Rubiec asked even though he already knew the answer.
"They changed something," The pale man supplied tensely, "They're getting closer."
Chris and Wyatt caught each other's eye, both knowing exactly what changed but not wanting to give it away. They both could feel it. The overworld... it was open again. Leo had succeeded.
"Another change and this time is lost..." Warned the Pale Man.
Rubiec didn't deliberate it for long, face unreadable until a sick smile took over, "Do your spell, and use me as the focus..."
7:15
Bianca huddled against the balcony's ledge, fingers wrapped around the bannister so hard she didn't have any feeling in them anymore. So many things had gone wrong, but never an opportunity to jump in without wasting her advantage. She watched the scene, face as emotionless as she could get it, trying to clear her head to think through this. She needed a distraction, a major distraction.
Then the shift came, and with it, an idea...
Reluctantly she pulled her hands off the bannister and stepped back out of sight far enough that she could shimmer out into a different room, just far enough away that no one could hear her. If the shift had happened it must mean that Leo had succeeded, so hopefully this would work.
"Leo!" She called to the ceiling awkwardly, never attempting to call for an Elder before, "If you can hear me. We're in trouble."
It didn't even take half a second for the orbs to show up in front of her... and he wasn't alone.
7:15
"It's a simple spell, just need a bit of blood," The Pale Man hefted a giant needle, waving it around above Rubiec's hand before committing and jabbing it in, the blood bubbled and boiled as it poured out, the man barely catching it in the bowl he'd found. "There." He smiled, completely oblivious to the look of extreme distaste Rubiec had centered on him, and tottered back to the center of the room. Without the barest hint of irony, he placed the bowl right on top of their original target.
He then shut his eyes and proceeded to focus, chanting the spell and rewrapping the spellwork in the sigil. Chris could only watch, not knowing if there was even a point to breaking the sigil anymore if the original spell was so changed. He had no choice, they could only watch.
Rubiec just continued to keep that jagged excuse for a smile on his face. Chris was getting very, very tired of it. The repetitive loss of oxygen was making him considerably weak and actually fairly giddy as well. It was all he could do to just keep a good head on his shoulders and that demon kept smiling at him like that. Hell, he looked like a particularly curious pitbull who had mistakenly spotted something shiny at the bottom of a meat grinder and decided to investigate... with his face. It wasn't pleasant to look at, and if he was going to die, this was not the last thing he wanted to see. Not to mention the blood which was now liberally streaming out of his neck, trickling its way down his spine.
"Do you want to know why I chose myself?" Rubiec asked the two of them. Wyatt returned with a face that was too pissed to bother talking. Chris, on the other hand...
"Who cares..." Chris scoffed lightly, rolling his eyes. Rubiec turned angry eyes on him in a flash and Chris met them with the lack of fear being nearly delirious brings you. "What princess, you want a cookie for volunteering?"
"I always hated you," Rubiec responded darkly, "Doesn't surprise me that traitorous Phoenix liked you so much. You are both so adept at betraying your own blood."
"I never betrayed Wyatt," Chris's eyes lit with utter conviction, "Never will."
Rubiec's face twisted in distaste, "I could kill you so easily, it would make this all so much simpler..."
Wyatt stepped forward slightly, "Don't you dare."
"But you haven't. Wonder why..." Chris glanced at his brother and smiled slightly, "Ah, you're scared of Wyatt still. I die, you have nothing to protect you..."
"Chris..." Wyatt hissed just low enough Chris could only hear it through his whitelighter senses. "Would you stop poking the crazy bear? He's going to KILL you."
The color of Rubiec's hand started to change, brightening. Chris didn't care. he knew he was right. Unlike Wyatt, he knew Rubiec's story by heart. He was still slightly giddy, and the added pressure on his neck now wasn't helping, but he wasn't doing this blind. He had a feeling there was information to be had and any advantage now was worth getting a little burnt for.
"Still being controlled, aren't you?" Chris managed to get out, "Like always. Someone always owns you."
The heat on his neck flared up for a moment and Chris grit his teeth against the pain. Chris let the pain hiss out between his teeth in a breath, noting that the heat has most likely cauterized the cuts on his neck... Silver lining and all that. He sent a sharp look over to Wyatt, warning him back. He had advanced another couple steps without Rubiec noticing.
"No one owns me..." Rubiec growled. "He can't kill me. That's the brilliance of this. There's only two ways to kill me. He doesn't remember the spell anymore and he wouldn't dare use the other option."
"The black flame," Chris returned, not surprised.
The black flame was one of the most powerful and most darkly demonic powers to ever grace demon bloodlines. This power's other name was The Corruption. Mostly because it had a similar defense mechanism to Excalibur, it tended to twist the person wielding it if it wasn't the intended master, and the intended master of the Black Flame was always old and always demonic. Even when Wyatt had been evil, he'd barely used it because of that. Ever time he did, it stole another piece of him.
It was Chris's leading theory on what turned Wyatt for a long time, but he could never find out where it came from. It still had lingered in the back of his mind when he'd traveled back into the past anyway, burning through a few demonic contacts just making sure the power wasn't anywhere near enough to get to Wyatt... now, knowing what he did, that Wyatt was taken into the underworld by Gideon. He wasn't so sure it was out of the question.
As a kid, Wyatt could have very well have orbed to the deepest parts of the Underworld, trying to find his way out, what if he tripped over something... It was the one thing Wyatt very carefully didn't gloat about. What if it stayed dormant, what if he didn't need to use it until something traumatic happened. Like, for instance, his mother dying...
"Son of a bitch..." Chris whispered.
"What?" Rubiec growled.
Chris just rolled his eyes, "Not you. I just figured something out."
Rubiec's grip tightened, "Do not play with me, boy."
"Fine," Chris grunted against the tight grip and then quickly looked over to the left. Rubiec followed his gaze sharply.
Of course, Wyatt then attacked from the right.
In near perfect synchronization, Chris planted his foot in Rubiec's stomach, shoving him back onto Excalibur with a vengeance. He orbed in place only long enough for Wyatt to haul the demon back and away, freeing Chris from his grip.
Back on the flat of his feet for the first time in a while, Chris was actually surprised he stayed upright, but he knew it was mostly adrenaline. It wouldn't last much longer.
"Wyatt!" Chris called, "keep scarface distracted. We can not let this spell go through."
"No arguments here!" Wyatt grumbled, dodging a face full of white hot claws as Rubiec twisted off of Excalibur like he hadn't just been stabbed through the chest. Wyatt hadn't exactly been expecting the demon to be disabled by that injury but he had expected it to at least slow him down. Barely capable of defending the lightning fast attacks, Wyatt decided it was smarter not to hope for anything slowing this guy down in the future.
He didn't have to worry about it for long though, He just had to keep the enraged fire demon out of Chris's way long enough for him to get to the most obnoxious example of a warlock they had ever run across and punch him in the face. At least Wyatt assumed that's what the plan was. That's all he wanted to do at this point.
Rubiec made an attempt to dodge around him only to be rudely interrupted by Excalibur taking a chunk out around his rib cage again, blood hissing and bubbling around the wound for a second before the hole closed up and he was good as new.
"That's getting really annoying..." Wyatt growled.
"Well then," Rubiec's eyes gleamed, "Try this." Then he proceeded to explode.
The shock wave removed Wyatt entirely off the floor, sending him flying back. His reunion with gravity was a little more violent, making him land harshly on his shoulder, Excalibur jolting out of his hand. Chris had enough warning to hit the floor early, avoiding the brunt of the fire, but it still sent him skidding across the marble a good fifteen feet in the wrong direction.
"Ow." Wyatt commented bluntly, fingers clamped over his injured shoulder which seemed to be aligned in a rather awkward way. Chris could only grunt in agreement, too busy trying to convince the world to stop spinning. The Pale Man continued to chatter his spell away, the bowl in front of him glowing and spinning like a top. Rubiec, if anything, looked healthier than ever, cracking his knuckles and heading towards Wyatt.
"When this is all over," The Demon said darkly, "The Great Lord Wyatt is going to have a tragic accident. Something poetic of course, ah right, he was killed by his own deranged kid brother. Shame. Being the great asset that I am, I will of course avenge his death by killing the murderer and run this world in your stead." Rubiec smiled, "You're welcome."
Wyatt popped his shoulder back into alignment, managing to contain most of the grunt of pain behind his teeth, attempting to get himself back in fighting shape before the demon reached him. Wyatt looked up again to gauge how long he had and was treated to the most satisfying sight: Rubiec getting blasted in the face with Elder lightning.
"Dad!" Wyatt didn't waste the advantage, quickly healing himself and calling Excalibur to him. Only after that did he take the time to digest the image of his father, but twenty years younger. Yeah, that was kind of weird. Then there was the fact that he wasn't alone.
Another Elder, tall, brown hair, looking a little ruffled and a lot out of place. His being there wasn't the weirdest thing, it was the fact that both Chris and the Pale Man were looking at him like he was the source himself. His appearance seemed to startle the Warlock enough that he'd stopped saying the spell, the bowl spinning impatiently, waiting for him to complete it.
"Father," The words were barely audible, but unmistakably tinged with hatred and surprise. The man looked like he'd been punched in the gut. The whole thing would have been right out of some drama if it wasn't so incredibly awkward. Wyatt fumbled up and over to Chris as he struggled to his feet. Chris barely acknowledged him, too busy glaring daggers at the Elder.
The Elder himself was stiff, like he didn't quite know what to do with himself. The word the Pale Man had spoken seemed to have frozen him in place. Then, he spoke.
"You are no son of mine."
For half an instant, Wyatt felt bad for him. Good thing that feeling was gone by the time Bianca shimmered in behind the Man and stuck a glowing hand in his back. Her appearance broke the seeming slow motion the area had taken. Both the Elder and Chris snapped back to themselves and back to task. The fireball that shot between them certainly helped as well.
Chris shook his head sharply, absorbing the pain from every burn and bruise to bring himself back to task. Leo was holding his own for the moment, but he wouldn't last that much longer. Wyatt followed his line of sight and deduced the same thing, wordlessly moving away to give Leo a break. Chris just circled around next to Bianca. The most dangerous part about this power was that she was completely vulnerable while she was using it, and the bigger the power, the longer she had to stay there.
Chris kept half of his attention glued to Gideon, not trusting the man an inch. Even if he didn't overtly hate him, he didn't even know how to estimate his reactions, especially now, with him dumbly staring as his own kid got drained of every drop of magic he possessed. He stood slack, not interested in any input in the situation, good or bad, completely passive. For some reason that absolutely infuriated him.
"How are you even alive..." Chris asked darkly, trying to keep himself from crushing the man's heart where he stood, if he had one, that is.
Gideon turned to look at him slowly, losing some of the complete passivity, "What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb." Chris scoffed, "After what you did, I figured Wyatt would have killed you first."
The Elder remained still for a moment, eyes flickering back and forth in decision, then he just shrugged, "He never knew. I made certain of that."
It was getting extremely hard to contain himself.
"I should have been more thorough." Gideon lamented. "I could have stopped this. Next time..."
Chris lunged at him, twisting his hands in the collar of his robes with a strength brought on by pure rage. "There won't be a next time, got it?"
"How do you know that?" Gideon wheezed as the fabric cut into his windpipe. "There will always be a next time as long as no one learns that humans can not handle the powers they are given. They should not be trusted with it."
Chris tightened the cloth, cutting off whatever inane thing Gideon was about to say. He could feel Bianca's gaze on his back but he ignored it. He was doing this man a favor. If he let him talk anymore, he wouldn't be alive for much longer either. The motion twisted his wrist out enough that Gideon caught sight of the silver triquetra, still knotted around his wrist, dangling innocently.
Gideon lurched in Chris's grip. "No!" He managed to get out, he twisted, getting enough air for another go, "Not again. When will she learn?" Chris was suddenly able to see the resemblance from father to son, it was all in the manic gleam of the eyes.
"She?" Chris caught onto the word, curiously, the picture of a blonde girl sitting at a wicker sun room table coming to mind. Gideon's eyes hardened and he shut his mouth, refusing to speak further. By pure coincidence, the noise of fighting died down enough that it allowed them to hear a slight whisper. A whisper that sounded curiously like the end of a spell.
Chris dropped Gideon abruptly and turned back to look at the pale man as he fought the paralysis brought on by the power drain and eeked out the last words of the spell.
The room lit up with a white light like a flashbulb from hell, and immediately darkened, leaving a bright afterimage in everyone's eyes and a completely idiotic feeling in Chris's stomach. He shouldn't have waited. Why didn't he just destroy the sigil? Sure it might not have worked anymore but he should have tried... Now? They were stuck...
Blinking away the spots in his eyes, Chris caught Bianca slowly pulling her hand away as the last bits of magic were pulled out of the man. He was smiling regardless, laughing under his breath. Chris just clenched his fists and glared.
The fighting had stopped on the other side of the room, a breathless Leo and Wyatt standing on either side of a now fearless Rubiec.
"I think that means the spell was completed." Rubiec commented, grinning, "and unless the Twice Blessed wants to tap into the black flame, in turn falling right back into the corruption and making this whole exercise a moot point... you're stuck here, with me."
Wyatt shot forward a step angrily, only stopping because Leo caught him, holding him back. Leo might not have been around for the original doom and gloom speech, but he knew what the black flame was, and he knew what it would mean. He wasn't going to let that happen again.
"Congratulations, though, Christopher." Rubiec hissed out the words, "You almost did something useful."
Chris didn't even bother looking at him, he was too busy trying to not contemplate being locked back in this hell timeline for the rest of his life, and locking everyone else in it with him. He couldn't meet any of them in the eye, so instead, he looked over at Gideon... and what he saw there surprised him.
The Elder didn't seem to care about their current situation, he was too busy staring at Chris with utter fear and hatred in his eyes. Chris stared right back, tilting his head slightly. What was he so scared of. What? the time powers? Sure, he had the capacity to steal them, but the power itself was gone. Bianca had taken every ounce of it the man had. There was nothing to transfer anymore... right?
Chris shifted quickly to look at the Pale Man, lying on his side, not having even considered standing up. He was too busy giggling at the floor.
"Chris," Bianca whispered, trying to pull him from whatever trance she assumed he was in. He didn't respond, he just slowly held his hand up and looked at the innocent chunk of metal still hanging there... glowing.
"You don't know. Don't know. Don't know." The man chanted between giggles.
"Don't know what?" Chris shot back irritably, hoping the hysteria in his voice wasn't as apparent outwardly as it was in his head.
The man rolled over, flopping his arm out at his sides like he was intending on making snow angels. "She lied to you."
Then, with the sudden silence and disorientation one feels when they do a cannonball into a body of water, the room shifted and stopped. The room had changed. It was the same sigil room, it was just empty, and clean. No scorch marks, no blood, no people. He was alone, standing in the middle. The feeling the room gave off was familiar though. It was that same, artificial stillness he'd felt when he'd woken up in that fake Manor.
Chris straightened his posture, fingers balled into fists, trying to look as imposing as he could with as battle worn as he was. He knew who was coming, and he had some questions for her.
Sure enough, the click of heels marked her entrance. She wasn't a child anymore. She was now closer to his mother's age, hair down to the back of her knees, arm looped in Clarence's like a pair practicing for a wedding. She smiled serenely at him, giving him a regal nod as she got closer. Clarence, though, seemed to be reading Chris's temper a lot easier, and was wearing an expression that was more close to one you would have if you were walking up to an unfamiliar dog with an unfortunate mouth foam problem.
"Hello again, Chris." The Source said cheerfully.
"Cut the bullshit." He shot back, "You have sixty seconds to explain to me why I shouldn't just jump off the deep end right now and go darkside."
The Source paused, having the sense to look slightly ashamed. "I had to lie. It had to be your choice. You had to choose to accept the powers."
Chris sighed angrily, pressing his hands to his eyes to try to block out the light of the room. He knew it. Somehow he did.
"The whole thing about transferring the powers. That's impossible, isn't it." Chris said dully, dropping his hands to his sides with a slap.
The Source pinched her lips together and nodded, looking for a moment like that little girl he'd almost made cry. Chris didn't find himself caring this time, "You've always had the powers Chris. You always will."
"Then what the hell is the deal with the jewelry?" Chris, motioned angrily, "There are less vindictive ways to give a guy a friendship bracelet."
She shook her head, "It's... there's got to be a better word for this..." Clarence put a calming hand on her shoulder
"It's essentially a collar for your powers." He spoke in those tones that could domesticate a rabid tiger.
"You collared me? Seriously?" Chris gaped, Clarence just responded with a calming hand motion, begging for another second's attention.
"Chronokinesis tends to manifest in certain individuals in a time of great need. We wanted to make sure you only started using the powers when you fully knew the meaning of having them. We hoped you'd find a way out of this paradox without resorting to these powers so you could learn how to use them at a less... stressful time." Understatement, but he continued anyway.
"The first time, after Gideon's son showed signs of breaking. Gideon forced the collar on him. He fought it, of course, and it just made things so much worse. It accelerated the problem. We presented it to you in a way where you wouldn't fight its presence, for now."
Chris closed his eyes for a moment, marshaling his calm. He opened them again, pulling his wrist up to look at the tangled black cord binding the thing to him. He thought back, head tilted. The moments of predicting what the Pale Man was going to do, the lack of effect his powers had on him, hell, the creepy internal clock. Chris should have known, and maybe he did, deep down.
"Gideon tried to kill you," The rapidly aging woman commented softly.
"He did kill me." Chris responded matter-of-factly, some of the anger already gone.
The source smiled slightly and shook her head, "I mean for good. He knew you were the child of a witch and an Elder. He had experienced what that might mean first hand. The athame he stabbed you with wasn't just blessed to make you unable to heal. It was blessed to kill you at birth, to kill your soul."
Chris frowned, remembering the stories he'd occasionally hear about he complications at his birth, how no one thought he'd make it, and maybe not even Piper.
"We saved you, Chris." She nearly whispered it. It wasn't her bragging, it wasn't her asking for gratitude, it was something more. Chris stared at her, confused.
"You saw how this power corrupts. You saw what it did. It could happen again." Chris said slowly, "You had the ability to make sure I didn't get the opportunity to turn into another raging psychopath, and yet you went out of your way to save me... why?"
The Source stared right back at him, for that moment looking as wise and powerful as Chris would have assumed she'd be. "When you saw your brother in the past, nearly defenseless, easily killed. You knew the terror he wold become, all the people he'd kill... all you had to do was slip a bit of poison into a bottle. Why didn't you kill him?"
Chris grit his teeth against he very idea of it, "There was a chance he was good. I couldn't take that away from him."
The Source tilted her head slowly, telling him he'd answered his own question. "Back in the beginning, the other source and I had a decision on what to do with all the power we had. He chose to keep his powers to himself, controlling a select few and allowing them access to them. They, of course being demons, started betraying each other, stealing the powers from one another, distributing them." She rolled her eyes slightly, as if this was a thing she still thought unimaginably stupid. "I made the other choice. I gave all my powers away to humans. He thought I was an idiot to do it. He thought that humans couldn't handle the responsibility, couldn't follow the law of no personal gain by nature. He told me he could easily corrupt them, and he did sometimes. I still gave the powers away. I trust humans, I can see the good even in those who others can't."
For some reason Chris felt a little cowed by that statement. It was also the first time he really didn't have a problem looking at her and believing she was what she claimed to be, and what she wanted him to be...
"No, I'm not the person you want for this." He shook his head forcefully, shying back a step, "I'm not that good. Wyatt is that good. I'm a lying manipulative asshole. I've killed a person. I can't be this."
Clarence shook his head, "Valkyries are naturally occurring entities. Death is only temporary for them. You know that."
Chris glared, "Doesn't mean I didn't kill her. You guys are seriously desperate if I'm the best you can find."
"Christopher!" The Source called sharply with a tone Piper would be proud of, affectionate but unmistakably firm, "You are the best I have seen in a very long time. Sure, Wyatt is good, he is, but that makes him all the easier to corrupt. You, Chris, you're resolute. Stubborn. You spent a decade walking that knife's edge without falling into the dark when anyone and everyone else did."
The Witchlighter shook his head firmly, swallowing thickly, "I would have broken eventually. I was so close..."
The Source stepped up, carefully laying a hand on his arm as if she expected him to jump away, "This time? If you feel close to breaking? You have your family there to put you together again. It's not the same. If there's anyone, in any time, on any plane of existence who could handle this power... it's you. Believe me, I've looked."
Chris could only just stare at her, disbelieving, "But, what if I can't."
The woman squared a tender smile at him and gently reached out to pull the necklace wrapped wrist towards her, "This is a power that can't be given or taken away... but if it makes you feel better we can make a contract. You keep this with you, if you get out of control, it'll tap into your powers and take you to a plane of existence where you can harm no one." She untangled the leather cord from his wrist and straightened it out before laying it back into his palm, voice firm and fair, "I doubt you'll need it."
Chris shifted his palm, watching the light catch off the triquetra, the symbol of his family and everything they'd ever stood for. A million what ifs threaded through is existence, a million scenarios where he could break. How that would effect his family, Mel, Wyatt, Bianca...
"This is your choice, Chris." Clarence added. "This won't make life easier. People will be scared of you. The Elders won't know how to handle you... I didn't originally hold the Source's faith in you either, but I do now. You can do good with this if you let yourself..."
He clamped his hand down on the pendent so hard it hurt, eyes dropping closed. All those years he had been jealous of Wyatt and all the powers he had. How he'd wished he'd get some badass power one of these days to knock Wyatt's ego down a peg or two. All of a sudden he didn't want it. There was nothing else he wanted to avoid more... but he knew he had to anyway.
"Man, this is a bad idea..." Chris sighed and quickly shook the necklace out and latched it around the back of his neck before he could think better. "Okay, would either of you know how to kill an unkillable fire demon?"
"That, you're going to have to figure out yourself." The Source said cheerfully, smile bright, "I will give you a hint though. These meeting places? I sort of, borrowed your power to make these. It's an area outside of space and time, bent to look like any place that's required."
Chris sent her a look of mock accusation, "You borrowed my power without asking?"
"Hey!" She swatted him lightly on the arm, "I gave all my powers away, don't be ungrateful." He shrugged off the slap, even though she'd managed to unknowingly hit him on one of the many burns on his arms. Clarence noticed, however, and was smiling behind a well placed hand.
"I take it you guys won't be hanging around to help, then." Chris sighed.
Clarence shook his head somberly, "I like you, kid, I really do, but the rules state clearly what I can and can't help with." The Source dug an elbow into his side and waggled her eyebrows conspiratorially. Clarence smiled slyly, "There's no rules about me dropping by for some of your mother's food, though, if you ever feel like having a chat, that is."
Chris laughed despite himself, and rolled his eyes.
"As for me? Well, I have another couple hours before I hit my hundredth birthday, shuffle off this mortal coil, and onto my usual cozy corner of existence." She grinned sharply, "I think I might make use of that time..."
"Yeah, whatever chaos you're planning, keep it away from me." Chris stepped back a few feet and looked around the room, "Now... how do I get out of here."
"You know how," Clarence assured him, "See ya, kid."
Chris closed his eyes and reached for that something that had always been there buried so deep down he hadn't noticed. Then the world shifted, he didn't even have to be looking to know. The sound, the smell, it was all different, and when he opened his eyes, the smirk on his face probably scared the tar right out of Gideon.
"No..." The Elder mumbled.
Chris's smirk widened, "Yes." Then he hauled back and punched him, right square in the nose. Gideon reeled and hit the floor, groaning as blood drained down his face. Chris stood over him, waving the feeling back into his hand, "That, Gideon, was for being such a stand up guy. Oh, and trying to kill me twice. Asshole."
Bianca's look was priceless, somewhere between pride and confusion, he took the time to give her a reassuring signal before stepping over the crumpled Elder and up to a smug looking Rubiec. He stopped a bare foot in front of the demon, close enough to make the self assured demon waver for a second.
"What could you possibly think you could do, Halliwell?" Rubiec droned.
Chris shrugged, "I'm going to leave, and you're coming with me." Not giving the demon the chance to come back with anything cohesive, Chris clamped a hand down on his arm and disappeared. No orbs required.
When he and Rubiec reappeared, they were in the middle of the underworld, the only icy patch of underworld in fact. Rubiec's eyes widened.
"That's right, Rube," Chris sing songed, "Remember this place? I know the story. You got locked up here getting frost bite for millennia. This isn't exactly where you remembered though. This is just a reproduction."
Rubiec thrashed, lunging for Chris. He simply smiled, and took one step back, the icy cliff they were standing on crumbled in front of him, the torrent of rocks and ice carrying Rubiec down to the center of the pit, walls too slick with ice to climb.
Casually, Chris leaned over the edge and looked down at him, "Did I mention I control this place? See, this is a pocket away from space and time. Do you know what that means?" He mocked waiting for a response but the demon was too incensed with rage that he couldn't form a complete sentence anyway, "You're not part of the timeline anymore, Rube. For all intents and purposes, that means you're dead. Spell broken. You should consider yourself lucky though. You might very well be the first and last person I ever use these powers on. Consider yourself special." The fake cheerfulness melted off of Chris's face as the reality of his situation dawned on Rubiec. "No one messes with my family. Ever. Enjoy eternity."
Then, once again, he disappeared, leaving nothing but the cold, the dark, and the wind to keep the demon company...
Chris smiled inwardly as he felt things shift. It was time to go home.
A/N: Well yeah. One shorter epilogue and this baby is wrapped. That one will take considerably less time to come out, and then... I've decided the sequel is inevitable as it won't leave me alone. More exploration of the Phoenix and how they feel about Bianca jumping ship. The family gets a new whitelighter who is just a little too eager about his job. Dealing with crazy past life memories. The importance of the no personal gain rule. Oh, and murders, of course.
Thank you all so much for sticking around with me. It's been a blast.