But its just a dream and I don't own them.
Chapter seven: Truth or dare?
Chris decided to take a walk in a park, before orbing to the manor. The sisters would be anyway at work at this time of day. Maybe he could meet them all at lunchtime? But first he had to think about what to tell the charmed ones. How much truth could they abide? And the better question: How much could he abide? He was not sure. Right as he decided to sit down on a bench, Chris felt himself being pulled away. He knew this feeling. Someone summoned him!
Seconds after, he found himself in the attic of the manor. Chris couldn't believe what they had done! He was shocked about the sisters.
"What are you doing? Don't you think about personal gain! "He shouted angry. Not quite the opening he had intended.
Piper, Phoebe and Paige advanced on Chris who instantly backed away till he was stopped by the opposite wall. He looked like a dear in the headlights. Piper had no eyes for the lost appearance of the young whitelighter.
"You have discussed half of the night with Leo, haven't you? You sat around talking and arguing, while my sweet little darling was without any of you." She scolded. Piper sounded at this moment so much like his mom, that Chris instantly felt like being eight again, right before the discovery of his "mischief of the day."
"If you don't listen to our callings… we'll we have to become a bit more convincing to have you talking to us! You can hardly call that personal gain!" Paige ended his initially try to change the subject for once and for all.
"What? What are you talking about? No one called me the last two days!" Chris returned upset. "I mean not after Leo suspended me from being your whitelighter!" he added shy.
"He did what?" the sisters called out.
"Suspended me!" Chris confirmed barely audible.
"Oh Leo, if… If I ever get my hands on you, I swear by…" But Piper was interspersed.
"You mean that he did not inform you?" a wide eyed Chris asked aroused, as the realization finally set in.
"We haven't seen him since he left to search for you. " Phoebe told him.
Anyone has successfully cut the connection between me and my charges. Maybe the elders did?´ Chris thought, all his anger about the summoning blown over in a second.
The sisters sent Chris hostile looks. Suddenly realization about the situation gushed in.Piper stood there dissolved in tears, and the tension in the room seemed to crackle like a high-voltage electric cable.
"Something happened!" Chris stated. "Is Wyatt OK?"
"Not your merit!" Paige growled.
Piper only needed one spark to trigger of a disaster.
Unfortunately Chris was the spark alive!
"Don't play the fool to us, mister. This is entirely your fault. You distracted Leo, and I bet behind the whole scenes, there is none other than you although. Spill it out! What have you and your demon chum-buddies done to my husband? And how could you dare to attack my son. Spill it or I swear you will wish to never become born."
"This is definitely possible at the moment!" Chris mumbled.
Aloud he said: "I did nothing to Wyatt or Leo! Phoebe please, tell them what happened in this night, did it give you the impression it was some sort of a plan?"
"I'm not sure…"Phoebe said confused.
The boy became more and more desperate. How could he prove his innocence? He tried to make an approach by saying: "The most important thing is that we find Leo at the moment. I will try to declare everything to you afterwards."
"I don't believe you anymore!" Piper said with a dangerous glance in her eyes.
"The one way or another, today we will get the truth out of you, and make sure, that we never have to see your sorry ass again! Paige, the crystals!" But before Paige could close the crystal-cage around him, Chris had orbed away.
What did you say yesterday …The low as you can get…? This is definitely the newest all- time low.´ Leo lost, Wyatt attacked by some demon that might be the one, who was going to turn him, and his mom and his aunts on the warpath to blot him out! Right in the middle of his thoughts, he was again pulled away without any chance to react. Damn, you should have blocked them immediately!´Chris called in mind, getting angry about his remissness.
He landed once again at the manor crashing hard on his splinted arm. "As I thought Tia, no way of sparing" he said to himself, his face drawn with pain. This time he had really gotten into deep shit. The girls had summoned him up again - now right into the middle of the laid out crystals, that formed instantly an insuperable cage of crystal beams around him.
"You thought it would be so easy to escape, huh?" Suddenly Chris knew of whom Wyatt had inherited his ability to scare you to death with just one look.
Piper was furious. "So let's convince him to overcome his future consequences paranoia!"
Phoebe was still confused. She didn't know why, but this all felt so wrong, that she couldn't stand it anymore. "Stop it Piper ", she said fully resolved.
"WHAT!" Piper shrieked turning that fast, that Phoebe jumped two steps back.
"I mean give him a chance, maybe he tells us what happened, and what we want to know further." Phoebe tried now carefully.
"Give him a chance, give him a chance! I'm done with giving this lying little brat a chance. Done, done, done!"
"I think Phoebe's right; violence should be our last possibility. It would make us not better than any common demon. So let's think about something more clever and less brute." Paige helped her sister.
Chris looked at her gratefully. But Paige was not less angry than her sisters about Chris. His glance bugged her. "This means not, that I would give you any kind of a chance. You will talk, buddy. Now! And I'll make sure that this time we'll hear the truth, only the truth. If your answers are not satisfying, well then it's time to try it Pipers way. "Paige added, blowing away Chris gratefulness. "Are we at one?" Paige asked walking over to the book of shadows.
Phoebe was glad. There was no way she wanted to hurt Chris, not after what she had seen in the fragments of his dreams. Piper was pacing before the cage impatiently and looked not quite pleased, but nodded.
"Ok, let's see… truth spell…truth spell…Mmh." Paige muttered, while flipping trough the pages without success.
"OK, I think I can do one on my own. But don't laugh, it will be very spontaneous."
To the greater good we came to beg
The twice-blesseds safety is under attack
Make this defendant tell the truth
In any circumstances
Lying or cheating in every way
Shall have painful consequences
Piper was frightening satisfied with the spell. The three sisters spoke the spell in unison and a red glow surrounded Chris before disappearing within him.
This would not become easy for him. Chris was glad that he had a good sleep last night. So his mind was wide awake.
"So let's see. A simple one for the beginning: So what's your real name?" Paige asked. "Christopher Perry" he answered truthfully. No one asked about his last name, and therefore - nothing happened.
"Is there everything you have to do with Leo's disappearance or the attacks on my baby?" Piper asked, still in angry protecting lion-mother mode. "Honestly no!" Again nothing happened. Chris began to hug the slight hope, that he would make it out unhurt
"Did you ever want to harm Wyatt?" Paige's question hit him unprepared. "No!" he answered instinctively. A red hurting shock-wave flooded through his body and he sank onto the floor trying not to cry out loud. "There we go, the spell works." Said Piper cold. No one who intended to harm her baby earned her pity. But why was her stomach turning by the sight of the boys aches? She wanted to be angry, but something inside her wanted to hug the boy and soothe his pains. She brushed the feeling aside "Stop trying to be the mommy for everyone!" She scolded herself.
As Chris regained his breath again he tried to explain: "I mean, I would never harm the toddler. If I wanted to, he would have been dead a long time ago…" "The spell told us otherwise!" Paige interrupted. "That's because I wanted to hurt the Wyatt in my time." Chris told in a small miserable voice. He was not proud of his feelings against his big brother. But he'd made him feel this way.
"Why? Are you and he enemies? Did he attack some of your demon friends?" Phoebe asked silly. "Stop that demon-friends crap!" Chris replied through clenched teeth. He began to get angry. That was not good…not good at all…!
He took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. It was time for some painful truths. "The evil, because of we all suffer in the future is not trying to harm Wyatt." There was a long pause while Chris regained all his strength to confess the unavoidable.
"Wyatt is the evil!"
Chris looked into the sisters eyes while the information sank in.
"Why isn't he in pain, shouldn't he be in pain right now?" Phoebe whispered through the tensed silence. "Because it's true!" Paige reasoned with wide eyes.
This moment the demons choose to assault again. Immediately the pandemonium erupted. The sisters fought, with all their powers and tried to reach Wyatt, who was sitting, safely protected by his force-field, in his playpen on the opposite side of the attic. He was out of everyone's reach behind the demon rows.
"Set me free!" Chris screamed helpless out of the cage. He couldn't bare his state of shiftlessness.
Apart from that, he was although in severe danger. The cage prevented using his powers through the beams, but the powers from outside could invade. And deadly sure they did. Chris had trouble to defend himself from getting shot, by ducking away. Several times he got painfully shocked by the cages beams. At least he only huddled in one nook of the cage, holding his arms protectively around his head, and hoping for his luck. Phoebe noticed his awkward predicament, and decided to release him, by kicking away one of the crystals.
Chris respired. He began to help the sisters with all his powers, what brought him a questioning look of Piper. "I told you" he stated short, while throwing a demon, who attacked Piper from behind, telekinetic into the next wall, where she blew him up. "Thanks" she smiled. Chris wanted to retort something cheeky, but his comment got stuck in his throat. He and the sisters stared with bated breath at Wyatt. Right in front of the toddler stood …
Leo!
"Come on buddy; let's get you out of here. Daddy will take you up there, Ok." After some moments of thinking, Wyatt lowered his shield and reached out his little arms for his daddy. He beamed happily, while some demons encircled father and son.
"No!" Chris cried, fighting his way through the whole room by flicking some demons into the walls. As he reached the two, he became aware, that he was completely unarmed. "I need a weapon, anything, NOW!" he screamed desperately hoping to awake the sisters out of their growing stiffness of shock. Paige reacted first. She kicked an athame square the room right before Chris feet as the demons once again approached. While Leo lifted Wyatt up into his arms, Chris dived for the athame. His hand clutched the weapon tightly, and he was back on his feet in only seconds. Quickly he reached his fathers side again. In an upcoming movement Chris stabbed the athame into……
"Leo!" the sisters cried out.
Chris, by the time, snatched Wyatt and dropped himself and the toddler on the floor. As "Leo" burst up in flames, the young whitelighter protected the baby with his own body.
After a while the remaining demons realized the hopeless situation and disappeared. Chris rose weakly, holding the crying Wyatt safely in a firm grip. He walked swaying to Piper and put the toddler into her longing arms. Instantly Wyatt hushed.
An ashamed Piper eyed the wounded whitelighter with concern.
"I know you hate me, but I hope you believe me now. I would never do you or Wyatt any harm!" Chris almost whispered, infinite sadness in his eyes.
With that, he orbed away, leaving a shocked Piper with her family behind...
...TBC