FALSE MEMORIES

My first posted story here. Also my first Charmed Fanfic, although I have written fanfiction for other shows.

Disclaimer: The characters in Charmed do not belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.

Summary: Loved the Piper/Leo/Chris family dynamic in Season 6 so that's when this story is based. Set after Chris-Crossed and Prince Charming. Nobody knows who Chris is yet, but they're about to find out, courtesy of an unexpected visitor from the future…

Notes: Hi! Sorry for the lengthy delay. I'm finally back online, so normal service should be resumed as of now :-) So on with the update…

Chapter 11

Despite his disturbed sleep, Chris woke early the following morning. Tiptoeing about the bedroom to avoid waking his slumbering father, he gathered some clean clothes before retreating into the bathroom to take a shower. Half an hour later, dressed in dark blue jeans and an emerald-green t-shirt, he made his way downstairs and went in search of food.

He was the first one up. The kitchen was quiet and Chris was grateful for the peace after the hectic nature of the previous day. As much as he loved his family, he needed time away from them every now and again. Over the past few months, he'd gotten used to his own company. It had been lonely at times for sure, but he had also learned to appreciate the solitude.

After making himself a cup of coffee, Chris pottered about the kitchen, preparing his breakfast. He smiled with amusement as he realised that his mother's cupboards were arranged exactly the same as they were ten years into the future. Although she'd be the first to deny it, Piper could be set in her ways sometimes.

He made himself a hearty meal of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, and then sat down at the table to eat it. He'd been so caught up in his own dramas over the past thirty-six hours, that he'd barely given his mission to save his older brother a second thought. However, as he slowly consumed his food, his thoughts turned back to his reasons for coming to the past in the first place.

Part of Chris was wondering why he was even bothering trying to save Wyatt when it was obvious that his brother couldn't care less about him though. There was a slow-burning anger festering inside of him for the way Wyatt had so casually destroyed his relationship with his father as if it meant nothing. Although these feelings were perfectly natural under the circumstances, Chris still felt guilty for thinking that way. Consequently, he was filled with the need to resume his abandoned search as some sort of penance for his resentful thoughts.

Fortunately, after weeks of blind searching, he now had two new leads to chase up. He needed to look into whomever was behind the organised darklighter attacks but, more importantly, he intended to track down the demons that were responsible for his mother's death.

Up until now, Chris had been too afraid to acknowledge that the attack on Piper had been directly related to Wyatt's descent into darkness. This was partly due to his paranoia over losing her again, but also because he didn't think he could handle being responsible for her fate as well as his brother's. He knew that he'd be failing his family if he didn't face up to the possibility though, so he bravely swallowed his apprehension and prepared to confront his worst nightmare.

Suddenly eager to get back to work, he quickly cleaned his plate of his remaining breakfast, swallowed the rest of his coffee in one big gulp, and then dumped the dirty dishes in the sink. He was about to orb up to the attic to consult the Book of Shadows when Phoebe's reproving voice interrupted him.

"I see my sister taught her boys how to cook, but she obviously forget to mention that they should clean up after themselves," she said to her nephew from where she stood in the kitchen doorway.

Chris threw a guilty look at the pile of crockery in the sink. "That's Wyatt's job," he said defensively. "I cook, he washes up."

"Right – so not only do you help yourself to our food without asking, you expect a ten month old baby to clean up after you," Phoebe said teasingly.

"I guess I just thought that - seeing as you know who I am now - I could…"

"Treat the place like home?"

"Umm yeah, I guess – I'm sorry."

Phoebe laughed at his shame-faced apology. "For what? It is your home – I mean, you, Piper, Leo and Wyatt did live here, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Phoebe frowned. "Where did we put everyone?"

"Well, me and Wyatt shared a room to start with, and then when…," Chris stopped as he noticed the expectant look on his aunt's face. "Okay, nice try, but I'm so not biting."

The brunette witch pouted. "Spoilsport," she complained.

"That's right," Chris replied without a trace of sympathy. "Look, I've got to go – I have work to do."

"What work?"

"I need to check out some leads on who turns Wyatt."

"You want any help?"

"No – I think I've got things under control. I'm going to look up something in the Book, and then I'm outta here for a while. I'll be back later, all right?"

"All right - just be careful, okay?"

"You were never bothered if I was careful before."

"Well Mr Secrecy, if you'd told us who you were from the start, we might have been."

"I'm still the same person, Phoebe."

"To you maybe, but not to us. We know that there's nothing sinister behind the big cloak and dagger routine now, but we didn't know if we could trust you before."

"I suppose," Chris said, reluctantly conceding that his secretive behaviour had probably contributed to their suspicion of his motives. "I guess I thought the less you knew about why I came here, the better."

"Why? We're your family - were you so afraid to confide in us?"

"No! It wasn't that. It's just you haven't been part of my life for going on five years now, and I couldn't let being reunited with you distract me from what I came here to do. It was better for everyone that I kept my distance."

Phoebe looked at him, troubled by the matter-of-fact way in which he just accepted his long isolation from his family's care. "So you've been fending for yourself since you were sixteen?" she asked.

Chris looked away, the expression on his face unreadable. "Pretty much, yeah," he replied quietly. "I didn't believe Dad when he said he was there for us. My so-called brother totally screwed with my head!" he finished, a flash of hurt glittering in his green eyes.

The young whitelighter ran his fingers agitatedly through his hair as he felt the anger boiling up inside of him again. "I've really got to go," he said, hastily pushing his feelings aside to concentrate on his self-appointed mission to rescue Wyatt. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

Not waiting for an answer, he orbed upstairs, strode over to the Book of Shadows and started to leaf through it, looking for any mention of the demons that had murdered his Mom. Fifteen minutes of futile searching later, he was about to give up, until he turned the page to be confronted by an image that had haunted his dreams for seven long years.

Chris was no coward - he had faced all manner of demonic creatures in his lifetime - but this particular species sent an icy chill deep into his very soul. It was an irrational phobia, he knew. Unfortunately, it was incredibly real and very debilitating. All he had to do was look at the picture on the page and his heart was immediately racing in terror.

"Come on, come on, you can do this," he coached himself under his breath, annoyed at the power that his illogical fear had over him.

Closing his eyes, he blew out his breath between pursed lips, then bent over the Book of Shadows and forced himself to read the entry. Although it didn't tell him that much, it did give him an idea of how to track his enemies down. So, after loading a few supplies into a small rucksack, he orbed to a distinctly seedy part of town to consult with some of his Underworld contacts, determined to find out more about the demons in question.

Downstairs, the rest of the household gradually stirred into life. One by one, they descended the stairs and made their way into the kitchen. As Piper bustled about, sorting out breakfast for the hungry masses, Phoebe sat at the table, nursing a mug of coffee in her hands and pondering over her earlier conversation with her nephew. Something about the exchange was bothering her, but it wasn't until Future Leo entered the room that she finally voiced her concerns.

"Something Chris said earlier got me thinking," she said as he sat down in the chair opposite.

"Which would be what?" Future Leo asked, looking enquiringly at her.

"We were sort of talking about the effects of Wyatt's memory spell, and he said – I quote - 'I didn't believe Dad when he said he was there for us.'"

"I'm not sure I understand."

"He said 'there for us', not 'there for me.' It was almost as if he was talking about more than just himself."

On hearing this, Piper stared incredulously at the future version of her husband. "We have another child?" she asked, her voice strained.

Leo shook his head. "No, it's just the boys."

"So what did Chris mean?" Phoebe demanded.

Leo hesitated for a moment, but then decided to tell her the truth – she was halfway there anyway.

"I imagine he meant his cousins," he replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Cousins plural?" Paige asked, her eyes widening, "As in both me and Phoebe?"

Leo nodded. "And before you ask I'm not going to tell you anymore than that, okay? You know about Chris's existence because it's necessary, but knowing too much about the rest of the family could change the future in ways we don't want."

"You have to tell us if they're safe at least," Phoebe said, her voice filled with concern for her future offspring.

"They're fine, I promise – as much as they can be under the circumstances anyway. The best thing you can do is stop what happens to Wyatt and create a better future for them, okay? That's what they need more than anything else right now, believe me."

Paige and Phoebe nodded in unison while Future Leo looked about the room, suddenly realising that his younger son wasn't present. "Where is Chris anyway?" he asked.

"He said he was going to check out some new leads on who turns Wyatt."

"What new leads?"

"I don't know, he didn't say," Phoebe replied.

"Well, didn't you ask?" Leo demanded irritably.

"He promised he'd be careful," Phoebe protested in response to her brother-in-law's sharp censure.

"You shouldn't have believed him. I thought we talked about this – you said you were going to be more supportive from now on."

"You don't think he'd do anything stupid, do you?" Present Leo worriedly asked his future self.

"I think he'll do whatever it takes to get his brother back – regardless of the cost to himself," Future Leo replied. Pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger in agitation, he looked over at the mother of his children. "Piper – call him, will you please? He's unlikely to ignore you."

Piper nodded and lifted her voice. "Chris?"

There was no response, so she tried again, a little louder this time. "Chris!"

Nothing.

"I can't sense him," Present Leo said.

"Me neither," his future counterpart added, "Which means he's probably in the Underworld. Alone, I might add – I don't call that being careful, do you?"

"All right, don't go on about it," Phoebe said. "How was I supposed to know he was fobbing me off with platitudes?"

"Did he give you any clue about where he was going?" Future Leo asked.

"No – well actually, he did say he was going to check something out in the Book of Shadows first."

Breakfast was abandoned as they all trooped upstairs to investigate. "Damn!" Future Leo swore as he studied the open page of the Book.

"Trileb demon," Paige said, leaning over his shoulder to read the entry. "What's the significance? They look like ordinary demons to me."

"They are – apart from the fact that they killed your sister. I guess Chris has finally accepted that Piper's murder was tied into Wyatt's turning, and has decided to investigate."

"But didn't we look into it at the time?" Phoebe asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "I can't believe we'd leave Piper's death un-avenged."

Future Leo nodded. "Yeah, the three of us – and Wyatt – tracked them down a few weeks afterwards. It was the first time I saw the cruelty my eldest son was capable of - I mean, there's revenge and then there's revenge. He took things way too far and we were powerless to stop him."

He paused for a moment to let that sink in, and then shook his head sadly. "It was a dead-end anyway. They're just guns for hire, and they have the annoying habit of spontaneously combusting if you get too close to discovering who their employer is."

"If Chris knows all this, why is he looking into it?" Paige asked.

"Because he doesn't know," Leo replied. "He was so out of it at the time; I don't think he was aware of half of what was going on around him. We didn't tell him because we wanted to protect him - he'd been through enough already."

"So, should we be worried or not?" Piper enquired, concern for her son evident in her tone of voice.

Future Leo looked at her, his blue-green eyes reflecting her parental anxiety. "It's not that these demons are all that dangerous per se," he told her. "It's just that – for obvious reasons - Chris has a major phobia about them. Most of the time, he can take care of himself. But if he freezes up, I dread to think what could happen."

"So, we'll go down to the Underworld and fetch him back before he can get into any trouble then."

"Fine but where do you suggest we look? It'll be like searching for a needle in a haystack, Piper."

"We can't just do nothing!"

"I agree, which is why you and your sisters should try and summon him back to the Manor. If you use the Power of Three, you should be able to manage it – just as long as Chris doesn't resist."

"Are you saying he has the strength to break a Power of Three spell?" Penny asked, disbelief written all over her face.

Future Leo shook his head. "No, but he is able to move more than just objects with his mind. He might transfer the spell to another target."

"Prue couldn't do that," Phoebe objected.

"No, but your sister's powers were bound for the majority of her childhood, whereas Chris has been using his freely since he was about three. He's got years of experience on Prue, which means his telekinesis ability is much more advanced than hers was."

"Why does he have Prue's power anyway? He's my son." Piper asked, her voice faintly possessive.

Future Leo grinned at her almost jealous tone. "I don't think it works like that, Piper. My theory is that you each inherit the potential to develop any one of Melinda Warren's powers, but you get the one that suits your overall personality. It's just theory, of course, but it seems to hold true."

Piper didn't look all that mollified and Future Leo laughed. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, Chris takes after you in lots of ways."

"Oh yeah – he's definitely moody, stubborn and irritable like his Mom," Phoebe agreed with mock solemnity.

"Hey!"

"Not to mention 'Piper neurotic,'" Paige added, shooting an innocent smile at her oldest sister.

"Very funny," Piper replied with heavy sarcasm, and then returned her attention to the task at hand. "Come on; let's summon that wayward son of mine before he gets himself into any serious trouble."

As her daughters got to work on the spell, Patty Halliwell turned at looked at her mother. "I guess this means we're sticking around for a while longer."

Penny nodded. "Just until the boy's back and safe," she agreed. "Then it's time for us to go – we've stayed long enough already."

Chilled to the bone, Chris groped his way along the pitch back tunnel, using the stone wall to find his way. The rock was cold and slimy to touch and his skin cringed back from the unpleasant sensation.

It was just his luck that the Trileb demons lived in one of the remotest parts of the Underworld; sometimes it seemed as if he was destined to crawl around in dank and smelly places for the rest of his life. He wasn't sure yet what he planned to do when he reached their lairs either. I mean, his mother wouldn't be killed for over a decade - would they even be aware of the atrocity that they were to commit fifteen years into the future?

Given that the plan to turn Wyatt must already be in motion, he had to believe that they were, and it was important not to leave any stone unturned. This wasn't just for himself; it was for his family, his friends, the rest of the world in fact. It was a heavy responsibility to carry but he had accepted it nevertheless, and so he had to see it through to the bitter end, whatever the cost.

Just then, his boot caught on some uneven ground and he stumbled, cracking his head against the tunnel wall as he fell. Seeing stars, he lay on the tunnel floor for a few moments until his head stopped spinning, and then dragged himself to his feet with a groan. As he righted himself, he felt a warm trickle of liquid down the side of his face and realised that he was bleeding.

"Just great," he muttered under his breath, wiping away the sticky blood from his face with the corner of his t-shirt. Trying to ignore the painful throbbing in his head, he stubbornly continued on his way. He'd come this far, he wasn't about to give up now, it just wasn't in his nature.

Ten minutes later, he quite literally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and quickened his pace, eager to get out of the rank-smelling darkness. The light was coming from a staircase, which was cut into the side of the cavern, and he could hear the faint sound of voices coming from up ahead. Crouching down to hide himself from view, Chris cautiously peered around the corner to see where the staircase led.

It descended down to the floor of a large circular cavern. Chris absently took in the cages along one wall and roughly-hewn stone altar in the centre of the room, before his eyes were drawn to the group of demons standing in one corner of the dusty cave.

He froze, his heart hammering wildly inside his chest. There they were - the demons that had so cruelly stolen his mother away from him. Blind rage bubbled up inside of him but, unfortunately, the sight of their faces also triggered his deep-rooted terror of them as well. His palms began to sweat and his stomach churned with nausea as he struggled to contain his unreasoning fear.

Chris was so focused on calming his turbulent emotions that he was completely unaware of the stealthy approach of footsteps behind him. He was therefore oblivious to the danger until it was too late. All he felt was a ricochet of agonising pain as he was struck over the back of his head with a blunt object, and then everything went black…

To be continued…