Disclaimer: Not Mine.
A/N: Okay, well this was supposed to be the last chapter, but I kept remembering stuff I wanted to still write so there will actually be one more chapter after this one, which I have about 80% finished. Hoping to have it up tomorrow if possible.
Chapter 22 ~ Bargaining
Evil Universe
"You know, lets just get this over with," the darker version of Leo said raising his hands ready to send the demon that had been tormenting his family away for good this time, and with a quick glance through the mirror Chris noticed his own father's hands coming up in the same action.
"Wait, no don't," he called out as an idea started to form in his mind. His family paused along with the other versions he could see through the mirror in his own universe. Surprisingly enough his own darker counterpart stared at him in confusion. Apparently they weren't as completely on the same wavelength as you'd think. To his disgust though the Demon of Hope grinned at this. "Don't get so smug," he warned nodding towards his older brother who had been slowly moving around the room to stand behind the demon, hoping to keep him from fleeing their wrath yet again. Too late the demon noticed the witch standing directly behind him and as he began to disappear from sight Wyatt clamped his hands down on his shoulders holding him in place.
"So, Chris, you have something in mind?" Wyatt asked and Chris could see that the evil Wyatt had mirrored his brother's actions and was holding the Demon of Fear in his grasp on their side of the mirror.
He nodded knowing they were all waiting for his idea, including his own darker counterpart. "It would be so easy to just kill these two and then trade the children back. Everything would be a lot better, but I want more." With that he glanced at his mother and remembered her words from earlier in the Seer's chamber. "Leo, do me a favor and give this hypocrit a good blast," he asked turning to the darker version of his father. "But only you, not you, Dad," he added glancing the other direction towards the mirror and his own father on the other side.
"But, Chris, the balance?" his father automatically asked worried about the affect their actions could have on the rest of the world.
"Don't worry, we can fix the balance later if we have to. Just humor me for a bit okay," Chris answered holding his hands up in a placating manner.
The Leo in the evil universe didn't seem to have as many reservations over the situation as his good counterpart did though, so with a little too much enjoyment immediately blasted Barbas square in the chest. Wyatt had let go just moments before knowing how well electricity could travel through the demon and give him a shock along with it, but he didn't move too far away, still worried that the demon would somehow escape them. Which he tried the moment the electric blast let up, causing Wyatt to clamp down on his shoulders again.
The scent of burning flesh permeated the room along with the deep panting breaths of the demon, who had somehow managed not to scream out at the blast.
After several seconds of silence with no sign of any changes in the room it was inevitable for one of the sisters to speak. "You know, future boy, I'm all for torturing as many demons as we can find, but if you are waiting for something to happen you could at least fill the rest of us in on what." It was the evil version of Paige who had finally decided that saying something was in order.
Chris smirked slightly at that. "I really thought that disturbing the balance would be enough, but I guess it's gonna take something just a little bit more drastic to get their attention."
"Who's attention, Chris?" his own mother asked from the other side of the mirror.
"Just wait, Mom," he answered smiling at her then turned to the evil counterparts of his family. "So we are evil in this universe, right?"
Several heads nodded at that. "And he's supposed to be good, right?" he said motioning to the Demon of Hope being held by his brother. Again several nodding heads. "So it would go against everything that is correct in this universe if say I was to just do something like this, right?" With that Chris walked over next to the demon and let one hand hover over his chest. After just seconds the demon's wounds inflicted by Leo began to heal. "Nothing personal, Barbas. I'd much rather watch you die, but I think someone upstairs needs a wakeup call."
The evil version of himself smirked at the thought as his mind finally caught up to his counterpart. A small smile also played across his lips seeing as he wasn't the one who had to heal the demon. It would have really been awkward showing that skill off with his entire evil family looking on.
Chris was still in the process of healing the demon as he felt a pull near his midsection and everything before him began to fade away. One moment he was in the underworld healing the squirming Demon of Hope the next he looked around and found himself along with everyone else in the Tribunal Chamber. He glanced to his left and saw that the mirror itself had also been transported and he could still see his own family along with the two evil versions of himself and his brother, their younger counterparts, and the Seer, also in the Tribunal Chamber of the good universe. It looked like everyone was present and accounted for. That was a good sign.
"Stop that this instant," a voice boomed out above them and Chris stopped, backing away. He hadn't really wanted to completely heal the demon to begin with, but disturbing the balance of the two universes had caught the Tribunal's attention and that was his intention.
He glanced above them and to the front of the room seeing four floating heads. Those were the Tribunal made up of two Elders and two demons, a council formed to keep magic hidden and to keep the balance of good and evil as it should be. And also the entire reason behind his entirely crap life. The first time he had come to the past he had fixed the future along with help from his family. He had earned a decent life with his family, but they had changed it all and thrown his future to the wind, in turn making his life a living hell. It would have been an understatement to say that he was angry. "It's about time," he stated not disguising the malice in his voice.
"If you seek attention, young witch, you may not enjoy what you find," one of the Elder members of the Tribunal stated sternly.
"Oh, I seek much more than just attention," he called out angrily. "I want my families' memories back. The memories that you stole."
For moments a hush fell over the chamber as the tribunal members each stared at him in shock and some confusion. "You dare make demands of us?" one of the demon members finally bellowed.
But in those short moments he saw the difference in the two sides of the tribunal. The demons were angry and threatening, but the Elders seemed confused. He turned to them and a satisfied smile crossed his lips. "You don't even know who I am do you?" Then he turned to the demons and smiled even larger. "But you do."
The two Elder members of the Tribunal turned towards the demons in question with skeptical looks upon their faces.
"That's right, Chris. When the Seer told our family what the Tribunal had done she hinted to the fact that only the demon members knew that you weren't erased as they had agreed," Wyatt piped up seeing the division Chris was trying to cause among the council. "It's sort of strange that the second son of Piper and Leo would end up being raised by demons in the underworld and that half the council knows nothing about it."
There was a pointed look that passed between the council members, one that promised further discussion. Then one of the Elders turned back to Chris. "Inconsistencies some times occur, but that is for us to handle between ourselves."
Chris nodded in understanding, knowing it wasn't time to disagree, but he was not about to let up when it came to his wishes. "There is still the question of my families' missing memories."
A moment passed as the Elder members of the Tribunal whispered among themselves, while they completely seemed to ignore their evil counterparts. Finally one of them turned to Chris and his look was stern. "Young man, you ask much. You do realize that we could just as easily uphold our original decision and this time be assured we would verify that the cleaners did their job thoroughly." The elder scowled down at the young Witchlighter and Chris could visibly be seen swallowing hard. That had not been what he'd expected.
"Apparently my nephews didn't think of that possibility," the evil version of Paige whispered sarcastically. Both Piper's glared at her and she shrugged. It was in her nature.
"That's not fair. He hasn't done anything wrong and it wasn't him that caused all this mess in the first place. It was an Elder," both sets of Pipers began to argue but the Leos grasped their hands trying to calm them before it got out of hand and the sparks really flew.
Chris glanced at both sets of his family, both in the chamber with him and through the mirror. He had known it was a long shot, that the Tribunal might just call his bluff. But it had been worth it. Leo from his universe nodded at him though, giving him a small smile then began to speak. "True, you could erase Chris from existence, and from our minds again. But I'm afraid you might find it difficult to get it to stick." He turned towards the Tribunal and his voice became deadly serious. "You tried it before with Wyatt. We all knew something was missing. The bonds we've formed with Chris in the last few weeks aren't gonna just disappear. We'd know something was wrong. I'd know! And next time it won't be your pet demon that I'm after." With that Leo motioned toward the Demon of Fear who had sunk to the floor, hoping that his presence would be forgotten. The demon cringed holding his chest wounded chest, but still kept his mouth shut.
This time it was one of the Elders who bellowed in rage. "You, Leo, are threatening us! I think you overstep your place among the Elders if you think you can get away with that."
But Leo wasn't prepared to accept their reprimand, not with so much at stake. "You may be the final say when it comes to Elder hierarchy, but I was a father long before I became an Elder. And I find it extremely offensive that you chose to use your powers against one of your own, and I'm quite sure other Elders wouldn't like the idea either. Not to mention the fact that you tried to cover up the misdeeds of one of our own in such a underhanded way, actually undoing the good that my son had accomplished the first time he traveled through time. The way I see it, if not for your meddling the future would have been fixed years ago when Chris was born."
They couldn't deny that fact. Even though it was Barbas that caused Wyatt to become evil this time around it would never have happened if the Tribunal had left well enough alone.
"Are you gonna repeat the same mistakes over again?" Chris asked picking up his father's line of thought. "And just remember if it happens again and you have erased me, if Wyatt becomes evil in the future because of your changes, I won't be there to fix things. And you might want to know that one of evil Wyatt's first acts in my future, in all my futures, was to kill the four of you."
Those words caused the four beings to flinch and more looks passed between them. These looks though were filled with fear. The Elder member who had done most of the talking up till then nodded to his fellow members and addressed everyone else in the room. "We have decided that the best action at this time is no action at all." With those words the four floating heads faded from view leaving two very surprised Halliwell families with their mouths agape.
"But.. but our memories?" both Leo's said in unison with stricken looks upon their faces.
"They are just going to do nothing?" the Paige's chimed in unison. "After all that."
Both Phoebes just stood motionless trying to grasp what had just happened. It wasn't entirely easy with the amount of anger swirling through the rooms. But there was more than just anger floating around. There was a deep sense of loss coming from one member of the family.
Chris' face sunk as he shook his head and stared to the floor in dejection. In a way it was a win. He wasn't going to be erased. But it was still a backhanded slap from the ones that had ruined his life. He hadn't expected them to take responsibility for their actions and he certainly hadn't expected an apology for the hell he'd been put through. But at the very least he had hoped to get the memories for his family.
The evil universe's version of his mother walked over and placed a hand upon Chris' shoulder. He looked up to her and all he could offer was a shrug. "I thought it would work."
"It was worth a shot," she answered him smiling slightly, softening her features and reminding him of his mother who he could see through the mirror was having a similar conversation with his evil counterpart. "And besides, we are witches. We'll find another way." He was surprised she wasn't raging against it all. But then again, she was still Piper Halliwell, and no matter how hard something might seem to accomplish they had always found a way.
He gave her a half smile and sighed deeply. "No offense or anything, but I want to go home."
She nodded at that. She too was ready to have her own son back in her arms. It was time. They both turned together towards the mirror and could see the Piper on that side reaching up to hug the darker version of her son. Chris wasn't sure exactly what had happened between them but he wasn't surprised that they had somehow formed a bond just as he felt he had with the darker version of his mother who still stood beside him with her hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, woman, I want my son back," the darker version of Piper called out in a stern voice effectively breaking up the hug that her son seemed slightly uncomfortable with. As they broke apart she snickered slightly then turned towards Chris and reached up pecking him on the cheek. "You're way to good to be my son, Kid. But you have potential."
That statement caused Chris to chuckle and a big smile lit his lips. "Thanks, I think."
At that Wyatt walked over to him with their younger versions in tow. "These two seem to be in a rush to get back home."
Chris looked down at the two boys, and other than a few scorched curls in the top of Wyatt's hair, they seemed to be fine. "Well, I think we were supposed to be rescuing you but it seems you were doing a decent job of getting yourselves out of trouble on your own."
Younger Wyatt shared a look with his little brother and before he could get a word out edgewise the younger brother piped up, "We had help. Oh and Wyatt wants to know why the evil version of him has more powers than him."
The older brothers both smiled at each other and Wyatt answered them. "Life just ain't fair kids."
A/N: I know, it's so unlike me to actually have a disappointment this close to the ending but there is a reason behind my madness that will become apparent in the last chapter. Wonderful plot bunnies jumping me when I least expect them.