Hi everyone, another chapter is finally finished!! I hope it's worth the wait and, once again, I'm truly sorry about the horrendous amount of time between updates...

Enjoy! And thanks so much for all the reviews.

Chapter 27: An Invasion of Sanctuary

"Well, well, well. This is where you're hiding from me, Chris?" Wyatt sneered, his voice faintly distorted by the magic of the two seeing pools, "That must be Sanctuary I can see behind you, and your pathetic 'Resistance'."

Chris met his brother's gaze angrily, "If we're pathetic then what does it say about your demon lackeys?" he retorted, somewhat childishly, "After all we beat them."

Wyatt laughed mockingly, "A single battle, Chris, that's all. Just one. Enjoy your victory for as long as you can; it'll all be over soon."

Chris felt Bianca grip his hand reassuringly and felt a measure of confidence return to him. The others gathered around the seeing pool were remaining silent, letting the two brothers have their war of words.

"You'll never win." Chris replied steadily, feeling a coldness replace his earlier nervousness, "We'll never stop fighting you."

Wyatt waved a hand expansively, "Oh you will. You will little brother. Be sure of it. After all, I am the twice-blessed, how can I lose?"

The blonde made a show of looking around the destroyed Overworld then returned his gaze to the group in Sanctuary, "Besides, I'm already halfway there. Soon I'll control more than just a measly city, and if you wanted it, Chris, you could be there, at my side."

"Go to hell." Chris spat, "I've told you a million times already, I'll never turn evil."

Wyatt narrowed his eyes, "And I've told you a million times, there's no such thing" he hissed suddenly beyond irritated at his brothers stubbornness.

"What do you want?" Chris demanded, "Why are you there? Why are you speaking with us?"

"To destroy you." Wyatt returned bluntly, "To obliterate Sanctuary from the map and remove the last obstacle in my path. And now I have the means to do it.

"I'll be generous, I'll give you fifteen minutes to clear out any who wish to join me or who are too cowardly to fight, but after that then it's war, Christopher. And you can't stop me: it'll take longer than that for the precious few Elders left to 'disconnect' your seeing pool. And my army is, as always, ready at my command."

Wyatt locked his gaze with his brother's. "Fifteen minutes, Chris." he repeated evenly, "Fifteen minutes."

The silent crowd gathered around the seeing pool watched as the twice-blessed dissolved in a cloud of orbs, leaving behind an empty, scarred Overworld.

"We have to get ready." Chris stated calmly, though his heart was beating rapidly, "We need to prepare. Wyatt will be here when he says he will, we can be sure of that."

Wyatt Halliwell strode through the grandiose hallways of his adopted base, inwardly counting down the minutes until the deadline he had given his brother. Demons were being rapidly organised in the Grand Hall and he wanted to oversee his troops before the battle began.

As he reached the balcony overlooking the mustering of demons, Kezlar approached him from the shadows and took up position slightly to the left of and behind the blonde.

"Rebuilding of the factory is starting even now, My Lord." the brute demon informed his boss, "The humans who are not fighting will begin the repairs shortly."

"Good." Wyatt nodded once, satisfied. He looked out at the two groups of demons forming either side of the Grand Hall. Armed and fierce, Chris and the Resistance would not stand a chance against even one half of his troop. This, Wyatt reflected, was good seeing as he was only sending one half to invade Sanctuary. He had other plans for the remaining demons. Big plans.

"Three minutes." Wyatt commented, "Will they be ready?"

"Yessir" replied his lieutenant swiftly, "Both teams are ready to move out at your command, My Lord"

Wyatt allowed himself a wicked smile, "Good. And so, it shall begin."

Sanctuary was a hectic bustle of people and other magical beings rushing to prepare for the oncoming battle. None had opted to leave, whether out of fear or desire to join Wyatt, which made Chris feel inordinately proud, despite the fact that he felt he had no reason to be.

"But you do." Bianca insisted, grabbing his hand and leading him away from the crush for a moment, "You're our leader. We're fighting with you because we have faith in you."

Chris shook his head, "You're fighting because it's the right thing to do. Because Wyatt will destroy all that's good in this world if we don't stop him."

"Well, yes" Bianca allowed, "But the courage to actually fight, to put our lives on the line for this? That's down to you. If we were alone and leaderless, with no hope as to actually winning, how many do you think would be here? How many would be keeping their heads down in the hopes of simply surviving?"

Bianca reached up and pressed her lips to Chris' in a chaste kiss, "We're here because of you. Because we believe in you." She paused, wrapping her arms tightly around him, "Because I believe in you." she whispered.

Chris returned the hug, for a moment simply content to be with Bianca: the two of them in a brief oasis of calm within a whirlwind of fear.

"Bianca I..." Chris pulled away slightly and reached down to gently cup her cheek in his hand, "I think I love you." he confessed, "I don't know what I'd do without you, please please stay safe."

Bianca eyes widened slightly at the confession before she caught his lips in a fervent kiss, hands coming up to tangle in his hair. "I love you too." she murmured in his ear when they had broken apart, breathing heavily but exceedingly happy.

"We should go back out there," Chris said eventually, reluctantly, "Wyatt will be here soon."

Bianca nodded, "I'll be right beside you, all the way." she promised, "You won't have to do this alone."

Eventually, everyone in Sanctuary was in position. The courtyard was completely empty, indeed the entire place seemed devoid of life, however small groups were hidden behind slightly ajar doors, behind wide pillars, pressed tightly to perpendicular walls. The concentric ringed balconies were lined with all those possessing less offensive powers, armed to the teeth with potions, throwing knives and any other forms of missiles that had been fashioned in the time available.

They had no way of knowing precisely where Wyatt's troops would appear, but Chris supposed the central courtyard was the most likely place. It was, he reasoned, the only place Wyatt had actually seen with his eyes, and plus Wyatt was nothing if not egotistical: he liked to make an entrance. Chris wasn't far wrong.

At precisely the time stated by Wyatt, the courtyard was suddenly full of demons shimmering in.

"Fire!" Prue shouted, from somewhere on the balconies. Chris had managed to position her up there to both satisfy her want to fight and hopefully keep her out of the worst of the fighting.

The demons were met with a hailstorm of coloured potions, arrows and knifes and a large proportion were instantly taken out, their ashes forming a small cloud of dust around the attackers. But their places were simply taken by more and more demons shimmering in. Soon the defenders on the balconies were no longer able to keep the tide of advancing demons back and Chris, crouched behind pillar, prepared to enter the battle.

"Hold steady" he hissed to his group as they showed signed of shifting, "Don't attack until they're level with us. That way we can take out as many as possible before they even know we're here."

The demons, still unaware of any defenders on the ground floor, approached Chris's hiding place almost carelessly, their attentions fixed on the attacker above them.

"Wait..." Chris murmured, "Wait... NOW!" he shouted as the lead demon drew level with his hiding place. That demon exploded into a puff of ash as Chris directed his explosive power at it. The others were all doing similar offensive attacks, the kills relatively easy as the demons were taken by surprise.

The demons soon rallied though, and fierce fighting broke out. The real battle had begun and the demons were quickly making up for the previous losses.

Chris was blasting demons as fast as he could, interspersing these attacks with telekinesis and, for close up work, a rather beautifully made athame. He ducked a meaty fist with spikes growing out of the knuckles and managed to slam the athame into the demon's thigh. The demon released a guttural growl and swung his fist again, catching Chris across the cheekbone.

The teenager hit the ground hard, feeling blood drip down his face, but wildly sent a blast of power at the demon before the spiked fist could strike again. A shower of ashes sprinkled over the area but Chris has no time to celebrate his victory as a snake-like demon, similar to the one Chris had fought in the alley before being captured, suddenly appeared in front of him.

Chris waved a hand, telekinetically sending the demon flying and mentally cheered as the demon collided with a second who was only moments away from plunging a knife into the heart of a Resistance fighter. The pair of demons landed in a tangle of limbs on the floor and the two Resistance fighters simultaneously tossed potions.

"Thanks Chris!" shouted the other man as the demons met their end in a fiery inferno.

Chris grinned and turned to re-enter the melee, attracting the attention of a trio of demons. They were fairly lower level and Chris managed to blast two of them out of existence before they had reached him. The third was finished off by a potion thrown from above, and Chris had a feeling that either Prue or Sheila was keeping watch on him from the balcony. There was no time to look, however, as a shouted warming alerted him to a demon coming up behind him and the fighting continued.

Back in San Francisco, Wyatt was receiving constant reports on how the attack on Sanctuary was going. He was slightly annoyed that it wasn't going to be the easy victory he had imagined, however as long as the Resistance were suitably distracted part two of his plan could go ahead.

"Kezlar!" demanded Wyatt, "Are the other demons all in position?"

"Yes M'Lord" grunted the brute demon, "All ready and waiting, sir"

"Good." Wyatt grinned viciously, "I'll bring the barrier down now, I want you to go and lead the attack. You know what to do."

Kezlar nodded and shimmered out, leaving the twice-blessed alone in his office.

Wyatt settled himself at his desk and picked up a crystal that was glowing brightly. Closing his fist tightly around the rock, he concentrated his magic on cancelling that of the crystal and outside in the city the impenetrable barriers surrounding it slowly began to flicker and drop.

Behind these barrier stood rows of snarling demons, ready to flood out into the surrounding countryside and annihilate the human soldiers positioned there. With the Resistance busy fighting their own battle at Sanctuary they could not learn about this second attack in time to help.

Wyatt had wanted California, and with the Resistance unable to help, Wyatt was going to get California. Violently.

His army began to attack...