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Considering how much of Chris' time was spent trying to remember what he could and couldn't say, what he'd said and what he absolutely shouldn't tell – it had become the case that his sullen moods could barely be distinguished from one to the next, anymore. That is, the mood he was almost always in about the future evil tyranny he was trying to stop his own brother from inflicting upon the world, and the almost sorrowful mood he tried to suppress the rest of the time about missing the few things he had left behind in the future, were now almost one in the same.
Even before the girls and Leo had come to know who Chris truly was (one lie which had unravelled rather easily once it had gotten out of his hands), they'd always thought he was more than just a bit moody and all too gloomy. He'd heard them on more than one occasion refer to him (affectionately he hoped) as their bitchy whitelighter. All of that considered, none of them had noticed this morning the slight shift in his skulking; from evil brother worries to lonely boy sadness – not even Piper, who despite his reluctance to admit as much, had a better chance than most at seeing through his poorly concealed fibs.
So upon wrangling the sisters three together for their pre-arranged, previously agreed upon and planned-out vanquish, Chris was in a particularly foul mood. And he wasn't even really sure why, exactly. When he'd woken up this morning, something was different – something in the air had shifted, and something in him had shifted, too. He just couldn't figure out what it was.
'Lighten up, Chris.' Phoebe taunted him after they'd orbed into yet another gloomy and sinister-looking alleyway.
'Yeah. Would it kill you to crack a smile there, future boy?' Paige joined in once she and Piper landed, tugging playfully on the back of his sweater as she wandered past him and carried on into the smoggy lane.
'What's the matter, honey?' Piper trailed behind the other two girls, casting a worried glance over her son which she paired with a very motherly tone of voice.
'Nothing.' Chris tried to ease her concern, but to no avail. 'I just feel a bit... weird. That's all. I'm sure it's nothing.'
'Weird? How weird? Like, magic weird – or fever weird? Because if you-'
'Mom, I'm fine. I promise.' Piper finally softened at Chris' reassurance. 'Now can we get this vanquish over with already?'
The mother-son duo caught back up with the other two Halliwell's who had made their way well into the alleyway, now. 'Okay, so...' Paige was ever impatient, looking around for something to vanquish, or whatever it was that'd lead their scrying here in the first place.
'Wait for it.' Chris barely got the words out before something shimmered in behind his aunts, the two of them whipping around and obliterating the leathery faced something-or-other before it even had a chance to thrash out so much as a fireball.
'Well, that was easy.' Piper was tucked albeit reluctantly behind her son, but with the immediate danger gone she moved out from him. 'Oh-' But almost as soon as she had, the wall at the end of the alley lit up in a shimmering blue light and a body flung from the veil, landing heavily on a pile of boxes. '-spoke too soon.' Hands at the ready, Piper was poised to blow up and/or freeze who or whatever it was that had just arrived - depending on circumstance of course.
'Who are you?' Paige and Phoebe were closest to the intruder, peeking into the pile of boxes curiously before announcing themselves. The mystery visitor was clambering over cardboard, hastily checking to make sure they wasn't missing anything; limbs or maybe the contents of their pockets by the looks of their flailing hands.
'Oh for the love of...' A soft, smokey voice sang out from the pile of cardboard: it was a woman, dressed in black jeans, a button down and chucks – not your average demon attire. She had one hand clutched to her side where a dark crimson was seeping through her clenched fingers and down the cerulean cotton of her shirt.
'Oh, you're hurt!' Paige rushed forward and offered a steadying hand to the tawny haired stranger. 'What's your name?' She glanced quickly at Phoebe, who shook her head almost imperceptibly to let Paige know that she couldn't get a read the woman with her empathy. And all the while, Chris was still stood protectively in front of his mother and not paying nearly enough attention to their visitor.
Finally managing to drag the girl out from the pile of boxes, Paige and Phoebe had a better chance to look at her before deciding whether or not to orb her off to be healed. She was slight - about as lacking in height as the Halliwell women themselves, with a milky complexion, a dusty blonde mop of hair which was a mess of soft curls, and a sweet dusting of freckles. She also had wide blue eyes and bee-stung lips, and looked about as wary of the alley full of strangers as they were of her. 'Nora. My name is Nora.' She murmured, barely getting the words out before she lost her grip on the consciousness she'd been clinging to so hopelessly since she'd fallen though the portal.
'Nora?' The husky whisper had finally caught Chris' attention, and with it he swung away from Piper. Phoebe and Paige realised that by leaving his mother unguarded, Chris obviously didn't think that the intruder was a risk – which meant that she was an innocent. Much to the the girls' shock, he reached desperately for the limp woman, barely managing to catch her before Nora keeled over in the pool of blood at her feet.
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