Hi Lovely readers, her is the next chapter, I hope you like it.

Chapter 7 – The Truth Hurts

Chris's POV

As Wyatt led him away from the great door towards the rest of the palace he realised that it was not the only memory of his friends he had received it was just in many places the memories especially the ones from his childhood were vertically identical. They met the same way on his first day at magic school when he was three. The only thing that differentiated the two different memories was the fact that the teachers treated him as Wyatt's equal not as a lesser witch as they had in his other life. Just like in his set of memories they became best friends, known to their families and the teachers at magic school as the seven terrors of the world. The only different was that instead of his love and friendship for his brother fading as he sunk further towards darkness, their closeness remained strong, in fact became stronger with age, though it never effected his relationship with his friends. That was the thing about growing up in a Wiccan household; you understood the importance of family in a way that no mortal could ever understand. All his friends, except Joe the half manicore grew up in similar Wiccan families, each belonging to their own coven, circle or tribe, and like Chris would put family before anything else.

The two sets of memories only started to split when Chris drew Excalibur from the stone (even though he remembered that memory it was still almost too impossible for him to believe). Little him had feared desperately that they would abandon him now but they didn't and they suffered through all of Chris's emotions and moods through the following years and supported him. When he announced that he thought it was really inefficient that wiccans fought as individual entities, as covens, circles and tribes instead of fighting together as one great army, they had been the first to sign up and bring their families with them. In the following months most witches that were of age to take on their wiccan duty of protecting the world from demons joined the army, preferring to have an army at their backs instead of only their family. As such far few witches had lost their lives because they went into a fight without enough magic or backup and Chris could make sure they were properly trained before sending them out.

"What are you thinking?" Wyatt's voice invading his mind snapping him back to reality.

"Just trying to sort out my memories, it's strange, it's almost like I have too much in my head."

"You remembered more?" his brother asked, his voice full of curiosity.

Chris nodded, "About me and Laura, Ant, Kieran, Joe, Millie and Jess."

"The seven terrors of the world?" he asked with amusement. "I take it you were friends with them in the other world as well?"

"The best." He looked at his brother with worried eyes, he wasn't sure if he offended him with that comment, clearly in this world Wyatt was his best friend, but the word didn't seem to be right. Brother in the Wiccan meaning, which went far beyond just meaning male sibling, was a far better word for their relationship.

Instead of being angry or hurt he smiled and chuckled at him, "It's ok to have best friends, I have them also, John, Sarah, Carter, Lizzie." The names had some sort of familiarity but he felt he would need to put names to faces to see if he remembered them from 'his' past. "And I would call them my best friends too. You are my brother." He was clearly referring to the Wiccan definition of the word, if you just wanted to refer to their family connection, you would put little or big, younger or older in front of the word. If Chris wanted to refer to Wyatt without any further meaning than their relationship as siblings he would refer to him as his older brother as Wyatt would refer to him as his younger brother. But Wyatt only said brother when he described what he thought of Chris as, just as Chris would refer to Wyatt. It was almost too hard to describe the term brother as wiccans used it, it was the closest you could be to a person unromantically. They would trust everything to that person, do anything for them, two parts of one being.

Chris smiled back at his brother, "I was thinking the same thing."

Wyatt's POV

Wyatt was satisfied that that was cleared up, "So what did you remember?"

"Stuff about me and my friends. We started off the same and it took me a while to realise that they were two different sets of memories, it was only when I drew the sword that things changed."

Wyatt was concerned, what did he mean by their friendship changed, "Changed Chris? Did they abandon you in your other life?"

Now Chris was looking at him with his own confusion, "No they didn't abandon me, I don't think they ever would, I ment the memories split and went in different paths."

Not that Wyatt knew what it had been like in the 'bad world', but he had always seen the main course of events as being quite similar as in this life. Chris in that life was still the leader of the force that stood against evil. He was still the leader, the general he was in this life, and he clearly had his friends standing beside him. He though Chris was looking at things in too great a detail, his brother needed to step back a view things from afar. If he could do that perhaps he could see that him becoming the leader of good magic was inevitable and at least in this life he had everyone he loved around him, safe and alive. If Chris was ever to accept his destiny he felt that the only way for him to do that was to see it as the inevitable outcome in any reality. "I don't think things have changed as much as you think."

"Of course it has..."

He cut his brother off before he could start on one of his big rants. "No Chris, you are just not looking at the big picture, at everything as a whole." He stared into his green eyes making sure Chris's attention didn't waver for a second. "The events, your path in life, are the same. You will always be the leader of good magic and the world will always alter events so you are. In the other world you became the leader of the Resistance, the force of good, in this world it is the same it is just the Resistance never had to form. Do you see?"

Chris did see at last, he could see it in his eyes, he saw reality crash in and drown his brother as Chris started to shake and Wyatt had to grab his brother and support his weight so he didn't sink to the floor, he knew accepting the truth would hurt him terribly, but he also knew how important it was for Chris to understand it so he could accept his fate. He now knew why Joshua thought it was so important for Chris to get back his memories. It was the only way for Chris to accept that this was his destiny, it would always happen no matter the circumstances or how hard he tried to fight it or what reality they were in, he was destined to become king. He pulled Chris over so they could sit on a bench by the wall. He pulled his brother in close, rubbing circles on is back, he was comforting him once again and it wasn't even lunch time. His poor brother. "It's going to be ok Chris."

Bianca's POV

Getting into the palace had been a lot easier than the two cousins had expected and as she had assumed, once past the heavily guarded gate the rest of the palace was pretty much deserted. There was no members of the public in the gardens surrounding the palace, which put their disguises of patriotic low cut tops as rather useless. There was a group of elders who had taken the opportunity of the deserted gardens to enjoy them and hold a meeting. There were also groups of guards on patrol walking slowly around the palace engaged in conversation with each other, clearly thinking that nothing was going to happen since everyone was being held back at the gates. It was with one of these groups, a patrol of two women and a man, deep in conversation about the health of the prince that the cousins took an opportunity. The two cousins jumped the three guards and with a few punches and kicks the three people were unconscious. They dragged them deep into a bed of bushes where nobody would find them and poured sleeping potion down their throats that would keep them asleep for at least a day. The might be assassins but they didn't kill unnecessarily. They had been paid to kill two people, the prince and his brother, they were not going to kill anymore unless absolutely necessarily. To take a life was a feeling that neither of the women enjoyed. Once sure that the three guards would not be able to raise the alarm they went about the business of stripping the two women of their uniform and putting them on. They Royal guards were chosen from the most loyal and honourable men and women in the Army of Camelot. To be chosen was a huge honour, you were still an active member of the army, still train with them and fought with them but you also had the responsibility to guard the palace two shifts a week. You would never say no if you were offered a position on the guard, even though as far as Bianca was concerned it was the most boring job in the army. With this disguise no one would question their business in the palace or their loyalty to the Anointed Prince.

With their new disguises the two women walked up to the main door of the palace and received no trouble from the guards on post there. As they went through the large mahogany door the two women couldn't help but gasp and the beauty of the palace. She had thought that the city and exterior of the palace was the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes on but she was wrong. The stood at the entrance of a large, vaulted room the ceiling either mosaic or painted with wondrous scenes which reflected on the white polished marble floor so it no longer looked white but a wonderful swirl of colour. The roof was bordered by windows that alternated between stain glass and clear glass, letting large amount of light in and making the whole room glow. There was no furniture in this room to distract from the architecture but the room walls were divided up by mahogany doors and paintings of previous magical kings. The latest in the series she assumed was King Arthur who stood in his frame, blond hair and red robe flying out to the side by the imaginary wind. He definitely was a descendant from the Caesars. There was a blank spot on the most prominent part of the wall next to Arthur's portrait where the next kings image would be put when her was crowned. There were three large doors one each side of the room, the one straight ahead opened to the throne room, to the left to the meeting room (the round table room) and to the right the Great Library of Camelot. The two women needed to get to the royal quarters which they knew was possible from either the meeting room or the throne room. As it was more likely for the meeting room to be in use the women made their way across the room to the great doors to the throne room.

The throne room turned out to be the largest room she had ever seen. The theme of white marble carried through on the walls and floors but the ceiling was something she had never seen before. The roof arched in one huge great span from one side to the other but what made it so spectacular was the whole roof was made of stain glass, clearly magic was the only way to create something both greatly beautify and fragile. At the end of the room was a dais, five steps high upon which stood the throne. It was a strange yet beautiful thing made of pure gold but it looked as if it had grown like a tree out of the ground and up the back wall in twists and turns to the ceiling. Only nature could create something of such beauty. The room was set up for the coronation, the two chairs where the princes advisors (his brother and father) sat had been taken from the dais and a great green carpet had been rolled out from the main door to the throne. Rows upon rows on seating had been set out and the banners on the walls looked like they had been recently laundered and rehung. Flowers decorated the room in ever free space. So much work had been done and it would never be used if they succeeded, although the set up would work just as well for the funeral. They made their way across the room to a smaller door to the side of the dais, the private corridor that lead to the royal wing.

There was no guard at the door and Bianca couldn't help but to think how arrogant these people were to not guard this entrance. They sneaked through the door and down a lavish corridor, they were about to go around a corner but were stopped by the voices of two men. The peaked around the corner only to find their targets standing there so focused on each other that they were paying no attention to anything else.

The older brother seemed to be lecturing the younger brother but all the picked up of the conversation was, "Do you see?" They watched the prince collapse in his brother's arms and him be lead over to a bench by the wall. Could things have gone any better for them? Here there marks were completely distracted and completely alone, she could also see now that the men were sitting that there was a gold band around the princes ankle, a binding shackle, Drogen was right. She turned to her cousin and whispered, "You take the brother, I'll take the prince." The girls pulled an athame each out of their clothing, they weren't taking any chances, they didn't think just any blade would kill either of these men. They were specially enchanted and blessed with the most powerful spells the underworld could perform. The silently counted to three watching as the younger fell deeper into the eldest's chest and the eldest bend further over him in comfort.

On three they attacked.

I hope you liked it. I know I promised some action in this chapter and I bid plan to put it in this chapter when I started writing it but as I wrote it seemed best to leave it on a cliff hanger. Also I have no idea how to write action and am a little apprehensive but I have done most of my reading for the coming week so I might try and tackle it tomorrow.

Reviews are nice.

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