Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed.

Summary: So many secrets, manipulations and half-truths. Christopher Perry's life in the past suffer many changes after Piper throws him out of the Manor. AU of season six. Chris revelation story.

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is an AU of season six. I took the liberty to play with the order of the episodes and other things. For example, 'Sword in the City' and 'Chris-Crossed' hasn't happened yet. Piper and Leo are separated but not divorced. Paige and Phoebe are living in the manor. The family doesn't know that he is half witch half whitelighter. Piper isn't dating Greg or any other guy. The story will start after 'Prince Charmed', but Chris hasn't told them about Wyatt being evil. Piper threw him out of the house because he tried to convince them to bind Wyatt's powers and the chaos of the birthday and all that.

AN: Thanks for the reviews. Here's the second chapter, I hope you enjoy it. 

This chapter was beta'ed by the awesome Evil Amplified. Love you, hon!

Chapter 2

*The next morning. Sunday, december 7th, 2003*

Paige finished her third cup of coffee in an hour. She stared at the kitchen window and sighed deeply. She hadn't slept a wink the previous night, too overwhelmed with the information that she and Phoebe had found out.

She wanted to cry every time she remembered Chris' devastated face when Piper threw him out of the house or when he was on the bridge. It was such a raw pain that made her want to embrace him and sooth his fears and pain. Now that she knew who he was, she wanted to care for him and protect him from every possible evil in the world.

She now felt for him as much as she felt for Wyatt. It was an immediate love and need to protect. They were her nephews and she had already failed once with her youngest one. She was not going to fail again; she was going to be there for him. Now if he would just answer her calls; if he weren't so afraid of Piper's reaction if she saw him in the house.

She stood up and went to the coffee machine, intent on drinking a fourth cup of coffee. A few moments later Phoebe arrived in the kitchen with huge bags under her eyes.

"Hello sweetie," greeted Phoebe with a huge yawn.

"Hi! Do you want coffee?" asked Paige.

"Yes, please. Thank God it's Sunday, so no work for me. I didn't sleep at all last night."

"Tell me about it," Paige said dryly. She grabbed the two cups and handed her older sister the precious liquid. "What an awful night."

Phoebe took the cup and drank a bit. Both sat and stayed in silence for a few minutes. Finally the oldest broke the silence. "Where is Piper?"

"She took Wyatt to the Golden Gate Park. Said she wanted to enjoy her free time and have a special time with her baby."

"She's still mad at us for defending Chris and she's really spooked about yesterday's events," Phoebe translated.

"Yeah, that pretty much covers it." Both sisters lapsed in another long silence.

"We have failed him so much…" Phoebe started to say in a quiet tone, her eyes misty while she stared at her sister. "Somehow, we should have known he was family."

"Yeah… talk about blindness. He knows his way around the house, he looks like Piper and has the Halliwell neurosis," Paige agreed.

"And don't forget he was the only one who knew that those blond bimbos weren't us."

"Will he…?" Paige started to ask. She tried to talk again, but didn't know how to express her feelings. After a few moments she settled for a mumbled, "I'm scared."

"Scared of what? Of Chris?" asked Phoebe.

"No… It's just… I don't know! What if he thinks that we love him just because we found out he's our nephew? I don't want him to think that we love him by default," she finished saying in a frustrated tone.

"I understand what you're saying. But it's not exactly like that. I guess that love has many levels. And right now we're experiencing the first level, you know? Just like when we found out that Piper was pregnant, we loved Wyatt immediately, and in the last months we have come to love our baby nephew more and more, because we've got to know him. So… what I'm saying here is that we don't love him by default. Our love for him is only starting, and it will get bigger when we get to know him and bond with him."

"Do you think that that will happen anytime soon?" Paige asked with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Phoebe shrugged and finished her cup of coffee. "I don't know, but I hope it will be soon. I don't want to lose more time. And besides, we have to help him with Wyatt's situation."

"Yeah, I know. I have been calling him for the last hour, but he's not answering." Paige's shoulders sagged. "Maybe he doesn't want to be with us."

Phoebe sighed. "Maybe he's sleeping, he looked pretty tired last night. Or maybe he's busy. We shouldn't jump to conclusions."

Paige stood up and carried the cups to the sink. "Yeah, you're right. It's just that… I feel so much guilt and pain that I want to make it better. I need to help him and be there for him."

"I know sweetie, me too. But I guess that we'll have to give him time and let him set the pace. We can't force him."

Paige agreed and busied herself with washing the cups. She just hoped that they'd bond with Chris soon.

& & &

*Three days later. Wednesday, december 10th, 2003*

"What?" Chris asked sulkily when he was pulled from his thoughts on one of the highest beams on the bridge.

Paige sat by his left side and Phoebe sat if front of him, careful of the border of the beam. "Well," Paige started talking in a dry tone. "We've been calling you for the past three days, and you haven't answered. So, since this is the first time in days that I've been able to sense you, we took our chance," she finished with a smirk.

Chris scowled at her. "Well, I think that the fact that you couldn't sense me, it was a pretty good hint that I want to be left alone."

"Chris, we can't do that. We said that we were going to help you with the threat to Wyatt, and if we can't see you, we can't work together," Paige said in a no nonsense tone.

"I can do it fine on my own. I don't need you," Chris answered starting to feel overwhelmed with his aunts' insistence.

"Chris, we're family," Phoebe said simply.

Chris turned his scowl at her. "Well, we weren't family last week. Why don't we just go back to that state of affairs?"

Both sisters darted their eyes from him in shame and guilt. They were never going to forgive themselves for their mistreatment of the boy in front of them. Finally, after a minute or so in silence, Phoebe opened her mouth again. "Chris, we are never going to forgive ourselves for the way we treated you…"

"You didn't know who I was, there's nothing to feel guilty for," the boy said quietly.

His words surprised the sisters. Of course they were going to feel guilty. Besides, when they had found out about his secret, he had practically accused them of abusive behaviour, and now he wasn't. It was really perplexing and it showed that the kid had issues and a difficult personality.

Phoebe decided to treat this subject carefully. "Honey, just a few nights ago you told us that we all have mistreated you, and I could feel a lot of resentment and pain coming from you."

Chris took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He focused on the sky and the rising stars to calm down his rattled and confused emotions. He saw his aunts out of the corner of his eye, and found that they were waiting patiently for his response. He decided to try to explain it to them and started to speak slowly, turning his gaze to the sky so he couldn't see them anymore. "You see, I don't really know what I'm feeling. Sometimes, I want to scream abuse at every one of you for the harsh words and hateful stares. But other times, I feel that I deserve them, because I sent Leo to Valhalla and got into your lives uninvited. I have lied to you and manipulated you, so I guess that I deserved every hateful word."

Paige touched his forearm and drew calming circles on it. "You haven't deserved our mistreatment. You were right, you know? We've treated demons better, but now we're trying to rectify the situation. And about the lying and manipulating…" she tilted her head to the side. "We now know that you did it for a reason." She squeezed his arm and he looked at her questionably. "You turned into our whitelighter to be closer to Wyatt, to protect him better. You have forced us into vanquishes at all hours of the day in the hopes of finding the demon that turns Wyatt. Am I wrong?"

He smiled shyly and answered in a quiet tone. "No, you're not." He took a long pause, trying to arrange his thoughts in some semblance of order. "About the situation with Wyatt… I don't really know what I'm doing, or if I'm doing something right. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack. As I said before, I only know that he was kidnapped before his second birthday, and that event somewhat turned him evil in the future."

Phoebe and Paige closed their eyes in pain; they still had some trouble comprehending this. Paige managed to put her pain in the back of her mind and decided to approach the subject with a logical mind. "So… was he evil since childhood?" she asked.

Chris pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "No… he was 'normal' for many years, that's why noone in the family realized something was amiss. Sure, he did a lot of mischief, but nothing alarming. He was sixteen when he started to go of the rails and the darkness started to take him in." The look of pain on his face when he said the last words clued the sisters in.

"Piper's death was a turning point, right?" she asked softly, partly afraid of his answer.

Chris tried to find his voice again, but couldn't, so he only nodded.

They lapsed into silence for a couple of minutes, the sisters trying to digest this new information and Chris trying to rein in his emotions. Starting to get uncomfortable, Chris decided to leave. "Look, this has been really interesting and all that jazz, but I must go." He stood up.

"Where are you going?" asked Paige while she and her sister stood up as well.

Chris was going to say that is was not her business, but thought better. Even if he was not very comfortable with this new development, he didn't want to lose this new bond or truce, or whatever he had with his aunts, entirely. "I have a meeting with a high level demon in the underworld."

Both sisters tensed at his words. He could see they were worried for his security. This confused him even more. On one hand, he didn't want this, but on the other hand, it was comforting to have someone who cared for him again. Sure, he still had people in the future, but he had already been in the past for five months, and didn't know if he was going the see them ever again.

"We will go with you to the underworld," Phoebe said with her head held high, daring him to refuse her.

Chris smiled softly at her and Phoebe felt she could melt with those smiles. "Look, I really appreciate that, and I know I said that you could help. But right now you won't be able to come with me." He raised his hand to stop their protests. "I have met with Xanchek four or five times, and I have posed as a darklighter. My cover would be blown up if I suddenly arrived with two of the Charmed Ones." They scowled at him but didn't say anything. "I promise I will be careful," he said, trying to ease their disappointment.

Paige relented. "Fine, we won't go with you this time. But we don't like this. You are half whitelighter and could get hurt with a darklighter arrow or something."

"Look, Paige, I've been doing this for a long while. I know how to do it." At her unbelievable look, he continued. "It's not easy, but you learn to do it. In my future, it has helped my survival."

Both sisters felt a pang in their hearts at the reminder of the future, which their nephew came from. Phoebe stepped in, "Ok, ok. Be careful. And… could you stop by later in the night?" she asked hopefully. This entire conversation had been really helpful, but she needed to bond more with her grown up nephew.

"Piper threw me out, remember?" he asked with a light tone, but the girls could see that behind his façade laid a deep hurt.

Phoebe scowled at the thought of her sisters' harsh words. "We're working on that, by the way." She paused. "Ok! What about P3? You're still living in the back room, right?"

He smirked. "Yeah, I still live there. I guess your sister is not so cold hearted to throw me out on the streets." Both girls winced at his words; he really didn't accept this timeline Piper as his mother. Piper was going to be crushed when she found out. Chris noticed their wince but ignored it. "Hmm, I'm busy tonight. These meetings can be really long."

"Tomorrow then?" asked Phoebe with an eager tone.

Chris stared at her amusedly. "You really want to spend time with me, don't you?"

"Yes!" the sisters cried.

Chris chuckled and the sound warmed his aunts' hearts. "Err… what about Friday night? I'll find some time in my busy schedule to spend time with you. Is that ok?"

"That's fine by me. Jason is in Hong Kong so I'm dateless." She turned to her sister with a big smile on her face. "Paige, what about you?"

"I will call Richard and reschedule our date." She winked at Chris. "Anything to get some bonding time with this dear nephew of mine," she quipped.

Chris smiled at them and waved his hand. "It's a date, then." The girls nodded and he orbed out of the bridge.

& & &

*A few hours later*

Chris sipped his beer and watched around the bar. He was seated in one if the hottest bars in the Underworld, dressed in all black and posing as a darklighter. He had been doing this for years. First, he had glamoured himself in his own timeline, during his time as the Resistance's highest spy in Wyatt's ranks. And now he didn't feel the need to glamour himself because he was in the past and very few magical beings knew the Charmed Ones' new whitelighter personally.

He took a look at his watch and realized that Xanchek was running late, very late. They were supposed to meet at 9 pm, but it was almost 11 pm and there wasn't any sign of the demon. He shrugged his shoulders and finished his beer.

He didn't know if Xanchek was the demon that he was looking for. But, what he did know was that the demon was a threat, either to Wyatt or the Charmed Ones. Xanchek was a powerful high-level demon who wanted to ascend to the Source's throne. He wanted to find out as much information available about this guy.

He waited for fifteen more minutes, but the demon didn't appear in the bar. He stretched his muscles, stood up and threw some coins on the table. He gazed at his surroundings one last time before retiring swiftly.

Chris walked at a fast pace for a few minutes, wanting to get away from the bar and orb safely to his room in P3. He took a couple of turns and orbed away, without realizing that he was being followed.

& & &

*Xanchek's cavern, midnight*

Xanchek stepped out of the shadows and lifted his red hood. He watched his surroundings and started to walk. A few moments later, he stopped in front of a group of large and pointy rocks. "Raise!" he exclaimed.

Nothing happened for a few moments. Then, one of the rocks started to change at a slow pace, until a thin and bald man with yellow teeth stood where previously stood one of the rocks. "My liege" the man said with respect.

"Did you follow the darklighter?" Xanchek leered while he stared at his minion with barely conceived contempt.

"Yes, my liege. I found some interesting information," said the man who then paused for effect.

The higher-level demon didn't have much patience and an energy ball appeared in his right hand. He raised one eyebrow and the minion eyed the energy ball nervously. "So?" asked Xanchek.

"Well… you see…" The man was really nervous. "The kid is not a darklighter! His orbs are blue and white!" he said in a rush.

Xanchek paused. Had he been played this past week? He extinguished the energy ball and formed fists with both hands. He was getting furious with this information. "Anything more, Caleb?"

"Yes, my liege. The whitelighter," he said this last world with disgust. "Orbed to P3, the oldest Charmed One's nightclub."

Xanchek's eyes opened a bit. So this kid had definitely played him and most probably was the Charmed One's new whitelighter. This was pretty interesting and irritating. He had been played by an infuriating and disgusting whitelighter. He wanted to send a darklighter immediately and end the bastard's life. He opened his mouth to order that, but closed it again and thought better of it. He wanted to know why the kid was playing at being a darklighter. He wanted to destroy him with his bare hands. Yeah, he would wait a bit.

"Caleb, you'll follow him day and night. You'll report with me on Saturday morning. Don't fail me. Don't get caught. Don't shape shift into the same object again or you will be discovered. Is that understood?"

The threat was easily heard and Caleb felt even more nervous. "Yes, my liege. I won't fail you." He saluted and shimmered out of the cavern.

"You will pay for your lies, boy," Xanchek said to the darkness of the cavern.

"To be continued..."

AN2: Don't forget to review, please ;)