Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. No infringement is intended and no profit is made from this story. This is a work of my own imagination, but I was inspired to write this after reading so many amazing Chris revelation stories over the years. So a huge thank you to Emma15 for writing When Family Calls, DisneyRBD for writing In His Soul, and NextGeneration for writing Dead Promises!
Author's Note: You guys continue to impress me with number of reviews, favorites, and follows for each chapter. Thank you so, so much for all the lovely reviews you've been sending me! Also, I'm very relieved to know that you guys don't hate me for teasing Wyatt's take over like that in the last chapter lol.
BeautifulHalfBlood: I actually thought about having "my" half-manticore end up with Melinda, but I thought it would be weird if all Piper and Leo's children were paired off (Wyatt with Emily, Chris with Ally, Melinda with Caleb) and none of the other members of the next generation were lol. I'm so glad you're loving this story so far. I like the Coop/Phoebe pairing as well, but I ultimately chose to go with Cole/Phoebe because I wanted to add a twist to the story (especially since the whole Charmed Ones + Leo go into Chris' memories has already been done so many times). For some reason, I'm a sucker for creating OCs, so that's where Ally comes in. Please, feel free to let me know if she comes across like a Mary Sue at any point in this story (that's definitely a worry of mine)! And I love the fic False Memories, so that's a huge compliment! Thank you so much for the awesome review!
And now, without further ado, here is Wyatt's take over!
Chapter Seven:
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
"Does this darkness have a name? This cruelty, this hatred, how did it find us? Did it steal into our lives or did we seek it out and embrace it? What happened to us that we now send our children into the world like we send young men to war, hoping for their safe return, but knowing that some would be lost along the way. When did we lose our way? Consumed by the shadows. Swallowed whole by the darkness. Does this darkness have a name? Is it your name?"
– Lucas Scott from One Tree Hill (season 3, episode 16: With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept)
This is the day the world went to hell in a handbasket.
Piper reeled from those twelve words, her emotions spinning a hundred directions.
She could put two and two together as well as anybody else: Wyatt was supposedly going to turn evil; they were going to witness something that would send the world to hell.
The look on the half-whitelighter's face made it difficult to doubt either of those propositions. It was pained, haunted, and the mother in her wanted to erase that look.
But as an actual mother, as Wyatt's mother, she refused to accept the obvious deduction. There was no way that her son could be the one to send the world to hell.
She paced the floor trying to shake the feeling of dread that had slowly taken hold of her, but without success. The awful, terrible, horrible feeling only intensified when she noticed that Cole was regarding her with what could only be described as pity.
"Piper," Leo gently said her name, bringing her attention to him. "There's no telling what this memory will show, but whatever it is we'll find a way through it, one way or another. Like we always have. We're in this together."
When Leo reached for her hand, the pair naturally fell into a hug. Piper buried her face against his chest, solid and broad, borrowing from the strength he so readily offered. "I couldn't have asked for a better father for Wyatt," she said, her voice muffled as she pressed herself tight against him. "Thank you."
Phoebe and Paige, teary-eyed, watched the emotional exchange between father and mother. Chris, however, looked away. He was twisted up inside with anger, guilt, jealousy, and hurt. Piper's statement was true, now and in his time. Leo was an amazing father, but only to Wyatt. He was, at best, a neglectful father to Chris and Melinda.
"Okay," Piper said, once she had composed herself. "Time for the moment of truth."
Taking a page out of Piper's book, the two teary-eyed sisters composed themselves as well.
Everyone's attention then turned back to the memory, wanting to get it over with as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
They were in Magic School's common area and there were students everywhere. Some were sprawled along couches. Others were curled up in chairs, reading books. Most were sitting around tables, laughing and chatting away.
"Shouldn't all of these students be in class?" Paige asked with a frown.
"This is a free period." Chris explained.
"I thought that's what lunch time was for," Paige said, thinking back to her own school days. "It seems a bit excessive to have both when the students could be using that extra time to learn more."
"Spoken like a true teacher," Phoebe teased her baby sister. Piper, Leo, Cole, and Chris laughed when Paige crinkled her nose at the reminder of her future occupation.
Paige had nothing against teachers. In fact, she'd always thought that it was one of the noblest professions. The problem was that she just couldn't picture herself as a teacher. It probably didn't help that the memory of Wyatt inadvertently bringing a dragon to life was still fresh in her mind.
"Hey Chris," she said in an attempt to change the subject, "who's the girl?"
Five pairs of eyes traveled in the direction that Paige was looking at. Four teenagers stood in the middle of the room, but only two of them were recognizable to those from the past: Memory Chris and Ally.
"The girl is Emily," Chris told them. Emily, the oldest of the four at seventeen, was standing between Memory Chris and Ally. Her curly auburn hair, her most striking feature, was currently pulled up in a messy bun. She wore all black–black jeans, black boots, and a black long sleeve spandex shirt. Ropes of silver necklaces hung down her neck and a rhinestone headband sat atop her head. On the surface, she looked exactly like he'd remembered. But on closer inspection, Chris noticed that there was a hint of tiredness around her eyes and in her posture. Maybe Jake, Caleb, and Ally hadn't been the only ones to notice that Wyatt had been acting strange…
"And the boy?" Paige asked, referring to the young boy with brown hair who was standing across from Emily.
"Junior," Chris said at the same time Cole said, "Henry."
"His legal name is Henry, but most people call him Junior." Chris explained.
Seeing Junior hurt a lot more than he'd imagined it would. Even though Lauren was the cousin he was closest to, the second closest to him was without a doubt Junior. Being raised in a large family of mostly girls, the only three boys had formed a fast and strong bond. Chris missed Junior and it was killing him that he had no idea how Junior was doing, or if he was even still alive.
Seeing Emily also hurt, but for different, more complicated reasons.
"I don't blame Jake at all," the boy now known as Junior said, "he walked in on every big brother's worst nightmare: his little sister about to get it on with her boyfriend."
"Junior!" Emily exclaimed in a scolding tone.
"What? It's true! If I ever walked in on Cara or Sophia doing that…" the boy shuddered dramatically to make his point. "Thank Merlin they're not allowed to date until they're at least sixteen."
Ally rolled her eyes. "Jake is overreacting and being a drama king about it." She waved a hand as if dismissing it. She wished it were that easy. The story had spread like wildfire through the halls and classrooms of Magic School. Each time around, it was embellished, exaggerated by the storyteller. It was now more fantasy than nonfiction.
"As per usual," Emily added, an amused smile curving the corners of her mouth.
"Did he really make appointments with fifteen hypnotherapists to see if they would be able to delete the unwanted memory from his mind?" Junior barely managed to get the question out, he was laughing so hard.
"Why do you think he's absent from school today?" Memory Chris asked back.
"Wait a minute," Emily said as realization dawned. "We had back-to-back tests in Literature and Potions this morning! That sneaky fucker!"
It was Memory Chris and Ally's turn to burst into a hysterical fit of laughter, practically to the point of bending over and holding their stomachs.
"Just wait until I get ahold of him. Not even magic will be able to help him," Emily fumed, "he better pray to the high heavens that I don't decide to tell Ms. Matthews."
"Hey!" Paige exclaimed, her eyes narrowing. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, in case you didn't pick up on it in the last memory, you can be a scary teacher when you want to be." Cole informed her, remembering all the times Chris and Lauren had ranted about her creative punishments.
Before anyone could press him for further details, a voice suddenly came over the intercom system, clear and sharp. "All afternoon classes are cancelled. If a parent or guardian is unable to pick you up, please remain inside the school. I repeat, please remain inside the school."
The announcement was met with thunderous applause and whoops of delight from the students in the common area. Classes being cancelled rarely happened, but when it did, it was considered a major win.
The panic and alarm in the head master's voice was missed by all, save the onlookers. Chris, who now had the benefit of hindsight, was struck by how stupid he had been back then. He should have known something was wrong. He should have picked up on the signs that had been staring him in the face. If he had done things differently, then maybe he could have saved some lives.
"Guys, guys," one of the students suddenly shouted. "My friend from Lowell High School just texted me. Magic has been exposed! It's all over the news!"
Low murmurs and whispered fears spread throughout the room like ripples in a pond.
One of the students turned on the television that hung from the ceiling and quickly flipped the channels to the news.
On the screen, images of demons attacking and causing mayhem flashed by. The "Breaking News" banner that ran across the bottom of the screen read: MAGIC IS REAL; WORLD UNDER ATTACK.
"Turn it up," Memory Chris demanded. Ally instinctively reached out to hold his hand, giving it a tight squeeze, letting him know that she was there for him. He squeezed her hand back.
Even in their silence, they were communicating with each other.
That further cemented Phoebe's earlier opinion of the couple. Chris and Ally had the kind of love that Piper and Leo had. The always-and-forever kind of love.
"…the tip line has been ablaze with reports of demonic attacks on civilians, or mortals as we've just recently learned the magical community refers to us as. The President of the United States has issued a national state of emergency. While I can confirm the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge has collapsed, rumors of a White House siege are false…"
The anchor delivering the somber and shocking news was cut off when a loud alarm suddenly went off in Magic School.
The onlookers covered their ears to block out the jarring noise and so did the students in the memory. While the sisters and Leo had a look of confusion on their faces, the students in the memory had a look of pure fear on their faces because they all knew the alarm going off could only mean one thing: intruders in the school.
A dozen demons shimmered in, blocking the entrances and exits of the room. The demons were relentless in their pursuit of total destruction, throwing energy balls and fireballs in rapid succession. Pandemonium ensued as some students stood their ground and others, mostly the younger students, ran for cover.
It wasn't long before all of the teachers appeared, most of them being orbed into the room by Future Paige. While the teachers were easily outnumbered by the demons, they managed to divert the attacks away from the students.
"Crossbow!" Future Paige yelled upon seeing a demon aim his crossbow directly at Junior. The crossbow orbed out of the demons hands and into hers. "Big mistake," she growled. Without any hint of hesitation or remorse, she shot the demon with his own arrow, vanquishing him.
With the main threat to her son's safety taken care of, Future Paige turned her attention to her nephew. Memory Chris was on top of a demon, punching him repeatedly in the face, saying, "This one is for daring to even think about hurting Ally and this one is for terrorizing my classmates. Now, tell me, who sent you?"
The demon merely smirked. "You and your kind," the demon spat the word as if it was the lowliest of insults, "stand no chance against the new Lord." For someone who had just gotten beat up by a teenager, he looked awfully pleased. It unnerved the onlookers.
Apparently, it unnerved Future Paige as well because she suddenly stomped down hard on the demon's hand with heel of her nude pump. "Answer the boy's question," she demanded over his cries of agony. "Who. Sent. You?"
"Lord Wyatt," the demon finally admitted.
Memory Chris' face went pale with horror. "No," he said, shaking his head. "No, no, no, no, no…" he chanted.
This caused the demon to laugh wickedly. "Look on the dark side, I'm sure Lord Wyatt has a place for you in his regime."
"YOU LIAR!" Memory Chris screamed before using his telekinesis power to crush the demon's heart. The demon burst into flames and burned to nothing.
"Chris," Future Paige said slowly. The look in Memory Chris' eyes when he finally looked up was something that would forever haunt the sisters, Leo, and Cole. It was the look of someone whose entire world had just been shattered.
"It's not true. It can't be."
It was obvious that her youngest nephew was in shock, understandably, and there was nothing she could say that would make it any better. Now was not the time for that anyway. "Chris, I need you to get Junior, Ally, and Emily out of here!" Future Paige instructed with urgency, but Chris was rooted to the spot, catatonic in disbelief. Future Paige sighed. She could see that she was going to have to bring out the big guns. "Please, think of your sister, Chris. Melinda already lost her mother, do you really want to leave her brotherless, too?"
That did the trick.
"Of course not," Memory Chris rasped, horrified by that his Aunt Paige could think such a thing.
"Then get out of here and go check on the others!" Future Paige shouted.
"But what about the rest of the students?"
"The teachers and I will get them out of here safely." Future Paige assured him.
Memory Chris nodded, reaching out to hold Ally's hand again. Emily, who was hugging Junior protectively to her chest, grabbed Memory Chris' other hand. The four teenagers orbed out in a shower of blue and white lights.
Future Paige sighed once again, but this time in relief. She had some peace of mind in knowing that one of her three children was safe and sound. "I will get every last student out of here safely, even if it means I have to die in the process," she said to herself. Even though she didn't want to leave her children without a mother, it was a sacrifice that she was willing to make. Besides, the only way she could die was by the poison tip of a darklighter's arrow and thankfully she hadn't seen any of those so far.
As the six time travelers were sent to another memory, only the sound of Piper's heart wrenching sobs could be heard.
Author's Note: So was Wyatt's take over everything you guys thought it would be? I hope none of the characters seemed too OOC. I always imagined that Chris would be the type of person to have a huge guilt complex. Also, the truth hit him especially hard because he was in such denial about Wyatt's strange behavior. But now reality has finally broken through in the worst way possible and I'll definitely be exploring how he handles it in the upcoming chapters (hint: not well). Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please review!