Chapter Thirteen: Loyalties

It turned out that having transparent hands didn't mean that his hands were gone. They were still there, still solid. Just… see-through.

This was of little comfort to Chris, however. And it was of even less comfort to Piper.

The moment Chris orbed into the attic, the eldest Charmed One zeroed in on his hands. Chris supposed this shouldn't have surprised him, but he wasn't ready for the panic that leapt into her eyes. She reached out and grabbed him, fingers closing around his arm, and for a moment both of them forgot the strain and tension that still existed between them.

Piper was the first to remember, and she dropped her arm quickly and looked away. "We don't have a lot of time," she said, "so let's do this."

Paige was standing at the Book, and though her gaze lingered for a moment on Chris' hands, she nodded in agreement and said, "Everything's ready."

"Say the spell," Piper ordered tersely.

Chris wasn't paying much attention. His thoughts were already on the sorceress that they were summoning, on what he was supposed to say to her. He knew Lola far better than any of the others did, but that didn't mean he knew much about her at all. She wasn't trustworthy, and her honeyed words had gotten under his skin more times than he liked to admit.

He closed his eyes and drew a breath. She was a seductress, so he forced thoughts of Bianca to the front of his mind, desperately hoping that holding onto memories of the Phoenix would keep him safe from Lola's charms.

He doubted it would work.

Paige must have recited the spell, because the room was suddenly filled with a rush of wind and Chris snapped his eyes open in time to see Lola materialize in the center of the attic.

Phoebe dropped the final crystal into place, forming a cage around the sorceress.

Lola frowned, her eyes scanning the room before landing on Chris. They travelled up and down the length of his body, pausing for just a fraction of a second longer than necessary on his transparent hands. Then Lola looked down at the crystals and gave a tired sigh.

"This again?" she asked skeptically, slanting a somewhat amused look at Piper. "Haven't we been here before? I don't recall it ending particularly well for you."

Piper smirked at the challenge in Lola's words. "Well, let's see what happens at the end of round two," she replied.

"You can't torture information out of me," Lola stated simply. Her eyes darted sideways to Chris and she smiled icily. "And sooner or later, Lucifer will send some demons to rescue me."

"I'm sure he will," Chris agreed calmly, matching her smile with one of his own. "After all, he can't have you die now, can he? You have to stay alive long enough to be vanquished in the back room of P3."

A single razor-thin eyebrow rose questioningly.

"Did he give you a choice, or did he just tell you that you were going to die?" Chris asked, folding his arms over his chest and trying to ignore the lightness that was seeping up his arms. The rest of him was fading away, too, it seemed. Piper stifled a gasp at the sight of his arms growing transparent, but Chris ignored her and continued, "How did you take it when you found out?"

Lola furrowed her brow, then asked pointedly, "Do you really think you can manipulate me with lies, white-lighter?"

It was Phoebe who answered before Chris had a chance to reply, "Do you really think he's lying?" Lola switched her gaze to the empath, and Phoebe shrugged. "At least it was quick, I can tell you that much. You went up in flames and then it was over. I suppose Lucifer would want to spare you the pain."

Lola curled her lip. "You don't know the first thing about Lucifer's plans," she said.

"Well, you're right about that," Phoebe agreed. "We don't know what Lucifer has planned. We don't know how this ends. But what do you care? You won't be around to see it."

Lola rolled her eyes at Phoebe's words and said disdainfully, "So this is your final pathetic attempt to beat the devil at his own game? I'd rather hoped for something a bit more… exciting… from the three of you."

"We're offering you a way out," Paige said, her words tinged with annoyance. "If you don't work with us, you will die. Lucifer's premonition will come true; it has to. If you help us, we can save you."

"I thought you just said the premonition had to come true," Lola scoffed.

"I might have a way around that," Phoebe said with a smug smile.

"I don't believe you," Lola answered firmly. She held Phoebe's gaze unflinchingly, refusing to be swayed.

"She's not going to tell us anything," Chris said after a moment of silence. He turned to Piper. "She doesn't believe Lucifer would really use her like this. She'll take his secrets to the grave. Or the ash pile, as the case may be."

Piper heaved a sigh. "Maybe we should just vanquish her right now," she suggested wearily. "We'll need to make up a potion, though."

Paige held up a potion bottle clutched tightly in one hand and said, "Not a problem. Already done."

"Maybe you should take her to P3 first," Phoebe said. "That is where the premonition took place. If we try to vanquish her here, she might get lucky and escape…"

"I'm not falling for this," Lola said defiantly, but Chris saw the flicker of unease in her eyes.

"I really don't care if you believe it or not," Piper answered flatly. "Lucifer sent Phoebe a premonition of your death. He can't lie – his premonitions can't lie. So you're going to die, and quite frankly, I'd rather we just do this at P3 so we can at least be guaranteed to get it right. My life will be a lot easier without you in it."

"It won't help you get to Lucifer, though," Lola countered.

Piper took a step forward and her voice dropped to a dangerously venomous whisper. "Lucifer has taken away everything I care about. My husband. My son. He's trying to ruin my family, and you're helping him. So maybe this won't help me stop Lucifer. Maybe this won't help me save Chris or Leo. Maybe I can't save them. But I can make you pay for your part in this, sorceress. And believe me, I am going to do it."

Lola stared at her impassively, but the pure hatred and determination in Piper's voice sent chills down Chris' spine.

"And then what will you do?" Lola taunted, eyes glittering malevolently. "Bury your husband and son? Oh, wait… you won't have bodies for either of them, so you won't even be able to do that."

"Piper, don't listen to her," Phoebe warned quickly, hurrying to Piper's side. "She's just trying to hurt you."

"Oh, Charmed One, I am doing nothing of the kind," Lola answered, laughing softly. "I'm just telling the truth. The fact that the truth hurts… well, that's hardly my fault. The truth is painful."

"Shut up," Piper snarled.

"Of course, it isn't really a surprise that you don't get a body to bury," Lola continued smoothly. "After all… you're not exactly mother of the year."

Chris saw Piper take a shuddering breath and wasn't sure if she was trying to hold back her fury or her pain. It didn't really matter, though. Lola had gotten under her skin, and it would only be a matter of time before Piper snapped.

"Piper…" Chris murmured apprehensively, tensing worriedly.

Smiling gleefully, Lola twisted the metaphorical knife just a little bit deeper into the wound, "What kind of mother lets one son trade himself for another? What kind of mother is relieved when that happens?"

"Shut up!" Piper cried.

"Piper, come on…" Phoebe said, grabbing Piper's arm and dragging her backwards, away from the crystal cage. "Just ignore her."

"Oh, but you can't ignore me," Lola whispered. "I'm just saying aloud all those thoughts that have been circling around your head ever since you found out who your future white-lighter really is."

"What kind of demon gives her loyalty to a being that is willing to sacrifice her at a moment's notice?" Paige challenged, putting herself between Lola and Piper. "Or did you not even know what Lucifer was going to do? Did you not see it coming?"

"Did he not tell you?" Phoebe added.

Lola laughed spitefully, her gaze never once leaving Piper's face. "Oh, but my end will come quickly whereas you, Piper Halliwell… you will live a long and healthy life… and you will spend all of it haunted by what you did. And even in the afterlife, even as a ghost… you'll know that your precious son doesn't exist anymore… because you failed him. Just like you failed your oldest by allowing him to turn evil. Just like you failed your older sister by allowing her to die. All you do is fail to save the ones you love. All you do is cause them pain."

"How dare you!" Piper snarled, breaking free of Phoebe's grasp and pushing past Paige. She kicked one of the crystals away, breaking the cage, and seized Lola by the arms. "I will kill you," she spat. "And I will laugh while I'm doing it."

"Piper, look out!" Paige cried, but it was too late. Lola flung her arms wide, breaking Piper's grip, and shimmered out of the attic before anyone could stop her.

There was a moment of complete silence.

Then Paige said in awe, "It worked."

Piper was breathing heavily as she stepped away from the broken crystal cage. It took her a moment to calm down, and then she said in a rational tone, "It only works if she does what we want her to do." Her gaze moved to Chris. "Do you think she bought it?"

Chris nodded once, but didn't vocalize his thoughts.

He knew Lola well enough to know that when she realized she was trapped, she'd do everything in her power to trick them into freeing her. He had known Lola would pick Piper – the eldest Charmed One's emotional turmoil was rolling off of her in great waves, and that made her the easiest to manipulate. All Lola had to do was enrage Piper enough for her to lose her cool, and one way or another, that crystal cage would come down.

Chris knew this – had been counting on it.

And now…

For his plan to work, Lola had to believe that her escape was an accident, that they had not intended to let her go. For this to work, Lola had to believe that Piper's actions had not been part of a carefully calculated plot. Chris had been worried about that, had been worried that Lola would see through it. But he was now fairly certain that she hadn't…

Because he was fairly certain that Piper had meant every word she'd said. That anger, that fury, that pain… that hadn't been a trick. That had been real.

When devising this plan, he hadn't been entirely sure that the sisters would be able to play their roles as well as they needed to. It wasn't that he doubted their skills – but they hadn't lived in his world, they hadn't been forced to survive in a future where lying to save lives was an everyday occurrence. They didn't have the kind of experience he had.

And for this to work, Lola had to believe that the sisters would eagerly get rid of her unless she offered them something they could use against Lucifer.

But staring at Piper now, Chris realized that his concerns had been ill-founded. Piper didn't need to be good at lying to do this. Piper wasn't lying. That fury, that desperate rage… that was all completely real. If she could do nothing else, she could at least make Lola pay for what had happened.

"Now what?" Paige asked, breaking into Chris' thoughts.

"Lola will come to me," Chris said, "when I'm alone. I'll talk to her, get the information we need… Just make sure you three are ready with the reinforcements when it is time to go."

"We'll be ready," Piper promised, her words pure steel. "We'll be ready."

Lola came sooner than Chris had expected. He was alone at P3 when she shimmered into the club. He heard her enter before he saw her, and tensed in anticipation.

She stepped out of the shadows. "If I betray Lucifer," she said, "he will kill me. So even if you really do have some plan to keep that premonition from coming true, it won't do any good. It won't do me any good."

Chris smiled. "And what if I had a way around that, too?"

Lola shook her head slowly. "Impossible," she answered. "You can't beat Lucifer, Christopher."

"If you really thought it was impossible, you wouldn't be here," Chris countered, spreading his arms wide. "You wouldn't be looking for a solution."

Lola pursed her lips. She didn't respond, but instead turned away from Chris and ran her hands over her skirt as though to smooth out invisible wrinkles. The bracelets on her wrists jingled together at the movement, and the sound echoed through the otherwise silent room.

"What is the solution?" Lola asked finally. "How would you stop the premonition from coming true?" She glanced over her shoulder at Chris, a smirk touching her lips as she added, "And do I need to sell my soul for it?"

"You don't have a soul," Chris replied flatly.

A hint of amusement crept into Lola's eyes. "Still no sense of humor," she said, shaking her head. "Pity."

"Premonitions appear for two reasons," Chris said, ignoring the comment. "Either to foreshadow something that is inevitable or to give warning for an event that can be changed."

Lola rested her hands on her hips. "Spare me the lecture on magical theory, white-lighter," she drawled. "I understand it better than you do. Or have you forgotten that I've been alive for centuries before you were even a glimmer in your mother's eye…?" She trailed off, then added with a malicious smile and a quick glance towards his transparent hands, "Of course, you won't ever be a glimmer in her eye now, will you?"

"Are you really arrogant enough to continue mocking me when you know you need my help?" Chris demanded.

It was a rhetorical question, of course, and he knew the answer. Lola was that arrogant, and her pride would hardly allow her to stop needling him. But more than that, this was simply the type of being she was – one who took great pleasure in reminding others of their pain.

Lola sidled up to him and ran her fingers along his arm. His skin tingled where she had touched it as though some sort of electricity – of chemistry – crackled between them. "Are you really so tense that even in the face of nonexistence you can't bring yourself to enjoy a second of relaxation?" she murmured.

Chris stepped away from her. "Do you want my help or not?"

Lola studied him, then said simply, "Would I be here if I didn't want your help?" She turned away again. "You think this is a premonition of something that can be changed."

"Just because Lucifer planted it doesn't mean it is inevitable," Chris replied. "It was true at the time he planted it, but Phoebe got the premonition and therefore she has the ability to change it. That is how most premonitions work, isn't it?"

"A premonition is considered true until it is changed," Lola said slowly, clearly thinking through the implications of Chris' plan. "The only way premonitions can be changed is by a set of actions initiated by the person who received the premonition. Phoebe tells her sisters, starting the chain reaction. Now they are offering to save me. But the premonition is still true because I haven't been saved yet – and it was true at the time is was planted – so it doesn't violate Lucifer's rules." She frowned skeptically. "That seems like semantics."

Chris shrugged. "The devil is good with semantics. We can be good with them, too."

Lola hesitated, then countered, "Following that theory, someone would actually have to try to vanquish me. And not just for show… they'd have to mean it."

Chris laughed. "I think that can be arranged," he said.

Lola considered this, then raised her eyebrows. "And what would I have to do in return?"

It would have been better if they'd had more time. Chris knew that, but there was very little he could do about it. The feeling of lightness had spread up his arms and into the rest of his body, and although most of him wasn't yet transparent, he knew he probably didn't have much longer.

He orbed into the kitchen of the Manor to find Piper talking to a wood nymph. A dwarf was sitting on a chair at the table, swinging his legs back and forth and holding the handle of a large axe. A leprechaun was standing next to the dwarf, apparently trying to engage him in conversation, but the dwarf was determinedly ignoring his companion.

Chris found himself biting back a smile at the sight. Over the years, the Manor had witnessed many strange and sometimes even unbelievable events. In the future, even before Wyatt's fall, meetings like this were common place.

But he had never gotten used to it. There was still something strange about finding himself surrounded by mythical creatures, even after a little over two decades of living among them.

Piper turned away from her conversation and met his gaze steadily. He saw, reflected in her eyes, his own anxiety about this plan. But he saw the determination, too. The refusal to back down from a fight, the determination to see this through until the very end.

Something inside him twisted painfully. For a moment, she had looked so much like his mother.

He pushed away the thought and the convoluted emotions that accompanied it, and asked, "Ready?"

Piper nodded.

"The Elders aren't happy about this," the dwarf grumbled, shooting Chris an annoyed look. "You couldn't have come up with a plan that didn't get them mad at us?"

"He's trying to save the future," Piper snapped back, defending Chris before he had a chance to say anything. "The Elders should be on our side."

Her tone was dripping with disgust, and Chris found himself nodding in agreement even as he silently noted that her words weren't entirely truthful. He'd already saved the future – or, at least, that was what he hoped. Now he was just trying to save himself. And her.

That was what it really all came down to. Saving Piper. He had reconciled himself to an eternity in hell. He had almost reconciled himself to the possibility of not existing. But Piper hadn't accepted either of those outcomes, and giving in would destroy her.

While she was fighting so desperately to save him, he was now fighting just as hard to save her.

It was ironic.

He curled his hand into a fist and looked away. He didn't want to be saving her. He didn't want to be responsible for her happiness. He'd already put too heavy a burden on his shoulders once, but he'd been willing to carry the weight of the world then.

He wasn't sure he was still willing to carry that burden now. He was tired – was he too tired? Was this feeling of exhaustion creeping through his bones just a side effect of the fact that he was very close to disappearing all together, or was it a sign of something more?
Was it is a sign of how much he just wanted this to end?

He was tired of having to deal with the sisters and their suspicion and their questions and their prying. He was tired of Lucifer, of Lola, of the Elders. He was tired of hearing Wyatt's voice mocking him, of seeing Bianca's lifeless eyes, of feeling Prue's blood on his hands. He was tired of the memories of bruises that had long since healed and scars that had almost faded.

He was tired of being so close to the people that should have been his family and yet still feeling so very far away from home.

"Chris?" Piper said gently, stepping towards him.

He shook his head to banish the weariness that refused to leave him alone and fixed her with an impassive stare.

"We're ready," she said. "Are you?"

Chris nodded once, then fished a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. She took it, scanned it once, then crumpled it into a ball and tossed it into the garbage.

She walked slowly towards the door, the three mythological creatures following her. She hesitated, wavering for a moment, before turning back towards him. There were no tears in her eyes, no pain or grief in her expression. Her features were calm, and there was a look of resignation in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know you don't want to hear that. I know… I know you don't like apologies. I don't know why, but…" She looked down, gathering her thoughts, before raising her eyes to him one last time. "I am sorry."

Then she walked from the kitchen, the others following her, and Chris was left alone.

"Good luck," he whispered to the empty room.

It was a simple enough plan. Paige and Phoebe had spent most of the last few hours contacting every magical creature they had ever helped and asking for help in return. Many had flatly refused – the Elders had anticipated that the Charmed Ones might do something like this and had forbidden the magical world to help in any attack against Lucifer.

But not everyone had refused. The Elders hadn't counted on that – or perhaps they just hadn't understood it. Perhaps it had been so long since any of them had been human that they had forgotten what it was like to be mortal, to be in danger, to be scared and hurt and helpless. Maybe they'd forgotten the kinds of bonds that can form with the people who save you.

But the magical creatures remembered. They remembered the times demons had attacked, the times their lives had been threatened, their homes destroyed, their friends and family killed.

They remembered every time the Charmed Ones had saved them.

And they remembered what Leo had done for the entire world during the Titans' attack.

Chris walked over to the table and sank into one of the chairs.

Wyatt, too, had remembered this. Before it had become clear just how far he had fallen, he had managed to unite many of the magical community behind him – and against the Elders and anyone else who stood in his way – by reminding them all of what his family had risked, and ultimately sacrificed, to protect them. He'd built himself an army of Good creatures, and only after they started abandoning him had he begun recruiting demons.

But Chris didn't want to think about that. He didn't want to think about how dangerously close this plan came to being something Wyatt would approve of. Manipulations, defiance, lies… But it was all for the Greater Good.

Right?

The army of magical creatures that the Charmed Ones had managed to gather would start attacking Lucifer's demons. Every time Lucifer tried to work with a demon or demonic clan, Lola would report the information and the Charmed Ones and their allies would be there to vanquish the enemies in question. Every time Lucifer tried to make a deal, Lola would report it and the Charmed Ones would stop the deal if possible.

But the plan relied on time. Time enough for Lucifer to realize that he had been betrayed. It would take him a while to know it was Lola. Her method of communicating with Chris by sending him scraps of paper with the names of demons on it would at least keep her free from the initial suspicion.

But once Lucifer figured out who it was, once he realized just how thoroughly she had betrayed him, how many of his demonic minions she had gotten vanquished, how many of his deals she had stopped…

He would be desperate to make sure that this betrayal did not become common knowledge, and he would come to the Charmed Ones with a deal just like he had in the gypsy legend.

Now all they had to do was wait.

Chris looked down at his transparent hands. This plan relied on time – and he didn't have much left.

Even if they succeeded at saving Leo, it might be too late to save him.

"Please," he whispered, not entirely sure who he was praying to, "if I disappear… let them forget. Don't let Piper remember me, don't let her remember that she couldn't save me. Let them forget that I ever existed at all."

"Chris?" Piper called the moment they orbed into the Manor. She was covered in mud and dirt and her clothes were stained with blood and singed by fire, but none of that mattered because they had just wiped out three different demonic clans – simultaneously. And not the kind of clan where vanquishing the king or the leader would destroy all the others. No, this had required tracking down each individual demon and vanquishing it.

She dropped Paige's hand and stepped away from her two sisters. She needed a hot shower and a fresh set of clothes. And an icepack because she was fairly certain her knee had twisted more than it should on that last vanquish. She probably also needed some disinfectant and bandages for all the cuts and scrapes that littered her skin.

Really, she just needed an entire first aid kit.

"Chris!" she called again, already heading for the stairs.

She wasn't sure why they had never considered the idea of creating an army of magical creatures before. She was fairly certain that many of them were pacifists and had only joined this once because of the dire need. And others had no training in fighting at all. But many did – and they were more powerful together than apart.

She shoved open the door to her bedroom. Paige and Phoebe hadn't followed her. She turned, about to call down to them, but then thought better of it. They were both injured, too, and there was no need to start discussing future strategies quite yet.

She glanced at the bed. She hadn't slept well in far too long, plagued by nightmares of Chris and Leo and Lucifer. Her mind gave her no respite from her fears; they only became more vivid and more painful at night.

The problem, she thought idly, might be the bed itself. It was too large for just one person, and every time she rolled over and felt the empty space where Leo used to sleep, it made everything so much worse.

Never mind the fact that Leo hadn't slept there in months.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and closed her eyes. She needed to talk to Chris, needed to figure out what to say and how to say it. Apologies were out of the question – she knew she had been lucky to manage the one earlier. She desperately wanted his forgiveness, but that wouldn't happen yet.

But what else could she say? Any conversation about Leo and Lucifer was focused entirely on strategy, and if she tried to bring up the more emotional aspects of it, she knew he would just orb away. Emotions in general were problematic, and talking about them would be treading on thin ice.

Did she bring up their previous conversation about his desire to return to the future? But that was dangerous, too, and she didn't want a repeat of their argument.

Besides, any mention of the future would lead to talk of Wyatt and Wyatt would just turn them back to Lucifer and ultimately Leo.

So what was left? What could she say? How could she convince him she loved him if everything important was off the table?

Something tingled along her spine and she froze. It was a feeling she couldn't quite place, as though her instincts were trying to tell her something. But whatever that something was, it was too vague for her to interpret.

Still… the feeling ran up the length of her spine and settled in her chest, weighing on her. It was pressing down on her heart, making it hard to breath, and filling her with dread. And faint anguish.

Whatever was happening, it wasn't good.

The anguish melted into an emptiness that expanded inside of her. Something was missing, some part of her had been torn away, and she had no idea what it was or how to get it back.

Her heart started racing. What was happening to her?

She inhaled slowly, closing her eyes and focusing on the sound of her breath. She willed her heart rate to return to normal, trying to relax even as she tensed her muscles. She didn't know what this was, but she wanted to be ready for it. All of her senses were open, prepared for anything.

And it was because of this that she felt the energy in the air and was already rising to her feet and turning towards the source as the figure appeared in front of her.

He was haggard and hunched over. His face was thin, his eyes sunken and shadowed by dark circles. His skin was too pale and his blonde hair flopped about messily. His blue eyes darted around nervously, bewildered.

Then landed on her and she watched as recognition flooded through his expression.

She could barely speak. "Leo?" she whispered, shocked. Hardly even daring to believe.

"Piper," he said hoarsely, stumbling forward. "Piper… I…"

It looked as though he wanted to say something but couldn't think of the words. She wanted to say things, too, but the sentences jumbled together in her mind and wouldn't form into anything coherent.

Her body moved of its own accord, and before she knew what was happening, she was kissing him. The rational part of her brain was yelling at her to be careful, to be suspicious, because everything was moving too quickly and Lucifer wasn't supposed to release Leo until the deal had been made, but as the two of them tumbled towards the bed, she decided it didn't really matter.

At least not right now.