"You have a good night's sleep?" said Piper when Chris walked into the kitchen, rubbing at his eyes.
"The couch is awful," he muttered under his breath. He sat and held out a hand, the fridge opened and orange juice flew into his hands. "But it's better than nothing. When are you guys going to expand the house anyway."
Piper couldn't help but snort at that. "How did we ever manage to do that? If you haven't noticed none of us exactly have jobs and it will only be a matter of time before our savings run out."
Chris shrugged taking a gulp of his juice. "Grandpa was very good at figuring out expenses," he said.
Piper hummed at that, moving to take a seat on the table. "I seem to notice that you don't discuss your father all that much," she said and Chris reacted, his shoulders squaring. "I know he's not dead, you seem to talk about us quite easily even with us being dead. But with him, it's another matter. Who was he? Or is?"
"Dad is Leo," he said slowly.
"Our whitelighter?" Piper said, surprised. "How did the Elders ever agree to that?"
"Breaking you apart seemed to be bad in the grander scheme," he said. "You and Dad really loved each other and you were prepared to fight the Elders if they clipped Dad's wings."
"I don't understand, though," said Piper. "From what I know of Leo he seems like a good guy. But from what I'm seeing from you…" She paused unable to put into words what she felt from him.
Chris sighed. "Dad is, was, an Elder in my timeline, which meant he looked over innocents, his charges and the lower whitelighters. It's kind of hard fitting your own kids in there."
"He was neglectful," said Piper.
Chris nodded. "I was fourteen when you guys died," he said, his voice wavering. "Not old enough that I truly appreciated you guys but…after that, things changed. My outlook on the world shifted. I remember you, Aunts Phoebe and Paige having to fight demons or protect people. But the moment me or Wyatt got a cold, skinned a knee we had your attention above and beyond the demons.
"I mean, outside looking in, that's bad. But for me, I loved it, I felt loved. And then you guys died and Dad spent moves of his time up there," he said gesturing at the sky. "It got so bad that grandpa was able to get custody with magic stopping him from getting us back. Not that he tried all that much," he muttered the last.
"There's more," said Piper, she could see it in the way he sat. The way he was playing with his orange juice. He looked up and ran his hand over his face, rubbing away at the creases that had formed.
"That's where it all started," he went on. "How bad my future got. Wyatt resented Grandpa for taking us away from Dad. It was small at first, but as we grew older it worked on the way he dealt with demons, all of it not helped by how powerful he is. Eventually Wyatt destroyed the reformed Source and its power transferred into him."
"Wyatt was the Source?" Piper said.
"Far worse than the Source, really," said Chris. "Far more powerful because he was thrice blessed in a manner of speaking, which means he had the equivalent power of the Charmed Ones on his own. In a matter of months he had demons under him, a year and he'd destroyed the Cleaners, another year and demons ruled this dimension."
"That's what you were trying to change."
Chris gave a slow nod, letting out a huff. "I'm twice blessed," he said. "With the powers of a witch and also the powers granted by the Elders, and maybe if I manoeuvred right I could have vanquished him. But I didn't really want to. Even at his worse he was still my brother and loved him. Even at his worst I was still his brother and he loved me. This seemed like the safest course of action. I didn't know that—"
"You would be leaving him behind to be killed," Piper said under her breath. She felt the anger there, rolling around in her but she pushed it down. It helped to think in the larger picture, not to focus on all of the emotional turmoil.
Chris let out his own shaky breath as he rubbed at his eyes. "Whatever you're cooking is going to burn," he said.
Piper nodded and got to her feet, finishing up breakfast and plating it. It wasn't too long after that they were joined by Prue and Phoebe, sharing a silence breakfast before Chris broke it.
"I think it might be time to start doing more," said Prue. "Talking in general terms is one thing but it might be a good idea we gather power."
"And money," said Chris. "I don't want to have to sleep on the couch for too long."
"Getting money will be a little hard," said Phoebe. "The Elders are still watching us, not to mention the Wiccan reed."
"There are ways around that," said Chris. "We're allowed to vanquish demons," he said. "Technically that's harming someone but we're given a pass on that. Demons have money, we can take it from them."
"Why would demons have money?" asked Prue.
"To buy things," said Chris with a look of confusion. "For their houses when they're above ground. I means sure, they can use magic for that, but there's only so much that can be achieved through magic before people start to notice, then you have the Cleaners after you."
"Like you do?" asked Phoebe. "How are we going to deal with that?"
"We're doing it again," said Piper. "We're spreading ourselves thin thinking on all the angles we have to take care off. Right now we should prioritise. Which is more important that we do first?"
"The money," said Chris.
"Cleaners," said Prue. Phoebe and Piper gave a nod at that. "So we deal with them first. The question becomes, how. What do you know about the Cleaners?"
"They're a group empowered by both good and evil," said Chris. "They ensure that magic isn't exposed to the world."
"That would make them twice blessed, right," said Piper. "By what you said before."
"Twice blessed?" said Prue.
"The sources of power you get your greater pool of powers is a blessing," said Chris. "Each of the magical speciations give blessing by being a parent. I'm twice blessed, Mom's a witch and Dad's a whitelighter."
"So in theory you could be able to handle them?" asked Prue.
"In theory," Chris agreed. "But in practice it's a whole other matter." He took a breath, looking at Piper before he said, "When Wyatt destroyed them he did it through allying the various forces of magic. People empowered by the Source's power, whitelighters who were fed up with the status quo and other darker creatures. Even then it was an outright war."
"A war isn't something we can have," said Phoebe. "It will be obvious and this timeline will be destroyed."
"That leaves us with only diplomacy," said Prue. "Harder because there's a larger room for error. How do the Cleaners work logistic wise?"
Chris shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "You and them didn't have the best track record, and then they were gone."
"Would it be strange if I asked Leo about that?" asked Piper.
Phoebe shook her head. "You already met one, it only makes sense. But he'll be curious between your story and that the Cleaners made an inquiry."
"Why don't you just look at the future," said Piper. "Get an idea of what their abilities are."
"Doesn't work like that," she said. "I think that I'm looking at other timelines instead of the future. That makes more sense. It could be that I'm creating other timelines every time I use future knowledge to get something."
"Then can't you gear that to just getting us the answers?" asked Prue.
"The only way I know where I can do that is living through those timelines and causing trouble," she said. "Which means putting in my hands the lives of countless people as those timelines become destroyed."
"Isn't worth the risk?" asked Chris. "We'll be more timelines more iterations in the future."
"True," said Piper. "But it's one thing to think about that in abstract and another to actually do it. I mean…" Piper sighed. "I know that at some point this timeline will be destroyed, but to actually go through with it is something I'm having trouble rationalising more and more as time passes."
"Oh…" said Chris. He looked at all of them before he held out a hand. "We'll, I think I can go through with it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Phoebe before she paled.
"This is for the greater good. Hearts," said Chris and promptly, all three sisters dropped.
Chris got to his feet, feeling a discomfort in his stomach. He didn't like what he did and most likely they wouldn't like it too, but information could be useful the next timeline over.
888
AN: Chris Perry Halliwell is pragmatic as fuck. This is totally in character.