Chapter Text
Piper didn’t even think twice about it. By this point in her witch career, her powers were second nature, searching the book in the attic a habit, and the obvious response to an annoying whitelighter was trigger-fast. “For the last time, Chris,” Piper warned. “Wyatt’s got his playgroup; we’ve got no time for whatever demon you want…”
“Just a little one!” Chris hurried after her. He’d orbed in not long ago, immediately starting to shuffle through the book to point at his newest prey for the Charmed Sisters to hunt for him. Piper was over this slavedriver. Sure, over the last few months she'd gotten kind of fond of him, but she had other things to do. But Chris was not letting her go. “My sources say…”
“If it’s a little one it can’t be a big problem, can it?”
“But they’re gathering…”
“Enough!” Piper didn’t even look over her shoulder as she flicked her hands back. Leo usually got the hint after he reformed to buzz off.
Chris gasped dramatically behind her. Piper almost rolled her eyes. He got what he deserved for pestering her so endlessly.
The dull thud was unexpected. It was the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the floor. Her plan for slamming shut a door, and rushing down to Wyatt downstairs, was entirely forgotten as Piper spun back.
Chris was on the ground, looking up at her in shock and betrayal. His face was contorted in pain, his eyes flickering open and shut, barely conscious. One arm held a bloody mess over his stomach.
Why wasn’t he orbs? How was he so injured from her powers? This had never—
“LEO!” Piper rushed forward and sank through her shaky knees. “LEO NOW. HELP!” Her hands pushed down on the wound she created. The bleeding was relentless, soaking into the carpet and hardwood faster than she could ever hope to stop it. Frantic, she looked around for anything that could help stop the bleeding, but wrapping this up in bandages would not suffice. He was bleeding out fast, and losing consciousness quicker. “LEO, please…”
Chris scoffed. “Wouldn… wouldn’t hold my… breath.”
“Chris I’m so…No!” The young man’s eyes rolled back and his breathing went from shaky to scary even and slow.
Blue orbs spiraled down. Before Leo had fully materialized Piper reached out and pulled her ex-husband down. “Heal!” she ordered, voice breaking.
Leo’s eyes widened and immediately got to work. His hands drifted over the wound and the glow slowly started stitching Chris together. “What happened?” he asked, worried.
Piper shook her head. Her vision blurred and words stuck in her throat. None of the questions mattered anymore at the horror of what she’d caused.
Footsteps hurried up the stairs as Paige and Phoebe had been alerted by the yelling.
“Oh my god,” Phoebe rushed to Chris’ side and brushed the whitelighter’s hair back. Chris’ face was still in agony, but at least seemed conscious again. “What…?”
Paige was not far behind, scouring the area for any remaining demons. “Who attacked? Are you okay, Piper?”
Piper only shook her head again. Her hands were shaking beyond any function. She’d done this. Without a thought, she’d nearly killed him.
“Piper…” Phoebe said softly, clutching her chest.
Abruptly Piper got to her feet and staggered back. She couldn’t.
Chris’ eyes fluttered open. Then he jolted up, away from Leo’s hands. He quickly scanned the room and patted himself down. Finally, his eyes met Piper’s.
“Chris…” Before Piper could say anything, Chis orbed away. The look on his face would forever remain in her memories.
“No!” Phoebe gasped, reaching for where the man had been. “Leo. Leo, we have to follow him, now.”
“What…” Leo tried, as Phoebe attached herself to his arm.
“Go go go!”
“Did you get something?” Paige asked.
Phoebe nodded. “I could feel him. He’s… not doing good.” Her eyes flickered from Paige to Piper. “You stay. We’ll go. Find the demon.” She hip-bumped Leo. “Let’s go, come on.”
Leto glanced around but was outvoted as Paige shooed him away. The pair orbed off.
Carefully Paige took Piper by the shoulders and steered her away from the attic.
“There you go…” Paige led Piper to the edge of her bed and helped her sit down. There was still no response from her eldest sister, who was pale and shaking. Paige sat down next to her, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. “It’s okay, Piper. Chris got healed.”
Piper shook her head violently. Nothing was okay. That argument was nothing. Chris was literally just a bit annoying, but overall this man had come from the future to save her son. Why had her instincts become so violent? She struck out over nothing and it almost cost…
“Hey hey…” Paige hugged her when sobs broke Piper’s body again.
When Piper finally calmed a bit, Paige orbed down for a cup of tea, which she pressed into Piper’s hands. “Sweetie, I’m going to need you to tell me what happened. Were you attacked? Do we need to go fight a demon?”
Drained, Piper only sighed. Finally, she looked at Paige and said, “I think I now know what would happen if I tried to blow you up.”
“Why would…. Oh. Ooooohhh. No!” Piper watched the same shock, questions, and confusion settle over Paige, mixed with a bit of joy or relief. “He’s like me?”
“I think so,” Piper confirmed. “Otherwise…”
“So you…”
Her hands clamped around the mug. “Yes.”
“You didn’t know,” Paige hugged her again. Piper leaned into the comfort, but she wasn’t sure if her ignorance made it in any way okay.
There were few words to describe the pain of being blown up by your mother. The physical pain, sure. Honestly, he’d had worse under Wyatt. That betrayal had stung bone-deep, but mom? That might break him.
Chris staggered into his room in P3. As soon as his orbs landed he held onto his desk to stay upright. Even though he was physically fine now, his head was dizzy and the room was spinning. Everything was so wrong. Everything was wrong in the future, and everything was wrong here. Had it always been wrong? Maybe this was right, and he’s the one who’s always been wrong.
Chris cursed to himself and sat down. He looked around the mess of a room: the scattered papers and notes, a shit mattress in the corner of a beer-smelling sticky club backroom, and posters of musicians who’d been past their prime before he’d even been born. What was he even doing? He’d made no progress and the sisters didn’t just mistrust him - they hated him. Leo, of all people, had healed him. For once.
Though he doubted that if he’d been the one calling and not Piper, it wouldn’t have been the same.
He still had no idea what he was doing. He was striking out in the dark and all he seemed to be destroying were his own bridges. The smell of beer was at the moment the only lead he had to any inspiration.
Orbs jingled into the space, crowding him against his desk further as he desperately tried to back away from Leo and Phoebe.
Phoebe quickly stepped towards him, while Leo seemed absolutely disinterested in being here. That at least was familiar.
“What do you want?” Chris snapped brusquely.
“Chris, you almost… We just want to talk.”
“Future consequences.”
“About today.”
Yeah, he had no intention of doing that.
“You must be so…” for once his aunt couldn’t choose her words. If Chris hadn’t been overcome by his own emotions, he might have noticed that Phoebe was too.
“I must be what, Phoebe?” he cut in instead. He grabbed an armful of his notes from the desk and glared back at Leo. Of all the times for his father to follow him, this was not the right time. So of course, the universe had laughed at him. “The only thing I must be is going.” So he fled. Phoebe called out for him once more, but he orbed far away. He’d give them their space.
He’d thought he could do this. That maybe he could save Wyatt, save the world, and make his parents proud for once. One year to undo a lifetime of mistakes and failures.
No fuck that. He’d done it without them, before. He’d built up the resistance. They’d made this plan. He was the only one who could possibly do this.
His feet landed on the dusty ground of the underworld.
For all Wyatt talked about power, Chris understood quite well where power came from. There was one form people talked about less. Underestimation was an advantage, that was well known. But in loneliness, in desperation, there was the knowledge that there was no one to stop you. And no one to care if he failed. Wyatt wasn’t held back by stupid morality, but Chris wasn’t held back by restricting self-preservation.
“You’ve got this, Phoebe,” Leo gently reassured his ex-sister-in-law. She nodded shakily. As soon as Chris had left the room, she’d collapsed. He’d guided her through regaining control of her breath and emotions, and now eased her back to her feet.
“I’ve never felt him like that.”
“You usually don’t feel him at all, right?” Leo had a strong idea of how that came to be, but right now Phoebe’s well-being was more important. The sisters were extremely rattled by today, yet he still didn’t understand what happened. Attacks happened all the time.
“Must have been because he was so close to death.” Phoebe leaned on him and breathed out slowly. “Okay. Okay, I’m good.”
“What did you feel?”
She held her hands to her chest as if the memory was equally intense. “So much. I was afraid he’d… He’s not doing okay, Leo. Not at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s scared. He’s so scared. Angry too. I think… He’d have rather died than be healed by you.” His investigations had pissed the whitelighter off for sure and Leo disliked the man too, but that was surprising. “I’m glad I’m not channeling directly anymore and just feeling or I’m sure I would have clocked you.”
“Great.”
“Like seriously throw you into a wall and just keep going.”
“Phoebe.” It wasn’t like Leo hadn’t done the same thing when he’d returned from Valhalla, but for Chris to hate him that much must have more reason. Yet Leo couldn’t put his finger on it. The things that just weren’t quite right about Chris Perry kept piling up. “He’s scared? Of being found out?”
“No Leo. It’s like… a base state underlying it all. Fear as a standard state. Like he’s had to be for a long time. But back at the manor, it broke to the surface, layered with this betrayal and guilt and grief. And here too, with shame, and a lot of determination.”
As much as Leo didn’t want to recognize that description, he knew it too well. He’d known it in his fellow soldiers when he was alive, and so many of his charges since. People with evil intent were less likely to identify with shame or guilt.
Maybe his stories of being from a broken future weren’t fabrications.
“Let’s go home.” Phoebe clung to his arm and Leo hugged her back. She needed it.
They orbed to the attic and found it empty. For a moment Leo panicked before sensing Piper just below them.
In her (their) bedroom Piper and Paige discussed something in low tones. Though Piper still was shaken, she wasn’t fully panicking anymore.
Phoebe threw herself at the two, landing starfished on the bed. Piper brushed her hand over her hair absently and Phoebe sighed contently.
“Leo,” Piper turned to where Leo watched from the doorway. “What does it feel like when I blow you up?”
Leo shrugged, confused. “Kinda hurts, but mostly just uncomfortable and itchy.” At Piper’s solemn nod and Paige’s thoughtful stare, he finally got it. One of the things that had never made sense about Chris. He didn’t act like a whitelighter. He was reckless but nervous about becoming injured when it shouldn’t matter. He was young. He was young. “He’s…?”
Paige nodded. “New working theory.”
“But why?” Leo asked. “Why would he lie and why be here?”
Piper shook her head with a snarl, mostly to herself, “He’s here to help Wyatt and I kill him?”
Leo sank to his knees before her, placing his hands over hers. “He’s alive. We saw him. Piper, he impersonated being a whitelighter to manipulate us. He’s not trustworthy.”
“Doesn’t mean… I’d like to be alone now.” Piper walked out to go hold her baby.