Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chris Halliwell had experienced a lot of weird things in his life.

Being a Halliwell came with a lot of extras to begin with. Magical beings regularly coming for help, for one. Demons trying to ruin breakfast every now and then. An all-powerful older brother who could probably turn the world inside out with a thought if he wanted to, and a little sister who could be kind of a headache, really. And this is without counting all the cousins and his parents’ and his aunts’ and uncles’ and—

His life was weird.

That said, this part wasn’t all bad - you would get used to it, if that was all you knew all your life, at least. Just because your mom was an all-powerful witch, who could explode things with a flick of her wrist… well, that was not the scariest thing about her, if she was your mother.

(Try trying to hide the fact that you ate the last cookies from her, when she explicitly said not to.)

(To be fair to Chris, it was a dare, and Wyatt started it, and Mel also was an accomplice.)

And said all-powerful older brother kind of loses all the mythicism around him when you figure out he had like a single brain cell bouncing around in his head like a DVD logo. Maybe three, if Chris was feeling generous.

Also, Chris had seen him being turned into magical beings and possessed a lot. Together with outfits. He took pictures. He would never let Wyatt live down that time when he got turned into a centaur, for one.

But all of this… was just part of being a Halliwell.

Being Chris Halliwell included something else.

It was odd, growing up, and hearing stories about your future self.

The future where that Chris came from was not Chris’ future, everyone was sure of that. Well, for one, his mom was still alive, and eventually she admitted to Chris, that apparently in the old timeline she died when Chris was fourteen.

Probably a smart choice, she didn’t tell him this until after Chris turned fifteen.

Didn’t stop the nightmares, though.

Ah, yes.

The nightmares.

There were multiple alternate futures, bad potential outcomes, Chris knew about it. He heard about the possible timeline where Aunt Phoebe would have been burnt at the stake, for example.

None of them seemed to get into Chris’ mind as much as this one did.

At first, it made sense that he’d eventually dream about the stories he was told - but then the dreams get more and more vivid, of a future that never was, a ruined San Francisco, a Wyatt who radiated malice with his every step, and even about the past from before he was born, of his own family looking at him with suspicion, and even about dying—

And a woman with long brown hair and a tattoo on her wrist.

Then he would wake up, the city would be fine, and Wyatt would be in the kitchen making sure they weren’t running out of ingredients for potions, and the nightmares still would not fade.

“Do you think it would make sense for me to remember what that… future me experienced?”

Wyatt stopped on his tracks, and he looked at Chris, with big, round puppy eyes like he always did whenever the bad future was brought up, like he had anything to apologise for.

“I don’t know. Time travel is sort of… a sticky kind of magic isn’t it? And what you— that other you did, is kind of unprecedented. And magic does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t it?”

Magic does what magic does, and people always said it might not work how you expected it to work, but always works how it should.

So he asked Aunt Phoebe about it, and the woman in his dreams.

And she looked… conflicted.

“...not sure how much I should tell you about that. What that Chris experienced… will be different from yours.”

“Obviously,” Chris muttered. “Would still like to know about it, as this is affecting me.”

Aunt Phoebe sighed.

“Her name was Bianca. She’s from a witch family who specialise at being assassins. She’s… well a child when future-you visited, but him and future-her were… close.”

There was an implication behind Aunt Phoebe’s words.

“What happened to her?”

“I don’t know,” She shook her head. “She came back from the future to take future-you back, and when future-you came back alone, all he was willing to say, that she won’t be a problem anymore. But I’m certain that… he was in a lot of pain. He blocked me off from sensing his emotions most of the time, but those feelings broke through.”

Well.

Wasn’t that just a kick in the chest.

So future-him had a girlfriend, who probably died. Judging by the track record, Wyatt probably had something to do with it.

…better not tell Wyatt about it.

He already felt enough guilt about a future that never came to pass.

Besides, odds are he won’t even meet an assassin witch in this lifetime.

Then of course, destiny is kind of funny.

But he didn’t quite expect her to show up one day, when Chris was investigating in the Underworld, and stab him in the shoulder.

To be fair, he was sure she wasn’t aiming for his shoulder. No, she was aiming for his chest, but Chris managed to react quickly enough to knock her hand to the side just enough.

Still was painful, though.

Chris grabbed the dagger, before pushing her away with her power, making her fly backwards and let go of the dagger. So he yanked the blade out of his shoulder, and he could jump after her, holding the dagger to her throat.

“Is this really something you thought through?”

Bianca’s eyes widened.

“No, oh no. You cannot be a Halliwell.”

“Well. I am. Sorry for the bad news.”

Bianca actually looked distraught, so Chris cautiously stood away, still holding the dagger that used to be in his shoulder, as her hands running through her hair, silently cursing to herself.

Chris took a deep breath, trying to ignore the way his shoulder was hurting.

“Let me guess. You weren’t told your target was a Halliwell.”

“Of course not!” Bianca snapped. “I was just told that a pesky, nosy little witch with no real powers to write home about would be here and being too much of a problem.”

“...that description is a little close to home, I guess, so ouch.”

“I have no intention of having the Halliwells hunt me down as long as I live!”

“Granted, it wouldn’t be for much longer, if I were to die,” Chris admitted, spinning the dagger in his hand before reaching it out towards Bianca, who looked at him dubiously. “So let’s make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“You help me find the ones who hired you, and I make sure you get no repercussions for stabbing me. And you even get your dagger back.”

Bianca looked like she wanted to argue.

She couldn’t.

Not quite a meet cute now, is it?

And yet, that first meeting was followed by another and another and then—

Chapter Text

Bianca never thought she would ever fall in love with a mark.

It was such a cliché, wasn’t it? Hated those in the movies. Assassins falling in love with people they were supposed to kill.

He didn’t want to fight her. He wanted to find the people who hired Bianca. She thought that was going to be it.

Then they ran into each other again.

And again.

And again.

It was such a cliché.

And really. A Halliwell was more headache than they were worth, she thought. And yeah. It wasn’t wrong.

There was something odd about the way the Halliwells looked at her, the protectiveness they showed towards Chris.

Sure they looked at her odd, but they knew who she was, what she was, that made sense.

They probably also knew she stabbed Chris the first time they met.

Dating a Halliwell was almost more stupid than trying to kill one, and yet, running into Chris Halliwell over and over again in the Underworld, him going after the same targets she was hired to hunt.

And thing was - they worked well together. Chris was clever and dedicated, and still powerful.

So slowly but surely… this is how it ended up.

There was still something off. Something she couldn’t put her finger on, from Piper Halliwell’s scornful eyes, and Wyatt Halliwell was just odd around her.

“You don’t have to worry about it,” Chris told her when she asked her. “They are just… very overprotective. Halliwells often end up making bad choices that get them hurt.”

“Am I a bad choice?”

“Of course not,” Chris sighed. “But this always happens if one of us gets to date. It’s not targeted at you. They’ll learn to trust you. They just… have seen a lot of awful things.”

It explained everything and yet…

Bianca wasn’t satisfied.

Well nothing bad could come from a vision quest, could it?

If nothing else, maybe she could find a way to make the family accept her easier. To find how to make them trust her.

You never know what you see during a vision quest.

But she did not expect this voice.

“Are you sure this is something you want?”

Bianca jumped, looking around and - there was Chris standing in the doorframe.

Well. It was Chris - but looked somewhat different. The Chris that Bianca knew had his hair way shorter than this one, and her boyfriend also had a bit of stubble, while this Chris was clean-shaven.

“...Chris?”

“More or less,” Chris shrugged. “I’m an echo.”

And then he was gone.

Well, just as cagey as ever.

Anyway, Bianca stood up and walked through the door.

The place she appeared was… a pretty spot in San Francisco she was fond of. Shame Chris didn’t seem to like it.

Only everything was in ruins.

And only now there was Chris again in the vision - the weird, clean-shaven Chris was there, looking at her, with a deep sadness in his eyes.

“...Chris?”

“Sorry for dragging you to our spot like this,” Chris sighed. “I don’t know how long we can do this either way. Meet here, I mean.”

“Why?”

“Because he is destroying everything,” Chris’ voice was bitter. “But I have a plan. There is one way we can fix this.”

“How?”

“I’ll travel back in time,” Chris said, standing up to look at her. “I’ll stop Wyatt from turning evil.”

The world shifted.

For a moment Bianca was in pain, lying on her back, and she was bleeding, there was something sticking out from her, and then Chris was there, struggling, leaning over her and—

Then it shifted again, and she was back in the room she started, and the clean-shaven Chris was there.

“It was… another future.”

“A future that never happened.”

“And you are—

“As I said. A magical echo. An imprint in the fabric of reality.”

As if that explained anything.

So. Bianca was going to have to talk to Chris about this.

So they went to the place that was their spot in that other lifetime, sitting down, taking a selfie of himself, sending it to Chris.

It didn’t take long for him to show up in a flurry of bright light.

And from seeing his face, Bianca knew that he knew.

He knew that Bianca knew.

“So. Is this where you are going to ask me how I know of this spot?”

Chris sighed, putting his hands in his pockets, walking over to Bianca, sitting down next to her.

“You’ll tell me anyway.”

“You wouldn’t tell me why your family was weird about me. It’s because they met me before, didn’t they? Me from another future.”

“Yeah.”

“And they didn’t like that version of me.”

Chris was silent for a few moments.

“That future forced people to act in harsh ways to survive.”

“How do you remember?”

“I don’t know,” Chris shook his head. “It just slowly… slipped through the cracks to me through my life.”

“So when we met—”

Bianca started, and then Chris groaned, running his fingers through his hair.

“I didn’t— Okay. I don’t remember everything. But I figured that… maybe we wouldn’t even meet in this lifetime and even if we do, we aren’t the same people. And it wouldn’t have been fair to you.”

“Fair to me?” Bianca frowned.

“I don’t remember a lot but I do remember some things. I already know what it’s like to live under the shadow of a different life. Didn’t want to put it on someone else.”

“...and yet.”

“And yet,” Chris nodded slowly.

“Maybe it’s our destiny to meet.”

“I could summon the Angel of Destiny to ask them if you want to.”

“I’d rather not.”

Bianca reached out, and took Chris’ hand.

“No more secrets?”

“Depends on what you found out.”

“Chris.”

Chris gave her a half-smile, leaning forward, kissing her forehead.

“Alright. No more secrets.”

She'd ask him more about what happened, what he experienced later. She would. Because there was something in Chris' eyes, a burden that he still carried, even though this was nothing but an echo in this lifetime, and Bianca wanted to help him ease that burden at least a litte.

She'd ask him about it later.

Now, she was just content with touching their foreheads together, and just sitting there.

And... well. Maybe this could be their spot too.