Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A young girl was sitting at the bar’s stool, her drink still untouched in front of her.

Looking at her own reflection in the mirror in front of her with a regretful expression on her face, she gulped  her drink to ease the feeling.

Regret.

It wasn’t a feeling Bianca McKenzie was used to. If there was a thing her mother had taught her, it was to never regret anything.

Ever.

Regrets weren’t known for showing people the right way, they would only bring one on the brink of destruction.  Problems were to be faced head first, with a strong soul.

Like her mother had faced their Phoenix coven all those years ago, to free her little girl of the burden an assassin witch had to bear, to give her a normal life.  Or at least as normal as a Phoenix witch could ever hope to have.

The coven had accepted - after some ass kicking on her mother's part- that the McKenzie wouldn’t be put on their list of Phoenix assassins on the promise that they’d still honour their heritage.  Which meant that her mother Lynn had to teach Bianca all about witchcraft and the Phoenixes’ fighting style and history.  Something that in the end turned out to be quite useful, since it soon became clear that any witch that wasn’t killing innocents became automatically a target in any demon’s book.
           
Bianca didn’t mind too much, getting rid of those demons meant that she had saved the life of some innocent soul out there.  In the beginning she was downright scared of killing, she was afraid that the assassin in her would surface and transform her into a monster. Her mother had taken away that fear. 

She had explained how the rush of excitement that surfaced during a kill would never make up for the feeling of disgust that came afterward. How the blood of your victim may be washed away from your hands, but never from your soul.

The blood of an innocent could never be washed away, she had said with a faraway look.

She was grateful to her mother, it was only thanks to her that she’d never have to endure such pain.

Bianca only killed demons that came after her or her mother…and the occasional demons she saw threatening innocents, but  nobody needed to know that. As a Phoenix she wasn’t supposed to care about what happened to mortals: that was the one basic belief that all Phoenixes’ covens had in common. Since mortals had persecuted witches and killed them without a second thought, her ancestors gave up on them as they couldn’t see them as innocents anymore.

She knew all this, but the first time she saw a girl walk with a demon in a dark alley she couldn’t stop herself. How could she just leave the poor girl? It would have been no different than killing her herself.

All things considered she had lived a pretty normal life, she never came in contact with the magical world too much. The only other witches she had ever met were either Phoenixes or the rare good witches that came to ask for help.

Taking another sip of her drink, her eyes turned to the mirror again. Her once brown hair now held a copper hue that looked like red paint in her mind’s eye.
What possessed her to do something so stupid!

The happy jumpy coiffeur should have been warning enough, her bubbly look alone should have sent her running out of that stupid pink coloured shop right away.

“Owww…why don’t ya try something new gal?”  The redhead hairdresser had looked her up and down, examining her attire.

“A plain look never keeps a boy attention for too long, ya know!” She said in a sing song voice.

Bianca almost strangled her right there to make her stupid giggles stop, she was lucky there were so many witnesses. She took a calming breath and smiled at the, still giggling, girl .

“Must be why I never found it hard then”, the girl- Bunny( are you serious?)- didn’t seem to notice the murderous gaze Bianca was giving her.

"Oh well, come on! I’ve seen that boyfriend of yours!” And she looked at her with wide eyes, as if that explained everything. The confused look on Bianca’s face was pretty clear ‘cause even Bunny caught on.

“Come on! I mean, have you seen the boy? When he dropped you here last time even the old ladies were drooling after him!” At the shell shocked expression on Bianca face she added “ He’s like, smoking gal!”

Bianca would have gladly punched the lecherous smirk off that trump by that point. Stupid witnesses!

“Your dark mysterious look caught his eye, but…don’t you want him to… like, stick around?” she smiled this bright smile, that could have lit all of San Francisco and said: “Don’t worry! You’re in the right place!”

It was all the stupid petty girl’s fault, really! She had shocked her into submission. She could barely utter a word after that, and the stupid girl took full advantage of it. She was lucky Bianca was so shocked, otherwise she’d have pounced on her.
 
Right now she was really regretting not doing just that.

Bianca sighed again looking at herself. What the hell was wrong with her! She didn’t act like this! Ever.
Not even when she had been an hormonal thirteen years old! Since when did she start acting all insecure about her looks!?!?
What would she have done if she’d actually met him when she was thirteen? Fallen at his feet…literally? Though, back then he would have been eight so maybe she would have fared ...Oh boy, eight! Let’s not even go there!

She needed to calm down before he arrived. Meditation wasn’t exactly a Phoenix’s specialty, but she was gonna try.

Then again, losing her cool like that wasn’t normal Phoenix behavior either. Nor was it normal letting anybody play her like that girl had…maybe she was a demon…or some sort of evil witch? She should go back and vanquish her before she got her hands on some innocent girl.

She snorted at her own thoughts.

Yeah, an evil witch that planned to make everybody’s hair look awful. She was starting to lose her mind, there was no other explanation… she’d even begun to see demons everywhere lately. If she didn’t knew better she’d have sworn a demon had shimmered in her apartment the previous night while they were…er…watching a movie?

It was all that silly girl fault! She was gonna hunt her down tomorrow and make her put everything back in place, starting from the hair! And she was gonna do it for free, that’s for sure! Who the hell did she think she was?!?! Like she didn’t know herself that her boyfriend was good looking, handsome, downright smoking.

With those soulful green eyes that seemed to be able to set her on fire every time he looked her way, the wild dark brown hair through which she loved to run her fingers and those lips of his that he knew exactly how to angle to form that charming smirk, that melted her every time. Not to mention all the things he could do with those lips of his.

Okay, no! This was not the place to be thinking about that or about the way his hands …

She had to get a grip, before he came in or she'd end up jumping him inthe middle of the bar. It was really too bad that she couldn't thing of a reason why that would be a bad idea.

She looked around to see if anybody had noticed her strange behavior. It didn’t look like it, but she was pretty sure she had looked like a lunatic the whole time. The bargirl was looking her way with a strange expression, but maybe it was just her crazy mind playing tricks on her.

The bargirl though seemed to prove her right by coming near her.

“ You want a refill?” She said with a lazy smile.

Bianca looked down at her glass with a frown. She had finished the drink without noticing.

“Oh! Yeah, sure.” She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. It looked like her ability to talk had been reduced at that of a shy 4 years old girl today. Had she cast a de-aging spell on herself and forgot about it? 

The bargirl voice snapped her out of her musings yet again.

“Boyfriend running late?” The somewhat annoyed tone clearly told her the girl’s own boyfriend wasn’t exactly prone on punctuality. She had to bit her lip not to laugh at the idea of him being late for anything.

“Actually I came early. I’m usually the one late,” she added just to see the girl’s reaction. Which right on time was one of surprise and skepticism. That boyfriend of her must have done a number on her. Poor girl. But Bianca being…well…Bianca couldn’t help but add with a smug smirk “He’s like a Swiss clock usually. Never lets me down.”

The girl was now looking at her like she was from another planet. Again she had to suppress the laugh she felt was bubbling up. It was always fun for her to see the expression on the other girls’ faces when she talked about him like this. And that’s before they actually saw him. This game of hers always made her oddly giddy.

She was woken up from her daydream by two arms sliding around her waist from behind. She looked up to see the expression on the bargirl’s face.

Yep! There it was. Open mouth, breath held, round eyes. Bianca’s pretty sure the girl was gonna leave her boyfriend within the week. I mean, why can’t she find someone like that too?

His soft breath pulled her out of her game. “Hey red head!” She groaned then, she could feel the smirk on his lips without looking at him.

Bianca pulled her head down and twisted to meet his eyes with a scowl. His smirk became even more accentuated. She rolled her eyes while pulling fully back to face him. She looked him up and down with an arched eyebrow:

“I’ve decided you’re entirely responsible.” She said evenly, crossing her arms.

Pulling back too and mimicking her stance he just smiled at her. “ May I ask what exactly are the imputations Judge Flame?”

Her scowl deepened, which only made him smirk again.

“You’re driving me crazy!”  Her exasperated voice only managed to make him laugh. She playfully slapped his shoulder, but could barely hold her own smile.

“It looks like you’re enjoying this.”

“Well now I have to confess that was my evil plan all along. Feels good to accomplish it!”  How she hated that smug smirk!

“ You want a standing ovation?” She asked in an half annoyed, half playful voice.

Suddenly he’s leaning toward her, his lips an inch away from her ear.

“I’m sure you can come up with a great prize,” he smiled wickedly at her.

“Halliwell!”

Chapter Text

The last week had been the most stressful he had ever had, at least since his mother had caught him and his brother going to the Underworld as teenagers. On their own.

It hadn’t been pretty, he still felt shivers running down his spine just thinking about it. Half of the furniture was lost in her explosive rage.

After that she had followed their every move, night and day, for weeks. To say they were grounded after pulling that stunt could make one win the understatement of the year award.

But this? It was even worst.

The first six months of being with Bianca had been pure bliss. Pure, demon free, full of hot making out sessions and even more amazing sessions bliss. Now it seemed word had spread around about his happy state and it had been decided to put an end to it.

He would have gladly accepted Fate’s invite for that particular reunion, but it seemed his opinion hadn’t been required.
Because, as he had learned years ago: Halliwell plus relaxation equaled to low level demon attack; Halliwell plus happiness? It equaled to several high level demons’ attacks of course!

Weren’t they scared of getting predictable?
Nah! If that was the case they’d drop the black attire obsession. And what was up with their accent? The stronger they were the weirder they spoke!

Anyway, back on track: Bianca.

Every time he had been with her in the last two weeks, there had been an improvise family emergency. By now she had probably made up her mind and figured  his family was made out of a bunch of head cases.

They were blissfully making out and guess what? Yeah, how did you know? A demon attacked the cousins!

They were at the movies and an army of goblins attacked the magical community.
Moreover… why exactly did they call him, again? Why not call -and he was just throwing a name out there- the bloody witch with the legendary sword!
 
They’re spending a romantic evening together that took him days to organize, if anyone up there cared enough to know, and the twins got turned into dryads.
 Never again he would set foot in a forest!
Never. Again.

Last night however was the last drop.
He and Bianca were watching a movie- yes, he was actually gonna stick to this story- at Bianca’s, when a demon shimmered in!

It had been extremely fun having to explain why, all of the sudden, he wasn’t interested in the movie.
Almost, almost as funny as explaining to his mother and aunts and the whole freaking family, why he had orbed a demon in their living room and why it took him 30 minutes to show up, while wearing his shirt inside out.

He had to cool down at the very least!

The snickers that came from his brother and the disgusted faces his sister some of his cousins pulled, told him he was never going to live it down.

Joy!

Next time he was just going to orb the damn demon in his brother’s bed. Let’s see him laugh then!

He internally scowled at himself, he wasn’t going to ruin another date. It would take an innocent dying in front of his very eyes to drag him away from Bianca this time.

He put aside the murdering thoughts entering the bar where they usually met for coffee and scanned the area to find his girlfriend. But he didn’t see her. Not really that strange, she was never on time.

However it was strange since she had told him she only had to go to the hairdresser.  He headed to the bar stool to wait when he saw her.
She was looking at the mirror with an angry frown, while the bargirl refilled her drink.

He smirked then. Judging from the looks of it, the new shiny red in her hair was not what she had in mind when she went to the hairdresser. He just hoped whoever did this was still able to use all of his/her arts.
Considering his girlfriend’s temper he was pretty sure he’ll have to face at least one angry coiffeur in the near future.

He sighed leaning against the wall without taking his eyes off her.  He watched the different range of emotions that were crossing her face and he was really tempted to read her mind.

Sometime this need to respect other people’s private life was simply tiresome, he blamed it all on his Aunt Phoebe.

****************

“Being able to read people’s minds, like feeling their emotions is a great responsibility. What would you feel like if someone knew what you were gonna do even before you did twenty-four-seven?”

“Not so great,” a ten years old Chris had mumbled.

“Indeed. That’s why you always have to use  your power carefully. Never forget that,” she had said with her most sweet voice.

****************

Of course now he had a better idea of the reason why his Aunt had been so anxious to teach him that lesson. At ten he hadn’t been able to understand her thoughts, but now he sure could.

The plans she has been making for her evening with Uncle Coop, weren’t exactly PG. He had to stop himself from laughing at the image of his mother discovering what exactly his son had read in her sister’s mind.

Piper Halliwell was an unstoppable force of nature when protecting her children, even if it meant she had to forcefully smack some sense in her sisters.

Maybe he should have told her. Poor Aunt Paige was the only one to meet his mother’s fury most of the time. Or more like all the time. The price to pay to be the cool Aunt.

He sighed a heavy sigh. Being a witch was such a huge part of his life, a huge part of what he was.

He had to tell Bianca about it.

Before it had been easy to lie, with his friends and the non-magical ex-girlfriends.

But Bianca was different, he was different when with her. He felt like telling things to her he never said to anybody, not even his siblings.

He realized he must have being standing there for quite a while, so he snapped out of it looking around self-consciously. He was never confortable when he knew he was attracting attention.
He moved to sneak behind Bianca for a hug.

“Hey, red head!” She groaned. He knew she had been preparing herself for all the nicknames that he was sure to come up with.

She put her head on his shoulder and he tightened his hold a little bit before she untangled herself and turned to look at him. He smirked and of course, she was rolling her eyes the next second. He took his time to take a good look at her while she looked him up and down, he knew she’d be way too on edge because of the new hair-do for him to do that afterward.

She snapped him out of it too soon for his liking.

“I’ve decided you’re entirely responsible!” She said crossing her arms in that stance he loved, so he copied her.

“May I ask what exactly are the imputations, judge Flame?”

He couldn’t really help it, she was hot when she scowled. Well… she was hot even while doing the dishes, or was simply standing there or sitting or even better when she was sprawled on her bed...back on track! He couldn’t afford to be distracted now.

Talking with her was even more fascinating then battling high level demons. Of course the reward didn’t even begin to compare. No offense to the innocent lives saved.

“You’re driving me crazy!” Her exasperated voice only made him laugh. She playfully slapped his shoulder, but he could see the smile she was desperately trying to suppress.

“It looks like you’re enjoying this.” He truly was, he loved how they could act this way around each other without effort. They had clicked together from the start.

“Well, now I have to confess that has been my evil plan all along. Feels good to accomplish it though!” He held his hands up smirking down at her.

“ You want a standing ovation?” The amused and yet irritated expression that crossed her face was too much to resist. He leaned towards her, his lips an inch away from her ear.

“I’m sure you can come up with a great prize.” He smiled wickedly at her.

“Halliwell!”

He didn’t even notice the way the bargirl was looking at him the whole time, nor did he notice the look an elderly couple had been giving them.

Chapter Text

Their little dispute didn’t go unnoticed by the other people in the bar at all. Of course Bianca was the first one to notice the odd looks they had managed to gain in such a short time, so she grabbed him by the arm and proceeded to drag him out of the place. When they put what seemed to her as a safe distance between them and the bar, she let go of his arm and spun around to look at him before he even had the time to blink.

She always movedwith such speed and agility, but Chris couldn’t help but marvel at it every time.

He opened his mouth to ask just how she had done it, but slowly clamped it shut when he saw the stance she had taken. Arms akimbo, lips pursed…yep! Nothing good was gonna come his way! It hadn’t took long for him to learn how to read Bianca’s movements. After six  months of dating, he could read her as if he had known her his whole life. Which turned out to be a great thing, since in Bianca’s book an ignorant man became a dead man pretty fast. Or even worst he’d get kicked out of her life.

“I liked their espresso, you know?” Or maybe he didn’t know her all that well because that was not what he was expecting.
He walked towards her. Always careful not to show his insecurity in front of the enemy, or worse a woman.

“And now you can’t have it anymore because…” There was no way to hide the confused look on his face.

She blushed slightly then.

Am I blushing? Seriously! Did I actually turn thirteen again without noticing?!?

He caught the blush she was trying hard to cover and smirked catching on.

“Did you say something to get kicked out?” She looked at him appalled, like he was some sort of madman that needed to be closed in a clinic as soon as possible.

“Me?” She shrieked, at the same time advancing menacingly towards him. “ This . Is . All. Your. Fault!” And every word was stressed by her index finger poking him in the ribs.

He laughed at that and used her moment of weakness to sneak his arms around her waist to pull her near him. She was forced by their position to lean back to look him in the eyes. He was smiling his charming smile while looking down at her. The same smile he wore the previous week when he broke one of her coffee’s cups or the week before that when he had to reschedule a date for a family emergency. He did have an awful lot of those.

Damn! How am I supposed to stay angry at him?

“Calm down, Starfire!”

Oh well! That would help.

She raised an eyebrow at him watching him with a smile of her own.

“You never said you were a comics’ nerd.” She watched with amusement as his expression transformed into a shocked one.

Crap!

But if there was one thing he was good at it was fast recovering. The smile came back on his face pretty fast, to her disappointment.

“Mmm…and how would you know?” He let go of her and took her hand, starting to walk. He knew she’d be too busy to notice that people walking by were looking at them, but he knew just as well that as soon as she did take notice all hell would break loose and it would be: All. His. Fault.

“What?” Her eyes became round from the shock.

I should shock her more often, she looks cute.
 
He turned to look at her with a fond smile.

“I mean, Ruby Locks,” he saw her scowl but choose to ignore it “that there’s only one way you could know what I’m talking about.” Bianca turned to look at him as well, examining him carefully. He returned the gesture until she abruptly turned her head around, facing the street.

“Let’s forget that happened.” She said in a no-nonsense tone. He chuckled at that, but shut up when she shoot him a dirty look.

“Agreed.”

“So, what are we gonna do in this day all for us?” She smiled as she remembered the serious look on his face as he promised her an emergency-free day. He turned to look at her and also smiled at her relaxed stance.

She doesn’t even hold all the bailing against me.

His smile got brighter at the thought. He brought her near his side, sliding his arm around her waist.

“I resent that. Isn’t the idea of a whole day with me enough? You need entertainment?” She couldn’t resist laughing at his childish attitude, he knew just the right buttons to push.

“But of course, Mr Halliwell! You have to woe me every day!” She smiled at him and quickened her pace. But he stopped and pulled her arm to make her crash into him.

“But of course, Ms Mckenzie! Although…” His hand started to travel up her body to caress her cheek, his lips just an inch away from hers, “are you sure you can resist my charm?”

I’m not sure I want to.

Before they could cover the distance that was separating them, the yells of a group of kids on the skates broke their bubble reminding them exactly where they were.
They broke apart and looked at each other with awkward smiles. He turned to look at the kids and shook his head, turning towards Bianca and offering her his hand.

“Let’s get going, Copper Coin!” Bianca took his hand and dragged him forward rolling her eyes.

“You’re such a kid!”

“You like ‘em young!” She slapped him over the head in record time, which just made him laugh more.

“You are so …so…”

“Handsome? Witty? Charming?” He put a hand around her shoulder.

“Infuriating?”

“And that’s why you love me!” They both froze in the middle of the street, this time neither one of them really caring about the people cursing them for blocking their path. His hand was still holding a lock of her hair he was playing with.

Are you an idiot! Six months! Six months you’ve been together! She’s gonna think you’re crazy! She’s probably trying to figure out how to get a restraining order against you!

OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod!
Breath! Breath!
 I mean it!
Not thirteen, remember?

Say something you idiot!
 Of all the times to lose the gift of world…

Say something!

They both turned to face each other, both about to open their mouth when a panicked yell came from the alley they had stopped in front of. They turned towards the noise, both of them recognizing  the brand of panic in the feminine voice.

Demon!

Demon!
Demon?!? NOW?...Are you kidding me?
That was it, he was summoning an Angel of Destiny and they better have some answers!

He was the first one to recover.

“Stay here Bianca, I’ll go see what’s happening.” That shook her out of her shell shocked state.

“NO!” Her shriek was full of panic. “You can’t, it’s dangerous!” He stared at her with a pointed look and an expression she’d never seen before. He grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to back away from the alley.

“That’s why you’re staying here!” His expression was so serious that she stayed rooted to the spot.He entered the alley cautiously, to avoid being noticed by the demon.

He was a huge block with purple skin and a horn sticking out of his forehead. He remembered reading about it in the Book Of Shadow.

At least he’s a lower level demon. Lucky me!

Silently concentrating on a way to take him out quickly and, most importantly, quietly  he didn’t notice Bianca stepping behind him or her sharp intake of breath.

“Geez! Why is it always the ugly ones that go for the pretty ladies?” The demon turned towards him and growled. He raised his eyebrow at that and rolled his eyes.

“You’re the talkative kind, uh?” Bianca hasn’t even taken a peek at the demon, too focused on her now officially crazy boyfriend that wasn’t as shocked as she would have thought by the sight of a demon. Or better yet, he was not shocked at all.

The demon formed an energy ball, but she was too preoccupied with studying her obviously crazy boyfriend, noticing that not even that got a reaction from him.

The demon launched the fireball at him and kept his hands raised so that more of them come out.
The boy just slightly moved his fingers to deflect it.

Telekinesis? No! No way that would mean, it’d mean…he’s a witch?!?!  

If I remember correctly he’s a  lower level demon that preys on  young witches to obtain strength from their power.

He quickly peaked at the girl the demon was attacking to see she did indeed look scared, but she was not shocked by the sight of the demon like a mortal would have been.

So, I must be right. That means that if I get rid of  his horn he’s vanquished. At least he’s not a difficult one.

The demon by then had grown even angrier, since he deflected his attack and charged at him. He just orbed himself behind him.

What was that ?

“Horn!” He tele-orbed the horn in his hand and the demon disappeared in flames.

Ah! Next time anyone calls him paranoid for studying the Book of Shadow he’ll just laugh in their faces.

He looked up at his vanquish and saw a figure standing behind the now burning demon.

What…

He paled in horror. “Bianca…”

Stuck in fear he didn’t notice another demon shimmering behind him, but Bianca did. Her eyes went round as she cried out.

“Chris! Watch out!”

She shimmered next to him while conjuring a dagger and stabbing the demon in one swift motion, the creature backed away from them in pain.
He was looking at Bianca with wide eyes and she was returning the stare. The demon’s growl snapped them back into action and he called for the horn to vanquish it.

I guess I forgot they moved in couples.
…
You’re thinking about that now!!

They were staring at each other with wonder, too astonished to talk. Chris was about to say something when the innocent came near them.

I forgot about her.

There was a girl?

“Thank you!” The girl smiled brightly at them…or more exactly at him.

What am I? The invisible woman?

The girl looked at Bianca and added.“The both of you!” But she was quick to turn to smile up at her male savior.

Oh! If you think you can play the damsel in distress…

Her thoughts however were interrupted by the girl.

“You’re a Halliwell aren’t you?” Bianca frowned at that.

“A Halliwell?”  Why would she say it like that?

“Yeah, I am.” He threw a quick glance Bianca’s way to see her frowning.

Could it be…she doesn’t know?

“I knew you’d come, I saw you!” She then looked at Bianca with a perplexed expression. “But I didn’t see you…”

I bet you didn’t, you little…

“Sorry to intrude!” The girl chuckled nervously and looked at her feet. Bianca felt almost bad for her. Then she was smiling at him again and all thoughts of sympathy for the demon’s victim fled her.

“Well! I’ll go now! Thanks for the saving!” She beamed at him before leaving and Bianca had to use all her self-control not to punch the girl. She turned around to meet his eyes and remembered exactly what happened just a few minutes before.
He just looked down and coughed a little.

“So…mmm…did I tell you how good  you look in red?”

Chapter Text

She raised an eyebrow at him and he smirked at her. It was almost as if nothing had happened, but not quite.

“We should go somewhere else.” She paused and looked him dead in the eye “We need to talk.” Chris looked at her and sight heavily.

“Yes, we sure do.” Before she knew what was happening he had reached for her and they were wrapped in a swirl of  white and blue lights.

They reappeared in Bianca’s living room, luckily for her near the couch.

“Whoa!” She dropped herself on the couch and tried to get her lungs to start working again. “Okay!... That was…was…” she frowned unable to find the words “What exactly was that?” She asked slightly stressing each word.

He moved carefully near the couch and sat next to her.

“Orbing…” She kept staring in front of her. The only sign that she had in fact heard him was the slow nod of her head.

Okay…this isn’t so bad… it’s a catastrophe! It couldn’t have gone worst even  if she was a mortal!
But why is she so out of it?
 She knows about magic, after all she did…shimmer.

 Wait! She shimmered. She shimmers. Why? Why does she shimmers, demons shimmer!
She can’t be a demon. No!
But then it happened to Aunt Phoebe…No! That was different, she’s not like that! And she saved the innocent, so she’s good!

But then again that Cole guy…
Wait no! She didn’t know, when that girl asked if I was a Halliwell she really didn’t get what that was about. She wasn’t faking it.
 And she used a dagger.
 Yes! Demon don’t use daggers!
But how can she not know my family’s name?

Okay. Okay. So… orbing? Orbing…She had heard that before, her mother must have mentioned it.

Whithelighters! Yes. that was it. Her mother had said whithelighters orbed from a place to another, she told her about them when she was explaining how not all witches shimmered like them. She was little then. When  her mother had told her whitlighter are like the guardian angels of good witches, she hadn’t understood why they didn’t have one. Her mother hadn’t explained to her till later, what their coven was known for.

Killers. And he’s an angel. Of all the Phoenix covens she could have be born into, it had to be the one of assassins.

How can she possibly explain to him… Wait! An angel! But doesn’t one have to die, for that?!
No way!

What is she?

Is he dead?

They both turn their head and stare carefully at the other.

“Are you dead?”

“What are you?”

They spoke at the same time and could do nothing but return to stare at one another.

Being the less shocked by the question between the two, Bianca was the first one to recover. She turned her head and laughed nervously. When she gathered the courage to look at him again he was staring at her in the eyes. A concerned frown on his face, and she couldn’t keep smiling at that.

“Coffee?” She asked in a low voice, a voice he was not used to hear her use and that broke him completely out of his state of stupor.

Chris smiled at her gently and nodded. “Coffee.”

Coffee had become their thing, since that was how they had met. They were both waiting for their order at a bar stool where the barista had switched their order and he found himself drinking the bitterest espresso ever instead of his cappuccino.

Bianca had turned his way with a smirk and had just said : “I don’t think you’re cut out for my bitterness”.

He took his coffee black since then.

Chris sat at the table in the little kitchen in her apartment, watching her moving around to make the coffee. After what seemed like hours Bianca walked at the table and put two smoking cups on it, sitting on the chair opposite to Chris’. They both kept looking at their cups like they were the holy Grail, but Bianca’s head shot up at the sound of Chris laugh.

She looked at him shocked, well more shocked then she had been before and he just shrugged, trying to stop his laugh.

“What’s so funny?” His laugh kicked the shock out of her to leave space to the irritation. She realized that’s probably the reason why he started laughing like a madman. He cocked an eyebrow at her.

“I look dead?” She blushed at his tone, but frowned at him.

“You said you orbed. Whithlighters orb, right?” She asked a little insecurely. “Aren’t they dead?” He smiled at that and nodded.

“Yes they are.” And he could clearly see her tense up. How his parents ever got though this sort of conversation amazed him, now more than ever.

“But I’m not. I’m an half -breed, my father was a whitelighter and my mum a …witch.” He was going to say Charmed One, but since she clearly didn’t know about his family he thought better not to push it.

“Half breed. Okay.” He looked expectantly at her. “ I guess it’s my turn now?” He smiled at her hesitation.

“I’m a Phoenix Witch.” She stopped at that because she didn’t feel like it was the right moment to tell a half angel she came from a coven of assassins.

His look said he was waiting for more, but before she could think of adding more he was speaking again.

“Have you heard of the Charmed Ones?” She looked at him perplexed.

What does it have to do with them?

“Yeah…One of most powerful force of good there is, but what…” He interrupted her.

“I … I am the second son of Piper Halliwell.” She looked at him with a confused expression, like she didn’t get what that had to do with anything. “Piper Halliwell, the oldest Charmed One.”

She froze as it hit her and her jaw nearly dropped.

So his family is made up of angels and famous powerful forces of good and hers of cold looded assassins. This couldn’t be going any better!

From the expression on his face she could tell that he was being honest to make up for not telling her first. The least she could do was to return the favor. No matter how painful it was going to be.

“ My mother did raise me teaching me magic and how to defend myself, but she never gave me many details. Most of the time I had to search for them.” She could see he doesn’t quite get why.

“The branch of the Phoenix coven I am part of is known for its assassins.” She stopped for breath and watched his reaction. If he was disgusted he didn’t show it, though he was not showing any emotion. She lowered her head.

“My mother didn’t want that life, neither for her nor for me. So she made a pact with the coven, she’d still teach me magic and let me chose if I wanted to join the coven later on and they’d let us be. After all Phoenixes are neutral and the Phoenix Elders are pretty liberal from this point of view.
My branch thought I’d choose to become one of them, ‘cause it supposed to be in my genes,” she raised her head defiantly,  “but I could never kill like a heartless machine.” She was looking at him pleadingly now and Chris reached out to her sitting on the chair next to her. He gently moved her face towards his and he slowly kissed her. The slowest and kindest kiss either of them ever had.

“I know.” He whispered and glanced at her eyes smiling slowly. “Your family doesn’t make who you are, Bi.” She smiled brightly at that and nodded. He was suddenly smirking at her.

“I have to say, I’m disappointed in myself.” She looked back at him at that, frowning again. “ With your mood swings, I should have known you had to have a little demon in you.”

She glared at him and with a quick movement of her legs she threw him off the chair. By the time he’d reached the floor she was quietly drinking her coffee again.

“Urg! It’s cold now! And I’ll have you know that the demons have some Phoenix in them!” She was getting up to get rid of the cold coffee, but he stopped her.

“No need.” He put an hand on the cup and after a few seconds it was smoking again. “Thermokinesis.” He turned to his cup and with the same gesture turned it into ice before melting it again, till steam was coming out of it.

“Mmm…You’re handy!” He laughed at that. “But I thought you had telekinesis. How did you do this?”

“I’ll share my powers if you share yours.” He reached out for her hand playfully. “Particularly that ‘demons have some Phoenix in them’ bit”.

“Deal!”

Chapter Text

Chris leaned in the chair and put his arms behind his head.
 
“So, how do you wanna go about that, Birdie?” His playful smirk was back in place now that the tension was mostly dissolved.

Bianca looked at him with a cold stare at the nickname, but it quickly transformed in a smirk of her own. An idea formed in her mind. She advanced on him and as he moved from his relaxed position she shimmered behind him. Before he knew it, his hands were tied and she was pushing him back, her face near his ear.

“That’s for the nicknames, Charmed Spawn.” Her smirk was amplified by his scowl.

“Not even enchanted reflex would make you that fast. How’d you manage to tie my hands up?” He relaxed back in the chair and waited for the answer as if he was inquiring about the weather and not about the reason why he suddenly found himself tied up.

“Basically because you spaced out long enough.” She answered in the same tone. His raised eyebrow just earned a chuckle from her. “Tactile Hypnosis.” She explained, wiggling her fingers.

Before he had time to counter that, Bianca turned his chair and put her arms around his neck. Seductively, she straddled his lap only to stop when she was at a mere inch from his lips. She threw her head back and shimmered the both of them on the floor.

“ Urgh!” Was the first sound to escape Chris’s lips as they re-materialized.

“And that’s for orbing me!” She sat down on him. “ It wasn’t funny, it felt…”

“Unnatural.” He finished for her “That’s what shimmering feels like to me”.

“Then we’ll both move our own way from now on.” She nodded vigorously to add emphasis to the statement.

He smiled brightly at her mention of the future. Then he noticed the position she put them in and couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him.

“You know, if you liked the top so much you just had to ask. I’m totally fine with it.” He said, stressing the fine.

She stood up to react to that and he used her own momento to flip her over with his legs, making her land on her back. As he stood up to hover over her he touched the chains around his wrists and they exploded in a swirl of gold lights.

Bianca saw that and looked at him dumbly, following his every move.

“What?” He asked as soon as he noticed her stare.

“That sure as hell was neither telekinesis nor thermokinesis.” Her brows were furrowed, deep in thought.

“I did.” He raised his eyebrow while saying that, extending a hand to Bianca. Which as he imagined, knowing how stubborn she could be, she didn’t take. Instead she gained her footing again in a complicated move that even Japanese’s directors wouldn’t dream to put in their movies.

“Enchanted reflexes indeed. Show off!” He taunted with a smile. Bianca just shrugged it off and went over to the couch to sit down.

“Says the Golden Boy.” He followed her chuckling.

“Well, if you really must give me a nickname.” He paused for effect, just to taunt her “Molecular dispersion wouldn’t be the power I’d chose. It’s just an extension of telekinesis. ”

“That doesn’t look anything like telekinesis!”

“Of course it does!  Just not to the naked eye.” He smiled at her skeptical expression. “Instead of moving the object, I move the molecules. That’s actually what got me into physics, I can control my powers better if I know what I’m dealing with.”

Bianca laughed a little at that. “I knew there had to be a reason for your manic obsession!” He playfully pouted at that. “So what power would you let me make fun of you with?”

He went to stand in front of her and turned his invisibility cloak on. To Bianca’s credit she did manage to control the urge to drop her jaw. She tried to sense for the shifts of the air, but could barely follow his moves.

“How come you don’t seem so used to seeing this sort things?” She moved her head slightly, to try and pinpoint where his voice was coming from.

“How come you can do so many things?” She retorted. He turned visible once again and reappeared to her right chuckling because she missed him by a few feet.
Impressive in his opinion, but from the face she was pulling, he was sure she wouldn’t agree.

“I asked first.” Seeing she was not giving in he added, “and I showed you two powers, you owe me.” She snorted at that.

“Somehow I think you have more to show!” She muttered under her breath.

“All right I’ll show you the last one I developed and then you spill. Deal?”

“Agreed. Show!”

He clenched his hand and then opened it pointing to the ceiling,  a multitude of orbs exploded in the air like firework and then started to float gently around the couple. Bianca looked all around, enjoying the array of colours coming from the orbs. She carefully tried to touch one of the orbs, which started twirling around her hand upon contact and send the slightest shock of electricity.

Chris observed her reaction amused, while patiently waiting quietly for his answer.
“My mother didn’t want me to get too near the coven, for clear reasons.” She started still lost in the show of lights around them, he nodded to encourage her to go on.“ So she never really explained much, just the basics. The only magical beings I’ve met are the demons that attacked us from time to time and some good creatures I’ve saved.” She smiled at that. “Seems like once they learned there were some Phoenix witches around here on their side, they were more than happy to have the extra help.”

“Now now. You don’t wanna steal my job, do you?” He asked with fake concern.

“Aw! Don’t you wanna share with me?” His face slowly softened as he reached an arm out to get her nearer, cradling her in his arms.

“All of it.” He whispered in her ear and she was gone for it. She was straddling him in a second and this time she didn’t even stop to hold her breath.

In a matter of seconds they were in a full make out session, neither one of them remembering what they were doing before or anything else for the matter.
Chris smirked against her lips and orbed her shirt off of her, with her eyes closed she didn’t even notice the blue orbs dancing all around her. He broke the kiss and started leaving a trail of kisses all over her body. On her neck, her jaw and slowly moving down to reach her breasts.

Bianca sighted at every touch of his, her mind going numb at the feeling of his hot kisses on her bare skin…

Wait…Bare skin?

She looked down to see that he had taken her shirt off.

When…?

She pushed him back against the couch and nearly forgot all train of thought as she saw the lust in his eyes. But she regained control of herself and crossed her arms in front of her. This, it turned out, just made his eye travel lower, a smirk on.

“Chris!” She snapped, arms akimbo. He turned to look her in the eyes.

“What is it?” He asked with his most believable innocent look on. Bianca rolled her eyes and sent a dirty look his way.

“I. Liked. That. Shirt.” He sighed dramatically at her tone.

“Shirt!” The shirt orbed in his outstretched hands as he called out for it. Bianca took it back and began to check every inch of it. Chris didn’t even try to hold back the laugh at that.

“What are you doing! I just tele-orbed it!” A new round of laughter made any other word die in his throat, but he held a hand out to show her.

“Candies!” Some of the candies Bianca had in the kitchen orbed in his hand. He put one in his mouth and gave a goofy smile, offering her some. She just slapped his hand away.

“Okay then. Anything else, wonderboy?”

“How come it always seems to be my turn?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“Well, I’m not the one who magically stripped you, am I?” Chris’s eyes darkened again and she had to shove his shoulder slightly to get his attention back “ Moreover you have way more to spill”.

He frowned at this.

“Not really.” He answered slowly. “ I just have psychokinesis as a Wiccan power. I move matter on all levels, micro and macro, hence the telekinesis.” She looked skeptically at him, but made sign for him to go on. “Then there’s the…er…”

She looked impatiently at him. “The…?” She prompted.

“Okay, but you’re not gonna like it.” He rubbed the back of his head while saying so, like he always did when nervous.

“Spit it Halliwell. I’m a tough girl, I can take it!”

“That’s what I’m afraid of…” He mumbled under his breathe, he took a long breath and spitted it out quickly.

“I can read minds…” She was about to answer, but he was faster. “But I swear I never used it on you!” She looked at him dubiously “Ok…I never used it on you…on purpose…”

She frowned but then her eyes fell on the flower pot. Amaryllis, an exotic flowers from Africa and not exactly every girl’s first choice as a favourite flower. Her eyes got wider.

“You!” She yelled. “That’s how you knew! I knew I’d said nothing about my favourite flower! You cheater!”

His squeezed his eyes shut as she yelled, holding his hands up to pacify her.
“I know, I know. I just wanted to know and before I could stop it I had heard your thoughts… I thought, since I knew by that point, it would be stupid not to get you the flowers you wanted!”

He brought himself to open his eyes again, as it seemed she wouldn’t keep yelling.
“Fine.” She half smiled. “ But just because I really like them.” He smiled at her and she sighed exhausted, getting off of him to sit next on the couch.

“You’re done?” She said turning her face towards him.

“Well…” He fidgeted and Bianca turned completely to take a better look at him.

“You’re not done.” It was a statement, she could read it in his stance.

“Yes.” And he said it like it was the most normal things in the word. She tried really hard not to yell at his ‘what’s the big deal’ attitude.

“What else?”

“Well, there’s the orbing, you’ve seen that.” She nodded impatiently at him “ And then the glamouring…” Seeing her frown, he just showed her by glamoured into her. This time her jaw did drop and she didn’t even really care. He chuckled.

“Just a normal whiteligher power. Like the photokinesis or the thermokinesis. ”

“Normal. Right.” She said, voice full of sarcasm. “Damn. How did I survive without this trick?” He smiled at that. “ Now change back or pay the image’s rights!”

“Yes ma’am!” He glamoured back to his original form.“ Just one tiny little thing…but this one I can’t show you here”

“Why not?”

“I’d break something and I don’t want to bear the consequences.” She smirked and rolled her eyes.

“Since my father was an elder when I was conceived …you know about them?” She snorted impatiently.

“The big headed know-it-all up there … no offense.” He laughed at her hurried excuse.

“You went light on them, you should hear my mother’s nicknames for them. Anyways, since he was one of them I can shoot lightening from my hands.” This time he did it she was frozen, which made him remember something.“ Oh and I almost forgot about this.” He stood up and smirked at her. “ Do you have a magic based active power?” She nodded, eying him warily. “Throw it at me.” She just kept staring at him as if to weight him, coming to the conclusion that he was serious she formed an energy ball and threw it at him in a few seconds. The ball just hit a wall and was absorbed by it.

Chris sat back near her and she had to poke him to get an explanation.

“So?”

“That was my power of deflection. It works sort of like a force field. Though it just puts a wall in front of me.” He shrugged. “I don’t use it much.”

“You have a force field. Yet you don’t use it?” She asked shocked. “What, you like the thrill of the fight?” He laughed at that.

“ Not as much as you do I’m sure” She smirked at that. “ I just don’t need to, my brother’s field is stronger so … what’s the point? Mine is not even a real field, I just use my telekinesis to deflect anything that comes my way... "

Bianca caught something strange in his voice, even if he was trying hard to hide any kind of emotion.
"Your brother. Wyatt?" she questioned tentatively.

“Yeah! I’m sure you’ve heard. Twice blessed, next king Arthur, wielder of Excalibur, the prophesized witch,  most powerful magic being ever and all the jazz.” He said it like he’d heard it a million times and she realized he probably had.

“So what? You shouldn’t underestimate your powers for that!”

“I don’t. I just don’t use those when there’s Wy.” He shrugged it off as if it wasn’t a big deal. Bianca found herself frowning; from what Chris had told her his brother seemed like an overprotective one, with an inquisitive nature on top of that. Somehow she had the inkling he would say something if his brother held back in a fight, particularly if that could endanger him.

“What does he says about that?” Chris rubbed the back of his head at that.

“Hey! It’s got to be your turn by now. You still haven’t explained that bit about the demons taking after the Phoenixes. I think I’ve earned it”­­­­­­­­­ He tried to sound relaxed, but she could see he was dying to get out of answering her question. She thought about pushing him, but the uncomfortable look on his face made her rethink it. She’d just wait and ask him when he didn’t look as stressed.

“I’ve told you the coven I’m part of is made of assassin witches, right?” He nodded, grateful for the out she was offering. “Well, there are numerous covens in the world and not all Phoenixes work like this. Some protect just the magical world and its creatures, some even leave the mortal world and join the magical one. The one thing all covens have in common is the refusal of helping mortals in any way.”

Chris brows furrowed at this.  “Why would they chose not to help innocents.” Bianca looked at him with a strange expression and sighed, deciding she’d need to give him the long old story.

“That’s just the point you see, Phonixes don’t see mortals as innocents. The first coven was born around the thirteenth century, when Christianity first started to hunt witches down because they felt they threatened their religion. One of the witches to be burned at stake was Merewen Burrel, she was a powerful seer and well known in her ­­land. She was betrayed by the people of her village and as she had seen that in her vision she let herself be captured.

While she burned in front of those she had called friends and neighbors she cast a spell to awaken the powers of all those witches that had been betrayed like her. She told her killers that, as she turned into ashes, a new link of sisterhood was born among her kin. Like a Phoenix that was reborn from the ashes.”

Bianca waved her hand over her right hand, letting a red birthmark in the shape of a phoenix shimmer back into existence. Chris ran his fingers over it and felt her shiver from the touch.

“From that day on, because of Merewen’s spell, every time a witch was betrayed or ostracized she turned, this birthmark would appear and with it new powers and all the descendants of that witch would inherit them.”

“New powers came with the link?” Chris finally asked after a moment to absorb it all and she nodded, smirking at that.

“Yeah, other than their Wiccan power they started to show enchanted reflexes and agility, conjuration, reconstitution, adjusting, energy balls, power extraction.” Chris raised his hand to stop her.

“I think you’ve forgotten a few of them while we were playing ‘show and tell.’” Bianca rolled her eyes, but nodded none the same.

“Well, I may have been distracted by how showy you were being!”

“Hey! If I wanted to distract you I’d have done this.” He put two fingers on her birthmark and let a slight electrical charge out. Bianca retracted her hand, glaring at him. Which only made him laugh more.

“See, I was being a gentleman. No electrokinesis on the lady.” He smiled charming, only to find her snorting at him.

“If someone was being kind here it was me. You really don’t want me to show you my power extraction. I gather it’s quite painful.” She smirked at his shocked face.

“You can extract others’ powers? Is that part of the Phoenix link from Merewen’s spell?” Bianca nodded. “How do you do it?”

At that she just pulled a face.
“I have to literally stick my hand into whoever I’m trying to strip the powers from, that’s where all the agility comes in hand. It’s not pretty, quite messy.”  Chris just stared at her, long enough to receive a ‘What?’ look from his girlfriend. He shook his head to clear his own thoughts.

“It’s nothing, that just sounded like something my great-grandmother would say.” He sat straighter and proceeded to imitate Penny Halliwell’s strict voice. “That vanquish was simply a mess Christopher. What were you waving your arms around like an hyperactive fairy for?”

Bianca busted out laughing and only her reflexes saved her from an unceremonious fall off the couch. Chris smiled wildly at the sight. “I’m glad the craziness of my family got such a reaction, I don’t think even Wyatt reacted quite as wildly the first time I did a Grams’ imitation.” Bianca calmed herself down, seeing the window of opportunity his last sentence was offering her.

“I’d say he isn’t much for wild reactions, seeing as he didn’t convince you to use you powers when in danger.” Chris’ smile slightly dropped at that, he wasn’t expecting her to pick up that line of thought so fast. He sighed warily at her expression. She wasn’t going to let this go.

“Well…I didn’t actually tell him about all my powers…actually only my baby sister knows about them all…” He shifted uncomfortably on the couch. “He’d make a big deal out of it. They all would. My sister and I decided it was best this way. Anyway, they’re just a few…things”. That sentence sounded simply ridiculous after all the powers he had showed her, but what got to her was the slumped stance he had taken as if he really didn’t see the point of revealing his powers to the world.

“Bi?” he waved an hand in front of her and she slapped it away.
­­
“Well…those are some things!” She shoot him a dirty look.  “And they are way cool! You’re so showing me how you fight!”

He laughed and took her in his arms.

“So?” He poked her in the side. “Are you gonna tell me about the demon bit or not? I’m dying here!”

“Oh, that?” She shrugged. “You know how around the 15^th century the witch trials really reached their peak?” He nodded impatiently, eager for her to just tell him. Bianca just shook her head at the childish behavior. It seemed his obsession about knowledge did in fact extend to magical knowledge too.

 “That’s when the Phoenix covens really started to grow all around the world and demons took notice of it, or better yet they started to notice the powers that came with those witches. Since Phoenix witches were born out of the strong betrayal they felt, it wasn’t really difficult for high level demons to intercept the link and get some of the powers for themselves.”  Bianca’s voice had gotten monotone by then, as if she had recounted this story too many times. He realized she probably did, since she said her mother taught her the Phoenixes’ history as part of the deal she made to free her.

Their coven must have wanted to see the result of Bianca’s training. “ It took almost a century to find a way to stop the demons and by then most had at least figured a way to steal one of the powers from the link. In the end the Phoenixes decided it was better to just counter Merewen’s spell, no new witches would be affected by it and the demons wouldn’t be able to take the powers away. The new Phoenixes were being killed by the demons stealing their power anyway, so it was safer for everyone.”

Bianca leaned more into Chris and snuggled into him closing her eyes. She looked up at him with a smirk, trying to bring the conversation back to the more playful tone of before.

“If they had met a witch with your kind of power, they probably could have just dangled him in front of the demons to make them lose interest in our power.” She said.

“You know, I was just thinking about using those powers for a greater good.” He said huskily. “What a coincidence.”
­­­­
“Oh! Don’t you wanna know my powers now?” He looked undecided at that. She chuckled at his pained expression.

“I can make energy balls … well, you saw that … and the whole  powers extraction is quite useful with demons. That’s why Phoenixes are skilled fighters, since we have to put our hands in the demons to do it. Then there’s adjusting, since I can resist most magical blasts and if that doesn’t works there’s the power to reform.”

“That’s a handy power!” Bianca just stared at him.

“With all those fire powers you got, you think that  is handy?!” He just smiled. “ What should I do with you?”

“I do have a few ideas I’d like to share with the class.” He said suggestively and eyed the bedroom.

“Race ya there!”

They both materialized on the bed and Chris managed to land on top of her. She laughed at his victorious expression and bit her lip.

“Maybe I could try one of your tricks.” He raised an eyebrow at her, but held still. Bianca tugged his shirt and shimmered it off of him smiling triumphantly as it landed on the floor.

“ Hey! No stealing!” And he orbed her shirt on top of his.

They were starting from where they’d left on the couch, Chris’s hands slowly tracing every curve of her body. It didn’t matter how many times they had taken part in this dance, every time felt exactly like the first. Like that night she had invited him in her apartment and hadn’t let him leave.

He run his fingers along the brim of her jeans’ and she shivered in anticipation. Her grip on his shoulders became almost painful and he seemed to take it as a signal to let his mouth leave hers and follow a path down the valley of her breast.

The tiny bites he was leaving in his wake sent electric shocks running through her, and she wasn’t sure if it was his power or her body reaction this time. She couldn’t stand the distance between them, every inch felt like a mile. Bianca pulled him hard against her by the waist of the jeans , eliciting a moan from him. She smirked seductively at his lust filled gaze and brought a leg up to bring him even nearer and keep him in place. 

They were losing themselves in each other when they heard a shriek coming from behind them. Chris stood in front on Bianca in a fighting position and she conjured a dragger, but both froze when they saw a young girl facing the wall, she had long dark brown hair held up in an high ponytail and was repeating like a mantra:

“OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD”

“Who the hell...” Bianca started to say, but was interrupted by Chris.

“P.J.?” Chris paled at the sight.

Chapter Text

Bianca jerked her head quickly in his direction, lowering the dagger without completely letting go of it yet. It just went against all of her instincts. Chris was now sitting on the edge of the bed, his hand buried in his hair.

“You know the yelling voyeur?”

Chris could only sight in defeat at her, and his look was enough to cool her down.

First the demon yesterday night, now P.J. Seriously, P.J.!?!?!
Somebody was out to get him.
If it turned out to be a Elder’s sick joke…

He turned his head up glaring at the ceiling.

Lowering his head he caught sight of his cousin, Prudence Johnna Halliwell, the eldest of his Aunt Phoebe’s daughters. Half cupid like her father, half witch like her mother and exactly like her mother. That was what worried him the most.

Like the middle Charmed One, P.J. was an empath. He didn’t even want to imagine what feelings she had peeked on as she entered the room and neither did she, if her stance was any indication. P.J. was still facing the wall and he could sense more than see her eyes being tightly shut.

He turned his head to see that Bianca had put her shirt back on and had his in her hand. He took it and gave her a tight smile. He then orbed the three of them out of the bedroom.

Better to change air.

Once in the leaving room he saw his cousin relax and ever so slowly open her eyes. A weary look on her face.

Geez…what does she thinks, that we’re gonna jump each other in front of her?

She must have caught up on what he was thinking, because the next thing he knew she was marching towards Bianca with a smile in place.

“Hi! You must be Chris’ girlfriend, who he never cared to update me about!” Her smile was still in place while she said that. She was as bad at keeping her emotions in check as her mother was bad at lying.

Bianca would have almost laughed at her tone. Almost. She threw a quick glance Chris’ way, who could only shrugged at his cousin antics.

Just go with it. He sent her telepathically.

She almost jumped as she heard his voice in her head, but all the years of training helped her regain her composure in time. She turned to look at the still crazy smiling intruder.
“Mm…yeah! I’m Bianca Mckenzie.”

“Pruedence Halliwell, Chris’ cousin.” She said, only to add hastily “but call me Prue, don’t listen to all that P.J. rubbish.” Chris just rolled his eyes, once she’d hit puberty P.J. suddenly become too boyish for Ladybug’s tastes.

Bianca laughed at that, she had the same face Chris had when he told her to call him Chris.
‘Not Christopher, never Christopher.’ He had said.

“Alright Prue!” Then she has to ask: “Anyway… Are you fine?” She was actually concerned for the girl, she didn’t want to end up traumatizing the first member of her boyfriend’s family she ever met.

Prue smiled a new genuine smile at that,  as she could feel the apprehension, this girl really wanted her to like her.

“It’s fine. When your mother is a love-aholic and your father’s a cupid you get used to those kind of feelings … and shows.” She noticed Bianca searching Chris’ eyes for answers. She had to smile at that, the cupid in her could see the bond between the two of them.

Chris was sitting on the couch the whole time, looking at them, when he saw Bianca’s question in her eyes.

“P.J. is an empath.” He stated, and he never hated his cousin more for her gift. And he thought it was bad when she felt him and Wyatt planning something only to blackmail them to tag along.
Bianca on the other hand seriously paled at the new information.

It was the first time she met one of Chris’ family members and all they picked up from her was pure lust. Talk about rough starts.

“Don’t worry about it Bianca.” She answered as if she knew her thoughts…no wait, scratch that. She could feel her thoughts, as odd as it may have sounded. “It’s not really a big deal. Although,” she paused.“ I would have been glad to avoid the peep show.”

Both Bianca and Chris instantly flushed a deep crimson, which only caused Prue’s giggles to erupt. Seeing her cousin’s flush she decided that the best form of payback was to make him squirm in his seat.

She hopped on the couch next to him and launched her arms around his neck.
“Nobody can resist the Halliwell’s charm!” She smiled wickedly as Chris’ eyes widened in terror. He knew that look, he loathed that look. It’s the family’s prankster look. “You can’t imagine how many time I’ve found him like that!”

Bianca’s eyes effectively turned into slits at that and she shoot a dirty look at Chris.

“WHAT!?!?” He couldn’t help but shriek in panic. “That’s not… she’s just... Bianca!”
The looks on both of their faces was just too much and P.J. started laughing so hard that she fell off the couch.

Both of her victims had a satisfied smile on their face after that.

“Now, if you’re done playing.” Chris said in his no nonsense tone, that he inherited from his mother.“ Would you tell us how you ended up in our bedroom…Bianca’s…Bianca’s bedroom.” Bianca smiled at the slip up. As did P.J, as discretely as she could. No need to enrage neurotic overprotective Chris, he’d take it out on her newest crush. She was sure of that.

“I don’t know actually.” All the tension had made her forget about that. “One moment I’m in the bathroom the other…poof!”

"Bathroom? Nobody saw you, right?" She shook her head in response. "You're sure?" His eyes narrowed.
Yep! Here's the neuroticism.

"I'm sure, Mom!" She looked up to Bianca for support, but found the same worried face as her cousin. It'd seem Chris has found his match, and it didn't even take a cupid to see that.

Just half of one.

"Well that can't be right. You're sure nobody summoned you?" Bianca asked. The young girl was about to reply, but Chris beat her to it.

"But why send her to us? It's senseless!" Again she opened her mouth, again it seemed without reason.

"Demons don't make sense. Some are just sick bastards." He nodded at that.

"But still…You don't remember anything else?" They both looked at her, but it took her a few seconds to realize they’d actually managed to remember she was still in the room.

"Mm…it felt a lot like when Dad remote beams us. There was also the same pink light…" Her dark brown eyes got bigger at the thought. "You think I beamed?!?"

"Well…" But Chris's chances to talk were dim, he knew.

"YAY! This is sooooo great! Finally! Ha ha! Now you half Whitelighters aren't the only to teleport! Can't wait to tell Parker and Pam! YAY!" She started to jump up and down and Bianca took a step back from her. Chris, used to the "jumpy fests" of his Aunt Phoebe and her daughters, just rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I have to tell Mom…and DAD! He's gotta teach me! DAD!"

Chris tuned back in as he heard the word dad, since he had muted her before.

"Wait! Can't you…" He was too late though. A pink light appeared in the room and he could only smack his forehead. He turned to look at Bianca, with a pained expression.

 "With the luck we’ve got he was probably with…" His thought got interrupted.

"Aunt Phoebe!" He hissed. Of course the male Cupid took his wife with him as he heard his daughter’s cry.

The two didn’t even have the time to fully materialize when their daughter jumped in their arms. You could see it was only because of the sixteen years of practice that they caught her.
Her yells had subsided only long enough for her parents to appear and had now returned full force.

She’d have gone on for hours if Bianca’s next words hadn’t caught Phoebe’s attention.

“So, that’s what she meant by beaming.” She turned her head to look at Chris and finally noticed the defeat on the young man’s face. She’d have laughed at his face, but somehow he was too serious to do that.
He looked at her in the eyes and sent a message telepathically.

You have no idea what she’s got us into.

She was about to ask him what he meant by that, when the new arrival ( finally free of their daughter’s dead grip) noticed them.

“Chris, sweetie!” His aunt smiled sweetly at him. “What are you doing here?”

Her husband looked at her oddly. “ I think, the question is what are we doing here?” He looked around for the first time “Where is here anyway?”

Prue Halliwell “hmped” at her parents lack of enthusiasm. Although she’d have to admit there was a, very small, possibility they didn’t get a word she had said.

As Coop was looking at Chris for an answer, Phoebe had been distracted by Bianca. She couldn’t help but think she’d met her somewhere, but couldn’t really remember her. However she shrugged it off to hear Chris’ answer.

“Well, P.J. here decided to call you.” And at the dead glare he sent her, the young witch looked apologetic at least. “Because it seems she hearted in Bianca’s apart…” But a sudden shriek stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Bianca!?” Suddenly, the memory of a Phoenix witch pointing a dagger at her sister’s throat came back to her. Of course she looked familiar, it was the same Bianca. The other Chris’ Bianca and if her empathy wasn’t misleading her, this Chris’ Bianca too now.

Chris like everybody else in the room, was too shocked to react in any other way then by gaping. His aunt’s usual reaction to Chris being with a girl was more enthusiastic and giggly rather than whatever that was.

Of course everybody was frozen but P.J.. After all she was her mother’s daughter, this kind of reaction had to seem normal to her or she’d have to find her owns odd.

Her only reaction was a barely hidden giggle as she jumped in between her parents and the couple.
“Yep! This is Bianca!” Her smile got impossibly big as she added: “Chris’ girlfriend!”.

Chapter Text

Phoebe Halliwell’s mind was spinning restlessly. She was barely half listening to her daughter’s explanation after she found the strength to go sit at the kitchen’s table with her husband.

Bianca.
Chris’ fiancée.
No wait! The other Chris’ fiancée.
Right?

She could only pray things hadn’t gotten there just yet with this timeline’s Chris and Bianca.
But that couldn’t be the case or Chris would have told his family, at least his mother that…Piper! As the thought came to her mind she jumped a little on her chair and had to physically restrain herself form crying out loud.
The moment her older sister found out about this she’d have a heart attack! Then she’d kill her for not telling.

Phoebe turned to look at her nephew and being an incurable romantic, she couldn’t help but beam at the sight in front of her.
The young couple was sitting in front of her holding hands under the table; they were both explaining what happened, never cutting each other off, working in tandem like a well-oiled machine.

A huge flow of love hit her, a feeling she had already felt once coming from the other Chris. This time it felt even stronger, not obscured by a dark past and a doomed future.
She couldn’t help but sigh contently as she saw the two anticipating each other gestures, moving in perfect time with the other.

Her sighing didn’t go unnoticed by the others, since as she woke up from her daydream she saw four pair of eyes on her.

“Aunt Phoebe? Are you alright?”

“Oh!” She looked at all four of them .“ Yes, yes! Of course! Sorry, I’m just…uh…tired?” She asked tentatively, damning her inability to lie. “ I…um…didn’t have my coffee this morning!” She yelped, happy to find an excuse and smiling as brightly as she could. Her husband just looked her way suspiciously after that outburst.

Strangely and luckily for her she was not met by total distrust through, since Bianca nodded at her in understanding.

“Would you like to have some? I can make…” but she was interrupted by Chris at her side.

“ Bi, I don’t think she’d live after a cup of your coffee.” At the dead glare she sent his way he amended. “ My Aunt Paige on the other hand would probably erect a statue in your honor.” He was smirking and the other family members knew it was probably because it was highly probable. The new generation didn’t take much to find out that the sure way to get Paige on your side in any sort of argument, was to ask for her help first thing in the morning and present her a steamy cup of coffee. Anything that has to do with coffee, took Paige’s unwavering interest.

Bianca just rolled her eyes at his joke.

“ Fine.” And everyone could see she was trying not to cross her arms. “ You do it then.”

“Oh! No , don’t worry we should probably get going now. I have to see my sisters and…” Chris turned abruptly around at that and his aunt couldn’t help but smile at that. He had always been the reserved one about his relationships, but with a family like theirs, where half of them where either emphatic or telepaths or cupids, it wasn’t an easy task.

“What for, Aunt?” She just looked at him. “ Aunt Phoebe?” He asked, his voice edgy.

“You know I can’t keep a secret.” She stated, as if that ended the discussion.

“But…You could try for your peanut?” Bianca snorted at that and started laughing, but Chris was too desperate to notice.

“ No, no. No buts mister. You’ve held it off long enough, I can see it.” She looked from him to Bianca for confirmation. “ How long have you been together? Months?” Bianca was about to answer, but Phoebe held her hands up as if she was being attacked.

“ No, no! I don’t wanna know. That way if I have to answer that question myself  I can honestly say: I. Don’t. Know. Not that I can’t see…But no! I just don’t know, won’t know.” She took a deep breath to give some needed air to her lungs. “And hopefully I won’t get skinned alive.” She murmured.

“Okay then!” She went near Coop and P.J. and took their arms “I’ll see you at the restaurant by seven, I see we’re having dinner so I guess I’ll survive. Bye!”

Before beaming away Coop looked apologetically at his poor nephew and his girlfriend, that could do nothing but stand there powerlessly.

“I’ll see what I can find out from the other cupids about Prue’s situation and I’ll try to restrain them…”

Chris jut sat back down and banged his head on the table.

“So…I’m meeting your family then?” Asked a very confused Bianca. Chris just nodded and, with his head still resting on the table, he ended up banging it repetitively on it. He just didn’t seem to care.

“Are they all like…that?” Chris just turned his head, without lifting it from the table.

“Worst, Bi…way worst…” She laughed at his melodramatic tone.

“Awwww! It’s gonna be alright …Peanut!” She smirked at him and waited for his comeback.

When it didn’t come she reached for him, grasped his shoulders and pulled him up. As his back hit the chair she sat on his lap. Chris just smiled at her as she got comfortable, but the apprehension didn’t leave his face.

“Chris, stop being so neurotic. I know introducing an assassin witch to your family…to any family really…” That effectively knocked him out of his bad mood.

“Bianca! That’s not it.” He began in a soft voice, gazing into her eyes .“ You are not an assassin just because your family wants you to be. It takes a greater effort to be good, to protect the innocents when your whole family is so opposed to you doing so. Yes, I was born in a family of good witches. But you chose this life, you chose to fight for good . So stop calling yourself an assassin, I can assure you nobody will judge you for that. You are extraordinary and it shows from …”

His monologue was abruptly ended by a pair of lips crashing down on his own. Her kiss was neither gentle nor slow, but full of the force and passion that his words had lit. His arms encircled her waist to bring her closer and Bianca moaned in the kiss tilting her head and giving him better access.

They pulled away for some needed air, both wearing an identical set of blissful smiles.

“We should really stop. Unless you want a repeat of before.” Chris said trying to breath regularly again.

“What do you mean?” He shook his head and looked at her as if it should be clear. However his answer showed itself in the form of tingling white and blue orbs in front of the sitting couple.

“Soooo I’m guessing this is the library.” An amused male voice said before he was even completely reformed.

Two figures appeared from the swirl of orbs. One a tall huge man with short blond hair and piercing blue eyes, that seemed to be unable to decide between showing his amusement or his discontent.
The other a short, thin girl with long brown hair and the same green eyes as Chris. Her stance, unlike that of her companion, was easy to read: she was downright pissed and you could see someone was going to pay for it.

“Or the study groups.” She spat out. “And the researches.”

Bianca couldn’t help but cringe at her tone. By the look of it those two could be no others than Chris’ siblings, and from the way Chris talked about them they all had a really strong bond.  But the next words that came out of the girl confirmed her suspicions.

“I mean,” she continued to rant. “I get why you didn’t tell the Sasquatch here.” She said pointing at the boy. “He would have spilled the beans faster than P.J.”

“Hey! Watch it midget!” She plainly ignored the blonde’s reply.

“But me!” She nearly cried out. “ How could you not tell ME! We always tell each other everything! That was the pact! Remember?”

“Excuse me!” The now definitely angry boy bellowed. “Who am I? The third wheel? And what pact are you blabbing about?!”

At this the girl shut up and looked at Chris for help. He just sighted and started to pray Bianca wouldn’t run for her life by the end of the day.

“Why don’t you both calm down.” He started quietly. “ I didn’t tell either of you.” He glared at the girl, daring her to interrupt him. “Because you’d make a scene…as you’ve just proved”.
“Now, do you want to keep yelling on your way home or do you want meet Bianca?” Only at this point did the pair glance at the girl next to him.

“I guess we’ll make time for this talk.” The girl said coldly, glancing at Chris to cut off any form of objection.

“Oh, we sure are!” Added the blond. At which, the younger girl turned to face him.

“Yeah! I guess you can come talk too!” By this point Bianca could hardly hide her amusement at the bickering siblings.

“O-kay!” Chris cut any reply off. “Guys this is Bianca, Bianca these crazy heads here –that I swear you won’t have to see too  much of, please don’t leave me- are Wyatt and Melinda.”

“Chris’ siblings!” Wyatt peeped in. Making the other two Halliwells roll their eyes, the gesture made them look so much like twins it was absurd.

“Yes, I know.” Bianca eyed Wyatt strangely, he was wearing a goofy smile now and if he was anything like his brother that didn’t bode well for her. From the sight slipping through Chris’ lips she was certain it was not a good sign.

“Chris told me a lot about you.” Melinda only stared at her and Chris cringed.

“Well, we can’t really say the same.” She told her as a wicked smile appeared on her face illuminating her in a dark light. “But I believe that after all this waiting.” She glared at Chris while saying this. “ We have earned the right to hear everything we want. Don’t you think so big bro’?” Catching on his sister’s line of through Wyatt smiled broadly, almost at the same time Chris flinched.

“I sure do lil’ sis. So,” he responded, sitting on a chair and putting his joint hands on the table. “Start spitting baby bro. From the start!” Melinda followed him soon after, sitting down. Both waiting for the couple to join them.

Chris could only sigh and sent a defeated look in Bianca direction. She smiled reassuringly at him.

“I guess I’ll make some coffee then.”

Meanwhile at the Halliwell’s manor, Phoebe was waiting nervously for Piper to get back home. Once they had arrived, P.J. had called her sisters and cousins to tell them the juicy news.

As soon as they all got there she started to tell her tale with a grin on her face.

Only mere seconds after the words ‘Chris’ and ‘girlfriend’ had left her lips Melinda had super-sped next to a stunned P.J. and demanded she: “Cut out the bloody beaming talk and told her what her brother was fucking up to”.

Phoebe didn’t even have the strength to reprimand her.  The next second the young girl shared a glance with a still stunned Wyatt on the other side of the room and urged him to get a move on, so they could both orb to Chris to: “Talk some sense into that wayward head of his”, otherwise she was leaving without him. That managed to shake him out of his stupor.

The lost expression on the older Halliwell of the newest generation hastily left place to anger as he realized his brother was blocking him. He nearly jumped on his Uncle Coop to know where “in the bloody pits of the Underworld”, as he put it, his brother was.

While he got the information, his sister was seriously contemplating putting her giggling cousin in a demon trap and force all the information on this sneaky-brothers-thief-Bianca-person she could out of her.

No heads needed to drop luckily since P.J. was more than eager to tell her tale.

As soon as the two siblings got what they needed they would have taken off to kick that sneaky liar of a brother they had, if a concerned thirteen year old Henry hadn’t used his telekinesis to bring an orbing Wyatt and Melinda’s orbs back.

For some sort of miracle the older boy hadn’t cut Henry's head off right away. Which miracle soon negated itself in the form of an even angrier Melinda Halliwell, that had tried to punch her little cousin. Wyatt had been too busy restraining her to react.

The boy had suggested that Parker – Phoebe’s middle child- should calm them down before they took their leave. The young girl eagerly force fed Wyatt and Melinda calmness through mind waves, using her telepathy. A task not as easy as it sounded, but one of the twins, Helen, had threatened to tear their molecules apart and had finally convinced them to cool down.

As the two sibling departed the rest of the young Halliwells started giggling and jumping up and down ( Phoebe’s daughters), as well as beginning to plan the jokes they could crack once they saw Chris ( Paige’s).

All the while Phoebe had been in the kitchen, trying to find the better way to break the news to Piper.  She was walking around the kitchen blindly, bumping several times into the furniture.

They hadn’t ever talked much about Bianca and the possibility that Chris could find her again, but the middle Charmed one could imagine what her sister thought about the girl.

When Coop came back from the interrogation, Phoebe didn’t even let him take the time to ask her what was wrong with her. She explained everything to him and from the screwed up face he made when asked what he thought Piper would do, his wife needed no more confirmation. That’s why she decided to call Paige for aid when Coop said he was going to check with the other cupids about the P.J. situation, which to Phoebe’s ears sounded like nothing more than an excuse to avoid Piper’s wrath.

A few seconds after her call Paige appeared in front of her, Phoebe didn’t leave her the time to totally reform when she spout out the news.

“Chris met Bianca and fell in love and now everybody knows but Piper and Leo and we gotta tell them!” She said in one breath, latching onto her arm to avoid her sister orbing out on her. She was not going to deal with this alone.

Her sister just looked at her weirdly, advancing slowly she made for feeling her temperature, but Phoebe frantically moved her hands in front of her face to stop her sister.

“Bianca, Paige! That very same Bianca! B.I.A…” she stopped her rant once she saw Paige had caught on. She looked at her clock coolly.

“And Piper doesn’t know.” Phoebe just shook her head, taken aback by her sister calm attitude. “And she’ll be back in a few?” Phoebe nodded frantically. “And you’re gonna tell her?” Phoebe frowned at the you, but still nodded through this time slowly. “Okay, then…see ya!” She began to orb out, but Phoebe pulled her down.

“Oh no Missy! You’re helping me out!”

“Buuuuut! ” She whined. She may be a mother now, but she was still the youngest sister. “I’m the youngest sister! I should be the last to die.”

“No buts! We’re telling her. WE!” She’d have gone on but the back door in the kitchen opened to reveal  Piper and Leo coming in, loaded with shopping bags. Phoebe and Paige both froze at the sight, as if their older sister had used her powers on them.

Piper put the bags down on the table and raised her eyebrow at her sisters.

“Oh no, please! Don’t worry. We don’t need a hand! Why would you even think that?” She looked from one sister to the other.

Paige eyes were wandering, settling on anything in the kitchen but Piper, while Phoebe was biting hard on her lower lip. Piper eyed them suspiciously, it was never a good sign when they were so nervous.

“Okay, What’s going on?” Meanwhile Leo arrived in the kitchen with the last of the bags and noticed the tense atmosphere.

“What’s going on?” He asked looking at the three women in the room, after years of knowing them and being their whitelighter he had mastered the art of reading them. What he was seeing was not reassuring in the least, it had been years since he last saw Phoebe, or even Paige, look so nervous. And it usually happened when they had done something really wrong, ‘switching bodies-turning people into animals-offering trolls a room in the manor’ wrong.

“That’s what I wanna know!” Replied his wife, who was clearly beginning to lose her patience.

“Maybe you should sit down, both of you.” Phoebe suggested. Piper was about to snap at her, but Leo beat her to it.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“No, no, it's good, it's good. I mean, it's- you know- it's not bad. It's a really good thing, it's not a bad thing. I think it's a really good thing, don't you think?” She nervously asked her sister.

“Yeah…I mean, it depends.” Paige answered unsure and Phoebe sent her and angry glare.

“Alright. This isn’t gonna be easy. It’s about…the other Chris.” Phoebe glanced at Leo and saw how he paled considerably.

“Wh-wha…? Why? Is there- there’s something wrong with…” Piper’s face was also getting considerably pale and she was looking at them with fear.

“NO! NO! Chris is fine!” Both parents released the breath they were holding. “He’s more that fine actually!” She said smiling at the meaning of her words. Both parents stared at her with a frown creasing their face, not catching on to Phoebe’s words. Paige just elbowed her.

“Then what do you mean?” Phoebe looked helplessly at Paige for help after Piper's question.

“Is this my turn?” Phoebe nodded eagerly and turned to keep an eye on the other two’s reactions and emotions.

“Yeah. Uh…Chris is going out with Bianca.” The two parents just stared at her.

“You know, Bianca…That Bianca.” Piper eyes widened as soon as she got what they were trying to tell her, but Leo was still at loss.

“What are you girls…”  But his question was interrupted by his wife.

“NO!” Both sisters cringed at her tone. “No way! There is no way! My baby boy! NO!” She stood up and the bags near her blew up instantly.

“Sweetie…” Phoebe began, but Piper just stopped her pacing to turn her way.

“Don’t you sweetie me! That assassin isn’t going anywhere near my baby this time!” She turned to the kitchen and started taking herbs and pots out. “Help me with the potion you two!”

“THAT WHAT?” Leo uselessly tried to ask. “What assassin? What are you girls…” He was completely ignored by all three sister. As the younger ones were trying to wrestle the mandrake roots out of the elder’s grasp. Paige finally remembered she was a witch after a while and tele-orbed all the herbs and pots away from Piper.

The murderous stance of her sister made her take refuge behind Phoebe, who looked annoyed at being put in the line of fire. The middle sister took a deep breath trying to calm herself and wishing it would calm down Piper too. 

“Piper. She’s not…”

“Don’t you even try Phoebe, you saw what she did to him last time!”

“I get what you mean Piper, but still that’s not the same…” Paige tried to reason.

“Oh bullshit! An assassin is an assassin! No way to change that”

“Oh really? Like there’s no way Wyatt won’t turn into the Source of all Evil then!” They all froze as soon as the words left Phoebe’s lips.

Paige tentatively stepped between her older sisters.

“Look Piper all we’re trying to say is that you should give the girl a chance. This isn’t the same time line. Who says her mother liked what she saw when she came back from the future. That woman and her house didn’t exactly look … assassin-ish? If Bianca was bad Phoebe would have felt it, you know?”

“I know. But what if she tricked you?” She looked hard at Phoebe and then turned at Paige .“Would you let it be if it was Henry we were talking about?”
Piper just got out of the room after that leaving the others to their own thoughts. Leo was the first to break it.

“You still haven’t explained anything to me? Is there something I don’t remember?” Phoebe sighed, she could feel the pain radiating off of him, like every time they talked about the other Chris.

“Bianca was Chris’ fiancé. Don’t you remember? The one that came to take him back.”

“Right.” He said as memory of the Phoenix that knocked him out came back to him. They all turned their heads at the ceiling as they heard an explosion from the attic.

“We should check on her. See that she doesn’t storm off to vanquish her daughter in law.” Paige states.

“I wouldn’t pull that kind of joke just yet Paige.” Leo warned her. She just sighed and orbed them all to the attic.

Once they reappeared they saw Piper writing on a notes next to a boiling potion. “Honey, what is this?” Leo tried to ask.

At her husband’s words she just turned her head up and stared at Phoebe. “Good! Phoebe help me write this spell!” she plainly ordered.

“Er…what for? I’m not gonna harm that girl Piper. She did nothing wrong. You can’t hold it against her if…” Piper interrupted her, huffing at her words.

“Look. I get that, I really do. But I need to be sure. I’m not leaving my baby in her hands if she’d just gonna crush him like …in the other time line.” Leo went near her and started rubbing her back soothingly.

“I know Piper. I don’t want him to get hurt either, but this is not the way.”

“Yes it is!  I am doing this with or without you.” She stared at her sisters. Paige was the first to give up.

“Fine!” Phoebe looked at her disapprovingly “Look I get how she feels. Wouldn’t you do anything to protect your girls.” Phoebe sighted at that, defeated.

“Okay, we’re doing this.” She said “But we’re all doing it, so there’s no way you can twist anything we find out.” Piper glared at that, but she shrugged it off.

Phoebe was sure they would find nothing wrong, she had felt that girl’s feelings for her nephew. That kind of love can’t be faked.

“Fine.” Piper practically growled. “Let’s do this!”

After a few minutes working on the spell, Phoebe looked at her older sister.

“Are we sure about this? We’re invading her …their life.” Piper just snatched the paper from Phoebe’s hand.

“Like it would be the first or the last time, Missy!” She read the spell and raised the piece of paper. “That’s it?” Phoebe returned her murderous stare and just shrugged.

“Fine! Let’s get a move on people.” They all moved near her and leaned in to read the spell as they began to chant.

“Power of three settle here
find what we yearn to hear
Power of three come near
show us what Bianca truly holds dear.”

A pink glow surrounded the four people in the attic as the magic began to work. They all closed their eyes as images of Bianca and Chris poured into their minds. As the glow disappeared and they opened their eyes, Phoebe was wearing a big smile and Leo was looking uncomfortable.

“We shouldn’t have done that girls.” Piper just glared at him and went to sit on the couch.

“Please! You wanted to know too.” All the while Phoebe hadn’t stopped aw-ing.

“Oh! Would you stop that Phoebe!” Piper snapped at her.

“Fine.” She said in a sing song voice. “But I was right! Now. We’re having a family dinner tonight at your restaurant, so the family can meet Bianca and…”

“Excuse you! When did you decide to organize a dinner in my restaurant to meet that…!”

“Piper!” Leo warned her and she shut up.

“I didn’t sweetie, you did. Or will do. Anyway I saw it so it’s done. I already told the lovebirds.” She smiled at her older sister’s scowl and went down to tell the girls and Henry Jr. to go get ready.

Piper was left in the attic with the others, her jaw dropped.

“I bet it’s not even true half the times she does that!” Paige told the others crossing her arms “ She just uses her power to get what she wants.” She nodded, agreeing with herself.

In Bianca's apartment there was far less yelling and surely far less fighting, but that didn’t mean the couple was fairing any better.

The cups of coffee Bianca had made were still on the table, not fuming anymore after several minutes had passed by in silence.

Melinda had her arms crossed and was looking at Chris with a hard stare that could have rivaled any of Piper’s glares. Wyatt next to her was looking from Chris to Bianca, waiting quietly, sure that he’d be able to get his answers. If his little brother didn’t collaborate he could always knock them out of him like usual after all. As stubborn as he was, Wyatt had found out he could not stand the silence. After all he was the only one that listened to all his demon talks and magic theories. That is, when he was able to understand his complicated words…

“Well? I’m still expecting that detailed explanation.” Wyatt simply stated, prompting Chris’ always ready eye roll.

“We met. We went out. Now we’re here.” Chris answered, leaning back into the chair. Melinda's glare intensified at that, as she gritted her teeth together.
The older and the younger look at each other, both deciding with that one look to give up their pretense of calmness. The gesture made Bianca shift on her chair as the two started bombarding them, taking turns.

“When did you meet?”

“How did you meet?”

“How could you hide your orb track from me?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Do you even have an Elliptical Quanto Mechanics class?”  Everybody else turned to look at Wyatt questionably and Chris only shook his head.

“Electromagnetic Quantum Mechanics, Wy? It’s physics not some out of this world class…which we actually took.” He cleared up for his brother.

“You took?” Bianca questioned him.

“At magic school.” He simply answered.

“Right.” She nodded “Magic school. Of course. Another normal thing.” Melinda just huffed at the two of them, as Chris kept talking with his girlfriend

“I could take you sometime if you want. They’ve got a great library.”

“Of course it’s the library with you, Bookworm.” She smirked his way and Wyatt smiled and nodded dramatically her way, remembering all the times he had to drag his brother out of that library to see the light of the sun.

“I’ll make sure to find a book with a nice red frontispiece. Wouldn’t want to mess your matching colors.” He said indicating from her hair to her red-ish skirt. Bianca just punched his arm in response.

“Oh! You answer her now, don’t you?” Melinda interrupted him.

“Let’s make a deal. I’ll answer all your question once we get to the restaurant.” At Bianca’s words Melinda and Wyatt looked at each other.

“Aunt Phoebe stuck us with a family meeting.” Melinda beamed at the idea, happy to have time to interrogate…um…talk with Bianca.

Wyatt just snorted thinking about what his brother was gonna have to face. He’d have to make sure to take a front seat to see his mother’s reaction.

“Okay. You got a deal.” Melinda answered her warily. “But there’s no sidetracking me!” Bianca nodded laughing slightly at the younger girl.

“And I want my brand of details!” Wyatt said smirking Chris' way, whom only laughed a little. Until he caught Bianca's eyes. He coughed lightly trying to cover his laugh up, prompting Wyatt’s laugh this time.

They stopped just as the two girls slapped them hard behind the head. As they lowered their hands they turned to each other with a twin scowl on their face.

“Let’s just go get ready.” Mel said sighing at her brothers’ childish behavior. Sometime it felt like they were the teenagers and she was the older one.

“All right, we’ll see you later then.” Chris answered, sobering up. His siblings watched him with raised eyebrow.

“You know mom’s already gonna fry you.” Wyatt told him “You wanna add felony of clothing to the list too?”

Chris shifted on the chair realizing his slip up, but decided to go with the truth for once.

“It’s alright… some of my things are here.” He said slowly, watching for their reaction. Their eyes just went round as the news hit them. Wyatt’s face contorted in pain as he imagined what their mother was gonna say, or more likely yell when she heard that.

He didn’t even have to wait much for said reaction, because Melinda raised from her chair and started  yelling at Chris. She was so loud and talked so fast they could only make out a few angry words out.

“baby - young - Idiotic - not thinking -  blow.”

As the word ‘blow’ reached his ears Wyatt took his cue to leave. He just reached for his still screaming sister and orbed away with a “See ya!” thrown at the couple.

When the last blue light of orbs disappeared Bianca turned slowly to Chris, still shocked by his sister’s reaction. She was expecting something bad when the words left Chris lips, but that was crazy banshee bad…

“That. That was the worst…right?” She asked hopefully. Chris didn’t even answer her, he just went right back to banging his head on the table.

She didn’t stop him this time.

Chapter Text

Piper Halliwell entered her restaurant.

Everybody was running around to get the big table settled like she had instructed them to. By now they knew exactly what to do, it wasn’t the first time the Halliwell family had a reunion there. Luckily for her sister she didn’t have any reservation for this evening, which was unusual for the local. Then again you can trust the Charmed One’s seer to pick the only night the restaurant would be free. 

Piper barely listened to her employees’ questions, it was all automatic by now. Her mind just couldn’t seem to settle on a task, too busy thinking about her son, her baby boy. She sighed heavily and set on the chair she usually took during their dinners.

The thought of Bianca entering her Chris’ life and making him fall for her wasn’t new to her.  The more Chris grew, the more he looked like the other Chris, and the more she started to worry about him meeting her. It was years now that she lived in  fear that her baby would meet Bianca. 

Because if they did meet even now, when their lives were so different from those they had lived in the former reality, then it could only mean that they were soul mates. And  as the overprotective mother that she was she couldn’t think about that, because if she did she would remember that in that other reality the two of them were engaged when Chris was only twenty-two. 

How could she give up her baby so soon? How could she came to terms with the fact that that girl was his soul mate, the one that could steal him away from her? Because she was sure now, before she even met the girl that that’s what she’d end up doing. If she hadn’t already. All of the sudden her throat felt much more constricted. 

After all hadn’t the Angel of Destiny once told her that she’d have ended up with Leo, a whitelighter, even if she hadn’t become a Charmed One? If she could beat the odds and marry an angel no matter how her life went because she and Leo were soul mates, then that line of thoughts could be applied to Bianca and Chris as well.

That was what really scared her, not Bianca being a half-demon ,she had let go of her prejudices a long time ago, but her being Chris’ soul mate. If everything turned out as in the other future, in a little bit more than a year time her Chris would be happily engaged. It was just too soon for a mother.

At the same time she did want to see her son happy. He deserved it, for what he went through in the other future and in this life as well. Being a witch and fighting demons wasn’t easy, and Chris and Melinda also had had to cope with the fact that their brother was the Twice Blessed-next King Arthur. They tried to hide their feelings about it, but a mother always knew better.

She sighed and looked around her. Everything was ready and her family would be arriving any time now, and Bianca too. She felt a little guilty about the spell she and her sisters had cast.

Okay, maybe it would be better to say she had cast. Her sisters had been right, it had been unfair. She just couldn’t help herself; after Phoebe had dropped the bomb thinking straight had been impossible for her. The only thing she could see was her baby boy leaving her for good. After she had cooled down she had realized that Chris would never really leave her, he was like her: family always came first. 

She knew nothing could ever change that. Because of that in the end she had decided to give Bianca a chance. 
After all she couldn’t really blame her for sins she had never committed. From what Phoebe had said it seemed like her mother had decided to bring her up differently after she encountered her future daughter. She could relate to that. So she’s give that girl a chance, for Chris’ sake.

Of course that didn’t mean she wouldn’t accidentally ask the girl how old she was. 

She smirked at the though. At least she had something to rant about.

The loud sound of young voices snapped the oldest Halliwell out of her thoughts, just in time to see some of her nieces orb in the middle of her restaurant, where everybody could see them, almost exposing magic.

“Girls!” her authoritative bellow became more effective after years of practice so that she was now able to make all her nieces and children shut up at once. “What do you think you’re doing orbing in like this?”

The girls first looked up at their aunt and then at each other, probably trying to decide which one of them would have to answer their aunt. Luckily for them there was no need to worry as a loud sigh erupted from behind her.

“Well, thanks for the consideration Aunt Piper, like always. But I’m not a girl, you know that … right?” The thirteen years old boy stepped out from behind his sisters and cousins and went near his aunt at the table. “Moreover everybody’s gone home Aunt Piper, we checked.”

She smiled at her only nephew. Being too young to hang out with her sons most of the time and being the only other male Halliwell, he often felt left out.

“I’m sorry Junior, but you were hiding behind them.” The boy just looked at her and snatched some food from the table shrugging.

“Well kids.” She stressed the word looking pointedly at Junior. “What’s all the fuss about?”

“P.J. was telling us about this Bianca girl, Aunt Piper.” Pat told her. Her bright green dress almost blinded her aunt as she turned to look at her. If Piper didn’t know any better she’d say the girl was a nymph, with her love for flowers and choice of dresses.

 “And about what happened this afternoon.” Her twin sister finished for her. The two girls were as different as day and night. Helen always wore darker colors (even if anything would be darker then Pat’s greens) and trousers all the times.

Piper and her sisters though it probably had something to do with their powers. Since Helen had a strange combination of molecular acceleration and combustion that let her ignite things, while Pat had molecular deceleration. A power that came in handy when demons threw energy balls at them, Pat just slowed everything down and they could all calmly step out of the way.

The twins were the more balanced among all the kids, their power were a perfect match. Like their seer’s power.  Helen could see only the future, while Pat could see the past.

All the girls got to their chairs, taking advantage of their aunt’s dream state. None of them wanted to go through a ‘who’s this Bianca’ talk. Their aunt could be scarily protective.

After years of family reunions they all had their designated place. That at least solved the problems of the fights for the “better place” to sit. With all the number of children the family was composed of, one less fight was one less nervous breakdown for the adults. Although, the parents could deal much better with this kind of normal mortal fight.

The real problems began when the kids started to react by using their powers. When half of them could orb around the globe, it was difficult to track them down. That’s why the sisters decided to come up with a spell that told them when they misused their magic after a fourteen years old Wyatt and a thirteen years old Chris had decided they were old enough to orb to the underworld.

Piper always felt like blowing something up every time she thought about that, hence it was much better not to think about it. Better focus on the current problem.

“Where are your parents, girls?” Piper asked the still chatting girls.

“Mom and Aunt Paige were still talking at home. They were saying something about a calming spell…” Prue told her without losing a word coming out of Pat’s mouth. Telepathy allowed them to do that without even trying too hard. Parker’s combination of powers was one of the most feared from the demons among the youngest Halliwells. She could anticipate her enemy’s moves and create illusions in their minds. She scared the hell out of them, one actually died of fear.

Prue frowned at her last words and looked at her aunt. “What do they need it for?”

Piper’s hand twitched at that.

Her sisters were thinking of putting a spell on her? What were they thinking? She did not need a calming spell! What kind of nonsense was that!

Okay, maybe she freaked out a little. A tiny little bit. But who wouldn’t? The girl had betrayed and almost killed her son in the other timeline. She had a right to freak out. After all the first time she had set eyes on the girl she had an arm stuck in her son’s chest.

However the spell she had cast with her sisters showed that the girl did l-l…lo… argh...liked, that’s it! Liked her son. And if her son liked her, she had to give her a chance. She sighed heavily for what felt like the thousandth time in the last few hours and turned her head to look at her nieces.

“So Prue, tell me about this secret girlfriend of Chris’.”

She had to give the girl a chance, but nobody said she couldn’t snoop around in advance. She was still a mother. After a moment of hesitation Prue smiled brightly at her aunt and launched herself in the tale again from the start.

In the middle of Piper’s talk with Prue, the rest of the Halliwell family arrived. Everybody was there except for Chris, who had told Wyatt and Melinda that he and Bianca would get there later to give Piper a few more minutes to adjust to the news. Which translated meant he was praying a sudden demon attack could save him for this torture. 

Melinda stormed to the table and set heavily on a chair near her mother crossing her arms and putting on a pout.

“She seems fine.” She stated talking with her mother, who was more than happy to free herself of her nagging sisters that were trying to explain the calming spell idea.

“Yeah…?” she stated noncommittally. Leo and Wyatt both rolled their eyes visibly at the mother-daughter show. They had this routine down to perfection, having performed it every time one of the boys got a girlfriend.

“Girls.” Leo tried to interrupt their eye contact, but he knew it was all in vain.

There was no way to stop the two of them from starting the secret-code conversation that only they could understand . It always ended up like this, Piper asked absurd questions and Melinda answered like they were crystal clear.

“House?”

“Yep!”

“Slip?”

“Tons.” She answered referring to all the times Chris referred to something in Bianca’s house or the house itself as “ours”.

“Look?”

“Stars”

“Jokes?”

“Worst!”

“Moves?”

“Sync.”

“Damn!”

Before Piper could go on Wyatt interrupted the both of them, throwing his hands in the air. “She’s like his female counterpart! So stop with the secret code and deal with it!” Both Piper and Melinda sent him a death glare that made him feel like they were twice his size and not the other way around.

After a pause however Melinda turned to her mother and quickly nodded, only to smile after a few seconds.
“They’re funny to watch.” Everybody looked at her like she’d just grown another head, (which in their family wouldn’t be so unusual) all but the one that had seen the couple.

Prue giggled hysterically at her cousin’s words and Phoebe sent an ‘I-told-you-so’ glance at Piper.

“What’s funny? I wanna see the funny thing!” A nine years old girl literally slipped from Coop’s arms and phased through her other relatives to reach Melinda, making them all shudders at the sensation.

Pamela Carin Halliwell, Phoebe’s younger child, had developed only two powers for now. However that was more than enough to drive her parents insane. Just the fact that she could levitate since the age of one made it really easy for her to run away from her parent’s arms. Add to that the fact that Pam could now also phase through matter and you can imagine how easy it was for her to evade her parents.

When Grams was told about her niece’s power she had said it was karma’s way to punish Phoebe for her teenage year’s escapades.

After Pam used her power chaos had ensued. It was the usual Halliwell’s chaos that greeted a new onlooker.

Chapter Text

Chris and Bianca orbed in, right when the chaos was at its peak. She had made Chris orb, although her aversion to it made every cell in her body protest against such a torture, because shimmering in front of the Charmed Ones didn’t seem like a good idea.

The family however, didn’t even notice the couple's arrival. Chris internally scowled at the sight in front of him. Taking in a deep breath he prepared to take his family's attention in the only way that he knew would work. Bianca didn’t even have the time to readjust after the orbing before he screamed.

“DEMON!”

The whole family turned towards them, at which Bianca smirked and Chris only rolled his eyes.

“Glad to have you back guys! Well, crazy family this is Bianca.” He said, gesturing between them. “Bianca this is the crazy family! It was great, wasn’t it? Now we better go.”

His escape plan was stopped by two sets of “Christopher!” coming from both his mother and Bianca. The two women looked at each other smiling at Chris' antics.

The smile immediately dropped from Piper’s lips as she remembered whom exactly she was smiling at, with her smile the light and jovial atmosphere leaved the room. As she advanced in front of the couple to greet the new arrival, she made sure to project on the outside all the confidence and the authority she had developed after more than two decades as the older Charmed One.

Chris shifted on the balls of his feet under his mother's scrutiny. He knew she wouldn’t take the news all too well, she went ballistic when he lied about the little things. He could imagine what she was planning to do to him, and by extension his ears, after this lie. He was readying himself for the waves of anger and wrath that she was going to pour on him. However the look in her eyes was something he wasn’t expecting.

She was wearing such an eerie look, a calculating one. The one she used to size up an unknown enemy.

By all appearances Bianca seemed to at least be doing better than her boyfriend. However all the empaths in the room could tell a very different story.

For the first time ever Bianca was grateful for the Phoenix training she had to undertake. A Phoenix never showed her emotions or intentions, it was the key to their powers. Her mother had thrown all sorts of things her way to make sure she’d be able to develop a stoic mask. She had had to stay impassible as fireballs, knifes, and daggers were thrown her way.

Internally however she still felt like a little girl, who only wanted to run away from the angry woman in front of her. Somehow facing Piper Halliwell in this sort of situation felt even worst then going against her in battle. It was as if the woman could be able to kill her with her looks alone and if the rest of the family was anything like Chris (and they were, from what little she knew about them), there was a high probability one of them actually could.

The little fearful girl in her, was happy to be snapped out of such thoughts by Piper words.

“So you are the top secret girlfriend.” She stated calmly, too calmly for Chris' liking. His mother and calm didn’t associate even on a good day. “How long have you being going out?”

Now the direct approach on the other end, that was more like her and he was ready for it. While he had been getting ready for the dinner, he had used his time to come up with a good story…

“Six months.”

…that his girlfriend, with a clear death wish, just burned.

“ARE YOU CRAZY!” He yelled in her head.

“You’re a lie-addict” Bianca thought back coolly.

The rest of the room fell silent.

Which was just too strange for this family. Even the telepathic conversations had halted. Piper was practically chocking on air. She turned to yell at Chris, but her momentary handicap slowed her down too much. Before she could do as much as part her lips, Melinda had already super-sped in front of Chris.

“You lied to me for six months!” She shrieked, making Chris cringe. “What were you thinking!” Bianca took a step back at that. Which turned out to be a very bad decision for the Phoenix, because it just ended up attracting Melinda's attention.

“And if you think a dinner talk is gonna cover it…” She started to say, only to be interrupted by her mother.

“Melinda! Calm down.” She took a steadying breath and turned to look at Chris, while Wyatt came up behind Mel to restrain her from jumping at Chris' throat. The girl just settled into her brother iron grip, sure her mother would give her stupid brother a piece of her mind. Or else she’d be more than happy to comply.

Piper took another deep breath, closing her eyes. But that method, like any other she had tried to use to calm down, never had much of an effect on her.

“What were you thinking!” She yelled in the same fashion as her daughter, whom smirked at that. “Lying to your family! For months! Hiding from your siblings’ sensing!” Wyatt sent a dirty look his way at that, but the younger boy was too busy searching his father eyes for help to notice.

The older man came to put a calming hand on his wife shoulder. His presence calming her enough to stop ranting.

“What your mother is trying to ask,” he said in his best withelighter’s voice, “is why would you feel the need to lie to us about such a thing?” He had always tried his best to be there for his children, it hurt that Chris didn’t feel like he could come to him. His greatest fear was to became the father that the other Chris had hated.

As green met green, Chris sighed. Seeing his father hurt always affected him more than any yelling on his mother part.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell.” Piper raised a doubtful eyebrow at that, but said nothing. “It’s just that I was still trying to tell Bianca about me and I knew you …”

“What do you mean tell her? What, you forgot to tell her your surname for six month? He’s like a lie-machine!” Paige exclaimed, throwing her arms up. “Why would you even lie about that?” His Aunt Paige asked him and he saw the strange look his family was giving him, like they didn’t believe a word he was saying.

“Geez…Talk about trust!”

“It didn’t mean anything to me.” Bianca answered her. “Your surname, I mean.” This just made Piper’s suspicion come back at full force.

“Everybody with magic knows our name.” The twins stated at the same time.

“My mother,” Chris took her hand seeing she was willing to tell them her story “didn’t like my…family views on magic.” She started, but a look at Piper made her decide to tell all the truth. Chris squeezed her hand encouragingly “My coven, the Phoenixes’ coven I’m part of, is one of assassin witches.” She didn’t notice the news only startled the younger ones. “My mother didn’t like that life, she had always tried to run away from it. When I was little she decided to make a pact with the coven’s Elders: I’d still train as a Phoenix, but I could be free to choose my destiny. She made sure to turn our rules against the Elders so that we could be free. Phoenixes aren’t born evil, we can still choose.”

Phoebe nodded at Piper, silently telling her Bianca was saying the truth.

“I can see you’re good Bianca.” The girl smiled at Piper's words and relaxed into Chris’ side. “But that doesn’t tell me why you lied, mister!” She snapped at her son.

“Mom, Aunt Phoebe just simulated a premonition to get us here, right after her daughter decided that the best spot for her first beaming was my girlfriend’s apartment.” He said in his best condescending tone, thanking every higher good being out there for not letting him slip up and call it ‘their apartment’.  “All that before, or right after they’d met her. You’re right. Why wouldn’t I want to show our craziness to my girlfriend?”

“AH!” Paige yelled in triumph. “I knew she faked it!”

“I did not!” Phoebe nervously yelled back while trying to stop Paige’s happy dance.

“Aunt Phee, I’m a telepath. I can read your mind.” Chris explained slowly as if he was talking to a child. Phoebe sent a dirty look his way.

“We were talking about you, mister. Let’s not get sidetracked.” Piper snapped at him, having had enough of her sisters’ drama.

“Oh! You’re just trying to…” Ignoring Piper’s last words Paige kept gloating at her older sister’s expense, till Piper's yell interrupted her.

“Stop it! You’re both too old for this!” Her sisters looked at her indignantly.

“Talk for yourself!” They both replied.

Bianca couldn’t do much to hold back her laugh, but she tried to calm down as the Charmed Ones turned her way.

“Sorry! I just never realized huge families were this…funny.” She said trying to calm herself down. The three women frowned at her.

“But, isn’t your coven pretty big?” Piper asked, as always acting as the spokesperson.

“Right. However because of my…unique situation…I only ever met members of the coven when they were sent to test me and I never interacted much with the witches from other Phoenix covens.”

“Test you?” Chris asked confused, somehow he didn’t like the sound of that.

“Yeah, you see. They had to make sure I was training. Living to their name.” She spoke with utter calm.

“And they sent assassins your way to make sure of that?” The huge oak table in the room moved slightly and both Phoebe and Parker, the two empaths of the family, took a step back at the wave of protectiveness that come their way.

“Er…sometimes demons?” She answered trying to calm him down.  Only to fail horribly.

Paige, Wyatt and Junior had to hold the table and everything else down with their telekinesis to prevent Chris throwing everything in the air. Still some objects went crashing in the wall.

“They sent demons after you!? I’m perfectly calm!” He snapped in one breath, not even turning his head Parker’s way whom had just used her phatokinesis to calm him down.

“You’re clearly not! Chris, I’m sure demons come after you too. We’re witches!” Chris sighed at that. “And how did you know I was thinking that? Were you reading my mind Halliwell?” She asked, arms akimbo.

“It’s different and I was not.” He told her, now clearly more relaxed. Unnaturally relaxed. He turns towards his cousin. “Seriously, Parker, you can stop now.”

The girl just studied her handy work, trying to see if it was truly alright to let go. She relaxed and freed him of her emotional hold.

“Chris..?” Bianca asked confused.

“ Parker here, has phatokinesis.” Melinda explained to her while pointing at her cousin. “She projects feelings instead of just reading them like an empath does.”

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” Chris laughed at her tone “What’s next? One of you controls time by any chance?” Chris and Melinda both froze at her jokes while the rest of the family laughed at her joke and she looked suspiciously at them.

“No!” Wyatt answered her still laughing “That’s too much even for this family. But Mom, me and Mel can freeze things, if that counts.”

“What do you mean if that counts, young man?” Piper snapped at him.

“Let’s go eat, shall we?” Leo hoped that would be enough to break the would be fight before it started.

Piper smiled encouragingly at Bianca, finally willing to have a talk with the girl and get to know her. Certainly she couldn’t deny how much Chris lo-l…eh…cared about her, not after his little show. She had decided Bianca was nothing like her counterpart of the other time line and that she deserved the chance everybody wanted to give her.

However before she could greet the girl, her daughter and nieces beat her to it.

“Don’t listen to Neurotic-boy there Bianca.” Melinda said as she reached for the girl to bring her to her sit, ignoring her brother's death glare.

“Yeah! If you could bear his brand of crazy.” Started Helen.

“You’re gonna love ours.” Finished her twin for her.

Bianca only laughed at the girls, she didn’t need to look back to know Chris was sporting his sour face at the moment.

“Nice dress by the way. Red suits you.” Pat told Bianca.

It must be said that Chris really tried to restrain himself, but it was hard to hold twenty years of automatic responses. So he just ignored the alarms going off in his head (as per usual) and went sitting near Bianca. Shooting her a smile he just replied to Pat without looking away.

“She’s been feeling red inside. Right, Firetop?” The family just looked at him. He was always making those kind jokes and nobody really felt like answering anymore.

“You can glow, I can burn.” Bianca shoot back, gaining an even weirder look.

“That.” Melinda said snapping everybody out of the stupor and pointing at the couple. “Is what’s funny.”

Catching his mother's eyes Chris got the answer he was looking for and smiled slightly at her. Piper smiled at her youngest son, she was glad he was so happy.
That of course didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little bit of fun with the new – or not so new – couple.

“So Bianca,” she said to attract her attention. When the girl turned her way she just smiled brightly and asked:  “How old are you?”

She couldn’t possibly deny that starting the evening with her son practically choking on air and the girl staring wildly at her was the most funny sight she could ever imagine. From the snickers coming from her sisters, she was sure they agreed. 

As the dinner went on like an usual Halliwell’s meeting, it should have been easy to predict what was to come next. Of course even after years, those kind of reunion called for one constant.
Right in the middle of the dinner, the whole family was thrown away from the table as the air on top of it shimmered. Over twenty women clad in leather appeared on the table. Six of them with their arms raised holding everybody down.

As they all tried to take a look at their attackers a loud gasp could be heard.

“Damn!”

Chapter Text

Bianca’s gasp was the only thing that was heard in the local for several minutes, as the two parties regarded each other trying to weight their opponent.

Taking in all the leather the Charmed Ones went looking for a now all too familiar birthmark. As they saw the red bird on each of the women’s wrists, at least one of their questions was answered. Still they didn’t know why so many Phoenix witches would crash in a room full of Halliwells.

Piper sneaked a look at Bianca trying to read her expression. The pure panic, barely concealed on the girl face, told her that either the girl had no idea what was going to happen or she was really a good actress. The kick that she got from the general direction where Phoebe was supposed to have landed, told her it was probably the first of the two options.

Bianca was the o­­­­­nly one that didn’t need to look twice to identify the intruders, she knew exactly who was standing in front of her. What she didn’t understand was why they would came looking for her like this, usually her tests didn’t comprehend so many opponents. Moreover she could see the witches in front of her were part of the higher ranks of the coven. Why would they came for her in person? It didn’t make sense.

The women in front of them were standing like a little army, the six with telekinesis still holding everybody down. An air of smugness was covering all the women’s features, since they had so easily gained the upper hand against the powerful family.
That feeling only lasted until a huge wave of magic energy started raising from the floor towards them. It was rising like a mouth all around them, circling them as if to shallow all the witches in one strike. The sight of it make the women lose their hold on the family, that finally stood up.

As soon as they were all free the wave disappeared like it was never there and Parker laughed at the face the witches pulled, until a stern look from her mother managed to stop her.

“I believe you got the wrong address.” Piper said as she moved in front of the women, “ the motorcyclists round-up is on the other side of town.”

The woman in the middle of the little group moved to stand in front of Piper, the same authoritative look on her face. She was the shortest out of the women, with pale blonde hair and cold grey eyes and the only one of them wearing a long leather skirt.

Upon noticing it Bianca looked nervously at Piper, who was standing far too near the other witches for her comfort. She advanced stopping near Piper to make sure the blond woman wouldn’t attack her. But the woman didn’t even look at Piper, nor did she give any sign of recognition. Instead she looked directly at Bianca ad smirked evilly at her.

“Bianca Mckenzie.” By the time they’ve turned toward her she had snapped out of her stupor and was staring defiantly at the women. “ The coven has decided to forbid your…” but Bianca’s voice cut her off.

“What! Not even an hello? You go straight to business.” She tried to keep her bravado on, but knowing who the women were and what they could do was not helping her. For the first time since she could remember, she was wishing her mother told her less about the magical world. The blonde woman looked at her blankly, while the others started to murmur. Their leader held her right hand up and they instantly stopped their chatter.

“ If your mother taught you anything at all about your heritage, you should know not to try to defy us,” she said coolly. “Your mother may have found a way out for you, but you’re still a Phoenix and if the coven…”

Again Bianca interrupted her, this time her anger helping her out to face the woman.

“The coven has nothing to say on whom I chose to be and who I chose to be with! My mother’s deal made me free to choose and I chose good! There’s nothing you can do! The High Council settled that.”

This time her words managed to break the blond leader’s façade. With a slight motion of her hand she made a redhead step forward. As the witch advanced Bianca started to choke and fell to her knees.

Chris, that had moved right after her as she had advanced the women, moved into action and threw the redhead into the air sending her crashing in the opposite wall and effectively knocking her out. The other witches, enraged by this, moved toward Chris but were stopped by Wyatt’s shield.

“Leave him out of this!” Bianca yelled, now that she could breathe again “ All of them!” The blonde turned again to her and smirked.

“You pulled him in dear. And you know there’s only a way to get him out.”

Bianca stared hard at her and spit out her words with utter disgust.

“ I. Won’t. Join. You.” The woman only laughed cruelly.

“Oh! And what will you do? Make them fight for you?” The whole coven of witches snickered at that.

Chris boiling anger exploded at that and he was almost launching himself on them. But before he could do anything, they all blew up in a thousand million pieces, that started buzzing and twirling like crazy bugs.

He, together with the rest of the family turned towards a fuming Piper, that had strangely kept silent until then. As the witches reformed she was already standing next to Chris in front of Bianca and looked down at the blond woman.

“Yes, she will.” She stated, gaining a grateful smile from her youngest son.

Bianca words and display had destroyed the little front of opposition that the older Charmed One was still holding against the girl.

“You’d take that betrayer into you coven?”Aasked the disgusted leader.

The rest of the family come to stand next to Piper and Chris to Bianca amazement.

“We’re a family,” was Phoebe cold replay, she turned to look kindly at Bianca. Helen and Melinda reached for the young Phoenix, helping her to stand.

“That doesn’t change the fact that she belongs to us. You can’t win her over.” Stated an old looking witch in the back of the group.

“Not true.” Chris replied smirking. “ You just thought about a battle? What was that about?”

The other witches just laughed at him.

“Oh! It’s a powers’ battle. When we used to have a new member joining, the old Phoenix covens that wanted the witch fought to gain control over her. The strongest coven gets the newbie in her ranks.” A young witch explained with a wicked smile, looking into Chris’ eyes and licking her lips upon sensing how much power he held.

“NO!” Bianca shouted getting to him. “ YOU WON’T DO IT! IT’S TILL THE DEATH!”

Chris moved out of Bianca’s grip and looked at the leader.

“I’ll do it.”

“Great!” She said turning to the center of the room. “We’ll be ready in a few minutes,” she replied with a sickly sweet smile.

The Phoenix witches all gathered in the middle of the room to prepare the cage. A few of them shimmered out and came back in a matter of second, bearing with them various gems, crystal and amulets.
As they got ready, the Halliwells and Bianca were staying in utter silence. Nobody knowing what to say or do.

“Well! That’s some new way to spend a family night. Even for us!” Paige broke the silence.

Her words seemed to break the hex on the whole group as they all started yelling at Chris’ madness.

He raised his hands in the air and tried to shut them up, but there was no stopping them. As they started pulling him left and right he finally exploded.

“STOP IT! I’m doing it and there’s no turning around!” He yelled, his face going red for the lack of air and the embarrassment. Even in this kind of situation his hate for the spotlight won out on anything else.

“Chris! You can’t.” Bianca pleaded with him “ They’re gonna kill you. Please!” She said in a little voice, her eyes watering. Not even the coven’s leader could have broken her like this.

“She’s right!” Wyatt nearly shrieked “Let me do it! I’ll...”

The young Phoenix’s giggle interrupted him.

“Oh! No no! Mr. Twice Blessed. He’s the one who wants her,” she giggled again at her own choice of words, “so he’s got to fight!”

A new set of giggles was broken off by Piper blowing her up, without even looking at her.

The woman stared hard at her son.

“I won’t let you.” She said in her most definitive tone.

“I have to. And you can’t kill them all. There are too many. What if they get one of the youngers, Mum?” He looked seriously at her. “I have to.” She looked away, that tone never worked on Chris.

“Of course we can take them! That’s not the first time we’ve done something like this.” Wyatt yelled, nearly hysteric. “The younger ones can just orb away. I won’t let you.” Chris just looked stonily at his brother.

“It is the first time Wy we’ve faced someone like them. There are several covens all over the world, they may not all be covens of assassins, but I’m sure they wouldn’t take kindly to us killing other Phoenixes.” He didn’t notice how the Charmed Ones frowned after hearing that information. “This is the best way to deal with the situation.”

Piper tried uselessly to hold the tears back, but it was an impossible task. She pulled her son in a strong embrace and the whole family followed her. Raising her head she saw Bianca standing a few feet away, her stoic mask wet with her salty tears.

The mother smiled gently at the girl and opened a space in the hug circle for Bianca to fill. After a few seconds of hesitation she wiped her tears away and launched herself into Chris’ arms, falling easily into them. She closed her eyes as the family left the two lovers to their embrace.

She tried hard to remind herself of the amazing powers her boyfriend had showed her, but it did little to calm her down. She looked up at him and saw him smiling at her sweetly, like he was just saying goodnight and not walking in a deadly trap. She punched him in the arm and he just laughed at her.

“They’re not gonna play by the rules. This Phoenixes are trained to kill, doesn’t matter how the do it. They just focus on the finish line.” He’d turned serious now and nodded at her. “ Try to read my mind if it doesn’t distract you. I could be able to anticipate their moves. And don’t ever lose eye contact, they’ll point a dragger at you before you know it. Try to keep track of them all…” her ramble was interrupted by Chris soft kiss.

“Will do” he smiled at her again. “ Please, don’t worry.” He kissed her softly and took his lips to her ear. “ I’m trained to protect what I love.”

She finally smiled, because she knew that’s what he was trying to achieve and she let him go slowly. He looked tenderly at her and knew he couldn’t let go of her without telling her just how strongly he felt for her.

“Bianca, I lov-” she put a finger on his lips to silence him.

“No. Kick their ass first!” She shoved him away from her, with a smirks that didn’t really reach her teary eyes.

The Phoenixes had finished preparing for the battle, most of them shimmered out leaving only the leader and six other witches.
Their leader conjured a high chair and sat on it with the redhead, that worked as her right-hand, standing near her.

Chris stared hard at her and moved towards them. As he neared the Phoenixes his sister voice stopped him.

“Chris!” She yelled making him and everybody else turn at her. She bit her lips looking at Wyatt, but said resolutely “Break the pact.”

Her brother looked alarmed at Wyatt too, who was just looking between the two of them confused. He nodded at her with a resigned and guilty face. Only Bianca seemed to understand what the two meant, recalling what Chris had told her about his brother. Not even the empaths caught on to the meaning of Mel’s word. The only Halliwell to react in any way different than confusion was P.J., the telepath. Her eyes almost popped out as she heard her cousins’ thoughts.

Chris walked to the witches and as he got in front of them, huge walls made of red energy raised high around him and his four opponents, only to turn invisible as soon as they reached the roof.

The blonde sitting on her throne looked amused at his confident and fearless face. Rising both hands she sealed the cage from outside magic.

“Let the game begins!” 

Chapter Text

Chris scoffed at the blond woman, but his eyes quickly left her to stare at his opponents. There were four witches in the cage. He surely wasn’t expecting a one on one fight from them. At least they weren't all in the cage with him. Something told him the absence of the blond leader was already good news, and that was as good as it was going to get for him.

The four women were looking back at him, each one with a sick wicked smile on their face. None of them were making any move to attack, yet. So Chris took his time to study them. They were all wearing tight leather outfit.

In such a tight outfit they couldn’t be hiding any surprises-daggers, but what little Bianca had the time to explain to him told him otherwise. Moreover she has said most of the Phoenixes inherited the power of apportation, so the chances all four of the witches in front of him had that power was high. He knew from the panicked state Bianca was in that these were no ordinary witches.

The one witch in front of him was the younger one that talked to them before. She had long black hair held up in a ponytail and everything on her was in miniature size. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet and looking at Chris like a hungry predator. The other three women were standing a few feet behind her. Somehow Chris registered that they looked different from the baby-witch, as he’d started to call her in his head, but the eager attitude of the witch in front of him stopped any analysis he was making.

As his eyes settle again on the baby-witch she was not where he had left her just two seconds ago. She was lunging forward, a dagger in hand and another one was already on is way towards his throat. Chris used his telekinesis to shove the first dagger at one of the witches standing in the background. She barely stepped two feet away to avoid it, not even taking her eyes away from the fight.

Chris would have frowned at that, but he was too busy fighting the baby-witch. She tried for a fist in his face but he telekinetically blocked her.

“Oooh! Does Shadow boy think he can beat me with telekinesis?” She smirked at him. Chris just rolled his eyes. Somehow every demon, warlock or bad witch he ever fought was completely and utterly sure that playing the inferiority complex card with him would lead to their victory. Like he’d ever be so stupid. Moreover his whole family made sure his lack of power compared to Wyatt was never a problem…and okay, maybe his secret stock of powers did help a little on that front.

Even if he didn’t fall for her trick, he was starting to feel like she wouldn’t need that kind of advantage.

“She’s trying to play in her field. Hand to hand combat is a Phoenix specialty.” Bianca's voice broke in the fight.

Chris repressed a sigh trying not to lose his concentration and keep up with the little fighter, but he could see there was no way he could win like this. He orbed away from a well-aimed high kick and even while orbing he could hear his Aunt Paige muttering “About damn time, boy.” While he was sure his Aunt Phoebe was pouting. Even if she saw her nephew couldn’t beat the girl in a hand to hand, the Underworld would freeze over before she’d admit her little sister way of fighting was better. They’d became just too competitive when talking about the new generation’s attitude towards a fight.

“You’re coming back second best?” the baby-witch sing-sang while looking at the air. “You can always leave Bitchy Bitch to us already!” Now if any thought of restraining himself in front of the family – or even more importantly in front of Wyatt- were still in Chris’ head they evaporated right that instant.

He reappeared behind her a hand on her back and before she could react he has orbed the daggers she had thrown at him right in her back. She hissed at the pain but still tried to attack Chris. He shoved her telekinetically away from him with such force that she ended up smashing on the cage wall. The bright energy that enveloped her made her send a shrill cry. Afterward, there was no trace of her.

On her high chair the leader simply scoffed.

“Useless preppy harlot.” She grimaced. “Getting killed by a telekinetic blast!” She sneered in anger.

“Ding Dong, the witch is dead,” was Bianca's happy retort in Chris’ head.

However Chris didn’t even have the time to consider the fact that he had at least got rid of one witch, that other two were on him instantly. They attacked him at the same time, there was no pause between their punches and kicks, since when one wasn’t sending a kick his way the other was there to do it.

“They fight in couples.” Bianca informed him, pondering. The only reason Chris didn’t roll his eyes was to keep his focus on the witches. His ego was already too beaten up to bear being knocked out in front of his whole family.

“You don’t say, Copper?” He couldn’t help but answer sarcastically. Bianca audibly groaned at that and the whole Halliwell family teared their eyes away from the fight to stare at her. She just kept looking at Chris, analyzing the fight.

“Phoenixes are solo fighters, they don’t like to share the light.” She paused staring at the witches. “Don’t you think they look similar?”

“You know I only have eyes for you.” He relpied, she couldn’t believe he wouldn’t stop joking around even in this kind of situation.

“Seriously Chris. Now?” She scoffed and crossed her arms irritated.

“Are you talking with him?” Asked a really stunned Leo, because a Chris asking for advices was not his Chris. The rest of the family was even more shell shocked, the fact that no one was talking was proof enough of that. The only one Chris maintained a telepathic conversation with during a fight was Wyatt, and only when too many high level demons appeared suddenly.

Before Bianca could answer him, Chris’ voice in her head made her jump on the place.

“Astral twins!” Bianca brows furrowed in confusion.

“Astral twins?” she repeated out loud. Helen and Pat come to stand next to her, an identical frown covering their features.

“That would explain their movements.” Pat said nodding her head.

“Even with our connection we don’t move like that.” Helen said with a much more worried tone. “But they’re not totally the same. Same hair , same height, same body. Still…”

“They’re different,” her twin finished for her. “So how do you know who’s the original?” After that the family turned as one to the fight, their worry doubled.

“You’re trained not to feel anything, right?” Chris' voice cuts once again in Bianca's head.

“Yes.” Bianca's answer was hesitant.

“Not even temperature changes?” Bianca laughed both on the inside and on the outside. The cough didn’t help her looking any less weird from everyone's point of view. Sneaking a glance at them her eyes fell on Melinda, whom smirked at her.

“Get a scarf,” she simply stated. So many emotions showed on Melinda's face it was impossible to register them all. At the end she smiled softly and turned to look at her older brother next to her. Something akin to guilt made her smile almost fall.

“I’m sorry. We’re sorry. It’s just…” She sighed deeply and turned to look at Chris’ fight. “Complicated,” she finished. Wyatt looked like she had just tried to explain organic chemistry to him, but didn’t have time to inquire before a loud gasp escaped somebody behind him. He turned to his brother too, worried.

“What the fuck?” Piper didn’t even register his crass language, like everybody else her eyes were glued to the fight.

In the cage Chris managed to orb away from a well-aimed energy ball to reappear behind one of them, a hand steadily put on her shoulder. All the while the air around the three fighters was getting colder and colder. When Chris finally put his hand on the witch she froze in less than a second. His thermokinesis freezing her from the inside out. A perfect statue of ice, frozen mid spin as his attack didn’t give her the time to fully react. At the same time the ice covered her totally, the other witch disappeared into thin air.

Chris forced himself to turn at the last remaining witch in the cage, ignoring his family gasping behind him.

“What the hell was that!?!” Wyatt’s bellowing voice almost made the whole room tremble.

Nobody answered him. Each and every one of them too busy asking themselves the same question, even the Phoenix witches started to look nervous. Bianca and Melinda were the only one to acknowledge him. While Bianca stared with wide eyes at the calm blond that just turned into the Yeti, Melinda flinched knowing what was coming next. Sneaking a glance at her mother she noticed the woman was still too preoccupied about the fight to give her the third degree. Her father and brother however didn’t seem on the same page.

“Mel, do you know anything about...this?” Leo waved his hand in the general direction of Chris and Melinda flinched yet again at her father’s tone. Between the two parents Piper was surely the one that went all out with the yelling, but with Leo it was the subtle change of tone that hinted at how he felt. Melinda didn’t really like what she heard. Taking a deep breath- and cursing Chris for leaving her to do all the explaining- she turned to answer his father.

“Fifteen.” However her voice didn’t seem to be cooperating. Leo frowned at her and seeing his father wasn’t pressing on as hard for information as he’d like Wyatt took the matter into his own hands.

“Fifteen what, Mel? What is going on here? When did he....?”

“Fifteen, I told you. That’s when he first developed thermokinesis.” Wyatt and Leo stared at her dumbfounded. “At first he could only heat things up and then…”

“He…it…since he was …? He has had it for seven years?” At Leo's rising tone Melinda figured that she’d be totally screwed if she didn’t find her voice soon. At least Wyatt seemed too paralysed to ask any questions, he was looking from his sister to his brother while still gaping at them.

“He may have some powers…some other powers, he didn’t tell you about,” she told them while turning her head towards the cage.

“But he told you?” She was happy she had turned her head, because she was not sure she’d be able to face the hurt she was hearing in her brother voice. “Wait, powers? Like … there are more?”

“Melinda what is going on?” Her father's question came to an abrupt end at the sound of an explosion as a bright golden light came from the cage.

A huge cloud of smoke was still dissolving in the cage. Chris’ prone figure appeared behind all the smoke. Not being able to see the attack coming at him he didn’t move out of the way in time. Luckily the fireball only got him in the shoulder. He didn’t allow his brain to register the pain, but kept looking around himself, a suspicious glint in his eyes.

He was staring the last witch in the eyes as that odd fireball got him, the witch didn’t move an inch and nothing he could think about indicated she could produce such a fireball.

Which meant there was somebody else in the cage.

However he was sure that there were only four witches in there at the beginning, one of them was the astral twin or else he would have noticed her appear from thin air. Then how was it possible?

The though hit him hard as he asked himself that.

It was almost pathetic that he, of all people, took so much time to figure it out. His trademark smirk covered his face as he pulled himself upright. Now that his family had seen him use a power they had no idea in the slightest he possessed, he might as well go all out.

A low almost imperceptible trembling from beneath his feet snapped him out of his musing. He jumped out of the way just in time to see another of the exploding fireballs came up from beneath him. Too bad he almost hit the cage wall to do so, making it barely in time to orb out of harm’s way.

He took a deep breath as he reformed, a grimace on his face, as the burning sensation in his arm almost made him slip up.

Seeing Chris like that Piper bolted up from the chair she had been sitting on, acting oddly calm until now. The gesture startled her sisters, that had been standing near her for support.

“That’s it!” She practically hissed. “ I shouldn’t have allowed this. We’re taking those bitches out. Now!”  Her sisters looked from one another, not even noticing the swear their sister had used in front of the children. Finally Paige turned to look to the frantic Piper.

“But there’s no way in and…” the death glare from the older Charmed One shut her up. She could only nod along with Phoebe, they both knew there was no fighting a frantic, anxious Piper. Even more so when one of her children was in danger. In this situations her word was law. Moreover the two witches liked standing in the sideline, as their nephew got hurt, just as much as his mother.

“We got to take blondie up there out then. She’s the Amazons’ Queen”. Paige told them. At that words Bianca turned her attention to them, forcing her apprehension and fear out of  the way and turning up with a stony expression.

“You can’t do that.” She told resolutely to Piper.

“Excuse me?” Piper snapped, her hands twitching ready to blow up the girl.

“She has control over the cage. If you try as much as to approach her she won’t think twice before making it implode on its own and …” She didn’t end the sentence, as the thought of what would happen to Chris then made her stomach contort in a painful way.

“But her witches are in there too.” Phoebe tried to reason. Bianca just snorted at that.

“Like she cares. I haven’t seen her all heartbroken for the death of the other two, have you?” The three sisters followed her gaze back to the cage, defeated. The blond leader wasn’t showing any kind of emotion, she even looked a little bored.

They turned just in time to see Chris avoid another fireball headed for his head, this time at least with less swaying on his part. His smirk was still in place.

“We can both play Dr. Griffin, you know.” He disappeared into thin air as he said so.

As the invisibility cloth hid him completely he saw a little witch standing in front of him a frown on her face. It seemed like he could see her now that they were both invisible. It may have something to do with their changed perceptions, their eyes probably picked up the reflected waves differently when they were under the cloth.

Chris had to stop himself from thinking about his new theory, as he should probably look into that later on, the crazy physic part of his brain could wait. Now he had better take advantage of the situation, as it didn’t look like the girl noticed he had turned invisible.

He orbed behind her and telekinetically launched her towards the cage walls, before she could come to his same conclusion.

The witch body turned visible as she touched the cage and finally exploded. He became visible once again and turned to face his last opponent. Behind him he could hear his sister and cousins talking, but he forced himself to leave the family confrontation for later.

“Did he just?” Junior asked slowly what everybody else was wondering.

“He can turn invisible.” Mel answered him with a stony face. “ Leave it.” At Wyatt’s low growl she added, “for later.”

The last witch was still not moving, staring at Chris attentively like he was some kind of rebus she was trying to resolve.

Finally with a jerk of her head she moved towards him, raising her hands ever so slowly. The ground started to tremble as her palms reached her waist and splinters came off the floor. Chris’ eyes widened at the sudden source of energy coming from all around him. Several pieces of floor raised and the witch sent them his way. He tried to orb or move out of the way first, but the energy she was emanating grounded him to the floor.

So he used his telekinesis to send the tiles crashing into the cage walls. After several attacks, where the splinters from the floor became bigger the witch stopped her attack.

The way the splinters got bigger and bigger after each attack made him think she was testing him and his powers. She looked at him with a satisfied and somewhat hungry look on her face. She raises her hand faster than before and sent three huge pieces of floor his way from all around Chris. After that she shimmered out.

Catching her line of thoughts he readied himself for her attack, easily sending the pieces of ground flying with his telekinesis. He could hear several gasps from behind him, but the witch reappeared in front of him before he could even register them. Her right hand glowing with a blue light.

She’s trying to steal your powers!

Bianca’s cry in his head made him react naturally as he put his hands in front of him and separated them with a drastic movement. The witch blew up in a swirl of gold light, but he readied himself for her to reappear as they all did after his mother blew them up.

Just, it didn’t happen.

The cage’s walls blinked a deep crimson before falling apart.

The blonde leader’s cry of anger was the only thing that actually made him believe that he had done it.

The blond woman was gripping her chair almost as if she wanted to smash it into pieces, while she looked at Chris with a stare full of hate. Everybody was frozen in place, not even one member of the family moved to get to Chris, either because they were still watching out for what the Phoenix’s leader might do next or because of the shock Chris’ little show of powers had dropped them into.

Either way nobody dared to move, not even little Pamela that still hadn’t fully comprehended what the adult were playing at. Although the pretty gold light Chris made appear only a few second before had her pretty mesmerized. Maybe if she got lucky she’d get to see it again.

The leader finally relaxed in the chair and looked at the redhead, that was still waiting on her right side. Before the woman was fully turned her way the witch shimmered out, only to reappear behind Chris a dragger in one hand and the other one glowing blue, as the hand of the other witch when she was trying to steal his powers.

Before anybody else could react Bianca had already appeared next to the redhead, having shimmered out a mere seconds after the witch, and was now holding her glowing hand. She easily threw her up and sent her flying. Before the witch could get back up Chris made her explode seeing as it had worked with the other one.

“YAY!” The happy cry of Pam made him turn from the fight and he started to relax.

“You got yourself a little fan girl.” Bianca smiled at him.

“Oh! I already have a whole fandom.” He said, turning his attention to the leader of the group and only Phoenix left. Other than Bianca that was to say. The woman was walking towards them in a menacing stance. “ We have red outfits. Wanna join?”

Bianca just shook her head, her eyes never leaving the blonde that was now in front of them.

“If you think I’m gonna leave you here, after killing my witches…” She started in a threatening tone.

“Oh, I believe you will do just that.” Piper voice stopped her before she could say or do anything else, blowing her up. Paige called for the crystals at the manor to put a cage up for when she reformed.

As the blonde reappeared in the crystal cage, the older Charmed One almost pouted. Almost. Of course there was no way Piper Halliwell was pouting simply because yet another son of hers seemed more powerful than her. No way.

Still she turned at Chris with a dirty look and the boy took a few steps away from her. She should have been more stern about the whole ‘never lie unless it’s to save your life from a demon’s attack’ lesson and perhaps she should have a ‘ don’t go out with assassin witches’ talk thrown in the mix.

“How comes you blew them up?” She asked him in a calm tone. At least it seemed calm to her, everybody else heard the sternness in it.

“”Er…Later?” He tentatively tried to sneak a glance at a very pissed off Wyatt and a paler than a ghost Melinda.

Suddenly fighting another four assassins didn’t seem like such a bad prospective. Even ten or a hundreds… A snort coming from the cage took him back to reality.

“You can’t kill me Charmed Ones.” The Phoenix’s leader stated with too much confidence.

“Oh yeah? Well look at us,” Phoebe said gesturing between her and her sisters. “ We’ll enjoy trying.” She stepped closer to the cage, but Bianca stopped her.

“Wait, you can’t!” Everybody looked at her with a dumb expression. “She’s a Phoenix’s leader. She acts like a catalyst among the others. If she dies the others from my clan will fall into chaos.”

“And that’s bad, because?” Paige asked her with a doubtful expression.

“Because chaos among Phoenix means they’ll start doing they want.” The blond woman told her with a cocky grin “Moreover I doubt you’ll want to deal with all the other covens’ reactions at an Elder’s death .” The sister turned to look at Bianca after that, she only nodded to confirm the words, a lump in her throat as she imagined what an army of Phoenix with a single objective would be able to do.

“Fine then. But you come near my family again and I swear I’ll find a way around killing you.” Piper told her with an icy tone.

“She won’t be able to do anything.” Bianca declared and the blond looked even more enraged by that. “ Chris abided by the Phoenix’s rules in the fight, while you sent another witch to attack him after the wall had fallen. Elder or not the rest of the council will not like that!”

Satisfied by that explanation, Piper then looked at Paige and the younger woman smirked orbing the Phoenix witch out of the local, still in the cage.

“Where did you send her?” Chris asked her, seeing the strange glint in his aunt eyes. That told him she either did something awfully bad or awfully funny. Sometime both things.

“The Amazon Rainforest.” She said with a smirk “ I thought she’d like it there, it seemed fitting.” They all laughed at that, until Piper turned to look at her middle son.

“I think it’s time for a talk young man.” She said seriously, but before she could continue Wyatt took hold of Melinda’s arm and came forward to grab Chris’ too.

“Oh yeah! It’s spill time!” He said in a dangerously maniacal voice, before orbing out with both his sibling.

“Hey!”                                                                                                    

“Wyatt!”

Both his parents’ yells were completely ignored.

Chapter Text

The three sibling reappeared on top of the Golden Gate bridge. For a few tense minutes they looked at each other without saying a world.

Chris and Melinda were standing on oneside of the bridge while Wyatt was facing both of them, his arms were crossed and there was a deep frown covering his face. Melinda was standing next to Chris and clinging to his arm, rubbing it as if to comfort him but using so much strength to do so that she was instead hurting him. Chris was standing still, his green eyes never leaving Wyatt’s blue ones.

He had known that sooner or later Wyatt would have found out and that the longer they were to keep the secret, the harder it would become to tell Wyatt. Now the choice had been taken away from him and he had to explain to an angry Wyatt why they wouldn’t tell him.

What he hadn’t be able to anticipate was how deeply the hurt look, that his older brother was trying to hide, would cut him.

To think that this had all started as a silly kids’ game.

He and Melinda were playing in the kitchen. They were around eight and four years old respectively.They were playing in the kitchen while Piper was cleaning the rooms upstairs from a demon-attack-mess.

Chris was making Melinda dolls levitate with his telekinesis, concentrating really hard to make them move as real people. Melinda was giggling in her chair and ordering him to make them more real. She had always had a thing for ordering people around.The fact that she was the younger child and the only girl helped her a lot, since neither her parents nor her brothers were able to deny her anything.

Right at that moment Wyatt orbed into the kitchen to take some cookies to eat while watching “big kids TV”, as he liked to call it.

“More real!” Shouted Melinda just as Wyatt reformed. The older boy neared the kitchen table to see what his younger siblings were up to, after all he had to make sure they didn’t do anything dangerous since he was the eldest.

As he saw his little brother concentrating really hard to make the dolls move, he frowned. Chris was almost starting to sweat for using all that power to make the dolls move. So he moved his right hand in front of the dolls. They were immediately engulfed in a bright blue light. Seeing that Chris dropped them on the table and turned to stare at Wyatt, as did Melinda.

Wyatt smiled satisfied and prompted the two of them to look at the dolls, nudging them. The dolls were now standing on their feet, completely and utterly alive.

Chris and Melinda just stared at the dolls that were now waving their hands at them, Chris scowling darkly at them. However only Melinda noticed that; Wyatt just smiled at his brother, happy he could help him.

“There’s no need to try that hard to please Mellie, Chris . I have enough power for this things.” He kept smiling as he got his cookies and walked back in the solarium. Happy that he had been able to stop his brother before he hurt himself. His mom was always saying that was his job and he was really proud of it.

The dolls started dancing and chatting, but the little girl didn’t take much notice of that. The sour look on her brother face was all she could look at. Seeing as Melinda didn’t take notice of them, the dolls neared Chris giggling. He just looked angrily at them and moved his handsto throw them away from him with his telekinesis.

But that didn’t happens. The dolls disappeared into a silent swirl of golden light only to reappear immobile on the kitchen table. Chris just looked at them with wide eyes, while Melinda jumped up and down on her chair.

“Chrissie! You have a new power! Yay! Let’s tell Wy! Yay!” As Melinda tried to hop down the chair too high for her, Chris reached his hands out to stop her. The movement had one of the glasses on the counter blew up in the swirl of golden light. Fortunately for him it reappeared intact or his mother would have grounded him for at least a week.

“No!” He whisper-yelled “ If we tell him he’ll just make a big deal out of it and then show us a more amazing power of his.” He said with a frown. Every time he or Melinda learned something new, Wyatt came up with something extraordinaryto show them.

His brother words from earlier resound in his head:I have enough power for this things.

“That …thing I did…is not important. If we have Wyatt, we don’t need it. If the family knew I’d have to force myself to make my power as strong as Wyatt’s. You know how they are! I can’t be Wyatt.” Melinda lookeddubiously at her big brother.

She knew it was lying and that was wrong to do, but he was right in a way. She always saw how the family tried to make the oldest children work on their powers. It wasn’t a bad thing, demons could attack any moment and they had to at least know how to use their powers to distract the demons and run away.

The problem was that they all practiced together, in the same room… and every time one of them managed to learn something new, Wyatt twice blessed power improved. Nobody in the family blamed Wyatt, they knew he wasn’t trying to show off.

Their dad had said that Wyatt Twice Blessed powers were triggered by the amount of magic that surrounded him, hence when one developed a new power his automatically increased. The others didn’t even think about it anymore, the fact that their cousin was so strong was a good thing for them. But Chris had always been different. He was never  jealous of Wyatt, even when the others had been. All he wanted was to stand by Wyatt, because he knew he felt lonely, all the others were paired between cousins, he was the only one that trained with the Charmed Ones. Alone, in a different side of the room.

Melinda knew that was when the problems started. Their mother and aunts had agreed to have the two boy train together, but that had triggered  Chris’ doom. One day, during their training Wyatt wounded Chris by accident.

That’s when the older boy decided Chris couldn’t stand in the line of fight or by him.

Melinda was sure their older brother didn’t notice how hurt Chris had been by his decision, because he only wanted to protect him. From then on Chris had started to feel like he didn’t need to tell Wyatt of his improvements, since his brother didn’t need him. Melinda could get it, because even if so little she was starting to feel the same.

“Please Mellie, let’s make it our secret.” At that the girl’s eyes lighted up.

“Like a secret pact?” She asked. Chris nodded, also smiling and she beamed up at him.“Only you a me. Like your boy’s thingies with Wy?” She launched her hands around Chris’ neck and nodded eagerly.

“I know they don’t mean to make you feel little.” At that point Piper entered the kitchen with Wyatt chatting happily. The two younger Halliwellsshared a last secret look before joining them.

Chris knew that his had been an irrational fear. The family made him work hard on his powers so he could protect himself and because being one of the older cousins he had to be able to help the youngers out too. But after childhood came the teen years and with them magic school. If he showed only his telekinesis nobody would compare his powers to Wyatt. Some still made fun of him, but mostly they considered him just a more than average witch.

Moreover it was clear Wyatt didn’t need Chris’ help and his powers. If he had ever needed it Chris wouldn’t have been able to hide his powers from him, he would have ended up using them to protect him. The Twice Blessed however, had never needed his little brother’s help.

Chris truly had believed there was no reason to tell anybody about all of his powers.

Then the years had passed and lying became the easy way out, or so he had though up until now. The hurt and betrayed look on his brother’s face told him a different story.

All the anger slowly left Wyatt as he looked at his siblings, all that rested was the hurt. He just couldn’t understand why they had felt the need to lie to him. He had always tried to be there for them.
Why couldn’t they trust him?

He remembered what Melinda had told Chris before he had entered the cage: “Break the pact.”

What was this about them making pacts about not telling him things?
What had he done to be left out from it? To be left out of their lives?
What was the point of developing new powers if he didn’t use them against demons?
How could Chris even learn to control them if he didn’t use them? Only…he did know how to use them. He had just taken out five strong witches in less than half an hour. Five powerful witches that were trained as assassins.
Did that mean they had hidden from him while they trained?
Did Melinda have a whole set of powers he didn’t know about as well? 
Why would they need to leave him out of this?
Why would they even need this crazy secret pact in the first place?
How could they?
Why would they?
Chris that in second grade decided there had to be a brother’s day, just like there was a mother’s day and father’s day, because he was just as awesome? Melinda that still stopped the clock from moving every time he overslept so their mother wouldn’t notice?

Looking at the two of them standing near each other in front of him, it made him feel left out.Suddenly all the sneaked glances and the whispered conversations were starting to assume a different meaning to his eyes. He had always though they had their secrets. After all he and Chris talked about things they never shared with Melinda or anybody else, and the same went for him and Melinda. She had come to him many times to ask for help and they confided in each other too.

But this was different.
This wasn’t a secret, it was a lie.

He finally managed to look them in the eyes.“Why?” Was all he can manage to ask in the end.

Chapter Text

Chris had to look away from the hurt look on hisbrother’s face. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy when he finally told him, but having him discover it like this was a disaster. He sighed and shared a look with Melinda. The girl was biting her lower lip so hard it was strange she hadn’t started bleeding from it. As he went back to look at his brother, he wished he hadn’t turned away from him. Wyatt looked even more hurt.

“Why?” This time Wyatt’s voice was stronger and higher, his hands were balled into fists at his side. The secret looks were starting to make all his rage resurface.

Melinda grimaced at the tone and Chris just sighed,looking at Wyatt. He took his sister hands and pulled her to make her sit down. The coldness of the bridge’s metal helped him relax. He’d always loved this place, it was like his little piece of heaven.

“Sit Wyatt. Could you heal this wound through, I don’t think fainting would be much fun up here.” Wyatt just held his glowing hands up, keeping the remorse at bay for not having healed his brother before. The older boy just watched as his younger siblings sat down, then huffing he decided to do the same. After all it was better not to lose his cool.

He knew his brother. He may not know his powers, he thought begrudgingly, but at least he knew him. He always lied when somebody attacked him, it was his natural defense against anger.

Chris watched carefully as his brother lowered his tall body and sat on the bridge next to him.

“So,” he sighed again, noticing he might have sighed more in the last twelve hours than in his entire life. “What do you want to know?” Wyatt just blinked, staring at him like he had completely lost his mind. He tried hard to calm himself down before answering.

“Well Chris, I don’t know! How about you tell me about your classes? Or maybe you could tell me about your not so new girlfriend, yeah? Or better yet,” he said. Calming himself down clearly wasn’t going to work if Chris kept acting this way,his anger was taking control once again. “You could tell me what in the bloody Underworld was that all about? Why did you lie to me about your powers?”

Maybe he was as good at staying calm as Chris was at telling the truth.

The younger boy cringed at his brother’s tone, he was too close for his liking. When Wyatt yelled it was better to stay at least ten feet away. He was almost sure the drivers below had heard him. Melinda only hid herself behind Chris, hearing Wyatt’s rage coming to the surface. She had never been able to face her brothers when angry, at least not as long as they didn’t do something to angry as well. Of course Chris knew it was just a matter of time before the shock of seeing him uncover their secret in front of the whole family, while she was left alone to keep them calm, would wear out.

“Listen Wy,” he tried to use his let’s-talk-it-out tone and there was a possibility the use of the nickname was pointing to calm the older boy down. Only a slight possibility. “There’s a reason why I didn’t tell anybody.”

“But her.” His brother saidin a clipped voice, interrupting him and pointing accusingly at Melinda making him frown. “You told her.” Melinda hid even further behind Chris.

“I didn’t tell her. She was…sort of …there.” He finished pathetically. Wyatt just raised his eyebrow at that.

“And when exactly did she happened to just be there?” Melinda squeezed Chris’ arm so tightly that he was sure no more blood was circulating through it.

“Just some time ago. You wouldn’t remember! Why does it matter anyway? It’s not like it’d change anything.” He answered nervously.

“When?” Wyatt practically growled.

“Er…Eight?” the younger boy answered nervously.

“Eight.” Wyatt deadpanned. “ Eight what? Months? Years? What?”

“Eight years …old. I was eight, that is.” He moved cautiously further away from him. If there was one thing he didn’t wish to try, it was being in the path of Wyatt’s fury. Although he realized it might be a bit too late for that.

But the older boy just kept staring at him, he closed his eyes and nodded slowly.

“So. Let me get this straight. You develop new powers at eight and instead of telling me or mum or dad, you tell the four years old brat?”

“Oi!” Melinda yelled at tops of her lounges “ I’m not a brat! He told me ‘cause he knew he could trust me!” She said standing up and looking down at her older brother. Hearing Wyatt’s words snapped her out of the trance she had seemed to have been in. Having the eyes of the whole family on her while Chris was fighting had made her wish he had been standing next to her, to answer the questions they were directing her way like he always did when they got in trouble.

Out of all three siblings Chris had always been the spokesperson; while Wyatt was the one that took charge Chris always seemed to be the one that took care of the fall out. She, on the other hand, had always been the one to pour oil on the fire, be it demons or stupid kids in magic school, she wouldn’t let her brothers or anyone else go undefended.

 Her words simply managed to ignite Wyatt’s anger further.

“And you couldn’t trust me?” He yelled “Why? What did I ever do?”

All the fear left Melinda’s body as her brother kept yelling at her. After all she was her mother’s daughter and if there was one thing she was good at it was fighting back full force.

“Oh, I don’t  know! Maybe if you didn’t treat him like a porcelain doll, he would have told you?”

“I was only trying to protect you!” Her oldest brother yelled in self-defense.

“Let’s all calm down guys.” Chris tried to reason, he knew it was all for nothing. There was no stopping Melinda. Or Wyatt from the looks of it.

“What do you care anyway? It’s not like this changes anything for you!” Melinda kept going, ignoring Chris’ words.

“Doesn’t change anything?” Wyatt bellowed. “Doesn’t change anything she says! Of course it changes everything!” He yelled in disbelief. “How can you even think…” He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down once again. If he really wanted to get some sort of answers he couldn’t foment Melinda’s anger.

“You’re my sister, my brother,” he continued in a lower, but still agitated tone. “You’re supposed to tell me your secrets, not hide things that I should know from me. It’s like you’re forming…have formed an alliance against me!” Chris tried to interrupt him at this point, but he knew it would be better for all of them if he got it all out before he even tried to reply. Moreover he wasn’t fully prepared to face his pained face.

“We’re a team!” Wyatt tried to go on, but he was interrupted by Melinda’s snort of laughter.

“A team?” She said in a bitter tone, not caring about the warning look Chris was sending her way. “I’m sorry, but our idea of what a team is supposed to be must be far too different. Because in my book teammates don’t go around making others feel like shit!” The tone of her voice had been getting louder and louder till she all but screamed the last sentence. Wyatt was looking at her like he didn’t even know how to comprehend what he had just been told and Chris decided this had already gone overboard.  

“Enough Melinda!” Chris said with such a strong voiceand the other two took a step back. He was the only one still sitting on the edge of the bridge, his hands deep in his mussed hair and his eyes closed. Chris slowly raised from his position to face both of his siblings.

“Mel you’re starting to get hysterical. Just. Calm. Down.” Seeing that Melinda had crossed her arms and was now huffing in annoyance, he turned to Wyatt “Listen Wy, I didn’t tell you…because you were protecting us. Because you didn’t need help, you didn’t want us helping. Because if I had told you about my powers when they showed up I would have had you and mum and everybody else worrying and naggingafter me.”

“I was only trying to protect you! I never tried to make you feel …” Melinda cut him off, snapping again.

“Useless? Unimportant? Powerless?”

“Melinda!” Chris yelled, shooting his sister a look he turned to Wyatt.

“Inutile? Helpless? Week?” Melinda threw their brother way, before Chris could stop her.

“Wy, we were kids. Stupid little kids,” Chris said putting a hand on his sister’s shoulder to keep her still and silent. Melinda snorted at his use of words, but both boys ignored her, “that though it would be better to hide our powers to maintain our balance.”

“You’re not a kid anymore Chris! What’s your excuse for right here, right now?”

“It was … just easier,” at Wyatt heated gaze he hurriedly explained himself  “Once you start with a lie like this, it’s easier to keep lying. What could I have done? Come up to you one day and say: Hey Wy, look how many powers showed up!!” Wyatt looked at him in disbelief.

“You could have told me the truth Chris!” He said slowly. “ You know? That think when you open your mouth and say what is really going on!”

“You know I don’t work like that.” Chris replied smirking, in an attempt to see if Wyatt was anywhere near calming down. The older boy’s lips twitched, but he just sighed.

“Yeah! I’m seriously thinking a little spell on that brain of yours wouldn’t be such a bad idea.” It was almost a joke and Chris was gonna take anything by that point.

“That’s personal gain Wy!” He said in a fake outraged tone.

“It’s a favor to the humanity,lil‘bro!” The older boy finally attempted a smile “ But  no more lies or secrets. I’m letting you go now ‘cause I know mum is gonnaskin you alive and if I don’t bring you back for the execution I’m gonna be right next to you two. But don’t even think this is over.” The younger siblings cringed at that. “No more secrets from now on guys!” The other two looked at each other in a sheepish way. “What? What is it now!” Melinda started to sway from a foot to another 

“Well…since we’re being open…and I don’t really want to have a ‘all secrets come out, part two’ party… maybe…”

“Spit it out Melinda!” Wyatt was now looking again at them with a suspicious and exasperated look. The girl looked at Chris for help and he just sighted in defeat. It wasn’t like he trough she was going to say it herself, she only used her temper when defending others.

“She doesn’t have mum’s powers,” the younger boy answered. “ Well, she doesn’t exactly have mum’s powers. She can’t just control molecules, she controls time…” At Wyatt blank look he kept going on with his explanation. “We think that since dad has been a whithelighter, Elder and Avatar before Mel was born, that she inherited some of the powers of these beings in a way. It’s like she has a latent Avatar or Elder in her.

Dad does still have something magic in him, nobody can totally erase that ... otherways he’d be…you know… dead. Melinda mixed dad’s latent spark with mum’s powers and obtained control over time, chronokinesis, which I believe is an Avatar power. It essentially does what mum’s freezing does, but it’s stronger. She actually stops all time when freezing people, so she can stop us too. I’m not sure but I think that her control over time could make her able to travel time too. But it’s a theory… ”

Wyatt just nodded at Chris and slowly turned his headtowards Melinda.

“In human?”

“I’m the Mistress of Time and Space and I’m way cooler than mum!” The girl answered, ignoring Chris’ mumbles about how nobody ever appreciated the time he wasted on helping them understand their powers.

“Ooooh! She’s gonna be so pissed!”  Chris just rolled his eyes at the other two.

“Let’s just go back! She’s probably going ballistic!” Melinda said trying to stop another of Chris’ explanations.

“That’s it then?” Wyatt raised his eyebrow at the middle one’s question. “What? I was just asking! You didn’t make much noise considering…”

“That you lied to my face for years?” The boy looked at both of them with a creepy smile on his face “ There’s not gonna be a worst punishment than mum’s interrogation, so I’m gonna leave that to her. And I told you, this explanation isn’t over.” He repeated in a serious tone.“Come on now let’s orb!”

The three of them started to orb, the younger ones much more slowly than the eldest. Chris’ orbs however swayed on the spot an rematerialize in a blink,. The boy looked around himself disoriented only to find something that made him wish he was standing in front of an angry Piper Halliwell right at that moment.

Chapter Text

The sight of golden robes was never met with much enthusiasm in the Halliwell’sfamily, particularly by Piper’s family. After all the family had to go through because of the almighty Elders it was no wonder. The truly fascinating thing was that no matter how many times the Elders nearly destroyed the family, they still hadn’t stopped bothering them.

The Elders had always known about Chris and Melinda’s powers; they could sense the shift in power, or so he had read, and since he was the only half-elder ever born they took an interest in him.

At least they had been smart enough to not show up in front of Piper when he was a kid, that showed they had in fact learned something from the past. They waited till Chris was alone after he got the power of molecular dispersion to show up, they hadn’t taken into account the fact that the new generation learned from the Charmed Ones and couldn’t stand them either.

Chris had been pretty fast to get rid of an Elder that showed up in his class (using the Cleaners’ power to stop time had not been fair), the treat of exposing them worked marvelously.
Now however the very same Elder form that day was standing silently in front of him. With a peaceful expression, as if he hadn’t just used his powers on Chris to keep him from orbing. The Elder looked old, even if not as old as he really ought to be. He had white hair and a short white bread, his dark eyes were fixed on Chris and the look on his face made him look even taller than he really was.
“Hello Christopher.” He greeted him in a calm tone that only infuriated the young Halliwell even more.
“Oh, hi to you to! Fancy meeting you, what brings you here this fine day? Your favourite cloud has been blown away?”The Elder just shook his head dramatically at Chris’ tone.
“We need to talk Christopher.” The older man stated.
“You feel free to stay and talk all you want, I’ll go home now. I have a lecture to attend.” The Elder looked hard at him this time and began to talk with a more forceful tone.“You already send me away in the past, it won’t happen again. There is a very pressing matter that we ought to discuss.” Seeing that the boy was going to shot back another snide comment, he said the one thing that he was certain would catch the boy’s attention. “It’s about the Phoenix and yourself.”
As predicted that did catch Chris off guard and he was rendered speechless for a few seconds. Not an easy task to achieve. As soon as the shock wore off of his face, merely by means of his stubbornness, a suspicious look fell on it.
He studied the Elder in front of him. On one hand listening to an Elder’s words went against everything he believed in, they tended to distort words to make people do whatever they wanted after all. It might very well be for the greater good, but it was still not right. He didn’t go around using innocents to save other innocents, did he?

On the other hand, he couldn’t really risk not listening to what the old man hadto say only to find out Bianca was in danger when it was too late. After all even his mother and aunts had to keep in contact with the Elders via Paige, since – as much as the sisters hated to admit it- they had a few things working in their favor. Like the whole supernatural knowledge of evil’s treats that could harm their family and most of the time, by association, the world.

He refusedto lose Bianca because of his stubbornness. Contrary to popular belief he didn’t let his neurosis and paranoia -which he was still not admitting he had- to control him.
“I’m listening.” He finally said.
The Elder just smiled at him as if he had been sure he only had to wait to get this sort of response.
“So different and yet the same.” He kept smiling fondly at him, which only make Chris snap, being the worthy son of his mother.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The old man seemed to come out of his daze.
“I beg your pardon. I was lost in my memories.” At Chris’ odd look he straightened himself out and continued. “I guess it would be time I start explaining myself.” Chris only stared blankly at him, so he kept going. “There is not an easy and simple way to start this conversation, hence I believe it better to go straight to the point.” He coughed slightly, the look in Chris eyes making him uncomfortable as it was not the first time he had seen it.

So different and yet the same, indeed.

“I am one of the oldest Elders around as of right now, older than any other Elder in fact. I became one centuries and centuries ago, after the battle that ensued between the mortals turned into gods and the Elders of that time. I presume you know about that piece of history.”
“I do. But how does that has anything to do with me?” Aunt Paige loved to tell that story at any given time, since it was linked to Charmed Ones’ own battle against the Titans. Most of all she liked to stress how she was the only one that had seen the Titans arrive thanks to the fact that she believed in her instincts.

After the tenth time he had been forced to listen to her story – and every tiny detail about how her trident was the best weapon ever, that came with it- he had been ready to swear on an blood oath that he’d always follow his instincts.
Too bad that outburst had cost him an even lengthier lecture from his Aunt Phoebe about blood oaths.
“Be patient boy, I’ll get there.” He smiled as if remembering an old joke. “If I didn’t tell you the prologue you’d come begging for it later.” Chris only rolled his eyes at that.
“Fine. But I have a rant to attend to, so unless you feel like dealing with my mother,” the boy smirkedat the shudders that visibly shook the Elder, “ I suggest you make your tale short and worth my while.” He knew he soundedlike an arrogant brat, but the Elders always made the worst of him came to the surface.
“Very well. Then you shall not interrupt me, young one.” He waited for Chris’ nod and then reprised. “I played a minor part in that war as I was friend with one of the gods. Apollon or Elios as you prefer…your first incarnation.” Chris eyes widened at that but he kept quiet, wanting to hear what this man was trying to get to. He had heard weirder things after all in his life, though he was sure that if what the Elder was saying was true he was in for winning the ‘Oddest Past Life’ contest against Aunt Paige. “I was his ally and his friend, your friend when I welcomed him after Zeus had condemned him to a mortal life for killing the Cyclopes that had murdered his son.”
I became his friend and I saw him fall in love.” He looked up at Chris at that, “ with a Phoenix, just like yourself. Though back then Phoenixes were much different creatures.”
The Elder took a moment to gather his thoughts and Chris used it to step in.
“So you're telling me all this because...” He gestured vaguely in the Elder’s direction “ You think one of my incarnation will come to hunt me?”
The Elder just shook his head.
“Let me finish boy,” the old man said with a firm tone. “You and your Phoenix have very odds souls. Two of a kind, you could say. I don't think there has ever been two like yours. And since I've been around for a very long time...” He said in a tiered tone. “ I think you can be sure: there has never been a case like this.
I didn't even recognize you at first! Only today, when I saw you with the Phoenix all the pieces finally fell in place.”
“Bianca.” Chris interrupted him in a dull tone.
“Bianca,” the elder conceded, smiling to himself. “ Only today I saw you two together, you’re remarkably good at hiding you know? I couldn't quite believe my old eyes! You see this is the first time Elios and the Phoenix reincarnated.”
Chris frowned at that.
“But why do you care? Why is that so important to the Elders? We're not those people.”
The Elder shook his head at that “Oh! But somewhere inside of you there is a piece of them. Souls aren't completely wiped out of their former life once they reincarnate, there always remains an halo of magic that marks them. Otherwise how could witches come in contact with their past self?Or why would they pay the price of their past life mistakes, like your Aunt Phoebe did?”
Chris had heard about how his Aunt Phoebe’s past life had a much more cool power then Phoebe had had at first a million times. His aunt wouldn’t stop complaining about the injustice of it all since it wasn’t her fault her past life had been evil.
“Since the two of you have only had one incarnation before this one, the link with your past life is even stronger.” The Elder concluded.
“Okay, fine. But you still haven't answered me: what is it to you?”
The Elder became much more serious if possible at that.
“Those two lovers you reincarnate where not accepted by the magical community. They had to run and hide. To protect his lover, Elios created a cage...of some sort,” the Elder said in an uncertain tone, to which Chris raised his eyebrow. “We're not really sure what it is, but we do know it's very powerful. It can protect anyone hiding inside its walls. I did say you’re good at hiding.” The Elder smiled at him,“I guess that’s just a fundamental part of you. Think about how many innocents we could protect by using it! But if it were to fall in the wrong hands...We need you to find it so that no demons can get a chance to puttheir hands on it!” As he talked, the old man got more exited, gesticulating wildly. As if he was unable to contain himself.
“Nobody has found it until now, what's changed?” Chris asked in an uncertain tone.
“You have! You are here now and the cage will react to you. Elios did it so that he could find it no matter how much time it took his soul to reincarnate.”
Chris just frowned at the old man. There was something deeply wrong in his agitated state, but he couldn't really see how that cage could make him agitated.
He was sure the Elder wasn't telling him something and he was set on finding out what that was, when a voice resounded in his ears.
Christopher Perry Halliwell!
The young witch-lighter cringed at his mother's tone.
Chris! Another sharp voice insinuated in his mind. If you don't orb here right this second!
The young woman didn't even have to finish her threat. Before the sound of Bianca's voice was completely out of his mind Chris had already turned towards the Elder.
“Sorry, I have to go. But we still have to talk, or rather I think you still have something to tell me.” He fixed the Elder with a stare and orbed away from the bridge leaving a stunned Elder in his wake. The old man cursed himself for having let his guard down, he knew he shouldn't have lowered the shield that was holding Chris from orbing.
He could do nothing else but orb out as well now. His mission would have to wait.

Chapter Text

Orbing didn't take much time.One second you were standing on your feet and the next one you were floating in the space continuum, faster than light.
That didn't stop Chris from taking his time and examining his current situation,to try to figure out how he was going to deal with it. Moreover after the talk with that Elder, his brain was really having a hard time trying to process everything that happened in the last few hours.
His mind was completely blank and suddenly going back to deal with the Elder's story didn't sound like such a bad idea. In fact he should probably have stayed to listen to the whole story. After today he doubted his family was going to be as easy to be kept in the dark, as they usually appeared to be and they were bound to ask a million questions about this new development.
If he'd been in his corporeal form he'd be groaning.
Before he was even reformed in the Manor's solarium, he could already hear his mother’s voice. At whom it wasn't clear, but she was yelling. That much he had come to expect after twenty-two years. How else was she supposed to be heard by such a loud, huge family?
“...you will all go back home now! I mean it Phoebe, no amount of pouting from you and the Carbon Copies will get you to stay!”
Chris almost chuckled hearing the indignant gasps coming from his cousins' lips. They'd never liked that nickname, no matter how true it was. However it wasn't really time to laugh, if his mother was getting rid of the rest of the family it didn’t bode well for him.
Where the hell where you Wonder Boy?Bianca voice broke through his mind at the same time as Mel's yelling did.
What were you thinking leaving me on my own!His sister bellowed in his mind.Again!
Chris tried to ignore the murderous look on his sister’s face and instead decided to settles his eyes on Bianca’s amused expression. At least somebody was having fun. The sight of an angry Piper Halliwell could be highly entertaining after all. If you were watching from the sidelines that is.
Chris cleared his throat as the rest of the family started to disappear and he came fully in the room.
“Sorry I'm late,” he said shifting from foot to foot. “I got held back.” He took a deep breath and prepared himself.
Because when the Halliwell's matriarch turned to look at you with her let's-go-kick-some-demon-ass face, there was nothing else you could do. The way his mother was just standing there staring at him was unnerving.

As for his father, Chris was trying to avoid the sorrowful look that was gracing the older man’s features.
As the years passed and the lies accumulated with them, Chris had had time to prepare for all sort of scenarios. All, though, included a few explosions and some yelling, even the more optimistic and mild ones. This silence, he would never have expected.
In the end it was Bianca that broke the silence that had befallen the manor.
“Perhaps I should go too…” Chris looked at his girlfriend with wide eyes, but she wasn’t sure her presence would be much help in this situation. In fact she was fairly certain that it would only make things worse.
Her voice seemed to snap Piper out of her stupor.
“No, no stay. I need, we all need…to talk. And you too, ‘cause…” Her voice trembled and she faltered in her speech. Leo who had been staring at Chris the whole time turned to look at her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, squeezing slightly. She moved her hands to point at the couches, to indicate they should all sit down. However Chris didn’t follow the others taking a seat, he went up to his parents. He couldn’t bear to see them so broken for his stupid actions.
In all this years he had never stopped to think about how all the lies could have ended up hurting them. He had always imagined they’d end up being angry at him, not hurt. Certainly not so hurt that his mother didn’t have the strength to yell at him.
He took his mother hands in his and looked at both his parents.
“Please, I…” His voice was barely audible. “ I…We never wanted to hurt you. It’s just that we were kids and the lies were just easier…”
“Why?!” He was interrupted by his father’s sudden cry. Leo just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that his younger son, both of his younger children, had felt the need to hide from him. For both parents this had been an hard hit: they had always been able to see the resemblance between the son they had seen grow up and the one they had met before he was even conceived.
They had seen through the years, their son grow up into the young man they had met. He might have been less haunted, because of the more peaceful life he had lived, but he was still the same person. He had the same obsession for demon hunts, even if it was less intense since he didn’t feel the weight of the world upon his shoulders. He had the same knack for sarcasm and he was just as neurotic as they had expected him to be.
However now it seemed like he was just as prone to lie to them, just as prone to deal with everything alone instead of trusting them.
That was what hurt the most: their son hadn’t trusted them. Somewhere along the line they must have done something to make him think that it was better to hide from them.
They had both tried so hard to do it right this time around, since destiny had offered them a second chance. Or better yet, not destiny, it had been their son himself to offer them this chance and it would appear they had blown it. Leo more than his wife was hit hard by this realization; he had tried so hard to be a good father for Chris, for all of his children equally, to make sure they always knew they could count on him.
He had failed.
Again.
He had let his son down yet again.
Chris just looked down at his father’s question, he didn’t even know how to explain it to them without hurting them further.
“I was a kid when it first happened and I just reacted… it was a spur of a moment decision. I didn’t think it through and I know I should have said something sooner, but I just didn’t know how!” Chris tried to explain.
“But why couldn’t you come to us?” His mother’s weak voice sent a chill running through his spine. “We always told you guys we were there for you, we…we…” Leo just took her hand and continued for her.
“We always tried to be there for you, for all of you.” He added turning to face Melinda, who had sat down in a corner of one couches and was just staring at the wall. “I just don’t understand why you couldn’t confide in us.”
“That’s my fault, isn’t it?” Wyatt asked from behind them, he had been leaning against the couch opposite the trio while they were talking. Chris made to answer him, but he just kept going. “It’s because I made them feel like they didn’t matter, isn’t that it?” He had a blank look on, but Chris could see through his mask.
“We always told you it didn’t matter what sort of powers you had, didn’t we? We never treated you …” Piper panicked at her eldest’ words. That couldn’t be true. How could she have not noticed something like that? What kind of mother did it make her?
The kind that can’t even recognize her own son.
A spiteful voice,from long ago, resounded in her head and it made her feel sick. Because after all these years the thought that she never picked up on any of the clues left by the other Chris, still made her feel terrible.
She always shied from this thoughts, like when Phoebe decided to turn into a goodnight story the time the Charmed Ones had gone in the past and had met their younger self. She had been listening while she folded her son’s clothes and a ten years old Chris’ reaction nearly broke her hart.
Hearing about their great grandmother had literally kicked them out of the house, Wyatt had sworn never to time travel ‘cause he didn’t want to be blown up by his mother. Chris had laughed at him, saying their mother would recognize them anywhere. He had looked at her with such a sweet, bright smile and she would had broken down if Phoebe hadn’t sensed her distress and had distracted the kids long enough for her to escape.
She had always known that she had hurt the other Chris deeply when she didn’t even suspect his true identity. When Chris had developed telepathy she had felt even worst, knowing the other Chris must have had been able to hear her thoughts back then. Not that she had held back anything anyway.
Her daughter’s voice suddenly snapped her out of her morbid thoughts. Perhaps she should have stayed where she was.
Melinda had stood up abruptly at her mother’s words, hot tears in her eyes.
“That’s not true through, is it?”Mother and daughter stared at each other, both trembling though for different reasons.
Chris, like everyone else in the room, turned to look at the young girl. However he was the only one who was aware of what was running through the young girl’s mind and even if he knew his parents really didn’t need to hear it now, he was also well aware there was no way to stop Melinda when she got this angry.
He had been able to stop her from going for Wyatt’s throat earlier, but this was different. This had hurt them more. They had at least been able to see the reason that moved their brother to act as if he didn’t need them, but for their parents it was different. They never could see the reason behind their actions. He really didn’t have the force to stop Melinda.
Chris felt an hand intertwine with his own and would have smiled at Bianca if his mind hadn’t deserted him. His girlfriend’s gesture at least managed to help him master the strength to send a warning glance Melinda’s way, which the young girl promptly ignored.
“It isn’t. You were both always going on about how having less powers then Wyatt wasn’t the end of the world. But did you ever stop to think that even though we aren’t Twice Blessed, we could have been powerful too? You didn’t, did you? Your mind was set before we were even born. Just because of a stupid prophecy!” By then Melinda’s voice had turned shrill and no one dared to move. “For heaven’s sake, we may have lied but we weren’t the ones to turn you so blind that you didn’t even realize it was ridiculous we had so little power.

Weren’t you the ones to tell us that the older onesin a family are always the most powerful? But you never stopped to ask yourselves why the second and third born in our family had less powers then their younger cousins.” She laughed a humorless laugh. “Really? All you could do when people made fun of Chris for not being as powerful as Wyatt or when they teased me for not being part of the next generation of Charmed Ones or a true whitelighter like the twins, was tell us that being normal wasn’t so bad.

Do you have any idea how being called normal in this family made us feel?” Chris’s eyes widened, recognizing where his sister was heading with her monologue. However as he advanced towards her, Melinda just side-stepped him.
“Our powers started to develop when we were young kids. Hell! I was fourwhen Chris’ first power burst appeared.” At that both of the parent’s eyes widened even more.“I’m pretty sure I wasn’t a master of deception back then. And we both couldn’t control ourselves at first. But you didn’t want to see it. ’Cause you wanted normal, you’ve always wanted a normal life and we were your way to get it. Who cares if in the process...”
Chris snapped out of his paralysis then, grabbing a hold of his sister and finally silencing her. She was breathing hard and just looked up at her brother before orbing out.
The room was left once again in a deadly silence. Piper was staring blindly at the spot her daughter had just disappeared from.
“Where did she go?” She asked nobody in particular.
“She’s in her room, she just needs to cool down.” Chris was the only one calm enough to try and sense her. “She didn’t mean it Mom.” The woman turned with still wild eyes to look at him and swallowed.
“I need to check up on her. I need to…I never meant to do anything like that, you know that right?”
“I know Mom, she didn’t mean…” But Piper interrupted him there, some of her anger returning to her.
“No! Stop lying to me.” She looked towards the stairs and made to stand up. “ I’m going to check on her, then I’ll bring her back here and I want to hear the whole story. No lies.”
“Mom,” this time it was the eldest son’s voice that stopped her, “if you go up there now she’ll just start blowing things up.” Then in a much lower voice he added. “She’s got your brand of crazy after all.” Piper just ignored her son’s jibe.
“I’m not leaving this alone. There will be no more hiding in this house.”
Leo, whom had collapsed on one of the sofas somewhere in the middle of his daughter’s monologue, raised his head slowly hearing the irritation that was slowly coming back in his wife’s voice.
“He’s right, honey. We should just…” But Piper was having none of it.
“No, no ‘should just give it a rest’. She can blow the whole house up. Hell, she can blow the Nexus up if she wants, but she’s coming back here.” Before anyone else could step in to make her see reason, Bianca took a step towards the older woman.
“I could try to talk to her.” Piper’s head turned sharply towards her and if Bianca hadn’t been trained to withstand the worst attacks, the woman’s glare would have frozen her on the spot. “I...uhm…I think you need to talk to Chris and if I were to be the one to go up to Melinda,” she shrugged.
“I can always reform if she blows me up.”
Piper Halliwell reallydidn’t know how this day had turned out to be such a horrible nightmare. It had started out like such a normal one.
She inwardly cringed at that world: normal. That’s what two of her children resented her for, Chris may not have agreed with is sister out loud, but she knew Melinda said what they had been both thinking for all this years.
Years.
How could she have been so blind as not to see her children had been hurting for years. Had she really been so desperate to find some sort of normality that she lost sight of her younger children?
First she had found out that her son had secretly been going out with the assassin witch who had been her son’s fiancée in another live. Or timeline or whatever.
Then she had, reluctantly, came to accept the fact that said girl wasn’t as bad as she had assumed when her coven of assassin had barged in her restaurant and attacked her family.
Then she found out her son actually distrusted her enough to lie about the amount of powers he had.

And now as the cherry on top she found out she must be the most horrible mother of all time.
She turned to look at her husband, she hadn’t seen him look so haunted since the Avatars had used his sorrow to manipulate him and nearly drove him into madness. She knew he must have taken the news that his children didn’t trust him even harder than her. The man had practically had a breakdown when a five year-old Chris had yelled at him that he hated him just because he wouldn’t let him ride the ‘big boys bike’.
She could do nothing but nod Bianca’s way and take a deep breath.
“All right. Try to get her to come here.” Bianca just nodded and with a last squeeze of Chris’ hand headed for the stairs. Piper turned to face her son. “Now you,” she said pointing a finger at him “sit down and start talking.” The young man sent a longing stare towards the stairs but did as he was asked, there was no point in fighting her. “I get that you thought you had your reasons for not telling us what was going on…But before we talk about that I want a full list of these powers you’ve hidden.” Wyatt’s head turned quickly to look at his brother, who just complied with their mother’s demands.
“It’s not much really…” But he stopped that train of thoughts as both his brother and his mother sent him a pair oftwin sharp gazes. And people said he was the one that looked like Piper the most.
He just lowered his head and started talking, just to get it over with.

“All right, all right. There’s the molecular dispersion, that’s the one with the golden light. That was the first to show up. Then there was the invisibility, that’s why you couldn’t seem to win any more rounds of orb and seek after I turned ten.” He smirked his brother’s way, who only seemed to sulk more at that. “Then thethermokinesis came; at first I could only heat things up but now I can change the temperature as I like. It’s a whitelighter power, so I guess the more …lethal ways I can use it must be linked to my witch half.” His father nodded half-heartedly his way, still lost in his guilt trip. “And then there’s the electrokinesis, which showed up only two years ago.” With that world even his father seemed to be snapped out of his thoughts “and in high school I developed this sort of deflection. At least I think that’s what it is…Normally one can only deflect powers with that, but I can stop physical objects as well. At first I thought it was just my power of deviation, but then again the wall I put in front of me actually shallows the magical energies so…” After a minute or so he looked up to see why everybody was so silent and met the frowning eyes of his father.
“It wouldn’t be deviation or it wouldn’t act the way your power does,” the ex-whitelighter said. “You’re already able to deviate attacks with your telekinesis. It must be deflection, an advanced form of it at that.” Chris frowned at that, which prompter his father to explain further. “Usually the power of deflection is channeled through the hands, to be able to create a wall would usually require years of practice. Have you always been able to raise a whole wall?”
“I guess it was a shorter wall when I was younger, but yeah…” The boy shrugged.
“Let me get this straight” Wyatt interrupted his father “You basically have a shield that can deviate.”
“Deflect.” His father and brother corrected him at the same time.
“Whatever!” He snapped angrily at the interruption. “You basically have a shield that can deflect all sort of attacks and you couldn’t even tell me about that? You have any idea how worried I’ve always been that you didn’t have anything to protect…” This time it was Chris whom interrupted him angrily.
“Well, excuse me for not thinking about the hours of sleeps that you lost about little powerless me! But that wasn’t the first thing on my mind Wyatt. And I’ll have you know that I can get along just as well without that power, since it showed up when I was nineteen and I managed to survive till then. I don’t even need it that much. We don’t all live for mastering all sort of powers out there.” Before the situation could degenerate, Piper stepped between her two sons.
“Alright! That’s enough from the both of you. Go back to your corners” She gesticulated wildly to get her sons to back away from each other.

“Now,” she turned to the youngest, “what I want to know is: how come not one of those stupid Elders came to talk about any of this. Even if they didn’t see the need to talk about the ones you clearly got from your father’s days as an Elder, like invisibility or the electrokinesis.”
“I don’t really use electrokinesis much. Only in a bunch of life or death situations.” Chris said vaguely.
“What do you do with these powers? You put them into your treasure chest?” Came his brother’s replay, just as both his parents reacted to the last part of his sentence.
“Life or death!” His father seemed to go even paler than before.
“A bunch!!!” His mother screeched.
Piper held her hand up to calm herself and everybody else and continued with her line of thoughts.
“As I was saying I find it odd that the Elders wouldn’t at least say something about the deflection. It is bestowed upon one witch for every generation. You’d think they’d use that as an excuse to butt in our businesses again.” Chris just shifted on his seat and his mother noticed. “What?”
“You see.” He coughed to buy some time “They did show up a few months after I got the power of molecular dispersion.”
“What?!?” His mother’s voice had gotten dangerously high at that.
“Yeah…One of them showed up in my class,” Chris looked up to gauge their reaction, “with a Cleaner and…”
“With a what?” This time it was his brother that interrupted him, his mother too busy trying to start breathing again, but he just kept going.
“The Elder needed him to stop time, I guess. I just told them that if they didn’t leave me alone first I’d expose magic, no matter how many time they tried to stop me, and then I’d sick mom on them both.” He smirked at his mother. “That seemed to convince them pretty fast.” His mother returned his smirk with one of her own.
“And they didn’t show up anymore after that?” It seemed a little strange to Leo, no matter how feared his wife’s anger was amongst the Elders. Chris shrugged.
“The same Elder came back a few times, but I just kept brushing him off and he used to leave pretty soon. After a few times he just gave up.” Till today, when he basically kidnapped him. However he didn’t tell them that.
It wasn’t lying, no matter what other peoplemight say:, he was only postponing the time when he told them what had happened to him a few hours earlier. After all it regarded Bianca too, so it had to wait till she came back.
“All right.” Pipertold herself, trying to keep the anger at bay. Now was not the time to go blow some Elders up, as therapeutic as that may be. “Now let’s go back to the whole life or death business, mister.” Chris sighted at her tone.
“Mom really, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Just a bunch of demons. We’re always attacked by them, once in a while a few upper level ones are bound to show up.” His mother just glared at his light tone. “And Mel was with me or at least could have come in as back up.”
“Oh! That’s great, the little girl had you back!” Wyatt snapped at him. He couldn’t believe his brother would choose to have their little sister watch his back instead of him. Never mind the fact that Wyatt himself always tried to keep him away from all sort of fights.
“The little girl has chronokinesis, which is one hell of a power. So yes!” The boy snapped in reply. “She is more than a good enough partner.”
“Chronokinesis!” His father’s exclamation had Chris tear away from his brother’s stare. That’s when his eyes widened in realization.
“Oh! She hasn’t told you about that yet, has she?” He asked with an uncertain smile.
“Melinda Prudence Halliwell come down here, right now!” Piper bellowed.
A still upset Melinda orbed in with her hands akimbo and was soon followed by the shimmering Bianca, who turned to look at her boyfriend before she even fully materialized.
“Chronokinesis?” Piper basically scared her daughter out of her defiant position and the girl tuned to look at Chris with a sour look, at which he could only shrug.
“Well?” Her mother’s impatient voice had her gathering her wits as fast as she could.
“Yes.” She coolly replied. “As well as temporal stasis and illusion casting.”
“What’s with that? You only said you could control time on the bridge!” Wyatt demanded.
“With chronokinesis I can slightly move forward and backwards in time, while with temporal stasis I stop the flow of time itself. The illusion casting is similar to Parker’s holograms, but I don’t project the images, I actually plant them in everybody else’s mind so they can interact with it to a certain degree.” Melinda explained with a roll of her eyes.
“We’ve been working on the interactive part.” Chris added to try and take the attention away from Melinda’s attitude. All of that in vain.
“Don’t take that tone with me young girl. You’ve lied to me.” Melinda just interrupted her, which had both her brothers’ jaws drop. They never interrupted their mother when she was in this mood. Or in any mood.
“And you’ve underestimated me my whole life. I’d say we’re even.” Melinda said in the same tone as her mother’s.
Before a real fight could break out, Chris stepped in. They had been lucky before, since their mother had been too shocked to react to Melinda words. Such luck would not represent itself, not even with the help of a leprechaun.
“Melinda that’s enough!” He said in a final tone, squeezing her arm delicately to try and convey his urgency to her. Then he turned to face the rest of the family. “Can’t we just deal with this a day at the time and try to forgive…”
“I’ve done nothing!” Again the young girl was interrupted by Chris’ glare.
“I really have something important to tell you all.” He said with what he hoped was a very serious tone. He looked at each one of the people in the room. “And I need you all to focus on this.”
Everybody was looking at him with a mix of apprehension and curiosity now. He hadn’t meant to tell his family about what the Elder had told him already, he had wanted to talk to Bianca alone first. However if this tale was going to stop a civil war from breaking out in his family he was willing to tell them now.
“Let’s all sit, alright?” He said. Bianca came to stand next to him and grabbed his arm.
“Do you want me to go?” She asked with a small frown.
“No.” He shook his head, smiling at her. “This is more about you then them anyway.” He took her hand and guided her towards the dining room table, where his family had gone to sit down. Probably because they felt like they needed to change air as well as topic.
Bianca regarded him strangely, but let him lead her to a chair nonetheless.
All eyes were on Chris as he sat down.
“All right, I’m still trying to figure out what this all means.” His brother was already reading himself to ask him a question when he raised his hand to stop him. “That’s why I’d appreciate it if you’d let me finish before you start with your questioning, otherwise I’m not sure I’ll be able to make enough sense of this to explain it to you. Is that fine?” He asked in a voice that didn’t allow a negative response.
As he saw that everybody was slowly nodding their consent, he took a deep breath to sort his thoughts. He hadn’t really expected his family to agree to his terms, since they were always so noisy, but the stress of the day must be working in his favor.
At least one thing was going his way today.