Chris has amnesia, secrets will be slipped, painful memories reopened afresh, the present Big Bad will by overshadowed by an even stronger Big Bad . . . and Chris has to rediscover his own identity. A Chris centric fic, this is set during the sixth season. Piper is pregnant, but neither she nor Leo nor the sisters realize who Chris really is.
Reviews will be much appreciated! Thanks!
Disclaimer: I don't own Chris or anything from Charmed. Unfortunately.
Chris orbed in front of Piper, who yelped in surprise and dropped the casserole she had just taken out of the oven.
"Chris!" she scolded, now trying to salvage some of her ruined casserole, "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
But before Chris could open his mouth, Piper sent him a death glare, "If it's a demon, you can forget it. Tonight is going to be nice and quiet. Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow."
Looking slightly deflated, he retorted, "No, it can't. It's a warlock that wants to get Wyatt's powers–"
"We can deal with warlocks," Piper interjected, dismissing him with a wave of her hand, "If anything is attacking, we'll know–"
Just as the words came out of her mouth, a loud earth shaking explosion erupted from upstairs.
"Wyatt!" Both of them cried out at the same time.
Chris disappeared in a swirl of blue orbs.
"Wait a minute!" Piper cursed as the whitelighter paid no heed, abandoning her casserole and running as fast as her pregnant self could up the stairs to her son.
Chris orbed into Wyatt's room to see him bawling his eyes out. His shield was up, and the warlock was trying to break through it. Chris instantly waved his arm out, sending the warlock flying into the wall, away from Wyatt.
The warlock turned to face him instead. He sneered knowingly, as if he knew something Chris didn't. Before Chris could use his telekinesis again, the warlock made a strange grabbing motion.
Chris's head felt like it was going to explode. He fell to his knees, clutching his head, drowning in the excruciating pain.
He couldn't bear the agony. It felt like his brain was being ripped from his skull, an eerie ringing sound penetrating his ears. Chris gritted his teeth together tightly, tasting blood in his mouth.
He couldn't hear the warlock screaming in agony at just being vanquished.
"So much for a quiet night," he distantly heard someone saying. The voice sounded muffled.
"Chris? Chr–"
He descended into unconsciousness, and could not hear anything anymore.
Moaning at his throbbing headache, he attempted to drag himself out of the comforts of the soft, warm bed.
He walked out into the corridor, feeling disoriented, and paused, as if unsure where to go.
As he descended down the stairs, he had to hold onto the railings for support, stumbling a little on the last step, but somehow managing to stay upright.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" A feminine voice asked from behind him. He turned to see a beautiful brown haired woman standing behind him, smiling uncertainly.
"Uh . . ." he had no answer for that. He had no idea what he should be doing.
So he asked the question any sensible person would when faced with the predicament he was in.
"Who are you?"
The woman's smile faltered, and then it was back again, "Yeah, whatever, stop joking around . . ."
"No, really, who are you?"
She looked worried now. "Phoebe, remember? C'mon, you didn't get hit in the head that hard!"
He frowned. "I got hit in the head?"
The woman, Phoebe, was backing away slowly, subtly reaching into her purse. "Piper! Paige!"
His eyes darted around, completely confused. He took a step forward towards Phoebe.
She took something out of her purse, waving it around, threatening warningly, "Stay away from me, demon, or I'll–" she stopped and stared at the pen she had pulled out in disappointment.
Damn. I really need to start putting more useful things in my purse.
"What is it Pheebs?" Paige asked, running down the stairs, her hair still wet and only half dried. She noticed what Phoebe was pointing her pen at. "Why are you pointing a pen at the whitelighter?"
He turned up in confusion at Paige. "What's a whitelighter?"
Paige exchanged glances with Phoebe, who mouthed "See, demon".
But her younger sister shook her head. If a demon was impersonating their whitelighter, he'd definitely try to act like one instead of being completely oblivious to everything.
They were soon joined by the eldest Halliwell sister, who instantly noticed the tension in the room.
"Guys, what's going on?"
"He's a demon," Phoebe blurted out, pointing accusingly at him. She had to assume that, because she couldn't feel anything from him. Well, she never could, but still . . .
The "demon" snorted. "Are you people crazy? Demons don't exist. That's like saying witches and angels are real . . ."
The three sisters exchanged glances.
He was getting more and more impatient as the throbbing headache began to subside.
Turning to the newest addition, he decided to ask the question that he hoped she, at least, could answer. For some reason, he felt that the pregnant looking woman was one to be trusted.
"Who am I?"
Piper groaned loudly. "What the hell did that warlock do?"
"Should we call for Leo?" Phoebe asked gently.
Massaging her temples irritably, Piper replied quickly, "No, I don't want to bother him and his Elder duties right now."
Of course, the real reason was that she didn't want Leo to know that she was pregnant with their second child. That was definitely going to be awkward. This is why Piper would prefer to keep this secret. It was bad enough for Leo to leave one son. How would he feel knowing that he was leaving Piper to raise two kids?
"Isn't anyone going to answer my question?" he asked impatiently, his green eyes flaring in irritation.
Turning slowly to him, Paige answered, "Okay. You're Chris Perry, our neurotic whitelighter from the future. We're your witch charges."
"The future?" Chris looked stunned. "A-A whitelighter? Witches?" his face clouded with suspicion. "Who exactly are you people?"
Phoebe chuckled. "Neurotic as always."
But then he frowned. Chris Perry. The name sounded familiar, but . . . somehow not quite right. "Chris" felt right, but his last name just didn't click with him. Could he trust these women? After all, they were blabbing about witches and demons, things that only existed in fairy tales and Disney movies.
"What do we do?" Paige asked her sisters, ignoring Chris.
Chris was angry. He had no idea what was going on, who he was . . . and here they were discussing him as if he weren't there. A slight familiarity of the situation crossed his mind for a moment, but it was gone, and he was confused once more.
"Sorry, Piper, but we need Leo. LEO!" Phoebe shouted before Piper could stop her.
After a moment's pause, a swirl of bright shinning orbs descended down beside Piper.
Chris stared, entranced at the familiar blue lights.
"Blessed be." Leo greeted serenely.
"Leo, we've got ourselves a problem," Phoebe stated abruptly, preferring to get straight to the point and fixing this mess.
The serene, peaceful look on Leo's face faded. "Problem? Shouldn't Chris be helping you with it?" he inclined his head at the dazed whitelighter.
"Well . . ." Paige added sheepishly, "That's kind of the problem. See, Chris sort of . . . doesn't remember who he is."
Leo looked as if not sure how to react to this. "What?"
"A warlock tried to attack Wyatt yesterday. Don't worry, he's fine," Piper added at Leo's stricken expression, "Chris got there first and the warlock did something to him. At first, I thought he had just knocked him out, but I guess he did something more."
Leo turned to his wife and caught sight of her bulging belly. He stared at it for a moment, his mouth agape.
"Wh-Are you–" Leo stammered, unable to get the words out.
"Pregnant? Yeah." Piper sent a glare to Phoebe, who shrugged helplessly. "Can we keep our attention at the problem at hand?"
Leo didn't look like he had any intention of being distracted. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Piper shrugged, unable to mask the pain in her eyes. "I didn't want to make you feel even more horrible for leaving me to raise yet another kid." she said softly, not able to look at Leo straight in the eye, "Believe me, I didn't expect or want this to happen."
Chris winced horribly at the last comment, stung for some unknown reason.
An awkward silence elapsed before Leo spoke again, his voice falsely cheerful.
"Let me try healing him," Leo suggested, striding over to Chris.
Something inside Chris stirred. It was a sense of loathing for the man coming towards him. Before Leo would place his hands over Chris, he backed away, snarling, "Get away from me, you bastard!"
Leo looked surprised, then angry. "I'm trying to help you out here, Chris."
It's not like I have any reason to help you, especially after Valhalla.
"Yeah?" Chris sneered, still unsure why these hateful feelings were so strong, "I don't need your help, and never have." Chris's face returned to normal; now he just looked confused. A desperate expression crossed over his face.
Who the hell am I! He fumed in sudden anger. Right now, he wanted answers. Chris wanted to be anywhere but here, surrounded by these familiar strangers. He wanted to be somewhere where he could find out answers instead of being talked to like he wasn't present, having his questions deflected and ignored.
A picture formed in his mind. It was a large, old book sitting on top of a podium. Suddenly, he felt a strange floating sensation. When he felt solid ground again, Chris realized that he was suddenly at the feet of the book.
Hesitantly, his heart beating quickly, he picked himself up and flipped through it, his eyes widening in utter amazement as each page detailed various demons and magical creatures.
He smiled, amused.
Either those women are telling the truth, or they have no love lives.
Chris continued to flip through the Book of Shadows in fascination, completely unaware of the pandemonium going on directly beneath the creaky floorboards.
"Where did he go?" Piper shrieked. "How can he orb if he doesn't even know what a whitelighter is?"
"He still has the ability, even if he doesn't have his memory," Leo reasoned, "Relax, Piper."
Piper stared at him incredulously, "Relax? Relax! How can I relax when he could be out there spilling his guts and betraying our secret?"
"I doubt it," Leo argued.
His wife crossed her arms and gave him a stern reprimanding look. "And why not?"
"Because he's up in the attic," Leo said simply.
Piper opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it. "Oh."
Paige sniggered. She started to orb herself up to the attic butPhoebe protested, calling for her to wait. The bright orbs came back down, touched Phoebe, and proceeded to go up the floorboard.
Grabbing Piper's arm lightly, Leo orbed the two up to the attic.
Chris jumped at the sound of chimes. He gestured to the book he was currently engrossed in. "I guess this is your hobby?"
"More like our destiny," Paige corrected grudgingly.
"Damn," Chris muttered.
"Damn is right," Paige agreed, "Just like this situation we have here."
Paige rubbed her hands together absently before turning to Phoebe. "So, Miss Psychology Major, what does one do to re-start someone's memory?"
Phoebe thought about it for a moment. "Well, we should bring him to places that are familiar, try to jolt his memory. But I think we should let Leo try to heal him first."
Considering the fact thatChris had lashed out at him before, Leo didn't particularly like this plan. He glanced at Chris first for permission, who looked wary of him, the fire back in his brilliantly green eyes.
"He's not going to hurt you," Piper heard herself coaxing. She almost stopped herself. It felt so strange . . . but so natural.
For a moment there, Piper could have sworn she saw a flash of recognition in Chris's eyes, but it was gone as fast as it had come. Although he did grudgingly nod his permission.
Leo placed his hands over Chris, trying and failing to ignore the heated glare he was receiving from him.
"Did it work?" Piper asked impatiently.
"Nope," Both Chris and Leo answered.
Paige sighed. "I guess we're going with Phoebe's plan,"
Phoebe shook her head. "I don't think it'll work either. This isn't Chris's time; who knows what is familiar to him? I mean, it's not like he ever talked about himself. 'Future consequences' remember? Where would we start if we know nothing about him?"
They all turned to Chris, who shrugged and said, "Hey, I don't know anything either,"
At that exact moment, a darklighter shimmered into the attic, preparing to fire an arrow at Chris, who froze in shock.
"Get out of the way!" Paige yelled, shoving Chris to the ground. The arrow just barely missed her and struck the wall.
Piper flicked her hands, causing the demon to explode.
"Why didn't you orb?" Piper demanded.
"O-orb?" Chris asked, shaking. "Was-was that a demon?"
Paige nodded, helping the whitelighter up. He shook her off, backing away slowly, almost stumbling over a trunk.
They could all see the fear on his face.
"Chris . . ." Piper called, but he just kept on shaking his head.
"St-stay away from me!" he cried before suddenly orbing out.
Cursing loudly, Paige strode over to where the darklighter arrow was still lodged into the wall. Careful not to touch the whitelighter poison, she removed something that was attached to the arrow.
"What does it say?" Leo asked, curious.
Paige unrolled the piece of paper quickly, reading in a clear voice, "'Chris, you can't hide anymore. I will find you, and when I do, you will pay a price for your betrayal.'"
Phoebe snorted. "How cliché."
But Piper felt worried. "That darklighter must have been sent by Wyatt from the future."
Leo was also unnerved by the message. "God, this just makes things worse. We have no idea what future Wyatt could be planning, and right now, neither does Chris." His expression darkened. "Unless Chris has been working with someone in this time to hurt Wyatt, or you girls."
Phoebe shook her head. "I don't think so. I know you don't like him, Leo; but I think he's for real. But right now, that doesn't matter. The most important thing is to find Chris and get his memories back. Then we can deal with this."
The sisters nodded in agreement. Paige took out the scrying materials. "Then we'd better find him."
Chris sat beneath a stone statue, trying to remember why he wanted to come here. Here, his mind was clear. The air was fresh, the winds quiet. He leaned his forehead against the cool stone, letting the crazed jumble of thoughts in his mind subside.
He struggled to remember. Obviously this place had some sort of a sentimental value to him. Looking at the Golden Gate Bridge fondly, he remembered a distant, weak string of words.
This is still our spot, Bianca, no matter what he's done to it.
Who was Bianca? Who was "he"? What the hell is a whitelighter? Those self titled witches never answered his question. He knew he could somehow "orb" as they called it. That meant he was magical too.
He put his face in his hands, tempted to tear his mop of brown hair out in anguish. Chris hated this, being ignorant, being unable to comprehend what was happening.
This place brought memories, mostly happy and serene. The trees' branches billowed in the wind, the sky bright and blue. From absorbing the beautiful landscape, from the feeling of love this place emitted, Chris felt himself slowly calming down. He didn't trust those people, but they were all he knew. All he had.
Chimes rang through the air, breaking the silence.
"Chris? Are you ready to come back?" Piper's soft, motherly voice asked him gently. To Chris's relief, the man, Leo, wasn't there with her. Instead, it was Paige.
Hesitating for a moment, staring straight into Piper's familiar eyes, he nodded his head slowly, getting up from the bench. He would have to trust them. For now.
Together, they orbed back to the Manor, a feeling of dread welling up in Chris's heart as he returned to the place that had caused him so much pain.