Harsh Realities

- Author: Sensue
- Summary: Chris knew he didn't have any time left. He was coming for him. A Chris revelation fanfiction.
- Pairings: Leo/Piper, slightly Chris/Bianca. Piper/Leo/Chris (family)-eventually.
- Timeline: AU - Right after Chris-Crossed from the moment that Chris falls from the time portal. But with one slight difference, Chris DID NOT grab the spell from the book before entering the portal for the second time. Obviously, you see where I'm going with this.
- Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, any of its characters (drat) and am not making any kind of profit from writing this story.
- Rating: TV 14
- Note: I know. Chris revelation fics have been pretty much been beaten to death with many stones, but I had to throw my own in too. This is my FIRST Charmed fanfiction, as I've only become interested in the fandom due to Long-Live-Christopher's story "Destined to Die?" That story is the only reason why I've become a Charmed fan and the only reason why I decided to write my own. So I dedicate this story to her.

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Most movies, books, and television shows described time travel as a cold, hard, swirling leap into a science fiction worm-hole. A person would get dizzy and arrive, usually without clothing, in a deserted area in the middle of nowhere. The first thing they'd usually do is find clothing and the nearest newspaper to find out what the date was. They would usually meet a kind person of the opposite sex, who took them in and fell in love with them until the time when the traveler needed to return to their own time period.

To Chris, it was nothing like the movies. The portal was a warm inviting heaven that was like being in a fuzzy cloud. It didn't fling you around, there was no swirl; it just opened and allowed you to walk out to a whole new world. A better world than his own—a world that he would risk his very existence and soul to preserve. He didn't need to find a newspaper; he arrived at the same time that he'd left with Bianca. They—the sisters and Leo—were waiting for him and ran over to help him off of the ground where he'd collapsed.

And unlike the movies, no one fell in love with him. Not even his mother. When he first arrived, he'd feared that Piper would take one look at him and know exactly who he was to her. After all, the one phrase he'd heard all of his life was "You look exactly like your mother." Even though he was relieved that his secret wasn't discovered, he was disappointed as well. Wasn't a mother supposed to know her child anywhere and any time?

Paige was the first to reach him, "Oh my god, Chris, are you okay?"

Chris lay face down on the cold attic floor, a groan flying from his lips without his permission. Wyatt, his big brother, had thrown energy balls at him in attempt to stop him from returning to their past. He'd felt the blast push him through the portal as it hit him in the back, making his entire body jerk in pain and shock. It was low energy, this he knew for a fact; else he'd have been vaporized before he'd made it back.

The pain was incredible. His back felt as if he'd been fried in vat of oil, sending his senses into overload of sensation. Everything was suddenly too loud and too bright. Chris could feel himself losing consciousness, closing his eyes quickly and taking a deep breath in hopes of preventing it.

Leo quickly ran to his side and began to heal him, his hands glowing warmly. "God, Chris. What happened over there? Where's Bianca?"

With a hiss, he answered tersely, "She's not a threat anymore." Gulping, he pushed himself off the floor, pulling away from Leo when he tried to help him.

Piper, Phoebe, and Paige stared at him, open mouthed as he ignored them and walked back over to the Book of Shadows and started to flip through the book frantically.

They were staring at him as if he'd lost his mind, he knew without looking. It was the way they'd always looked at him. Well, that or when they were annoyed at his "neurotic" tendencies to destroy the evil that had turned their small baby into a monster.

It was something that they would never understand; something that Chris prayed that they would never need to. It was the reason why he came back, so that they would never know of the horrors that would be caused by a Halliwell, their son and nephew.

Page after page was flipped with an almost hysterical quality. His hands started shaking violently, making the engagement ring that he'd held with a gorilla grip fall to the floor with a metallic ping-ping. The reality of what he'd already known hit him suddenly, forcing Chris to stop and lean against the stand for a moment. There was no spell, no potion or chant that he could do to stop Wyatt.

It was hopeless.

The thought made his head spin around rapidly; it was his last conscious thought as he met the ground again with a resounding thump, wincing as he heard the sisters screech before blacking out completely.

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He'd felt a cool hand touch his forehead, then run down his cheek before resting at his neck. His heart was pounding; he could feel the thumping under the fingers taking his pulse. Another hand was placing a damp washcloth on his brow.

His mother's voice, coming from above his head, was unusually soft as she spoke to someone in the room. "How's he doing, Leo?"

Leo's voice was to the right of his ear, making him the person who'd been taking his vital signs. Chris fought himself for a moment, telling himself that nothing had changed in his relationship with his father; the man was simply using his medical training to verify his condition. Leo didn't give a shit about him; he couldn't—there was no way that his identity was discovered.

"Piper, I think he's starting to regain consciousness." His voice was closer now, slapping him lightly on the cheek. "Chris? Chris, wake up, now. Come on. You're starting to worry your charges, huh? I mean, what kind of Whitelighter sleeps on the job? It's time to wake up."

The flinch that he'd made at the joke was taken by the others as a positive response in their attempts to rouse him.

Chris' voice was gritty and broken, but he answered with a sarcastic, "Yeah, now you want me to do my job, before it was 'give it a rest, Chris. We need social lives and don't have time to vanquish demons.' I mean, can you be more of a hypocrite?" Opening his eyes, he caught Piper rolling her eyes before walking away from him to go up the stairs at the sound of Baby Wyatt crying.

Looking around, Phoebe and Paige were not within sight. Leo remained by the couch where he assumed that Leo had orbed him to rest.

Leo smiled at him gently, "I think you've had enough work for one day. You know Chris, I know that you're trying to save the future and all, but you need to take a break. You are running yourself ragged and it's not healthy. When you start passing out from exhaustion, it's a sign that you need to slow down. Relax a little, you know?" He rubbed his hand across his jaw before continuing, "Chris, you know you can ask for help, right? We would help you…" He let the sentence trail, waiting for Chris to respond.

Chris swallowed with an audible gulp, before nodding slowly. "Alright," he whispered.

Leo stood up, gesturing towards the kitchen before commenting, "I'm going to get you something to eat. I'll be right back." Turning his back towards the young Whitelighter, he didn't see the tear run down his face or his despondent expression.

Piper's footsteps and childish chatter alerted him that she was coming downstairs with the baby. Quickly, he replaced the depression and pain with a mask of arrogance and sarcasm. "Look, Wyatt. Who's that?" Piper playfully asked the two year old half-witch/half-Whitelighter.

The boy giggled up at his mother, giving her a toothless smile before saying "K-wiss" with a little giggle. Piper kissed him and hugged him proudly before turning towards the man in question. "How are you feeling, Chris? You gave us quite a scare."

The scene before him made him hope once more, his little big brother was still innocent in this time line. He could still be saved. Licking his lips, he stood up to face her, "I'm fine, thanks. Glad I'm back. Listen, this isn't over—"

His sentence was cut off by Leo, who'd walked back in with a tray of food. "Chris, sit back down! You just passed out. If you keep pushing yourself you could end up in the hospital next time." When it was evident that Chris wasn't going to sit down as he'd asked, Leo put the tray down on the coffee table to confront him.

Chris stared at the man in shock. He had never seen his father look at him that way before—with a loving concern. A look he'd only seen intended for Piper or Wyatt, both in the past and the future. Leo stepped in front of him and placed his hands on his shoulders in order to gently push him down.

He resisted.

"Chris, what's the matter?" Leo sounded confused and worried. His brow matched his tone as it was scrunched up into a distressed frown.

Chris pulled away, leaning against the back of the couch for a second before straightening to stare at Wyatt. The baby was pulling at his mother's hair as he chatted in baby talk that no one understood. Running a hand across his mouth, he couldn't help but be afraid. "He knows, Leo. He knows why I'm here and he'll try to stop me from stopping him. He has the spell… and now—there's nothing in this world that'll keep him from coming for me." Suddenly, Chris snapped his head up to search the room, "Where are Phoebe and Paige?"

Piper and Leo looked at each other in uncertainty. "At work, Chris. They left a few minutes ago, once Leo told them that you'd be okay," Piper answered him quietly, as if she was speaking to an injured child, bouncing Wyatt up on her hip before asking the question that she and Leo had been thinking. "Chris, what are you talking about? Who's going to come for you? I thought you said that Bianca wasn't a threat anymore. And who's He?"

Panic flared. "Shit! Leo you have to get them. We need the Power of Three. Now! Hurry, before he comes!"

Leo looked at him strangely, "What?"

"Hurry!" Chris shouted, his panic and fear finally infiltrating past his stoic mask.

It was that—the fear—that forced Leo to act. Orbing away, he raced to get the other two witches, leaving Piper fearfully clutching her baby to her chest in worry.

"Chris! For God's sake. Tell me, what the hell is going on?" Piper screeched at him, making Wyatt cry.

He didn't get a chance to answer.

THUMP.

It had come from the attic.

And suddenly, he knew. Time had finally run out.

He felt it, had and would always feel it.

His presence. – They were linked, had always been linked from the moment of his birth.

His Brother. – The one who'd taken care of him as a child. Who'd become the only constant in his short life. And the one who'd destroyed everything in his path to power.

The thumping became louder—footsteps that he would know anywhere.

Chris ran to Piper and Baby Wyatt in order to orb them away. He could feel his heart skip a beat after he realized that he'd been rendered unable to orb by his big brother's stronger magic.

Seconds later, Leo had orbed back to the manor with Paige and Phoebe in tow. Chris screamed, "Run! Take them all and run!" He pushed them all towards the door using his telekinesis, running closely behind them, knowing that Wyatt's magic would prevent them from orbing away from him.

A magically shield came up around the manor a split millisecond before they'd all reached the door.

"CHRIS." The shout came from behind him, using the voice of his once-beloved brother.

Putting up his mask, he slowly, using his body to shield the others purposefully, turned to face him once more for the second time that day. There he was, in all of his glory—the source of all Evil—Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, no longer a baby, but a deranged power-hungry maniac without a single qualm about killing the ones that he'd once loved.

Coldly, he glared at the dark man in front of him, "So, you've come to finish what you started, have you? Well, you're in for a fight. I swear it on my mother's grave, that I'll stop you, even if it kills me." I was a vow. He held up a hand behind his back, motioning for the others not to attack. It was his fight.

"Oh, don't worry, Christopher. It will." Wielding the power that he'd been twice-blessed with since he'd been born, he flung his little brother across the room and dropped him in front of his feet.

Kneeling down, he smiled darkly. "Chris, Chris, Chris. Now, don't you wish that you had joined me when I asked you?"

With a flick of his wrist, he sent Chris flying across the room, his head and body hitting the wall hard enough to crack the drywall. Blood was now dripping down his face and into his eyes.

He watched as Wyatt turned his back to him to walk over to others, his hands poised to make the kill.

To Be Continued…

Well, what do you think? Is this story worth continuing? Do I have your attention? Or do you think it's boring and don't want to read anymore? The only way I'll know that is if you review! HINT HINT.