Secrets Within

Chapter One: The Release

Chris jumped to the side as the demon threw an energy ball at him. It missed him by an inch. Piper threw her hands out at him and he froze "Wheph. That was close!" Said Phoebe as she wiped the sweat off her brow.

"Too right" answered Paige. "Now we've just got get the vanquishing potion from the attic, and he's done" Chris said quickly "I'll go" he was just about to orb out when Piper's freeze lost it's grip.

The Demon came charging at him. Desperately, he waved his hands in the slightest movement; no-one else saw it. The demon exploded into a thousand shards as it was hit with a bolt of supernatural blue lightning.

Chris looked at the offending hands, scared. He wasn't supposed to have that power. Wyatt had bound all his powers except orbing and telekinesis when they were younger, as Chris had begged him. That was before he had turned, then they had been good buddies, now they were enemies, and Wyatt had the advantage of knowing that he only could use those powers, and that he would never suddenly get a new power or anything.

Piper had been furious when she had found out that he had done that. They had been fighting a demon when Piper had wanted him to explode it, (with her power, you know, flick your hands and it explodes into red fireballs?) and he had told her that he couldn't and why. She had gone psycho, but the good thing was that her anger fuelled her powers and the guy just exploded.

But that was then.

Now he had his powers back, and this time it seemed that they were very much more powerful than they had been. It was bad. Very bad. He remembered and recounted this in head in a few milliseconds.

Then he orbed out, and when he reappeared he was wearing his old invisibility cloak, and standing on top of the Golden Gate Bridge in his spot. He moaned, a long and anguished groan of pain, and broke down crying. His wail filled the air, and all the normal people could hear his groan, and thought that it was the clouds rumbling. As his tears fell, the rain fell with them, pouring down buckets.

AT THE MANOR

"Where did Chris go" asked Phoebe

"What was that lightning bolt?" asked Piper

"Dunno, but Chris is on top of the Golden Gate Bridge at the moment." Paige said, after closing her eyes for a moment so that she could sense him.

They all orbed out.

CHRIS

He heard the sound of orbing. Paige materialised in front of him, Phoebe and Piper by her sides. "Chris?" she asked the empty air "Are you there?" "I know you are, I can sense you." Chris raised his eyebrows and said nothing. He remained as silent as possible Phoebe could feel pain, anguish, love, terror, confusion, malice; sadness and desire mixed a confusing ball radiating from the spot where her nephew was standing, invisible, though she did not know that at the time.

"I can feel you too Chris," Said Phoebe "I'm an empath, remember? And if you don't come out of wherever you are, I will not hesitate to call Leo." This brought Chris to a state of panic. Either he showed himself and revealed his invisibility power, or Leo comes and accuses him once again of being evil, what would they think when he took off his cloak of invisibility, it would look as if he were shimmering in, like a demon.

He sighed audibly. The girls heard him. "Chris, we're not dumb, we can hear you. Come out. And where in the world are you?" Piper said, adding the last sentence as an afterthought. I mean, where could he be if he was right there, but not? (Alright, alright, I kno. They would figure out that he was invisible, but let's just say that it never even crossed their minds.)

Chris sighed again, and slowly lifted the cloak. Starting from his feet upward. The girls watched in fascination as the shield moved slowly upward in circles, soon revealing his head. They saw his puffed up eyes and frowned at his ruffled hair. He saw this, and it brought the smallest of smiles to his lips. His mother had always frowned at him when his hair was messy. Piper was suspicious

"What on earth is going on here, Chris, You said you had no more secrets, and here you are, revealing you have powers that are out of this world!"

Chris sighed and orbed them all back to the manor. "This is going to take a lot of explaining, but to cut a long story short, it seems as if my old powers have been released from their binding. And gotten stronger."

The three P's nodded. Leo orbed in. "Hey, guys, the elders have just felt a new magic come in, and they think that it's really powerful. Do you know anything about it?' Paige and Phoebe grinned and Piper nodded.

"It seems that Chris has some explaining to do." She told Leo. "And he'd better do it fast, because I'm not feeling very patient."

"What does he know about it?" Leo asked, extremely confused.

"I'll explain." Chris said, and all eyes were on him. "I used to be... friends... with Wyatt, when we were at magic school together. (He's not lying, just not telling the whole truth either, okay) He did more advanced magic than me because he was older, but we were still great friends. So one day, when I was feeling particularly annoyed with my powers I asked him to bind them for me. He did. I had asked Wyatt to leave me with some powers, Only Orbing healing and Telekinesis, though.

For some reason the healing one went as well, even though the potion had been specially designed so that it would leave me with healing. Then, when we were fighting the next demon, I always helped you guys with demons," he added and continued "I couldn't do anything much, but the demon still got vanquished, you did that Piper, you were angry that my powers had been bound, because you said it wasn't a good idea, your anger exploded him.

Then Wyatt turned, not long after, I came here, with my powers still bound. Now, somehow I've released them myself, or Wyatt's released them, for some strange reason. But I've got them back anyway. And they seem to be a bit stronger too." He finished his tale and Leo was looking at him strangely.

"Are you sure that's all? Because I can sense there is something you're holding back from us."

"Alas, I don't think the time is ripe, when it is you will be of the first to know, Leo." He said, and with a swirl of orbs and half invisibility cloaking, he disappeared. Leo closed his eyes, and tried to sense him, but couldn't find him. So he went to the Golden Gate Bridge instead. He was surprised to find Chris sitting there, weeping piteously.

"Chris, what's wrong?" he asked, feeling slightly sad as he looked at him.

"Leo! What are you doing here? Why are you here? How could you sense me? Maybe my powers aren't working as well as I thought" He blurted quickly. Leo stared at him,

"I couldn't sense you, and I just came here to think" He said, amazed at how cold Chris had been with him.

"Oh, that's okay then" He said lamely, the coldness going out of his voice. Suddenly, while Leo was watching, he jumped off the bridge.

"Chris!" Leo was worried, what had possessed him to do such a thing. He watched helplessly as Chris plummeted endlessly into the clear blue sky screaming in pure terror...