Chris' Little Sister

Chapter 25

I walked into the attic when Chris orbed in.
"There's the book. Do you mind?" He asked.
"No, knock yourself out." Phoebe said.
"Been working some demonic connections. I think I have a new theory on who might be trying to turn Wyatt evil."
"Oh, a new theory. What's that, the third one this week?" Paige said.
"What? Are you keeping score now?"
"She's just grumpy because she hasn't had her coffee yet." Phoebe said.
"I am not grumpy." Paige said and I gave her a look. "Okay, fine, maybe a little bit, but you have to admit you've had a lot of different theories lately, and none of them have panned out."
"That's why they call them theories." Chris said.
"Do we even get along in the future?"
"How's Piper? Have you seen her?" Phoebe asked.
"She's good. Uh, big. You know, I keep thinking how weird it's gonna be to actually see myself being born."
"And how's Leo?"
" Leo? Don't know. Haven't seen him."
"That's because you're avoiding him still, aren't you? Chris, he's your father. You have to talk to him. How are you gonna change anything in the future if you don't?"
"That's not the future I came back to change. Thanks." Then he orbed out.
"Hey, don't look at me. I'm grumpy." Paige said.
"Our dad's probably not the best topic around Chris right now." I put my hands in my pockets.
"Why not? Leo's trying." Paige asked.
"My point. The more all of you push the relationship the worse it'll turn out. Chris spent nearly his whole life with Dad never around. It's not gonna change this easily."
"I'm sorry." Phoebe said and then we heard the doorbell ring.
~o~
Phoebe and I answered the door and Sheila was there crying.
"Sheila. What's the matter? Come in, come in, come in, come in." Phoebe said and Sheila walked in.
"What's going on?" Paige asked as she walked in.
"It's Darryl." Sheila said.
"What about Darryl? Is he okay?" Phoebe asked.
"They just arrested him. For murder"
~o~
I was in Magic school with Dad when Phoebe and Paige showed up and explained what happened with Darryl and the cleaners.
"Sounds like the Tribunal's involved." I said.
"The what?" Paige asked.
"The Tribunal. It's a council made up of Elders and demons to monitor magic, to make sure nobody ever finds out about its use." Dad explained.
"At whatever the cost." Gideon said.
"Which is why they created the cleaners and gave them the power to erase events, memories."
"Or in this case, to change them." Paige said.
"It's just part of the grand design." I said.
"To allow magic to influence but not take over free will." Dad said.
"It's the one thing both sides could agree upon." Gideon said.
"Ok how do you know about all this?" Paige asked me.
"I've read a lot of history. When whatever happened to Wyatt happened, some of the first things to go was the Tribunal and the cleaners. It was the only way to keep his magic from being erased."
"Okay, so how do we find this tribunal?" Phoebe asked. Then mom walked in.
"Hey. What are you guys doing here? Uh-oh. What's wrong?" She said.
"It's Darryl." Dad said.
"Our friendly Cleaners have struck again. He's in jail for murder." Paige explained.
"What? Why? What happened?"
"Someone was in a hurry."
"Oh, wait. Are we blaming me for this? Did we or did we not catch the demon?" Phoebe said.
"Yeah, but you forced the premonition, so maybe we could've been more careful, and maybe we could've seen that somebody was watching."
" And if I hadn't, we would've never caught the killer."
"Alright, guys, this isn't helping." Dad said.
"I know, it isn't. There's only one thing that will"
~o~
I was looking through some old books, trying to find anything useful. With a library with hundreds of years of history there should be something. Then Dad showed up looking for Chris.
" I'm going." Mom said.
"No, you can't."
"Well, I can't just let him hang either, Leo."
"Piper, if it wasn't safe for you before, it's even less safe now with Barbas there. Please?"
"Well, what about Darryl? Does he even know what's happening?"
"No, and I'm not going to tell him either. I need to concentrate on proving that Barbas set him up."
"How are you gonna do that?"
"I was hoping that you would call Chris and get him to use his demonic connections."
" Why don't you ask him? Right. Chris?" Then Chris orbed in.
"Yeah, mom, what do you..." He looked over at dad. "Need."
"We need your help." I said.
~o~
I went with them to the underworld to looked for another one of Chris' friends. We finally found Phinks and Chris was holding him over a firey pit.
"Barbas escaped the fires of hell, and so did you. I know he helped you." Chris said.
"Please, I don't want to back down there. Don't throw me back down there." Phinks said.
"Chris, I don't think this is the best way." Dad said.
"Last chance, Phinks." Chris said.
"Okay, okay, okay, okay! Phantasms. We used phantasms."
"How?" Dad asked.
"Uh, Barbas buddied up to a couple of them down there. He used them to do stuff for him, you know, since they can travel back and forth and all."
"What kind of stuff?" Chris asked.
"I don't know. I swear I don't know! But whatever it was, he said it could resurrect him somehow. It could give him new life, permanently too, he said, if he won something."
"The case." I said and looked at dad.
"He must have used the phantasm to cut a deal with the demon members of the tribunal. We need proof."
"What do you think he is?" Chris asked motioning to Phinks.
"He's a demon. They'll discredit him."
"It's better than nothing."
"It's a waste of time."
" It's the best we've got."
"Then we need to do better."
"Look- ThenChris accidentally dropped Phinks in the firey pit. "Shoot! Now look what you made me do."
"Great job guys." I said and crossed my arms.
~o~
We went back to the attic and dad went to the book of shadow.
"Okay, I get the fact that Barbas used the phantasm to cut a deal so he could try the case. But that still doesn't explain how he set up the girls." Chris explained.
"To get it to possess the killer, so the sisters would get onto him." Dad said.
"But that's only part of it. Alright? How did he even know Darryl was under investigation in the first place?"
"That's true." I said.
"There is nothing in here about phantasms that we don't already know." Dad said closing the book.
"Hey! Did you listen to a word I just said?" Chris said.
"What?"
"Never mind."
"You know what? This is ridiculous, okay. It's obvious you hate my guts, Chris. I understand. I'm a horrible father in the future, okay, but there's nothing I can do about that right now. So can we concentrate on working together to save Darryl and save the girls, please?"
"Fine."
"Great. Alright, let's start with what we know. How about phantasms?"
"Wait, that's it. Phantasms, plural. Phinks said Barbas buddied up to a couple of them, right? Well, that means there must be another one out there for us to find."
"Well look at that. You guys can work together huh?" I said and Chris glared at me.
~o~
Phoebe called Dad and we orbed to them.
"Hey, you guys are speaking now." Phoebe said.
"Uh, let's not make a big deal about it, okay?" Chris said.
"Fine. What'd you find out?"
"Okay, you know that phantasm you vanquished? Apparently Barbas sent it so you'd follow it." Dad explained.
" And apparently he gets a get out of hell free card too if he wins the case." Chris said.
"I knew this was a setup." Phoebe said.
"But we can't prove it, so we've been trying to find another phantasm, but we can't seem to..."
"If it's anywhere, it has to be inside Inspector Sheridan. It's the only way Barbas knew she'd be in the right place at the right time." Paige said.
"Okay, go get her. Bring her back here. Hurry." Phoebe said. I hopped on Chris' back and we orbed out the get Sheridan.
~o~
Once we got Sheridan we orbed back to the girls.
"Get off of me! What is this? Wh-where am I?" She asked looking around.
"That's a nice act. It's very convincing." Chris said.
"Objection! He cannot bring a mortal down here. It is outrageous." Barbas said to the council.
"Sit down and shut up." Dad snapped.
"What is the meaning of this?" Crill asked.
"Watch." Chris said and pushed Inspector Sheridan onto the blue part of the floor and a hologram appeared.
It showed the police station. Inspector Sheridan sat at her desk when a phantasm appeared behind her and entered her body. Then she got up and walked over to a filing cabinet and pulled out Darryl's file.
"What now?" Sheridan asked Barbas.
"Oh, surrounded by idiots." Barbas said.
Dad threw a potion at Inspector Sheridan and the phantasm escaped her body. Chris held up the wand and sucked the phantasm into it. Inspector Sheridan fainted on the floor.
"Huh. Guess there's some cleaning up to do there." Mom said
"What do you have to say for yourself, Barbas?" Aramis said.
"I'm a demon. What do you expect?" Barbas said smirking.
"Some brains." I mumbled to myself.
"Based on the evidence, I beg you to reverse the decision before it's too late." Gideon said.
"It is done." Aramis said.
"And as for you, Barbas..." Adiar said when Barbas interrupted him.
"Oh, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Now just because I'm the one who set this whole thing up does not necessarily mean that I am not right. The Charmed Ones are reckless with magic."
" Oh, please." Paige said.
"You've seen it, I've seen it, we've all seen it time after time, and it doesn't even include what got them into this whole mess in the first place."
"Uh, I think that would be you." I said and he glared at me.
" Actually, Phoebe, that would be you, with your ongoing zeal to force your premonitions, to short-circuit the process, take the easy way, and for what? Each and every time, it was for personal gain. I don't know, but it just seems to me like selfish behaviour like that, there's got to be some consequences, or, well... what's the point?"
"Phoebe will be stripped of her powers." Crill said.
"What?" Phoebe said.
"Just your active powers. Empathy, premonitions." Adiar said.
"Levitation." Thrask said.
"You can earn them back, but only if you're more careful with your powers."
" If you're all more careful." Aramis said. Then they vanished.
"You can't just say that and leave." Paige said.
"Gideon, get them back here now." Mom said.
"No. It's okay. I mean, it might be kind of refreshing to not rely on my powers so much anymore, you know? Besides, they're not the only ones that think I've been misusing them." Phoebe said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Let's get out of here." Then we all orbed out.
~o~
"Sorry about your powers Phoebe." I said walking into the kitchen.
"It's ok. Some of them were annoying anyways." She said and started to laugh a little. I went over and climbed up on the counter. "What do you think your doing there little girl?"
"Getting some cookies."
"You know where the cookie jar is?" Phoebe said and walked over.
"Same as when I was four." I grabbed the cookies and hopped down. "Chris!" He orbed in and looked around.
"Where were you?" Phoebe said.
"Upstairs."
"You couldn't walk down?" I asked.
"You screamed my name. I thought something was wrong."
"Ok, well, I'm going to bed." Then Phoebe left.
"I was gonna asked if you were coming." I said holding up the cookies.
"Yeah sure. I'm sorry I didn't see the time."
"It's fine." He looked at my hand.
"Why do you have six?"
"Because someone else might be coming too."
"What who-?"
"KC?" He looked back and saw Dad walking in. They stopped and looked at each other.
"Ok." Then Chris started to walk away.
"Chris." He stopped and turned around. "Come on. You've been working well with him all day. Come on." I said and held out the cookies for him.
Chris looked at Dad and then to me. "Ok."
I put the cookies on the table and went to get the milk.
After we were done it was time for me to go to bed. Chris put the glasses in the sink.
"Alright come on." Chris said.
"Do you mind if I uh, put her to bed?" Dad said.
"Sure. Go on." Chris smiled at me and Dad picked me up.
~o~
"Alright kiddo. Pajamas." Dad put me down and left so I could change.
"Alright dad!" I said once I was ready to go and got in bed. He came in sat on the bed.
"Goodnight KC."
"Goodnight dad." He kissed my forehead and turned out the light as he left.