A New Covenant - 4. My Brothers

Chapter 4: My Brothers.

This chapter is told from Chris’s point of view.

Wyatt held me by the shoulders, he was making empty promises; I couldn’t look him in the eyes, his damn blue eyes always made me tell the truth. He drew my gaze to him, but right as I was about to break down I saw the Angel. There he was, so smug, and confident standing by the wall on the opposite side of the hallway; I used my telekinetic power to push him, he simply raised a hand and it dissipated in mid-air.

“Young Halliwell, why is it that you and your family insists on fighting me? I am neutral. I see neither evil nor good. I am inevitable, I am ultimate. Your powers cannot harm me. Your magic is useless against me. You cannot fight me.” His voice was a long drawn out drawl, slick on his tongue, drenching the very air.

As I looked at him, I felt a surge of anger rise through me, and suddenly I saw Wyatt flying backwards. I extended my hand towards the Angel “Get away from US!!!” lightning shot out of my hand, the Angel raised his hand, but this time nothing happened, the lightning hit him, he was sent flying back, landing with a thud against the wall.

I ran to Wyatt, crouched down next him, and put his head on my lap then I felt something warm on my hand, I could smell the iron tang of blood. “Dad, Aunt PAIGE!! ANYONE!!!” there was a flood of orbs, my aunt Paige materialized from it “I…I…I have a new power…he…he just…God, I did this to him, he’s…” I couldn’t think, I was just rambling.

My aunt Paige crouched down next to me, she took Wyatt’s head from my lap, she put her hands over it and they began to glow. “Calm down Chris. Who’s the guy on the floor over there?” she looked where the Angel lay, spread on the floor. “He looks pretty banged up too. Who is he?”

“That’s the Angel of Death. I…I think I did that too, I’m not sure.” I walked over to the Angel’s limp body, curiosity tickling at my brain “he looks like he’s out, but I thought my powers couldn't really hurt him…I…this is so confusing.” I kneeled next to the Angel’s body, and moved his salt-and-pepper colored bangs from his eyes and forehead. He was out like a light.

“Chris, just what exactly did you do?” She kept on healing Wyatt; it was taking longer than I had ever seen. I came back to my wits and remembered that I could also heal. I walked back over to where Wyatt lay, kneeled next to my aunt Paige and began healing him as well. There was a light glow from my hands, then like a candle being smothered, it flickered out. I shook my hands and tried again. The light was stronger this time, but it still dimmed then flickered out.

“Chris, hon; are you okay? Why are your powers on the fritz?” She looked at me and I simply stepped back from where I was. I looked around and orbed out. I couldn't be there anymore, not while Wyatt was sprawled on the floor, unconscious, and the Angel of Death was sprawled on the floor, all because of me.

I orbed to the Golden Gate. The roar of the wind muffled the uproar in my head. I sat down and rocked myself, trying to understand what had just happened, trying to clear my head. I heard the all too familiar melody of orbs, and felt someone standing behind me. I kept looking out over the city.

“You know, I always thought you might develop more powers, it would be bad if one of you guys were extremely powerful while the others stayed in a ummm…’normal’ power level. But knocking out the Angel of Death, and beyond that to make him visible, well, that is something I am very impressed by.” My mother’s voice was even there was no anger, no apprehension, just understanding and support. “Chris, how did you do that? Paige mentioned you said something about a new power, but since you were rambling, she couldn’t catch much. Tell me exactly what happened.” she sat down next to me, and put her arm around me, I rested my head on her shoulder and sighed.

“Well, it started right when David was being rushed in I saw a shadow standing by the door. I went to see what it was and saw the Angel just standing there looking at the ambulance. Then this flood of orbs just appeared outta nowhere and this guy was on the floor in front of the hospital, barely breathing. Then Kira comes back, and now she’s a white-lighter, and dad’s an elder again, and Orphea is scattered, it all just kept building and building, then San Francisco is all frozen in time. Then while Wyatt and I were walking to the room to see David the Angel just kept following us, and I kept trying to push him away but it wouldn’t work. Finally I was just standing there with Wyatt, and then he just flew back, and I was so angry at the Angel, I was so pissed, I wanted to hurt him, I wanted to force him to leave and then this lightning just shot from my hand, and instead of dissipating like my telekinesis it actually hit him and he flew backwards, then Wyatt was bleeding, and David was still unconscious, it all just got to be so much. I just needed some time for myself.”

She held me a little tighter, shifting her body to fit me in more comfortably against her. She began smoothing my hair. “Oh, my Christopher. I know exactly how you feel. I was the middle child, you just don’t know what would happen if anyone of your brothers died, it wrenches at you every time you think about it, and suddenly it becomes a constant thought and you just can’t escape it.” she kissed the top of my head and squeezed me “I don‘t want you to drive yourself crazy over it. You need some time to figure it all out. I think Ipswich will do you good.”

She looked into my eyes. Mine a perfect replica of hers. She smiled, and pecked me on the cheek. “C’mon we have to get back to your brothers, Wyatt is worried sick, and maybe if David knows we’re all there he’ll fight hard to keep living. C’mon babe.” She grabbed my hand and I orbed us back to the hospital. Wyatt was standing by David’s bed holding his hand. My aunts were at the foot of the bed, Paige chewing her nails, and Phoebe was rapping her foot on the floor in a staccato rhythm.

Wyatt saw us first and ran towards me. He hugged me tightly, then pushed me off and tapped me on the back of my head. “Never disappear like that again!!!!” he hugged me again. When he let go my aunt Paige came over and looked at me.

“Never be afraid of your powers, they work in weird ways, but they’re never random. If you fear your power, you will never gain the necessary control to use it. Just relax.” She patted my arm then pulled me into her. We hugged, and she broke it, a tear in her eye. My aunt Phoebe opened her arms and I walked into them, with her standing still at the foot of the bed.

“You know the one bad part about being an empath? Not being able to help the ones around you who are in pain.” She looked at me and smiled, tears welling in her eyes. “I want you to promise that if you ever want to talk about anything, you’ll come to me, well…to one of us. Please.” She kissed my nose. “I love you Christopher, you have to know that.” She hugged me to her and we stood like that for a while just watching David.

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Two days passed, David was still sleeping, and next to him was Caleb. Both were in semi-commas, both had the same vitals, even the same fever. We all speculated at the severity of the situation and whether or not what was happening was magical or mortal.

“This is too coincidental, they’ve had the same fever, within degrees for the past 10 hours, and their heartbeats and brain activity is wave by wave almost identical.” My dad studied the charts thinking hard of the training he’d once had “the doctor in charge of David is not the same as the one in charge of Caleb; otherwise this would’ve already raised some suspicions. We need to figure out a way to bring them out of this comma otherwise I don’t know what could happen.”

“I don’t care about whether or not they are linked; I care about getting through to David. I want my son back. Heal him Leo, heal our son! Exposure be damned!! I want my son!!!” My mother was getting hysterical, her voice rising in pitch, her hand gestures becoming more and more aggressive. “ORPHEA!!! GET YOUR ELDER ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!!!!” she kept looking up at the ceiling, nothing happened. She started pacing the room.

“Hon, calm down there’s nothing we can do right now. I’ve tried healing him, so has Leo, this isn’t magical, he crashed, there’s nothing magical about that. It’s not something we can heal; this is something he has to come through on his own. All we can do is visit him as often as we can, make sure he knows we’re here for him.” My aunt Paige looked at my mom and they just stood there, until finally my mom began sobbing and both my aunts surrounded her, hugging her between them.

A pinkish glow behind us brought my uncles Henry and Coop. Henry had a big cheesy smile on his face, he cleared his throat “I have news.” He scooped my aunt Paige away from mom, and aunt phoebe walked over to Coop “Well, the Elders decided that if I was going to be married to a Charmed one I needed some sort of protection, so they’ve granted me the power of deflection. Downside is now they can contact me if they need me, through Coop or through Paige, a.k.a. my white-lighter.” he smiled at her then kissed her.

My mom looked at my dad, he shrugged his shoulders. “It’s been done before, but I’ve never known it to happen while I’ve been a white-lighter, then again I’ve never heard of a demon being brought back as a white-lighter either. The Elders haven’t been acting like themselves lately, so this wouldn’t be so far gone from how they’re handling things now.” He looked to me and Wyatt, then to Paige and Henry, and finally to Phoebe and Coop. “we’ll just have to be very careful about how and when we deal with them. For now, I guess we can just be thankful that all of the family is protected…well except for David of course. I just wish I knew of a way to help him.”

I looked to where my younger brother lay, breathing slowly; I could barely breathe it hurt so much. I looked to Wyatt; he was looking at David too; his face set in a frown. His frustration was written all over it, he hated it as much as I did that we were helpless, while there was so much magic pooled in one room.

I looked at Caleb’s bed, his forehead glistened with sweat, looked at David, his forehead glistened the same as Caleb’s. An idea wiggled its way into my head, like a worm burrowing in the ground. “Has anyone tried to heal Caleb?”

Wyatt turned to me, a puzzled look in his eyes. “you don’t think…Caleb? Chris do you mean what I think you mean? But, that didn’t work did it?” he looked around the room.

“Yea Wyatt, I think it did. I mean look at the timing. Dave’s being rushed in and he comes in orbs, which weren’t exactly white, they seemed like purple or something’ I think this is it.”