Broken - "Charmed" fic - PG

[tigriswolf]

Title: Broken

Fandom: “Charmed”

Disclaimer: not my characters. just for fun.

Warnings: spoilers for season six

Pairings: none

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 630
Point of view: third

 

This isn’t his world.  Everything's off.  Nothing’s right.

 

Dad and Mom and the aunts, even Wyatt--everything's tinted a different color than he remembers.  More vibrant, brighter--the sun and the moon and the sky, the smells and sounds...

 

Alive.  That's the word he's looking for.  After all the gray and gloom, everything’s alive.

 

And he just can't get used to it.  He can't even really remember Aunt Phoebe from before, but he knows this woman isn't her.  From what he recalls, she was all about the vanquishing, all about protecting the future and the children, not her love-life or that column she spends all her time writing.

 

And Aunt Paige--she was a warrior, back home.  Bitter and angry, defiant to the end as the demons tore her apart.  He was young when she died, very young, but still old enough to feel hate for her death, to plan vengeance.  He watched her die, held in place by magic, unable to do a thing, for all his power.  Unable to move or to fight, unable to save his family--

 

And Mom... Momma.  The last to survive, she died in his arms.  Died shivering and shuddering, begging forgiveness for leaving him alone. Died apologizing for the children she couldn’t save, her sisters’ girls. Died with his name on her lips, died sobbing, losing strength with her blood.  

 

And he was left alone with his brother, the strongest being in all the worlds.  He was left alone with nowhere to go, no way out, the only option to stand at his brother’s side.

 

No… this world is not his. In this world, Wyatt is a baby, innocent of everything. In this world, Mom and the aunts are selfish, want lives away from demons and death, even though they are the only ones who can deal with it. In this world, Dad is trying his best to be with his family and the Elders, and in this world Chris can only blame himself for the state of things.

 

Everything is so vibrant, so beautiful. So innocent. Back home, he’d almost forgotten the meaning of the word, but here it screams. Shrieks. The aunts and Mom, despite everything they’ve gone through—they’re still so innocent and it’s wrong. They should know better.

 

Hell, they do know better, they just want to pretend. Want to fake. If they ignore it all, it’ll go away.

 

He tried that himself, once. It didn’t work. It didn’t work so well, he almost threw himself at Wyatt’s feet and begged for anything to do before he lost his mind.

 

Chris watches and can only shake his head. They’re separating, going their own ways. They don’t understand, they don’t know, they can’t see—they don’t want to see. He can’t believe how selfish they are, this life; he can’t remember his aunts or Mom ever being like this, back home.

 

But then… he’d been so young. So young. Just a baby, really. His memory is faulty and the memories flighty, and after Wyatt, he can’t be sure of anything.  He can’t know what happened and what didn’t, what was or wasn’t there, and as much as Wyatt’s to blame, he himself had a part to play.

 

He should have fought harder, longer, better. He should have seen Wyatt falling before Mom died in his arms, thinking she’d failed. 

 

Wyatt is his brother. Looking at this world’s Wyatt, Chris realizes he never really knew him. Never really had this innocent child, just the… shell. Just what was left after Evil got its claws on him and turned him, shattered him, killed him. 

 

And if for nothing else… if not for the aunts or Mom or Paula and Mel, if not for himself—then he’ll succeed for Wyatt, for the little boy who never got a chance.

Comments

[skyebanshee.livejournal.com]

You are a writer after my own heart. I was going through Season Six again and reminding myself how much I love Chris and then there's this...and just thanks for sharing it.

Everything is so vibrant, so beautiful. So innocent. Back home, he’d almost forgotten the meaning of the word, but here it screams. Shrieks. The aunts and Mom, despite everything they’ve gone through—they’re still so innocent and it’s wrong.

You know, I never thought of what Chris would have thought about the past, about how different and strange and 'wrong' it seemed to him. It's an intriguing pov.

[tigriswolf]

I caught bits of the genie episode yesterday and this just poured out in a rush.

Thank you for reading!

[alznthlay.livejournal.com]

Your Charmed fic makes me utterly happy.

:D

[tigriswolf]

Oh, I'm so glad!

Thank you for reading!

[megers17.livejournal.com]

That was really awesome I couldn't stop reading it! I could totally see Chris thinking all that thank you!

[tigriswolf]

Thank you for reading!

[nam-jai.livejournal.com]

Another good story! It vividly captures what the past must have seemed like to Chris.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you!

Awesome icon.

[pretty-panther.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so touching. I love it.

[tigriswolf]

Thank you so much!

[elyaeru.livejournal.com]

This is my first time reading a Charmed fic for, I don't know, years? I've always thought the fandom was a little too small/fic badly written to pay enough interest in it, but out of curiosity, I clicked this link, and, wow. I'm so glad I did.

Your writing is beautiful. I can remember watching the Chris episodes and thinking: "I wonder what he thinks about this world and his own timeline." You summed it up really good. I especially like the comparisons that are written almost in disdain, but then this: despite everything they’ve gone through—they’re still so innocent and it’s wrong. AHHH, powerful! That is what they are, at least I'm assuming. Heh. :P

Vivid capture of Chris's thoughts and feelings. Thank you so much for sharing. ♥

*bookmarks*

[tigriswolf]

Where was it linked?

Thank you so much! I found Chris just so fascinating.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

This reminds me a bit of the Terminator movies and fics I've read-that same whiplash feeling you know Chris had to have been dealing with. Everything so different, so clean and bright, everyone similar but...less than the people he knew. Or, if not less, then innocent of layers produced by their future pain.

And YES, he'd be concerned for the fate of the world, for his family-but most especially for Wyatt, the first victim and the one who really didn't have the chance of resistance.

[tigriswolf]

Thanks for reading!