Hey kiddos, haven't written much for a while and thought I'd start back again with something that will hopefully turn out to be interesting. Enjoy! (Reviews are fun too!)

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Disclaimer: I own NOTHING relating directly to Charmed except for the made up stuff. By me. Yea….

Setting: Um... let's see... the setting… Well, this will be in the future after Chris had gone back and changed it from bad to yay, but of course the characters won't have much recollection of the past and everything since it is the new future. So good future! Kind of… Hm... I suppose you could almost just call it an alternate reality since there won't be too many references to any particular Charmed events anyway or maybe there will be… hm… ah… well let's just get on with it and see what happens then

Oh yea. Chris is about 19 and Wyatt 21.

Enough rambling. Here we go.

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Breaking Away

He groped through the infinite darkness towards the luminous, ethereal being standing in the distance.

"Mom!" Chris gasped out, the words barely escaping his mouth.

He reached both arms out, but his efforts were fruitless. It seemed that no matter how much closer he thought he was getting, the distance between them stayed constant, sometimes growing ever so slightly.

As he continued aimlessly in the dark, he noticed the somber expression painted across his mother's glowing face. He suddenly halted as a swirl of lights appeared behind her and could barely contain himself when his father came into view. They were shortly joined by his two aunts, Phoebe and Paige. The four of them waved with an air of despair about them.

Chris couldn't go on anymore. His legs felt like lead and his burning tears were threatening to burst forth at any moment. He looked up at his father, his mother, and his aunts. This was goodbye. This was the end of the ones that had taken care of him for so long. This was his family. And he had to watch them disappear.

In a subtle fountain of white lights, the four of them evaporated. Just like that, leaving Chris alone in the eternal darkness. Alone…

"Chris… hey Chris…"

No, he wasn't alone…not anymore. He had Wyatt and if he somehow lost him, too, there would be no way he could go on any longer. He started running again towards the voice, running until the darkness began to dissipate…

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Sunlight streamed in from the window across from his bed, causing rays of light to dance across Chris's tired eyes. The tiny bursts of sunshine were making it hard for him to fully open them. His stomach was aching slightly, probably from the distant pains of his dreams. He rolled over onto his side, groaning deeply as he tried to pry open his emerald green eyes. As his vision cleared up, he jumped slightly, staring into the warm, brown eyes of his brother Wyatt. A look of concern was evident in the way his brows were slightly scrunched together.

"Hey Chris," he said, gently rocking his little brother's shoulders. "You okay, bro? You were tossin' around and sweating quite a bit when I came to check on you."

Chris groggily mumbled in reply, sitting up on his elbows and wiping his hands across his eyes.

"Yea… yea, I'm fine, Wy," he sighed and managed a sleepy grin. His older sibling smiled and pushed him back down onto the bed. His smile quickly faltered, though.

"Was it one of… those again?" Wyatt asked, ever so slightly raising one of his eyes.

"It… it was nothing. I'm fine now. Really," Chris said with a finality to his tone.

"Alright… Just making sure, kid." An edge of worry still streaked his voice as he got up and walked out of the room. "By the way, breakfast's on the table." Chris stared at the door, puzzled. Wy was never one to cook breakfast for the two of them in the morning. He looked over at the clock next to his bed. Especially not at eight in the morning.

Chris groaned and slowly maneuvered himself out of the tangle of blankets. He stood up, letting out a loud yawn and quickly got dressed into a somewhat clean shirt and a pair of jeans. Looking at the small mirror on the wall, he fixed his sandy brown hair as best as he could. Rubbing his eyes once more, he surveyed his dwelling and sighed at the sight of it.

It was a fairly spacious room, in terms of being able to fit a twin size bed and still have a few feet of space left to walk in. There was an oak dresser sitting in the far right corner with clothes, whether they were dirty or not it was hard to tell, spilling out onto the floor. The walls were a pale green and in pretty good condition, having lasted for a couple of years without the wallpaper peeling off. He took a few steps towards his bedside table and grabbed his watch. Stretching and yawning again, he stepped out into the kitchen/living room/storage room/guest room of him and Wyatt's apartment, softy shutting the door behind him.

This much larger room had a nice, homey feeling to it. Half of it was carpeted while the other half was covered with wooden tiles. A TV set sat on top of a stool across from a nicely worn couch in the "living room" section of the place. In the back corner, or rather section, was where all their junk and random appliances were settled. On the opposite corner off the carpet stood a refrigerator, counter, sink, and microwave, all crammed in an oddly not-so-crammed fashion. In the middle of the room was a small wooden table with two seats on each of the opposite ends, one already being occupied by his 21 year old brother, Wyatt, staring off into the distance while slowly chomping down on a piece of toast. Chris glanced at the plate set in front of his own seat and smirked at the two slices of bread. So much for a gourmet breakfast.

It had been three years since the two brothers had moved out of the Halliwell manor… Three years since the death of their parents, their aunts… their family. Demon attacks had been few and far-between (well, fewer compared to before) for the past 15 or so years. It seemed that for a while, the family could live as normal of a life as they could ever have wished for, with the occasional darklighter or warlock popping in maybe once or twice every few weeks. That's why that moment, almost exactly three years ago, came as such a shock to both Chris and Wyatt. It was a time that neither of them was ready to remember or confront. In truth, each one of the sons often experienced sickening pangs of wondering why they couldn't have saved them. Both of the boys had extraordinary powers, so it wasn't as if they had lacked the skills to do it. It was just… the way things happened. Chris had grown up hearing the phrase "Everything happens for a reason," but believing it had been entirely too difficult. But they had coped. They still had each other, and neither of them was ready, or would ever be ready, to lose one another.

On top of having to deal with the loss of basically all that they loved, they nearly lost the manor. There was no way to keep it. They lacked all the formalities and more importantly, the money. Chris and Wyatt both knew about the magical wells that lived within the house and couldn't let just anyone take it away from then, especially with the chance of it ending up in the wrong hands. Fortunately, the Elders were aware of the situation and under the circumstances and all that they had been through, they told the boys that they'd deal with it. It seemed strangely a bit like a cop-out to the two of them; it shouldn't have been taken care of so easily, but they hadn't been in the mood to argue or understand.

So here they were, three years later, having scraped up what was left of their savings to buy their own little apartment in the poorer part of San Francisco. They hadn't worried too much about demon attacks, since the two of them were pretty much thrown off the radar after the… incident. Wyatt had just finished high school at that time and had been able to get a job to support the two of them the best that he could. And today, it seemed that things had gone full circle.

"I've got a job interview at nine," Wyatt said, interrupting Chris from his reverie, "in case you were wondering why I got up so early and made you… tada! Breakfast!" He gestured happily toward the plate opposite of him. Chris couldn't help but grin and shake his head.

Wyatt had most recently lost his old job as a waiter at a local restaurant, due to… of course… an unfortunately timed demon sighting. So here he was, trying to get back on track. Luckily, he had done pretty well for the past few years, earning quite a bit in tips due to his charming personality and naturally good looks.

"Well, let's hope that nothing happens that results in you blowing up your new boss," Chris joked.

"Ah… who knows, maybe he would have turned out to be the next source of all evil." He looked down at his plate and let out a soft laugh. "I wouldn't have been too surprised though. You know, everything happens for a reason." Chris looked up at him with a quizzical laugh.

"Where'd you get that from? A fortune cookie?" However, Chris immediately knew what his next words would be and inwardly cringed.

"No… from mom."

At this, the two of them looked at each other, smiles suddenly gone. After a few, long seconds, Wyatt broke eye contact and looked back down, continuing to observe the remains of his breakfast. Chris forced a weak grin.

"Naturally."

It's been three years, Chris thought to himself. It's time to move on.

But it was hard to even follow his own advice. Ever since their deaths, he would occasionally find himself lost in one of his routine nightmares, constantly watching his family fade away. These constant reminders only made it harder to let go. In the middle of these nights, he would wake up, panting, on the edge of tears. These nightmares concerned Wyatt, who had since then discovered a new found love and protectiveness for his baby brother, though they were only two years apart. He would often find Chris, whimpering and tossing and turning, and couldn't help but worry. Chris never divulged the topic of these dreams, however. He couldn't bring himself to actually formulate concrete words that described the situation to his brother. He couldn't cause Wyatt anymore grief and stress. And as brothers and best friends, it was hard keeping all these jumbled up visions and feelings from him.

But they were okay now. They had made it through, taking the days as they came. Chris had finished high school not too long ago and had gotten a job as an assistant at a local doctor's office. They lived their lives as normal, albeit a few vanquishes from time to time, young adults, out on their own.

"Anyway, I'm about to head out in a few," Wyatt said while getting up and putting his plate into the sink. "Doing anything exciting today?"

"Ah… nah, I'm just gonna stop by the office and see if they need anything. If not, I'll probably just come back home, you know, orb around, find my purpose in life."

Wyatt rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. Ever since they had moved their lives seemed to take a turn towards monotony. They'd wake up, go to work or school, come home, vanquish the occasional demon, go to sleep, and repeat. Intermittently they'd usually get paid. It really did seem like life had lost a bit of purpose and Wyatt, to be honest, understood exactly how Chris felt.

"Well, go out and uh… How about you make some friends? Then maybe you could stop hermitting around the house."

"What are you talking about? I can't have friends, remember? I'm 'gifted.'"

At one point, that line really did reflect his true feelings. Because of all that he had to live with, Chris had hardly ever gotten to make friends besides those of the magical community. But he'd gotten use to that fact by now. He never once regretted being able to telepathically throw a demon across the room or instantly get from one end of the world to another. There just seemed to be a lack of company these days…

Wyatt shot him a look that clearly read don't be like that, but realizing that Chris wasn't being too serious about it, let it go.

"Alright, well, we'll go do somethin' later when I get back."

"Cool! It was about time we broke out of the old routine!" Chris put on a look of mock excitement. Wyatt just shook his head, trying to suppress the grin that was pulling at his face.

"Okay, well I'm gone-" Before the words could complete their flow from his mouth, a blast of light radiated from behind Chris, shooting out from his room's closed door. The two were suddenly blinded as a gust of wind blew the door open. Wyatt stared, shielding his eyes as two figured stepped out of the fading illumination. Chris's eyes grew wide as the newcomers took account of their surroundings, brushing the dust off their shoulders.

"Oh lord."

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Ah… Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that first installment! As I'm sure most of you noticed, this was more like a set up chapter, not really getting down to the main plot or anything. I will be the first to say that I'm absolutely no good at background and setting details (though I felt that they'd be a bit necessary) and getting into the story takes me a while. But whether you loved it or hated it, reviewww! It'll make my heart content no matter what Stick around for the rest! Thanks guys.

PS: I'm quite the master of cheese. If you catch my drift. Bear with me.

-J.