A.N:It's been a while since I updated this eh. But no worries, I have no plans to abandon this. A plan of some sort is coming to me, so once that's done I'm hoping updates will be a lot more regular. I hope this chapter's okay.

Enjoy!

XXX

Chris' world explodes in a rainbow whirl – almost like those cartoon time-travel wheels that you used to see on TV – but this is so much more real and so much more painful. It's as if something was pulling him from his heart, a hook of some sort that tugged and tugged and never let go. He thinks it's never going to end, the pain just kept on coming, kept on tugging at his core –

The whirl shatters and Chris tumbles out of it, only partially aware that he was pulling Jared down to the ground with him. He hits the cold hard ground with a painful thump and groans. Jared manages to twist away before he could crush the younger witch hybrid.

"Damn," Chris grumbles from his position on the ground, clutching his throbbing chest. "That was not fun." He glances at Jared who is slowly getting up. "Was it supposed to hurt?"

Jared frowns at him. "No." He quickly helps Chris up and checks him over. "It's a transporting device that draws on your Elder powers. You should just be feeling a little bit dizzy or disoriented and exhausted since it's your first time and all."

"Did you feel pain?" Chris asks, one hand clutching his chest, the other gripping Jared's arm for support.

"No," Jared replies still frowning. "It must be your witch heritage. Because you're not full-blooded Elder it must cause some side-effects."

"Great," Chris says. "Just perfect." He breathes in and out slowly a few times and is relieved when the pain subsides quickly.

"Better?" Jared asks worriedly. "Your brother will somehow murder me if you're hurt in any way."

"He's just an overprotective idiot," Chris replies and smiles at him. "Your ass is saved Jared. I'm fine and dandy now."

"Good," Jared says and looks around the small room they teleported into.

Chris did the same and recognizes a few things: a small bed, a bed-side table (granted, it had a few strange looking buttons and stuff on it) and a drawer of some sort. "A bedroom," he muses.

"Yeah," Jared says and takes Chris' necklace into his hands. "This necklace must correspond with a similar shaped rock embedded in this room." He drops in and walks around the room, carefully inspecting the walls.

"Alright, I guess I'll just have to make sure I get this room then," Chris says. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for an Ancient Device," Jared mutters while checking the drawers. "It pulls up a map of Atlantis. Aha! Found it." He took out a flat green device and swiped his palm over it. Instantly, a hologram appeared on top and Jared manipulated it for a few moments.

"So?" Chris asks impatiently. "Where is this room?"

"East Wing," Jared mutters, staring intently at the hologram and sliding his fingers along it. "Room 515. Memorize it."

"East Wing, room 515 – got it," Chris repeats.

Jared carefully stores the device back into its original spot and nods at Chris. "Ready to go back? We shouldn't stay here too long."

"Why?" Chris asks. "I kind of wanted to look around first-"

"Atlantis has probably sensed our presence already. If we were to explore, it would waste its energy resources by activating some of its machines and such."

"You talk as if it were a living thing," Chris says, raising an eyebrow. "So what are you saying? Will something bad happen when its resources are drained?"

Jared nods. "The myths about Atlantis aren't unfound, you know. The whole Lost-Underwater thing."

"Wait. You mean to say we're underwater right now? Then what's keeping the water from breaking in through the windows?" Chris says in surprise.

"Atlantis has a shield up to prevent it from happening and the shield takes energy. Since the shield's been up for millennia, I don't want to know how much longer it has. And we really shouldn't waste more energy than we have to."

"That's dumb," Chris growls. "I'm coming back here in like a week. And the researchers will have no idea that this is happening, meaning they'll be exploring. So what? We'll explore for a few days and boom! The shield goes down, we find out too late, and we die?"

"There's a fail-safe," Jared says. "Once the energy's down, Atlantis will rise onto the surface again. But we don't want this to happen yet. We want you guys to find this out yourselves. So can we please go now?"

Chris sighs in relief. "Okay, okay, fine." He concentrates on his power, just like before and the pendant starts glowing. Jared quickly puts his hand on Chris' shoulder and a moment later, they disappear from Room 515 in a flash.

XXX

Wyatt taps his foot impatiently as he waits, feeling a little bit stupid, alone in the small room. It's already been more than fifteen minutes, and he wonders, in panic, if something happened. Maybe Chris somehow transported them to somewhere totally different and they were eaten by monsters or –

The whole room suddenly flashes red.

Wyatt throws up his shield instinctively while his hands protect his eyes from the glare of the bright flash. When he lowers his hands, he sees both Jared and Chris before him.

Chris moans as the pain courses through his body again. His legs give out and Wyatt is suddenly there, his shield down, arms wrapped securely around his brother.

"What the hell?" Wyatt mutters in surprise as he lowers his brother gently on the ground. He scans Chris for any injuries before raising his eyes to the calm, young Elder. "What happened? I thought Atlantis was uninhabited right now!"

"It is," Jared says. "We weren't attacked. The transportation draws on Elder powers. Because Chris is only half-Elder, it has some… unexpected side effects." He frowns and suddenly looks guilty. "Look, Wyatt, I promise I didn't know this would happen. But don't worry, it'll pass quickly."

Wyatt growls. "It better."

"Ease up Wyatt," Chris grounds out. "It's passing already okay? Don't be such a mother hen. One is enough, thank you very much."

"So what? This will happen every single time we report back?" Wyatt asks. "No way man."

"Calm down," Chris says and gets up to his feet. "It's not that bad. And if this is the only way I get to go to Atlantis I'm taking it."

Wyatt glares at him, but Chris refuses to back down. The older witch sighs. "You know what? Fine. But don't come crying to me when it gets too much."

Chris rolls his eyes at his brother's dramatics. He knows that if he were to even voice out one little complaint about the pain Wyatt would flash to his side in an instant and would try healing him without a word.

"I'll bring it up with the Council later," Jared offers. "See if we can come up with something to help you."

"Thanks man," Chris says smiling. "You were always the best Elder."

Jared laughs. "Whatever Chris." He motions the brothers with his hand. "But come on, there's a lot for me to tell you."

"Where are we going?" Wyatt asks.

"We're going to a room where we keep one of the machines we managed to salvage from the Ancients. It'll help you understand the situation a lot more."

"Sweet," Chris says. "I've always been a visual person."

XXX

The Ancient machine glows brightly when Jared steps onto the podium at the side of the machine. A hologram of the universe fazes into the room, right on top of the large circular platform.

Chris and Wyatt both whistle appreciatively. "Amazing."

"Isn't it?" Jared says. "Ancient technology is light years ahead of Earth."

"I can't wait to see more of it," Wyatt murmurs as he stares in awe at the hologram.

"Anyway," Jared cuts in, snapping the brothers out of their reverie. "We'll begin with Atlantis I guess." With a wave of his hand, the hologram changes to show a world of water and a small, evidently technologically advanced city floating in the middle. There are snippets of land masses at the edge of where the hologram ended. "This was where the Ancients lived before running to Earth. There were lots of reasons for their escape to Earth. Mainly it was because they were constantly being attacked by a race called the Wraith."

At his words, another hologram replaces the previous one. Now, a slimy creature appears, tall, buff and sinister. It's humanoid, but Chris swears he could see some bug-like features.

"Damn," Wyatt says. "That's what I call ugly."

"They drain life energy away using their hands," Jared says gravely. "Ancients were dying from their reign of terror, and they fled. The Wraiths are also technologically advanced. The Ancients still had the edge, but physically, the Wraiths are much more enhanced."

Another hologram appears. This time, it's a Wraith and what Chris assumes is an Ancient. The Wraith clutches the Ancients around the throat and roars in pleasure. And right before their eyes, the Ancient screams and grows old in less than ten seconds. It isn't long before the Ancient shrivels up and dies.

Wyatt curses. "What the hell?"

"It's their way of feeding," Jared explains. "Just like how humans eat meat to survive, the Wraith need to feed off other beings' life energy to continue to live."

"Oh man," Chris groans. "Looking at that makes me want to be a vegetarian."

"Anyway," Jared interrupts. "Our main suspicion is that the Wraith are the cause for Alexander and Victoria's disappearance. If they are, then we have a big problem on our hands. Elders are dead, but still have a continual source of energy. If the Wraith have captured them, they could be used as a indefinite source of food. And Elder energy is not normal… it would enhance the Wraith's power even more and the balance would be thrown off…"

"We'd have to move quickly and find them," Chris says. "If what you're saying is true, then the expedition is in big trouble and could be in danger."

"The danger is undeniable," Jared agrees. "That is why this mission is being given to both of you. That is why the importance has been stressed by Odin."

"Shouldn't we give the Stargate leaders a warning of some sort?" Wyatt pushes. "This thing is big. The Wraiths aren't going to be just a threat to the expedition, or just the Pegasus Galaxy. They could be a very real threat to this galaxy too, if they ever got here…"

"It's against the rules and you know it," Jared says.

"And what, it's just the two of us?" Chris retorts. "That's impossible and you know it."

"There are a few witches on that expedition," Jared replies. "They don't know about anything yet, so you'll have to debrief them on it. I'll give you a list of the witches going in a few days, when everything's been confirmed."

Chris and Wyatt say nothing for a while, both of them scowling.

"This mission is way too important for us to be living a double life," Chris says. "Some innocents are going to find out eventually."

"I know," Jared says sighing. "And I'm sure Odin knows too. Just try, and I mean really try Chris, to keep it a secret. And the less people who know, the better. We don't want the whole Atlantis expedition to know – it's going to spread and we'll be exposed."

"Relax," Wyatt says. "I'm a good judge of character. We'll be sure that only those we trust will know."

Jared sighs. "Alright."

"Is there anything else we should know?" Wyatt asks. "Please say no."

Jared laughs nervously in response.

"Not a good sign," Chris groans. "What is it?"

"It's better for you two to find out more about Atlantis on your own," Jared says. "But we have one more… small thing for you to do while you're there."

"We're going to hate this aren't we?" Wyatt asks.

"There's this man called John Sheppard," Jared says, ignoring Wyatt's comment. "And we've been keeping an eye on him. He's going to be a great source of good one day, but we need someone to look after him, so to speak."

"So in other words – a charge," Chris says.

"Yes," Jared says. "He's… a bit of a handful sometimes."

"Great, as if we don't have enough on our hands," Chris says sarcastically.

"Yes, but we're only giving you as much as your power dictates. Because you both have such a high concentration of power…"

"Aw Jared," Wyatt laughs. "Are you sucking up to us?"

The Elder scowls at him. "You accept right? I've got to go back to the Meeting and tell the Council."

"Yeah, we accept," Chris says. "I can't believe the Elders are putting in so much hope onto us."

"The others don't hate you," Jared says. "They're just… very cautious about you. You have an impulsive personality, and a large amount of power that you still can't really control. Can you blame them?"

"… Okay if you put it that way," Chris says. "But then why are you guys giving us this mission if they don't fully trust me?"

"We've always knew that Wyatt could control you," Jared says. "He could calm you down better than anyone else and can contain you… almost."

"You make me sound like some sort of monster," Chris mutters.

Wyatt laughs. "You've finally figured out what I've thought of you for the past 20 years of my life."

"You're not funny, shut up," Chris snaps, but his tone of voice didn't show any hints of anger.

"The others think of you almost like… a child who has too much power in his hands. One who can't control it and will use it thoughtlessly," Jared offers.

"… Man, I'm flattered," Chris says. "They think so very highly of me."

"Oh come on Chris," Wyatt snorts. "Don't pretend for a moment that you weren't an unruly child."

"Yeah okay fine, I was a little bit on the wild child side, but I've grown up," Chris shoots back. "I've matured."

"You know the Elders," Wyatt replies. "Their opinions don't change easily. Stubborn bastards."

"Excuse me," Jared says, offended. "I know I don't seem like it, but I'm one of those 'stubborn bastards' too."

"It's true," Chris says. "Whatever. I'll just use this chance to prove that I can control my powers." Wyatt snorts at this and Chris glares at him. "Prove that I can be trusted again."

"Okay good," Jared says and gets off the podium. "Keep the necklace safe Chris. It's your only way back here. And be careful of the Wraiths. They're harder to kill than most demons. I'll see you around then. I've got to go back."

"Understood," Chris mock-salutes him. Jared nods at both of them and rushes out of the room. "Well haven't we got ourselves into a situation."

"Yeah, this is probably the most important mission the Elders have given me since … well forever," Wyatt agrees. "Man we cannot screw this up."

"You got that right."

"And Mom doesn't even know about it yet."

"Oh man, is she ever going to blow a torch."

XXX

Piper is not pleased.

Actually, Chris thinks, that's the understatement of the year.

"I can't believe you guys would make such a big decision without consulting me first!" She grounds out.

"Yeah, well, we could kind of predict the conversation," Chris says. "It would go somewhere along the lines of 'Mom we want to go to Atlantis' and you'll go 'What? NO!' And really, we'd get nowhere."

"Chris!" Wyatt hisses. "Not a good time for your smartass mouth."

"I don't need to hear your sass right now, you got that young man?" Piper snaps.

"Chris, have you even thought this through carefully?" Leo asks, trying to reign in his temper. "You're going to Atlantis."

"If I had a quarter for every time I heard that…" Chris trails off as his brother whacks his arm.

"Shut up man!"

"This is no time for joking!" Piper growls. "I'm going to go Up There and have a little talk with the Elders…"

"No!" Chris interrupts. "Mom, we want to do this!"

"Want? Chris, honey, this is more dangerous than what you're doing now! And you already know how much I disapprove of you doing that crazy Stargate business!"

"This is what I want to do," Chris holds out. "This is important. I need to go find out what happened to those two Elders."

"If it beat two Elders, it won't have that much of a harder time beating the two of you," Leo says.

"You never know," Chris replies. "These things just suck the living hell out of living beings, and if they're using Elders as a continual supply of special whatever energy, they could destroy the expedition going there, and find a way to come here."

"You can think of it as the two of us protecting this galaxy too," Wyatt supplies.

"No," Piper says. "Absolutely not. All you've proven is how dangerous this is. I'm not letting my two little boys – "

"We're not three anymore!" Chris yells. "When can you begin to understand that?"

"Don't yell at your mother!" Leo yells back. "She's only worried-"

"Yeah we get that," Chris cuts in. "But this is still something we have to do. You guys should understand that! There are millions, maybe billions, of innocents at risk here. We can help – so we're going, whether you like it or not."

"Then we'll go with you," Piper argues. "I'm not going to let you to go into the unknown - "

"Not unknown," Chris says. "Jared filled us in on the most important aspects of this place."

"Still going with you," Piper says stubbornly.

"Mom," Wyatt says, as gently as possible. "Mom, come on please. You have to stay here. As Charmed Ones, you have the responsibility in keeping the balance. If you go, the balance goes out of whack man."

"And as the children of a Charmed One and an ex-Whitelighter/Elder, we have the same responsibility. With great power comes great responsibility," Chris adds. "Let us do our job too."

From the look on her face, Chris knows that she knows she had lost the battle. "I hate magic," she says, her tone dejected and hurt.

"We'll see you at least once a month," Wyatt says soothingly. "Don't worry mom. I'm the twice-blessed, next King Arthur, whatever prophecy thing. And Chris is some buffed up magical loser. You know we'll be fine."

Chris bristles at the jab, but didn't say anything. It's not the time. Instead he puts a hand on his mother's shoulder. "Yeah mom. We've been through a lot, me and Wyatt. We'll come out of this one okay. Have some faith in us."

Piper chokes back a sob, and nods. "Alright fine. But for the rest of this week you're staying home every single minute okay? I don't want you out of my sight."

"Yes mom," Wyatt promises. "As soon as we report back to base and Chris here gives Weir her answer, we'll go ask for the rest of the week off."

"Good," Leo says and sighs. "Go do that quickly and come back. We're going to call for a family dinner tonight."

Chris suppresses a groan at the thought of the overcrowding at the house again. Wyatt gives him a look that cuts off any smartass comments and the two of them orb out of the room.

Piper looks at the spot her boys were standing just a moment ago and lets out a sniffle.

"Piper," Leo says softly. "Come here."

She goes willingly into his open arms and sobs out, "I can't believe they're leaving us…"

"They'll just be fine," Leo soothes. "Don't worry. It's Wyatt and Chris. They can get through anything."

"What if they don't get through this?"

"They're powerful," Leo whispers. "They're stubborn and resilient. Don't worry about it okay?"

XXX

End of Chapter 4.

Whee~ the introduction is pretty much nearly done. Next chapter, they meet John Sheppard and the expedition party and off they go to Atlantis (where the real fun starts =])

And if you think Piper gave up too quickly (because I thought so too when I first reread it), I think it's because she does have faith in her kids. And well, we've seen before in Charmed that she was the one who suggested Phoebe to move to Hong Kong to be with Jason (although really, Hong Kong and Atlantis are kind of far apart). And really, she knows she can't control them anymore. They're of age to make their own decisions…

Review please!