Chapter One- Baby Chris

2004

It had been a month since Baby Chris was born and Piper had not left the house. It seemed like that was his name, Baby Chris. It went without saying that any mention of him without the title of Baby was in reference to the 22 year old alternate timeline version of the Halliwell boy. The dead version of Chris. It was painful for everyone, and greatly lessened the joy that should have accompanied the arrival of Baby Chris. That, coupled with the betrayal of Gideon and near-miss irreparable trauma to Wyatt, was what kept Piper indoors. The same emotional demons kept Leo far away from the Halliwell manor, until that day.

He couldn't stay away any longer, missing both his boys and feeling homesick, Leo orbed back to the manor just in time for the doorbell to ring. He stood in what had been his and Piper's room with the love of his life smiling at him in surprise. Paige yelled out an "I'll get it!" from across the hall and went bounding down the stairs to answer the door. Leo took a step forward, still keeping distance between him and Piper. He couldn't muster a smile, but tried anyway.

"Do you want to see him?" Pipers voice was soft and understanding. Leo cleared his throat and nodded. Piper gave him an approving smile and gestured towards the hallway, "He's downstairs with Phoebe."

They hadn't even reached the top of the stairs when they ran into Paige, "Leo?" She sounded more suspicious than surprised, "Someone's at the door for you. How did she know you were here?"

"I don't know, is she still down there?" Paige nodded, "Did she say what it was about?"

"No, just that her name was Talia and she needed to talk to you. I said you weren't here, she asked me to check, so I told her I would and then I ran into you." Paige used more hand gestures than truly necessary, and stumbled on the unfamiliar name.

Leo stood very still, his eyes suddenly very alert, "Thalia?"

Paige caught on to Leo's severe reaction, "Demon?"

"No." But his voice was terse, and it didn't ease the concerned look on the sisters' faces. Before they could ask anymore questions he had run down the stairs and flung open the front door, a look of unsure anger on his face.

"The Elders didn't send me, Leo." A comforting soprano voice carried up to Piper and Paige still standing halfway up the stairs. They both hurried to catch up, still completely confused by the situation.

"Who did?" Leo's voice was thick with resentment, something that was becoming alarmingly regular since Gideon's betrayal.
Piper and Paige stood in the doorway, peering around Leo to see the person standing there talking about the Elders and knocking on the door instead of orbing in. This was all very irregular.

"I don't answer to anyone, Leo. I came because I had to come. Or are you questioning me now?" Her voice was calm, almost bored.

Piper's temper was growing short, "Alright, what's going on? Leo, who is this person?"

"Hello Piper, my name is Thalia, and if you want to save Chris you will calm your husband down and invite me in." Everyone fell silent, and in the silence, Thalia pushed serenely past them and into the house.

"Excuse me, what the hell do you think you're doing? You can't just come in here." Piper followed Thalia, trying to corral her back towards the door.

"At least I knocked. How often do you have strangers barging right in and attacking you? And I'm here to help, so I'd appreciate it if you calmed down. And Leo, if you do what you're thinking about doing I'll have to stop you and the noise would make the baby cry. Now if you all don't mind, we need to sit down and have a very serious discussion." She crossed her arms and looked at Piper and Leo, holding the stare until Leo breathed a heavy sigh of defeat.

Piper wasn't having it, "You want a calm conversation, you'll tell me who you are first. And what you know about Chris."

Thalia smiled patiently, "I'm Thalia. Also called, rather incorrectly I might add, the last Pythia. Leo can fill you in on the rest so that you can discuss whether or not to trust me. I'll step out back. I'd like to see the garden." She gave a rather cheeky smile and left the room.

Paige let out a begrudging giggle, "Well, I got to admit, I like her style."

Piper turned to Leo, eyebrows crinkled in angry confusion, "Leo... you want to explain?"

Phoebe walked in holding Baby Chris, "Hey, so random woman walking through the house." Her smile was wide but so were her eyes, "Anything I should know about?"

"Leo was just about to tell us." Paige nodded her head forcefully.

"She's known as the Pythia." Leo breathed out slowly.

"Pythia, what's Pythia, and why... why does it sound familiar?" Phoebe looked questioningly to Paige, who shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Because she's in the Book of Shadows. One of the earlier pages, I believe. The Pythia used to be another title of the Delphic Oracle."

"Right." Phoebe spoke in rushed relief, "I knew I remembered it, when I first started getting premonitions I did so much reading about famous seers and fortune tellers." Her smile dropped a notch, "But there hasn't been a Delphic Oracle since the rise of the Roman empire."

"So how is she the Pythia?" Piper asked almost immediately.

"That's one of the reasons she said that it's incorrect. She was never appointed as the high priestess."

"You make it sound like she had the opportunity to." Paige quipped with minimal sarcasm.

"Yeah, that was thousands of years ago." Phoebe waved her hand as if dismissing the possibility.

"I know. Thalia has the gift of foresight. Stronger than anyone before of since her, and she was chosen as one of the oracles in Apollo's temple in Delphi. She had just started, and would have been made the Pythia when something happened." He trailed off.

"What, Leo, what happened? What are you talking about?" Piper tried to sound calm, but her words came out clipped and impatient.

"And please don't let there be more time travel going on, because I just can't handle that right now." Phoebe shook her head slowly and smiled down at Baby Chris, still in her arms.

"Well, no one knows what happened. She stopped aging. After a few decades she left the temple and went on the run. She usually works as a traveling fortune-teller, keeping to herself. But the thing is, she sees the future. She sees every possible future, and has proven it to the Elders more than enough times that her vision is perfect. Which makes her more valuable than any other seer in the world. She doesn't usually intervene though, so the fact that she's here means something big. The problem is, what helps the future of the world, and what helps this family..." His words faltered.

"Could be two very different things." Piper finished, sending chills down everyone's spines.

"If she saw a future where Wyatt is evil... well I wouldn't want her as an enemy." Leo didn't sound optimistic.

"Well, Wyatt is at magic school so he's safe for now." Paige spoke confidently.

"Are you really just gonna breeze right by the 'she stopped aging' part? What is she?" Phoebe arched her eyebrows in frustrated thought.

"No one is really sure. Wait, why is he at magic school?" Leo asked.

"Baby Chris was running a little fever, and I just wanted to keep the two of them separated in case it was contagious." Piper responded almost immediately.

"Speaking of which," Phoebe handed the baby over to his mother.

"Yeah, speaking of which, she told us straight up that she was here about Chris." Paige almost sounded accusing.

"Is she trustworthy?" Piper asked it but all three sisters stared at Leo, waiting for the answer.

"She's truthful, and not without mercy." Leo seemed to be choosing his words a little too carefully, "If she were here to hurt one of the boys, she would explain to us why first." He sounded almost defeated.

"Well isn't that comforting." Paige spoke under her breathe. Phoebe gave her a small smack on the shoulder, "What? He makes it sound hopeless."

"If Thalia decided to kill Chris or Wyatt, we wouldn't be able to stop her." The defeat in Leo's voice was intensifying.

"And why the hell not?" Piper nearly yelled.

"I can promise you that it won't come to that." Everyone turned to see Thalia waiting in the hallway, "It didn't cross your mind even once that I was here to help, did it?" She walked towards them, her voice a little sad.

"Well, trust isn't our strong suit." Paige crossed her arms in front of her defensively, though her tone was playful.

Thalia gave a wry smile, "Funny. But really, one of the first things I said was that I came to save Chris. I realize that Leo here needed to bring the rest of you up to speed on who I am, but it sounded to me like you were about to start talking battle strategy. Uncalled-for. Especially since I'm the only person that can do anything about the little time-bomb your holding, Piper." She spoke lightly, almost as if she didn't care, but her words were dark enough to make Piper pull her baby closer to her.

"What time-bomb? Baby Chris isn't a threat." Leo's eyes looked wild. He still had a lot of rage when it came to people coming after his children.

"You're right. Baby Chris isn't a threat. But there is a threat to him that will tear this family apart if you don't let me help." Thalia let out a slow sigh, "You all better sit down, this is going to take awhile to explain."