At the sound of this so-familiar voice, the three sisters spun. There stood Chris Halliwell, looking exactly as he did when they'd last seen him, lying, dying, on Piper and Leo's bed.
"CHRIS!" cried Piper, running and hugging her son.
Paige stared at him in shock. "But you're dead! I saw you die!"
"Unless he's our little Chris grown up," Phoebe guessed.
Chris shook his head. "No, I'm the same one. When I faded from here, I reappeared back in my own time. And because the poison in Gideon's sword happened here, not there, it no longer affected me there. But it was different. I was different. If things stay the same, Mom, your son won't grow up to be me. I kept killing people, Mom! I couldn't stop myself from killing!"
"WHAT?" screamed Piper.
Chris nodded. "The Angel of Destiny appeared to me. She said that I wasn't the same man that I was when I left, but that I had a chance to change it, change Wyatt, who was even more evil than he was when the Titans were in charge. Mom, he's now the Source of all Evil and I'm his right-hand man—like Shax was for the original Source!"
"NO!" Piper moaned. "What happened?"
"When I asked the Angel of Destiny what had changed, she said that you and Aunt Phoebe crossed the line, punishing the guilty rather than saving the innocents, actually killing Aunt Paige when she got in the way, trying to stop you! She said that thanks to that, Dad was never returned to you--whatever that means--and someone named Coop was taken away from Aunt Phoebe, so she was never allowed to have her daughter. That's when you two decided to get even and went on a rampage of terror. Thanks to you two, the witch trials were started and you two died on the pyre when I was 14, so Wyatt and I got even, continuing your reign of terror! That's why he found the grimoire and became the Source, Mom--to be sure that he wouldn't be burned, too, since only the Charmed Ones can stop the Source! Please Mom, stop the Source! The Angel will only let me stay for a short while, just long enough to warn you! I learned how to love my dad when I was here the last time and Wyatt and I need him! Please don't kill him by killing fellow witches!"
Paige was in shock, silent at the news of how she had apparently died. Piper's eyes narrowed. "But...if you're evil as well now, why do you want to change?" She was suspicious that maybe this was a ploy of the Jenkins sisters, trying to prevent them from being vanquished.
Chris looked pained "I'm not evil," he protested. "No more than I was the last time I was here – but the Chris in the reality I returned to is!" He sighed impatiently, sounding more like the half-whitelighter the sisters remembered. "Look, I came back once to save Wyatt from becoming evil. Now I've returned to try to save you all from turning evil! And to save Wyatt and me from becoming evil! Please, don't kill them– there is another way. There must be!' and with that Chris faded away.
For the longest of times, the Charmed Ones were unable to say a word, thinking about what Chris had told them. Phoebe could feel herself back on that pyre, the flames burning her skin. Paige was staring at her sisters, unable to believe that they would actually have killed her, but knowing that they were wrong and that she would've done anything to stop them. And Piper, well, Piper was in shock, unable to know what to think.
"He's right, Piper," Phoebe whispered. "Wrong things done for the right reasons are still wrong!"