A/N: I am back with another chapter!

Thank you crazyDFFgang, sabrina, Ayana Starman, FastFuriousChick, Briankrause, Nina430, fred, bstant, RuByMoOn17, and Fae Child19 for your wonderful reviews! You guys are awesome! Thank you so much!

Flashbacks appear in italics.

Premonitions appear in bold.

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Bound By Blood

By: Ada C. Eliana

Chapter 4: Legacy Cast in Crimson

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Though this might just be the ending
Of the life I held so dear
But I won't run,
There's no turning back from here

"Stand My Ground" Within Temptation

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2027

The Charmed Ones and the woman from the attic reappeared into a large entryway of a mansion. Some pieces of the house reminded them of the Manor, and the Grandfather clock they saw as she led them into the living room certainly looked familiar. The large picturesque windows along the outer wall afforded a view of an abandoned sea.

Lowering her tote bag of potions to the floor, Paige sat down on one of the surprisingly soft couches and turned to stare at the woman who had either saved them or captured them. The woman motioned for everyone to follow suit and sit as well.

"Piper what are you doing here? I thought we agreed that you would stay behind!" Paige said angrily.

"You two said I would stay behind, not me," Piper protested. Paige opened her mouth to speak again but Piper raised her hand to stop her. "I think there's more important things to worry about now." Paige growled in annoyance and then turned to where Phoebe was studying the person who brought them to… wherever they were.

"Did you say I was your—" Phoebe began, stopping when she took a closer look at the woman sitting beside her on a gold couch. Her face was nearly identical to Phoebe's; the chin, cheekbones, mouth. The only deviations were her eyes and hair.

"Mother!" she finished for Phoebe, excited. "I can't believe you're here!" she added. "So, welcome to my home, my name's Lena." She addressed the group at large, her eyes scanning Piper, Paige, and Phoebe's faces hungrily, as if she could stare at them all day and not get bored.

"So, no 'P' for me either?" Phoebe questioned, feeling a bit queasy as she looked at her daughter, and realized that she had shimmered.

"Well my full first name is 'Philena,' it's just Lena for short," she said. "What are you all doing here? And – Oh my God! Aunt Piper, you're pregnant!" she squealed in delight. "Is that Chris in there?" she asked, pointing to Piper's stomach.

"Yes, and he's why we're here."

"Destination birth?" Lena fished sarcastically.

"Not him, full grown Chris. He came here just a while ago with Leo," Piper explained, not too impressed with Lena's hyper Phoebe-esque attitude.

"Oh. That's who he was with. I felt some sort of magical presence, but I just didn't recognize it as Uncle Leo. Chris is definitely in deep trouble," Lena sighed, her happy façade beginning to crumble. "I told him not to come back unless he was absolutely sure, and after what happened last time I didn't think he'd…"

"We were sure, although obviously we were wrong," Paige sighed. "So you're Chris' cousin then?" she added.

"Yeah, we practically grew up together, though I am—"

"Three years younger than him?" Phoebe offered.

"Yeah… how'd you know?" Lena questioned suspiciously. Her mother and father had met by chance on a city sidewalk in the summer of 2005, so how could she already know when Lena would be born?

"Vision quest," she answered simply.

"Okay," Lena answered uneasily.

"Do you know where we can find Chris?" Piper asked. "You were in the attic, so you must know something. Although…. I don't know if I can even trust you."

"You can trust me," Lena said though it did not seem to assuage the fears of the trio of witches. "And yes, I have a pretty good idea of where Chris is…"

"So? Where is he then?" Piper asked. While the girl looked like Phoebe and had seemingly saved them, in this future, anything was possible. She might even just be there to stall them.

"With Wyatt I'd assume," Lena sighed, standing and walking over to a bookshelf. She pulled out a small, old, hard-covered book, the pages yellowed and crinkling. Carrying it back to the armchair, she sat back down and began thumbing through the pages.

"Yeah, but where?" Paige pressed, impatient. "Hello, like his life might be at stake and you're just doing what – some light reading?"

Lena looked up at Paige, her sea-green eyes flashing with something akin to anger. "What did you think would happen when you came through that portal?" Her voice sounded hard and cold.

They just stared, unsure of really what they were thinking.

"Leo must've gotten back to the past, right?" she questioned. They nodded. "Figures," she whispered under her breath with irritation. "Then you must have known that Wyatt had him. So what did you think you would do? Come in there, let him sense you and find you, and then what? Do you think he would just give you Chris and let you walk out of there?"

"Well…"

"At best, he would have sent you to past, and put a magical block on time travel. At worst, he would kill you."

"Well why haven't you done anything? If you really care about him, then why don't you—" Paige sputtered.

"Why don't I what? Ruin everything Chris and I have worked so hard for in these past years? I can't! I won't!" Lena shouted, dropping the book as she did so.

"Can't we all just calm down here?" Phoebe asked, attempting to keep her voice light. Arguing with Lena would get them nowhere.

"Maybe you're just here to stall us! Maybe Wyatt sent you after us!" Paige accused. "You were in the attic when we got here! You shimmered us! You definitely didn't get that power from Phoebe! You could be just some shape-shifting demon or something!"

The anger left Lena's eyes suddenly to be replaced by hurt. She had been accused of many things since she took her place at Wyatt's side, and she had lost just about every friend she ever had, but this… To hear the same spite in her Aunt's voice, it cut deep. Phoebe watched her daughter closely and felt her heart ache.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I realize how this must all seem. But it's difficult for you to understand if you haven't lived it."

Feeling that the hostility had begun to dissipate, Phoebe reached over and took Lena's right hand in hers. An instant later she felt the telltale symptoms of a premonition.

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"You're sure this is the right thing to do?" a very young Lena asked her cousins. Her mother had died two weeks ago, and now was the perfect time to implement their plan for revenge.

Wyatt and Chris stood beside each other, though slightly apart, and Chris put a comforting hand on Lena's shoulder. It was midnight by the clock on the wall – the witching hour, and they were standing in a circle in the attic surrounding a small table with a cauldron, the Book of Shadows on the pedestal behind them. The full moon cast an eerie glow on the trio.

"If you don't want to, then we won't. You're only twelve anyway, I mean that's way too young to--" Chris said, showing his own hesitation.

"No, I do want to do this. I do want to, but only if…" she paused and looked up into Chris's eyes. "But only if you want to. I mean this legacy, it's yours now, Chris, and if you want to share it with us, then okay. But if not…"

"No, I do, I do."

"This way, no one will ever be able to touch us. If demons feared the Charmed Ones were feared before, then they'll really be scared now. Even better, this ritual will bind the three of us together fore--" Wyatt laughed as Chris cut him off.

"Let's just do this, before you talk me out of it," Chris sighed.

"All right, Lena, would you like to start?" Wyatt asked, holding a pocket knife out to her.

"Oh boy, when you said 'Ancient blood ritual' you meant it," Lena laughed nervously, taking the knife from him. She held it in her left hand, hovering over the skin on the underside of her right wrist. "I'm not exactly an artist here – were they all out of triquetra stencils at the hobby store, Wy?"

"Here, let me," Chris offered, taking the knife from her. Quickly and deftly he traced a triquetra in Lena's skin, blood oozing up to the surface as he cut, and Lena sucking in a breath against the pain. Chris followed suit, slicing up his own wrist in the symbol of his mother and aunts. He passed the knife to Wyatt, who did likewise. Their blood dripped into the cauldron, mixing together.

"Okay, next step," Lena whispered, aware that they were doing something both dangerous and amazing. She held out her wrist to Chris, and they pressed their bloodied cuts together, letting their blood commingle. They did the same with Wyatt's wrist.

"Time for the spell," Wyatt whispered.

The trio held their wrists out into the center of their small circle, their left arms around each other. As one they boldly spoke the incantation that would bring them together as the new Charmed Ones.

"Hear now the words of the witches,

The secrets we hid in the night.

The oldest of gods are invoked here.

Great work of magic is sought.

In this night and in this hour,

We call upon the ancient power.

Bring your powers to we Halliwell three.

We want the power.

Give us the power."

Unnatural blue light descended from somewhere unseen above them, bathing them in its glow. At the same time, the wounds on their wrists healed instantly, retaining perfectly identical triquetra symbols as if burned into their skin.

"It worked," Lena whispered, staring in awe at her wrist. She looked at her cousins hopefully. Chris closed his eyes and took a step away from them as if he had made a terrible mistake. Behind him, Wyatt smiled, but it was not a benign smile. Something dark and treacherous within him had just gotten exactly what it wanted.

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2019

Alec, Victor, and Leo were sitting in the living room of the Halliwell Manor discussing the situation with Leo's sons and Alec's daughter. Victor had just recently moved in to help Alec out with his grandkids. It was midnight, and the kids were supposed to be in bed, so the adults felt safe to discuss them; safe that none of the telepaths upstairs would be listening in.

"Phoebe had some misgivings about Wyatt… she was worried long before Piper died that he might not exactly… share their view of the world," Alec said carefully, knowing he was treading on unstable ground.

"I know how Phoebe felt, and I still believe that she was just paranoid."

"But that much power in one person, Leo? It'd be a miracle if he could hold it together and not let it corrupt him," Alec's voice was a smooth baritone, but held within it a warning. "Look, I'm not trying to offend you, I'm just worried about Chris and Lena, I think—" Alec broke off abruptly and his eyes darted to the chandelier above them.

It began to jingle and bounce, bright blue light shining down from above it. It shimmered and glimmered, its shine illuminating the entire room.

"What the—" Victor asked.

"Dear God…" Alec breathed. "What have they done?"

"The Power of Three…" Leo whispered, remembering when the chandelier had acted that way the day Paige joined the trio. "They've called the power of the Charmed Ones."

Alec did not listen to another word, racing up the stairs to the attic, calling for Lena and Chris all the way up. Pausing in the doorway to the highest level of the Manor, he saw the three Halliwells standing around together, clearly up to no good.

"You have no idea what you've done," Alec hissed through clenched teeth, his gaze straying to Wyatt, who only smirked in response. "No idea."

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2019

Every argument with Wyatt that did not end in magic ended instead in long monologues about the absence of good and evil, the need to take control as the most powerful beings in existence. And little by little, Alec watched in horror as the Wyatt he knew disappeared and Lena began to buy into his ideas.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the family, Wyatt studied under demon mentors, learning dark magic and ways to increase his strength. They taught him about power, murder, and inequality of magical beings to pathetic mortals. And he remembered the time when he was little, and his mother and aunts had been preoccupied with Chris' birth, allowing an Elder the opening he sought to destroy him. He had no preconceptions of trust in the Elders after that, and if you could not trust the paragons of good, then what did 'good' mean anyway? He saw demons as used and abused as witches, perpetually perpendicular to one another, pitted on opposite sides by the Source and the Elders when they should be working together, using their powers to control those who sought control over them. He began the dark journey to culminate in three years.

Against the orders and pleading of Alec, Victor, and Leo, for four months, Lena, Chris, and Wyatt worked on tracking down the demons who killed their Aunt Paige and cousins. Lena went through Paige's possessions, forcing visions of the past. Chris went over the research Piper and Phoebe had done previously, and did a little research of his own in the Underworld. Wyatt bullied and vanquished demons, demanding information.

And they had finally found the demon responsible. He was called the Medusa demon, and they were about to find out why.

The new Charmed Ones, ages 17, 15, and 12 stood side by side, potions and spells in hand as Wyatt orbed them into the Underworld.

They stood at the mouth of a cave, torches lining the opening. Casting nervous and determined glances at each other, the trio stepped in. The first section of the cave looked like some sort of dwelling. A seer's pool lay twinkling in the center, various shelves lining the walls. They walked into the next part and were met with a sight that they would never forget.

About 100 people stood, their backs to the three, completely still. Wyatt stepped up to them, trying to get their attention, but they were frozen. "Hey there!" Wyatt called, knocking on one of their heads.

"Wyatt don't, they're dead!" Lena shrieked, sensing nothing but hollow emptiness from the bodies.

"Oh my God, these are corpses – preserved," Chris observed calmly, not as squeamish as his little cousin.

"You don't think--?" Wyatt began the question on everyone's minds. Paige, Prue, and Nel's bodies had never been found, could they be here, frozen forever?

Not sure if she wanted to prove them right or wrong, Lena shot off from her cousins. She zigzagged between the bodies, searching for the missing remains of her relatives. Chris chased after her, but Wyatt tried to sense for the demon.

A heart wrenching scream broke Wyatt's concentration. He followed the sound and found Lena kneeling on the ground howling and Chris staring in disbelief at the three statuesque bodies in front of them.

Their Aunt Paige stood, her three-year-old twin daughters at her sides, her hands outstretched to shield them from an attack. Her face contorted in horror, her mouth open in a scream, the expression of someone helpless to prevent harm to herself and those around her burned forever upon her visage. She had died protecting her children, and it had not done her one damn bit of good. All three were dead, and the Power of Three had broken.

"No, no, no, no," Chris muttered under his breath. Wyatt did not know which was worse, the constant need to find out what happened to them, or knowing it. He turned to his brother, and saw the pained look on Chris' face. Gently, he took Chris by the shoulders and turned him around, forcing his eyes away from the sight.

"Don't look again, just don't," Wyatt whispered soothingly in his brother's ear.

Reaching down for Lena, Wyatt pulled her to her feet, her sobs increasing as he pulled her away. Her stomach lurched as she stared at her dead cousins' identical faces, pain twisting their features. She pulled away from Wyatt and vomited, tears blinding her as she crumpled to the ground again.

"Where are you! Show yourself!" Wyatt screamed, demanding the demon appear before him. Chris suddenly came up behind Wyatt.

"Careful," he muttered to Wyatt.

"Come out!" Wyatt continued to demand. The sound of shimmering behind them caught their attention. Wyatt and Chris spun around to see a grotesque demon staring at them.

Chris pulled out his vanquishing potions, but Wyatt took them from him. "No," Wyatt whispered, smashing the potion bottles with his hands and dropping the remnants on the ground.

"What the hell did you do that for!" Chris demanded as the demon approached them.

"It would be too easy that way, too quick," Wyatt answered, ripping the pages of spells and throwing them to the ground. Lena stood up behind them, wiping her mouth and staring at the demon with teary eyes.

"She couldn't stop him, what makes you think we can?" Chris asked rationally.

"Because we're stronger than her," Wyatt responded defiantly. "We're stronger than all three of them."

As the demon advanced, Wyatt struck out with lightning, knocking the demon back two steps. He countered by throwing a wave of energy that threw Wyatt and Chris backwards. Turning his attention to the youngest of the three, he cast a wave at energy at her too.

"Lena, dodge!" Chris shouted as he scrambled to his feet, Wyatt beside him. She did just that, utilizing her levitation ability to leap into the air above the attack. She embraced her control of fire and conjured a wave of flame, throwing it at the attacker.

"When did she learn that?" Wyatt asked, smiling proudly at her power.

"Wyatt, we need a spell, a potion, something!" Chris shouted.

"This is our first vanquish as the Charmed Ones, we don't need anything but us."

"You're crazy."

"If we're going to stop him, could we do it now?" Lena asked, steely determination on her face.

Wyatt nodded, only too happy to oblige. Branching out with his extensive powers, he sent a psychokinetic blast at his opponent. "You killed a Charmed One! You won't get away with that!"

Lena shot fire out of her hands, adding strength to Wyatt's attack. "You sick freak!"

Staring between the two, Chris held up his hand, and then turned it into a fist, enclosing a telekinetic grip around the demon and squeezing.

Surrounded by the blank eyes of one hundred victims, the three Halliwell witches used their greatest gifts on the demon that started it all, the one that broke the power of three and set up the other two sisters to die. The demon had not spoken, they did not know if it knew how, and they cared very little. What could it say that would be worthwhile anyway? Each of the three were motivated by something different.

For Wyatt, he used his anger at the destruction of his family; his anger that some demon had overpowered a Halliwell. Lena fought from her horror at what happened, her desire for revenge for her aunt and cousins. For Chris his power fed from his need to give his Paige, Prue, and Nel some peace, to know that the one responsible for their deaths would never hurt anyone again.

The demon writhed in agony, pained from the inside out by the powers of the three standing before him. It seemed impossible. The only witches with anywhere near this much power were the three female Charmed Ones, but they had long since been broken. And this power exceeded even theirs.

With one brilliant explosion that rocked the cave and was felt in even the furthest reaches of the Underworld the demon had been vanquished. Slumping to the ground in exhaustion, Lena and Chris watched as Wyatt punched the air and celebrated their victory.

"See, what did I tell you, little brother? We're the new and improved Charmed Ones. No potions, no spells, no problem!" he exclaimed, echoing the phrase that had become Wyatt and Chris' little joke, a sort of motto for whenever they got themselves into trouble.

"Yeah well what are we going to do about them?" Chris asked, gesturing to the bodies. The excitement of the vanquish vanished from Wyatt's crystal blue eyes as his gaze strayed to his Aunt's body.

"It's over, it's over," Lena cried in the corner. "It's over and I don't feel better at all."

"No, it's not over. We're working forward, Lena. We have to find who killed my mother next, and then get the demon who killed your mom." Lena looked up at him, her sea-green eyes displaying a trait he had never seen before, something within her had changed.

"Chris, orb Lena home. I'll bring the bodies," Wyatt ordered. His brother stared at him for one moment, both of them were melancholy, and did not feel as vindicated as they thought they would.

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2027

"Phoebe!" Piper called as said witch opened her eyes, the premonition still fresh in her mind. "What just happened?"

Without responding, Phoebe turned Lena's right arm over and spied the tattoo burned into her skin.

"The Power of Three symbol," Phoebe whispered.

"What did you see?" Lena questioned almost fearfully. It could have been anything.

"Your little blood ritual," Phoebe responded, arching an eyebrow at her, but whether it was a compliment on doing something so risky, or an admonishment, Lena could not tell. "But I'm not supposed to be having premonitions anymore – the council stripped my active powers."

"They stripped them in the past, but you're not in the past anymore," Lena pointed out, regarding her mother with something akin to curiosity.

"What did you see, Phoebe?" Piper asked, not understanding what her reference had alluded to.

"Your sons and Lena here, binding themselves together as the new Power of Three."

"You three did what!"

"We had to, to save the world! Or at least that was what Wyatt said…" she trailed off uncomfortably.

"But I've never seen that symbol on Chris, so what happened?" Phoebe questioned.

"He and Wyatt cast glamour spells over theirs to hide it. Once the three of us split over Wyatt's decision to build his empire, Wyatt saw it as a weakness. The fact that a power stronger than him existed; a power he essentially created. Chris just didn't want to remind himself that he'd basically bound himself to Wyatt forever," Lena said flippantly.

"Why didn't you cover it?" Phoebe asked.

"Hey, shouldn't we be going after Chris?" Lena asked, pulling away from Phoebe. Unfortunately, her mind was racing with uncomfortable memories, and her mother reached over and grabbed her hand just as a particularly unpleasant one ran through. Unwittingly using Lena's own powers as a conduit, Phoebe's premonition appeared in living color for everyone in the room to view.

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A/N: No Chris in this chapter - well current Chris anyway - but the Charmed Ones are learning things at least. So, let me know what you think with a review!

Thanks for reading, leave some feedback.

'Till next time,

Ada C. Eliana