Title: The Lost Future

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Author's Note: This was a really difficult chapter for me to write, and it is also kind of long because I had so much that needed to happen. So I apologize if my writing is not up to its normal standard, I focused more on dialogue than anything else in this chapter.

Re: Mellaithwen: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked it (and thought it was sweet.)

Re: CharmedOne24: Yes, Chris did manage to stand up to his family. I'm glad you thought I was still keeping Chris in character, I am trying really hard to keep everyone close to the show. That is why it is so nice to write my own characters; with Prue and Mel and Pen I don't have to worry about how I portray them, because I know I'm always right. :)

Re: akemi: I am so glad you like Lynn, I was worried her character would not be that well recieved. I was trying to make her sort of like Piper. She loves Bianca so much, but she can't stand Chris, whereas Piper loves Chris and can't stand Bianca. I also was trying to show how protective the Phoenixes are of each other. That always intrigued me, the fact that they were portrayed as neither good nor evil, and loyal only to themselves. And if you read on, you will get to see Piper's and Leo's reactions, and part of how Wyatt deals.

Re: Anamalia-fear: Thanks for the review. I am trying to update quickly, but of course, coming up with a chapter takes time. However, you should get one or two chapters a week.

Re: Sparkling Cherries: I'm glad you liked the chapter and my final line. I actually was originally going to end on a completely different note, and then I realized how good (and evil) it would be to end with the 'pull the trigger' comment. So I stopped there.

Re: bunn2007: I'm glad you liked the memories. I had fun writing the ones that were from the other timeline. Keep reading (and reviewing) and hopefully you will like the next chapters just as well.

Re: crazyDFFgang: I'm glad you liked it all, and as for your review being later than you intended, better late than never, right:) Chris remembers some stuff about the other timeline. Mostly, he remembers feelings and emotions, but only a few memories from the unchanged future. As for why he doesn't remember everything and if the other memories will come back, you'll have to keep reading and see. The next couple chapters are more Halliwell family and less Chris/Bianca focused, so you'll get to see Wyatt's reaction to everything then also.

Re: RushmoreDoll: Thanks for the review. I'm glad you liked my portrayal of Chris. I am really trying to show the good and the bad in him, instead of just making him out to be a great hero. I know a lot of fanfics have him like that, and I wanted to make his character a little less good and a little more ambivalent. He is, after all, human like everyone else.

Re: Karone Evertree: Thanks for the review. Chris remembers everything about this new life, but only some fragments about his past life (the other Chris). Although, right now, everything is just sort of jumbled in his mind, he will sort it all out soon.The reason you may not remember why the demon and Seer are after the Charmed Ones is because I haven't told you yet. And their plan is much more than just killing the Halliwells. But I don't want to give anything away, so that will all be revealed in time.

Re: NothingButSarah: Thanks for the review. Keep reading, and review whenever possible. I'm not to picky about how often people review, I'm just glad you're reading it at all.

Re: walutahanga: I'm glad you like it. I'm trying to keep all of the action spread out as much as possible because it takes a while to set up my actual main story line. As for finding out about the demon and the Seer, I can tell you now that they won't be revealed for a while. They'll just be shadowy figures for the next several chapters, but their identities will come out eventually.

Re: JadeAlmasy: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you like it. Keep reading (and reviewing if you can).

Re: starra86: I'm glad you like this story, and I am really glad that you like This Brilliant Dance. The updates for this story should come once or twice a week, the updates for This Brilliant Dance should come a bit slower, maybe once a week or so. Have you heard the song This Brilliant Dance by Dashboard Confessionals? It is really, really good. Also, if you are a Tess fan, you might like my stories Prologue: Checkmate, and the Crucible. (They are majorly pro-Tess, and sort of anti-everyone else, especially Max, so if you don't like Tess, you won't like them). They are part of a series, so Checkmate should be read first. OK, that was a shameless plug for my own writing, but what can I say? I like having people read my stuff.

Re: Beleninwe: Keep reading, the trigger's about to get pulled.

As always, read and review.


Chapter Eight: Divide and Conquer

Paige barely had time to duck the as the dark-lighter fired a poison tipped arrow at her.

She had woken up in the middle of the night, suddenly unable to sleep, and wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water. But the minute she had stepped into the kitchen, the dark-lighter attack had sent her running for cover behind the table. From her hiding place, she managed to call for a lamp and send it crashing into the dark-lighter's head. He stumbled and dropped his crossbow, then regained his balance and snarled at Paige.

Paige got up and extended her hand. "Crossbow," she called, then redirected the weapon so that it orbed across the room and away from the dark-lighter. "Athame!" An athame sitting on the counter flew into her hand, and she threw it with deadly accuracy at the offending dark-lighter. He erupted into flames.

Paige ran a hand through her hair and walked over to the crossbow. She reached down and picked it up, planning on taking it over to the Manor. Piper could blow it up for her, or Wyatt could incinerate it with an energy ball.

"Paige?" Kyle hurried into the room, having heard the sound of a fight. He frowned, seeing his wife holding a potentially deadly weapon. "What happened?"

"Dark-lighter attack," Paige explained. She placed the crossbow on the table and quickly hurried to reassure her husband. "I took care of him. Athame to the chest."

"Oh, good," Kyle said quietly, relieved.

"Why was there an athame on the table?" Paige asked suddenly. "I thought we agreed to keep them hidden. I don't want Mel and Pen to start playing with them or something."

"They are thirteen. They aren't going to start playing with a knife," Kyle replied. "It was different when they were younger…especially when Mel started teething on athames…"

Paige paled, remembering that particular memory. She had walked into the kitchen to find Mel sitting at the table with a deadly sharp knife in her mouth, biting happily on the cold metal. Kyle was supposed to be watching the twins, but he had turned his back on his daughter for a moment, and she had somehow found the athame that Paige and Kyle kept hidden in the pantry.

"Anyway," Kyle continued, bringing Paige out of her reverie, "it is different now. Our kids are older, and since none of us have particularly offensive powers, I think it is a good idea to have weapons around. I mean, orbing is good for running away, but not much else."

Paige nodded reluctantly, but added, "Well, it is easy for you to say. You weren't the one who had to see Mel eating a knife. Do you have any idea how scared I was?"

"You didn't let Mel out of your sight for even a moment for the next seven months. If I recall correctly, you even wanted to move the nursery into our bedroom," Kyle replied, laughing.

Paige grinned slightly, thinking about how overprotective she had been. "Yeah…"

She and Kyle were so preoccupied reminiscing about Mel and Pen, neither noticed the second dark-lighter who appeared in the living room in a swirl of black orbs.

Until the arrow hit Paige in the back and she crumpled to the floor with a groan.

Kyle dropped to Paige's side instantly, his face creased with worry lines. "No!" he whispered, panicked. He looked up at the dark-lighter angrily, but the dark-lighter just grinned and shot another arrow. Kyle took Paige's hand and orbed the two of them away, and the arrow passed through the space where he had been kneeling.


"I can't believe he would drink a memory restoration potion," Piper muttered to herself as she trudged up the stairs to the attic. Leo had gone to get Paige and Phoebe, and then he had promised Wyatt that he would explain the entire story. Piper was not pleased with that decision, but she supposed it was too late to do anything about it now. She only hoped Wyatt would be able to accept the past…

In the meantime, Wyatt had concealed himself in the basement and refused to talk to anyone. Piper knew he had probably already guessed a lot of what Leo was about to tell him, and he was hurting.
But when she had tried to talk to him, he told her to leave him alone until Leo got back and could tell him the story. So, resigned to the fact that Wyatt would not talk to her until he knew everything, she had turned her attention towards helping her other son.

She shoved open the door to the attic and walked over to the Book, fuming silently. She had only just opened the Book when the sound of chimes and the swirl of lights announced the arrival of her youngest sister and brother-in-law.

"Paige!" Piper cried, panic rising in her chest as she saw the blood seeping across Paige's shirt. "No!" she screamed, running towards her sister and brother-in-law.

Kyle backed away from his wife and muttered, "Call Leo! I need to go back for Mel and Pen in case the dark-lighter is still there," then he disappeared. Piper bent down and snapped off the end of the arrow. Paige groaned again, barely conscious, but able to feel the pain throbbing through her back as Piper yanked out the poison-tipped weapon.

Leo appeared in a swirl of lights, bringing Phoebe, Jason, and Prue with him. He took one look at Paige and ran over to her, keeling down and extending his hands over her bloody chest. The occupants of the room waited with abated breath, watching as the familiar golden gow radiated from Leo's fingers.

Kyle orbed back in with Mel and Pen just in time to see Paige open one eye and ask wearily, "What…?"

"Dark-lighter attack," Kyle explained, running to his wife and hugging her in relief, silently willing himself not to panic in front of his daughters. No reason for them to know how close their mother had come to death.

"But I vanquished him," Paige said in confusion, pulling back from Kyle and crawling slowly to her feet. Mel and Pen hurried over to her once she was standing and flung their arms around her, but Paige, still confused, was focused on Kyle. "I vanquished him with Mel's teething ring."

A look of bewilderment spread across the faces of the everyone else in the room besides Kyle, but Kyle simply shook his head and said, "Different dark-lighter."

"Like that one!" Prue cried suddenly, jumping away from her parents and into a defensive stance as a dark-lighter black orbed into the room. Piper spun around and flicked her wrists, blowing up the dark-lighter. But as soon as he disappeared, two more took his place.

"What is going on?" Phoebe cried, kicking one dark-lighter to the floor. "Since when do dark-lighters work together?"

"Anyone with white-lighter blood and Jason, get out of here," Piper ordered as she blew up another dark-lighter. Leo, Paige, and Kyle orbed away quickly, taking the others with them and seeking sanctuary in the first floor of the Manor. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were left behind to face their attackers.

Prue closed her eyes for a brief moment and quickly called upon her powers. As she felt the magic begin to flow through her, she extended her hands outward, and the room suddenly howled with wind. The dark-lighters paused, surprised by the storm, and Prue shot a burst of fire from her finger tips, incinerating the second dark-lighter.

Three more took his place.

Phoebe kicked one dark-lighter in the chest, vanquishing him with the stiletto heel of her shoe. She hit the other in the nose with the heel of her hand, and he was thrown backwards and across the room. He hit a table full of potion's botles; the bottles shattered and exploded with a deafening crash, vanquishing the dark-lighter. Piper managed to blow up the last one, but not before two more black-orbed in. One of them knocked Piper across the room with a telekinetic blast, and she fell to the floor, stunned. The other grabbed Prue from behind, pinning her arms to her sides and preventing her from using her powers.

"Mom!" Prue called, panicked.

Phoebe spun around and stared in helpless horror as the dark-lighter shoved the pointed tip of an athame into Prue's back. The young witch crumpled to the floor in a heap, and Phoebe screamed out in terror.

"NO!"

Piper pulled herself to her knees and saw her oldest niece lying on the floor, covered in blood. With an angry flick of her wrist, she blew up the dark-lighter that had attacked Prue. The last dark-lighter, seeing the fury in the faces of the two Charmed Ones, wisely orbed out.

"Prue, sweetie," Phoebe whispered, hurrying over to her daughter and frantically checking for a heartbeat. She sagged visibly in relief once she felt the faint but steady pulse.

"Leo, Kyle!" Piper called as she too knelt down next to Prue.

The Elder, the white-lighter, Jason, Mel, and Pen, all appeared in a flurry of bright lights, followed quickly by Paige. Kyle hurried to Prue and began to heal the rapidly growing mortal wound. Leo followed suit, and under the combined powers of the two Prue's gash began to close. Mel and Pen hung back, wanting to stay out of the way, while Jason stared at his daughter in silent horror.

"Mom…" Prue whispered as she opened her eyes.

Phoebe pulled her daughter into a hug and then traded worried glances with Piper. "That was too close. We almost lost Paige and Prue…"

"Since when do dark-lighters work in teams?" Piper asked as she stood up and walked over to the Book.

"Teams?" Leo asked, nervous. "How many where there?" Teamwork in the Underworld was never a good thing.

"There must have been nine or ten in all," Piper explained. She flipped through the pages, searching for something, anything, that would help her. "They just kept coming."

"Maybe they finally learned to share," Prue quipped, pulling away from her mother. She glanced over at her father, seeing the fear in his eyes and tried to send him a reassuring smile. "Someone sent them all to kindergarten."

"This isn't time for jokes," Kyle said seriously, although he did crack a small smile at Prue's comment. "If the Underworld is reorganizing…"

"We don't know anything for certain," Leo pointed out. "The Elders haven't informed me of anything, and if someone was organizing the Underworld, they would know about it."

"Not if it was being done quietly," Phoebe replied. "I mean, the Elders didn't know that the Triad had been vanquished by Cole, or that the Source had been reincarnated into Cole, or that…"

"Okay, we get the point," Piper said quietly. She turned to Leo and continued, "And it is a good point."

"But the Elders sensed the shift in power when the Titans were released, when the wizard tried to take Cole's powers, when the Seer and the Source were finally vanquished." Leo pointed out, shurgging. "And they had heard rumors about the demise of the Triad."

Piper slammed the cover of the Book shut and said, "So basically, someone may or may not be organizing the Underworld, my son has gone AWOL, and dark-lighters are making armies and attacking us."

"Chris' gone?" Paige asked, suddenly afraid. She closed her eyes quickly and tried to sense for her nephew, but came up blank. "Nothing. I don't sense him at all," she murmured. "He's blocking me."

Piper rubbed her eyes and said sarcastically, "Of course he is. Because it would be too easy for us otherwise."

"How?" Phoebe asked quietly. "I thought Chris didn't know how to block us?" She turned to Leo and said, "You told us that the other day, in Chris' room."

Leo bit his lip, thinking. He had not taught Chris how to conceal himself so that he or Wyatt would be able to sense the young witch-lighter at all times and make sure he didn't do anything stupid or get into any magical trouble. But the one time that they needed to find him, he had somehow figured out how to take himself off their radar.

Finally, the Elder said, "Maybe he isn't doing it on purpose. Maybe it is unintentional." Leo closed his eyes, thinking, his expression drawn and worried. If Chris was unintentionally blocking them, it meant his subconscious really did not want to be found.

"Dad?" Wyatt's head appeared in the doorway. His face was pale and his eyes were rimmed with red. He looked as though he was in shock. "You said you would tell me… you would explain everything…" He paused and looked around the attic. "What happened?" he asked, his eyes wide.

"Dark-lighter attack," Leo replied dully. He and Piper exchanged a brief look, then Leo turned and walked towards his eldest son. "Come on, I'll tell you what you want to know." The two disappeared down the stairs, and Piper watched them go, an apprehensive look on her face.

"Explain what?" Prue demanded. She could tell by the look on Piper's face that something big had happened. "Where is Chris? What do you mean he is AWOL?"

"Prue, take Mel and Pen and go downstairs," Piper ordered quickly, sending Phoebe a quick glance. She did not want the three younger witches to know what was going on. Not yet, anyway… She rubbed her tired eyes and silently acknowledged the fact that they would all have to be told eventually. The cat was out of the bag...

But not right now. Right now, they needed to find Chris and bring him home. Then they could deal with all of the fall out from everything else.

"But if Chris is in trouble…" Pen began to protest, not wanting to be kept out of the loop, but Phoebe cut her off.

"Go," she said wearily. She turned to Prue. "You shouldn't even be here, we told you to stay at home."

"When Uncle Leo comes to get you in the middle of the night, it is obviously important. I wanted to know! I have a right to know," Prue replied heatedly.

"Go," Phoebe repeated, not backing down from the order.

Prue sighed and turned away, stalking angrily from the room. Mel and Pen followed reluctantly, knowing that they were fighting a losing battle.

Once the three were gone, Piper turned to her sisters and brothers-in-law and began to explain.


"I still can't believe he would drink a memory restoration potion," Piper declared as she paced the attic. She had just finished recounting the events of the evening. She glanced over at Phoebe, who was scrying for Chris, and shook her head. "What was he thinking?"

"He was thinking that he wanted answers, and nobody would give them to him," Jason said slowly, watching as his wife continued to twirl the crystal above the map. He was still in shock from the revelation of the evening. Having never met Chris while he was in the past, he had no idea that the young witch-lighter had saved the world.

Piper spun on Jason and hissed, "Why would we give him those answers? Why would he need to know that? It would only hurt him." She ran a hand through her hair and took a shaky breath. She had not told Jason what had ended up happening to Chris. She had not told him that Chris had... She couldn't even bring herself to think the word. "I can't believe Chris would do this."

"I can," Paige replied, more to herself than anyone else in the room. She sat on the sofa next to Kyle, watching her older sisters. At Piper's glare, she just shrugged and said, "Well, I can. He wanted answers..."

"I wonder how is Wyatt doing," Kyle murmured quickly, wanting to divert the conversation away from the possibly dangerous territory of Chris' justifications. "Now that he knows…?"

Piper glanced over at Kyle, then turned away. "Leo is with him. He'll help him through it." She said the words with much more confidence then she actually felt.

"I hope so…" Paige crossed her arms and leaned back against Kyle for support. She thought back to the defeated and broken look on Wyatt face when he had come up to the attic earlier, and her heart broke for him. It must be so hard for him to hear the truth about who he was, and what he had done.

"This is all Bianca's fault," Piper snapped abruptly, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen over the room. "I swear to God I am going to vanquish her!"

"Uh, Piper, vanquishing Chris' girlfriend might not be the best way to get him back," Jason pointed out.

"You don't know what she did! You weren't there, you didn't see! That tramp stuck her fist in my son's chest," Piper snarled, closing her eyes and remembering Chris, lying on the sofa, the huge wound from Bianca's fist on his chest. She could picture him so clearly, twisting and turning as he dreamt about the nightmares of his past. Bianca had done that to him, and Jason actually had the nerve to defend her...? "You don't have a clue what you are talking about!"

"Hey, I'm just saying that maybe we should try to find Chris and talk to him," Jason defended himself. "Explain to him why you kept everything a secret, and maybe he will come back." He crossed his arms and glared at Piper. Chris wasn't the only one who hated being kept out of the loop.

"Why should I ask for his forgiveness?" Piper demanded. "I did what was right."

"No," a voice from the door said, "You didn't."

All eyes turned to see Wyatt standing in the door, his blue eyes unnaturally subdued. He ran hand through his blonde hair, and stepped into the room. "I know that you were only trying to protect us, but don't you see that by lying to Chris, you just pushed him away?"

"Wyatt, honey…" Piper began, but Wyatt held up his hand.

"I need to tell you all something."

Leo appeared behind Wyatt on the stairs and he too walked into the room. He stood next to Piper, wrapping his arms around her waist, and waiting for his son to say whatever it was he wanted to say.

"Chris and Bianca have been dating for two years," Wyatt said softly.

There was a gasp, then Phoebe asked, "You knew about this?"

"Not until a few days ago," Wyatt replied. He licked his dry lips and said, "Chris told Prue and I that he had had this…vision. He saw himself proposing to Bianca. At the time, I asked him why he hadn't told any of us about her, and he said it was because he wanted to have some part of his life that was just his."

"I don't understand," Piper said. "What did he mean?"

"He meant he had been kept out of magic his entire life, and he felt as though he was unable to share in a huge part of this family's heritage. He felt alienated, and being with Bianca gave him a sense of belonging. It was his secret."

"I told you we shouldn't have kept this all from him," Paige snorted.

"Who asked you?" Piper shot back. She turned to Wyatt again and said, "I'm not alienating your brother, I'm trying to keep him alive. Do you have any idea what it is like to have your son die? Killed by someone you trusted?"

"What?" Jason demanded, shocked. Chris had died?

"You didn't tell him?" Wyatt asked. He frowned and said, "Well, it is good to know that I wasn't the only one kept in the dark."

"Wait, Chris died?" Jason asked. "You left that part out." He crossed his arms and turned to Phoebe. "This is exactly what I am talking about! I married into this family, and you neglect to tell me that Chris traveled to the past and was killed? Did you think I wouldn't ever find it out?"

"I didn't think it was any of your business," Phoebe snapped. "We took care of the problem, we saved Wyatt."

"But you told Kyle?" Jason countered.

"He is our white-lighter," Phoebe snarled, slamming the scrying crystal onto the map. "He is a part of the entire magical circus that goes on around here. We had to tell him."

"And I am a part of this family too! Magical or otherwise!" Jason hissed. "Prue almost died tonight, and you almost die every week. Whatever happens in this family will affect me, so I have a right to know about it. I have more than a right, I have a need. "

"Guys, this might not be the best time for this argument," Paige cut in, wanting to stop Jason's rant before it got out of hand.

Unfortunately, Jason would not let the issue go. "No, I think it is the perfect time," he replied. "Go ahead and say it, Phoebe. I'm not good enough for you, because I'm not magical."

"Jason! I married you, didn't I?" Phoebe retorted. "I love you. You are my family."

"Am I?" Jason asked softly. "Sometimes I'm not so sure."

There was a silence in the room, then Kyle said gently, "I think we are getting off track. We need to find Chris and get him back here. Phoebe's scrying is clearly not working, so anyone have any other ideas?"

"Well, we know where Bianca's mother lives," Paige said thoughtfully. "We could start there. She probably knows where Chris is, or at least where Bianca is."

"And we can find her and vanquish her, then bring Chris home," Piper murmured.

Paige rolled her eyes at Piper. "How did this even all get started? Was it with Chris' vision?" she asked, turning to Wyatt.

Wyatt nodded and slowly retold the events of the past few days, starting with Chris' vision, going through his brief meeting with Bianca, Prue finding the picture, and Wyatt having the premonition where Piper erased Prue's memory, and Mel and Pen recounted the conversation between Piper and Leo that they had overheard. He however left out the part where Mel informed them that Chris was in love.

Jason spun on Piper, fury etched on his face. "You erased my daughter's memory? Who the hell gave you the right to use magic on my daughter?" Phoebe, nodded, furious at her sister for doing this without her consent.

Piper glared back at them defiantly, and replied coldly, "I did what I had to do to keep my son safe."

"Yeah…too bad you failed at protecting him," Paige snapped. She stood up and continued, "I told you that you had to stop treating Chris differently. I warned you about what would happen. Yet you refused to listen to me, and now you are reaping the results of that!"

Piper shook her head, wanting to deny the truth in Paige's words. Needing a scapegoat to blame, she rounded on Leo in cold fury. "You shouldn't have saved that picture. None of this would have happened if you had just listened to me when I said I wanted to destroy all the evidence."

"If I had listen to you every time you made a decision about how to treat Chris, he would be dead now," Leo shot back. "Did you know that he had no idea how to control his powers? That I had to sneak around you and Wyatt to take him Up There and train him so he would be able to defend himself in a battle?"

"You what?" Piper screeched. "You went behind my back and intentionally disregarded my decision about Chris?"

"He is my son too!"

"Oh, now he is your son. Now that you realized how much of a screw up you were in the past life," Piper snarled. She shook her head and laughed bitterly.

Leo stepped back as though he had been slapped, then turned away from Piper and walked over to the window. The hurt and uncertainty showed on his face.

"This is what happens when married couples keep secrets," Jason said coldly. He spun on his heel and stalked from the room.

"Where are you going?" Phoebe called out.

"I'm going for a walk. Why don't you have one of your magical family members orb you and Prue home. And don't bother waiting up for me," Jason snarled, his voice laced with venom. And then he was gone, slamming the attic door behind him.

There was an awkward and uncomfortable silence in the room, then Wyatt asked in a strangled voice, "So…I was really evil?"

"You weren't evil, Wyatt," Paige rushed to assure her nephew. "You were turned, and we saved you. Look at how good of a person you are now."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Wyatt asked, raising haunted eyes to stare at his youngest Aunt. "All the times I went to you to ask you to talk to Mom…All the times I told you I thought Mom was being unfair treating Chris the way she was…All the times I told you I thought Mom and Dad were keeping secrets from me… Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't her secret to tell," Piper cut in. "And what do you mean you told Paige I was being unfair? You went to her behind my back?"

"This isn't about you, Piper," Paige snapped. "This is about Chris. And yes, Wyatt came to me, because at least I listened to his problems." She shot a quick look at her oldest nephew, then turned to Piper, a smirk fixed on her features.

Paige has always thought that she was better than any of you.

"Oh, rub it in, why don't you?" Phoebe snapped, breaking into the conversation.

"What?" Paige asked in confusion, turning to the middle sister.

"You've always thought you had the best marriage. You and Kyle never argue, never keep secrets from each other, never even disagree. You've always thought that you were better, that you were the only one who knew how to properly raise a family."

"How dare you?" Paige hissed, jumping to her feet. "How dare you!"

"Don't talk to my wife like that," Kyle snapped.

"It's true, isn't it?" Piper added coldly, her brown eyes blazing with fury. "You're always butting in and giving advice when it isn't wanted and judging us on everything we do. What do you know about what we've had to go through? It wasn't your son that died."

"Mom," Wyatt said, moving towards his mother quickly. "Just calm down, okay? Don't say something you are going to regret." He was still furious at her, but he knew that things were about to spiral rapidly out of control.

"Calm down? Chris is somewhere out there, alone and hurt!" Piper screeched at him. "Don't tell me to calm down!"

Wyatt stepped back, shocked by her anger, and faltered, unsure of what to say. Then Leo appeared at his son's and whispered, "Why don't you go check on your cousins? They are downstairs." Wyatt nodded dumbly and left the room. His exit went unnoticed by the feuding sisters and their husbands.

"Look," Kyle interrupted quickly, "I don't think Chris is in any danger at the moment. He is probably just sitting around with Bianca watching the sailboats or something." He turned to Leo and continued, "I think we should focus on the dark-lighters for now."

"I agree," Phoebe added. "They did almost kill two of us." In her mind's eye she could still see her daughter lying on the floor, covered with blood.

"We vanquished them," Piper replied pointedly.

Piper just doesn't care about Prue. She erased your daughter's memory in order to keep her own sons safe, and she didn't even consult you!

Phoebe stiffened and glared at Piper. "In case you haven't noticed, Piper, you aren't the only one here who almost lost a child!" She began to pace the floor angrily, her narrowed eyes focused solely on her older sister. "There are other people in this family who are in danger. But you don't care about that, do you?"

"Of course I care about Prue," Piper spat.

"Really? Is that why you decided to erase her memory without even telling me?" Phoebe asked malevolently.

"Hey, I'm not the only one keeping secrets from my family," Piper shot back, jumping to her feet. "At least my husband isn't thinking of divorcing me!"

"Guys, maybe we should…" Paige cut in, but both her sisters spun around and scowled at her.

"Stay out of this, Paige!" they snarled in unison.

Your sisters don't care about what you think. You always have been, and always will be, the replacement for Prue.

"No, I'm not going to just stay out of this," Paige shot back, getting in between the two sisters. "I am tired of being the odd sister out! I'm tired of having you act like all I am is a magical replacement for Prue!"

"Guys, stop it!" Leo cried, stepping in between the fighting sisters. "Just stop it, this isn't getting us anywhere."

Piper turned around and blew him up without even pausing. Then she turned back and continued yelling at her sisters, all her fear and worry coming out. The shouts grew so loud that actual words could not be distinguished above the din.

In her anger, Phoebe reached out to grab Piper's arm. The moment her hand made contact with the material of Piper's shirt, however, she was thrown into a premonition. She gasped in shock at the power of the premonition and fell to the floor.

Chris and Bianca were sitting on the sofa in an apartment. Chris turned and looked at Bianca, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. "Just let me stay here. In silence," he asked, then got up and walked away from her, over to the window. Staring out through the glass, he watched as a few boats made their way up the coast.

"Sure," Bianca answered gently. "You can stay here for as long as you want."

"Phoebe, what did you see?"

Phoebe opened her eyes and glanced up at sisters, who had stopped arguing long enough to find out about the premonition. Kyle was standing behind them, and Leo, who had apparently reformed, was kneeling next to her.

"Uh…Chris…at an apartment. With Bianca. He was staring at the beach, and…asked Bianca if she could just stay there for a while. And she said yes," Phoebe replied, closing her eyes and trying to visualize the scene again. "But I don't know where the apartment is." She looked up at Piper. "Sorry."

"Maybe you only got the premonition so that we would know that Chris is being taken care of," Kyle suggested.

"I don't care, I am going to find him," Piper snapped. She turned and walked over to the Book.

Paige helped Phoebe stand up, then glanced over at Piper in irritation. "Come on, Phoebe got a premonition that said Chris is okay right now. What more do you want?"

"I want my son," Piper answered. She flipped through the pages of the Book, knowing there was nothing there to help her. She had been through it all already, and she had come up blank. But she needed to find Chris, and all she had to go on right now was a premonition of Chris staring at a beach…Wait!

Piper turned to Kyle, her eyes narrowing in anger. "How did you know that Chris was close enough to the ocean to see sail boats?"


The demon flamed into the cave and said, "I really should have thought to pick up the powers of astral projection and planting premonitions a long time ago. It certainly comes in handy."

"Doesn't it?" the Seer agreed, her eyes still focused on the water of her pool. She watched the witches, the white-lighter, and the Elder glower at each other.

The demon stepped up next to the Seer, and peered into the pool. He licked his lips and smirked. "And let the fireworks fly."


"You said Chris was probably just sitting around watching sailboats. How did you know?" Piper pressed, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I didn't mean it literally," Kyle replied vaguely, shrugging.

"Because not all of San Francisco is close to the beach," Piper accused, taking a threatening step towards her brother-in-law. "In fact, most of it isn't on the coast. Do you know where Chris is?"

"Piper!" Paige admonished angrily.

"Of course not," Kyle answered at the same time. He folded his arms over his chest and glared at his sister-in-law. How dare she accuse him of that?

"Then why did you say that Chris would be watching sail boats?" Piper hissed. "Seems like a pretty big coincidence if you ask me."

And then Phoebe's empathy suddenly kicked in, and she gasped, horrified. "You do know!" she said, turning to Kyle. "You've known all this time and you didn't tell us?"

"I didn't…" Kyle began, but seeing the look on Phoebe's face faltered. "I…uh…"

"You knew?" Paige asked quietly, her eyes wide with disbelief. "You knew and you didn't tell us? You didn't tell me?" She got up and began pacing restlessly. "How did you know?"

Kyle swallowed and looked at each of the angry faces scowling back at him. "The Elders," he explained quietly. "The Phoenixes are the most elite assassins in the entire magical community. The Elders like to keep informed about the activities of the clan. When they found out that Bianca had decided to opt out of her family heritage, the Elders started keeping a more active eye on her. They figured she could be an asset to our side."

"They never told me any of this," Leo said, outraged.

They thought it was best to keep it from you," Kyle admitted reluctantly. "You weren't… aren't looking at the situation with a clear head. The Elders were worried you would do something rash. Like try to vanquish Bianca."

"Why do they care about one witch? Even an elite one?" Phoebe asked bitterly. "They didn't do anything to keep Prue or Grams or Mom from being vanquished."

"That isn't true, and you know it," Kyle replied angrily. "They did everything they could, but sometimes people are just destined to die on a certain day!" He folded his arms and glared at the family. "Anyway, Bianca isn't just one witch."

"What do you mean?" Paige asked softly. Despite her anger that Kyle had lied to her, she agreed with him that neither Piper nor Leo were looking at the circumstances with an impartial view, and they were likely to do something rash.

"Bianca may not be an assassin, but she is still a Phoenix," Kyle explained patiently. "If you vanquish her, the Phoenix clan will come after you. All of them. Do you have any idea how much damage they could do? The Power of Three won't save you against a clan of thousands of witches that just keeps coming and coming and coming…"

"That isn't a decision you get to make," Piper snarled back. "This is my son's life, and it should be my decision."

"Actually, this is your son's life and it should be his decision," Kyle shot back.

Paige frowned and nodded, agreeing with Kyle. "He is right, Piper. Just because he knew where Chris was, doesn't mean that the premonition Phoebe got wasn't valid. I think we should leave Chris alone for now. He needs time to deal with everything he just found out."

"Oh, please, you're just upset because you suddenly realized your marriage isn't perfect, and because Wyatt is mad that you didn't tell him the truth," Phoebe snapped at Paige. "You aren't the 'cool Aunt' and you don't have the 'perfect husband' anymore."

"Shut up!" Paige hissed, her face flushing crimson as Phoebe's words hit a nerve.

"If the Elders have been keeping tabs on Bianca since she decided not to be an assassin, does that mean that they knew all along that Chris and Bianca were dating?" Leo asked suddenly.

Kyle shrugged, annoyed, and said, "Probably. I wasn't informed of the situation until a few days ago, just after Chris had his sort-of premonition of proposing to Bainca."

Paige stared at Kyle for a moment, then said, "That night at dinner... You told me that the Elders gave you a new charge, but I thought that there was something off about the way you said it. Like it wasn't quite the truth...That's when they told you, isn't it? And you lied to me!"

Kyle bit his lip helplessly and replied, "The Elders swore me to secrecy."

"I can't believe they would keep something like this from me!" Leo cried, now even more outraged.

"Yeah, because the Elders are perfect," Piper replied, rolling her eyes in sarcasm. She glared at Leo and said, "Why don't you go up there and find out where Bianca lives? Or better yet, take me up there and I'll find out where she lives."

"God, Piper, stop it!" Paige snapped. "Just leave Chris alone!"

"Don't tell me what to do with my son!" Piper shot back, her face flushed with anger. She spun on Leo. "Take me up there, now!" She held out her hand, waiting for Leo to take it. When he hesitated, she continued, "Come on, don't you want to find Chris?"

"Why would I?" Leo demanded. "I'm the father who only cares about my son this time around because I realized how much of a screw I was before!" He turned away from Piper and said, "That's what you've always thought of me, right?" Without another word, he orbed away.

Paige and Kyle both backed away from Piper. "We aren't taking you either," Paige said quickly.

Kyle nodded and agreed with his wife. "Paige is right. Now, why don't you try and calm down and then we can…"

Piper flicked her wrists, attempting to blow Kyle up, but Paige shoved him out of the way. The vase on the table behind her shattered, and glass littered the already destroyed attic floor. Piper raised her hands at Kyle and said in a threatening voice, "Where is my son?"

Kyle decided to orb away, leaving the three angry sisters alone in the room.

"Don't do that to Kyle ever again," Paige hissed, using her power to orb the broken lamp at Piper.

"Why not?" Piper demanded, freezing the shards of glass in midair. After a moment, the glass fell to the ground, and Piper continued to glare at her sister. "He's keeping me away from my son."

"Actually, it was really you who pushed your son away," Phoebe said maliciously, entering the argument. "You can't blame Kyle for that."

"Are you calling me a bad mother?" Piper demanded.

"You called me a bad wife, you called Leo a bad father, you called Paige a bad sister…" Phoebe replied angrily. "Maybe it is time someone pointed out what you are!"

Piper blew up the table behind Phoebe, and she jumped away, surprised. Angrily, the empath grabbed a potion bottle from the cabinet behind her and hurled it at Piper. Piper froze it mid air and knocked it to the ground. In the process, she accidentally knocked the Book of its podium. It fell to the floor with a thump.

Paige orbed out of the room, and Phoebe pushed past Piper and disappeared down the stairs. Piper watched them go, then slammed her fist into the wall in frustration. She turned and grabbed the Book from the floor, placing it back on the podium, then she too stalked away, slamming the attic door behind her.

In their anger and fury, none of the sisters had noticed the now broken triqueta on the cover of the Book.


Next Chapter: Charmed...Or Not

Due: Tuesday 11/29