Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed.

AN: Sorry I was gone for so long. I caught Covid right after getting back from my holiday, and as I'm on chemo it hit me hard. Took a while to have the strength for writing. Also, I forgot to mention this but Cole, as a reward for helping the Charmed Ones defeat the Source, was made a witch by the Elders. He has Advanced Fire Throwing and Fading, an energy-based transportation power. Also, please remember that the Blessed siblings are pretending to be normal whitelighters, meaning they can only use their orbing and Wyatt's Healing, so they're limited in how they change things (they're also deliberately trying to keep from changing things, to preserve Wyatt's future as much as possible).

Anyway, read, enjoy and review!

Chapter Thirteen

Belladonna: Deadly Nightshade

April 13th, 2011, Changed Future

The Manor, San Francisco

" The Cleaners are a race of magical neutral beings that were empowered by the Tribunal with the eternal task of protecting magic from exposure," Paige lectured her attentive nephew. Wyatt had a report on the Cleaners due the next day and he'd asked her for help. "Existing beyond time and space, the sole purpose of their existence is to ensure that mortals never became aware of the existence of the magical world, whatever the cost."

"Did you ever meet them Aunt Paige?" Wyatt asked curiously. Paige grimaced and nodded.

"Unfortunately kiddo, yeah. We did."

"What happened?" He pressed, blue eyes bright with curiosity. She smirked, tapping his nose gently.

"Well the first time was actually your fault," she told him teasingly. Wyatt huffed, looking offended at the unjustified, (in his mind), accusation.

"What do you mean it was my fault?" He whined. Paige settled back into the kitchen chair as she began her explanation. At least this particular story didn't involve the Other Kate. Almost seven years later, and she still couldn't think of her lost niece without pain and fear surging in her breast. The image of her bleeding out on Piper and Leo's bed before fading away was emblazoned on the backs of her eyelids. Still, now wasn't the time to think about it. She had a nephew who needed help with his homework.

"Well, you were about five months old at the time and apparently you wanted a playmate," she explained cheerfully, burying the old pain beneath a smile as she wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close to her side.

"Unfortunately, your conjuration decided that it was time to manifest itself, and it did so in quite a spectacular way. You see, you somehow managed to change the TV show Piper put on for you from a baby channel to one about dragons. We were in the other room, and came running in when we heard a crash from the conservatory. We'd left you there to watch TV while we had a chat about something."

July 29th, 2003

The Manor, San Francisco

"The Cleaners are a group of neutral beings," Kate explained to the sisters. Cole, of course, already knew about them. "Their duty is to keep magic a secret by any means necessary. When Wyatt summoned the dragon originally, they must have taken him to prevent him exposing magic again. They took our memories to keep us from searching for him."

"If they're supposed to keep magic from being exposed, why didn't they interfere when Prue died, before Tempus reversed time?" Phoebe's voice was low and full of hurt, as was typical when it came to her lost eldest sister.

Kate shrugged helplessly as Cole tugged his wife to his side, rubbing her arm in reassurance. Phoebe laid her head on his shoulder, eyes slightly glassy.

"I dunno," Kate admitted. "Maybe because you already had a plan to fix it? I'm sorry, I really can't tell you."

"Those bastards!" Piper snarled, cradling her son protectively. "I'll vanquish them all, I swear I will!"

"You can't," Cole informed her grimly. "They're protected from both good and evil magic. We need to figure out another way."

"Well we have to do something about the dragon first," Paige insisted. "It's running around the city endangering innocents in case you haven't noticed!"

Cole's attempt to reply was cut off by an unfamiliar voice that had the Halliwells spinning around with their hands raised defensively. (Kate quickly put hers back down again, thankfully without anybody noticing.)

"Perhaps we can help," the first Cleaner offered in a mild tone.

"Who are you?" Phoebe countered aggressively, wanting to confirm the family's suspicions.

"We're known as the Cleaners," he answered. "And we're here to help."

"You were the ones who are going to take Wyatt," Piper accused. Rage filled her voice and expression as she placed her son in his playpen, instinctively raising her hands in preparation to blast the threat.

"Well, we won't have to if you can eliminate the exposure risk," the Cleaner said reasonably. Kate winced slightly, feeling a faint trace of pity for the neutral being. He really shouldn't court the Eldest Charmed Sister's temper that way. She supposed he deserved it for being so foolish as to threaten Piper's beloved child.

"Exposure?" Piper shrieked furiously. "You're here to take my son away you son of a bitch!" She attacked, trying to blow him up. Disturbingly, he proved Cole's earlier words right when he just caught the blast in his hand and crushed it into nothing.

"I understand your anger, now you need to understand our position," the Cleaner told her coolly. "We're a neutral party. We exist only to protect magic, to that end your son has become a, problem."

Phoebe grasped Piper, pulling her away and pushing down her hand before she could try and attack him again. "Easy."

"However," the Cleaner continued. "Based upon your past success in covering up your own magic, we've decided to give you a chance."

"One chance only," the second Cleaner warned.

"To take care of the problem yourselves before it gets out of hand," the first Cleaner finished.

"And if we can't?" Paige challenged him.

"Then we'll take care of the problem for you," he responded simply.

"You can't make us forget everything."

"There may be some distance echoes that remain, maybe a sense of deja vu here and there, but like most people you'll just pass it off as absent mindedness and move on."

"Well, we're not like most people."

"It won't matter. Clean it up."

"Or we will," the second Cleaner finished the threat before they both disappeared.

"At least now we know what happened," Paige sighed. "Too bad we just won't remember any of it."

"I think we have the upper hand on this one, don't we?" Phoebe disagreed. "I mean, we know we're recalling the same day, they obviously don't."

"Well, none of this is gonna help unless we figure out how to eliminate Wyatt's dragon," the youngest Charmed One huffed as she crossed her arms. Piper suddenly turned on her heel and started to head for the stairs.

"Piper," Phoebe called, stepping after her. Piper waved her off.

"Go to the book, work on the dragon, do not take your eyes off Wyatt," she ordered over her shoulder.

"Where are you going?"

"To call a higher power."

When Piper walked into the attic, a bleak expression on her face, Phoebe was working on a vanquishing potion, Paige was flipping through the Book of Shadows, and Kate and Cole were quietly hashing out what they knew about the Cleaners, trying to figure out how to stop them taking Wyatt if they couldn't vanquish the dragon.

"What did Leo say?" Kate asked when her mother entered. At least, Kate assumed that Piper had meant she was calling Leo when she said 'a higher power'. Piper's worried look was mixed with hurt as she glanced at her youngest Whitelighter.

"He said he can't help," she revealed bitterly. "We have to sort this by ourselves."

"Wyatt is his son," Phoebe exclaimed incredulously. Paige echoed her expression, and Cole's scowl deepened. Wyatt fussed in his playpen, and Kate swiftly picked him up and began to rock him so he didn't start to cry. He instantly relaxed as she sent soothing emotions down their bond to calm him.

"I know," Piper retorted. "Apparently the rules matter more to him then our child's existence."

"We'll protect him Piper," Kate assured her quietly. "We've just got to make a plan."

"Right," Piper responded curtly. "Anything on the dragon?"

"No, dragons predate the book," Paige sighed. "One thing I do know is that we're gonna have to get a tooth, scale, some piece of him in order to make the vanquishing potion to even work."

"Yeah, we're just kind of winging it, making the most powerful potion that we can." As she finished her sentence, Phoebe suddenly gasped and doubled over in pain.

"Phoebe!" Cole and Paige cried, rushing to her side. None of them noticed Kate sway and grasp the side of the playpen as she too was suddenly hit by the terror and pain of dozens of people at once. Fortunately for her cover, she was familiar with the feeling and able to quickly mask her distress. She stepped closer, fixing a look of concern on her face as she looked at her young aunt.

"What happened?" Piper pressed. "Are you alright?"

"I am but someone's not," Phoebe told them, straightening up shakily with help from her husband and sister. "Actually, a bunch of people aren't."

"People? Like people out there people?" Piper waved at the window and Phoebe nodded uncertainly.

"I don't know. All I know is I've never felt such pain and fear before in my life."

"The dragon?" Paige guessed.

A look of determination replaced Piper's worry and she turned to take Wyatt from Kate's embrace.

"Grab the potion," she ordered. "Wyatt, sweetie, come on. Remember your friend mister dragon? What do you say we find the dragon?"

July 29th, 2003

San Francisco

The scene was shocking to the sisters when they orbed in. People were running away in fear and as they made their way toward the dragon's 'nest', they passed what seemed like dozens of burning cars.

"It's like a warzone," Phoebe breathed with wide eyes. Too distracted by the danger they were in, Kate slipped again.

"I've seen worse."

They all cast her sharp looks, but knew that now wasn't the time to press her for information. Besides, although Leo advocated distrusting the time travellers because of their silence, Cole had gone over the dangers of revealing future information carefully, and they had time travelled themselves, even if they still didn't like not knowing, especially with the knowledge of a demon after their baby. Kate and Will were perfectly willing to talk about their likes and dislikes, but they kept tight-lipped about their time and given Cole's horror stories of paradoxes and time loops, they had mutually decided to go with it. None of them wanted to accidentally erase a future niece or nephew after all, as had happened with the little girl Piper had met in the erased version of 2009.

Finally, they stopped in front of a large pile of cars and other items off the street. The dragon's tail was poking out of the pile.

"Oh, god, it looks like it made a nest. Let's hope it's not laying any eggs."

Kate cringed at the thought, tenser than a bowstring. "Don't jinx it," she plead. Cole, seeing the genuine fear hidden in Kate's eyes, laid a protective arm over her slim shoulders.

"Do you think you can steal a scale for the potion?" Piper asked her youngest sister.

"Uh, I'll try," Paige said nervously as she raised her hand. "Scale!" A scale orbed off the dragon's tail. They all flinched as the dragon roared in fury. "I think I woke it up."

"Oh, no, I think you pissed it off," Phoebe corrected her tensely.

The dragon roared again as it stood on top of the pile.

"Okay, if you're sensing any fear, it would be mine overwhelming the potion. I think we should go."

"Wait," Piper refused. She passed Wyatt to Phoebe and braced herself. Kate's eyes widened in alarm as she wondered if Piper was planning to try and blow up the creature.

"Piper-" she began at the same as Phoebe asked what they were waiting for.

"Wyatt," Piper answered. "I don't have time to explain. Just make sure he sees me." She then ran forward before anyone could stop her. Cole's iron grip prevented Kate from rushing after her.

"Don't Kate! She's got a plan! Paige, be ready to orb her away if you need to," he ordered, keeping a tight grip on Kate to prevent her orbing Piper to safety.

"Piper, come back!" Paige called after her sister. Piper ignored her.

"Come on, you fire breathing lizard!" She taunted the dragon, who flew up into the air. "Come and get me!"

"Piper, are you nuts?" Paige yelled frantically. She braced herself to orb her sister to safety but decided to trust Piper and wait until the last possible second to do so.

"Stay there!" Piper snapped back at her family.

"We have to stop her!" Paige insisted to the others.

"Just wait," Cole instructed his sister-in-law, still not releasing Kate.

Phoebe nodded in agreement with her husband, adjusting Wyatt so he could see his mother better. "I think I know what she's doing."

Kate watched in terror as the dragon flew down towards Piper. He opened his mouth and fire started to billow out of it. It had almost reached her, and Kate was moving to orb Piper out of the way, damn her orders, when Wyatt raised his arm and the dragon suddenly exploded into a million orb lights. Piper was yanked backwards at the same time and the dragon disappeared into nothing.

"Piper," Paige sighed in relief as she embraced her sister while Piper took Wyatt from Phoebe.

"I'm okay," Piper reassured her fussing sisters. "I'm okay." She looked down at Wyatt with a huge grin. "Hi, little man, you did it! I knew you could do it. Good job."

"Okay, I'm confused," Paige stated. "What just happened?"

"That was the greatest power there is," Phoebe smiled. "The mother and child bond. Especially when that child is Wyatt."

Kate bit back the surge of hurt and bitterness she felt at the unintentional prod at her insecurity issues. She would never have been able to manage a feat like that at the baby's age. She felt him prod at the bond, confused why she was upset, and forced herself to suppress the emotion, instead sending a feeling of pride at him. 'Good boy, saving Mommy,' she whispered through their link. She felt his pleased response, and his tiredness. He wanted a nap now.

"So you're saying he vanquished the dragon and you knew he was gonna do it," Paige's tone was rightfully sceptical.

"Well, I was hoping he wouldn't want anything bad to happen to me," Piper laughed, shifting Wyatt to a better position on her hip.

"Okay, well, that solved that problem." Paige waved around at the destruction surrounding them. "Now what do we do with this mess?"

Phoebe shrugged calmly. "We'll figure it out."

"We should probably put Wyatt down for a nap as well," Kate added as casually as she could. "He's probably exhausted after using all that energy."

Before any of her family could respond, the Cleaners appeared. The family tensed.

"Actually, that will not be necessary," the first Cleaner stated.

"Wait, we did what you asked, we got rid of the dragon!" Piper protested.

"But not the exposure risk," he countered indifferently.

"The boy," his companion demanded expectantly.

"No, you can't!" Paige snarled. She and Kate lost no time. They each grabbed a family member and orbed away, reappearing in the Manor entrance hall, Cole Fading into existence a second later.

"We don't have much time, they're gonna follow us," Paige declared urgently.

"How are we supposed to stop them?" Phoebe wondered in a panic.

"Well, we have to think of something, we can't just let them take Wyatt," Piper cried. Magical lights appeared in the room and Paige rushed forward, putting herself between Piper and the coming trouble. Kate and Cole joined her, protecting the others.

"Uh, incoming." The Cleaners appeared in the room.

"I will not lose him," Piper snarled.

The first Cleaner waved his hand and Wyatt disappeared, reappearing in the second Cleaner arms.

"No!"

The first Cleaner waved his arm again and they were all pushed backwards.

"Don't worry, you won't remember any of this anyway," he told them calmly. He waved his arm for the third time and all of Wyatt's things vanished. The Cleaners disappeared.

Piper pushed herself up. "Do you remember?" Kate nodded.

"Yes," Cole agreed.

"Absolutely everything," Phoebe sighed.

"The spell must have worked," Paige murmured.

"But not for Wyatt," Piper's voice was filled with despair. "He's gone."

July 29th, 2003

The Manor, San Francisco

"Ugh, nothing, I can't find the Cleaners anywhere," Paige snapped half-an-hour later as she slammed the scrying crystal down on the table.

"Well, they have to exist somewhere, don't they?" Phoebe protested.

"Not necessarily," Cole disagreed. "Not on our plane, not even in our time."

"Maybe we should just summon them," Phoebe suggested.

"And then what?"

Paige shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we should call Leo again."

Piper finally turned away from the window, her arms crossed. "I don't think he can help any more than he already has."

"How did he help last time?" Kate asked doubtfully. Leo being helpful was a very foreign notion to her.

"By reminding me that I can do this," Piper explained simply. She fell quiet again for a minute before walking closer, a thoughtful look growing on her face. "You know, maybe we're going about this all wrong. Maybe instead of trying to stop them, we should be trying to get them to stop us."

"You lost me," Phoebe said blankly.

"Oh, that's good," Kate cried at the same time. "That's really good. I should've thought of that. It's so obvious."

Piper cast her Whitelighter a surprisingly fond look that made Kate flush a bit. "Well, when magic is exposed, it's their job to clean it up, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Phoebe frowned.

"So why can't we expose our magic and force them to deal with us."

"Yeah, but if we do that, what's to stop them from erasing us?" Phoebe asked warily.

Piper shrugged with a grim smile. "They wouldn't dare. So let's give them something to clean up."

"Take it away, Piper!" Phoebe's words were the signal for Kate to orb Piper to the top of the bridge, Cole in the studio chanting a spell to allow the screen to show them. Piper smiled grimly.

"Let the object of objection become but a dream, as I cause the scene to become unseen," she said in a steady, unyielding voice. Kate kept a tight grip on her young mother's arm, and as soon as the bridge disappeared she orbed them to safety in Halliwell Manor.

The girls and Cole orbed back in a moment later, backs lined with tension and eyes narrow.

"Hmm, not so bad, you should get out more often," Paige commented to lighten the mood. Kate cracked a tiny smile.

The Cleaners appeared. For once, they showed their emotions, outrage on their faces and in their voices.

"What do you think you're doing?" The first Cleaner snapped at the family. "Are you out of your minds?"

"Oh, hey, hi," Piper greeted them with false cheer. "Did you see our little magic act?"

"How is it you still have your memory?" The second Cleaner demanded.

"Oh, I think we still have a few surprises that you don't know about," Phoebe clapped.

"Yeah, and if you don't return our nephew, you might find out about just a few more," Paige threatened them.

"This is pointless," the first Cleaner retorted. "Whatever you do, we'll simply erase."

"Or we'll erase you," the second added threateningly. Kate and Cole both tensed slightly, more familiar than the sisters were with the dangers of crossing the Cleaners and the Tribunal.

"You can't," Piper corrected him with a cold smirk as she advanced on him. "Not if you're truly, neutral, that is. 'Cause you see, if you get rid of us, you'll tip the balance of power from good to evil and now that's hardly being neutral, now is it? You will give me my son back or I swear to you the only thing you'll be doing for the next fifty years is cleaning up after us."

The Cleaners exchanged glances before the first spoke again. "If we do return him, how do you know you'll be able to control him?"

"I'm his mother. If anybody can, I can."

'True' Kate mused silently to herself. Her timeline's version of Wyatt had always been cruel, playing 'pranks' that often crossed the line, and intimidating others into doing his bidding, but it was only after their mother's death that Wyatt had gone from cruel to evil. Piper had always been able to restrain his worser impulses. And in the new timeline, where Piper was alive, he was fine. Better than fine, he was good even. Piper could keep everything together.

The Cleaner snapped his fingers and Wyatt reappeared in his playpen. Piper rushed over, snatching him up and hugging him close to her.

"Everything is as it was. We've erased all evidence of your son's magic. We'll leave him in your care."

"For now," the second Cleaner added ominously.

Phoebe scrambled forward to intercept them before they could leave, holding up a finger. "Oh, wait, one more thing, please, if you could just do me a little teensy-weensy little favour and erase that whole riot I caused at the office. You know, 'cause I don't wanna lose my job. That would really suck. Might throw off that balance thing because I'd be distracted, you know."

The first Cleaner raised an eyebrow before he closed his eyes for a moment. "It's done. Good luck. Because believe me, you're going to need it."

Phoebe spun around to snatch Wyatt off of Piper as soon as the Cleaners disappeared.

"Are you okay?" She cooed excitedly at her nephew. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Don't smash him," Piper laughed as Phoebe covered Wyatt in kisses, hugging him tightly.

"I'm just so happy to see him. I can't help it, this is just very exciting. He's back, we're back!"

"Coffee stain and all," Paige added ruefully, gesturing down at her top.

"Yeah, what are you gonna do about your job? Are you gonna keep it?"

Paige nodded. "Yeah, I think I will just so I can see what happens next. Cole, what're you going to do about your case?"

He shrugged. "I'll sort it. Judge Ruthers is a good friend of mine, and you know," he grinned. "I don't think my boss will mind."

The sisters chuckled at that. After all, Cole was the sole partner of Turner's Attorneys. He'd opened the firm shortly before their battle with the Seer/Source, and took on many pro bono cases. He'd gained fame as the best pro bono lawyer in California and they were all so proud of how far he had come from being the Triad's henchman.

July 30th, 2003

Wyatt and Kate Halliwell's Warehouse:

Kate stirred the vanquishing potion, finding comfort in the rhythm of the movement. She tensed as Wyatt orbed in with an air of relief around him.

"Good news!" He announced cheerfully. "I convinced Leo that we shouldn't take another charge. But he's definitely getting more suspicious. He'll probably try again."

"And we'll refuse the charge again," Kate answered as she set down the wooden spoon and stood up. She hesitated, then stepped closer to him and slowly, awkwardly, put her arms around him in a hug. Wyatt froze in shock, then carefully returned the embrace, stunned that for the first time since they'd met, she had willingly embraced him. "I'm glad Mom and the aunts got you back from the Cleaners," she whispered in his ear. Then she pulled away and returned to her potion, avoiding his gaze.

Wyatt didn't respond, not wanting to risk saying something wrong and putting her off, but a large grin spread across his face, and there was a bounce in his step for the rest of the week. It may not have looked like much, but Wyatt knew it was a huge step forward in their relationship.