Sorry about the LONG hiatus... hopefully this will finally get wrapped up so I can move on to the next story that has been brewing in my head for a couple of months. As always, thank you for your patience and I appreciate your feedback. :) abs

"I've been born, and they've already forgotten about me. Forgotten about me to the point of not even recognizing that I am here," Chris stared down at the infant sleeping soundly on his back. He had dark peach fuzz hair on his head, a round face, and was wearing a little onesy with a yellow duck on it. Chris noticed that there wasn't a blanket on his mini-self, "Well, if they don't care that you might get cold, I certainly do." He walked over to the rocking chair and lifted the blue blanket with the triquetra embroidered on the front that had been Wyatt's from the seat. Chris shook the blanket so that it was unfolded before delicately placing it over the baby and tucking it in the sides. "I must admit, mini me, this is a lot weirder than I had originally thought it would be."

He watched himself sleep and tried to tune the laughs, smiles, and gentle voices from his family from his head. But he couldn't. He angrily turned back to them, "Why are you ignoring me? Why don't you pay attention to little me, here? I'm cute, too!" he rushed to the bedside. He reached out for Wyatt, but Piper turned away from him, shielding Wyatt from his grasp, almost instinctively. "Mom, I'm here, please say something to me. And if not to big me, then at least to little me. Mom?" he pleaded. Still no answer from Piper.

Chris orbed from the room incensed by his family's flagrant disregard for him. He found himself sitting in the library where Chloe was poised behind a stack of books on time travel. "What are you doing in here? You don't need those books. The avatars are coming to take you home." No response from Chloe. "Don't tell me you have lost your mind, too," his temper was now raging. He flung his right hand as the stack of books in front of Chloe flew off the desk. Next he motioned to the globe sitting by the window and shattered it. Just for sport, he caused the window to explode as well. "Why is my whole family ignoring me? Just because we saved Wyatt doesn't mean I don't have a purpose anymore." He ran up to the desk that Chloe was sitting behind. She had calmly collected another book and had opened it in front of her—now highlighting various passages on moving precisely forward through time—as if trying to send Chris a message. He read over her shoulder before pounding his fist on the table, trying a last attempt to get her attention. "Chloe, this is not funny." Chris sat motionless watching Chloe continue to highlight potion ingredients and spell incantations. "Chloe," Chris was starting to become suspicious. "Clo, what are you thinking? Why are you doing this?" Not only was she not responding to him, but her mind was empty—not just empty, but non-existent. "This isn't real," Chris backed up from the table. A little voice inside his head argued, "No, this is real. This is what life will be like once I rescue Wyatt. Everyone will forget me. I will no longer exist to them. I might as well follow the instructions Chloe is highlighting and go back to the future." Chris ran his hands through his hair trying to escape the voice while screaming out loud, "You're wrong! This is all wrong! Chloe would never ignore me. My mother would never ignore me. This is only what I am afraid of! This is not real!" he swung his fist through the air and locked it square on Barbas's jaw as the images around him evaporated. "You lose," Chris, now completely composed, smiled wickedly at Barbas before orbing out of the main hall of the Magic School.

"These demons have not been loyal, my liege," a guard who identified himself as Darante bowed before Cole. "They have been rallying forces to overtake you and should therefore be punished."

"I agree," Cole walked arrogantly in a circle around the prisoners, "Chloe?"

Chloe could not believe her eyes or ears. She did not want to believe them. Her father was evil? And not only that, but so was her mother... and presumably her? She wanted to believe this to be some sort of elaborate hoax, but she couldn't. She had questioned her father's true intentions before, and whether or not he would take his thrown as the source once Phoebe recommitted her love to him, but this just couldn't be. It couldn't.

"Chloe? What do you think we should do?" Cole reposed the question.

Evil or not evil Chloe still believed the demons should die, "Kill them," she raised her head meeting her father's black, vacant gaze, "It will be nice target practice," she smiled believing what she was now feeling and saying.

"Cole," Phoebe walked into the thrown room where Cole was running his fingers down the Grimwore.

"I can't believe I can touch this," he said quietly to himself, "Phoebe and Chloe assured me I was good."

Phoebe stopped in her tracks having been able to hear him, "You thought you were good. This is worse than I had expected."

"It is worse than we had all expected," a slick Caribbean accent floated across the room—the seer stepped from the shadows. "It is as we feared, my queen. He has been infected with his soul."

Phoebe sighed softly and waved her hand to the guards around the room, "Seize him," she ordered.

Cole raised his eyes to her in absolute shock, "Phoebe, what are you doing? Aren't we married? We have a daughter! If you truly are the queen, what purpose will it serve getting rid of me—I am the source, am I not?"

"Not with a soul," Phoebe shook her head, "besides, I've wanted to take over for quite some time. And with you gone, I can finally get rid of that burden you call a daughter. Please, Cole, a son is what we needed. I'll just have her killed, and find someone else to produce a male heir."

"No!" Cole bellowed fighting the demons trying to ensnare him. He managed to cause two of his guards to be incinerated and was aiming at the third with he became paralyzed to the point of not being able to move his even his lips.

"This is for your own good," Phoebe winked waving her hand as he was sent to the executioner.

"Very good," Cole cackled admiring the scorch mark remains of his unfaithful followers, "You are evil after all," he complimented his daughter.

"Well, I try," Chloe twirled a fireball precariously among her fingertips. Chloe was starting to believe the delusion.

Darante brought in three fresh betrayers for death at the princess's hand, "Three more, my lord, and milady. These three were found bargaining with a power broker for a soul. Imagine that, they wanted to be freed to love."

"Idiots," Chloe snickered, "line them up."
"That's my girl," Cole beamed.

Now free from Barbas's illusion, Chris could track Chloe. He knew that she was inside the Magic School as well, but exactly where was hard to understand. He had a feeling in his stomach, and visions in the back of his mind, that she was in the underworld—however, he knew she wasn't. Not even her spell was powerful enough to transmit her location from the underworld. He stopped to close his eyes again, and this time, in a flash of light, he was transported to her.

Chris found Chloe sitting in a classroom perched high upon the teacher's desk—almost like she was standing on a judge's bench overseeing a court procedure. She had a wild look in her eye that he had never seen before, "Chloe, what are you doing in here?"

She didn't answer, but continued to talk to imagery figures that filled the room. "Which end should we start on?" she addressed one of the hallucinations.

Chris turned to see if there honestly wasn't anyone there—and to his horror, he found that there was. Cole was standing completely rigid in the back of the classroom as if bound by some unknown force and paralyzed. "Cole?" Chris ran up to him and tried to get his attention. Cole's eyes remained fixated and horrified at the front of the room.

"What do you see?" Chris waved his hand in front of Cole's eyes. He had a flash of a vision—Cole was standing in the same manner in a room in the underworld. Before him stood Phoebe and Chloe dressed head to toe in black, both with a maniacal look in their eyes. The vision was fleeting, but Chris knew it was from Cole. He had the power of thought projection... and so did Chloe.

Chris rushed to the front of the room, "Chloe," he leaped on top of the desk where she was pacing. "Chloe, you have got to hear me," he ordered. For a brief moment she paused, then shook her head as if trying to get a pesky mosquito to fly out of her ear. Chris took that as a sign for hope, "Chloe, come on, focus!"

Chloe's vision suddenly felt altered as if a ripple in time had run through it. She could sense Chris, "Chris?" she said aloud.

Cole turned to her, "What did you say, my dark princess? You killed him long ago. We have three new demons to kill. Go ahead, take aim, and kill," the fictitious Cole instructed.

Chloe formed a fireball in her hand and took aim for the real Cole in the back of the classroom. Chris reflexively telekinetically diverted the fireball to the window and safely away from Cole. "Listen to me, Chloe. I know you can sense me. You are stronger than this. You can snap out of it. I know you can. Listen to me."

Cole's voice flooded Chloe's senses, "If you don't kill the prisoners they will overtake us and kill us," it threatened, "you must kill them. You must kill them all."

Chloe began to pace the teacher's desk more frantically with her hand to her face, pushing past Chris and talking both to him and herself, "No, I can't. I can't. I sense him. I sense Chris, dad. There is something not right about this."

"That's right," Chris grabbed her forsaking the potential consequences. Suddenly he was pulled into her delusion. He saw the row of prisoners lined up against the wall, none of which were Cole. Instead, Cole was now the one dressed in black with the vacant stare of evil behind his eyes.

Chloe looked up into Chris's eyes, "Chris? You're dead? I killed you," she asked.

"No, you didn't," Chris charged up to her, "This isn't real Chloe. You know you are not evil. You know your mom and dad are not evil. Think of how they raised you. Remember who you are. You are a fighter, Chloe, beat this," Chris shook her.

Chloe began to sway on her feet and try to pull away, "You're dead, I killed you."

"Chloe, sense me. I know you can. You wouldn't be able to if I were dead," he turned to the line of prisoners and thought of how if Chloe thought she was aiming towards any one of them, she would actually be killing her real father. "Barbas is behind this, Clo. He knows what you fear and he is taking advantage of you. It's him you want to kill. He is trying to force you to kill your real dad by killing one of these demons. You do not want to kill your father evil or not."

Chloe's eyes returned to their original shade of brown, "No, I don't want to kill my dad," she looked into Chris's deep greens, "and neither do you," she added with a smile before hugging him and jumping from the desk. "Barbas wouldn't be bad though."

"Don't act like that was something easy to break free from," Chris jumped from the desk himself, "at least you had someone help you. I had to do it myself."

"Yes, Chris, you are the stronger witch," she smiled over her shoulder to him from her new position in front of her father, "Thank you," she concluded with a wink. She then levitated herself up to eye level with Cole. "Dad, I'm going to save you. Do you hear me? I'm going to save you—if I were evil, I wouldn't try to save you. And you know why? Because I love you... and evil can't love. I'm not evil, daddy, and neither are you," she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, "I love you."

Cole's muscles released, and he slowly lifted his arms up to embrace his floating daughter, "I love you, too, princess," he whispered in her ear.

"Damn you!" Gideon threw a golden statuette across his desk at the mirror in his office. He had been watching the scene unfold as three of his eight captives escaped their delusions. He took a deep sigh to recollect his thoughts, "No matter," he placed his hand in front of the mirror as the shattered pieces reformed their original slick sheen. "There are still three others to find and rescue, and then ultimately finding Piper and Wyatt within the next thirty-six hours now. Good luck," he chuckled.

"Three out of six, we can do this," Chloe tried to encourage herself, her dad and Chris.

"We're not going to attempt this without everyone together," Chris corrected.

"Why not?" Chloe jumped from her seat on the desk. The pair had been watching Cole as he mapped out plans of attack on the blackboard.

"Hmmm," Cole sighed contemplating all the options he had just finish diagramming, "Chris is right. We are not going to do this alone."

Chloe was clearly irritated, "Alright, but no one has told me why."

Cole pointed to an option he had clearly written on the board, "He obviously wanted us separated or he wouldn't have enlisted Barbas's help so he must fear us together, apart we're not a threat," Cole stepped back from the board, "but more importantly, because it's dangerous. This potion can not only kill him but anyone of us as well. There's safety in numbers."

"And our number is three," Chloe was still confused.

Chris could sense something wasn't right with Chloe. She was safely out of her delusion, but her senses still weren't clear. He couldn't place why she was having such a hard time with the concept or what was really bothering her. "My dad, your mom and Paige are still missing, Chloe. We've got to find them."

Chloe turned to Chris with utmost clarity, "And the more time we waste, the more time Gideon has to get Wyatt. Piper is not protected with the six of us lost in various nightmares. I'm not saying we forget the rest of our family at all. I'm saying we stay focused."

Now Chris knew that something was wrong with Chloe. She had always been in favor of power in numbers, and saving her family. Why would she think that Wyatt and Piper were vulnerable in the real world with Gideon and Barbas here? And besides, Richard was protecting them.

"Richard is not invincible," Chloe read Chris's mind, "he also no longer has an active power. But if you're not worried, I'm not worried," she took a deep breath collecting her thoughts. "Let's go then."

You've got a good point, Chris thought taking Chloe by the hand, I'm going to orb back to the manor to check on mom and Wyatt. You shimmer Cole out of here so he won't know what's going on.

"Come on, dad," Chloe took Cole's hand, "You and I are on Phoebe duty while Chris looks for Leo. Whoever is done first gets Paige," she nodded back to Chris.

Thanks, please be careful, he thought as he watched Cole and Chloe shimmer out.

Halliwell manor was empty. Chris ran through the house frantically calling for his mom and Wyatt. A whisper inside of his head told him to breathe and remain calm—he was never going to find either of them if he didn't focus. Chris stopped in the parlor, sat on the sofa Indian-style, closed his eyes and began to relax. "Deep breath, deep breath," he verbally reminded himself. Slowly images began to swirl in his head. At first he felt like he was watching it all through fog, but slowly it lifted and he could hear voices. First he saw Gideon pacing in front of a swirling vortex. Then he heard his voice, "If Barbas keeps up his end of the deal, we'll not only have Piper and Wyatt, but we'll also have baby Chris. And if we turn baby Chris, big Chris will follow. We'll be unstoppable," Gideon smiled and Sigmund chuckled.

The images were wiped from his minds eye as Chris took another slow breath and opened his eyes, "Gotta love being half whitelighter." When he did, he saw Richard lying unconscious on the floor in the doorway to the conservatory. "Richard," he jumped up and ran to him. Chris quickly checked for a pulse and breathing and found that Richard was still alive. Healing him would have to wait until Chris or Chloe found Leo. Now Chris was focused on locating his mom and brother within the next thirty hours before his birth.

"He couldn't find them," Chloe sighed, "I knew something wasn't right."

"What?" Cole paused in the middle of the endless hall turning to face his daughter. In the dim light of a false night Cole saw someone new in his daughter's face—he saw his father. And once again, Cole felt an overwhelming sense of pride in and connection to his child.

Chloe turned to her dad and saw the momentary sparkle in his eyes while thinking sweetly to herself, "I have my daddy," before saying out loud, "I knew Barbas's games were just a distraction. Chris orbed back to the manor and couldn't find Wyatt or Piper. We need to hurry. Can you sense mom?"

Cole closed his eyes. He reached deep within his soul, the soul that had been called by his true love and daughter, and searched for Phoebe. "She's close," he picked up Chloe's hand and placed it on his cheek. "Help me," he asked simply.

"Help you how?" Chloe felt her father's stubble under her fingertips and inside gave a small, childish giggle remembering how when he would come home and kiss her his cheeks would graze hers, tickling her.

"Lend me your eyes," Cole brushed his fingers across Chloe's eyelids to shut them. He used his own power of channeling to draw on Chloe's connection to Phoebe.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Halliwell, but conceiving a child will not be easy for you. We have other options. You can try in vitro fertilization, surrogacy, or even adoption."

Phoebe was suffocating. She felt like her world had crumbled. She had seen her future and seen herself pregnant with her daughter. Hell, she had even seen her daughter! This couldn't be right. "Adoption is not even an option in my family. I'm sorry, doctor, but I'm going to have to get a second opinion. You see, I know I am going to have a child."

"No one can be 100 positive they will have a child. Not even someone with an outstanding bill of health," the doctor corrected.

"Let's just say, I have a very legitimate reason for this one," Phoebe tried to correct him without giving away her secret. "I am going to have to talk to someone else." Phoebe got up to leave and as she took the door handle of Dr. Brunswick's office and thought she was walking out, she found herself walking into another fertility clinic.

"Hello, Ms. Halliwell," the new receptionist with the name tag reading Becky greeted her. "Dr. Perkins has been waiting for you."

"Alright, I'll play," Phoebe nodded her head following Becky. Becky just grinned. She showed Phoebe to a brightly painted office, with bright happy colors adoring the furniture and walls. On an opposite wall Phoebe saw a cork board with the many pictures of babies and happy parents delivered by Dr. Perkins. "Looks familiar," Phoebe mumbled under her breath.

In a cushioned chair sat a woman not much older than Phoebe. She donned the traditional white coat, but her eyes spoke of true sincerity and gentleness—negating the sterility of the white coat. "I'm sorry this is our first meeting, Ms. Halliwell," Dr. Perkins greeted Phoebe with a firm handshake, "I reviewed your test results that Dr. Brunswick sent over as well as our own. Please take a seat," she directed Phoebe to an equally plush chair.

"Call me Phoebe, please," she requested taking the seat, feeling almost comfortable now.

Dr. Perkins gave Phoebe a smile that was obviously a façade for remorse, "Phoebe," she began, "I am sorry, but my findings concur with Dr. Brunswick's. Your ovaries have been heavily damaged and the number of viable eggs is dangerously dwindling. I, too, believe that your chances of becoming pregnant unassisted are tremendously low. I am sorry."

Phoebe arose from her chair with pent up sadness and rage, "You are wrong, you are all wrong," she scolded, "I am going to have a daughter. I know it. And... and..." she fumbled over her words, "Some fertility specialist told my sister Piper the same thing and she's been pregnant, twice!" she held up two fingers to emphasize her point.

Dr. Perkins rose from her chair and placed her hand on Phoebe's shoulder. Immediately Phoebe was pulled into a premonition. In it she saw herself alone. There was no Piper or Paige, no Leo, no Wyatt or Chris and definitely no sign of Chloe or Cole. Just Phoebe sitting alone in the conservatory—the vacancy of the manor enveloping her. She pulled her hand back in emotional terror as tears were streaming down her face, "I have to go," she sobbed as Dr. Perkins tried to reach for her again. "Thank you, but I have to go."

Walking through the door of the doctor's office Phoebe found herself again transported—to P3. It appeared that Piper was hosting a speed dating convention and Phoebe was emerging from the bathroom and returning to a table. She took her seat, high on the bar stool overlooking potential fathers, husbands and mates, and waited for her next meeting, but no one came. Rejected, Phoebe fled P3 to the alleyway behind the building and down the street.

Cole quickly shimmered himself and Chloe to the location where he felt he would find Phoebe. When the motioned stopped, Chloe and Cole found themselves in the woods behind the school, with Phoebe standing entranced in front of an enormous fire. Her eyes were fixed on a fictional point in the middle of the flame; the heat was calling her toward it.

"Mom," Chloe began to rush to Phoebe but Cole put his arm out to stop her. "Let me go," she began to shimmer away but his firm grip held tighter, "How'd you do that?" she turned to her father's blue eyes.

"Experience," he steadied her, "you cannot run to your mother like that. It could be dangerous to both of you. You don't know what she'll see you as in her vision. Remember, in yours I was just another demon you were sent to kill."

"How'd you..." Chloe began.

"Not now," Cole interrupted shaking his head, "Let me," he turned to face Phoebe.

"Dad, if she kills you, then we both cease to exist," Chloe protested.

Again Cole shook his head, "I'm not going to approach her physically," he lifted Chloe's hand. Cole closed his eyes and fixated on all his love and admiration for Phoebe in his thoughts. Chloe understood and she too began to recall her memories of her mother: her smile, her laughter, her jokes, the way she tucked Chloe into bed at night—she pulled all those memories into her love for Phoebe and let her emotions fill the air in the physical distance between them. Cole channeled Phoebe's allusion through Chloe and projected his thoughts back to Phoebe.

Phoebe found herself not looking off a bridge with the icy death of the San Francisco bay beneath her, but instead at her ex-husband and soul mate, Cole Turner. "Don't jump, Phoebe," he stood about ten feet from her.

"What?" Phoebe was beginning to lose her grasp on what she thought was reality, "You're dead. You're not here."

"You're right," Cole took a confident step towards her, "I am not here, and neither are you."

"That's insane," Phoebe grasped the rail tighter, "I feel the bridge beneath my feet and the cable in my hand."

Cole shook his head as he took another step toward her, "That's a rock you're standing on and a tree branch in your hand," he took another step, "You are going to have to trust me."

"Trust you?!" Phoebe yelled, "Trust you, the man who married me while he was the reigning source of all evil, made me the queen of all evil, and then left me while he was a raving lunatic?" her voice was elevated three decibels.

"True," Cole cocked his head to the side as he took another step, "I did those things. We obviously have issues we need to work through. But I'm not that man anymore, we're soul mates, and you know all of this as well as I do." Cole was now standing within arms reach of Phoebe, "You're an empath, Phoebe, what do you feel?"

Phoebe had no idea what Cole was up to, perhaps another attempt at manipulating her, but she had to admit he was right. She was an empath and therefore had the capacity to determine whether or not he was lying. She took a deep breath and was suddenly swept away by an overwhelming sense of love, compassion, belonging, and most of all—the feeling that she was the center of a family—her own family, a new family. New tears welled up in her eyes, "The doctors are wrong, aren't they?" she asked hopeful.

"They are," Cole took her hand.

"I am going to be a mother?" she asked again now taking a step closer to him.

"You are," Cole pulled her over the railing and into his arms.

Phoebe opened her eyes sobbing, and found herself standing in the same clearing where she had originally had the premonition that she was going to be a mother. This time the love of her daughter and Cole had opened her eyes and released her from Barbas's captivity. She let go of Cole's hand and immediately wrapped her arms around Chloe, "I knew you weren't a figment of my imagination," she laughed.