At last he fell silent, bereft of words and emotion, aware only of the need to be with her. He held her for hours, hiding from his pain in a cocoon of insensibility. But this couldn't last and eventually the cramp in his legs forced him back to brutal reality and the cold stiff body that had been his wife. Heartbroken, Leo looked away and his glance fell on Paige. The sight of her broken remains was an ugly mockery of the smart, attractive woman she had been. Paige, always so particular about her appearance, would have hated to be seen like that.

Gently Leo set Piper aside and stumbled to his feet, his numb limbs making him stagger slightly as he moved towards his sister-in-law. It seemed strange how small she looked in death, how tiny they all looked deprived of that Halliwell vitality he loved so much and how very alone. It wasn't right. Suddenly it felt important that the sisters should all be together in death as they had been in life. He tenderly gathered what he could of Paige in his arms, apologising for the interference, and arranged her carefully beside Piper. As he straightened Paige's clothes his hand caught on a ball of paper lodged there and without thinking Leo smoothed it out. It was Chris's spell.

For the first time Leo noticed the whitelighter was gone. Good. He wasn't wanted, not there, this was no place for strangers. Leo supposed he had gone back to the future now that he had failed to fix whatever it was he had come back for. Thinking of Chris Leo became angry for the first time. It wasn't fair; she hadn't been supposed to die. Chris had said she wasn't supposed to die. He came from the future to fix things and it killed her. What damned right had he had to just waltz back in time and destroy their lives. How fucking irresponsible. What the hell could justified this mess he'd created. As a whitelighter he should have known better, known that only the direst of catastrophes could have warranted such a risk. Yet as Leo looked around, at his own direst of catastrophes, Chris's words began to beat a tattoo through his head. He came from the future to fix things.

No, he couldn't, Leo couldn't do that. It broke all of the rules, but what were the rules worth without Piper? What was anything worth? Besides, he owed it to their son. Having salved his conscience Leo looked eagerly down at the spell. It all seemed simple enough; he just needed a witch to recite it for him and with his connexions finding a willing witch should be the least of his problems. He tried to sense one and realised with a shock that he couldn't, remembering his inability to heal, Leo attempted all his powers, one after another – nothing. He was scared then, helpless. Of course, it made sense that his powers had been waning, with no elders up there the magic would become unfocused and dissipate; soon there would be no active whitelighters or witches at all. For the first time the enormity of the tragedy struck him and his mind gaped at the idea of a world with out any good magic. Overwhelmed he almost gave up. No, that wasn't an option, they were depending on him. He had a plan, a good plan; he just needed someone with power to help him to execute it. He needed an elder, he needed…Gideon. Gideon would not have been up there when the Titans attacked. The magic school might still be safe, at least for a while.

He tried to sense it and found a slight signal, a small beacon of hope at last. Squatting next to Piper, Leo gently stroked a strand of hair from her bloody face. "It's going to be OK baby, I promise you. I am going to go back and make everything right. We don't end here." Tenderly, he kissed her forehead, then quickly stood up, concentrating hard he felt a pull and all of a sudden he was gone.

It was the noise that hit him first, babies crying, people fighting, shouting, weeping. After the deathly quiet of the attic this din was unbearable, demanding his attention, it forced him to look outside of his own misery. Grief and despair surrounded him and Leo's weary heart bled for the wretchedness that he saw. The Grand Hall was chaos, packed with refugees of all types and every minute new creatures materialised, desperate for answers. Everywhere he looked white lighters were weaving between the victims valiantly trying to offer hope and courage, but he noticed no healing. The dead and dying were evident everywhere. In one corner a small, neglected child caught his eye and he thought of Wyatt, safe with the Morrises. What would be his son's fate if Leo failed?

A hand grasped his shoulder. "LEO! My boy. Delighted to see you. I was hoping that you would find us." Gideon's tone exuded brash confidence but the worried expression in his eyes belayed this bravado. His manner changed and speaking more quietly he continued, "I was sorry to learn about..."

"Thanks." Leo cut in abruptly; he wasn't surprised that the elder knew of his loss but he couldn't talk about it, not even to Gideon, his feelings were too raw, too personal to share. He got to the point. "I need your help."

Tactfully Gideon followed his lead. "Absolutely, anything I can do, although unfortunately we don't have much time, we are about to convene a council meeting."

"Of the Elders? I thought they were dead." Leo was amazed.

"The majority not all. However, I fear that it may only be a matter of time. The Titans are picking off the rest of us as we speak, I don't know how many still remain. The few that made it here are combining what magic we have left to sustain this sanctuary as long as we are able."

"I may have a solution, a way to make things right."

His eager tone attracted attention and people looked around, impatient to hear this man and his plan of salvation. Gideon quickly drew Leo aside. "Leo please be more discrete. We can't give false hope, not after everything else. It would be cruel."

Leo started again, more quietly this time. "There's a spell, to send me back to the past, I can stop all of this happening."

"Stop what? The Titan slaughter, or your family dying?"

"Both."

"I can't agree to that. We don't condone magic for personal gain, ever." He continued, more kindly. "Leo, I can't even begin to envisage how deeply you are grieving, but deep down you know that this is not the answer."

Seeing that Leo remained unconvinced, Gideon put an arm around his shoulder. "You have to trust me. I have seen this happen too many times. Once you begin using magic to rearrange the world to your own liking, it never stops. It starts as a small concession, an act so easily sanctioned it doesn't even prick the conscience and then its too late, before you realise it you are justifying greater and greater acts of evil to achieve your ends. I cannot let that happen to you. Leo you must believe that everything happens for a reason."

"It's not like that."

"No?"

"NO!" Leo looked around at the misery surrounding them, frustrated beyond all measure. "Is this really what you want? Is this your greater good? You know as well as I do that without elders up there, without organised good magic, evil must prevail. Where is your order and balance then? Can you square that with your conscience?"

Gideon, taken aback by this attack, indicated the room. "This is not our doing. You can not blame us for this."

"Not yet, but if you don't help me to put things right, to readdress the balance, to work for the greater good then yes, I will definitely blame you."

Shaken Gideon made to leave. "I must go, I am late for the meeting." but as he reached the door he hesitated and returned, saying with some unease, "What exactly is it you want me to do?"

Relieved, Leo passed Gideon the spell. "I have this, but no means to open a portal, do you still have that kind of power?" Gideon looked at the spell thoughtfully. "Not alone, but with the help of the other elders it might still be possible."

He came to some decision. "I must confer with the others, no doubt they will want to question you themselves. When they do you must emphasise that your aspirations are to defeat the Titans, if they think your purpose is more personal they will not countenance this." He paused. "Leo I must accentuate that there are no guarantees in time travel. You may do this and still not achieve what you want."

"All I want is my family back, things as they were before."

"I know."

"This cannot continue, we weaken by the second, if one of us goes back up there, we can begin to refocus the magic."

"Not again, Solino, how many times must that plan fail before you accept that it won't work. The Titans are waiting for us now and with our diminished powers we do not stand a chance."

"But we must do something, we can't just wait for them to destroy everything that we have worked for."

Leo had never seen the elders like this, flustered and bickering, gone was the serene aloofness he knew and strangely this glimpse of humanity was not a comfort. The elders noticed their arrival and the debate abruptly broke off.

"Gideon at last, we were beginning to become concerned."

"I apologise, something came up." He raised his hand to ward off an objection. "I know Koliston, but it was important." Before anyone else could speak he drew Leo forward. "I think that we are all familiar with Leo. He has an interesting suggestion which may well solve our predicament."

The elders looked at Leo curiously, a couple smiled or nodded in recognition. Resolute in his purpose Leo began.

"I have come into the possession of a spell which should enable me to travel back in time. With the council's permission I will use this to prevent the Titan attack"

A babble of voice erupted immediately "Its an interesting proposition." ,"How? We can't use magic for our own personal gain?", "How can we sit by and do nothing?" ,"We have a responsibility as the guardians of good magics"," We have a responsibility to our charges and the world"

Gideon intervened. "Friends, this is obviously an emotive and difficult issue, if I may summarise the points it might help. We are all, quite rightly, uncomfortable with the idea of using a spell for our own personal gain to prevent the attack on the Elders." There was a general murmuring of agreement. "However, we appreciate that we do have a wider responsibility to the world and..."

Leo interrupted, "If you send me back to the time just after the attack, I believe that my plan can satisfy one without offending the other."

"But what use is that? We would be in no better position to fight them than we are now."

Desparate to make them understand Leo became more animated. "That's not true, we will be able to use the Charmed Ones. Originally I tried to use the Urn of Houloria to turn them into Goddesses." There was stunned silence in the room, he carried on regardless. "I failed, as a whitelighter I had insufficient power, if we could overcome that, I could try again."

"NO!" The elders were aghast.

Gideon, however, was quick to support the idea. "Does anyone here have a better suggestion of how we might fight gods?"

"But creating more gods, that just makes things worse."

Gideon responded dryly, "The Titans are picking us off one by one, with no one above to focus the magic we have barely enough to sustain the shield around the school, soon this too will be exposed, then we and everything we have ever stood for will be gone forever. Please, tell me exactly how Leo's plan could make things worse?"

Taking their silence as acceptance he turned to Leo. "Do you think that you can work it?"

"I, I'm not sure, is there a way to make the urn useable by a whitelighter?"

Gideon looks at the others, I think that we can remedy that "It is not in our gift to make you a full elder, however, we can make you a sort of probationary one, and that should suffice."

Leo took a quick step back, this wasn't going the way he planned. "No. I can't become an elder."

"Don't worry you wont be, your candidature needs to be supported by many more of us to orchestrate that but time is precious and further discussion will only waste it, so, if there are no more objections?"

Meeting no more resistance Gideon closed his eyes and placed a hand on Leo's head, after a moment a patch of white appeared there.

"It is done. Solino please would you arrange the portal, I have a few more words to say to Leo"

Drawing Leo aside "I am not sure what you know of time travel Leo, it is different for whitelighters than humans. A mortal may coexist with an earlier version of himself quite comfortably as two separate individuals. As an immortal you exist out of time and therefore essentially the you of today and the you of tomorrow are one. Whatever you do try not to encounter your past self or you will meld together, your collective experiences and knowledge pooled. This is just one of so many reason why this is so discouraged." He looked around." Ah I see that we are ready to go. Goodbye Leo and good luck."

Leo grateful beyond all measure shook his hand heartily. "Thank you, for everything. I won't forget this, what you've done for me" with that he was gone.