It was a cold winter's night, early in the year 2005, when Piper checked on her boys before going to bed. The day had been an unusually quiet one for the Halliwell household, no innocents to save, no demons to fight, which was quite a relief to everyone considering the events of the last few months. Although it was a boring day on the Halliwell scale of life, it would have been just a normal day to anyone else. More days like this one was what Piper desired most in life, but she did accept that was not her destiny and so put all her efforts into making their crazy, magical and very stressful life as normal as possible. She had to do it for the sake of her family, and for her own sanity.
As she looked at her boys' angelic and peaceful faces as they slept, she wondered about their future. Even though they had saved Wyatt from Gideon, and consequently from being the ruler of all evil, she still felt a niggling tinge of doubt as to whether he had been truly saved. A doubt that she had pushed deep down inside her, and refused to let surface, because that would involve facing up to it and she just had too many other things to worry about at the moment.
She walked over to Chris who had kicked his covers off. As she carefully covered him, trying not to disturb him, her mind wandered back to the grown up version of her second son who had lived with them for nearly two years after coming from the future to save Wyatt. This was another memory she had pushed deep down inside her, not allowing the actual reality of what happened to him surface. She remembered the day vividly when, after Baby Chris was born, Leo had gently broken the devastating news of what had happened to Big Chris when trying to protect Wyatt from Gideon. She could not bear to think of him suffering the way he did, so simply convinced herself that Chris had been reborn and was going to now live a much happier life. She had suffered so much tragedy in her life, and did not want to deal with more. Baby Chris was alive and well, Wyatt had been saved, it was all very simple really, and the more she said it the more she convinced herself, and that was all that mattered.
Finally, satisfied that all was well with her beloved boys, she headed toward her bedroom where she knew Leo would be waiting for her. It felt so right that they were now officially back together, and even though some of his decisions had been questionable of late, she knew he would always be there for her and the boys, and that knowledge was very comforting.
The triquetra on the Manor attic wall suddenly came to life with a blue light shining across the room. The two Halliwell brothers were tossed violently from the time portal rolling several times on the floor before finally coming to rest. Both of them were groaning as they tried to orient themselves.
Chris held his head in a vain attempt to stop the room from spinning. "What the hell was that?" he asked Wyatt.
"That was a time portal, I would have thought you would be familiar with them by now," Wyatt answered sarcastically as he too was trying to calm his dizziness.
"That was like nothing I've ever experienced before, Wyatt. It was like we were in the spin cycle of a washing machine!"
"The spell I used was for one person only, having you along for the ride must have screwed it up somehow."
"Great, just great! I have got to stop trying to save you Wyatt, it gets me nothing but trouble." Chris said to him, not quite believing he had travelled back in time, again.
"I don't need saving, Chris, I never have. I wish you would understand what I am trying to do. With Excalibur I could be the most powerful being on the planet. Demons and people alike would be afraid of me. The world would be a much better place. Join me and together we would be unstoppable!" Wyatt said, hoping Chris would finally understand.
Chris, however, remained unconvinced. "Wyatt, you cannot rule with fear, it doesn't work. I've lived through a life like that once already. Please, forget Excalibur and use the return spell for us to go home. Time travel is dangerous, and we don't even know what time we have come to anyway."
Wyatt had heard enough, his patience now wearing thin. "It's too bad you couldn't see things my way, little Brother, we would have made an awesome team. I have never wanted to hurt you, because I always felt guilty that you died saving me when I was younger, but I'm afraid you have just become an unnecessary annoyance now."
Wyatt now fully recovered, his few minutes of quiet conversation over, stood up and with a determined arm movement he telekinetically threw Chris across the room.
Piper and Leo suddenly sat up in bed at the same time, awoken from their slumber by the noise from the attic.
"What the hell was that?" Piper asked as she jumped out of bed and ran to the hallway grabbing her dressing gown on the way.
Leo was right behind her, also grabbing his gown, "Sounded like it came from the attic," he answered.
They both met Paige and Phoebe in the hall. "You heard it too," Paige said uneasily.
"Couldn't we just have one night off? Is that too much to ask?" Phoebe said.
"You two stay with Wyatt and Chris, Leo and I will go to the attic and find out who or what is wrecking my first normal day in ages," Piper said to them as she started walking toward the attic stairs.
"I don't think whatever is up there has any idea what they've gotten themselves into," Leo said to Phoebe and Paige before he walked away quickly so as to catch up to Piper.
Without hesitation they walked into the attic, ready to confront anything that was waiting for them. What they saw though surprised both of them. Before turning on the light they could make out, what looked like, two men fighting. They were both flinging each other across the room telekinetically.
"Hey, you two, stop fighting in my house now or it will be the last thing you do!" Piper shouted across the room as Leo located the light switch and turned it on.
The two men, startled by the interruption turned from their respective positions on the floor to face the familiar voice shouting at them. At the same time Leo turned on the lights.
"Oh my God, Chris!" Piper exclaimed immediately recognizing her grown up second son as he looked back at her.
"Mum!" Chris exclaimed back.
"How are you…how did you…what's going on?" Then before Chris could answer she turned to Leo, "this has to be some kind of trick."
"I don't know," was all a flabbergasted Leo could reply. He was staring not so much at Chris but the other person with him. The man he recognised immediately as grown up Wyatt from his fear induced vision at the hospital the day Chris was born.
"It's not a trick, Mum, it's really me and this is…"
"Wyatt," Leo finished for him.
"Wyatt? How can that be? Could someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Piper yelled, frustrated. "Now, would be good! Leo? How do you know that is Wyatt?" Then she turned to the two intruders once more, "And why are you two fighting each other?"
Wyatt took the opportunity to jump in, "it is really me, Mum, I followed Chris back from the future. He has come back to steal Excalibur. Everyone knows it is really meant for me, but in the future Chris tried to steal it and it was destroyed, so he has come back in time to try to steal it again."
"Wyatt!" Chris exclaimed, not believing what he was hearing. "Mum, Dad, do not believe him. None of what he said was true. I followed him back."
"Give me Excalibur, now and I will prove it to you!" Wyatt demanded.
"No – don't," Chris, pleaded.
"Nobody is getting anything until we sort everything out, and find out who is telling the truth." Leo firmly stated.
"What year is this?" Wyatt suddenly asked.
"2005, why?" Leo responded.
" Not the year I was aiming for, but it'll do. 2005, then Excalibur is still in the attic," he said starting to look around.
"Dad, you have to stop him, you can't let him get Excalibur!" Chris pleaded again.
Wyatt angrily turned to Chris, "I have had enough of your interference," he said as he telekinetically lifted Chris off the ground with such force he hit his head hard on the ceiling before dropping heavily to the floor.
While Chris distracted Piper and Leo, Wyatt closed his eyes and concentrated. A second later a small baby appeared in his arms.
Before they could get to Chris, Piper and Leo's attention was diverted back to Wyatt as he shouted at them, "I demand you give me Excalibur now, or I will crush his throat."
They looked in horror as they saw their precious baby in Wyatt's arms, his hand firmly placed around the crying baby's throat.
"Wyatt, no, please, I beg you, don't hurt him," Piper pleaded desperately.
Just then, Paige and Phoebe came running up the stairs behind them calling to Piper that Baby Chris had disappeared. They did not need her to respond, though, as all became clear when they entered the room.
"Oh, my God!" Phoebe exclaimed.
"Who is that?" Paige asked.
"Wyatt, we'll do anything, just don't hurt him!" Leo begged.
"Wyatt?" Both Phoebe and Paige exclaimed together.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Chris asked as he carefully got up from the floor. He was limping and his hand was holding the back of his head, blood seeping from a wound.
Everyone turned to Chris, surprised to see him up and walking toward Wyatt.
"Oh, God, Chris," Piper said noticing his injuries.
He ignored her, keeping all his concentration on Wyatt, knowing it could be all over for him in seconds if Wyatt was to go ahead with his threat to kill his Baby self.
"It could be the answer to all my problems," Wyatt answered confidently.
Chris continued calmly, "I know you saved my life many times when we were children, Wyatt, but I also saved yours. Can you be sure you would have survived to this age if I hadn't been around? Killing me as a baby would solve one problem, but are you completely confident you would still be alive?" He paused while Wyatt processed what he had just said. "You could be killing us both." He added, making sure to clearly spell out the possible consequences of Wyatt's current threat.
After a few seconds of careful consideration, Wyatt placed Baby Chris on the floor, and then looked around at everyone, "This is not over!" He said firmly, before orbing out.
They all breathed a collective sigh of relief, as Piper ran to her baby who had been left crying on the floor. Big Chris, who had been concentrating on getting through to Wyatt, could not hold onto consciousness any longer, so let darkness overcome him as he collapsed to the floor.