Piper turned her attention towards the knock at the front door. Or rather a rattle, followed by a short rapid knock. Her eyes scanning the living room and the three in there, she passed by on her way down the hallway to open the door. Pulling it back she saw her eldest son standing there, fumbling around in his pockets. He looked up as the door opened, smiling sheepishly.

"I think I've misplaced my spare key," he said.

Piper grinned back at him, emitting a small laugh as she motioned for him to come in. She turned him around, helping him off with his tan coloured jacket.

"Sweetie, what are you doing here?" she asked. "I thought you'd still be at work."

Hanging his jacket on the coat rack by the door, she turned back to see him sniffing the air and finally clapping his hands, rubbing them together emphatically.

"How could I resist one of your home-cooked meals?" he asked, placing a hand on her arm and leaning down to kiss her cheek. "Smells great, mom."

"Now if I knew a home-cooked meal was the way to get you home more often, I would have done this sooner," she said as he drew back. She motioned with her head towards the living room. "Why don't you go see the others, and I'll heat some up for you."

Wyatt made his way into the living room, seeing his father standing by his cousin, demonstrating something with his hands. Chris was seated on the couch, his back to Wyatt as he came in.

"Hi dad," Wyatt said. He nodded at his cousin as she looked over. "Paris. Hey, little bro."

Wyatt ruffled Chris' hair, Chris pulling away from Wyatt as he knelt down behind the couch, resting his arms on the back of it. Chris glanced back to him, an annoyed look on his face.

"Wyatt," he said simply in greeting.

After noticing his brother was paying more attention to Leo and Paris than himself, Chris turned back to watch them also.

"And I advise you not to go out seeking demons now," Leo finished instructing Paris, giving a sideways glance towards Chris. "Despite what Chris says."

"Oh, I met one today," Wyatt said cheerily. Leo diverted his stare towards his eldest son. "A Kegrah. Nice fella, though a bit too fleshy for my tastes."

Wyatt wrinkled his nose. Chris spun himself around to face his brother.

"Wait, you…" Chris began.

"Were attacked too," Leo finished solemnly. He looked between the three faces seriously. "Looks like there is a new power emerging and it's tied to the three of you."

"See, I always knew I was important," Wyatt said smugly. Chris rolled his eyes.

"It's not like she came to you," Chris scoffed quietly.

"Who?" Wyatt snapped, overhearing him.

Chris made a move to bite back when Piper reappeared in the living room, her hands outstretched.

"Boys, boys!" she scolded sharply as she walked towards them. She took hold of Wyatt's left ear with her left hand and lifted him to his feet, smacking him on the rear with her right. "You, go eat dinner, it's getting cold, and Chris," Piper turned back to him as Wyatt left for the kitchen, "stop tormenting your brother."

Chris looked at his mother in surprise. He hadn't started it, Wyatt had. Looking to his father for some backup he saw the disappointed look on his face. Chris looked down quickly, remembering his father's request before he had come back to the future, remembering agreeing that Wyatt would be a changed person, he would be good now, and not to treat him as the bad person he once was. His eyes trailing up back towards the kitchen doorway, he thought this over. Wyatt really wasn't a changed person. He was still pompous, still arrogant. He just wasn't the ruler of all evil anymore, and that was only because the Elders had this time around decided to close off the underworld from him. But already he was meeting demons, gathering ideas, and Chris was a little worried that perhaps everything he had done was in vain. That no matter what was changed, what became a preventative measure, that fate was always going to lead Wyatt back to that same destiny. He smiled bleakly at his mother, glad that she at least was still with them this time around.

Paris watched Wyatt move into the next room. Curious, she decided to follow. She hadn't spoken much to Wyatt since they had returned. Only on the night she'd come back, but even then she was still stunned over the change in him. It was odd, and a little hard to accept. She inched into the kitchen wanting to know more, to be certain he really was a changed man. Wyatt glanced up at her from behind the table.

"Well look who it is," he said. He lifted his knife, pointing it at the chair across from him. "Sit, sit."

Paris slid into the chair, watching him cut another piece off the chicken and lift it to his mouth. He chewed on it slowly, closing his eyes as he savoured the taste in his mouth.

"Mmm," he said, swallowing it down. "So much better than hospital food. Not quite so bland."

Paris folded her hands in her lap, not quite sure what she should say to him. Wyatt noticed her fidgety manner and stopped what he was doing.

"You can relax, I'm not going to bite," he said. His eyes twinkled with the humour of the suggestion. It did nothing to ease Paris' nerves.

"I don't know what to say," she offered honestly.

"Parler non ensukte," Wyatt replied. She looked at him blankly. "Ah, you haven't made that trip to France yet."

"Mom and dad are taking me in the fall," Paris quickly explained. Wyatt didn't show any interest, instead stuffing his mouth with more of the white meat in front of him.

"You know," Wyatt began, his mouth still full as he looked up and pointed the knife at her. Paris drew back a little. He seemed oblivious to her reaction. "You really should learn French. It's part of your namesake."

"Then you should be an electrician. That's part of yours," Paris replied. Wyatt raised an eyebrow.

"That's watt, not Wyatt," he said.

"Oh," Paris blushed at her mistake, directing her eyes downwards. She heard Wyatt chuckle as he returned to his meal.

"So you finally found out you had powers, huh?" he said with a derisory smile. "Took you long enough."

"I had them before…" Paris began to argue. Looking at his face she realised he knew nothing of what had happened prior to her homecoming. "Before now."

"I saw dad was coaching you," he said.

"Oh, he's not. Chris is."

"Chris?" Wyatt asked with a mocking laugh. "My little brother? Well I thought they would have given the job to someone with a little more expertise."

"What do you mean?"

"All I'm saying is that if you need a little extra guidance, you can always come to me. I've got plenty of powers up my sleeve, and surely some of yours, so I'm more knowledgeable when it comes to using them," he explained. Paris looked at him suspiciously. "Just think about it."

"Everything okay in here?" Piper asked as she came back into the room. Paris spun in her chair to watch her; glad she could divert her attention to someone else.

"Brilliant," Wyatt answered. "We were just discussing Paris' trip to France."

"Oh, that reminds me, I forgot to try Phoebe again. I have to ice the cake first… unless you want to call her Paris? She'd probably be happy to hear from you," Piper said.

Paris nodded emphatically. Apart from trying to escape any more conversation with Wyatt, she knew her mother would freak out less if she was the one to call. At least this way her aunt wouldn't spill the beans about her powers either. She walked over and picked up the receiver where Piper had left it, watching as Wyatt stood from the table to place his empty plate in the sink.

"That was exquisite, mom. Thank you," Wyatt said.

Piper smiled at him as she pulled the cake form the oven, sitting it on the benchtop to cool. She pulled out a bowl, filling it with icing sugar and food colouring. Retrieving a spoon from the drawer she began to mix it all together by hand, watching Paris as she meticulously dialled the numbers to call her mother. From the corner of her eye she could see Wyatt peering over at the contents of the bowl. Eventually his curiosity led to a hand snaking towards it, preparing to dip a finger. Piper smacked his hand away.

"Uh uh. You can wait till it's on the cake. Then u can have some," she said. Wyatt pouted. Piper gave him a stern look. "Wait."

"Hello?" Phoebe answered on the other end of the line. Paris' body jerked upright, as if her mother was right in front of her and had just caught her doing something she shouldn't be.

"Mom, hi," she managed to get out.

"Paris, honey, you're okay," Phoebe said, relief apparent in her voice. "Where are you? You weren't here when I got home, and there was no note around. I was starting to wonder how long they were keeping you behind at school."

Paris looked up at the clock and saw how late it was. She knew her mother was just saying that, she would never be at school at such a late hour.

"I'm fine, mum. Really. I'm at Aunt Piper's."

"Piper's? How on earth did you get there?"

"Um… Chris," Paris said reluctantly, not wanting to get him into any more trouble.

"Chris?" Phoebe questioned.

"He orbed me over from school," Paris explained. There was silence on the other end. Paris began to wonder if they'd lost the connection but finally her mother spoke.

"Honey, do me a favour, will you?" she asked sweetly. "Go find Chris for me and put him on the phone. I need to talk to him."

Glancing over at Piper and Wyatt, Paris made her way into the living room, holding the phone out to Chris.

"My mom wants to speak to you," she said.

Chris looked first at the phone, and then at his father who turned his head away to hide the smirk on his face. He knew Chris was going to be in trouble with Phoebe. Chris sighed heavily, taking the phone from Paris and pressing it to his ear.

"Aunt Phoebe?" he questioned.

"You bet your little behind it's me," Phoebe said angrily. "What were you thinking, Chris? Orbing my daughter out during the middle of school?"

"It wasn't during school. Just at school. Everyone was going home then," Chris tried to explain.

"What if someone saw you?" she retaliated.

"No-one saw us. We were in the bathroom."

"Oh, please, Chris, don't tell me you snuck into the girl's locker rooms?"

"What? No."

"'Cause you know you could be in serious trouble for that," Phoebe continued.

"No, no, it wasn't anything like that!" Chris protested. "No-one was around. Honestly. I checked."

"I'm not finished," Phoebe said. "Not only did you orb your cousin away from school in broad daylight, but you didn't even tell us that she was gone. Not a note, a phone call, an email, nothing. And aside from all that, you also exposed her to a world of magic that she's never known before. I would have liked to fill her in on some of the minor details before you went and started orbing her all over the place when and if you feel like it."

"Feel better?" Chris asked, sensing her rant had finished.

"Yes," Phoebe said shortly.

"Want to know why I did it?" he questioned further.

"I could say no but I suppose you're going to tell me anyway."

"She was part of a prophecy. I need her help to battle the underworld."

"You're unbelievable, Chris. She's only a teenager! You can't have her running around fighting demons because of some vague prophecy you heard. What about your brother? Why can't you get Wyatt to help you?"

"Because…" Chris paused in thought. He couldn't tell her that he thought Wyatt was the evil force behind all this. Glancing over to his father he remembered what he had said earlier. "Because we're all a part of it. Dad said so. Which means that if we don't have all the pieces together, we're never going to solve this thing."

"Solve it?" Phoebe sighed heavily. "Why am I so surprised by this? The amount of little prophecies and plans you had going back when you were periodically our whitelighter, chasing one demon after another, ordering us to vanquish this demon who was a threat to Wyatt only to find out you were wrong, and then suddenly you decided it was another demon. Chris, did you ever think that you could be wrong?"

"I'm not this time," Chris said confidently.

"Tell Leo to bring Paris home. I'll discuss this whole prophecy thing with him when he gets here."

"No! She can't leave! Not yet," Chris said.

"Oh my god, Chris, stop being so dramatic. The world isn't ending tomorrow. Besides, you can't go bossing Paris around like you're her whitelighter. You have to leave that in the past."

"Actually I am."

"Actually you are what?"

"Her whitelighter."

"For heaven's sake! Who came up with that idea?"

"The Elders. And before you get all antsy about it, dad went up and saw them, not me. Believe me I was just as happy about it as you are. I don't need the extra responsibility."

"Well your cousin is your responsibility now. Just make sure she gets her homework done in-between running around and helping you, okay? No more orbing out of school. And please will one of you bring her home? Her father's going to worry what's going on."

Chris grumbled in answer, hearing the dial tone as Phoebe hung up the other end. He pressed the button on the cordless handset to hang up his end and almost jumped when the phone rang in his hand.

"Hello?" Chris answered.

"Where's Piper? Put her on," Brett said breathlessly on the other end.

"What? Huh?" Chris replied, confused by the abruptness.

"Chris, it's Brett." There was a pause as he waited to hear Chris moving. Hearing nothing he continued, frustrated: "Just put her on, will you?"

Chris looked at Paris, and then his father, pushing himself up off the couch with the phone still plastered to his ear. Walking into the kitchen he saw his mother was icing the cake she had made.

"Mom, phone," Chris said shortly.

Piper looked up, handing the spatula over to Wyatt to finish the job, giving him a warning look so that he would complete the task before digging into more food. She wiped her hands on a stray tea towel and walked over to Chris, taking the phone away from him.

"It's Brett," Chris mouthed quietly, wrinkling his nose up.

"Hello, Brett?" Piper said, raising the receiver to her shoulder and cradling it in the crook as she went back over to Wyatt, taking hold of his hand and guiding him so that he would spread the icing evenly.

"Piper, you have to get to the club. Something really bad has gone on here."

"You're at the club?" Piper questioned. "What are you doing there? We're closed tonight."

"Look, it doesn't matter. Just come, okay? It's an emergency."

"What's wrong?" Piper asked, beginning to get worried. She heard a dial tone. He'd hung up. "Brett? Brett?"

Frustrated she hit the button to hang up her end of the phone, putting it back onto the kitchen counter as she looked across to Chris.

"There's a problem at the club. Brett wants me over there," she explained.

"What? Why?" Chris questioned. Thinking back to what had happened to him earlier he began to shake his head, concerned. "No, mom, don't go. Let me go. It's too dangerous."

Piper tilted her head, raising her eyebrows at him. "Too dangerous? For me? Have you forgotten what we've been through?"

"Yeah, mom, but—"

"Honestly if you're that concerned, I'll take Leo with me. I'll need a way to get there quickly anyway. He can orb me over."

Chris looked over to Wyatt for support, but saw his brother was taking no notice of the conversation between them. Piper patted his arm, kissing his cheek quickly as she passed.

"Don't worry, sweetie, I won't be that long."

"Are you just going to let her go?" Chris demanded, his eyes still fixed on Wyatt.

Wyatt casually lifted his gaze from the cake to Chris. "Now being as I have to choose between cake, hospital rounds, and my mother, I think your whinging and a minor mishap at the club come last on my list." He lifted his arm, looking at the face of his watch. "And it seems I'm long overdue, so if you'll excuse me."

Hurriedly he cut a chunk out of the cake, lifting it to his mouth and holding a hand underneath to prevent the crumbs from falling as he bit into it. He passed Paris on his way out the door and she glanced quickly from him to Chris, wondering what exactly was going on. Chris sighed, folding his arms as he looked towards the door then back to his cousin as she stepped into the room.

"Your mom wants you home," he said. Paris nodded obediently. "But she wanted dad to take you."

"But he just—"

"I know, he's gone with mom," Chris said, cutting her short. "Do you want me to take you?"

Paris shrugged. "Maybe I should call mom again. Or dad - he might be fairer."

"Come get me when you do," Chris said with a nod, brushing past her on his way into the hallway.

Paris walked over to the kitchen counter, her hand dropping over the top of the receiver. She jolted as a white flash ran through head, momentarily blotting her vision. She saw Chris dangling in the air, Wyatt in front of him. They were in the hallway. The premonition ending, Paris stood motionless staring at the phone. It had seemed oddly familiar. In fact she remembered having walked in on them fighting once before, but not in this time. It was before she went back for Chris. Back when Wyatt was really evil. She couldn't even remember what it had been about, some master plan or something.

Forgetting completely about calling her parents, she turned her head and heard a yelp. Racing back into the hallway she saw Chris hanging mid-air above the stairway, clutching at his throat – just like her premonition, just like before. Wyatt watched with interest from the front door, his hand partially raised as he shrugged his jacket on.

"Put him down!" Paris demanded. Wyatt's gaze momentarily flicked towards her before returning back to his brother.

"Wyatt, don't!" Chris managed to choke out.

"I told you to let him go!" Paris shouted, the flames lighting up in the palm of her hand.

"Tsk, tsk," Wyatt said, shaking his head as he looked at her.

Paris pitched the ball forward, watching as the ball of flame closed in on Wyatt.