Piper and Leo had spent most of the day discussing all the possibilities of who could be trying to contact them through their dreams. They had even called Phoebe over to try to shed some light on what was going on. Her premonition and empathic powers had grown considerably over the years, so it made sense that if someone were trying to contact them, she would be able to sense it.
"Sorry, nothing." Phoebe said after holding on to both of them and concentrating quietly for a few minutes.
"Nothing at all?" Piper asked.
"No, I'm really sorry." She answered sincerely.
"This is hopeless!" Piper exclaimed as she walked over to and then collapsed in a nearby couch.
"It may seem hopeless, but we can't give up yet." Leo said to them and then added, "I won't give up yet."
"Okay! Fine!" Piper said as she got up again and started pacing. "According to the Book of Shadows, the most likely thing to attempt to make contact through dreams is a ghost."
"Well, why don't we just try to summon it?" Phoebe suggested.
"Because we don't know which one to summon," Leo answered, "We've already thought of that," he added.
"Maybe we could try a general summoning spell?" Phoebe asked.
"Is there such a spell?" Piper questioned.
"Not that I know of, but I don't see any reason why we couldn't write one."
"You're right! Let's get to it." Piper said as she walked over to get a handy pad of paper and pen on a nearby table.
Suddenly Phoebe doubled up in pain holding her stomach, and at the same time a terrified look came over Leo's face.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Piper asked as she ran to Phoebe.
"It's Chris," Leo replied, breathless.
"He's in a lot of pain in his stomach," Phoebe said trying to compose herself. "It's begun."
The anguished expression on both their faces said it all and Piper immediately dropped the pad and pen she was holding and both she and Phoebe moved next to Leo, orbing out seconds later.
They arrived at Magic School to find Chris collapsed on the floor clutching his stomach, blood seeping onto his hands and fingers. Paige and Jeni were next to him and concerned students were standing all around.
All their efforts and concentration had now moved to saving Chris from the curse of the athame Gideon had used twenty-three years earlier. The idea of trying to summon the ghost had temporarily been forgotten. The day progressed as it had before. They were able to save Chris by bringing the Chris who died in the past to merge with this Chris and then by using the combined Power of Three with the Elders the curse was finally broken.
As Chris tried to sit up after being saved, Leo asked, "Are you sure you're feeling up to it?"
"I'm fine, Dad," Chris replied; now sitting upright. " I feel amazing! Thank you to everyone who helped. I cannot thank you enough; you've given me my life back. In fact," he said pausing for a moment, not really knowing how to put it into words, "you've given me two lives."
"What do you mean two lives?" Piper asked as she sat down on the couch next to her son.
"This is going to sound really weird, and I don't want you guys to freak out on me or anything, but the Chris that died in the past, he is now a part of me. I have all his memories now too." He paused to look at the reaction around the room. Everyone seemed to be trying to process what he had just said.
So you're telling us that the Chris that came from the future twenty-five years ago is now a part of you too," Leo said trying to understand.
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Dad," Chris replied. "I remember everything. I remember Valhalla, Gith, Ginny the Jeanie, the Spider Demon, and Gideon. I even remember the breakfast you cooked for us Mum, the morning before we went through the portal to the evil world. And the dreams you both had the few nights before. I also remember the dreams the other Leo from my original future had before I came back in time the first time. I now understand your visit this morning and why you were so worried about the dreams. It all makes so much more sense now."
"How is this possible?" Leo asked the Elders.
Before they had a chance to answer, Chris continued, "Did you find out anything about the dreams today? Have you worked out who's sending them?"
"What dreams?" Paige asked.
One of the Elders cut in before anyone could answer Paige. "If we are not needed anymore, we will take our leave."
"Of course, thank you so much for everything," Leo said to them. They nodded in response and then all disappeared in a cloud of orbs.
After the Elders had gone Paige reminded everyone of her question.
"Dreams?"
"We didn't bother you because you were busy at Magic School, and then all of this with Chris happened, so we haven't had a chance, but Leo and I have had the same dreams again that we had twenty-three years ago." Piper explained. "Do you remember we all had a family meeting to discuss them the night before Chris and Leo went through the portal?"
Paige thought about it for a few seconds, and then nodded as she remembered, "Yes, I do. Didn't they have dark figures and circles or something like that?"
"Good memory." Leo complimented her, "Yes they did, and now they seem to have Wyatt in them as well."
"So you've been trying to work out what they mean all day," Paige clarified.
"Well if we'd gotten the message right last time, Leo and Chris would not have gone to the evil world!" Piper concluded.
"You're right!" Phoebe said excitedly.
"I know I'm right. So what?" Asked Piper.
"Well, we knew afterwards that the potion that we made would have worked. If we had known that Gideon was evil back then, Chris and Leo would have really gone to the future." Phoebe explained.
"Yes – so?" Paige asked.
"This future." Phoebe said. "They would have found out about Excalibur and when Leo went back he would have been able to stop Wyatt from ever using it, so everything would be different."
"And Wyatt would be truly saved." Chris said.
"Exactly!" Phoebe said.
"So whoever is sending us these messages through these dreams is either trying to save Wyatt or stop things from happening that shouldn't be happening for some reason." Leo said.
"We were about to write a spell to try to summon the ghost we think is sending us these messages, before Chris collapsed." Piper said.
"I think we should finish that spell and give it a try." Phoebe stated.
"Agreed," Piper said.
Paige nodded, and went over to get the pad of paper and pen she had picked up off the floor not long before to write the spell to merge the two Chris's together.
She ripped that spell off the pad and walked over to place it on the Book of Shadows, thinking it may come in handy some day, then set about writing this new spell.
Through our dreams you make contact
Spirit from the other side
Come to me, I summon the
Cross now the great divide
She showed the spell to Piper and Phoebe.
"You only changed one line," Piper noticed.
"Yes, but it was an important one," Paige defended.
"It's fine," Phoebe said, "Let's do this."
She then instructed everyone to stand in a circle and hold hands. Phoebe in the meantime was collecting candles and placing them in a circle in front of them. Piper leant down and carefully lit each candle.
Together the three witches said the spell while everyone else stood, waiting anxiously for something to happen. Unfortunately, nothing did.
"I don't understand, that should have worked," Paige said, frustrated.
"Should we try again?" Chris asked.
"No, if it was going to work, it would have worked the first time." Phoebe explained.
"Well how else can we contact a ghost?" Chris asked.
The three sisters looked at each other and it was as if a light bulb went off in their heads at the same time, "The spirit board!" They all said together.
"Are you suggesting a séance?" Asked Jeni, who had remained silent up until now.
"That's a good idea." Leo agreed.
"I'm not even really sure where the spirit board is, we haven't used it in years." Piper said.
"Wyatt and I used it a lot when we were younger," Chris said, "It should be on the top shelf of that cupboard over there." He said pointing.
"You did?" Piper asked, surprised. "Why didn't I know about that?"
"Mum, really, don't go there. I think there's a lot of stuff we used to get up to you don't want to know about." Chris said, suddenly feeling six years old again.
"Mmmm, we'll talk about it later." She said not willing to drop it that easily.
In the meantime Leo had retrieved the spirit board from the exact place Chris had said it would be.
"Where do you want to do this? Up here? Or down in the Sitting Room?" He asked, but before he could answer all their attention was drawn to someone orbing into the attic.
"Having a family reunion without me?" Wyatt asked sarcastically.
Nobody had seen him for several months, and were surprised at how he looked, dressed in black trousers, black T-shirt, his blonde curly hair now down to his shoulders.
"Wyatt," Piper started to say, but was cut off by Leo.
"What do you want?" He asked coldly.
"Nice to see you too, Dad. Don't worry, I won't keep you long, I just came by to congratulate my little brother for surviving Gideon's curse. Well done, everyone, reversing his magic was quite an achievement. Unfortunately, it has resulted in a drastic change of plans on my part."
From his void, he knew how close he'd come this time. The spirit board would have helped, because he would have been able to send them a short message that would have made a lot more sense than the dreams. Through dreams he could only send images, on the spirit board he could send words. He consoled himself that they had made a lot more progress in this timeline and that many changes had taken place compared to the previous loops. After saving Chris, the dinner they had many times before had not even happened this time. In fact they had spent the entire time in the attic trying to work out his messages until Wyatt appeared. He knew, though, that now Wyatt had appeared, the rest of this timeline would play out as it always had. They would all follow Wyatt to Magic School where Piper would be critically wounded when Excalibur would be accidentally destroyed. He knew that Wyatt, in his desperation to have Excalibur, would open a time portal to the past and Chris, equally as desperate to stop Wyatt, would end up going through that portal with him. This time, however, Chris would have all the knowledge of their discussions about the dreams, and when he arrived in the past he hoped he would tell the Piper and Leo from that time about the spirit board.
He made a decision to use all his concentration to send one last dream to only one person this time. This would be his last hope before the timeloop started all over again. This was his last chance, and it had to be perfect.