Chris ran in slow motion across the room. The more he ran, the further away Baby Wyatt moved from him. He had to reach him before Gideon did; he promised Leo he would protect him. As he was desperately trying to reach the helpless baby version of his older brother, he watched him change from a baby into Big Wyatt, and then turn to Chris and begin laughing at him. Suddenly Piper and Leo were standing next to Chris, telling him about their dreams and asking him to help them use the spirit board to contact the ghost they thought was sending the dreams. Chris protested, telling them he had to save Wyatt from Gideon. When he looked back at Big Wyatt he had stopped laughing and was now holding a baby. To Chris' horror he could see it was him as a baby and Wyatt was threatening to kill him. Chris turned to his Mum and Dad for help, but they just kept telling him to come with them. Chris had never felt so frustrated, and could not understand why his parents would be acting this way. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and looked down to find blood seeping from a deep wound. He collapsed to his knees in agony looking desperately at his parents and then back at Wyatt for some kind of help, but no one seemed to care.
Chris jumped as he opened his eyes. Baby Wyatt was in front of him touching his stomach, but his jolt must have scared Wyatt, because he let out a startled cry and ran away. Chris, catching his breath from what he'd just experienced, sat up and looked around and realized he was lying on the couch in the living room of the Manor and everything he just thought was real was only a dream. Or was it? He stopped to think for a second, trying to clear his head and work out what was real and what was not. So much had happened in the last couple of days his head was positively spinning. The dream he just had was such a mix of different events and different times that sorting it all out was going to take patience. Having to cope with the two sets of memories he now had and separating each of them was also difficult. He looked around at where he was and suddenly realised he had no memory of going to sleep there. Trying not to panic he attempted to think back to his last memory and then hopefully work back from there. He remembered Wyatt threatening his Baby self after he and Wyatt had come from the future. He shook his head and mumbled to himself, "I can't believe I time travelled again!" Then he remembered the dreams his parents had in the future, and how they'd asked him if he was going to time travel because all the dreams had happened before he was due to travel in time. Of course he'd denied it because he certainly hadn't intended to, but as it turns out he did. "What the hell is going on?" He asked out loud as he put his hands to his head and went to lie down again.
"That's what I'd like to know." A familiar female voice said to him.
Chris sat up and saw his Mother walk into the room holding Wyatt.
"I'm sorry if Wyatt woke you." She said to Chris and then turned to Wyatt and said, "You see, Chris is fine."
"I think I startled him when I woke up, I'm sorry. I had the weirdest dream, there is just so much going on in my head at the moment." Chris explained.
"Don't worry, he seems all right now." Piper said as she walked over and put Wyatt in his playpen. "More to the point, how are you feeling?" She asked Chris.
"Fine, I think, I was just trying to work out where I was. Yesterday was a very long day!" He said to her.
"You can tell me all about it when your Dad gets here," Piper said. "You were pretty badly injured last night. Leo healed you, but you were so exhausted, you went straight to sleep again after you regained consciousness. You've been asleep for nearly twelve hours; I was beginning to get worried."
"Twelve hours? Wow, I can't remember the last time I slept twelve hours," Chris said, surprised.
"Well, you must have needed it. I'll call Leo and you can tell us what is going on." Piper said as she looked to the ceiling and then shouted, "Leo!"
A heartbeat later Leo orbed into the room.
He smiled at Chris, "You're awake," he said.
"Finally," Chris replied.
Piper sat down on one of the chairs in the living room and said, "okay, Baby Chris is asleep, Wyatt is in his playpen, now tell us what is going on, but first, I have to know, are you the same Chris who was living with us the last couple of years?"
"Piper.." Leo started to say, but was cut off by Chris.
"No it's okay, Dad, I don't mind, because I've got a few things to ask you as well, before we go into how and why I'm here." Chris paused and took a deep breath. "Am I the same Chris?" He repeated, "The short answer, yes and no. There is only one of me, but I have two sets of memories, one from the Chris who lived with you as your Whitelighter and the other from Baby Chris upstairs."
"How is that possible?" Piper asked.
"Really it's a long story, but I have to ask you both a few questions first. Have you guys been having any strange dreams lately?" Chris asked.
Both Piper and Leo looked at each other and then back at Chris shaking their heads, "No," they both said.
"Nothing out of the ordinary," Leo added.
"Are you sure?" Chris checked again.
They both nodded. "Chris, what's that got to do with you and Wyatt coming back from the future. And what does Excalibur have to do with everything?" Leo asked him.
"Okay, maybe it would be easier if I just started at the beginning." Chris sighed.
"You have our full attention." Piper said.
"First of all, I am Baby Chris grown up. My life has been great, everything has been so much better." Chris started to explain.
"Except Wyatt is still evil?" Leo asked, basing his comment on seeing Wyatt the night before.
"He has problems, but he is no where near as bad as the first future. And we all know the reason this time, it's because of Excalibur."
"Why Excalibur?" Piper asked.
"Excalibur was really meant for me, not Wyatt. He was given it by mistake and its power corrupted him. Since Dad and the other Elders took it away from him, he has been completely obsessed with getting it back. That's all he thinks about. That's why we've come back in time. Excalibur was kept protected at Magic School, but Wyatt tried to steal it. In his attempt it was accidentally destroyed, but he was so desperate to still have it, he opened a time portal to come back in time for it. I tried to stop him, but unfortunately ended up going through the portal with him. I don't think he intended to come back to this time, because the spell he used was just for him, so when I went through with him we were thrown around like we were in a tornado and then thrown out here." Chris continued to explain.
"So that's how you ended up in the attic last night." Leo concluded.
"I can't believe Excalibur is meant for you, it hadn't even occurred to us." Piper said.
"I know, Wyatt the all powerful and twice blessed superwitch," Chris said sarcastically. "Don't worry, everyone just naturally thought it was meant for him. But when you pulled it out of the stone Mum, it was because it was meant for your son; I just hadn't been born yet. Maybe it was because I was here from the future that it appeared at that time, unfortunately as you know I was out looking for more demons after Wyatt, so missed everything that happened back then anyway. It was all over and Excalibur had been hidden in the attic by the time I got back."
"If you are Baby Chris grown up, how is it that you have the other Chris' memories as well?" Leo asked.
"When Gideon stabbed me, the athame had been cursed with powerful magic, Dad, that's why you couldn't heal me." Chris started to explain.
Leo nodded, not enjoying the memories this conversation was resurfacing.
"What you didn't know at the time, was the athame had also been cursed to kill in any timeline. Remember, Gideon was obsessed with Wyatt turning evil and wanted him gone for good. He didn't want to kill him, just to have you go back in time and save him again. He wanted the job done properly the first time. Well, unfortunately he stabbed me with it, and not only could you not save me at the time, but Baby Chris, who is me, is now destined to grow up and die at the same age."
"How did you find out about this?" A shocked Piper asked.
"Phoebe did. She started getting premonitions, and with the help of the Elders you came up with a counter spell to Gideon's magic."
"Well it must have worked, thank goodness, because you're here telling us all about it." Piper said relieved.
"Not exactly." Chris told them.
"What do you mean?" Leo asked.
"The counter spell by itself did not work. What you had to do was bring the me who had died in the past to merge with the me who was dying in the future. It got very complicated, but suffice to say that everything worked out in the end, and I woke up with two sets of memories. Apparently that is what would have happened if I had returned to the future anyway."
"Wow, this is amazing. I hadn't really thought about what would have happened when you returned to the future, because of course if the future had been changed there would have been no need for grown up Baby Chris to come back to the past." Leo said and then continued, "Did that make sense?" He asked.
"Don't worry about it, if you think about it too much you get dizzy!" Piper said. "The main thing is Chris is back and we need to help him."
"There's more I have to tell you first." Chris said to them.
"The dreams?" Leo asked.
"Exactly! Do you remember just before we went through the portal to the evil world you both had strange dreams?" Chris queried.
Piper and Leo thought back to the few months before and both nodded their heads.
"Yes, why are those dreams relevant to what's happening with Wyatt?" Leo asked.
"Not with Wyatt, no." Chris answered, then paused for a second trying to think of how to explain about the dreams now. "Okay," he continued, "Remember I told you that the Leo in my original future had the dreams just before I travelled back in time to you guys?"
"Yes," Leo answered. Piper nodded.
"And then you both had similar dreams the night before you and I, Dad, were due to travel in time to the future. Well, those dreams were showing you images of each of your greatest threats, and of course Gideon. At the time because you trusted Gideon implicitly you guessed that you were being warned about an evil that was after Gideon, and not that the evil was Gideon."
"Yes, we've talked about that since everything happened. The benefit of hindsight makes such a difference sometimes." Leo said.
"Well, if we'd known that Gideon was evil and used the potion as we had intended, then we would have gone to the future that day. And it would have been the future I've just come from."
Before Chris could continue, Piper cut in suddenly connecting the dots, "Leo would have found out about Excalibur."
"And when I came back, I would have been able to prevent it from happening." Leo concluded.
"Yes, and the whole future would have changed. Again!" Chris said, "Wyatt would have truly been saved this time."
"That is very interesting," Leo commented, "but what does it have to do with us having dreams now?"
"The Piper and Leo in my future also had the dreams." Chris told them.
"Again? What's going on? Who's sending these things and why?" Piper asked frustrated.
"I wish I knew, Mum, but I may have a way to find out." Chris answered her.
"What were the dreams about this time?" Leo asked.
"They said they were similar to what you described. Dark shapes of people moving in circles, and Wyatt and Excalibur were in them as well."
"So, it happened just before you time travelled again, and it warned about what was going to happen with Wyatt and Excalibur." Leo stated.
"It appears that way, yes." Chris agreed.
"So how do we find out who's sending these dreams?" Piper asked.
"You guys in the future, along with Phoebe, said your best guess would be some kind of ghost." Chris said.
"A ghost?" Piper repeated.
"That does make sense, ghosts definitely communicate through dreams." Leo said.
"Trouble is, we tried to summon it, but it didn't work, so we were just about to try the Spirit Board when everything happened with Wyatt and I ended up here." Chris said as he sat back and took a deep breath. "And that's it, now you're completely up to date!" He said relieved.
"Well we should try the spirit board as well." Piper suggested.
"But we haven't had any dreams yet." Leo said.
"Oh, that's right. Does that matter?" Piper asked.
"I really don't know. Most of this has been guess work." Chris answered.
Before Piper and Leo could question Chris further, suddenly the room was filled with the sound of a baby crying. Piper picked up the baby monitor, "Baby Chris must be hungry," and then she realized, "and you must be hungry too, Chris. I am so sorry, we were so involved in finding out why you were here, I completely forgot to offer you some food. You must be starving."
"I hadn't realized either, but now that you mention it, I am pretty hungry." Chris replied honestly.
"Leo, I'll take care of the baby, you take care of the adult," she instructed as she got up to leave the room.
After she left, Leo and Chris also got up to head to the kitchen. As they were walking together, Leo stopped and turned to Chris, seemingly wanting to ask him something, but not really knowing how to begin.
"What is it Dad?" Chris asked.
"I was wondering about your memories of the day that Gideon attacked you?" Leo asked him hesitantly.
"I remember everything, why?" Chris answered him.
"Because that day has haunted me for months now," Leo confessed.
"That was a bad day, with the evil world and then happy world," Chris started to agree, but was interrupted.
"No Chris, I'm not talking about any of that," Leo said, but then corrected himself, "Of course, that was all bad enough, but I'm talking about a promise I made to you. I promised I would save you and send you back to your own time. I left you on that bed to bleed to death, and you trusted my promise that I would save you. I'll never forget the look on your face as I orbed out. You were in incredible pain and yet you were still only concerned about your brother. I have relived that day, over and over again, trying to think of what I could have done to save you. I never should have left you alone with Wyatt in the first place. I knew Gideon was after him, I knew you could not possibly defeat him, he was a powerful Elder."
Chris had let his father talk, because it was obviously something he needed to get out of his system, but decided to cut in, "Dad, that was a crazy day, even with the dreams to warn us, there was no way you could have predicted what was going to happen, and I certainly don't blame you for anything. The whole reason I came back from the future was to save Wyatt. I was always willing to give up my life if it saved the future, because so much more was at stake than just my life."
"I know that now, Chris, I don't think any of us really understood back then. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I put you in that position and I'm sorry I didn't keep my promise to save you." Leo said earnestly.
"Dad, there's no need," Chris started to say, but was interrupted by Leo.
"Just say okay, Chris, please."
Chris looked at the pain on his Dad's face, "Okay," he said softly.
The relief was immediately evident as Leo sighed, "Thank you. Now we'd better get you some food before your Mum gets back."
"I'd really like one of your famous chicken, lettuce and mayo sandwiches." Chris requested.
"I have a famous sandwich?" Leo asked him surprised.
"Yep! Mum finally let you in the kitchen." Chris told him.
"Well, I'd better get to making it then." Leo said as the two of them walked into the kitchen.