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Chapter 11: Darkness of the Future

"This is what I mean," future Phoebe said and took a closer step to past Phoebe. "You murdering bitch."

And she punched her. Squarely in the jaw.

"Phoebe!" Piper squealed at her future little sister. She went to present Phoebe's side and looked at her face. "Are you alright. Stupid question, I know."

With Piper's help, Phoebe stood up and looked her self in the face. "What the hell was that for? Why do you think I murdered someone?"

"Because you did."

"What did she do?" Paige asked.

"Shut up," future Paige barked at her. "It was your fault too."

"Me?! What did I do?"

Piper held up her hands between the arguing parties. "Alright. Hold it people. We are having a major intervention. Future witches, that corner, present witches, over there. Leo, Chris, and I will be acting as mediators. No one is to say anything without our permission, alright. Glad you agree," Piper said, not waiting for a reply.

"Wait. Chris, as in your son Chris?" future Phoebe asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"He's alive?"

"Clearly."

"So we've been trying to kill the real Chris, not a demon?"

"Yeah," Chris said bitterly.

"Sorry we tried to kill you," Paige apologized. "There is a shape-shifter who likes to take form as people we know to try to get us to trust him. We thought you were him."

"See, in our time, baby Chris died, so we assumed big Chris died too. How could he not have?"

"It's the time-traveling thing," Chris explained. "In the present, I'm not born yet, and that was the time I left in. So when I came to the future, I didn't die because I'm technically not even born yet."

"Stupid time-traveling," both Paige's said.

"Alright. Can we get back to the matter at hand? How did Piper and Chris die?" Leo asked.

"There was, is, a demon, a very powerful demon. One that can't be vanquished without the Power of Three, which no longer exists."

"It's hard to explain what happened, really. There was a lot of confusion and everyone was running every which way. Some where in the middle of it, Piper pushed Phoebe down to protect her from the demon. Next thing we knew, Piper was dead."

Everyone was silent and looked at Piper who looked at the floor. "At least I was protecting one of my sisters," she mumbled.

"Piper..." both Phoebes said, but neither could comfort their sister.

"There's something I think you should see," future Paige said to them. "Leo! Wyatt!"

Two figures emerged out of swirling blue lights. One was a sandy-haired man that everyone immediately recognized as Leo, but the other man was a stranger. He was taller than the other man, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Wyatt?" Piper asked and he turned around to face her.

"Mom?" he asked, staring at Piper in surprise. "Mom!" he yelled and swooped Piper in to a huge bear hug. "You're alive!"

Piper awkwardly hugged him back. She didn't recognize this boy as her almost two-year-old son. The resemblance was there, but it still didn't seem as her little boy, Wyatt.

He released her and future Leo took a step towards her. "Piper," he said and held out a hand, but Leo, her Leo, put a protective hand on her shoulder. Future Leo dropped his hand and was content just looking at Piper.

"I hate to break up this little love fest," future Phoebe said, after a hug from her nephew, "but we need you to orb us somewhere."

"Aunt Phoebe, you know we are not allowed to orb you anywhere since you aren't practice good magic anymore."

"We know, Wyatt," Paige said. "We need you to orb them."

"Why?" present Paige asked. "We can orb ourselves."

"No you can't. Your future selves have your powers, so you don't have any. Piper only has hers because she is dead."

Future Paige conferred with Leo and Wyatt for a moment, and then grabbed future Phoebe's hand. Leo and Wyatt grabbed various hands of the time-traveling group and orbed them out.

They arrived at a cemetery, in front of two tombstones, each bearing a name.

"Piper Halliwell. Christopher Halliwell," Paige read off of the stones.

Chris studied the inscription on the headstone, his headstone, intently. It took a few seconds for the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place, but the idea finally clicked into his head. "There's something wrong with this date. It says I died a month before Mom did."

"We never said you were both killed by the same demon," Phoebe said sadly.

"Then which demon killed me?"

"You weren't killed by a demon. You were killed by something much worse."

"What was it?" Piper asked.

"This is the real reason we brought you here," Phoebe said, holding up a tooth she had picked up from Piper's grave.

"What is that?!" present Paige exclaimed.

"A tooth from the demon that killed Piper."

"But not Chris," Piper said, interrupting.

Phoebe continued on, ignoring her. "I'm not going into details about how we got it; it involves a few dodgy tricks, a failed potion, and quite a few scars." As for emphasis, Paige lowered her shirt sleeve so they could see the large scars running down her shoulder. She pulled her sleeve back up.

For the first time, future Phoebe took a step towards herself in a non-threaten manner. She put the tooth in Phoebe's hand and curled her fingers around it. "Promise me you will find the demon that did this and kill it."

"I promise," Phoebe said without hesitation. Future Phoebe stepped back towards future Paige.

"We should get you guys back to your own time. The longer you are here, the more danger you are in."

Everyone was orbed back to the dusty attic of the manor. Once there, Phoebe handed her future self the return spell. Future Phoebe read it over. "Good wording. Couldn't have done better myself." She gave Phoebe a smile, who in turn laughed.

Chris began to draw a Triquetra on the wall, the symbol that would the portal back to the present. The spell was to open the portal between time realms. "I'm getting pretty good at drawing this," he joked, referring to all the time-traveling he has done. When he was finished, he put the chalk down and went back to the group.

After a round of tear-filled hugs good bye, Leo, Chris, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige all stood in a group near each other, while future Phoebe and Paige held hands and began to recite the spell:

Doors of time open wide,

From time nothing can hide,

Take them back to where they belong,

It is time to say so-long.

The Triquetra behind them erupted in swirling color. Future Phoebe, Paige, and Wyatt gave Piper one last hug good bye. "Take care, Mom" Wyatt whispered in her ear.

"I will." She took a step back and smiled at them. Leo, her Leo, grabbed her hand and began to lead her towards the portal.

But a loud roar interrupted them. It grew louder and louder until the whole house began to shake.

"What is that?"

"It the demon! You have to go! Now!" Leo and Wyatt orbed out and Paige and Phoebe took up a fighting stance. "Leave! Hurry!"

The house began to rumble more. In a moment of panic, Phoebe turned around and shoved Piper, who was in front of Phoebe, Paige, Leo, and Chris, into the portal. In turn, Piper ended up pushing the others with her into the portal.

But in that moment of panic, Phoebe left Paige alone, susceptible to the demon. As Piper swirled though the portal, she saw a blob of green throw Paige across the room. Piper tried to call out to Phoebe, but she couldn't.

When all five of them arrived back in their times, they were thrown across the attic with great force. Leo was the first to recover; he stood up and asked, "Is everyone okay?"

"Physically," Paige said, standing up.

"I'm kind of iffy on that," Phoebe said rubbing her shoulder. "But I'll be fine."

Chris stood up. "I'm fine."

Leo looked around for Piper, but didn't see her. "Piper?" Where was she? Did she make it through the portal? "Piper?!" he cried out, worried.

"Over here!" she called, buried beneath some boxes. Leo ran to her and helped her up.

"Are you alright?" he asked, giving her a hand.

"More or less. What was that thing?" she asked once she was standing.

"I don't know, but I'm glade everyone's alright," Leo said, holding Piper close. For a few seconds he thought he had lost her. That was a feeling he hated, but one that happened too often, especially lately.

"Future Phoebe and Paige aren't," Piper said quietly. Nobody said anything.

Phoebe finally broke the silence. "Let's go get some sleep. We have a demon to vanquish in the morning."