Hi everybody! I tried to update on time! I really did, but I don't know what's up with my computer. I've struggled so much with getting this chap up. I hope it's worth it. lol. Anyways, this is my final chapter in this story. I'm kinda sad, but I have my sequel to keep me company. I just hope it doesn't end up in the dumpster again! lol. Continuing… um…next week, (I just hope it'll be on time!) I will give a final list of thanks to everyone who has ever reviewed. Please tell me if you like the story! I know this chapter is long it's about 5 ½ pages in Word! It sums up everything and (forgive me!) there's a lot of reiterating of the story with new parts in-between so you really can't weed it out, but I think it's necessary for tying up loose ends and avoiding confusion.
C.Charmed24/7: Wow! I'm glad you like it! It really brightened my day to see your review! Thanks a lot!
Okay, 'til next time everyone! Luv, bunn
Epilogue
Chap 57
When Kat had first come, she transformed the basement into something completely unrecognizable. It was now twice its size and finished. It looked almost like another house beneath the manor.
Of course there were Chris, Kat, and Phoebe and Cole's rooms, but there were a few more rooms too. One room she hadn't explained. In fact she had kept it under lock and key until she went back to the future. Just before she had left, she put a note on her parents' bed explaining everything. Not only had she always planned on saving Luc when she saved Chris from Gideon but the locked room was always Luc's.
The walls were sky blue with big white fluffy clouds and colorful hot air balloons floating above a grassy pasture painted on them. She left the rest of it was empty so it could be filled later.
Now Cole sat underneath a toddler's bed with a tool set that he borrowed from Leo. "Crap!" He crawled out from underneath. "Are you sure he needs one of these?" He joked half-serious.
"Want the instructions?" She offered holding their son in her arms. Ever since she got home from the hospital with Piper, she barely put him down.
"No, I don't need them."
"Uh-huh. Okay, whatever. What should we rename him?"
Frustrated Cole picked up the instructions and mumbled something to himself. "Huh?" He looked up from the instructions sheet.
"We can't keep him named Lucifer! Can you imagine what'll happen to him at school? He'll be an outcast!"
"Whoa, Phoebe, slow down. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. "
She sighed. "I know I just I want things to be perfect for him. We've missed so much."
"Hey, it's okay. No matter what, he's stuck with us from now on." She smiled at him. "Okay so how about we just call him Luke?"
"No, I think I want to keep that his nickname. How about Lucas?"
"Ok." Cole started to put to parts together. "Lucas Benjamin Halliwell?"
"Benjamin?"
"After my father. He was a good man. Even though I never really knew him, I still know that I owe him everything good in my life. I wouldn't be here today without the soul he gave me."
Phoebe nodded. "All right. Just one thing."
"What?"
"Halliwell-Turner." They smiled at each other. He got up kissing both Phoebe and Luc.
Chap 58
Sitting on her bed, Piper fed little Chris. Wyatt magically arranged his building blocks in a near by playpen. "Da!" He happily pointed as Leo's orbs filled the room.
He looked unsure and a little unhappy until he saw his family sitting in his room. "Hey, how are my boys? And their lovely mother?" He gave her a small kiss after ruffling Wyatt's hair.
"Oh, we're fine. How was your meeting?" His face fell. "Was it bad?"
He sat beside her. "I don't really know what to call it. More like confusing, I guess."
"What was it about or can you not tell me?"
"It was about Gideon and the future."
"Gideon? Why would the meeting be about Gideon? We vanquished him months ago?"
"Well, apparently because we didn't." Piper's face fell and Leo felt her panic begin to rise. "No, no, don't worry. The Elders say that he's no threat to us. In fact he's been promoted."
"Promoted? Do they remember that he kidnapped our son? Or that he did that to stop us from knowing that he was going to kill our other son? Or that maybe he brought Cole back from the dead to kill our niece so that-"
"Piper! Clam down! He says he did it all for the greater good. It was all a part of one big plan to save the future."
"What does that mean?"
"Okay, from the beginning?" She nodded; he continued. "Gideon wasn't you're usual everyday Elder. He was the Elders' liaison to The Powers that Be. His powers were much more advanced, especially his ability to see the future and other realities. He knew that a demon would kill you and turn Wyatt causing the world to go into turmoil. He knew that Chris would return, but he also knew that Chris would fail and return to the future thinking otherwise. Kat didn't mind the fighting of the future so much. She knew where things were and how she fit in them. Even though it would sometimes bother her, she wouldn't've changed it, but she was needed to help save the world. Gideon knew this so he did something to Chris to lure her here."
"What did he do to Chris?"
Leo shook his head. "I don't know. They wouldn't tell me, but I gather it was something big. Kat would only come if he were hurt. She must've lied to him when she came here. She came to save Chris. Saving Luc and the rest of the world were just added bonuses to her. When Kat and Chris returned to the future, it was only partially saved. Luc still became evil and worse yet so did Kat. Gideon knew that before Kat's memories came back completely she would do the noble thing."
"Which was?" Piper interrupted.
"Which was getting the only two people that could to vanquish her before it was too late."
"Phoebe and Cole," Piper whispered shifting Chris.
"Exactly. The future Elders would use the vanquish as a portal to send her back and make her correct her 'mistake.' Kat being Kat, she pissed off the Tribunal," Leo continued as Piper began to burp Chris.
"Tribunal?" She asked.
Leo shook his head. "It's even longer story and not important right now. The point is, is that she pissed them off and to make sure she wasn't wiped from existence, Gideon sent her further back. She needed to win the original Schermo da Luce. That was during the years when Prue lived. Do you remember Kellman?"
"Oh, sure. Wasn't he the nice fellow that shoved a shiny silver ball with spikes into my back?" Piper answered sarcastically.
Leo could only offer a dorky smile in response. "Yeah, honey. Anyway, the Source kept the amulet there for safekeeping. She won it and the army. Gideon stole the army from her and used it against us."
"But he only stole the army?"
"Yeah, because he knew that she would burn it to a crisp and that Cole and I would need it to save her. So he got a copy that had similar perks."
"The real amulet was that thing in our fire safety deposit box wasn't it? For that charge of yours."
"Yeah…see she shimmered into Kellman's office just before Prue and Phoebe brought you up to get healing from me. I don't know why I trusted Kat. When I saw Phoebe, I guess I saw the resemblance between them."
"Okay, but you never seemed to realize that when she was here."
"The air about her was completely different, Piper."
"…So where do things go from here?"
"No one else is here from the future and Gideon's been promoted to Power that Be. So I think that means we get to go on with our lives and the future will be fine. The Elders say that there are a few precautions that Phoebe and Cole may wanna take, though."
"Like?" Piper asked. When he explained it to her, she said, "I don't know how well Phoebe's gonna take most of those."
"Yeah, that's why I'm going to tell Cole and let him break it to her gently."
Piper nodded. "That might be the best thing." She handed Chris over to Leo. He began to gently rock him to sleep when it occurred to Piper. "Will he remember any of this?"
"No, he won't. He would've if he had gone straight from this timeline to the new future, but the other future was in between them. And in that other future, Chris died. Something about that seems to allow time to…I don't know...catch up?"
"But Chris'll be all right?"
"Yes," Leo reassured her.
"What about Kat?"
He shrugged. "They don't know. Technically she was vanquished, but she didn't die. Plus, she has the power of premonition. She may know in the future."
Chap 59
"Okay, I think that at least one of those is doable," Cole told Leo. In the background they heard Piper yelling at Phoebe while Paige tried (and failed) to mediate, the nightly routine after dinner ended.
"The Elders say all of them have to be done."
"Okay, let's be logical here. The Wiccaning is easy because Phoebe is probably already planning to harass Piper into letting him share Chris'. Personally I want to live, so I'm not getting involved." He made a 'thanks but no thanks' gesture with his hands. "But memory wiping? You've got to be kidding me."
Leo shook his head. "Unfortunately no. I understand you're a little iffy about the whole thing, but it's totally safe. The Elders wouldn't harm him in anyway. Actually it'll be good for him. All they're gonna do is take what the shapeshifters programmed in him and reverse a good chunk of it. To do that they may add birthday parties, family gatherings, and maybe some memories of our visitors from the future. Nothing more nothing less."
"It won't hurt him?"
"Not at all."
Hesitantly Cole answered, "Ok. That last thing though. I don't know about that. Do you remember last time?"
"Things are different now. Just remind her of that."
"Leo, do you even believe what you just said?"
"Good luck," he nonanswered.
(BREAK)
Cole walked downstairs. He checked on Luc sleeping peacefully in his new bed. Cole smiled. Then he walked down the hall and checked in Kat's room. Immediately he felt stupid.
"I keep doing that too," Phoebe said behind him. "I mean it was easy to adjust to Luc being here, but not to her not being here. I check on both kids and forget that one doesn't even exist yet. It's weird." Cole nodded. She awkwardly played with the ring that wasn't on her finger. Phoebe had been thinking about everything that happened over two years ago. Things were so much different now. She knew that eventually they would remarry and live happily ever after. That's why she didn't want to push him, but she wanted her family together now.
"Phoebe-"
"Cole-" They started in unison and laughed uneasily. "You go first," Phoebe said.
He bent down on one knee. "I love you. I love our children. I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you four and I never want to let go. I know the first time didn't go over that well, but…"
Phoebe bent down to Cole's level and put her finger over his lips. "It's different now. I now that and I know that last time everything you did was for us. Cole, if you're asking me to marry you again, then my answer is yes."
Chap 60
Future
2027
The church looked magnificent, and the girls had done a spectacular job. Everyone said so, but he never noticed. Here surrounded by friends and family, he only saw the person in front of him. She took his breath away, and he thought the biggest miracle of the day was that in spite of his awe he could still speak.
"I do." Chris beamed at Bianca.
At first Chris and Bianca had been worried about how the family would react to their marriage. They knew that at first, no one had been keen on letting Cole, the demon, into the family, and they weren't too sure on how they'd react to an assassin witch. They were really surprised. It was almost as they had expected the whole thing.
Paige exclaimed, "Finally!"
While Piper flung her arms around Bianca and immediately asked, "So how soon 'til I get to be a grandmother?"
During the ceremony, Leo barely heard anything because of Piper's loud sobs. They were so proud. It only felt like yesterday that the neurotic stranger orbed into their lives. She remembered how driven he was and how much he pushed them to vanquish demons daily. It wasn't until he lied on their couch dying that they really saw him as another human being.
Only after she stripped Chris of his powers and brought him back to the future that Bianca realized her mistake. She died fighting Wyatt so that Chris could return to the past. That was how much she loved him.
Now as if none of that had ever happened, all three of them stood up there. Wyatt was Chris' best man and Bianca was alive and well. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the future wasn't saved. Everyone agreed that Chris and Bianca deserved the best kind of happiness as a reward for their sacrifices.
Chap 61
The reception was being held at the manor. Before they had left that morning, Kat magically cleared the living room and sunroom. Then she summoned chairs, tables, and a dance floor. The rooms were beautifully decorated and almost as fancy as the church had been.
Most of the family sat at the table not too far from the dance floor. Chris and Bianca had just had their first dance as husband and wife. They walked over to the family.
The singer announced that this was now the time for the father daughter dance. Embarrassed Bianca started to stare at her feet. Phoebe jumped up from her seat. "I told them not to do this! I'm so sorry, Bianca."
After Bianca's trip from the future, her mother abandoned her. Leo had gone to check on her for Chris when he found her in an alley. He became her Whitelighter and sent her to magic school. That's where she had met Chris.
After he had proposed, she went to find her family. They wouldn't let her back. In their minds she had been dead for a long time.
Before Phoebe could go and lash out at the band, Leo got up. "Bianca, you've married my son and to me that makes you as good as my daughter. So would you give me the pleasure of having this dance with you?"
She smiled. "Thanks, Leo."
"Dad," he corrected.
"Dad." They walked on to the dance floor and Chris took a seat in his father's chair.
"You really hit the jackpot there, Chris," Luc said bouncing his daughter, Grace, on his knee.
"Yeah," he answered distractedly watching her and Leo dance.
"So does this mean that you two are too good to still live with me?" Wyatt joked. Chris and Wyatt shared an apartment near their college where they were both studying to become doctors.
Faith, Luc's wife, answered before Chris could even open his mouth. "Probably not until he get one of these and then you'll be kicking him out," she laughed. "Isn't that right, Gracey?" She said in baby talk to the little girl bouncing on her husband's knee.
"How about we don't get too far ahead of ourselves here? And if you say that please woulda ya say it a little softer? I don't want Mom to pounce." Wyatt laughed and opened his mouth to yell for Piper when Chris said, "Do that and I will remind her of who isn't married yet."
"You wouldn't!"
"Oh keep pushing, big brother."
"Hey boys! Be nice to your mother especially when she's not here to defend herself!" Paige playfully scolded.
"Yeah, where is Piper?" Phoebe looked around.
"Probably looking for film," Kat offered.
"Oh, is that what the seer says now?" Luc teased.
Indignantly she answered, "Yes, that's what the seer says."
"And what does the seer say about Chris and Bianca's future?"
"They'll live happily ever after in a big house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, a two car garage, screaming kids, and a dog. You know, the whole nine yards."
"That doesn't sound so much like us as much as it sounds like the oldies TV shows you watch," Chris shook his head.
"You're right. You two are magical overachievers. Before you live happily ever after you'll end up saving the world from extinction at least once or twice."
