Part Two: The Traveler

Chapter Six

Wyatt had stood over the dozing Chris while Merlin shuffled through books and papers in search of the spell to reverse the accidental switch. This was good grounds to refuse another attempt at this past life therapy Aunt Phoebe had proposed for Wyatt. He had no use for the soul-searching — literally — that she thought he so needed. The person he was today was quite enough, and all that mattered. He was powerful, he was in control of his future — who cared about the past? It was more suited to Chris, his little brother who cultivated past hurts, cherished them. Wyatt didn't let that sort of thing control him.

He went along with Phoebe's idea, because what harm could it do him? He would show her that it wouldn't touch him for good or ill. Nevertheless, he felt nothing but relief when the spell veered its way to Chris. That way Wyatt wouldn't have to put up with it, and then the spell going wrong in every possible way doomed the possibility of trying again.

Chris had been sleeping for ten minutes when Merlin announced he had found what he needed. He wielded a hefty old book, and waved a fragile piece of parchment he had pulled from between its pages. "It can be difficult to remember where you've stored something when you've had it for centuries." He stepped in front of Chris in the chair and read:

A straying spell was the cause
Of one soul's quest throughout time
Now let all be as it was
Restore them both with this rhyme

A light glowed around Chris and faded. First he stirred, then started as if awakened by a loud noise.

Before Wyatt or Merlin could speak, Chris called out, "Dad! Dad!" He waited but there was no answer. A little more desperately: "Dad! Why doesn't he answer?"

"Chris, first of all, chill," Wyatt said. "Secondly, you know he's been gone with a charge all this week."

"I need to see him. Dad!"

"Dad," Wyatt said almost simultaneously, and Leo appeared a moment later. Merlin watched impassively, but Wyatt inwardly groaned. Better to have kept his mouth shut — he knew how Chris was going to interpret this. And would he be right? Wyatt could feel their father's attention subtly focused on his older son, even though Leo asked:

"What do you two need?"

"Chris," Wyatt emphasized, "needed to see you."

"Forget it," Chris said. "It's not important."

"I'm sorry, but I was with a charge, and it was something of a crisis."

"Well, maybe I had 'something of a crisis' too. But I said forget it. I don't need your help. I need to talk to Merlin."

"Tell me what's going on."

It was Leo's best conciliatory Whitelighter tone. Condescending, Wyatt thought. Oh, that's going to help, Dad.

"Nothing important," Chris snapped. "I mean it. Go back to your charge."

Wyatt guessed that their father was warring between the fact that he probably needed to get back to that charge, and the fact that Chris had managed to maneuver it so that he had ordered his dad to leave.

As usual, Leo compromised. "I'm going to check to make sure he's okay. Then I'll be back."

"Great. Whatever you need to do."

Once Leo had orbed away, Chris said to Merlin, "I know who stole Vincenta's power."

"Someone stole Vincenta's power?" Wyatt asked.

"Oh yeah, that's right, I never got a chance to tell you. This guy, yesterday, did something to her and now she can't turn invisible. Then I saw him in the past — Alaric."

Merlin considered this. "You're sure?"

Leo returned at that moment. Chris marked the arrival with an aggrieved glance, and answered Merlin: "No question."

"I must say, I knew him for many, many years back then and he certainly showed no evil intentions. But who knows what can happen in over a thousand years? Leo, do you remember Alaric?"

"Who?"

"You would have known him in one of your past lives. As a Whitelighter, you have those memories, I presume? Alaric was a witch – he worked with your cousin Robert's wife."

"Robert — yes, sure, I remember him. But Alaric … I think I met him a few times. And he was there the day I …" Leo trailed off, looking at Chris, the memory dawning, the connection made. "The boy Aldith found in the woods …"

"Yes," Merlin said, "Chris has just had his own little glimpse of a past life, but he's here safe and sound, and now he sees that you are as well."

"I just wanted to make sure he was okay," Chris said in a low voice. "I saw him killed by a demon right in front of me."

"But if he wasn't okay now," Wyatt scoffed, "you wouldn't have a present life to come back to."

"Wyatt," Leo chided, as Chris snapped:

"I didn't think about that! He died on a rescue mission to get me back here to this time."

Merlin intervened. "He died on a mission to bring your past counterpart back home after he got lost with his dog in some rather treacherous woods. Nothing significantly changed by your presence."

"How do you know this?" Wyatt asked. "Didn't your memory of the events change too?"

Merlin shrugged and affected an air of mystery. Wyatt was dubious, but dropped the point.

"The important thing is," the wizard continued, "we now have this information about Alaric, who is evidently alive in this time and not quite as trustworthy as he may once have been. In the meantime, I suggest you boys go home with your father, and you can fill him in on what happened. I trust," he turned to Wyatt, "that your mother will not kill me for Chris being incapacitated for ten minutes or so?"

"Wait," Chris said. "I was gone how long?"

Wyatt answered, "Like he said, about ten minutes. He knocked your past self out. I never got to talk to him."

"But I was there a whole day!"

"You were there until you could get to me so that I could perform the spell to switch you back," Merlin explained. "It took you almost twenty-four hours to get to me. Whereas your past self was already in my presence, thank goodness. I expected he might have had a more difficult time adjusting to the twenty-first century than you would in the past. You at least had history to go by. So, they merely thought you were peculiar rather than insane. And believe me, Aldith would never let your past self live that down. She would insist on teasing you with 'Christopher, the traveler' for the rest of that lifetime. Of course, you didn't know what she was talking about. I explained that you were under the effects of a spell that went wrong. You believed that easily."

"So, Aldith and I, we met again?" Chris asked.

"Oh yes. She and Alaric as well, it must be said — they were of great assistance to you on a number of occasions."

"Like how?"

"Ah, I've said too much. If you were meant to see that, you would have," Merlin said. "That's how the spell works."

"Right," Wyatt said. "The spell that went completely and totally wrong."

The wizard said unapologetically as he ushered them out of the office, "Nevertheless, I'd prefer not to risk it."

"Between Phoebe's great ideas and Merlin's spells …" Piper stopped, exasperation momentarily leaving her speechless after she heard the whole story later that evening. "I mean, did my sister not remember how the whole past life spell thing worked out for her? We were stuck here with evil past Phoebe running around with a demon while our Phoebe almost got killed. And Merlin can't even get the spell to hit the right person!"

"I'm not so sure that was an accident," Wyatt said. "I wouldn't put it past him. Especially since the exact thing that brought Chris to the office in the first place was what he found in the past."

"This Alaric."

"I just wish that I could have done something to stop him, to stop that from ever happening," Chris said. "But I called Vincenta, and nothing's changed. Her power is still gone."

"Do you remember this guy?" Piper asked her husband.

"I do. But I didn't know him well at all, and it's been a really long time."

"Why don't we summon Prue and ask her?" Chris suggested. "Or … Robert, you remembered him. Can we summon him?"

"Who's Robert?" Piper asked.

"Prue's husband back then," Chris answered. "I didn't recognize him, like I recognized Aunt Prue and Dad. But he seemed like a decent person, and smart, and he didn't trust Alaric, no matter how good everyone else thought he was way back then."

"You never met Robert in this lifetime," Leo said, "so you wouldn't recognize him. But your mother would have."

"Really? As who?"

"Andy."

Chris didn't know the name, but he guessed Andy was someone good, judging by his mother's fond smile.

"Prue's husband, huh?"

Leo grinned. "Yeah, go figure. Anyway, Chris, it wouldn't do any good to question either of them about Alaric, unless they had met him in their most recent lifetime. It's only when you're made a Whitelighter that you get to remember all your past lives."

"Did you remember me?"

Leo hesitated. "I do now. You have to understand, I only met you that one day, and it was so long ago. What matters is the life we've got now, right, buddy?"

And in this life he couldn't get his dad to respond to his calls without Wyatt backing him up, Chris reminded himself bitterly.

"Look, I'm tired. I know that physically I was only sleeping in Merlin's office for ten minutes, but I feel like I've been tromping through the woods and dodging demons and bandits for days. I'm going to bed."

Wyatt stopped Chris on his way up the stairs. "Hey, kid, don't worry. Now that we know him, we're gonna get this Alaric guy. Make him reverse what he did — make him pay, sooner or later."

Chris could see their mother over Wyatt's shoulder, listening, and he knew she was ready to tell her older son that it wasn't his job to take on that fight. Chris would leave them to that argument — Wyatt was used to it.

"Thanks," Chris said, and went upstairs, grateful to shut himself in his own room and collapse on his own blissfully comfortable and warm twenty-first-century bed.

End of Part 2

Author's Note: Onward to Part 3! It may take a little while because it will be my last chance to get in all my clues and plot points before everything comes to a head in Part 4. So just to make sure I don't forget anything important, I want to get a good chunk of Part 3 done before I start posting chapters. In the meantime, thanks for reading so far, and I hope you come back!