A/N: ATTN: All readers. If you are reading this, can you PLEASE submit a review? I really appreciate the feedback, and it does help me craft the story more easily. I don't write 3 or 4 chapters ahead, so your feedback can help shape the story. Please review!
JadeAlmasy- Another review? I think you are my most loyal reviewer! Thanks so much for your support!
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Pots were boiling on the stovetop in the Halliwell kitchen. Phyra, Piper, Wyatt and Chris had developed a system of potion making and vial filling that worked with the ease of slipping on a ratty old tennis shoe. Phyra worked one pot, adding ingredients and stirring, while Chris filled potion bottles from the finished batches. Piper and Wyatt did the same at the other side of the stove. The kitchen table was laden with filled potion bottles of all sizes and colors.
"Well, either we are the most prepared witches around, or the most neurotic." Phyra mused to herself. Piper and Wyatt shared an amused glance at Chris. "Neurotic" they both answered in unison.
"I am not neurotic! I just like to have all the angles covered. Is there anything wrong with that?" Chris snapped at them. He was mentally checking off all the things that he wanted done.
"Nothing's wrong with it. But you do realize that's like the textbook description of neurotic, though, right little brother?" Wyatt teased.
Chris relaxed, seeing Wyatt's laughter in his eyes. Thank God, EW hadn't taken hold yet. Chris had a hard enough time dealing with one EW; the thought of two was unacceptable. "Yeah, yeah. I'm neurotic. But I'd rather be neurotic than, what was it Abby called you? Emotionally handicapped? Ouch!" Chris shot Wyatt a teasing grin.
"That was last week. An hour ago, she was calling me a stud." Wyatt winked at his brother.
"Whoa! Ok, WAY too much info, guys. Remember, this is mom, the one that changed your smelly diapers. I don't want to hear about my boys being studs." Piper broke in.
Wyatt flushed. He'd forgotten Piper was in the room, and had been just bragging to his brother like they always did.
"Don't worry, Mrs. H. My exact words were a studly, but brainless piece of meat. Not as flattering that way." Abby walked into the kitchen. She shoved Wyatt. "I still can't believe you just couldn't tell me you though that you were being possessed. What a moron!"
Chris snickered. "First you're emotionally handicapped, then a brainless piece of meat, and now a moron. Wow, Wy, you've got true love there, if I've ever seen it."
Wyatt didn't answer, instead, he just snapped his fingers, and caused the potion Phyra was mixing to bubble over onto the stove. It was a long standing rule in Piper's kitchen that the potion filler cleaned all messes.
"Mo-oo—oo-m. Wyatt TK'd the potion." Chris whined theatrically, as he did when he was about 4 years hold.
"But M-oo-ooo-oom, Chris started it. He was being a brat!" Wyatt defended in his own teasing sing-song.
"Both of you made the mess, both of you get to clean it up." Piper ended the fake argument quickly. "Phy, how are we doing on the dark lighter potion?"
"Almost done, Auntie Piper. I made a little modification in it though. I added some ginger root, so that if they try to use their arrows, the ginger will actually lesson the poison. I'll still slow us down, but at least it won't kill us."
Chris, Wyatt, and Piper stopped and stared at their mini-potion master. She looked up from her pot and saw them all staring at her. "What?" she asked.
"You just made a major modification to a potion that tends to slow down a dark lighter on attack. The normal potion puts him into a slow motion, slow moving demon, so that we've been able to orb away." Wyatt started.
"Yeah, it took mom like 20 years to get that potion to the point it's at." Chris added.
"And in the blink of an eye, you make it even more powerful with one single ingredient! That's awesome, Phy. You are now the full-time potion master around here. I hereby hand over my torch. This kitchen is yours." Piper said slowly.
Phyra grinned widely. "Thanks, Auntie Piper." She hugged her aunt quickly, and went back to stirring.
A loud crash was heard from the living room. Paige screamed out, "INCOMING!" as a group of various demons flamed in.
Chris, Wyatt and Phyra each grabbed handful of energy ball potions, and orbed out, handing them to each of their family members. Piper hurried into the living room, her arms full of various potions.
Paige orbed to her as soon as she spotted her in the doorway. She grabbed a purple potion and threw it at a female demon engaged in a fight with Phoebe. She instantly disintegrated. Phoebe ran over with a squeal, and grabbed some potions too, throwing and hitting demons over an over until the room was clear. The sisters looked at each other. "Man, this is really gonna suck!" Paige said matter-of-factly.
"You ain't kidding, sister." Piper shot back. "Let's go find our kids. They ditched us."
They found the rest of the family huddled over the Book of Shadows in the attic.
"Hey, what's going on here? We could've used some demon help downstairs." Phoebe complained. She hated to be left out of anything.
"Sorry, mom. But I found something in the book that I think will help." Patience said quietly.
"Well what have you got?" Piper asked.
"Potions." Chris murmured quietly, orbing all the potion bottles from the kitchen up to the attic, where they could use them.
"Well, the entry on the Time Loop is changing before my eyes. I mean, I was re-reading it just to make sure that there wasn't anything Chris might have missed." She paused at the looks her family shot her. "Well, it could happen. Anyway, as I opened the book, there was writing appearing on the page. Just like someone else was writing it!"
"Someone else is writing it. Someone from the past most likely, or maybe a spirit." Piper broke in, seeing the scrolled writing forming on the page.
"Whoa… guys, look!" Patrick yelled, pointing to a form in the corner of the attic, appearing in a million gold lights.
"Grams? Is that you?" Phoebe asked nervously, as the figure didn't show itself, but stayed a shadowy presence.
"Look, show yourself, or you can go to Hell, where you belong!" Phyra yelled grabbing a blue potion bottle that contained one of their most powerful all purpose potions.
The figure gave a dry laugh, and formed into a real body. "I didn't know potions worked on good witches now." He cracked his neck. "So I hear my Wyatt has been bothering your Wyatt. I'm here to take him off your hands."
"Chris…." Piper breathed. It was her baby. Her precious little boy that had died 20 years ago to create a better world. She rushed over to him, enveloping him in a tight hug.
"Mom. God it's so good to see you again." Future Chris held on tight to his mother.
"Son, I'm so sorry! I…" Leo choked on his voice. He'd waited 20 years to apologize to his boy. "My biggest regret is that I couldn't save you. I swear, if I could, I would have changed it."
"Dad, it's ok. I didn't die. Didn't you ever wonder why my body just disappeared? When you killed Gideon it changed the future. It made it a good future. One that Wyatt actually missed me in. My body was gone, because he summoned me magically. He brought me back to the future, and healed me. It's a happy place. Or at least, it was until a few weeks ago. A demon got to Wyatt, and turned him. Since then, he's been acting like the old, evil Wyatt I remember. Then all of a sudden, he disappeared. I found the book turned to the Time Loop, and knew what he'd done."
Chris looked around the room. There were several faces he didn't recognize. He scanned the room silently with his green eyes until he found a matching pair.
"Chris." He nodded at his other self.
Chris didn't know what to say. "Um, Hi?" He guessed. How often did you see your future self that was presumed dead?
Future Chris smiled coyly. "Good to meet you. Look, if I know Wyatt, he'll be here any second. And I found a loop hole in the Time Loop. Evil can only take over good magic, if there is a seed of evil already planted. We know that in Wyatt, he can swing either way, because of his strong magical connection to the Nexus, a magical force that can swing either way. Since Wyatt has been evil in another life, the seed is there. He can be turned evil. I'm here to make sure that never happens."
"That's not your concern. You worry about your Wyatt. I'll worry about mine." Chris stated evenly. It was eerie, arguing with yourself.
"That's exactly what I plan to do. But in order to do that, I need your help. Listen, I need a spell." Future Chris started.
"No, what you need is our help. And we need yours. I need your brother's greatest fear. If it's anything like our Wyatt's, the greatest fear is having an athame used to kill him."
Future Chris burst out in laughter. "Athames? You think your greatest fear is Athames? Are you retarded?" He directed the questions at Wyatt.
"What the hell do you know, anyway? You don't even know me. You have no idea what I am, or what I'm made of. Who do you think you are?" Wyatt yelled, pissed off.
"Wyatt, honey…" Piper tried to soothe him.
"No, mom. This… this… future brother comes here and thinks he knows me? He's never even met me before."
"He's your brother, Wy. Give him a chance." Leo injected more calmly than he felt.
"He's not my brother. HE is!" Wyatt screamed, pointing at Chris. "He is the one that knows all my thoughts. He is the one that has always been there. He is the one I beat up Bobby Reilly for in third grade. He is the one that covered for me when I was sixteen and went on a demon vanquish by myself. This imposter, this future thing… he's not my brother." Wyatt's voice was punctuated by furious stabs of his finger in the air.
"I know you're a drama queen." Future Chris stated, deadpan. The entire family with the exception of both Chris' and Wyatt cracked up. Even Wyatt smiled. It was common knowledge that Chris was the drama queen, not Wyatt.
"Listen, I know your brother that you grew up with is sitting next to both of us. But I know you too. All those memories, I have those too. My Wyatt is you, Wyatt. He's just older by 23 years. I remember him beating up Bobby Reilly for me when I was in the third grade because Bobby kept teasing me about mom and dad not being married. I am your Chris, just an older version of him. You are a great big brother. You always were, but I have to make sure it stays that way. Listen, I can't reveal much because of future consequences, but let me just say this much. Between the two of us, we have nine children. 7 girls, 2 boys. I have to get my Wyatt back good again, for all of them, not to mention our bazillion cousins. If I don't, this can and will effect countless generations of Halliwell magic."
Wyatt didn't answer, but indicated Future Chris should go on.
"I know that an athame isn't what you fear most. You fear killing your brother. You've had the dreams, and you know that when you turn evil, you are a killing machine. In the old future,EW killed mom, dad, the aunts and all of our cousins. The only one he didn't kill was me. And that was because he felt like as long as he kept me around, he wasn't evil. He was neutral, and didn't believe in good and evil. But he knew, deep down that if he actually killed me, he would be evil. Him and me, we are the same as you and your Chris. We have a connection, and are closer than most twins. And we've always been friends. To kill me would mean to kill his humanity. It's his greatest fear… killing me, and having no choice but to see he is evil. It's also your greatest fear. You are deeply, undeniably afraid of killing your own brother."
"Thank you Christopher. You made my job so much easier." Barbas stated from the corner of the attic where he had been invisibly watching and listening.