A Charmed Story - Part One:
Saving The Future Over And Over Again
Chapter 6

"Wow, where are we?" Paige asked. They were still in the attic but everything seemed to be darker around them.
"I think the spell worked," Phoebe said. "But even if this isn't real, I get a lot of strange feelings girls..."
"Actually... How real is it?" Paige looked at her sisters.
"If it worked the way it should, it's completely unreal, it's his memory, it's over, it's gone. So we have no influence here, nor the other way round... but..." Piper said.
"But what?" Paige asked.
"I'm not sure IF it worked like it should. The last time, we actually did change something!"
Paige sighed.
"And now?" Phoebe asked.
But Piper showed them to be quiet. "Someone's coming." She whispered.
They jumped behind the couch just in time. At this moment Chris, maybe 17 or 18 years old, went in, followed by a really furious Wyatt.

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"O.k. and now?" Cole looked around. Chris and the sisters had fallen asleep after they burned the paper with the spell... Well, actually they were not sleeping but it seemed like. Penny was looking with sorrow at them... She wasn't sure if this went in the right way...
"I'll go and take Wyatt from the magic school. I..." Leo said.
Penny interrupted him: "You are talking about the magic school in front of a Demon?"
Leo sighed, but didn't answered: "I'll be back as soon as possible, Wyatt's forcefield will be useful for them." Then he orbed.
Penny was glancing at the light that faded away. Then she turned to Cole: "Now I will see if I can find a way to send you back, before you will hear more things you shouldn't."
"Actually," Cole remarked gently, "I think that's impossible."
"Why?" Penny asked, while she flipped through the book.
"Chris said, I'm human," he answered.
She looked up: "What?"

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"You should be over that stupid good versus evil morals!" Wyatt shouted.
"I am." Chris said a little afraid of his brother.
"No you're not. You tried to save that witch! I didn't tell you to do that. Why don't you work with me instead of against me!" Wyatt was going to the couch.
The girls listened to the conversation.
"I'm NOT against you, brother. I just didn't think that we should have killed the witch."
Wyatt sighed. "Well. Ok. I have to check on some things down there. You stay here and make sure everything is going to be ready when I'm back, ok!"
Chris nodded and Wyatt orbed away.
After a few seconds and after Chris made sure that Wyatt WAS down there, he called: "Bianca!"
"Bianca?" whispered Phoebe: "Isn't that his... "
Paige nodded: "Yes, his fiancé."
Phoebe had completely repressed that, as well as her sisters. That must have been one of the worst moments in Chris's life, when he saw her die in the future... And even so, he had gone on fighting to save Wyatt, trying not to show his sorrow to his family. Phoebe couldn't help raising her head a little bit to look over the couch. And there she was, Bianca had just shimmered in the attic.
"Hey, honey!" she said, smiling at Chris and pulling him to her playfully. "Missed me?"
Chris smiled very weakly, and kissed her without passion.
"Are you ok?" She asked, frowning.
"No, actually I am not... It's about Wyatt..."
Piper turned to her sisters with a worried look in her eyes, looking for some clues in those memories. Paige just shrugged, and was about to say something, but Phoebe hushed them both: "Just listen!"

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Penny had approached Cole, shocked, while he caressed Phoebe's face and looked at his hero-nephew with admiration.
"What do you mean, you're HUMAN?"
"Shhhh... They'll wake up."
"They can not wake up. And now, illustrate me, man." she said, very irritated.
Cole turned to her, smirking: "Well, I already tried to go back there. I couldn't. That's all. Chris told me that now I'm human... This was meant to happen, but later on. It was him that... somehow... gave me back my soul, and destroyed my demonic side."
Penny stared at him, incredulous, but he went on talking.
"Look, I'm also lost. They didn't tell me much about this! That's all I know. I don't know what's gonna happen to me when they..." and he looked up to the ceiling, "when they discover. But now I'm just trying to help, ok?"

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Meanwhile, Leo had taken Wyatt from the magic school, and was about to orb back home when he heard Piper's voice...
"Leo! Chris! Move your butts here, we need you!"
Leo startled. What? He tried to sense them and felt they were at the manor. However the voices came from another place: The P3... It was really weird. What should he do?
"Wait, wait... think clearly," Leo said to himself. His wife's voice was still calling.
"They used the spell, they are in Chris's memories now, they are not able to be in the P3," he reasoned. Then he closed his eyes.
"I hope you forgive me, if I'm wrong," he said, then orbed back to the attic.

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"So, what happened?" Bianca asked.
"He did it again, he killed a witch," Chris answered with a lot of anger and sorrow in his voice, "He did it again, just like he did it with..."
Bianca put her arms around him, stopping his speech: "I know that's hard baby, but you have to act as he wants you to, or..."
Chris nodded: "I know."
They kissed, long and vigorous.
"How should that help us?" Paige asked softly.
"Just listen," Piper said.
"But... How should it help us when we watch Chris having..."
"Hush, there is something going on." Phoebe remarked.
While Chris and Bianca were still kissing, Wyatt returned.
"Didn't I told you, that no one is allowed to be here, except you and me?" Wyatt yelled at his brother.
Chris and Bianca were just terrified, they never reckoned that he would come back so early. They didn't even notice that he had arrived.
Wyatt went a bit closer and touched her hair. "Oh Bianca," he said, "how often shall I tell you that you have to stay away from him?"
"You can't separate us, Wyatt?" Chris answered.
Wyatt raised his eyebrow: "You're answering back, little brother?"
"I do!"
Wyatt smiled: "I only have to kill her Chris, and you know, I'm able to do that."
Chris looked unflinching at his brother. Bianca noticed what was going on, she tried to stop him. But it was to late, that thin connection between those so completely different brothers, had broken.
Chris put himself between Bianca and his brother: "If you want to, you have to kill me first!"
Wyatt looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Are you sure that you want to do that? Turn against me?" he asked with a minatory voice.
"I don't want to put myself against you, just let me go, let me live my own life," Chris answered and orbed away, taking Bianca with him.
Wyatt followed the light with his eyes, then he threw a fireball against the window. It exploded.
After that, the picture changed and the three witches saw again Chris and Bianca in the attic. They saw them preparing his departure to the past.
"We are going into the wrong direction," Paige remarked.
Phoebe nodded: "Yep, I'm afraid you're right... We should be going back in his memories, not forward."
"Shhhh!" Piper hushed them irritated.
Bianca was talking to Chris, who seemed very nervous: "Don't tell them anything. Just stick to your cover story. The less they know about the future, the better."
Chris lowered his eyes, feeling really insecure, now his mission was so near. Finally he said in a low voice: "But what if they find out who I really am?"
Bianca smiled feebly at him: "They won't. Not as long as you can pass yourself off as their whitelighter."
At these words, Paige laughed sarcastically: "I should have figured it out when he said he didn't know how to heal. He is just like me! There, in front of us, and we didn't realize!"
Piper looked at her, somber: "I didn't even realize he was MY son, when we discovered he was half-witch. I should have... Who else would have come to save Wyatt, our family...?"
"Shhhh! Listen!" Phoebe muttered.
They had already missed part of the conversation, and Bianca was answering something to Chris: "...Look, just remember, protect baby Wyatt and you protect the Charmed Ones. Keep them alive for our future."
Suddenly, Piper turned to the sisters: "Keep us alive? "
The others just nodded, pensive.
"What do you think she means? Are we dead in his future?"
"Might be..." answered Phoebe, turning pale.
"Hey... I'm just wondering..." intervened Paige: "What if whatever turns Wyatt... Ok, it might happen now, in our time, that's why Chris went there. But maybe it is triggered with our death, could it be? Perhaps if we don't die when we're supposed to die, we'll save Wyatt from turning evil, and that's what she means... That's maybe what Chris came to do, even though he doesn't tell us."
They kept silent for a moment, until they realized the shot was changing.
"Look," said Piper.
They were now in the lounge, and at that very moment a 14-year-old Chris was entering.

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"Penny, Cole!"
The alluded ones turned to the intruder, freaked out.
"Leo! You scared us!" said Penny very angry.
"Are they fine? " asked he, ignoring her comment.
"Yes, they are..." answered Cole, frowning. "What happened?"
"Piper was calling me... from the P3," Leo explained.
"But they were here the whole time," Cole remarked.
Penny frowned. "So it must be a trap," she said.
The two men nodded.
"But I think I should go there and try to find out what's going on," Leo said after a short break.
Penny nodded: "But be careful."
Leo nodded and put little Wyatt to Cole's arms.
"What...?" asked the ex-Demon taken by surprise.
"Take care of him," Leo answered and orbed away.
"And now?" Cole asked, while looking a bit unsure at that little boy.
Wyatt looked at him with big eyes and smiled
Penny was laughing: "Just play with him."

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The sisters were hiding behind a big potted plant and watched that scene.
Chris looked terrible, dirty and wet.
"Mom!" he screamed, but there was no answer.
"He's crying," Paige remarked.
Short after the young boy, Cole entered. He seemed also be broken down completely.
Meanwhile Chris was running into the kitchen. Then they heard him yell, so loud and so painful, that the sisters' blood turned to ice.
Cole went also to the kitchen.
"Oh my god," Phoebe said, "we have to follow them."
So they did.
They were hiding behind the door, really shocked about what was going on.
Chris was sitting on the ground next to Piper, who was lying there, covered over and over with blood, but still alive.
"Leo," Chris screamed, "LEO... DAD!"
It took a few seconds till the whitelighter appeared. Shocked he looked at his wife, then tried to heal her.
"What happened?" Leo asked meanwhile.
Chris was unable to speak, so Cole explained: "We've found Phoebe dead, same as Paige last week. Then we came back here and..."
"Why does that take so long?" Chris asked angry to his father.
Piper was coughing some blood.
"It doesn't work, I don't understand... That has to be some magic I can't put back." He stopped his trying and looked down: "There is nothing I can do."
"What?" Chris screamed. "That's wrong, YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! Go up to that freaky place and ask the Elders, they HAVE TO HELP HER!"
Piper was touching the arm of her son. "No," she said softly, then she turned to Leo, "go, look for Wyatt. I'm not sure who did that to me, but I'm sure he will be the next one they will attack."
Leo sighed. "I love you," he said, then orbed away.
Chris was crying again: "I don't want to lose you, mom. I can't."
Piper was looking at him: "Son, I have to tell you something. But you must swear to me that you'll be strong, and won't let emotions control you, o.k.?"
Chris didn't understand, but nodded: "I swear."
Piper fought to go on talking, she had to: "I know who did that to me... it... it was your brother..."
"WHAT?" Chris and Cole yelled in disbelief, same as the sisters behind the door.
"Please, hide your knowledge... if he finds out that you know, he will kill you like me... and I don't want that," she whispered.
"But dad..."
"He wouldn't believe it..." she whispered, then she turned to Cole: "Take care of Chris, swear that to me."
"I swear," he answered, "I will take care of him, like I do with my own daughter."
Piper nodded softly and turned to Chris for a last time: "Don't try to fight against your brother, you'll lose..." Then Piper died.

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Meanwhile Leo reached the P3. Everything was dark. Dark and solitary... Too silent, besides. Leo had cloaked himself for protection, and was looking around, but darkness was so deep that he couldn't find anything. Finally, he decided to make an attempt.
"Piper?" he whispered. What if the spell hadn't worked and they, or their souls, or whatever, had somehow ended up travelling to the P3? By then, he wouldn't wonder at anything!
"Leo?"
He turned quickly.
"Where are you? I can't see you..." it was Piper, and behind her, he could also see Phoebe and Paige.
"Where's Chris, Leo?" asked Paige, as she saw Leo showing himself in front of them.
"He's busy now" he half lied.
"Why? We need you both." replied Piper, approaching him.
Leo stepped backward, getting away from her touch.
"What happens, Leo?" said Phoebe, smirking, "don't you like your wife anymore?"
Suddenly, they recovered their real demonic form. Leo started to orb away, but it was too late. Several darklighters had surrounded him, and when he made the first movement, an arrow hit him on the shoulder.
One of the shapeshifters went near him: "Where's that son of a bitch called Chris?"

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Cole had gone aside to play with little Wyatt. He was having a lot of fun at that moment, hearing and enjoying the child's laughs, giggling and babbling. At the same time, he regretted all what he had done in the past. By now, he could have been a happy daddy, and be enjoying his son or daughter the same way.
Cole laughed with Wyatt and threw him into the air. It wasn't so difficult to take care of a little child, after all. But when he was in mid of the air, Wyatt orbed next to the sisters, and Chris, and used his shield.
"Why did he do that?" asked Cole, worried.
Penny shrugged. "He must have sensed something's wrong, and wants to protect them. He doesn't really know what's going on... Look, Cole."
The ex-demon went to the sleeping people. Chris and Piper had tears running down their faces, and Phoebe was moaning. Paige looked so distressed, she wouldn't stop shaking or moving.

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Cole hugged his nephew and obliged him to hide his eyes on his chest, to prevent him from going on looking at Piper's body. He himself was crying.
The sisters couldn't hold their tears back, either, at the sight and news they had just discovered.
"Where the hell went Leo? Why didn't he come back with Wyatt as soon as possible?" was asking a devastated Piper.
"Because he'd never been there for me, mom..." Chris's voice interrupted their thoughts. He was behind them, the adult Chris, the one they knew. He had also entered his memories, and was crying as they had never seen him before.
"I can't go on, please.." he sobbed
"We have to, Chris..." said Paige, with her eyes red.
"No, I don't want to. I've tried to forget this... I don't want to go there." He was so terrified, the sisters were taken aback.
"Go where? Chris... I don't want you to suffer, but if you have been trying to forget something which has the key for us..."
He shook his head nervously. "No way! I can't go there! It never happened, ok? " he yelled.
Piper patted his shoulder: "We're with you, son, we'll be with you all the time... But after all what you did, we have to see that, so please, let us go in. You need to remember that, whatever it is. Maybe that's the key.. We'll not forsake you, son..."
Chris raised his eyes almost in madness, but tried to calm down.
There he was still, sobbing and hugging uncle Cole.
Adult Chris closed his eyes, and said, very weakly: "Ok... "

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"Maybe you shall come closer," Penny said.
"But his shield..." Cole answered.
Penny smiled: "Come on, I think he likes you, so he will protect us all, hopefully."
So Cole went closer step by step. And as Penny said, Wyatt "let him in". He sat down besides the bodies of Chris and the sisters and looked at the little boy: "So what's going on Wyatt?"
Wyatt put up one of his hands. It seemed that he wanted to show them something, but there was nothing to see.
Meanwhile Barbas was walking through the attic, angry that this little boy balked him to affect Cole.

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The arrow had gone trough his shoulder, but Leo felt the poison in his blood.
He tried to orb, but he couldn't.
One of the darklighters came closer to him, touched him, and orbed him away.
The next thing Leo saw was the evil smile of Wyatt: "Hey Leo, how do you feel?"
Leo was in a cave, dark and dirty. He was put into a cell made of steel.
"Why are you doing that?" Leo asked.
His son looked at him with a deadly fire in his eyes: "I did it, cause you helped Chris at last one time to much in the last 24 hours."
Leo swallowed, but said nothing.
"Now, I want to know where he is. And this is not a game anymore. Now I AM angry!" he yelled, making some rocks explode around him. Leo startled and flinched back.
"What's happened to you, Wyatt?" he asked. "I don't understand..."
Wyatt laughed like a mad man: "You know that, daddy! Or better, you'll know! But you are so blind you just won't see it!"

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Piper took Chris by the hand. He was shivering and sweating, but he pressed hers firmly and clenching his teeth, walked resolute to the place where he had not entered in so many years... In those memories he had kept hidden deep inside his mind, trying to forget.
Phoebe was wondering what could have been worst than seeing his family die like that, and knowing that Wyatt had been the responsible. But she didn't talk, and limited herself to follow Chris by Paige's side.
The shot changed as they walked... They were again in the attic, even though they hadn't actually gone upstairs.
There, the 16-year-old Wyatt was talking to Leo: "Believe it or not, dad. They did this to us. They killed our family."
"I cannot believe you, Wyatt. I just can't," said Leo.
Wyatt rolled his eyes, impatient: "They tried to kill me already, when I was a young boy, for God's sake! They can do it, and they'll do it! Because they know I'm over them. They wanted to destroy me, even through my family... Because they know I'm the most powerful being on earth, and can defeat them; because, and this is what I want to show you and Chris, I am OVER good and evil. Dad, you know that!"
Leo frowned: "And you want me to join you? But I..."
Wyatt nodded: "They're not the source of good... they're evil, they tried to kill a little child, ME! Your son! They're the traitor. Look, I'm not asking you to join the evil side. I'm asking you to be with me, against evil and good."
Piper held back a cry, at hearing that. Chris's eyes were full of tears.
"What about Chris?" Leo asked.
"He'll join me too."
"What happens with me?" asked the young Chris, who had just entered.
Wyatt softened his expression and walked to him: "Hey brother... How are you?"
"I've been calling for you, dad," he said, avoiding Wyatt's look, and flinching as he approached. "Cole is dead. I needed you to heal him. I needed you to heal everyone. But they're all dead just because you won't listen to me."
Leo was shocked: "What?"
Suddenly, young Chris, his eyes red and with a look of madness, turned to his brother and sent him against the nearest wall: "You fucking bastard! You killed them all!"
Wyatt stood up in shock: "What do you think you're doing? Are you mad?"
He threw an energy ball against Chris. A terrible fight started, and Chris would not hit back. could not...
"I'm sorry, dad" he heard Wyatt say, while Leo just looked, without moving, surprised, "he's a traitor. He is against me and wants to kill me. You have seen it."
Leo loved Wyatt so much, he wouldn't see the lies in his words. He nodded, weeping, as he saw Chris dying under his brother's tortures.
The sisters looked at the shot, in shock, as this faded little by little.
The last thing they heard was Leo saying: "Stop it, Wyatt. We'll get him join us, please... I'll erase his memories." Then, all was darkness.
Adult Chris had his eyes fixed at nothing. The sisters turned to him, terrified.
"Leo healed me. He used his dust to erase my memory, but he might have thought that somehow, Wyatt was doing something wrong. He didn't give the whole dose to me. He wanted me to fight, and I did, you know I did... I came to the past. But even though the dust didn't work, I wanted to forget that day mom... " He was crying now. "I wanted to forget it so badly... Leo... my dad... had seen me suffer and die without doing anything. Deep inside he knew Wyatt was evil, but he did nothing. And now you make me see this again..."
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Piper said and embraced him.
"But actually that didn't help us much," Paige remarked.
"What?" Chris yelled, "wasn't that enough for you?"

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Cole sat still on the ground, saying nothing. Wyatt's shield was still up.
"Something has to be here," the ex-demon said to Penny.
She nodded.
"Don't you have a spell or anything to let us see..."
"Maybe, I'll find something," Penny answered and turned back to the book.
Cole noticed meanwhile that Wyatt was looking at his mum, and it seemed that he felt sorrow about her. Cole sighed, then kissed his forehead. "They are fine, the will be back as soon as they can," he said, trying to cheer that little boy a bit.

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"Chris, please, I know that this was hard, but... we still only know what he did, but we don't know why your brother turned evil," Paige explained.
"That's true," Phoebe added.
Chris looked at her, then at his mum, then he shook his head: "But I don't know anything else about what happened..."
"But maybe somebody else," Piper said, "did you ever talk to..."
She didn't have to end the sentence. Chris knew what she meant, and there was something that came to his mind, and the scene changed again.
Now they were in a little flat. 14-year-old Chris sat on the ground playing with a little girl about 8 years. "Come on, Patricia, give me the ball," he said smiling. But that wasn't a true smile. In his eyes there was suffer and sadness.
"Who is this?" Paige asked. But adult Chris didn't answered.
At this moment Cole entered the room, with a big bag in his hand.
The little girl jumped up and ran over to him. "Daddy," she yelled and embrace him.
Phoebe looked bewildered at her nephew: "Is that my..."
Chris nodded.
Cole embraced the little girl with love.
Young-Chris raised: "Are you sure that you want to do that?"
"It's the only chance," he answered, "let's do it."
Young-Chris went over to them and orbed with them away.
"That's unbelievable," Phoebe whispered.
But the scene was changing again. Now they were inside a cave in the Underworld. Short after Chris, Cole and Patricia orbed in a woman showed up.
Cole hugged her: "Thanks that you want to do that for me, you were my only hope." Then he introduced his daughter and his nephew.
"I'm so sorry about what happened to your family," she said to him.
"Thanks," Chris answered, "but what interests me more is... Can you really protect my little cousin?"
The woman smiled: "I will protect her with my life."
Chris nodded.
At this moment another person showed up. A young woman about 18 years old.
"Oh, may I introduce you to my daughter Bianca," the woman said.
"Oh," Piper said while watching that scene. She had noticed a kind of sparkling in the eyes of the younger version of her son. She looked at adult-Chris, who smiled a bit.
While young-Chris and young-Bianca had only eyes for each other, Cole and the woman were talking about what had happened.
"Are you sure that Wyatt did all that?" the woman asked.
Cole nodded: "That's what Piper said, before she died. And it fits to everything."
"But how could he do that, he is one of the good?" she went on asking.
"I don't know. Phoebe told me once that, before I returned, even before Chris was born, Wyatt was attacked by some from the good side. I mean, she didn't want to say more, I think she was trying to forget what happened, but if it had been so terrible, maybe that made Wyatt change his mind, in a way," Cole explained.
The woman nodded.
"For the moment, the only important things are, that Patricia is safe here, cause I can't protect her. And that Chris hides his knowledge, cause even if Wyatt is evil, he still loves his little brother. As long as Chris doesn't turn against him, he will be safe."
"Still..." sighed Paige, "We don't know who the evil was."
"The 'Good'" remarked adult Chris, mockingly.
Phoebe was staring at her future child and Cole fascinated. Something was starting to grow inside her. Or maybe something was starting to disappear. That was all the hatred she had accumulated before.
"There's something good in your memories, Chris," she said.
Piper turned to her, angrily, but at the sight of Chris's sad smile, she didn't say anything.
"There's always something good..."
"Ok, people..." intervened Paige, "Let's focus, right? It seems it's a 'good', not an evil, and it was before Chris was born... "
Piper nodded, pensively.
"It was an Elder..." murmured Chris. The sisters turned to him, while the image started to fade again.
"She was beautiful, wasn't she?" he smiled, thinking back at Bianca.
"Chris, dear..." Piper caressed his face, "what have you just said?"
"You heard it... The Elders are the traitors."
"But which Elder?" asked the girls at the same time.
Suddenly, everything trembled around them, like an Earthquake, and all of them were brought back into reality.

(Chapter 6 written by Chrissy.W.x, Dark Angel and Belén)