Disclaimer: Brad Kern has proven near impossible to stalk. For starters, does anyone even know where the hell he lives?? How can I blackmail him without his whereabouts? Oh, right. Hem. Back to the point...no, I don't own Charmed. Hopefully you knew that already, though...lol.

Chris jumped up, trying to clear his head. Wyatt had all of this power from a lantern? How could that be possible? And how would it have survived since the time of Melinda Warren?

This was all too much to absorb, but the realization hit him like a boulder. He was dead. Well, not technically yet, but he was going to die. That boy...was himself! That's why he had seemed so familiar, laying there on the street.

Chris shuddered and decided not to look into that. He crept in the darkness, trying not to wake anyone up. The last thing he wanted to do was have to come up with an explanation for snooping in the attic. This entire arrangement was strange enough; for all he knew, they could think he was a demon.

But technically, he didn't even exist. He was dead. He looked down at his hands to confirm that he was still alive and breathing, and to his relief they weren't transparent or missing. They were right there, along with the rest of him. But he supposed that that was because the Chris that died was older than he was. So he'd have another eight years before he bit the dust. How comforting.

He stubbed his toe on something and looked down. His messenger bag! He opened it carefully, finding his notebook and what was left of his food stash. "My spell book," he noticed. "It's...different."

Sure enough, he opened it to find it was completely empty. "What the hell?" he whispered to himself. "Where are all of my spells?" The only thing left in the notebook was his name, scrawled out on the front. He ran a finger over the pen marks, only to find that it disappeared. He gasped in surprise, then realized that since in this time he couldn't even write, he definitely wouldn't have his own spell book. With a frustrated groan, he stuffed the notebook away.

He checked the inner pockets of the bag to see what else he'd bothered to pack before running away. A sharp corner of a piece of paper caught his eye when it poked him. He took it out.

It was a picture of Piper and Chris. Leo was off in elder-land and Wyatt was too busy taking over the world. Chris looked mournfully at the picture, taken three years ago. If only he could go back to that time...

Tears welled up in his eyes but he didn't cry. Not even when the picture in his hand crumbled into dust. He suppressed a cry and watched it diminish to nothing at his feet.

"It doesn't matter. It's too late," he told himself, standing up. "The lantern...I've gotta find it..."

He opened the first trunk he could stumble towards in the dark, though he highly doubted it would be in such a convenient place. Oh, sure, like the lantern would be stashed away in an oh-so-casual spot where anybody could find it. Yeah, right.

It was just as he'd predicted. A long piece of shimmering cloth, some candles, a baby pacifier, and some notebook paper were in the trunk, but nothing of any use to him. He tried the second, but ended up with the same luck he did last time. There was nothing of any importance in the third, fourth, or fifth, either.

"Okay, maybe it's not in a trunk," he decided after a while. He saw that it was getting light outside and knew that he should return to the bed.

The floorboard creaked as he made his way out. He froze. Did anybody hear?

After a long, long wait in that position, he decided he was safe.

Little did he know that Leo had been watching him from the doorway the entire time.

"Are you feeling all right?" asked Piper, stopping by the doorway and seeing him awake and scribbling in his notebook.

He looked up, surprised. "Yeah," he mumbled, putting the notebook down. It was so weird seeing her face.

"So...do you still have any questions to ask me?"

"No. I think I've figured it out."

"How?" she asked curiously. "It's complicated, you know."

"I think I understand. I mean, about the boy." Piper gave him a confused look so he explained. "He was lying on the street. He looked just like me and he told me to go through the portal to save Wyatt. So I walked through and now...this." He shrugged. "So I'm dead."

"You're not dead, you're right here," Piper laughed. She nudged him playfully. "Anyways, it just became apparent that the future hasn't been fixed." Tears formed in her eyes but she smiled. "At least I get to spend a little more time with you before you really have to go back for good."

"Um...okay," Chris managed. The older Chris and Piper from this time must have really hit it off. He didn't want to tell her what he knew. He didn't want to disappoint her by saying he wasn't going to be hanging around.

"Wanna meet the baby you?" asked Piper.

"Huh? Oh! S-sure."

Piper laughed again and Chris was almost shocked. When was the last time Piper had laughed in his time? She seemed downright giddy!

A few moments later she came in with the baby. Though he was only a few days old, his eyes were unusually already shining like emeralds. Their eyes locked, and for the second time Chris found himself staring back at his own hard gaze. Piper held him out for Chris to hold and Chris hesitated for a second before taking the baby in his arms.

Well, now he knew what it was like to have a clone. "Wow...this is strange."

Piper laughed AGAIN. "It's too bad the other you didn't get to see himself like this."

Chris didn't want to say anything, afraid that he might upset her. There was a faraway look in her eyes. He began to wonder why he was worth so much to her as an adult, but then he came to an understanding. Piper had been basically a single mother at the time and freaking out that her son might turn evil. Who better to protect him with than his little brother at twenty-two?

"Hey, actually...I do kind of have a question." He bit his lip. "Um, do you know where an old lantern might be? Nothing special. Wyatt and I kind of broke it in the future," he lied. "Is there any chance you might know where it was?"

"Yeah, actually, funny you should mention that. I think Leo and I put it in a safe by the window. Leo kept telling me how important it was. Do you guys break things a lot?" she teased.

"Um, no, not really." He grinned. "Okay, maybe a few things." He didn't tell her that she wouldn't live to see Wyatt's sixteenth birthday. He didn't tell her that her son would be off the deep end at seven years old. "But Leo could always fix them." Too bad Leo couldn't fix his own first born.

"Why did you call him Leo? He's your father."

Chris shrugged. "Dunno," he mumbled.

"The other Chris did that, too. The Leo in your future must have been pretty bad. I guess he does more than just that later on."

"I'm pretty sure he will, by the looks of things," Chris agreed.

"But what exactly is wrong with him?" asked Piper. "Is it something that can be avoided?"

"Wyatt's too powerful. That's what happened. Leo was obsessed with Wyatt being able to defend himself against demons; the kid knew how to heal before he could talk, thanks to Leo. And Leo was always trying to boost Wyatt along so he'd have more powers. He didn't realize that in the end, Wyatt would be corrupted and evil."

"So...Wyatt turns evil because Leo pushes him to excel?" She frowned. "Something doesn't add up."

"I know. That's why I'm here, I think."

"To do what?"

"I can't tell you."

"Here we go again......."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out when you're older," said Piper with a smirk. "Hey, we're having breakfast downstairs. Are you coming?"

"Yeah...sure."

This could definitely take some getting used to.

Okay, there was absolutely no action in this chapter and you were probably bored to death, but I wanted Chris and Piper to get their bearings, you know? Anyways, just because this chapter sucked doesn't mean that the rest of them will...keep reading! Oh, and I'll try to update more frequently. After tonight, three out of four of my ongoing school projects will be turned in and completed. I'll have some more free time. At least until next quarter's projects roll on along...

AND I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT!

Hey, I got Drew Fuller's autograph! HE KNOWS MY NAME! I KNOW WHAT HIS SEMI SLOPPY AND YET BEAUTIFUL HANDWRITING LOOKS LIKE! I COULD DIE FROM JOY! But I won't cuz I need to finish this chappie. lol.

Pink-Charmed-One