"Well?" Dominic sneered, his sight fixed on Leo. "Isn't anyone going to say hello?"
Dominic glanced at the three teenagers behind Piper and Leo.
"So you are my cousins," Dominic said, sickened by the thought that anyone so good could possibly be related to him. "You know, my mum never mentioned that I had cousins."
"She didn't know," Piper spat back at him
"Didn't I kill you already, Witch?" Dominic pointed the crossbow at Piper
"That's not going to work on me, kiddo. I'm not a whitelighter, and I'm already dead."
Chris used the distraction. He felt the anger and hatred rise inside him; he felt like he was going to explode.
The room began to shake with power. Chris glanced at Wyatt who was burning with rage also. Chris saw Wyatt move, suddenly, targeting Dominic with his power.
Dominic flinched as Wyatt's attempt to blow him up failed. He laughed, the laugh seeming to echo around the vibrating room.
"I am the source of all evil," Dominic pointed the crossbow at Wyatt, "Your power is futile compared to mine!"
"Really?" Wyatt questioned, "Then why is it that you have that weapon in your hand? Scared of an even match?"
Dominic growled with rage, quickly firing off an arrow at Wyatt.
"No!" Leo yelled, diving in front of Wyatt as the poisoned arrow flew through the attic.
Chris quickly looked down at his brother and Leo lying heaped on top of each other and knew he had to act fast. He glanced around the room, the power raising through him so strong that every object he looked at projected through the air towards Dominic, the old mirror in the corner, old heavy trunks, tables, boxes, all hitting their target.
Releasing all his rage, all his frustration and pain, he kept on going. Opening trunks and hurling its contents at Dominic, small things, big things, anything and everything, until soon Dominic was buried under a pile of debris and motionless.
He closed his eyes, trying to push back the explosion of power inside himself, calming down before he risked looking around where Leo and Wyatt lay together, Pia and Piper at their sides, holding them.
Tears shone in Piper's eyes as she held onto Leo, the poisoned arrow protruding from his chest and a trail of blood leaking from his mouth.
Wyatt groaned as he got to his knees, brushing off the dust from the floor. He moved towards Leo and went to pull out the arrow.
"Don't touch it!" Leo moaned, struggling to breathe "It's poison works on Whitelighters, it could kill you. You all have whitelighter blood."
"We've got to get it out somehow," Piper racked her brains. "Chris, you have to do it."
"Me?" Chris asked surprised, "But I'm part whitelighter, too, aren't I?"
"She means use your powers to pull it out." Leo helped, remembering the first time he had been struck by a darklighter arrow, "As soon as it's out, I'll be ok, the poison won't work on me now I'm an Elder."
Chris looked down at the arrow, and back up to the face of his father, beaded with sweat.
"You can do it, Chris!" Leo said, "Just get me something to bite down on."
Wyatt quickly removed his belt and put it in his father's mouth. Chris looked at Wyatt, unsure what to do.
"You can do it, Chris. Do it!" Wyatt yelled, "Do it now!"
Chris reached for the power inside and found it lying in the pit of his stomach. He concentrated on the arrow. It wobbled and Leo flinched.
"Again!" Wyatt yelled.
Chris felt his power tingle all over his body. He stretched, pushing it once more toward the arrow. In a quick pulling motion, he felt the arrow slide from Leo's body. Leo yelled out in pain.
Piper moved the arrow out of harm's way as the kids crowded round Leo, making sure he was going to be ok.
Piper looked back at the pile on top of Dominic, wary of the lack of movement. "I don't like this," She said, biting her lip, "Pia, in that chest over there, you'll find some crystals, get them for me."
Pia moved quickly, finding the five white crystals.
"This is a little trick Prue used once to trap Cole, so it should work on him, too." Piper said, arranging the crystals carefully around the pile of debris. A jolt of white electricity jumped from one crystal to the other four. Pia looked up at her aunt Piper, curious.
"It's a trap. It doesn't differentiate between good or evil, so just be careful if you ever want to use it." Piper explained. She looked around at Leo, blood still seeping from the wound on his chest. "Can you orb?"
Leo looked up at Piper and nodded grimly. "What are you thinking?" He asked, recognising a look on his face he never thought he'd see again.
Piper walked over to the Book of Shadows, which lay discarded and forgotten on the floor. She took a deep breath and touched the book she had not held for the longest time and opened its familiar musty pages. Flicking through the book, seeing the faces of all the evil she and her sisters had put an end to before turning their backs on magic.
Leo knelt beside her, "Piper?"
Piper looked at Leo, and then over his shoulder at their two boys and Pia. She shook her head, holding back her tears.
"This isn't right, what we did, all that happened, it's not right. It hasn't been right for a long time."
"What can we do?" Pia asked softly, putting a comforting hand on her aunt's shoulder.
"We need to change things, put things right." Piper said, "Only I can't do it, it's up to you three. You have the power of three now. Will you help me to set things right?"
The three teenagers exchanged uneasy glances, shrugging, not really knowing how to answer.
Dominic stormed through his cavernous realm, torchlight flaring alight as he passed, quickly, angrily, lost in his thought. His weasel cousin Chris had actually got the better hand with his telekinesis, the level of power was unexpected in a new witch, his own mother had told him stories of how their powers had grown from almost nothing. He hadn't expected that kind of power, not in a witch so new.
Wyatt's power was strong as well, he paused, tenderly examining his rib cage where his cousin had targeted his power. Wyatt had actually caused pain. The power should have had no effect, or rebounded, but to inflict actual damage…
A surge of feeling coursed its way through Dominic's body, maybe he just wasn't a match for the power of three. He had never actually encountered it; his confidence may be misplaced.
"Seer" Dominic growled, "SEER!"
The whites of her eyes appeared before him first, the rest of her form slowly emerging from the darkness.
"My liege," She bowed before him. "It is nice to see you in one piece."
"Did you know?" He demanded, "That my plan would fail? That they can inflict pain on me? Maybe even death?"
The Seer hesitated, aware that her lifetime's service would mean nothing in her defence. Dominic was capable of no mercy.
"You knew!" Dominic spat, a ball of fire forming in the palm of his hand.
"My liege, I swear to you, the vision was murky, uncertain, I told you myself, there were many variables at stake."
Dominic looked at the Seer, and then at the ball of flame in his hand, the flame dwindled and then disappeared.
Curiosity overtook the Seers caution, "My liege, if you don't mind me asking, how did you escape? I last saw you buried under debris in the attic."
Dominic regarded the Seer again, winced at the pain in his ribcage and realised he had been lucky to escape.
"I flamed out while they were tending to Leo." Dominic growled, he wasn't used to running away from a fight, his pride was wounded worse than his rib cage.
The Seer didn't push her good luck any further and bowed deeply, "My liege." She spoke softly, "Do you require anything else?"
Dominic dismissed her with a wave, and continued his walk through his realm, at a slower and more thoughtful pace. He needed a new plan.
Piper looked over at where Dominic was buried. There was still no sign of movement.
"We have to do something big. We have to change this and we have to work fast."
Piper looked at her three children, "You have a huge job to do. You are new but you are so powerful. Will you help me change all of this?" Piper pleaded.
"Anything," Wyatt said, holding his father.
Piper moved to the Book of Shadows.
"There's a spell in here we can alter; it might do the trick." Piper explained as she began scribbling on a piece of paper.
"Wait," Chris said, "We're going back in time?"
"We have to stop all this…" Piper motioned at Dominic, "If Phoebe and Cole had never fallen in love, she would have never chosen Evil."
"I'm not sure about this." Leo winced as he straightened up, "Sending them back when they are so new, its dangerous, who knows what else they could change. Piper, think of the consequences."
"I am thinking, Leo, I'm thinking about everything. If this happens, they could change everything, the power of three could still be united, and fighting together. We could still be a family." Piper looked at Leo, his confirmation was important to her.
He looked around at his children, and remembered all he had missed, all that had been taken from him when he had to leave his family, to continue the fight for the greater good alone. How lonely all those years had been. He realised this was a chance to take it all back, to be a part of his sons' childhood, their teenage years. To be there, rather than watching it all from a distance.
Leo looked Piper in the eye and nodded. Piper smiled and continued flipping through the Book of Shadows for the right spell.
"So you're sending us back in time to stop Phoebe and Cole meeting?" Pia clarified.
Piper bit her bottom lip and looked up at the young girl.
"Not from meeting," Piper shook her head, "Remember, and this is important, you three simply being in the past may have unforeseen consequences. Do not tell us, my sisters and I, our past selves who you are."
She looked around at her sons. "We won't believe you." She continued, " We'll think you are demons or warlocks and try to kill you."
"Why wouldn't you believe us?" Wyatt asked.
Piper took a deep breath, she looked her beloved sons in the eye. "The Warren women have always given birth to girls. When we first became witches we were sent to a future, an alternate future, and I met a daughter I never had. I always believed I would have a girl called Melinda, until Wyatt was born."
Piper scribbled her spell on to a piece of paper and gave it to Wyatt.
"Are you sure this will work?" Wyatt asked his mom, "It's a big spell, and we're all so new at this."
"It should work with the power of three behind it. When you get to the past, you may find that you don't have your powers, I've tried to write it so that you'll keep your powers, but I'm not one hundred percent sure. The power of three can only exist at one time with one set of siblings."
"So we might not even have our power?" Chris asked, backing away, "We're going to the past, going up against the Source and we won't even have powers?"
"Cole wasn't the Source when he first met Phoebe," Leo remembered, "He was a demon known as Belthazar."
"You may not have your powers," Piper added, "But you'll still be witches, you'll be able to cast spells."
"And you're white lighter abilities won't be effected either." Leo grimaced through his pain.
"What about him?" Pia asked pointing to the crystal cage with the pile of debris still covering a motionless Dominic.
Piper looked at the pile and her instincts told her that Dominic wasn't there anymore. Piper hadn't listened to that voice inside her for so long, she still didn't know whether she could trust it again.
"No-one will be here when he wakes up, he won't be able to move from the crystal cage and he won't be able to cause any damage. But if you succeed, all this will be different when you return. He won't be a problem."
Piper turned to Leo, "It's time for you to return to the other Elders. I suggest you warn them what is about to happen."
Leo nodded, clutching his wound. The now familiar blue and white lights circled Leo as his form disappeared from view.
"Time for me to go, too." Piper looked towards the circle of candles and paused.
Wyatt moved towards her first, pulling his mom into a big hug. He felt his brother to one side, joining in, and Pia's soft touch at his other side. The family held each other for a heartbeat, and then slowly let go.
Piper moved inside the circle of fire, her solid form becoming transparent. She blew a kiss to the teenagers and whispered Good Luck, before disappearing in yellow lights.
Chris watched as his mother disappeared from his life once more, and felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked down into Pia's eyes.
"It's ok," she said in a soft voice, "we'll see her again."
Chris nodded and looked around at Wyatt, still holding the spell in his hands.
"If I'm right about this," Wyatt began, "we may see her alive again soon. She wants us to change the past, to stop her sister and Cole having Dominic, to stop her sister choosing evil." Wyatt paused, checking to see if his brother and Pia realised the consequences.
"If Dominic never lived…" Wyatt continued.
"He couldn't kill our moms." Pia finished the thought for him.
Pia and Chris moved beside Wyatt and gazed down at the parting gift Piper had given them.
Wyatt looked from Pia to Chris, who were transfixed by the small piece of paper and its consequences.
"Are we going to do this?" Wyatt asked. Pia nodded and looked at Chris.
"I can't believe we're going back to the past. This is crazy!" Chris shook his head. He looked up at Wyatt and Pia, both nodding in agreement.
Chris took one corner of the paper Wyatt was holding, letting Pia squeeze between them. She took the boys' hands in her's.
Wyatt could feel Pia's hand shaking and glanced down at her. He caught her eye and he smiled, giving her hand a comforting squeeze.
Chris took a deep breath; he couldn't decide if it was him shaking or Pia. He briefly wondered if the room was still vibrating. He noticed Wyatt looking at him.
"Ready?" Wyatt asked. Chris clenched his jaw tight and nodded firmly. He looked down at the paper in his hand.
The three began together, as if they had been reading spells together all their life.
"Hear these words, hear the rhyme
heed the hope within our mind
send us back to where we'll find
what we wish in place and time."