Greetings faithful readers. Thank you all for sticking with me and especially to those of you who reviewed. Rather than posting review responses with the story, I think I'm just going to reply to people directly. So, for those of you who reviewed you'll get a response from me shortly (probably before you read this). I'm not certain, but I think this may be the penultimate chapter. I could continue it further, but I generally think it's better to get to the meat of a story, the part you really think is important, rather than draw it out for the sake of drawing it out. Besides, that way I can move on to other story ideas. So, expect the dramatic conclusion within the next week or so. It will probably be a particularly long installment. Please help me with the finale by writing any thoughts you have on how you'd like to see it end. Until then, enjoy:

Ch. 6

Phoebe had never been hurt so deeply by her powers. The vision was so raw, so fresh. Her son was going to kill Cole and in so doing he would commit suicide. And now, before she could even begin to recover, the scene played out in real time. What good was a vision if you didn't have time to act on it?

This was all her fault, Phoebe thought. Past, future and present; she was the common denominator in all this grief. She had caused the pain that brought these two men she cared about to the brink. It was hopeless

She was brought out of her paralysis by the sound of Cole's voice.

"You don't have to do this," he told Victor. "You have a choice."

She didn't catch the context, but the words sank through her despair. Cole hadn't said anything in her vision. He was already changing things, probably because he read the horror in her. And the words: a choice, free will – of course. Free will was the balance of good and evil, the soul of magic. She had faced more than her share of tragedies. She had faced demons, both literal and figurative and yet she was still standing. She would be damned if she would let destiny decide the fate of her family.

Victor twisted Cole's arm around, just like in the vision. His voice mouthed "forgive me" and he started to bring down the athame. Phoebe had already launched herself across the room in anticipation of this moment. At the last possible instant she shoved Cole out of Victor's grip and interposed herself between them.

Victor frantically pulled the blade back and barely avoided taking his mother's head off. "MOM!" he shouted, more in fear than anger. "Get out of the way!"

"No," said Phoebe. She grabbed Victor by the wrist and pulled the blade of the athame to her own chest. He glared.

"If you're going to break my heart by killing your father and yourself then don't leave me to pick up the pieces. Put me out of my misery. Kill me too," she said. Her eyes glistened wetly, but her voice was firm. The fierceness of her determination made the small woman seem much bigger than her actual size. She was committed, wholly and without reservation; this was no bluff.

"It's clear we failed you in the future, your father and I," Phoebe said. "We didn't give you the childhood you deserved. I am more ashamed of myself for letting you grow up feeling unloved than for anything I've ever done." At this she did audibly choke up before recovering herself. "I don't know exactly what all I did, or what Cole did. I don't know my justifications. I'm sure I had what I thought were good reasons at the time. But I can see now that I was wrong. I love you Victor. I know that in my heart even though we barely know each other. And if I become the kind of person who hurts the people she loves, then I don't think I want to go on."

Victor's glare faltered as she spoke. His lip began to tremble and suddenly the big grizzled twenty something man looked very much like a lost little boy. He dropped the athame and fell to his knees crying. Phoebe crouched to hold him and made gentle shooshing noises until her boy stopped shaking. After awhile, probably only seconds though it felt like much longer, Victor pulled himself back together, gently disengaged from his mother and they both rose slowly to their feat.

"We don't have to accept the future the way it was," said Phoebe. "We still have free will. We can save you and your dad. I know we can."

Victor looked thoughtful for a moment. He wiped his eyes and then smiled. "Just like Chris?" he said.

Phoebe nodded slowly, but he must have seen her surprise because he continued.

"Aunt Piper told us, all the kids, the story about Chris. It was just after his 18th birthday. She said she struggled with it, but decided he had the right to know and he decided the rest of us did too." Victor looked off, remembering. "I think everyone else was shocked. But to me, it just made so much sense – you know? The way Chris always seemed to understand, I mean really understand, even though he got just as much attention as Wyatt and had two perfect parents and everything. It's like some part of him remembered the other life and he saw what he'd gone through, saw some of himself in me. It also explained why Wyatt was always such an evil bastard."

Phoebe's face fell. "You mean…?"

"No," Victor answered. "He's not really evil, not in the evil global overlord sense anyway. He was just a bit of a jerk when we were kids. Chris succeeded in his mission." His eyes grew even more distant. "I sometimes wonder though, what it was like in the other timeline: if it was better or worse for me; if I even existed."

Phoebe said nothing but was terrified at the way he said it, like he genuinely thought he might have been better off in the evil world. Worse yet was wistful way he talked about the prospect of his non-existence.

"Is your life really that bad?" she asked, voice shaking. "Do you really wish you'd never been born?"

"To die: to sleep; no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation most devoutly to be wished," Victor quoted. Phoebe shuttered. She did not want her son to wind up like Hamlet. Victor looked over to Cole, who had been watching the exchange in silence. Cole finally picked himself off the ground.

"He knows?" asked Victor. Phoebe nodded.

"Victor," Cole said, "Did I…hurt you or your mother?" His voice was angry, but it was clear that anger was directed inward.

"It's not so much what you did, but what you didn't do," said Victor. "When you were around you were a great father. You and mom would be happy and for awhile, a little while, and I could almost imagine we were a normal family. But it never lasted. Inevitably, something would always set you off. You would "need" to embrace some evil power, just to save us of course – or at least that's how you justified it -- and then mom would boot you out again or try to vanquish you. You would be gone for months, sometimes more than a year on end, and just when I started to get over it you were back. You would promise that this time was different and, despite everything, I always believed you. Every single time I believed you and got my hopes up. I was sure that 'this time is it, this time he won't leave again'. But you always did. You were never strong enough to fight your addiction to power and the power always corrupted you. Mom, afraid I'd be as weak as you, afraid I was evil, made sure I was never tempted with power by denying it to me."

Cole looked down for a moment before meeting his son's gaze. "You're wrong about one thing," he said.

Victor's voice went immediately from sad to angry. "Oh and what's that?" he grated out.

"Your mother didn't keep you away from power because she was afraid you were evil; she did it because she was afraid she would lose you. She did it because she loved you," Cole said.

Victor started to reply, but his jaw worked noiselessly. He took a step back from the both of them and started to turn away. Phoebe stepped forward and put a hand on her son's shoulder.

"But by stripping you of your powers I made you feel like your own mother thought you were evil," Phoebe said. She lifted his downcast chin until she could look him in the eye. "I promise you," she said. "I won't make that same mistake again. I won't let that future happen."

"Nor I," said Cole thickly. "I don't care if I have to take a power stripping potion every morning with breakfast with the entire family watching. I won't do that to you." Chris looked to his father. Phoebe took a step back and the three just regarded each-other.

"I guess if Chris can change the future then so can we," Victor finally said. Then his eyes widened. "Oh my god! How could I let myself loose track." He looked at his watch, then back at Cole. "If I don't kill you Mace is going to murder baby Chris in just over five minutes."