Author's note: Just like earlier, a lot of this comes from Scifi's own "The Ties That Binds."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

"What?!" Chris stood up and walked over to me.

"I saw it!" I screamed. "You were a kid, and Piper was showing you her family tree, and there we were--James Thomas, Syliva Bowen and Aurora Bowen, with yesterday's date written as our death date!"

He looked like I had just slapped him, but that only got me madder. "You weren't scared last night! You were trying to stop the sisters from saving us!! You wanted my family dead , you--" and I really did slap him. Hard.

But just as my hand hit his face, I got another retro, or maybe a bunch of them, I don't know--there were just all of these flashes. There was a man, and he was walking into his living room where his wife was getting ready for work, and he just shot her down in cold blood. And he turned to walk down a hall, and he pounded on a locked door, yelling "Susie! Annie! Open this door!", and then I saw two little girls huddled together crying and then I saw the man again! Oh! That man, he shot himself when they wouldn't open the door! And then there was Chris, standing in an alley, looking like he was going to puke. When I came out of the retro, I felt like I could puke myself.

Seeing the look on Chris' face told me that unlike my usual retroes, rather than only taking a second of real-time, each scene must've taken a second, so he knew I'd had a retro. "What did you see?" he asked with his hand still holding the place where I'd hit him. I couldn't answer for a minute, and he took me by the shoulders. "Rori, it's important! What did you see?"

"That man. He killed her," I whispered. "And he tried to kill his little girls. And when he couldn't, he shot himself."

Chris let go of me and sat down hard on a stool. He closed his eyes, and he looked so tired, so hurt, so angry at himself, that I forgot I was mad and sat next to him. "I don't understand. How was it your fault?"

"I can't tell you."

I shook my head."You're forgetting what my power is. I can force it if you don't tell me, and I want to know. I have to know, so I'll understand why you did what you did last night."

He sighed and held the bridge of his nose like he had a headache. "It was before I became the sisters' Whitelighter. I had been here for a while before they met me so I could keep an eye on them and prepare for what I came back to do. There was this guy, and one night when he was drunk, I saved him from getting hit by a truck. And I took him home, where he killed his wife, and tried to kill his daughters and himself. End of story."

"But you couldn't have known--"

"No, I couldn't. That's the thing. I'm from the future and I couldn't see it coming. And now I have no idea what I've changed. If I hadn't been there, Pete would have died like he was supposed to, and Maureen would have raised her girls like she was supposed to. And--"

"But, Chris--"

"Don't you see?" he demanded. "Everything I do can change the future in ways I don't want." Now all emotions left his voice and very firmly, he stated. "I came here to change only one thing. One. Everything else…"

"So you did want us to die last night," I stated in a small voice.

"No! I just… I don't know. Don't you get it? Your being alive changes the future. For good or bad, I don't know. And I don't like not knowing."

I thought about it for a minute, and I could start to see his point. "My mom says everything happens for a reason--"

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I've heard that before," like it was something he had heard a lot and didn't want to hear again.

"Well, maybe it's true. Maybe our not dying last night will be something that helps you change the thing you want changed."

He nodded slowly. "I hope so." He smiled a little at me, and I smiled back. He has a really great smile.

"Hey, so you knew Piper when you were little?" I asked eagerly.

He fidgeted in his seat and stared out at the tables in the club. "Um, yeah. I sort of grew up in the neighborhood. I was at her house all the time."

"Wow! So you must have died really recently…or, anyway, really close to when you came to the past."

"Huh?"

"To become a Whitelighter and all. You must have died really young."

"Oh. Yeah."

"How'd you die?"

He gave me a look with those perfect green eyes. Wish mine were even half as sage-green as his are. "Rori." I love how he said my name. Kind of like Ricky says "Lucy" on those old reruns.

"Sorry, tactless." I hopped off my stool and headed for the stairs, but he stopped me by calling my name..

When I turned around, he was holding the bridge of his nose again. "Rori, um, I don't know what kind of control you have over your retroes. But if you could try not to see anything else about me or the future, that would be great. You know, future consequences. Like I said, I want to change one thing and one thing only, and if you tell the sisters about any retro you get off me, they may do something that will change it. Or if you do happen to have one, just keep it between us. Don't tell anybody else. Can you do that for me?"

Did you catch that? He said "for me." You see, already there's chemistry. "Sure," I said, and left. But you know, I've been thinking, it can't hurt to try and force little retroes that won't matter one way or another about the future. If there about stuff he's doing in the present rather than the future, it couldn't hurt, right? You know, tiny things like watching Chris in the shower...

I'll spare you the rest of Rori's entry, because she could get a bit overexcited in the fantasy department. In any case, she kept her promise, because she had other--and very important-- visions that none of us knew anything about until she gave me her diary, so I could share this stuff with you. Just wait until I tell you about them!

THE END

Author's Notes: Originally, Chapter Twenty-Six would've started the "Phoebeization" of "Valhalley of the Dolls", which would've begun the next day. However, I've decided to end this one here because there seems to be more interest in the parts of the story that weren't actually shown during the episodes rather than the actual episodes, themselves. I may come back and post them as separate stories later, but for now, I'm going to hop directly to the next part based on a fanfic--"The Power of Three Wyatts", based on Aurora Nightstar's fantastic fic by the same name. Before that, Phoebe would've continued to to tell her version of Season Six, with an occasional Rori-retro to provide Chris Perry's POV , through "Sleepy Halliwell," where she reveals Chris Perry is Chris Halliwell. She then revisits earlier episodes to fill in some blanks, drawing on a journal Chris Perry kept in hopes that Bianca would see it in the future. During her retroes, Rori sees the diamond ring that Chris always keeps in his pocket, one that Rori is positive that Chris has bought for her, Rori, although he has never done anything to actually make her think that he returns her feelings (he doesn't, but good luck telling her!)

This first part of Phoebe's letter culminates in a diary entry from Rori describing the retro she received from Chris describing the events of "Chris-Crossed" when Bianca comes back. You can imagine Rori's reaction towards finding out that the diamond ring is Bianca's, a Phoenixassassin, and not hers! She immediately blames everything that Chris has done wrong on, as she calls her, "Miss Kill-a-Lot", certain that she's the one who taught Chris how to kill. After all her Chris never would have done anything wrong without Bianca's tutoring, so it's all her fault, right? Her retro also allows her to see who Chris Perry really is. She calls Chris on it, but he again gets her to promise not to tell the sisters or Leo his true identity. Still very jealous of Bianca, but still harboring her huge teenaged crush on Chris--who might be a cousin, but after all, he's a very distantly-related cousin (fourth-cousin, once removed)--Rori agrees. She is determined to win him from Bianca, certain that Chris really loves her, Rori, and not Bianca. As Phoebe would say, naturally Rori is dislusional!

I hope you've enjoyed this fic and enjoyed our Rori and will decide to read "The Power of Three Wyatts", starting tomorrow.