Author's Note:
Wow! I am ecstatic. 29 people have this story on alert, another 8 have this story on their favorite's list.
It's funny, because I never put stories on alert, I just add them to my favorites (which I check every other day for updates).
So, THANK YOU!
Totally made my weekend.
As usual, I ask for suggestions when it comes to the story.
I know how it will end, but not how the middle should be.
I'll still be updating, but a little less frequently as it is reading week (the week before university finals) and I should study to keep my Physics grade at a B.
As always, please review! :) Have a good week.
Phoebe gave Piper a sympathetic gaze, "It's going to be okay, Piper."
She tried to smile, but with such grave news about Chris's fate, she found it hard to do that.
Over the years the sisters had experienced many things tied to their magic.
They had lost their mother and their eldest sister, Prue.
They had lost friends and family alike.
The first to go had been Andy, but he had only being the first.
Paige, being the first whitelighter / witch hybrid (and against the rules), had been given up by her parents.
Luckily, she had been happily adopted.
So when her adoptive parents died in a car crash and she had survived, Paige had always blamed herself and at times, by extension, magic.
She had dreamed of being a social worker and would have been one had her duties as witch not interfered.
She knew that by putting magic first she saved more people than she ever could as social worker, but that didn't change the fact that magic had taken something from her.
Phoebe hadn't gotten to know her mother well, as she was only two years old when her mother had been killed by a demon.
All her life, Phoebe wondered what her mother had been like.
When the original Charmed Ones had gotten their powers back, she finally got to see what her mother had been like.
A few years later she fell for a demon, Cole, who seduced her so that he could vanquish the sisters. Eventually, he became human, but then the Source took over him. After Phoebe and Cole got married, they had conceived the source's heir.
Phoebe was convinced she could nurture the child to good, but it took control of her body and it had to be vanquished.
Many days Phoebe wondered what her son would have been like.
Piper fell for Leo, the sister's whitelighter.
Relationships between whitelighters and their clients were exclusively forbidden, under the ruling that such relationships would never work.
When Piper proved she could be a witch and could be in relationship with a whitelighter at the same time, the Elders allowed the two to be together.
In time they got married and had a son. Leo was rewarded when the Titans attacked for his service towards helping the few remaining Elders regroup.
He, himself, was accelerated down his path to becoming an Elder. Now Piper was pregnant with their second child and she didn't know if she would ever see Leo again.
Magic had taken so much from the sisters' and Piper wasn't about to let it take anymore.
She would not let eldest son become evil and she wasn't about to let her youngest son die just to protect him.
She was their mother and protecting them was her responsibility.
"What about you?" Wyatt asked Chris suddenly, "Are we friends in the future?" He grinned easily.
Chris wanted to tell the boy 'yes' and to grin back, instead he mumbled this half-truth, "My brother is one the most important people in my life."
Wow. You couldn't get anymore evasive than that.
Wyatt picked up on Chris's attempt to dodge the question, "Me and Little You think that the baby is gonna be loud and throw temper tantrums."
Chris couldn't help but laugh, the boys definitely had Emma's number, "Well, you guys are right on that account. She is definitely loud."
"But she'd be old where you're from." Wyatt frowned. He had been talking about the in-utero version of their sister, not the much older version of her.
"She's 17." Chris said with a laugh, "And I don't think she would be too happy if she heard you call her old." For a moment he recalled the brightest moments of their
childhood, making Chris even more desperate to preserve such memories.
"She's here?" Wyatt asked, his curiosity peaked. He wanted to know all about how the baby was going to be when she got older.
Chris shook his head, "No, she's in the future." He missed his sister, she was all he had left now that Bianca was dead.
"So she's with Big Me!" Wyatt accepted happily, "Good." He assumed this meant he was protecting his younger sister.
'Good is the last word I would call it.' Chris thought to himself acerbically.
"Yeah." Chris feigned a smile, "She's with you."
"Hey, Chris, why are you all the way back here? You aren't even born yet."
"I'm here to protect little you." Chris replied with a half-smile. He hated to admit it, but he had grown fond of the toddler version of his older brother.
Chris had to make sure he prevented the toddler from seeing his death, that in itself could turn the boy just from trauma.
Just how was he supposed to do this without knowing who Wyatt's attacker was?
"Why?" Wyatt asked suspiciously, "What happened to me?"
"Nothing if I can help it." Chris swore to the boy, "We'll make sure of it."
"But you came all the way from the future, where you are really big. Why did you come from there?"
"Well, when you were little the monster attacked you and it did something that changed you. In the future, you're really angry."
Chris tried to simplify the story. If the boy knew he was evil, he would break into hysterics.
"Am I okay? " Wyatt seemed worried, "Am I mean?"
"Yeah..." Chris bit his lip, "but it's not your fault. It's the monster. He did something to you."
"Oh" Wyatt's face fell, but then looked up lovingly at Chris, "But you must be a really good best friend to come all the way back here so that I never become mean."
'It's not just for you.' Chris perused to himself, 'It's for Ray, Jacob, Katie, Em and everyone else in the future.'
"How can I help you?" Wyatt inquired, now renewed in his effort to save the Traveler, his little brother.
"Just be nice to your siblings when we send you back." Chris suggested off-handedly.
"I mean, now! I want to help stop the monster. If we stop the monster, you won't go away and Big Me won't be mad!"
Wyatt was trying with great effort to explain the concept to Chris.
"You can help me figure out who the monster is." Chris finally succumbed to Piper's original idea.
"This is magic school." Wyatt said, eying the old architecture, "We come here sometimes to hide from demons."
"It's got a lot of resources. Books filled with information of potential evils." Chris said, climbing up a nearby ladder. Once at the top, he handed the small boy book after book, each of which Wyatt set on a chair next to him.
"Like the Book of Shadows?" Wyatt supplied.
"You don't go through the book, do you? You're a little young, Wyatt." Chris told him.
He grabbed one last book and hopped off the ladder, "The images in the book aren't really suited for children."
"Mommy doesn't like me to..." Wyatt said defensively, "But I think it's cool. One day I'll get to destroy all those evil things!"
'Or you'll team up with them to destroy all good things.' Chris's bitter mental retort came.
Chris picked up the heaviest books, leaving a smaller pile for Wyatt to carry.
He lead the way into another room, then took a seat and pulled out another for Wyatt.
Wyatt stopped a few feet before the table, frowning, "Hey Chris, who is that?"
Chris turned around, "Oh, that's Gideon. He runs magical school." He returned to his original position.
Wyatt mumbled to himself, "I don't like him."
"I'm sure you're not alone in your thinking." Chris managed distractedly, "Most students don't like the school principal."
Author's Note: Ray, Jacob and Katie are Phoebe's children in the Unchanged future.
[Prudence] Emily is Chris and Wyatt's little sister, she's often called "Pruey", but hates the nickname.
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