Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. Only about three or four chapters left, folks! Those who've read Wisdom's Memories might recognize the conversation between Piper and Leo. But, they're both my stories, so *shrugs*. Dark Future Halliwells are Emperor Wyatt and Kate. Changed Future Halliwells are Wyatt and Katie.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Brown Smoky Quartz: Endurance

The Underworld: November 26th, 2003

It was a shock. One moment, he was pacing around the edge of a large cavern in the Underworld, pondering the best way to retrieve his sister. The next, Excalibur disappeared from its' sheath at his side.

Emperor Wyatt's ice-blue eyes widened in a rare display of shock, before his expression quickly turned to fury. He held out his hand, calling out firmly "Excalibur!" but the sword did not appear, and ever-present well of rage in the Emperor's chest bubbled. He tried again to summon the sword, and again it did not come. That was when he lost his fragile control.

He had conscripted several upper-level demons to his service as soon as he arrived, and they became the victims of his fury. He held out a hand, choking one to death with telekinesis, before aiming his fist at the second and squeezing tightly. The demon cried out in pain as his blood was boiled, before he burst into flames. The third demon made to run, but a neatly placed energy ball hit him in the spine, and he too joined his friends as scorch marks.

Emperor Wyatt stood there for minute, his rage only increased as it dawned on him that he no longer had any servants to attend on him.

He slammed a hand against the cavern wall. "KATHARINE!" he bellowed angrily. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

As he hit the wall for a second time, a vision overtook his senses. The ability to have premonitions was just another power that Emperor Wyatt had stolen over the years. He had several Seers who spent their days searching the future for him, but he didn't trust them. Certainly not enough to rely solely on them for something as critical to his regime as this.

His sister was cleverer than he wanted to admit, and a psychic herself. Emperor Wyatt needed to be able to predict her movements, to prevent her from successfully defeating him, and he didn't trust the Seer not to betray him. And, he could grudgingly acknowledge, if only to himself, if anyone could defeat him, Kate could. She was powerful, and a genius, though her beliefs in the delusions of Good and Evil, as well as the phrase 'power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely', held her back from ever fully reaching her potential.

And so, Emperor Wyatt had taken the power to See the future from a random witch whose name he didn't know and made full use of it to stop his sister's plans coming to fruition. Even with premonitions, however, he had not expected her time travel. After all of their mother and aunts' lectures on the dangers of such things, the Emperor was completely shocked that his 'goodie-goodie' baby sister had resorted to such a reckless and dangerous plan.

The vision took over all of his senses, sweeping him away from the Underworld cavern, and into the Library of Magic School.

He scanned his surroundings, taking in the antique wall clock saying that it was half-past seven, in the evening from the dark windows, and the small calendar on Miss Donovan's desk. The librarian herself was not present, but there was a man, in black robes. Something about him made the emperor feel afraid and helpless. And angry. So very, very angry.

He was staring down the Charmed Ones, Kate, her treacherous fiancé, their Uncle Cole and their useless father Leo, all of whom were glaring darkly at him. And, there was someone else as well.

It was Wyatt, but not him at the same time. Despite the shades of grey that visions always came in, the emperor could tell that his doppelganger's clothes were too light to be black. His hair was short, brushing his ears, instead of reaching his shoulders, like the emperor's. And there was just something about him that was different.

It was his anger, Emperor Wyatt suddenly realized. For as long as he could remember, he had had a large, unshrinking knot of anger living inside of his chest. But the strange, Good, for lack of another word, version of him, didn't have that. Oh, in the vision he was obviously furious. But it was clearly not his default state, as it was for the emperor.

As Piper raised her hands to blow the Halliwells' enemy to a million pieces, and The Enemy also raised his hands to counterattack, the vision ended, returning Emperor Wyatt to the cavern.

He paused for a moment, confused and angry. Then, he smirked. It was a cruel smirk, one that would send shivers down the spine of any who saw it. He knew where Kate and her lover would be, and thanks to the clock and calendar in the vision he knew when they would be there. This was perfect. The cold laugh he let out would have sent anyone from his time who heard it running in fear for their lives at the man's insanity.

The Manor: November 26th, 2003

Leo wanted, more than anything, to take advantage of the debate over Excalibur's ownership, and blame the sword for his son's fall to evil. But, he had not been completely idle over recent revelations. Instead, he had been meditating.

He had come to a lot of realizations, the easiest of which was that he had been a bad husband and a bad father. He had blamed Kate, Wyatt and Destiny for him leaving to become an Elder. But now, he understood that was all merely excuses that he used to avoid the guilt he felt over abandoning his wife and son.

Leo could have refused the responsibility of becoming an Elder, he could have fought the others to stay with his family. But he hadn't.

And, when he had started to regret making the decision to leave Piper and Wyatt, he had refused to accept the blame for it. Instead, he had focused all the anger and shame he felt on the two time travellers, channelling his bitterness at them. He had attacked his own children physically and verbally and stalked them, an inexcusable action whether they shared blood or not. He knew that he had to try and make up for what he had done, and he had put a start to it that morning.

"Piper," he called, seeing her hard at work scrubbing dishes. A pang stung his chest as she straightened and turned to face him.

The last few weeks had taken their toll on her. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun, and she looked pale. Her beautiful brown eyes had deep purple shadows under them, and there was an uncharacteristically fragile air around her, like the slightest thing would send her into tears.

"Yes, Leo?" she sighed, running the back of a rubber-glove covered hand over her forehead and leaving a trail of bubbles behind it. "What is it?"

"I need to talk to you," he told her seriously. "Do you have a minute?"

"Well, the house is falling to pieces, and Kate is ignoring my existence, so yeah, sure. Why not?" She flashed a bitter smile that quickly disappeared once again before they both headed into the dining room and sat down.

Leo reached out, grabbing his ex-wife's hands in his own. It hurt to see the surprise that flashed in her eyes at the action.

"I made a mistake Piper," he admitted. "I made a major decision without considering the consequences of it or speaking to you about it. And then, when I didn't like how it turned out, I lashed out and blamed innocents, our children, for it. I threw myself into trying to prove that Kate and Wyatt had an agenda, because I didn't want to admit that I was the one who ruined our marriage." He paused and swallowed. Piper said nothing, her expression neutral as she stared at him.

"I'm sorry Piper," he said. "I'm sorry that I left, and I'm that I tried to pretend it wasn't my decision. I'm sorry that I influenced you and your sisters against our daughter, and I'm sorry that there was a version of me who was so self-centred and cold that his daughter stopped calling him 'dad' by the time she was nine." That had been a hard blow from Wyatt, almost as hard as learning that Kate's death had driven him away from his family on a quest for vengeance, until he had finally fallen from grace.

"But I swear to you Piper," he continued, his tone going firm. "I'm not going to pull that type of bullshit anymore."

Her eyes widened in surprise at his uncharacteristic swearing, while Leo carried on with his speech.

"I'm going to leave the Elders and the Whitelighters, and I'm going to work hard to be there, and to be a father that our children can be proud of. I'm going to work hard to be a man you can be proud of, too. For you to be able to forgive me."

She pulled her hands away, crossing her arms under her chest and keeping her expression blank as she looked down at the table. "And what if I can't forgive you?" she asked softly, not looking up. "What if it was all just too much to be forgiven for?"

"Then I'll still stick around," he replied hoarsely. When she peeked up through her eyelashes, she saw his eyes were shimmering with tears. "Whether we're together or not, I will always be there for the kids, and I'll always love you. I'll always be there to support you. I promise Piper."

"I want to believe you," she said. "I really do, but I don't know if I can. I don't trust you anymore, Leo. You really hurt me. All those years of fighting for the right to be with each other, I mean Leo, you were the one who never thought of giving up, the one who suggested that we try for a baby. And then, you just left. I just don't know if I can bring myself to let you in again. And I don't know if I can trust you not to break our kids' hearts, either. I just don't know."

"I understand," he murmured. Tears were trickling from his eyes as he leaned in to touch her forehead with his own. "I'm sorry Piper," he told her with a pained expression on his face. "I really am. I should never have left."

Her tears spilled over at that. She had tried not to blame him for leaving. She had told herself that it was Destiny, the 'Perrys' and the Elders who had taken her husband and the father of her children from her family. But, in the end, the facts didn't change. Leo was the one to make the final decision not to fight for their family. They had been fighting for months before the Titans attacked, and Leo was the one who chose to leave.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, as he gathered her into a hug. "I'm sorry."

San Francisco General: January 22nd, 2015 (Unchanged Future)

Kate grimaced, shifting slightly. She had never had to have a cast before because any injuries were immediately healed by Paige or sometimes Wyatt and so far she wasn't enjoying the experience. It was bulky, itchy, and the crutches were going to give her hands blisters, she just knew it.

She huffed, banging her head back against the headrest of the Emergency Room trolley she was laying on, earning herself a reproving look from Mrs. Beckham.

"Kate, honey, I know you're bored," she scolded her gently. "But giving yourself a concussion will only make it worse. They won't discharge you then."

"I don't get why we couldn't have called a Whitelighter to heal me," Kate grumbled back quietly. Of course, she'd already complained about this several dozen times it seemed, but Mrs. Beckham had the patience of a saint it appeared, and she simply smiled gently as she answered the same way she had the last few times Kate had whined about being forced to go the hospital.

"Because over a dozen mortals, most of whom you know by sight at least, if not by name, all saw you fall. And Dr Kingston diagnosed a broken leg where they could hear. If you didn't go and get a cast put on, there would be a lot of awkward questions for your family to answer. Would you really want to put your mother under that stress?"

Mrs. Beckham knew just what to say to make Kate shrink in guilt. Of course she didn't want to add to Piper's troubles. Her mother had enough to worry about, what with Wyatt getting into more and more trouble with each passing day, Leo harassing her about sending him to Magic School full time, and the current financial troubles they were going through.

"No," Kate mumbled, playing with a fraying thread on her blanket. "Do you know when Grandpa will be here?"

"He should be here in a few minutes dear," the woman smiled back, patting her unhurt knee. As if to prove her words, the curtain was pulled back to reveal Victor Bennet.

The man had gotten progressively worse health-wise in the past few years, his hair was almost completely gone and he was thin, needing a cane to help him walk, but he was still the cheerful man who doted on his grandchildren and spoiled them to bits. In his spare hand, he clutched a plastic bag.

"Hey there Baby Angel," he smiled at his oldest granddaughter. "I'm sorry that I took so long to get here. I had to wait for Cole to come over to get the girls."

"It's alright," she grinned back at him. Save for her mother, Grandpa was her favourite relative. A thought popped into her head and she pushed herself up as straight as she could. "You didn't call Mom, did you?" She asked him anxiously.

Victor pursed his lips, while Mrs. Beckham quietly excused herself from the curtained-off little cubicle. "I haven't told her yet, she didn't answer the phone when I rang," he admitted. "But-"

"You can't tell her!" Kate interrupted. "You know she'll make Aunt Paige orb her straight home, and they've been looking forward to this trip to the spa for months! It'll be ruined if she finds out about this!"

He gave her a stern look. "Kate, you're far more important to your mother than having a weekend off," he insisted.

"I know that," Kate agreed. "That's why you can't tell her. It's just a little break, and she's been so tired lately. Please Grandpa, it's only two more days. Give her those. She can go back to being Super Mom-Businesswoman-Witch on Monday. She needs a break. She deserves a break. Please?"

Victor hesitated, but seeing Kate's pleading look, and thinking of his daughter's drawn expression recently, and how relieved she had been to get a few days off with her sisters, sealed his decision.

"Alright, but she's going to be furious when she realizes what happened," he agreed with an unhappy sigh.

Kate gave a bright smile. "Don't worry Grandpa," she said happily. "I'll tell her I cast a spell to keep anyone from telling her. That'll take the heat off of you."

Victor gave a laugh at his (secretly favourite) granddaughter's declaration. Knowing Kate, she was being completely serious too.