"We have to warn Chris!" Wyatt said, pacing in front of The Book of Shadows as Reese flipped the pages, trying desperately to figure out who or what Bianca was.
"I think Chris is probably safer not knowing for the time being. If Bianca finds out her plan didn't work, who knows what she'll do." Piper explained, standing beside Reese at the Book and trailing her eyes over the many demons and magical creatures they were attempting to narrow down.
"I agree with Piper. Plus we don't even know who or what we're dealing with yet." Reese stated, hands on hips and brows furrowed as she stared down at the book. Phoebe, Paige, Piper and Leo shared a sheepish look and shifted beneath Wyatt and Reese's suddenly confused gaze.
"What are you not telling us?" Reese enquired in a low voice.
"We know who Bianca is. We've met her before, a long time ago." Phoebe explained hesitantly, not able to look up into Reese's face, fearing the pain in her eyes.
"What? How?" Wyatt wondered out loud, a confused grimace crossing his face.
"When you were a baby, a man named Chris Perry travelled to the past to warn us of a great evil that had destroyed the future. We knew little about him, he guarded his secrets closely and only told us what was necessary to help him to track down the evil he was looking for. One day a witch came back from the future and tried to sabotage his efforts, using her enormous power to drain his magic and almost killed him. We later learnt her name was Bianca, his fiancé and that she was part of a coven of assassin witches known as The Phoenix." Leo clarified thoroughly, his face filling with pain and regret as he re-accounted his story.
"She's a witch?" Reese asked, her tone biting and her eyes blazing with anger. How could they have kept this from her when all the while Chris had been by her side, so close to danger and they had done nothing.
"I don't understand." She continued in a quiet and defeated voice, rubbing her temple whilst shaking her head.
"Who is this Chris Perry? What happened to Bianca? Is she the one and the same Bianca in this future. God this makes no sense." Reese questioned all at once, filled with so much rage and distrust for the Halliwell's that she very nearly rushed out of the manor just to be away from them. But she needed answers, she needed to know and she needed to protect Chris at whatever cost. Just knowing he was in love with a witch assassin made Reese's blood run cold. Piper sighed heavily and touched her arm, biting her lip solidly when Reese flinched away from her and stood back whilst saying, "You lied to me. All this time and a witch assassin capable of stealing our powers was right under our noses. How could you!?" She spat, tears springing to her eyes as her anger enveloped her.
"Reese, we thought she was human. She never gave any indication that she was a witch. We tried every spell in the Book to find out whether she was telling the truth or not and all of them came back with the same conclusion. Bianca was human and was no threat to us. Otherwise I would never have let my son near her. Not again." Piper shook her head, setting her jaw in an angry grimace, guilt overtaking her and being so trusting so easily.
"Again? What the hell are you talking about!?" Wyatt asked, trying desperately to take all of this information in, his stance offended and his eyebrows drawn down into a frown.
"We found out later that Chris Perry was in fact, Christopher Halliwell. And our son." Leo explained and Reese's face went white and she swallowed hard, not believing what she was hearing and that they had kept such a big secret from them all these years.
"We never told anyone. We wanted to protect Chris' future so he would never have to know the pain we all went through. We wanted to protect both of your futures." Piper continued, staring pointedly at her son who was still trying to understand everything that his parents were saying.
"What do I have to do with this? I was just a baby when all of this happened." Wyatt said, his voice shaky and uncertain.
"Remember when we told you that when you were very little, Gideon had kidnapped you but your father had stopped him?" Piper said, jogging Wyatt's memory and he nodded.
"We later figured out that in the future that Chris had come from, your father didn't find you and he didn't kill Gideon. Being away for so long from home changed you more than we ever realised until it was too late." She continued, her eyes filling with tears at the look that washed over Wyatt's face.
"I was the evil Chris was sent back to stop?" He asked, tears in his bright blue eyes and a look of betrayal across his face. Leo nodded simply, anguish clearly written across his face at having to tell his eldest son that he had been evil in an alternate future, destroyed lives and was consumed by power.
"Your baby brother came all the way back to the past to save you. We all owe him a lot, though he doesn't even realise it." He explained, trying to make this easier on Wyatt but tears were flowing freely from his eyes as a great guilt washed over him.
"Wy?" Reese started, taking his hand as he cried.
"I need to be alone." Wyatt said and his voice was low and angry as he looked up at Reese and let go of her hand, orbing out of the manor, not realising until too late that Reese had tagged a ride.
They stood in silence on the Golden Gate Bridge, the night air frigid and making Reese shiver as she looked out over the lights of the city and the cars below.
"Wy, you're not evil. I don't know anyone with a purer heart than you." Reese began, looking up into Wyatt's face with absolute sincerity before taking his hand and squeezing it.
"But what if I am? What if its been in me this whole time just beneath the surface and one day I'll snap suddenly and hurt everyone I love. I can't live with that!" Wyatt protested, his face angry as more tears welled in his eyes.
"I know you better than that, Wyatt. All you've ever done with your life is selfless and good and that's not about to change." Reese said sternly and Wyatt looked up at her and finally nodded.
"Now let's go kick some demon ass!" She added and Wyatt couldn't help but smile down at her in amusement as he orbed them back to the manor.
Reese bit her lip in concentration as she stared back over The Book of Shadows momentarily before returning back to the cauldron and placing a few more key ingredients into the potion, stepping back as a large cloud of smoke enveloped her before coughing and waving an arm in front of her face to clear the mist.
"I think it's finished." She said with a grimace before stepping back from the potion and watched as Piper began bottling the dark liquid into vials as Reese grabbed her notebook and pen again, pacing the room and chewing the end of her pen whilst mumbling to herself softly, scribbling something down every now and then before continuing to pace. Finally she ripped out the page she had been working on and stuffed it into her pocket just as Paige, Phoebe, Leo and Coop entered the attic, clearly prepared for anything.
"I still don't understand why Barbas sent Bianca to get close to Chris. What good does it do him?" Paige wondered out loud, raising an eyebrow in confusion, still trying to comprehend why Barbas had gone to so much trouble all for this one plan.
"I've been thinking about it and...I think I know why." Reese replied in a small voice, her fingers gripping the insides of her jean pockets as she finally came to the conclusion she had been mulling over in her mind for hours.
"To gain a foothold in the Halliwell line. If she had ended up marrying Chris, if they had had children, that child would be one of the most powerful magical beings the world has ever seen. Barbas could bend her first born to his will and steal its powers. He would effectively have become all powerful and we would never have been able to stop him." Reese said all at once, her voice quaking just thinking about Bianca having Chris' child and the chaos that one act would have caused the entire world.
"It wouldn't be the first time." Phoebe muttered with a grimace, staring down at the floor as a pang of old pain momentarily filled her chest.
"Then are we ready to make sure that doesn't happen?" Paige asked, tying back her orange hair into a sensible ponytail. Reese nodded simply, her eyes dark and single-minded, grabbing Wyatt's offered hand as Piper took the other. They began to orb out just as Paige and Phoebe disintegrated into blue and white light also.
They reappeared in a dank and dark room, the mere flicker of a torch against the far wall the only source of light in the room. Reese squinted against the dark, letting go of Wyatt's hand to take the potion that Piper was offering her before stepping further into the chamber. Blue orbs appeared behind them but Reese didn't look up but continued to creep through the room, coming to a small cramped opening in the wall and ducking to step through it before she looked up into Barbas' cruel face, an evil, toothy smirk plastered over his face.
"I've been expecting you." He said in a singsong voice as the opening behind her closed and a shield of power glittered across the walls before fading. Reese turned in shock, not having expected Barbas' attack but determined to end this once and for all.
"But I bet you weren't expecting this." Reese said, throwing the potion so the bottle shattered at Barbas' feet as a long stem of smoke rose up from the floor and encircled him. He only smiled coolly and chuckled at her ineffective potion. The cloud of smoke continued to curl around him before it slivered down his nose and throat as he tried to choke and cough, tried to get rid of it but it was no use.
"Compliments of me." Reese said with a snarl as Barbas let out a terrified wail and began batting at his arms.
"Get them off of me!" He bellowed, trying desperately to remove something that Reese couldn't see. The potion had worked.
"What better way to destroy the Demon of Fear than with fear." Reese's tone was strong and determined, the calm quality of her voice chilling as she advanced on Barbas who was now screaming, "Shut up! Shut up, make them stop. They chatter, it's so loud!" He wailed, tearing out clumps of hair and waving his head to and fro in the throws of insanity.
"Did you think I wouldn't figure it out? Did you really expect to get a foothold in the Halliwell family without them discovering your plans? Without them destroying you? You are such a fool." Reese growled, her voice rising as her anger tore herself asunder. He had destroyed everything she held dear, torn her world apart. He had sent her to hell and back only for her world to tumble down around her once more as her heart had been repeatedly broken by the one man she had always depended on. Reese had been stripped bare, the physical scars she never let anyone see the only reminder of the pain she had endured. Her torturous hell had seen her back whipped until the skin split, til dark purple welts covered every inch of the skin across her spine. She had wailed, pleaded for mercy but the strikes never ceased, nor did the pain. Death had been cruel but un-living in a fiery hell had been a worse fate. And it had all been because of him. Reese gritted her teeth, letting a hiss of furious breath pass through her teeth as she tore the piece of paper from her pocket, memorising the words on the page before focusing all her energy, all her power on the one demon before her and then she chanted,
Fear, foe, fire and throws
Evil of the world we know
Let your strengths become what's weak
Let your fear consume you
Rid this evil from space and time
Heed my rhyme,
Powers from the other side
Heed my call and hear my need
Spirits vengeful, foe and fear
Return this evil from whence it came
Consume him entirely in eternal pain
Barbas thrashed his head in fearful tremors, screeching as the fires of hell opened beneath him, whispers consumed him as fiery hands grabbed as his terrified limbs, fire flaring up and enveloping as he let out one final ear splitting wail before exploding into fire, the shock waves sending Reese crashing through the hidden opening in the wall where she landed in a heap in the dirt, not even registering her pain as relieved tears filled her eyes. He was finally gone and he would never be back to haunt her. She was almost free of this pain.
"Reese! You okay?" Wyatt asked, helping her sit up. Reese smiled up at him, her face smudged with her dirt and tears filling her eyes.
"He's gone. He's finally gone."