"Explain. Now," said Piper her hands at the ready even though she knew they most likely would be useless. This had to be a trick, because for a child of hers to be here, now, especially at his age, was…impossible?
Not exactly impossible but improbable. There were rules when it came to time magic, Jeremy has said as much, not mentioning that it was more likely that this was the work of a demon than anyone else. But as she looked at him she could at least consider it a possibility because he looked so familiar, and the more she looked at him the more she saw the reason why: Prue's eyes and Phoebe's lithe features, but all of it was lost in something else.
Against her better judgement she felt something as she looked at him, as his expression slipped past her guard. He was excited and scared and confused and a whole host of other emotions she could barely read. The most prominent emotion, however, was, surprisingly, a happiness that managed to shine through all the others.
"I—" he started and then stopped, the happiness being covered over by the confusion. "I'm lost," he said and then went into a pace, running his hand through his head in frustration. He looked back at Piper. "I was trying to change the future, make it back in time. But I think I moved too far back. I've been spending the last few weeks trying to get back without messing things up but I can't. It's as if my future doesn't even exist."
No doubt his timeline had been destroyed, which meant there was another timeline in which the Angels of Destiny had killed them for not keeping the Grand Design. Anger surged up Piper's stomach and it was all she could do not to do something stupid, speaking against the gods or letting her power loose.
Instead she took a breath which put everything into perspective, it fortified to her that what she was doing now was the right thing to do.
But it didn't help her in dealing with this, with him.
"You're the only one I could sense," the boy continued. "Everything's wrong. The manor's hidden by some sort of magic, something that wasn't true in my time line. Mom," he said and there was so much emotion behind the word that Piper's resolve cracked. "What's going on?"
"I don't know that I'm really your mother," Piper said. The boy's expression faltered and he almost broke, a sheen coat appearing over his eyes. "I can't just take that as true," Piper quickly continued as she felt another bump against her resolve. "Because you could be a demon or a warlock or any other manner of creature. Please, just, give me a moment to think?"
The boy swallowed and nodded. Piper took a breath, feeling the impulse to close her eyes before she stopped herself. The first thing to assuage was the fact that there was the very real chance that he was allied with the Source or, for that matter, that he was working to claim their powers, which meant…
"We're going to the manor," said Piper. The boy started to move forward but Piper stopped him. "I'll call my whitelighter to take us—" the boy's expression shifted "because I can't take the chance that this might be a trap."
"I'm get that, Mom," he said. "But I can't let him see me. I'll be in the manor. I'll see how far I can orb towards the manor without the magic stopping me. Please don't tell him about me," he said just as he broke apart into orbs of light.
"Leo!" Piper called a moment after. There was the signature sound and then the man appeared.
"Piper what's going on?" he said.
"Warlock," Piper lied quite easily. "He blinked with me in tow. Managed to fight him off before he disappeared. Do you mind taking me back to the manor?"
"Sure," said Leo. "But…I'll have to hug you."
Piper sighed. "Get it over with," she said. Leo awkwardly embraced her before she felt herself break apart, the scenery shifting before she was in her neighbourhood.
"This is as far as I can take you," he said. "The magic around your house is pretty extensive."
"It's okay. Thanks about this," she said. "You can go back to your other charges now."
Leo nodded. "Still looking into that Fountain of Youth thing," he said. "Matter of fact let me… I've got to go," he said and then he disappeared.
Piper started walking, realising after a moment that she'd left the car behind. She had a moment to sigh before she just let it go, they could probably call the thing by magic. Even if it was personal gain it wasn't hurting anyone which was the main principle for the personal gain thing, even though Piper didn't entirely like it.
She was nearing the house when she saw something rather odd. A woman wearing a white suit standing in front of the manor, she turned as she saw Piper.
"Ms Halliwell," she said when Piper neared. The woman neared and Piper had to stop, looking at the house beyond and preparing herself for what would no doubt be a battle. Instead the woman held out a hand. "I'm Cleaner Andrews," she said. "Of the inquiry section of the United Magical Cleaners."
"You'll forgive me if I don't trust that," said Piper. "I was just attacked and I'm on edge."
"Just the matter I was here to discuss," said the woman but Piper stopped her.
"As I was saying I'm on edge," said Piper. "This would move easier if you let me inside the house."
"Of course," said the woman and she stepped back, out of the way of the door. Piper walked slowly, keeping her eyes on the Cleaner before she stepped through the threshold. She felt a little calmer having the protection of the house on her side.
"You were saying," said Piper.
Cleaner Andrews gave a short nod before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a clipboard. "A matter of fifteen minutes ago a ripple was sent through the this particular timeline," she said. "Caused by one focal point, which is your trip today. From it, magic was eventually discovered and a war broke between magic and mundane kind."
"Okay," said Piper. "Where do I fit into this?" she asked. "I didn't perform any magic."
"Yes," said the Cleaner. "But you were attacked by an unknown." She looked down on her clipboard. "From what we see, you've spoken to your whitelighter and the report from him is that you were attacked by a warlock. This particular warlock is powerful enough that he could hide even from our sight
"We think, therefore, that we might have an individual who has time and again broken the rules. With these hypotheses, it's paramount that he be question and held accountable for his actions. What would help me would be a description of the attacker, since he didn't manage to get your abilities, I assume he didn't temper with your memories."
"No, he didn't," Piper answered. "But I can give you a description of him if you want though I wasn't paying particular attention to how he looked."
"If that's the case I can cast a spell to see the memories, with your permission, of course," the woman said.
"Yeah…no," said Piper. "That rubs me the wrong way. Anyway, why do you have to worry? He was after me which means he'll do so again. My sister and I can handle a warlock…even if the last escaped, that was a lesson learned."
"Well, this particular grade of warlock is more than the one you faced," she said. "Certainly more so if he can blink."
"I don't buy it," said Piper. "Forgive me for being suspicious but my life has gone crazy the last few days. What's going on here? What aren't you telling me?"
"Rude as it may sound, Ms Halliwell, but this is above your paygrade. In matters relating to magic and its security I have been given supreme right to do as I see fit to protect it. If that means taking your memories without your permission, so be it. But, as you are one of the Charmed Ones, I believe it might be better for our working relationship if we did this with as little animosity as possible."
"Kind of hard to do that with that threat hanging over my heart, but…" Piper shrugged. "He was on the taller side, broad shouldered and with blunt features. His skin was…tanned and with dark hair, but beyond that I don't remember much except that he was trying to kill me."
"Of course," the woman said, though she didn't sound like she believed her in the least. Cleaner Andrews gave Piper a long look before she gave a short nod, putting her clipboard back in her pocket. "Thank you, Ms Halliwell," she said before she turned and left. The moment she was beyond the property she disappeared, breaking apart into golden light.
"Thought she'd never leave," said a voice and Piper jumped. The boy appeared just behind her, in the house. "I get it now that you want me here, protection in the house. It would have killed me if I were a demon or a stranger."
"Guess there's at least a greater likelihood that your story is true," she said as she walked further into my house, headed towards the living room. "So you're my son? I don't even know your name."
"Oh. Right. Chris. Christopher Perry Halliwell," he said. He didn't sit even as Piper was sitting. Instead he stood, pacing at moments before he stopped and shifted. "You named me after granddad…Dad's father, not yours."
"And who is your dad?" Piper asked coolly. She was surprised how little she felt. But then, she'd died in one timeline and had her memories sent to an alternate timeline. It got harder to be surprised after that.
"I don't want to mess up the future too much," said Chris.
Piper snorted before she stopped, the truth and how he might experience it clear to her. "Sit down, hon," she said. Chris stopped his pacing and chose a couch, sitting heavily. "How much do you know about everything? About the Angels of Destiny? About how time works?"
"Only what I've been able to get on the Book of Shadows," he said. "Not much. You never really interacted with them, just periphery information gleaned. Time…I know about protections to stop from being tracked but that's about it. I know about the multiverse theory, though. That was pretty much standard information, especially if you're into a particular set of fiction."
"Right," said Piper. "Well, have you thought about how the multiverse theory worked when the Grand Design existed?"
Chris shook his head. "I was sort of focusing on other things," he said. "Like staying alive."
Piper frowned at that. "Where am I in all of this? Or your aunts?"
Chris sighed, running a hand through his hair before he shook his head. "I interrupted you while you were speaking," he said. "Sorry."
"Right," said Piper. "As I was saying. The Grand Design can't really exist if an infinite amount of universes also exist because, no doubt, there would be variation in events, wouldn't there?" Chris nodded. "Now think about it, really think about a way to keep to the Grand Design in a universe that allows parallels."
Chris was quiet for a moment before he said, "Manipulate events. Parallel universes are created through decisions. Splits and all that. So by working evens you're limiting the choices a person can make. For example if the Grand design requires a person make to go right instead of left, you could drop a tree in front of the left path making it so they have to go right. But I don't see what this has to do without me—"
"We're not finished," Piper interrupted. "Now factor in that there are people that can see the future. Who can game the system so that even if events are manipulated they can search out the actions they need to put into effect to get a certain outcome."
"In that case if it's in their best interest to go left, then instead of going right, they'll see if there are any other routes which will take them left, or, seeing that a tree is going to fall, move faster so that this happens after they've moved left. The Grand Design would be hard to keep. How is the Grand Design even still possible?"
"Using your example," said Piper, "imagine this. A person is walking down the road and it splits. Left and right. The person stand on the precipice of making a decision, but they have future sight. They look at what will happen if they go right and they don't like it, but it works toward the Grand Design. They look left and they like it.
"Still look, they know that a tree is going to fall to bar their path so they move faster, the see passing into the left road only for that future to suddenly disappear altogether. They're confused but again they test it out, this time looking towards both directions. The move right and they don't like the path, but when they move left it disappears. There is no future in that direction."
"No," said Chris and his voice broke. "You mean."
Piper nodded. "Your timeline didn't fit into the Grand Design."
It was destroyed, she thought she was about to say before the words caught in her throat. The boy looked down, his hands rubbing at his eyes before he started shaking. Piper couldn't help herself, moving beside him and giving him a hug, rubbing his back as he broke into tears.
More than anything it seemed like the universe was working itself to making her hate the way things were moving more and more.