“What?” Wyatt asked bewildered. “Where did you come from?”

“I noticed some bills were higher in my bank statements and we came to investigate. Leo was cloaking us,” Paige said quickly before Piper or Leo could start attacking Chris. From the way they were looking at Chris she was sure they were going to, but she on the other hand had the strong feeling that was the last thing they needed to do and that they might owe him a huge apology.

“That’s personal gain,” Chris pointed out.

“We came and talked to Mr. Smith first,” Phoebe explained. “And we noticed magic had to be involved so we kind of found a loophole. Can you please explain what Wyatt is doing here, why you didn’t tell us you knew him and he was here, what do you mean by the world going to hell and why he didn’t show himself up?”

“And what exactly are you?” Leo hissed at Chris “You’re obviously not a Whitelighter. What did you do to the one you stole the power of orbing from?”

Chris bristled at the accusation and was about to retort but Wyatt beat him to it not liking at all his father’s tone. “He didn’t steal that power! He was born with that power! His half and half, like me and Aunt Paige,” he said leaving out the part that Chris was actually half-Elder, but he knew his brother was very firm on they not finding our who he was. He said that could mess with the future. Wyatt wanted very much to tell them, and hopefully have them groveling for forgiveness. Wyatt didn’t know most of what his mother did to Chris, he just knew something was wrong but Chris never had any problem ranting about Leo. But from the way his brother came back home most of the times and the way both Piper and Leo were glaring daggers at him he knew they had both been hurting him. Not just Leo. And Wyatt couldn’t stand that. But he couldn’t very well yell at them for that now could he? Since he couldn’t he at least could complain about them screwing up their plan:

 “Anyway, why the hell were you looking at your bank statements? You never do! That was what we were counting on! That and the fact that you only went back to that apartment in two years when you decided to sell it to get money to buy the other apartment with Uncl- HEY!” Wyatt cried as Chris slapped his head.

“And that is why I’m the one there,” Chris rolled his eyes at his big mouthed brother.

“Hum, Uncle what now?” Paige asked interested.

“No one,” Wyatt mumbled rubbing his scalp.

“Okay,” Phoebe said slowly. “So, now that we know that, why don’t we all sit down, calmly,” she added firmly at Piper who had raised her hand to blow up Chris when he playfully slapped Wyatt and had only been stopped by Phoebe’s hand. When everyone was sitting down she asked carefully again. “Why didn’t you tell us that you knew Wyatt, that you were both here and what exactly do you mean by the world going to hell?”

 Wyatt felt a little as if he was five again and having to explain exactly how the couch got burned, again.

“Exactly that, demons took over. There’s some new source of power that took completely over overnight after killing you,” Wyatt said and at his brother’s glare he shrugged. “The important part they weren’t supposed to know they already found out. Maybe this way they’ll start helping, for a change,” he finished with his own glare at his mother.

Chris nodded at his brother. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. And if they managed to keep Chris’s identity a secret they’d still be on the clear. After all, Wyatt had already been born. They knew about him. The son that hadn’t been even conceived yet in the other hand… “We didn’t tell you because there are rules, you always said: When traveling in time do not reveal the future. We had to let you know as little as possible and at the same time we had to work. You wouldn’t take me serious if you knew you knew me growing up.” There, Chris thought happily. That wasn’t a lie, they knew him growing up after all, if they assumed that was because he was Wyatt’s friend he wasn’t to blame.

Wyatt continued for him as he saw that their parents were looking at Chris with suspicion, “We didn’t know how far in time we’d end up. We thought we’d travel at most a few months and then, well you’d recognize us and since you’re the ones who taught us the rule you wouldn’t press, but when we found ourselves in this time there was a lot of quick thinking that we had to do. You didn’t notice because Chris was fast, but we both came through the portal and into the attic.”

“I saw Paige’s statue and knew what time we were instantly, believe me the Titans was one story we knew by heart,” Chris said, “So I used my orbs to cover Wyatt and send him away while I figured out what to do.”

“You mean you helping us with the Titans wasn’t your plan all along?” Paige asked.

“No,” Chris winced. “We kind of made it up as we went. I lied to you about Paige. I figured you’d let me help and then all I did was walk you through the story I knew, of how Leo became an Elder.”

“You mean you didn’t make Leo an Elder on purpose?” Piper scoffed as if she didn’t believe him.

“Even if he had manipulated the situation, which he didn’t. He didn’t change anything,” Wyatt said firmly. “Dad is the one who accepted the job. No one was pointing a gun to his head.”

“What about Valhalla?” Leo asked not willing to let Chris of the hook. Leo might have made the choice, and deep down he knew Chris was not to blame, but Chris was too much of a convenient target for his anger to let go. If he let go he might have to start looking at his own actions and Leo really didn’t want to do that.

“Once Chris started telling you what to do, I realized that that was a great opportunity for Chris to take dad’s place as your Whitelighter but dad had to stick around,” Wyatt explained wanting to let his father know that the idea had been his and not Chris’s. Chris had been reluctant, he always had a difficult relationship with his father and he didn’t want to do something else to make the Elder hate him. But Wyatt had insisted. “Back in the future, the very few good or neutral magical beings that managed to survive helped us, and told us that we could count with them wherever time we ended up in. The Valkeries were one of them. So while Chris was helping you I used a token they gave us to contact them and ask them to keep dad for a while. I figured that would make him suspicious enough to want to stick around and really, learning how to fight would do him good. The Elders were slaughtered in our time.”

“Wait a minute! how could you two be in contact while all that was happening?” Phoebe asked.

“Chris orbed me out of your sight,” Wyatt said. “Not out of the house.”

“You said you don’t have your powers,” Phoebe asked Wyatt. “What if the Valkeries had attacked you?”

“They wouldn’t,” Wyatt said shrugging. “They’re neutral and don’t kill. They take dead warriors. But anyway my active powers have been bound. I know I still have them I can feel them locked up, but I can still cast spells and wield Excalibur. I didn’t go completely unarmed.”

“Once we had that all secured we had to think what we’d do,” Chris explained to Paige, in an apologetic tone. “I mean. We had no money, we only had a couple of changes of clothes that we had managed to save and we needed somewhere to stay. I remembered that you had an apartment at this time. You see, the fact that you never told your sisters about keeping the apartment was a little sore point with them. So even though we were both little when you did tell them and sold the apartment that story is another that survived for a long time. So I er- ruffled through your stuff to find the address and we orbed here. At first we thought of just staying here without letting anyone know but right the next day Mrs. Smith walked in to clean and found Wyatt, luckily I was in the room, so I glamoured myself into you, and walked into the room pretending I was showing Wyatt the place and introduced him as Matt Wyatt. We didn’t know if you had ever said anything about your family to them but we figured that it was best to keep the true names out of that. Then I introduced him to Mr. Smith and well, you know the rest. I was here being your Whitelighter and Wyatt got some handyman job that didn’t require any documentation.”

“I told my boss and Mr. Smith that we were escaping our abusive father that worked for the IRS and that if he found us he could take Chris away because he was underage. Since Mr. Smith knows you were a social worker he figured you were helping us and hadn’t filed any paperwork either.”

“Abusive father?” Leo asked frowning.

Wyatt shrugged, “I had to tell them something, and we needed the money for groceries. I mean, mom would eventually notice the food disappearing And even though Chris has been intercepting Mrs. Smith checks, Aunt Paige is very cheap!” That got him a glare from Paige.

“Yeah, and Piper was already on my case about the amount of clothes I bring to wash,” Chris said. “But sorry, Paige doesn’t have a washing machine and we didn’t have money for the Laundromat. I mean, really, our clothes are all second hand and even so it took a while before we could buy a few spare ones. We were making do with the ones we managed to take when we ran from the manor.”

“Ran from the manor,” Piper asked. “What exactly happened?”

Chris sighed, “We still don’t know. Everything was going normal and suddenly one day there was a huge attack on our families’ homes, the Elders and Whitelighters, Magic School and a bunch of other good witches around the world. Wyatt and I were away when you called us for backup,” he told Piper, “We got there just in time…,” he seemed to be having trouble continuing, “Just in time to see them kill you. We stared fighting but one of them said a word, wasn’t a spell, a potion, no was just a word and suddenly Wyatt’s powers were gone.”

“We almost didn’t make it out, Chris saved us. He managed to keep them at bay long enough for us to get the book and your b-“ he swallowed hard, “body and orbed us out. We figured the manor was a goner and we had to take the book. We orbed to the other houses, Phoebe’s and Paige’s and a few other witches’ we knew but everyone was dead. But unlike the manor, which the demons took over, they just left. We took you all to our family’s mausoleum and buried you hastily and then we went back to the apartments and took what we could carry. Potions, the Uncle’s clothes to wear, food. We managed to track a few other magical survivors but there weren’t many. The demons had taken over. They had made the mortals slaves and play toys. They took over the entire world overnight. We still don’t know how.”

“That’s when we figured we had to stop that from happening, so we looked in the book for a spell that would take us in time and space where we could find what we were looking for. We had to break into the manor because we needed to go through the attic. We did and then we were here.” Chris explained. “We figured that that means that whoever was behind this is already getting ready.”

“I imagine, that’s- that’s a lot of organizing,” Leo said frowning. He still didn’t trust Chris wasn’t behind all of this but he trusted that Wyatt did want to stop that hell from happening

“You have no idea who is behind all this?” Paige asked.

Chris shook his head, “No, everyone knew there was a new source in power but no one knew who. He didn’t show himself to any of his minions. I think only the higher up demons knew him personally. Or at least they claimed to.”

“So, for all we know the new source could be one of them?” Piper asked having reached the same conclusion as Leo.

“We didn’t want to rule that possibility out,” Wyatt said. “But the fact stands that when they attacked they were organized as never before. All kinds of demons working together under one ruler.”

“Since we asked the spell to take us back far enough to fix this we figured that whoever this is now is still in the baby steps of their plans,” Chris continued. “I’ve been trying to find out if there is someone talking about organizing them and I found there is. But again, no one knows who. My contacts said that there are a handful of demons trying to convince the others that if they worked together they could be stronger. But they say they are encountering a lot of resistance because no demon wants to be ruled, they want to rule.”

“So, all we have to do is find them, stop them and there, we saved the world,” Phoebe said in a chirpy voice.

“Yeah, all!” Paige added sarcastically.

---

For the first time since Chris had been in the past the Charmed Ones were actually helping him research. He had put both books together and was comparing them. Chris had been doing so for a while but he had to do everything mostly by what he remembered. Putting one book next to the other made it easier to compare entries.

“What exactly are you looking for?” Paige asked. Chris was bending over the dining room table studying both books. But he wouldn’t let Phoebe or Paige take a peek on the future version. Future consequences he said.

“I’m trying to figure out which demons you came in contact with between now and the time we left. You know, wouldn’t kill you people to put dates in your entries!”

Phoebe shrugged, she never even thought of that. She just went on taking notes the same way the book had been written so far. Putting new demons and adding information to the ones that were already there. And that is when she understood.

“You’re seeing which ones have new information on them, because even though they are already on the book that means we met them again.”

“Yes,” Chris said. “If you bothered to put dates here I wouldn’t have to be checking one against the other.” He huffed. “Whoever this is might have come in contact with you in the meantime. Since they keep themselves incognito there is no way to know if you met them before. And we figured this demon wouldn’t want someone else ruling the Underworld and there were quite a few attempts at becoming the new source in the next eighteen years.”

“So they might have offered their help to us in vanquishing the threat,” Paige nodded. “Wouldn’t be the first time we made a truce for a common goal.”

“Exactly,” Chris nodded and he went back to comparing the books and taking copious notes. For the first time Phoebe noted how tired Chris looked. Mr. Smith had been right, the kid had to slow down. She felt guilty. She never had even bothered worrying what he did for food or shelter. Or if he was running himself down with this mission. Wyatt had wanted for him to take a break, to go celebrate his birthday. Instead they crashed his birthday and had him working, again, instead of celebrating.

And speaking of Wyatt, there he was coming from the kitchen with a frown on his face.

“We can continue this tomorrow,” he said. “You and I have a commitment tonight Chris.”

“But Wyatt-“ Chris started but Phoebe broke him off.

“He’s right. You two go and have fun. A break won’t kill you and you desperately need it.”

“You can leave the book here and we’ll continue for you,” Paige said innocently.

“Nice try Aunt Paige,” Wyatt snorted taking their book from Chris and looking back innocently at his glaring brother.

“Fine!” Chris huffed. “Since you’re all against me. I’ll go.” He finished getting up and joining his brother. He touched him and was about to orb out when Piper and Leo entered the dining room and Piper said hurriedly.

“Come back here afterwards Wyatt. I made a room for you.”

Wyatt had a horrible feeling about this but he had to ask, to make sure,” A room for us?”

Piper had the grace to look at least a little embarrassed, not much mind you.

“I’m sure Chris will rather continue with his previous accommodations,” she said politely but Wyatt could hear the snide for what it was, and most important, he could feel his brother’s trembling even if they couldn’t see how she was hurting him. Chris said nothing but Wyatt just said simply, “I rather continue with my previous accommodation too,” and turned to Chris,” Let’s go.”

Chris didn’t need to be told twice, he orbed them both out.

“Was that necessary,” Paige glared at her sister.

“Yes,” Piper said firmly. “I want Wyatt here where he’ll be safe. From everyone.”

“From Chris you mean,” Phoebe asked.

“For all we know,” Leo said firmly “Chris is the one behind this and Wyatt is just too good to see him for what he is.”

“Wyatt said Chris saved his life. Or didn’t you hear that tid bit?” Paige asked annoyed.

“And that is the only reason I haven’t blown him up for lying to us yet. That is,” she narrowed her eyes. “If that wasn’t part of his plan all along.”

---

Chris and Wyatt reappeared at Paige’s apartment.

“Chris,” Wyatt began.

“I’m going to change.”

“Chris.”

“No Wy, just don’t,” Chris said tightly shaking his head and waving his brothers’ hand away and went to their shared room.