Work Text:
"We need to tell him."
Piper dropped her head into her hands. She knew Phoebe was right; she just wished it didn't have to be this way. Her son was happy and healthy and unburdened by a future that had never come to pass. Because he had saved it.
"His birthday's in two days," Leo put in. "We should just wait and see. It may be that nothing happens."
Piper shook her head. "We know that's not true. He hasn't shown any indication all these years that he's remembered, but when he and Wyatt came back from the future during that whole mess with Billie and Christy, he did remember. He recognized Grams and knew where Dad was living at the time."
Leo made that soft noise he did when he was frustrated and no one was agreeing with him. He didn't like it any more than Piper did, but it was their responsibility.
"You saw him then," she pressed. "He was okay. However it happens that he remembers, he's going to be okay."
And that was the one thing that helped her agree with Phoebe about being upfront with Chris before those memories got triggered.
"We still don't know it will be his birthday," Leo argued, desperate to hold onto the way things were, which were actually good. It was hard to believe sometimes, after all the bad they'd endured. But things had turned out good.
"Leo, he was twenty-two when he…" Paige trailed off, expression full of commiserative sadness. She was the one who'd been there to watch Chris die in Leo's arms. The day he'd also been born. Twenty-three years ago in two days' time. "If there's ever a time for a cosmic soul hand-off, it'll be when he's the exact age he was when he died."
"We have to prepare him," Piper declared resolutely. She hated it, but she'd be damned if she let her boy go through this alone.
Leo's expression pinched with distress. "And what about Wyatt?"
Piper let out a long exhale. Yeah, there was that too. They couldn't keep something this big from him…
"What about me?"
They all jolted as both Wyatt and Christopher came into the living room. Dammit, Piper hadn't heard them orb in. The boys pulled up short and cast wary looks around, immediately picking up on the tension in the room.
"What's going on?" Wyatt asked.
"Um, there's something we need to talk to you two about," Piper answered carefully. "We were just discussing how to go about doing it."
"What'd we do?" Chris asked with a half nervous laugh.
"Nothing like that," she assured them, though she knew from experience there was probably something she could lecture them about. "Um, come sit."
She got up from the couch and gestured for them to sit instead as she and Leo moved to stand next to Phoebe and Paige in the armchairs.
"First, about your birthday, Chris," she began.
"I know, family dinner," he said with a fond eye roll. "But some of the guys from school wanted to go out clubbing afterward."
Piper glanced at her sisters with a grimace. "Yeah, that might not be such a good idea."
"What? Why?"
"Wait." Wyatt scooted forward to the edge of his seat, expression suddenly serious. "Did Aunt Phoebe have a premonition? Does something happen to Chris?"
"No," Phoebe said quickly. "Not exactly. We think something might happen on your birthday but we don't know for sure, or what exactly it will be."
"Seriously?" Chris blurted. "You're getting all overprotective over a hunch?"
"It's a little more than that," Leo put in calmly. He clasped his hands together. "It's time you were told the truth about something, and it's going to be hard to understand. But we don't want you to get blindsided if what we think happens actually does."
Wyatt shifted uncomfortably. "You guys are kinda starting to freak me out."
Piper closed her eyes under a wash of grief. She clung to that glimpse of the future that couldn't have been more than three years out from now as she readied herself to turn her sons' worlds upside down.
.o.0.o.
Chris paced back and forth down the length of the conservatory, waiting for he didn't know what to happen. He'd had two days to process what his parents and aunts had told him, about a version of him coming back from a dark future to save Wyatt from being turned evil and destroying the world. It was just so…mind-boggling. First the idea that Wyatt could be evil and that he'd gone for world domination. The guy caught spiders and put them outside instead of killing them!
Second was this story of Chris Perry, a mysterious whitelighter from the future who hadn't told the sisters who he really was and had pushed them to the edge more than a few times. His parents refused to give him that many details, only said his methods were more on the gray side and they didn't trust him more often than not. They wanted to warn Chris in case he suddenly got all of his counterpart's memories, and they wanted to assure him they loved him so much. Both his parents and aunts had teared up at that part and that had freaked him out even more. They regretted the way they'd treated this Chris Perry, though based on what they did say about him, Chris had a hard time blaming them. He would have been mistrustful too.
And that was the other thing messing with his head—this guy Chris Perry was a stranger, a character in a bizarre tale, and yet Chris was supposed to, what, inherit all of that guy's memories out of the blue?
No, not exactly out of the blue. Today, on his twenty-third birthday. Because today was the day he died. Or the other Chris did. In the past.
God he was getting a headache.
"Everything's going to be okay, sweetie," Aunt Phoebe spoke up from where she was sitting.
Someone had been with him at all times since that morning, also waiting to see what would happen. His birthday dinner with the family had been cancelled and it was just him, his parents, aunts, and Wyatt. He wondered what his uncles and cousins had been told about why they couldn't come to the manor that night. Uncles Henry and Coop hadn't been around yet for that other Chris, so they had no memories of him. His younger sister had been sent to stay with them too; apparently Mom and Dad thought it was too soon to tell her what was going on. They wanted Chris and Wyatt to come to terms with it first.
He suddenly started to wonder what his parents thought of him all this time. Had they compared him to that other Chris? Did…did they like the other him better? Didn't sound like it, based on what they'd said. So, would they look at him differently when he remembered? When he became that other Chris who'd lied and manipulated them?
"What if I don't want to remember?"
Aunt Phoebe blinked. "Uh, well, I'm not sure you have a choice in the matter."
"Isn't there a spell we can cast? Keep the memories from coming back?"
Aunt Phoebe got to her feet. "You don't have to be afraid. We've seen the future, and trust me, it's going to be fine."
"What if I don't want to become him?"
She blinked. "You won't. You'll still be you."
"But you don't know that," he pressed. "That other life he lived…he came back to change it, to stop it from happening. Only if I remember, then it'll be like it still happened, like it still exists. How is that fair?"
Aunt Phoebe reached out to snag his arm. "Listen to me. What that Chris did, what he sacrificed to save his brother, to save the world, no matter some of his more questionable choices, he was a hero. I'm not ashamed of him and neither should you be. Because deep down you share the same heart, the same heart that makes you just as protective of your family here." She placed her palm over his chest.
Chris squeezed his eyes shut. He knew his aunt was only trying to encourage him, but if it wasn't fear over his family viewing him differently afterward, it was fear of not being able to live up to this hero figure. He shook his head; was this how Wyatt felt having to live up to his destiny as the Twice-Blessed?
Aunt Phoebe gave him a hug and let him return to his pacing, though his intensity had died down some. Whether that was just her calming influence as his aunt or her using some of her empathic powers to project calmness onto him, he couldn't tell.
Wyatt appeared at the archway, leaning against the frame and folding his arms across his chest self-consciously. "Hey."
"Hey," Chris replied.
"Still nothing yet?"
"No." He let out a breath of frustration. Couldn't it just get over with it already?
"What do you think will happen when…when you remember this evil version of me?" Wyatt asked tentatively.
Chris frowned. "I don't know. What happens when I remember half our family dying?" He turned to Aunt Phoebe. "Because that happened, right? Everyone…" He choked off, unable to finish the thought.
"Look, I know this is scary, but we'll get through it." She glanced at Wyatt. "And this is not going to change your relationship. Your bond is stronger than that."
Wyatt looked as sullen as Chris felt. At least he wouldn't have to receive a bunch of memories of him being evil. Seriously, why did Chris have to get saddled with this?
He abruptly stopped his pacing when he felt a tingle over his skin, like static electricity building around him. "Um, Aunt Phoebe…"
"What is it?" Wyatt asked urgently, coming fully into the room. "Is it happening?"
"I don't know…"
It started like a tickle in his skull, then a fizzle, then something sharper like lightning. The oxygen stole from his lungs. Fiery pain pierced his side and he doubled over with a gasp. He could hear worried voices calling his name, but they were getting drowned out by a whirlwind of images and sensations spinning so fast he couldn't possibly keep up. His side spasmed and he thought he screamed, and then he was falling into a vortex he couldn't escape.
.o.0.o.
Wyatt orbed Phoebe and Chris up to the boys' old room and laid Chris on the bed.
"Piper, Leo!" Phoebe yelled. She was trying not to get herself worked up. Everything worked out, she kept reminding herself as she sat on the side of the bed and stroked Chris's hair back from his forehead. He'd collapsed downstairs and was now unconscious, though his eyes were roving rapidly beneath his lids.
Piper, Leo, and Paige came running into the room.
"Oh god," Piper uttered, rushing to her son's side.
"He's okay," Phoebe assured her. "I mean, he's not hurt. But I'm pretty sure the memories are coming back. I'm getting a lot of rushing emotions from him right now."
"Speaking of which," Paige spoke up. "I've been working on a spell to help said memories settle."
Phoebe furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"
"Well, we know from the future that Chris ends up being okay with all this extra timeline knowledge, but that doesn't mean it just all happened to turn out that way." She tossed a sardonic look at Phoebe. "Our lives just don't work like that. Although who knows, maybe it will be just fine, but in case it isn't, I've been putting together a spell that will let him keep the memories, but they won't be experiential memories. More like a movie he's watched, but without all the neurotic trauma to go with it."
Phoebe pursed her mouth. "I don't know, Paige, memory spells are tricky, as we've learned before."
"Which is why I've been working on this for the past year."
Phoebe's brows shot upward and the others threw Paige surprised looks as well. "Wait, you have?"
"Well, yeah! We've suspected this day was coming for a long time. I wasn't just gonna leave my nephew in the lurch. I've gone over the spell a gazillion times perfecting it, and with the Power of Three plus the Twice-Blessed, nothing should go wrong."
"Let me see it," Piper said, holding out her hand.
Paige dug a piece of folded up paper from her pocket and passed it over. Phoebe leaned over to get a look as well. She was impressed; it was a complicated spell, but it sort of had to be to cover all their bases.
"Can we do it now?" Wyatt asked abruptly.
Phoebe followed his worried gaze to his brother, who was twitching and moaning in his sleep as his mind was bombarded with twenty-three years' worth of memories of another lifetime. A really horrific lifetime.
"I think that's a good idea," she said.
She could feel Chris's emotions roiling inside him—so much confusion, pain, anguish. God, what if it was too much for him? What if Paige was right and casting a spell was the only way to ensure he came out of this the way they saw him in that brief visit from the future?
They gathered around the bed to read off the paper Piper was holding, pouring all their power and love and hope into the spell that would hopefully ease Chris's transition.
.o.0.o.
Leo sat by his son's bedside, holding Chris's hand as he slept peacefully after the spell had been cast. His eyes were still moving under his closed lids, but he no longer looked to be in the throes of a nightmare.
Leo's heart twinged with the memory of kneeling by his son as Chris bled out, unable to heal him. He'd been haunted by his son's death for a long time, the guilt over failing to keep his promise, to get him home safe, eating him alive. It had taken a while but he'd finally pulled himself back together and resolved to be a better father to his children than the one in that other timeline. And as he'd watched his sons grow, he'd sort of kept that other Chris compartmentalized as a third son, separate from the happy one he'd raised here.
It wasn't until this moment, sitting with Chris and knowing that other lifetime was coming back to him, that Leo realized he had kept his promise after all, in a way—he'd gotten his son home safe, back to the changed future he'd sacrificed everything to bring about. And even though part of him was afraid—there was a place in every father's heart that was prone to worry—he'd also been through enough to know to have faith.
It took all night for the dreams to stop and for Chris to finally fall into a still slumber. Leo couldn't imagine receiving twenty-three years' worth of memories in twelve hours, but he hoped that when Chris woke up it would be just like Paige said it would: a movie on a screen.
Phoebe was asleep, head pillowed in her arms on the other side of the bed. As the empath, she'd been adamant about staying close for when Chris woke up, ready to use her empathic powers to exude a calming influence if Chris got overwhelmed with new emotions and sensations that were his and yet weren't.
Piper came back upstairs with a tray of coffee for them. "Any change?"
"He's settled," Leo replied softly. "I think it's over."
As if in response to their voices, Chris's brow puckered up and he let out a low moan.
"Chris?" Leo called gently. "Hey, buddy, can you hear me?"
"Dad?" His eyelids fluttered groggily as he came awake. He lolled his head toward Leo and simply stared for several long moments.
"Chris, are you okay?" Leo asked hesitantly.
"Yeah…um." He started to push himself up onto his elbows, only to grimace and collapse back down, pressing a palm against his eyes. "Ow."
Phoebe jerked awake at that. "Chris!"
He winced. "Oh god, I feel like I drank all of P3."
Piper opened her mouth and Leo knew she was about to holler for Paige, so he cleared his throat earnestly and cocked his head toward the hall.
"Right," Piper said in a softer voice and quickly bowed out of the room to shout from outside instead.
Leo wanted to ask his son what he remembered but waited for Piper and Paige to return. He reluctantly vacated his spot so Paige could get in and attempt to heal the headache Chris obviously had. She held her glowing hand over his brow for a lengthy amount of time compared to normal before pulling back.
"How's that?" she asked.
Chris was still squinting like he was in pain but nodded as he gingerly scooted back to lean against the headboard. "Better."
"Getting all those memories at once couldn't have been pleasant," she commented. "Do you remember?"
"Yeah," he replied, sounding slightly stunned. "It's weird."
Phoebe reached out to clasp his forearm. "How're you feeling with all of it?"
"Um, okay I guess. I thought it would be…different. That I'd feel different. But I don't. I still feel like me." He cast a hesitant look around at all of them. "I am still me, right?"
"You were always you," Leo replied. "It was only the circumstances that were different."
Chris nodded absently. "Still, it's like it happened to someone else. I can recall things, but it doesn't…feel like it belongs to me."
"Are you okay with that?" Phoebe asked carefully.
Chris glanced at her, then around at them again. "You cast a spell."
Leo's mouth quirked. His son had always been perceptive. "We wanted to make sure the memories wouldn't overwhelm you."
"Then why not just take them away or block them?"
Leo frowned. "Because for good or bad, they're yours, and you deserve to have them. I know a lot of them are bad—worse than bad—but I also think it's a good thing that you remember what happened. That you know how brave and selfless you were and that you succeeded." He faltered. "I think I regretted that for a long time, that the other Chris died not knowing that it wasn't all for nothing."
His son dropped his gaze to his lap.
Phoebe squeezed his hand. "Are you okay? I know it's a lot to take in."
Chris slowly nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's not as bad as I thought it'd be. Thank you." He offered them a ghost of a smile.
Piper moved forward and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling him into her arms. "You are safe, and you are loved," she breathed.
Leo smiled. Yeah, they would be all right.
.o.0.o.
Wyatt hadn't slept all night, frequently walking past Chris's room or lingering in the hallway as his parents and aunts watched over him during this soul reabsorption thing or whatever. After Chris woke up, though, Wyatt had kept his distance. He knew what the spell they'd cast was supposed to do with Chris's memories of that other timeline, but Wyatt couldn't help worrying over whether it would work. Or whether his little brother would suddenly see him as a monster.
He made coffee and breakfast for everyone to keep busy and feel like he was helping. He fielded calls from the uncles and cousins, assuring them everything was fine and they'd be filled in later. Mom took a tray of food up to Chris who was apparently experiencing some whiplash from his ordeal and needed to rest. But Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige had reported that the spell had worked, that Chris wasn't overrun with those other memories, that they were a part of his consciousness but compartmentalized. Wyatt was relieved, but he still stayed away. He didn't want to crowd his brother right now, who was being properly mother-henned by everyone.
And he didn't want to risk…triggering anything.
Part of him was morbidly curious as to what exactly his and Chris's other life had been like, while another part of him was terrified because "greatest evil that destroyed the world" had to mean some pretty bad things.
He went up to the attic, first to check the Book of Shadows to see if there were any demons he could go hunting for, but he quickly decided against that. Vanquishing some demons was good for releasing pent-up stress, but in this case, that bloodthirsty urge just left him feeling sick. He decided to make up some general vanquishing potions, just to keep busy.
"Hey," a soft voice interrupted his work.
He whipped his gaze up toward the door where Chris stood, hands stuffed into his pockets. Wyatt's mouth felt dry. "Hey. You feeling better?"
Chris shrugged one shoulder. "I still feel like I've got a permanent hangover. I may never be able to drink a beer again."
The humor fell flat at Wyatt's lack of a return quip.
Chris shifted awkwardly. "I just had a weird thought. Do you…remember me? The other me. From when you were a toddler."
Wyatt frowned. "I was two."
"Yeah, I remember." Chris's face scrunched up and he removed one hand from his pocket to run through his hair. "That is really weird." He furrowed his brow. "You didn't like me at first."
Wyatt honestly had no idea what he was supposed to say in all this. "Mom says I didn't like baby you in the beginning either. Kept orbing you away trying to get rid of you."
Chris's lips gave a faint quirk. "I grew on you. Both me's," he said smugly.
Wyatt snorted. But his amusement fizzled out quickly. "So you remember that…other me," he said.
Chris's brows knitted together. "Yeah. Like a villain in a movie. I think that's what Aunt Paige was going for." He narrowed his eyes at Wyatt. "I'm not confusing you two, if that's what you're worried about."
"Did I- did he- hurt you?"
Chris just stared at him, suddenly seeming older and wiser. "He's not you. And you're not him."
Wyatt looked away. "Not a far push from turning into him though, right? I mean, Mom and Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige have all had their 'turned evil' stints. But if it's me, it's really bad. Destroy the world bad."
"I could probably do some damage, if it were me," Chris said nonchalantly.
Wyatt snapped his head back up. "Look me in the eye and tell me you're not afraid of that happening again, now that you've seen it."
Chris stepped further into the attic, closing the distance between them. "I'm not afraid of you turning evil and destroying the world. That other you, he was tortured as a child, when he was too young to understand or deal with that kind of trauma and it warped him. But it didn't turn out like that. And if something bad happens to us in the future, I know you're strong enough to come through it."
Wyatt shook his head. He didn't even want to think of something tragic happening to their family. "Alright, alright, don't get sappy on me." But he threw his brother a grateful look for the faith Chris had in him. "So, you're really okay? The memories aren't hurting you?"
"Aside from the drill in my skull? Nah, they're just…pictures in my head. I even remember getting stabbed and dying, but I don't actually feel it." His eyes crinkled. "I remember feeling it last night, when it all started…but it's gone now. I can't even bring up the sensation if I concentrate."
"Good," Wyatt exclaimed. "You shouldn't be able to relive your death."
God, that was a sickening thought.
Chris flashed him a warm smile before it twisted into a grimace and he reached up to brace his head with one hand.
"I thought Aunt Paige healed you," Wyatt said anxiously.
"The healing brings it down, but then it comes back," Chris admitted breathlessly. "Aunt Phoebe thinks things just need to 'settle.'"
Wyatt stepped closer and stretched out his hand, palm emanating a soft golden glow. He was relieved when Chris didn't flinch but just closed his eyes and let his brother's healing pour over him. Wyatt could feel his pain as he washed it away, for now. There was a rawness in his little brother's mind, a pulsing ache from over stimulation.
But he'd be okay.
In this timeline, he had his family looking out for him. He'd saved them all and they would do the same for him.
Charmed to the end.