Piper Halliwell felt as though her world had been turned completely upside down. She'd been so sure of herself that morning, so sure that she knew exactly what she was doing but now she felt as though she was drifting in a sea of uncertainty that she might never get out of.

In a matter of hours everything she thought she knew had been shattered. She hadn't caught more than a few glimpses of this horrible future but it was enough to know that it was bad; really, really bad and there could be no more denying that Wyatt, the baby boy she adored was responsible. Thousands of people would die and her sweet, loving baby sister would become a battle hardened, embittered woman as she tried to hold what remained of their family together. The young man she'd spent months being horrible to, months torturing was apparently her son and he now hated them all, with the possible exception of Paige. She had a daughter who hated them just as much and Leo, the loving husband and even more loving father to Wyatt, had been a horribly neglectful, borderline abusive, father to their two youngest.

Piper didn't know what to do or what to believe anymore. She had to try and make things right with Chris and Melinda but her daughter was right: no amount of apologies was going to erase the agony of the past few months or Leo and Wyatt's future sins. Piper realised that the only way things were going to get better was if Chris saw a difference in the way they treated him when they got back to the past. Even then it wouldn't be immediate, either. Chris already believed that the only reason they were trying to be nice to him was because they'd found out his true identity. That was completely untrue, of course – as much as Piper was loathed to admit it Melinda was right when she said they couldn't keep treating every magical being outside the family so badly – but she could see why Chris would believe that. Things couldn't go back to the way they had been before, though. Piper had a feeling her feisty daughter was going to make sure there were some changes; not that she wasn't going to do the same herself, of course.

Suddenly a frantic voice intruded on her thoughts. "MOM!"

A teenage boy whose life Piper had already observed in the numerous photos on the walls burst into the room and headed straight for Paige. Piper looked at him, her nephew, with interest and saw Phoebe and, especially her Paige, doing the same. His spiky brown hair was the exact same shade as her youngest sister's but otherwise he looked exactly like the man in Paige's wedding photo, the man who must be his father.

"Henry?" Future Paige said, jumping up when she saw her son. "What's wrong?"

"Oh good you are here," Henry said, his relief palpable. "SHE'S HERE!" he yelled out the door. "It's Prue, mom. She's hurt really bad!"

Four teenage girls, two of whom were identical twins, burst in, carrying a fifth girl who would not have been able to walk on her own considering all the blood she must have lost. The first thing Piper noticed, having been around enough injured people to know what was severe and what wasn't, was that in the non-magical world there would be nothing that could be done for her. Magic was the only thing that could save her now. The second thing she noticed was that this girl, Prue, was Phoebe's daughter. Not only was Prue a family name, the girl was an exact replica of Phoebe. There was no difference between them, save for the girl's pasty white skin caused by blood loss. Piper really hoped that her baby sister could do something for Prue because she did not want to witness the death of her niece. Vaguely registering Chris and Melinda slip back into the room, horrified expressions on their faces, Piper went to comfort Phoebe, who was clearly thinking similarly dark thoughts.

"Set her down on the couch," Future Paige ordered, raising her hands to heal the girl. Leo also automatically moved to help before remembering that he didn't have his powers in this time. Frustrated and fearful he moved to stand with the Charmed Ones.

"Auntie Paige," the wounded girl croaked weakly.

"Save your strength, sweetie," Paige said soothingly. "You're going to be just fine, I promise."

"What happened?" Piper heard Chris whisper to one of the twins.

"Fucking Tyler," the girl told Chris tearfully. "He was going to shoot me and Becks with his darklighter arrows. Prue pushed us out of the way. I don't know why. I guess she thought it wouldn't be as bad for her seeing as she doesn't have any whitelighter blood."

"She was wrong," the other twin – Becks, Rebecca? – said, guilt in her eyes.

"Hey, Aunt Paige is right!" Chris said, wrapping an arm around each girl. "Prue's going to be fine. You two shouldn't feel guilty because she got hurt. She took that arrow for you willingly, because she loves you!"

Tears pricked the back of Piper's eyeballs as she listened to her son try and comfort his cousins. She had been so wrong about him. She'd spent months thinking that he had some nefarious plan to destroy her family but all he was trying to do was save their family and he had suffered terribly because of it. She just hoped that one day Chris would believe how proud of him she was.

She sighed with relief as Prue's wounds closed up as Paige poured her healing magic into them. Piper wondered whether Paige's healing abilities had just developed over the years or whether her baby sister had died and become a full whitelighter. Either way, though she was just glad that one of her sisters was still around to watch over their family even if she and Phoebe weren't.

Prue was helped into a sitting position and the two girls who weren't twins – presumably her sisters – immediately flung themselves at her. "I'm fine," she tried to assure them. "I'm fine, I swear."

Out of the corner of her eye Piper noticed Chris and Melinda slipping quietly from the room again just as one of Prue's sisters suddenly piped up: "hang on, what's Chris doing back? Isn't he supposed to be working the mission in the past?"

"What are they doing here?" Henry asked, his eyes widening as he registered the presence of Leo and the Charmed Ones.

Briefly Paige their mother/aunt told the teenagers how they had all come to be in this timeline. None of them looked happy to learn how Chris had been treated but they weren't anywhere near as hostile as Chris and Melinda. On the couch Prue and her sisters looked longingly at Phoebe who quickly took the hint and went to sit with them, now that the crisis was averted happy to find out how one day her dream of motherhood would be realised. Young Paige also drifted across the room to meet Henry and the twins who she quickly figured out must be her children.

"Where did Chris and Melinda go?" Leo asked, referring to their missing children.

Piper nodded. "They should be with their family right now so if there's somewhere else we can go we will go so they don't have to be around us if they don't want to." It killed her to say that but she knew it had to be said.

Prue overheard the question and shook her head. "There's no point in you leaving. Chris and Mel wouldn't stay anyway."

"Why?" Piper asked, confused.

It was Prue's sister, Antonia, who answered. "Chris and Mel believe that we blame them for daddy and Uncle Henry dying seeing as holding Wyatt responsible would be fatal for us. They're wrong, of course, but no matter what we do we can't get them to believe it."

"Mostly I think it's because they blame themselves for Wyatt turning evil," Phoebe's youngest daughter, Isabella, said softly. "They're his siblings and they didn't turn evil so they think there's something they could have done to stop Wyatt."

Piper sighed, realising how hard things must be for her two babies. Paige and their cousins might not blame them for Wyatt's evil deeds but she knew Chris and Melinda probably weren't wrong about some people holding them responsible for their brother's actions. She could still remember the suspicion and scrutiny she had faced during the brief period Phoebe had spent as Queen of the Underworld. She could also understand them blaming themselves. She'd spent the whole time Phoebe was evil wondering if there was something different she could have done to stop this.

"So none of you really have a problem with Chris and Melinda?" Phoebe asked.

"Of course not!" Rebecca exclaimed. "It's Wyatt we have the problem with. It's always been Wyatt!"

"Rebecca!" Future Paige said warningly.

"No, mom!" Rachel, the other twin, said, looking at her mother apologetically. "You know that Wyatt was already a problem even before he went all evil dictator. If they're going to stop this then they need to know!"

"Tells us," Piper begged, desperate to know how bad the damage was.

"Chris never knew this," Antonia said. "He never saw it because when we were kids Chris was the only person Wyatt ever liked. Actually I'm convinced that the only reason more of the family hasn't been wiped out is because Chris is still the only person Wyatt likes. Chris is the only one in the family whose power rivals Wyatt and if Chris joined him the two of them would be unstoppable. I'm pretty sure Wyatt hopes to use the fact he hasn't killed us to lure Chris over to his side and then get Chris to lure us over as well."

"That's beside the point, though," Prue said. "We were talking about when we were kids. Personally I think its Leo's fault. You, Aunt Piper, always treated him the same as Chris and Melinda but Leo always treated him like he was god's gift to the world and forced others to treat him that way as well so he grew up thinking that the world owed him something."

"He was a bully," Rachel said angrily. "Especially towards Henry and Bella."

Piper shot Leo and angry look. "We'll be having a serious discussion about this later, Leo Wyatt!"

"Yeah," Leo sighed, not really objecting. He was horrified that he would treat his children like this.

Suddenly Young Paige brought up something that had been worrying her. "What did Melinda mean when she said they were going to figure out how to break into the Manor without getting killed?"

Her older self looked grim. "Chris wasn't lying when he told you that demons took over the Manor years ago. Because of the Nexus it's one of Wyatt's most important power bases. Unfortunately that means it's also one of the most heavily guarded places in the world, by both the probes and demon guards."

Grimly Leo saw where this was going. "And we have to get into the Manor in order to get home, don't we?"

"Yes," Paige confirmed. "The only way to send you to a specific time is to use the power of the Nexus. It took us three months of planning last time and the only reason there were no casualties on our side was because we had Bianca's help. This time we don't have any inside help and if the rumours are to be believed security at the Manor's been increased tenfold since our last breech."

"Three months," Piper breathed in horror, thinking of Wyatt who she'd left with her dad and of P3 that was being run by Ben, the new manager, seeing as this was her day off. What would happen if she and her sisters disappeared for three months?

"Good," Paige said sharply. "I see you're starting to realise how serious what you did is. You can't keep treating people like this, Piper. Actions have consequences and because of our magic the consequences of our actions are usually much more severe."

"I can see that now," Piper whispered. "God, getting home isn't going to be easy, is it?"