Out of the portal stepped Chris Halliwell. He looked very much as he had upon his last visit months earlier, aside from his clothes which, were just slightly off from any present fashion. He furrowed his brow upon seeing where he'd landed. "Ok, what the hell did you do this time?"
"What did we do?" shot back Piper instinctively. Chris' face took on an expression for a moment as if to apologize but almost instantly reverted back to the look of panicked annoyance he had arrived with.
Paige scrunched her eyes at Chris. "Leo's been cursed… or something. Why the hell would we do that?"
Phoebe interrupted, "Anyway, he appears the be –"
"Aging? And fast, right?" finished Chris. "Yeah, the same thing is happening in my time - to Wyatt. He already looks old enough to be my father!"
"Well, didn't I freeze him?" Piper blurted out in concern, realizing as it came out of her mouth that it was a stupid question, and rolled her eyes at herself.
"Yeah – well, we did use a freezing potion that Aunt Paige keeps in stock but…" Chris replied and gestured with his head towards Leo's crumpled form. It was only then that they noticed that Leo's veins were still throbbing ever so slowly and his muscle twitches now appeared to be merely flexing slowly. His writhing movements almost resembled the flapping wings of a slowed down hummingbird in one of those nature specials Piper liked to watch on a lazy Sunday. If it weren't so grotesque, anyway.
"It can resist Piper's powers and future Paige's potion….?" Phoebe's voice betrayed her worry.
Chris cocked his head sideways at her. "She thinks it's gotta be an upper level demon."
Paige scowled at this. "That wrote a spell? Not to second guess myself, but isn't that more a warlock thing?"
"I take it you being here means we don't know what's causing this?" interjected Piper. Chris shook his head.
"No. Or – yeah. I cast a spell to bring me to where I could find out where the curse came from – and here I am."
"Why didn't I think of that?" blurted Paige.
"You did, actually," smiled Chris.
Paige smiled back with pride for a brief moment before frowning in confusion again. "But why did it take you here?"
"Chris," Piper interjected, "What were you doing when this happened?" She had shifted into intense family-saving mode.
"Well… we were sorting through some of Dad's old things – y'know, organizing, space saving, when I handed Wyatt –"
"- this?" asked Paige, picking up the pendant. Chris nodded.
"This still doesn't explain anything!" Piper exclaimed in frustration.
"Yeah…" agreed Paige. "We didn't write the spell."
"What spell?" asked Chris.
Paige squinted at him."The one in the vial…" she said in an exasperated tone. "Here," she said and handed him the slip of paper. His eyes widened as he read it.
"Well, I guess that explains why only Wyatt and Dad were affected. Might be some kind of revenge spell," said Chris, absently scratching his head.
"And why your spell brought you here," said Paige.
"Certainly seems specific. And personal," said Phoebe.
"And sloppy wording, if Dad was the intended target," answered Chris.
“I think it’s safe to assume it was intended for Leo. It was in his stuff, after all,” replied Phoebe.
"But who would want revenge, magical revenge no less, on Leo back when he had all that stuff? When he was a mortal, the first time, I mean." wondered Paige aloud.
"That's what we're going to find out," replied Piper, tilting her head with a steely determination. "Chris, can you modify the one that brought you here to take us to the time the spell was cast?"
He nodded. "Yeah, absolutely."
Phoebe stepped forward, happy to have a plan of action of any kind. "I'll help."