The younger Phoebe gave her a sidelong glance. "What – are you gonna 'Ask Jeeves' how to vanquish an ancient portal dwelling demon?" she asked incredulously.
Prue narrowed her eyes at her littlest sister. The expression closely resembled the squint she used to throw demons.
At this, the older Phoebe interjected to diffuse the situation. "Actually! Believe it or not, you'd be surprised at the kind of resources out there – if you know where to look."
"Ha!" exclaimed Prue in response. "Even your own self knows that I'm right!" she declared in mock triumph. Both Phoebes rolled their eyes at this.
Paige brushed off the sibling rivalry and turned to the Phoebe of her time." Anyway, we'd need Billie for that kind of Google-sleuthing and she and the internet are kind of out of reach right now – so it's a moot point."
The 28 year old Piper, used to being the middle sister, had been ignoring the bickering in favor of looking through the Book of Shadows from 2007. Finally, she cleared her throat to get the other's attention. "Uh... guys? I think I might have found something."
Grams, who was at the other Book of Shadows, looked up. "What is it dearest?"
"Well... there's this entry on the... uh... Occultus Everto? It's something like... a device for summoning hidden demons – or should I say... displaced demons..."
"Why would anyone wanna do that?" interjected the younger Phoebe.
"Hush!" Grams scolded Phoebe and turned to the other sister. "Go on, Piper."
Piper paused for just a moment before continuing. "Ok, so anyway, it can reveal hidden magical forces."
"Like portals?" asked Prue, intrigued. She turned to Grams. "And this entry isn't in your Book of Shadows?" Penny nodded in affirmation. "But this does look like your handwriting..."
"It is," affirmed the Halliwell matriarch. "Which means this was – or should I say, is – something I will find out about sometime after now and before I die." She turned her attention to the sisters from the furthest into the future. "And you girls know nothing about this?"
All five sisters shook their heads in the negative. Grams nodded sharply. "Which means something must've happened to it!"
"Must have happened to what?" asked the older Piper as she and Chris stepped into the attic, potions in hand.
"This," answered the younger Piper, as she spun the Book around on the table to face the newcomers.
As the older Piper read and absorbed the text Chris glanced at it before nodding. "Oh, yeah... the Occultus Everto. Used to reveal hidden dark magic." He frowned as a realization dawned on him. "This? This is... not good."
"How so?" asked Prue.
Chris ran a hand through his hair as the levity in the kitchen, just minutes before, suddenly drained away from him. "If this is what we need to... well, let’s just say we're in some deep magical mojo right about now – like the fate of all good magic depending on our success kinda thing!" he finished flippantly.
The older Piper eyed him, a sarcastic glint in her eye, as she set the potions down on the nearest table. "So what else is new?" The sisters from 2007 shared a smirk at this, while the younger trio's faces resolved into portraits of mild alarm and hardened resolve as they were again reminded in a veiled way of just how much they still had to face to get to the point of taking this kind of danger so lackadaisically.
Chris began rifling through the Book's pages in a clearly agitated fashion before erupting suddenly. "Dammit! This is bad – I can't find it!"
"Find what?" asked Prue.
"The entry on the Avidaivad!" her replied.
At the blank look he received from every other Halliwell in the room he huffed a sigh of frustration and tried to clarify his meaning. "It's an entry about the numerical power of three."
"You mean The Power of Three," said Prue.
Chris folded his arms. "No. Yes? Uh, no, not exactly," he stumbled, trying to figure how best to convey the concept inside his head. "It's, uh, not about the Charmed Ones. It's about a broader concept than that." He focused his gaze on the most magic savvy Aunt in his time. "You've never heard of it Aunt Paige?"
She shook her head. "No... I mean, it sounds vaguely familiar, but no, not really."
Chris huffed out a lungful of frustration and shook his head. "Great! It must not have been written yet."
"Well..." began the older Piper, as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder in an effort to instill some patience in the young man. "What do you remember?"
Chris thought for a moment, trying to organize a suitable, yet simple, recap of what he could recall. Finally, he shook his head, coming to a decision.
"I need help with explaining this... I need Dad, er, y'know, Leo," said Chris, correcting himself as he offered a look to the sisters of 1999 who had yet to live with an adult nephew around.
The younger Piper interjected before Chris could say anymore - bitterness tainting her tone, "Well, he's up 'there' as usual, getting the Elders up to speed. You know we'll just have to wait."
Chris shrugged and then smirked as he marveled at the early stages of his parent's so-called epic love affair. Finally, he looked back at his very young mother and replied matter-of-factly. "Maybe. Maybe not," before looking up at the ceiling. "Leo... Dad!" he called, seeking a more eloquent speaker than himself and his dad had never once not been there when he needed him. His father had always had a way of talking about magic in an almost poetic way. This was not something he'd inherited from his father. He just hoped Leo knew about the rite of the Avidaivad.
A swirl of orbs quickly formed into a distressed looking whitelighter. "Is something wrong?" asked Leo with a touch of panic.
"Huh?" asked Chris, calmly. "Oh – no. I was just hoping you could help explain something to everyone."
"Oh," said Leo, "Well, I wasn't quite done with the Elders -"
"Do they know anything?" interrupted Chris.
Leo, a little perturbed at Chris' insolence, continued, "No, but - "
"Then we've got bigger fish to fry. Soon." Chris interrupted again.
Paige shook her head with a smirk. "Now there's that rude little whitelighter we knew and loved!"
"Indeed," replied the older Piper. "A little respect, huh, Christopher?"
Chris winced at the use of the long form of his name. "Sorry... anyway, this is important. It's the Avidaivad."
Leo's eyebrows shot up in shock. "I should have realized that. I mean, even the Elders aren't sure how much is legend and how much is fact, but... how didn't I see it?"
Chris shrugged. "Don't sweat it. It's not even in the Book of Shadows in this time."
The older Phoebe was far more interested in what Chris had mentioned before as she could feel the well of trepidation that sprung up in Leo when he'd heard that word. "Hold on. Just what is this Avidoddy thing?"
"It's a rite," began both Leo and Chris simultaneously.
Chris turned to Leo. "Go ahead, Dad."
Leo was struck with the familiarity of the title coming from this grown man at him before waving Chris off. "No, you can probably explain it better, what with your future knowledge and all."
Chris shrugged. "I'm not so sure about that. That's actually why I called you, but I'll give it a shot. Just let me know if I'm not being clear?" Leo nodded.
Chris paused a moment and the family could almost literally see him arranging the information in his head, searching for a way to best explain what he knew. Finally, he put his palms onto the back of a chair, leaning into it. "Ok... it's a rite, like I said before, but it's not just any old ceremony. The last time it was used this whole plane of reality was nearly torn into oblivion."
"Well. That's just fantastic!" announced Paige sarcastically.
"Oh, it gets better. It's hypothesized that it was used to gather the power to form the original Triad. It achieved this by changing history for the benefit of the three founders. Here, have a look." Chris flipped to a page near the beginning of the Book of Shadows.
The older Piper skimmed the entry. "'The Trinity'? Huh. No wonder we never took note of it – it looks like a general entry about the Power of Three. Why doesn't this entry warn us about the rite? And if it's so powerful how come we haven't heard of it by now?"
Leo fielded this question. "Because it's so powerful. And dangerous. Whatever ancestor made that entry couldn't have known about it. The last time someone attempted to use it, existence itself was nearly destroyed. Since then the actual ritual that makes use of the Power of the Trinity was wiped from the collective memory of the magical community by the Council of Magic. No magical beings know of it's existence, save for magic's few protectors – the Cleaners, Angels of Destiny, the Elders, the Tribunal..."
"And whitelighters," finished Chris. "Those who need to be vigilant, protect magic, and insure that it, or something like it, is never used again."
"So why is it so dangerous?" asked Paige, fascinated by this little history lesson. 'And if I'm a whitelighter, why wasn't I told about it?' She wondered to herself.
Prue crossed her arms. "Ok, what's the big deal? I mean, we have the Power of Three, right? Wouldn't that make us just as powerful as this Triad thing he's trying to form?"
Leo nodded. "If it were just three magical beings joined, yes. But by combining magical destinies, and forming a magical bond across time itself, they pull the magical energy from all three times with them like a magnet. Nature abhors a vacuum, and in this case, magical energy seeks to fill it. Couple that with the energy that surrounds significant events, and you have three individuals amped up on magical steroids. As the 3 founding members gather more demons into the fold their power is multiplied further."
"Let me guess - by three?" added Paige wryly.
Leo nodded. "You see, three is the most powerful of all numbers."
"But we've defeated the Triad before," said the older Phoebe, "what makes this any different?"
"It's that he's changing destiny. That's the dangerous part," said Chris. "He's using the power of the trinity to undo fulfilled destiny. And he's doing it on a scale that no known magical being can reverse. The problem is, it's a very delicate procedure. If one event isn't completely erased from influencing the future….well, it's bad."
Paige crossed her arms. "Bad like how?"
"Oh, it just strains the forces of time and space to the point of ripping," replied Chris flippantly.
"Oh, is that all?" replied the older Piper sarcastically.
"I guess we know when it was added then – in our time, after we get back. If we get back," stated Paige.
"I don't get it. How can just messing around with past events erase someone so completely?" asked Prue, clearly annoyed her own ignorance. "I mean, couldn't someone just restore the original timeline-like the Elders or something?"
"That's the power of it, it's relies on the perfect unity of three," answered Chris, "The rite requires that 3 key points in a person's history, and thus the effect that they had on the world, must be stopped from happening. Unfulfilling destiny. At that point, the demon, or whoever, can perform a ritual that erases the target from all of existence without effecting anyone else’s destiny. No single magical being has that power – probably for a reason. If the ritual is performed and the 3 key events haven't been properly changed, existence itself begins to tear as multiple realities pull at each other, merge with each other, and so on. Until finally enough stress and damage is done to all realities that the structural integrity of existence on every plane is destroyed and... POOF."
"Sound more like a building collapse than magic gone awry," remarked the younger Phoebe.
Leo shrugged. "In essence, the principles are the same. The universe is made up of interdependent energies – be they light, gravity, electricity, or magic – and if you damage one, you strain them all. Do enough damage and it collapses like a house of cards. Or in this case, effectively ceases to exist."
"Yeah... I'm thinking I'd like to avoid that," replied Paige sardonically. "So what’s with the 3 key events, anyway? Seems like you'd need to change more than 3 measly events in history to completely wipe a guy out of existence and change all destiny."
Prue nodded. "No kidding!"
This time it was Grams' turn to offer her insight. "3 is a very powerful number, Prudence. The most powerful number."
“Yeah. I know. I’ve been following,” replied Prue.
Leo nodded. "Nonetheless, Penny is correct. It's kind of like... the foundation of the universe. It's everywhere, binding the cosmos – and magic – together. Just think about how often you see it in the world around you; the importance of those things informed by it. The heavens, the earth, and hell. It's the first prime number that can't be divided into equal parts. The triangle is the strongest shape because of the 3 points. We perceive the universe itself in three dimensions. The very atoms that make up your body are made up of three parts: the proton, electron, and neutron bound together by forces unknown."
"Ok, but what does science have to do with magic?" asked Prue.
"It's because of three's integral nature to the universe that it's had major significance for every civilization to ever walk the earth," answered Leo.
The older Piper hadn't lost her basic connection to Leo, even if this one wasn’t her husband, and had begun to follow his line of thought. "Like the ancient Greek hierarchy of 3 gods – one for each realm. Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. Or the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost! Huh. Guess I never gave it that much thought."
"Or the three wise men!" added Paige.
"Or the three little pigs... " added the younger Phoebe with a snicker.
"Or three blind mice!" rejoined the older Phoebe.
Prue rolled her eyes, and the older Phoebe, sensing her sentiment, just shook her head and shrugged. "Hey – c'mon, a little levity in times of peril? It's good for you!" A smile broke Prue's grimace, despite herself. "Yeah, see... I knew you liked my jokes!"
Phoebe gave her eldest, but now younger than her, sister a small squeeze on the arm, which got an outright guffaw from Prue. "Hey! No fair! You know that's my ticklish spot!" she cried, slapping Phoebe's hand away playfully.
The older Phoebe laughed and shrugged. "Sorry! Younger me has been a terrible influence !"
"Hey! Don't drag me into this!" replied the younger Phoebe.
The older Phoebe shook her head. "No, no! In a good bad influence sort of way! I think I've lost my silly side over the years. Thank you for reminding me of it."
"My pleasure!" the younger replied with a satisfied grin. "But how about the Three Tenors, hm?" The sisters all laughed at the younger Phoebe's persistence in lightening the mood.
"Girls!" interjected Grams, trying to refocus the sisters. "I trust that you've at least all realized that the power of three stems from a deep connection to all creation – magical and mundane alike."
Leo nodded. "Yes. And we need to stop Kaalaya before he tries to perform the rite of Avidaivad. Not just for my sake, but for the sake of all existence."
"So we just need to save time and space from being erased by a demon who exists outside of it?" remarked Paige, sarcastically. "No sweat! Any clue on how we go about that?"
There was a pause as the room's atmosphere sobered up from the joyful relief of knowing Leo was saved – and turned back to the dire situation they still faced.
Finally, the older Piper realized something. "Ok, so this rite or Avidaivad... I take it that it draws on the power of the trinity. But why hasn't he just performed it already? I mean, he thinks he's already changed 2 of the 3 events he needs and he has his minions to consolidate his power..."
"The ritual requires a focusing object to channel and bind their powers together. It's said that the last time it, the totem, was seen was shortly after the Triad was formed. It disappeared. Some people believed it was stolen, others that it was hidden by the Triad," said Leo.
"Ok, so how do we know this totem is even still in existence?" asked Paige.
"Well... he wouldn't be trying this ritual if he didn't at least know that totem was out there, right?" said the younger Piper logically.
"Ninsun's Tear..." mumbled Chris as he thought out loud.
"Whose tears?" asked Paige who was standing closest to Chris.
"Ninsun's Tear. That's what this totem sounds like. I remember reading about it in the book. It's a stone, shaped like a tear drop. The entry was vague but I remember Aunt Paige mentioning something about it being a totem for a forbidden ritual..." said Chris as he tried to remember the details.
Grams began to flip through her copy of the Book of Shadows and Paige grabbed the 2007 copy and hefted it at Chris. "Do you remember where you saw it?"
Chris opened the book up to a middle section and began scanning pages. "I think... right around here... here it is! Ninsun's Tear," he exclaimed, laying a finger on a page which was intricately illustrated with a picture of what looked like some kind of Sanskrit symbol drawn in red.
"And that is definitely my handwriting, which means I must have encountered it sometime in the future - before you girls got your powers back," finished Penny.
The older Piper turned back to the group. "But what I don't get is why this entry doesn't at least tie the totem to the ritual of the Avidaivad?"
Penny shook her head and Chris shrugged. "You'd have to ask Grams. The future one who made the entry, I mean."
Paige frowned at the entry. "Anyone else getting weird déjà-vu from this?” she asked, tapping her index finger on the symbol. Paige’s question was met with head shakes in the negative, so she quickly blew off the feeling. “Well, anyway, no offense Grams, but could you have made this entry any less helpful?"
Gram put her hands on her hips. "I'm sure I had my reasons, my dear. I'm sure I wouldn't want you seeking out this power before the appointed time, and the only way to insure that is to leave no hard information about it, or its whereabouts."
Paige shrugged, then looked askance at the younger Phoebe. "Now that I know what Phoebe used to be like, I suppose that's not a bad idea."
"Hey!" exclaimed the younger Phoebe as her older self nodded in a self-deprecating fashion.
"Besides," continued Penny. "I've left all the information you need, if you know where to look. Though I'm wondering why my future self used a method she knew she wouldn't be around to teach you girls. Unless she didn't know..."
"Or was expecting you to know," added the younger Piper. Both Pipers pinched the bridge of their respective noses. "Ugh. Headache inducing..."
Prue sighed in exasperation. "Great. So, who wants to go to the future and talk to that Grams?"
"But... isn't that still our past?" asked the Piper of Prue's time.
Prue shrugged. "I've given up on tenses. Now is now as far as I'm concerned!"
"Can't we just summon that Grams here and have her tell us where to find it?" asked the younger Phoebe, almost whining.
Chris shook his head. "If you take the totem from this time then Grams might not find it in the future and won't make an entry so we won't be able to ask her about its whereabouts. Big time paradox!"
"Yeah. Explaining all that will give me a bigger headache than just going to the future," replied Prue.
"Wait – why do we even need to get this thing?" asked the younger Piper. "Why can't we just vanquish him before he gets it?"
The older Piper answered her younger self instantly. "First, we don't know how to find him - let alone vanquish him. And he could easily steal the totem in the time it takes us to figure out how to get to him. Plus, once we retrieve the totem from the point in time that it resurfaces, we'll have slowed him down. No, we need to get this thing before Kaalaya does. I don't even want to think about the kind of mess we'll be in if we don't!"
The younger Piper blinked at her older self's strategic decisiveness. It made her barely seem like the same person as herself - the Piper who follows Prue's suggestion's at nearly every turn and shys away from confrontation, even with her own employees. She replied, finally, with a muted "Okay."