The gongs of the ancient Halliwell grandfather clock echoed through the manor, indicating the time was half-past two. Penny yawned as she pulled herself to her feet from the desk in her sewing room. It was time to wake her darlings – or should she say Charmed Ones – away from their brief respite from the danger that seemed an all too common and experience for them. If what she had gathered from side comments and the like was accurate, it was a marvel that they’d managed to have successful careers and build families in-between it all. It was strangely frightening and comforting all at once. She didn’t want to see her girls suffer so much as a scraped knee…. ‘I can only hope that being a witch has given them the strength to deal with all those sadness’s in their lives… Like it did me,’ she thought to herself, remembering how evil had robbed her of her first, and only, true love Alan. But especially her daughter.
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As Penny made her ways downstairs she hoped that her guidance in mortal matters had at least prepared her girls well, even if she hadn't gotten the chance to guide them in the craft. She hoped she had prepared them as women to become the great witches they were destined to be, and that they hadn't had to suffer alone too much to become the fantastic women she saw sleeping before her.
She looked down at seven sleeping Halliwells and sighed. In this vulnerable, unconscious state she could see an echo in their faces of the little girls she was currently raising, and wondered how her future self had prepared them. How to guide them down the Wiccan path when they knew nothing of witchcraft and she could only guess at their extraordinary destiny once these memories were erased? Perhaps just guiding and cultivating their inner strength would be enough.
Penny sighed and shook her head gently. ‘I must have done something right to have these magnificent girls before me...’ A warm but slight smile graced her face as she gently shook the younger Phoebe's shoulder. "Wake up, sweetie," she said quietly.
Phoebe squirmed and scrunched up her face, eyes still closed. "Awww," she groaned, "Go away, Prue! I said I'd pick up your dry cleaning before noon..." she groaned.
"Phoebe... it's time to get up," said Penny.
"Grams? Wha...?" replied a still half-asleep and obviously confused Phoebe. She scrunched her eyes closed and rubbed them with the heels of her palms, sleepily trying to remember where she was. When she opened her eyes and saw a vibrant but exhausted Penny hovering over her, a lazy smile spread across her face. "Grams..." she rubbed her eyes sleepily again. "What time is it?" she asked as circumstances came back to her.
"2:30," replied Penny simply. "Now help me wake your sisters." Phoebe nodded and they split themselves between the pairs of sisters and Chris, gently getting each woman raised, and after Prue put a pot of coffee on, clearheaded.
Soon after, the older Piper sipped a cup of the mahogany brew and turned an eye toward Grams. She kept her voice hushed, so as to avoid waking the little ones, but her tone held the bite typical of Piper when she feels she's been misled. "Just dinner and tea, huh? What did you do this time, Grams?"
"Piper!" replied Penny, falsely aghast at the accusation. "I certainly didn't use a spell on you, if that's what you mean! I simply... made the atmosphere conducive to what you needed – which was rest. No magic involved." Piper raised a skeptical eyebrow but let the subject drop. Truth be told, she felt a hundred times better than she had just a few hours ago and was glad for it.
After taking a deep sip of her cup of black coffee, Prue raised the obvious question. "So, Grams, are you going to tell us just when it is we have to go to now? Or do we have to have a group hug first?"
"I see you never quite outgrow that attitude, missy," replied Grams in a teasing fashion. "But yes, of course I will. Let's head upstairs."
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When the group made their way back to the attic Grams pulled the book, already open to the page on Ninsun's Tear, across her lap as she sat on the couch. Her finger traced the gilded outline, following the symbols as it went, as she explained. "Each of these symbols read from right to left – or east to west – just as the cycle of the stars across the night sky. Follow them and you follow their significance in astrological charts. Each symbol represents either a constellation or a planet. Look..." she finished, cryptically inviting the girls, and Chris, to try their hand anew.
It was Chris, with the extensive knowledge of his previous self, that made the first breakthrough. "Look! It's Capricorn rising," he noted as he pointed to the ram-like figure in the right hand corner. It leapt over a symbol of the sun.
Penny nodded. "Excellent, Chris."
"Ooh, I see it now! Duh!" exclaimed Paige. "Huh. Don't know how I didn't see a giant crab on the surface of Mars in there!" The other sisters looked at her blankly at this rather bizarre description. She pointed to the next sign over from Capricorn Rising. "The crab. It's Cancer. And by the degree he's tilted on the planet... I'm guessing about 25 degrees in Mars rising?" asked Paige.
At this explanation it was as if a veil had been lifted from the rest of the ladies eyes and they finally saw what their Grams had been talking about. The gilded border ceased being a random jumble of images and took on a meaning. The exact nature of that meaning was still unclear, but the message was certainly decipherable. The girls all let out a low "Ooohhh," as they realized what they were looking at.
"27 degrees, actually, and I'm glad to see that your nap has done you all some good. I took the liberty of measuring the degrees of tilt of each sign while you were asleep. No need to take more time than needed, after all. I was just ensuring that my girls don't put themselves in any more danger than necessary."
"And we appreciate that Grams, really we do, but we really should be getting back to what we came back in time to do," said the older Piper.
"Yeah," agreed Prue. "So will you just tell us when it is that this entry was made, already?"
Penny raised an eyebrow at Prue, in a way that showed she was still not happy with that tone, but answered anyhow. "From what I've deciphered, it looks like April 3rd, 1993. One pm, here in the manor."
"Ok, great! So all we need is a spell and we'll be on our way!" said the younger Phoebe brightly.
"Already done," answered Penny as she handed Phoebe a slip of paper with a spell written on it. "I did have two hours."
The girls from 1999 seemed impressed by this. "You decoded all that and wrote a spell in less than two hours?" said the younger Piper in some awe.
The girls from 2007 were obviously less than surprised at Penny's speed, considering the number of off the cuff solutions they'd had to come up with over the years. "Great," replied the older Piper, ready to get back to the task at hand. "So me, my Phoebe, and Prue go back, or, uh, forward to 1993 with Grams' spell. Paige, you should stay here and help protect our younger selves. Both sets."
Paige nodded, a no-nonsense expression on her face.
The older Phoebe finished packing her pockets with a few extra potions, a sketch of the totem symbol,l and some relevant notes. “One step ahead of ya, Piper.”
"Wouldn't it be better for all of us to go? The more power the better, right?" asked Prue, a little off-put by future Piper’s presumptions without anyone else's input. In the back of her head, she realized that she did this all the time with her sister's, and that this Piper was older and more experienced than herself, but that wouldn't stop Prue from at least voicing her mind.
"No, Prudence, Piper is right. We need some of you back here to protect the little girls in case Kaalaya sends another demon," answered Penny.
"Not to mention, I don't want to aggravate Grams'… condition," added the older Piper. "I think explaining Paige would shock her system even more than seeing future us's." Her other unspoken concern, that Prue might figure out she was destined to die if Piper didn’t keep her in her sights to block any puzzle pieces from falling into place, hurt Piper’s heart. The pain of having to keep such a secret from her big sister vented through the clipped tone in Piper's speech. "So! The spell, Phoebe?" she stated, pushing her emotions to the back of her mind, looking at the younger Phoebe.
Prue could see she was obviously out voted – and by witches who were probably wiser, and certainly more powerful. It was strange to think of Piper, let alone Phoebe, in those terms, but by this point, she had seen the power and experience of her future sister. Prue needed to voice her opinion, but could not argue Piper or Grams' points, so she resigned herself to being on board. "Okay then," stated Prue simply.
"Let me come along mom," said Chris, concerned.
"I'll be fine, Chris. This is the way it needs to be," replied the older Piper.
"But -" began Chris.
"No butts, mister. I need my peanut to keep an eye on his 10 year old mom, okay?" she said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Chris sighed in reluctance. "Okay. Just watch yourself, alright?"
"Hey, I'm still in your future, right?"
Chris nodded. Piper smiled at this. "So, if this is all meant to be, I'll be alright. Right?" Chris smirked sadly at this, and although still not sure of this line of logic, nodded. He had no counterpoint to argue this with.
Phoebe handed the slip of paper to Piper as Prue and the older Phoebe gathered on either side of her. "Wish us luck," said Phoebe with a wary tone.
"Luck!" exclaimed her younger self. At the bemused smirk she received from her future self, Phoebe just shrugged. "You asked!" she replied with a laugh. Her older self just rolled her eyes in an amused way.
"Be careful, guys," said Paige softly, her tone tempered in real concern. Piper responded with a look which reassured Paige that they would be careful before turning back to the spell. All three women focused on the paper that Piper held and began to recite it out loud.
“In Future's Past we seek to be,
To do this task, please transport we,
To April third, Nineteen-ninetey-three”
Brilliant white lights swirled and enveloped the three women, quickly transporting them forward through time. "Blessed be..." said Penny under her breath as she saw three of her girls disappear out of her guardianship. She had known these adult versions of her granddaughters only a short time, but the wonderful women they had become had already stolen her heart. They may be grown, powerful witches, but her protective instincts would never let her stop worrying about her girls.
__________________________________________________
As the bright lights cleared from their vision Prue, and the Phoebe and Piper from 2007, found themselves in a now deserted attic. All three knew better than to alert an unprepared Penny to their presence, so they silently made their way downstairs to the main part of the house.
The rosy glow of late sunset drifted in through the windows of the manor, giving the seemingly deserted house the kind of warmth normally relegated to distant childhood memories.
For the Halliwell Manor, it seemed oddly empty until they finally heard a voice coming from the foyer. The girls peeked their heads around a corner to find a 17 year old Phoebe wearing a Walkman and singing along with Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" as she pulled on her studded leather coat and Doc Marten boots.
“Runaway train never going back,
Wrong way on a one way track,
Seems like I should be getting somewhere,
Somehow I'm neither here nor there,
Can you help me remember how to smile.
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile,
How on earth did I get so jaded,
Life's mystery seems so faded,
I can go where no one else can go,
I know what no one else knows,
Here I am just drownin' in the rain,
With a ticket for a runaway train…
Prue and Piper both smirked at their sister. Phoebe looked incredulous. "What?" she whispered, "I was alone – or – thought I was alone, anyway!" Piper gave the teenaged Phoebe’s clothes a once over before she raised eyebrows, Phoebe shrugged incredulously. "What? It was the style at the time!"
Prue suppressed a laugh. "For thugs, maybe!" she whispered.
Teenage Phoebe continued to sing to herself, unaware. "PHOEBE!"
Phoebe jumped. "What?" she asked in an aggravated tone as she pulled off the headphones.
Grams crossed her arms. "Dinner. For once. Maybe tonight?"
The three sisters watched as they saw teen Phoebe's walls instantly go up. She sighed melodramatically, crossed her arms, and replied in a tone that belied suppressed hostility. "What, do I have to spend every waking moment at home for 'family time'?"
Penny rolled her eyes. She'd been through this teenage rebellion once already with Prue, but Phoebe's attitude made her older sister's 2 rebellious years look like a hissy fit. "Phoebe, you have spent all of one evening with your family in the past three weeks. That's hardly every waking moment!"
"Whatever. I have plans. Ramona and me are going to a concert. We already bought the tickets!" "Ramona and I, dear," corrected Grams. "Grammar is important."
Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Like I'm gonna be a writer or something! Tell someone who cares."
"Attitude, missy! Or else I may just have to take away your car keys-"
"Phhhbt!" exclaimed Phoebe. "Like I can't just hotwire it!"
Penny raised an eyebrow at this and placed her hands on her hips. "First: I don't even want to know where you learned that. Second: don't underestimate your Grams. I may be in my golden years, but I have ways of getting my way if I choose. So don't test me."
Phoebe looked less than impressed by this as she shrugged her purse over her shoulder. "Sure, Grams. Jeez, you'd think I was a friggin' demon the way you treat me!"
The three sisters from the future exchanged a look as they saw a barely perceptible smirk on Penny's face. "I've faced far worse than you, my darling," her voice dripped with sarcasm, "and trust me, you are no demon."
Teen Phoebe didn’t catch the innuendo behind any of this, of course. A pair of footsteps could be heard approaching from the conservatory, and soon a 20 year old Piper and a 23 year old Prue joined Grams and Phoebe in the entryway.
"You sure about that?" the younger Prue asked her Grams, sardonically.
The future Prue shrugged at the 2007 Phoebe, as if to apologize. Phoebe waved it off as she'd gotten over all that years ago.
Piper grimaced as her and Prue's younger counterparts came into clear view. "Oh, God." She buried her face in the palm of her hand and shook her head.
Prue stifled a laugh as she saw what Piper was talking groaning about. "Oh, look, you're in 'Blossom' phase!"
Piper looked slyly at her sister. "You sure you wanna go there? Or did you intend to look like you had smuggled a linebacker's shoulder pads under that jacket?" she whispered back.
Prue rolled her eyes. "Touche'."
The much more venomous bickering downstairs continued, drowning out any possibility of the future visitors being overheard. "Ha. Ha. Ha. You're sooo witty! They teach you that in school, big miss college girl!" replied teenage Phoebe before storming for the front door.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked the younger Prue.
"Out," Phoebe answered simply as the door swung shut behind her.
"Kids!" exclaimed the 23 year old Prue with a huff.
Penny shared a smile with herself at that kind of comment coming from such a young woman, before turning to her girls. "Prue, Piper, how about a nice family dinner tonight? We haven't spent much time together recently since Piper, on top of her college classes, decided to get that library job." Her tone made it clear that Penny didn't approve of Piper splitting her focus away from her studies. "And now that you've buckled down on your studies, Prue..."
"I'd love to Grams, but..." began Piper, before Prue interrupted.
"But you know, I have a study group with Gwen and Tony, tonight..."
"And I have... well, just work..." finished Piper, dejectedly. Piper's future self rested her right temple against the stair's banister as she remembered feeling like she'd never have a social life.
"Oh... yes. Of course... I understand," replied Penny, trying to hide her disappointment over her granddaughters' decisions.
"Oh, Grams, NO!" exclaimed Piper. "It's not like we don't want to spend time together, it's just... we have our own, separate lives that..."
Prue picked up from there, "That we just... it's just that our timing, our lifestyles, don't really seem to mesh right now..."
Penny waved them off. "I understand girls. This is a time in your lives that you need to find yourself as people... just don't forget yourself. Don't forget where you all came from in the process. You should both know that you should never take your family for granted."
1993 Piper's face softened, as did younger Prue's, both awash with guilt. "Of course we'd never forget Mom!" exclaimed Prue. Piper nodded in agreement.
"Oh, darlings, of course not. I just meant that I want you to keep your family in your heart," replied Penny. "And help your little sister remember that too?"
Prue let out a good-natured huff. "Quite the tall order you're asking there, Grams!"
"Oops! Should be at work in 15 minutes! Gotta go!" She snatched up her purse and quickly made her way out the door with quick wave of the hand.
Prue glanced at the grandfather clock as well. "Crap – I've got a meeting with a Professor. Bye!"
Penny glanced between her two girls. "Piper – Prue... when will you be back?" she called out.
"Dunno!" called back Prue as she unlocked her car. Piper was already long gone.
Penny sighed and ran a hand through her short brown hair, obviously frustrated. "What am I going to do with you, my darlings? Will you ever be ready for your destiny?"
"Oh, I think you can count on that," answered the 32 year old Phoebe, casually leaning against the stair's handrail.
"Phoebe!" exclaimed Piper at her sister's indiscretion. Penny could be very temperamental if not properly introduced.
Phoebe shrugged. "What? We've got the spell to bring back her memory. And you basically did the same thing just yesterday."
"So not the point!" answered Piper. “Ever hear of do as I say, not as I do?”
Penny, meanwhile, had spun on her heels in confusion. She recognized the voice, but there was no way her granddaughter could have gotten behind her without her noticing. "Phoebe?" Her eyes darted between the three familiar, yet somehow unfamiliar, faces. "Prue? Piper? But you just left. How could you be here? Like -"
"Magic?" answered Prue, wryly. "I think you know the answer to that!" Then, quietly to Piper, she quickly whispered, "Quick – the memory spell!"
Penny was still not sure what to think of what was before her. The only thing making her hesitate was an incredible sense of Deja-vu. Like she'd seen something like this before. But not this – whatever this was. The woman who looked like her middle granddaughter suddenly, quickly recited a rhyme.
“Let Grams' memory be unbound,
Let what was lost now be found,
Of our visit to 1975,
Make her memory come alive”
Or possibly a spell, Penny realized. But nothing happened. "Who are you people?" She asked of the three women in her home. 'And they are women,' she thought. Older. Mature. Not the young ladies currently under her care. But something about their demeanor told her they were, indeed, her girls. Still, the suspicious part of her brain knew demons could impersonate people for their twisted schemes.
"Wait... why didn't that work?" exclaimed Prue.
"I don't know," answered Piper.
"Maybe... memories work like our powers, kind of? Like, only one set, in one time? Or something?" said Phoebe grasping at straws.
"I said, who are you?" asked Penny in a harsher tone as she raised her hands in an obvious threat.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" cried Piper. "We're not demons..." she softened her tone so as to not alarm Grams further. "Who do we look like we are?"
Penny narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You look like my granddaughters. But for all I know, you're shape shifters, or God only knows what else! You don't look exactly like them after all!"
"That's because... we're from the future. A future where we've gotten our powers. Found out we're witches," replied Prue.
"The Charmed Ones," added Phoebe.
"Right," replied Piper flatly with an all-business nod. "And if you'll just give us a chance to prove it... maybe we can do what we came here to do and get home."
Penny lowered her arms just a bit. If these were warlocks in disguise they were obviously clever enough to have developed some sort of plan. Or, they just might be what she'd always hoped her girls would become in the future; powerful witches. She decided to test the waters by making a play at the famous Halliwell temper.
"Okay... well, if you are from the future, then Prue, honey, I have to say... you have aged far better than your sisters. I mean, don't get me wrong, you're all beautiful, but Prue you clearly look younger than either of your 'younger' sisters!"
Prue just smirked at this, but Phoebe and Prue both looked indignant. Sure, maybe they were older than this Prue, but it's not like they didn't look good!
It was Phoebe, of course, that blew back. "Hey! I... we," she said, glancing at Piper, "I'll have you know, age just fine! We're just from further in the future than this Prue here. So, y'know – we are older than her!"
Penny raised an eyebrow.
Piper's only response was, "Don't ask, it's complicated."
Penny visibly relaxed at this response. It was all a bit farfetched, and any demons clever enough to impersonate her daughters this well were unlikely to make up a tale this stupid. She wasn't wholly convinced, but it was a start. "Okay, so say you are who you say you are... you wouldn't mind me using a potion on you to detect evil?"
"The wormwood or sage based variety?" Piper asked slyly.
Penny's eyebrow's shot up at this. "Well, I see I taught you well – if you're legit, of course."
"Of course," replied Piper, with a slightly sad shadow passing across her eyes, which Penny barely caught.
"Anyway, yeah, be our guest," added Prue. Phoebe nodded in agreement and the trio followed Penny to the attic, where she had a shelf of pre-brewed potions on hand.
"Over there," said Penny, motioning at the rug in the middle of the room. "I don't want demon blood on my shoes. It never gets out of suede, you know. Just in case."
The girls shrugged and moved to where Grams had indicated. Phoebe whispered out of the side of her mouth at Piper. "Maybe we shouldn't do this... what if Grams throws the wrong potion at us?"
“Are you sensing that she’s trying to deceive us?” asked Piper in response. Phoebe shook her head in the negative. "Then I think you should worry more about Grams knowing you questioned her potions ability after this!" replied Piper in a hushed tone.
Penny tossed a vial of green liquid at the girls' feet, which only resulted in shattered glass and an emerald stain on the rug. The second vial merely resulted in bleaching a spot of lavender into Prue's slacks – which made her none too happy, but it was better than being blown to bits. "I hope you're satisfied, cause I just bought these slacks," said Prue.
"Not quite yet," replied Penny. "Who was my husband?" she instantly launched into her interrogation.
Prue laughed. "Which one?"
Penny narrowed her eyes at Prue. "Funny. How about them all?"
The girls took turns naming them off.
"Allen"
"Jack"
"Armand"
"Sidney!" finished Phoebe.
"Okay. What's Phoebe nickname?" asked Penny.
"Freebie," Phoebe groaned, obviously loathe to repeat it. She sighed heavily. "And hey, thanks for bringing that up!"
Penny nodded. "And Prue's favorite actor?"
Prue scrunched her nose. "Uh, let's see.. 1993? Well, I probably would have told you Tom Hanks to sound intellectual. Philadelphia coming out and all that... but to tell the truth, probably Robin Williams..."
The girls could see some sort of unreadable expression pass over Penny's eyes and they all thought they were making headway.
"And Piper," continued Penny, "If I were baking a soufflé... what is the ratio of egg whites to egg yolks that I would blend together?"
"Trick question," she replied with a knowing smirk. "First off, a drop of egg yolk and that soufflé is toast. Secondly, you fold in the egg whites, never blend."
"Huh!" exclaimed Penny, clapping her hands together. "I actually didn't mean for the blending part to be wrong... but..." The look in her eyes softened from one of suspicion to wonder. "Huh. You girls really are something!"
"So you believe us, then?" asked Piper.
Grams nodded. "I'm glad you're not warlocks, certainly. But I am worried that you seem to be flippantly hopping through time. I hope you've got good reason to be here, now. What was that you whispered about a memory spell?"
Phoebe snorted. "Well, your hearing is certainly still intact!"
Piper raised a hand, shaking her head. "The spell... I cast it on you before, in the past, to restore your memories of our previous visit to you and mom in 1974. I just don't understand why it didn't work now."
"1974? Just how many times have you...? Nevermind. This spell, is it still in effect in that time?" asked Grams.
Piper nodded. "Yeah, so?"
Penny gave Piper one of her looks. "Well, dear, you don't just erase and restore memories! They're like anything else in existence – they go somewhere. And if you don't carry them with you, then they go somewhere else. If my memory of a past event was removed and put wherever those memories go... I can't access them now. Another me has them in her possession!" finished Grams as if it were the most sensible thing ever.
"Anyone else get that?" asked Phoebe.
"I think so," replied both Prue and Piper in unison.
Penny smiled warmly at the three sisters. "Look at you... my girls. Such beautiful women." She was struck immediately that the three had unconsciously migrated to the couch, comfortably cuddled together. Especially striking to Penny was the fact that Prue had was holding hands with Phoebe. "I see you finally managed to bond as sisters. I've been so worried that you'd never be in a place that I could restore your powers." The girls exchanged a glance that Penny noticed. But she knew better than to ask for knowledge of the future and pushed her questions to the back of her mind. "So, to what do I owe this extraordinary visit?"
"We're here for something you find today," replied Prue.
"Ninsun's Tear. Ring a bell?" asked Piper.
Penny had just barely opened her mouth when a whoosh of hot air, smelling of sulfur, blew through the room. "Demon!" exclaimed Phoebe, recognizing the stench of the underworld.
The Halliwell women all leaped from their seats, eyes frantically darting about in an effort to anticipate from which direction the demon would appear.