FIC: The Only Way Out is Through Chapter 1 part 1
Well, my longest, and quite possibly most involved fic achievement ever!
This is my now-completed fic for ApocaBigBang (There's lots of awesome stuff there, check it out! I particularly recommend Amathela's fic)
TITLE: The Only Way Out is Through
AUTHOUR: TaleWeaver
FANDOM: Wizards of Waverly Place / Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles crossover
WORD COUNT: 20,020 (story alone), 21,994 (including DVD extras)
SPOILERS: TSCC up to ‘Born to Run’. WOWP up to ‘Wizards vs Werewolves’.
RATING/WARNINGS: R. M/F sex, consensual incest between siblings. Major character death, mentions of violence including sexual assault. And a couple of F-bombs.
PAIRINGS: Justin/Alex (primary), John/Cameron (established)
DISCLAIMER: The Terminator franchise was created by James Cameron, and remains the property of Twentieth Century Fox Studios. Wizards of Waverly Place was created by Todd J Greenwald, and is owned by the Disney Channel. There’s also a couple of guest characters, courtesy of Stargate: Atlantis, owned by MGM and the SyFy channel. No profit is being made from this work, and no copyright infringement is intended.
AUTHOUR’S NOTES: this is actually about two-thirds of the story I originally planned but I just couldn’t finish it in time. I may go back and re-release this later, with several sections expanded and my original part one added, at least (I never really had much planned for part two, anyway).
SUMMARY: Even after their world is shattered by Judgment Day, Justin and Alex Russo find there is still magic in the world - and miracles can still happen.
NOTES: Many thanks to Visionary, who beta-read part of this story and gave me some very helpful hints (I'd completely forgotten about Sarah's cancer, for one thing). You can find his story 'So let us not talk falsely now' on ff.net.
MUSICAL NOTE: Many, many thanks goes to kat aka liquidlights, who did a lovely fanmix for this fic. You can find her fanmix, my soundtrack, and the gorgeous covers she did for both at http://community.livejournal.com/staylost/25931.html
Part One: the Year of Miracles
Approximately ten percent of the human race is born with the powers of a wizard. The wizarding race had practised strict population control for centuries; whenever a wizard family had more than one child, the children had to fight a magical battle when the youngest came of age - only the winner kept their powers. There was also artificial controls placed on the natural flow of magical ley-lines in the mortal world, so that juvenile wizards - and those who chose to live outside the boundaries of the magical realm - had to work with whatever power the Wizard Councils of each country were willing to release for their use.
But on April 19, 2011, the Skynet Missile Defense System went on-line in the United States. Three days later it became self-aware, and triggered a nuclear apocalypse. Three billion people died. The survivors called it Judgment Day.
In the aftermath, humanity began to recover and rebuild. Until Skynet unveiled its own soldiers - the cyborgs called Terminators. Living flesh over metal skeletons, with the most advanced computer chips ever created for brains. As the human Resistance became better at fighting the Terminators, they became increasingly more sophisticated, until some broke the barrier that Skynet itself had not. Not only self-awareness, but true sentience.
Eventually, one man rose to lead the Resistance, and became the first genuine world leader - and Skynet’s most hated enemy.
John Connor.
Skynet reached beyond the barriers of human understanding to create the Time Displacement Engine, and sent several Terminators back in time, with orders to find and kill John Connor before he became a threat to Skynet. But what can be created can also be re-created, and the Resistance built time machines of their own, sending back protectors not only for John, but for others destined to play a crucial role in humanity’s survival. The war between Skynet and the human race raged not only across the globe, but across time itself.
When Judgment Day came, the barrier that separated the magical and the mortal worlds, called The Veil, was made opaque and unyielding by the nuclear radiation. No travel, or even communication was possible between the worlds. All the controls shattered, and the flow of magic was restored to its natural currents, once again surging freely throughout the world.
Wizards - and ex-wizards - who lived in the mortal world were forced to fend for themselves along with the mortals they lived alongside. On one hand, they had access to magic and its power like never before. On the other, very few spells had been designed for use after the end of the world - and wizards died at the hands of the Terminators just as easily as everyone else.
Part One: The Year of Miracles
December 22nd 2011 : Winter Solstice
Somewhere in Colorado
Justin Russo was very much afraid that the magic carpet had been irreparably stained with his blood. Alex was going to kill him.
Of course, if the Terminator ten feet away woke up and got to him first, the state of the carpet wouldn’t matter much.
“One hundred and twenty two seconds,” he muttered to himself.
His feet slipping in the loose dirt, Justin half-raced, half-staggered forward to where the T-500 lay facedown. All the information he’d just learned about the cyborgs racing through his head, Justin fumbled in his jeans pocket for his Swiss Army knife.
“You’ll only use the bottlecap? I think not, Alex.”
Falling to his knees beside the prone Terminator, Justin shifted it’s head to the side. In too much of a hurry to grit his teeth, Justin slashed and hacked at the synthetic hair - it looked like a cheap Halloween wig! - and rubber scalp to expose the port he knew had to be there. Ripping at the slices he made, he ignored the pseudo-blood on his fingers, letting out a half-sigh of relief as the cover came into view. Wedging the knife-blade in the seam, he dug and rocked the blade back and forth until it snapped. Nearly howling in fear and frustration, Justin ignored the sweat running down his face and the blood soaking through the back of his T-shirt. Gulping in a deep breath to calm himself, Justin dropped the knife and dug into his memory for the quickest summoning spell possible.
“Come to me, this I plea,” he gabbled.
Dad had always said that the strength of the magic often depended on how badly you wanted the spell to work. He really, really wanted the spell to work - and it did. Not only did the cover to the port come flying out into his hand, the CPU wrenched loose of its socket and came too.
Gripping the chip in his hand tightly, Justin slumped back onto his heels, and panted for breath. After a few moments, he was calm again, working wholly on reason instead of instinct.
He’d dropped his wand when he went for the knife. “Sloppy,” he muttered in self-recrimination. Picking it up again, he swiftly repaired the knife-blade, before he switched the wand to his left hand and pointed to his right, held out flat with the palm facing up. “I travelled through danger just to get here; please show me who else is near.”
A 3D topographical picture of the landscape surrounding him materialised over his hand like a hologram; Justin scrutinised it carefully, but no lifesigns for humans or cyborgs showed up. That meant he had the breathing room to dispose of the Terminator remains properly. Getting to his feet he hooked his thumbs through his belt loops and surveyed the corpse.
The signs of the Bliztkreig spell were clear - there was no way to mistake them for bullets. All the flesh had to be destroyed to hide the evidence of magic, and then the endoskeleton so that it couldn’t be re-used. Even though he’d just been learning how to re-program Terminators, there was no way to take the endo back. The existence of the flying carpet was top, top secret, and no one would believe that he’d dragged the endo all the way back to Cheyenne. The CPU also had to go. Nothing ever really gets erased from a computer, especially one this sophisticated; Justin couldn’t take the chance that someone rummaging through the files could unearth some sensor data.
Placing the CPU onto the still body, Justin took a deep breath and concentrated on focusing his remaining energy.
Holding his wand over the corpse, he spat “Incinerāre!”
All the organic matter turned to ash. Justin tried to not breathe in, but the smell still made him gag. He’d been too occupied with Alex to notice it last time, and the stench was even worse than when the spell incinerated human flesh.
The CPU had disintegrated, as the first point of contact for the spell, so all that was left was the endoskeleton shining in the sunlight. Justin carefully went through his memories of the metallurgy section of his Introduction to Engineering textbook, to be sure his idea would work. A muttered couplet turned the endo to liquid, and a spiraling swirl of his wand separated it into blobs according to element.
Staring at the tiny puddle of gold, Justin flicked his wand towards him in a teasing motion, and the puddle became a golden thread, floating through the air to wind loosely around his left forefinger. Another, larger spiral sent the metallic puddles scattering across the clearing, each hitting the earth in a different place and soaking into the ground to become mineral deposits.
Justin wavered back and forth on his feet; that last spell had drained his magical reservoir to dangerous levels. Staggering back to the magic carpet, he collapsed onto the familiar weave. He’d left his jacket on the carpet before the Terminator found him, and he’d somehow managed to miss it when he started bleeding, so it was still wearable. Scrunching it up under his head, he used the carpet’s own power reserves to erect the emergency stealth shield, and set it to wake him up one way or another in an hour. That should be enough rest time to make it back.
As he fell into the black, his last sight was of the gold wire wrapped around his finger. Surely there was enough to make something nice for Alex’s birthday.
Cheyenne Mountain Resistance Base (formerly NORAD)
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Alex hated waiting.
Hated more than knowing she wasn’t allowed to carry a gun when killing machines roamed the land, or not being able to tell a chauvinistic pig exactly what she thought of him because he had the only living cows for miles, or living underground six and a half days a week.
But all she could do now was wait.
Wait for Justin to come back to her.
When she’d been in elementary school, they’d all gone on a family trip to Maine, and stayed in some tiny seashore town. What had it been called again? Castle Cove? No, Cabot Cove. Whatever. She and Justin had had a blast chasing each other all over the beach (Max, on the other hand, had become temporarily addicted to clam chowder). But the thing that Alex had loved best about the B & B they were staying in was the widow’s walk - a little cupola and fenced-in balcony, up on the peak of the roof, looking out to sea.
She wished she had one now - so she could look out at the land surrounding them, searching endlessly for an indication that Justin returning. So maybe she could find out that much sooner that she had him back. The monitors in the main observation room weren’t nearly clear enough for her, and she’d been banned from the guard station - they were worried that she’d do something stupid. In her heart of hearts, Alex had to admit that maybe they had a point about that.
It was too early in the war to start negotiating treaties with other groups, and all their supplies were up to date right now, leaving her confined to the base. She couldn’t read the diplomatic case studies forever, and given that everyone who wasn’t an actual fighter shared out the chores, hers didn’t take longer than an hour a day, leaving her with no distraction.
“He’ll be back soon,” came a quiet voice behind her.
Alex didn’t reply, just stayed watching the monitors as General John Connor came up behind her, and leaned on the safety rail that lined her self-appointed post in the central hub of the observation room.
At first, Alex had found it strange that the man in charge of all of Cheyenne Mountain base was the same age as her. But a week after she and Justin had arrived here, back in June, she’d seen him in action.
John Connor had the wisdom and authourity of a combat veteran several decades his senior, and no one doubted that he’d earned it the hard way, though no one knew where. He’d personally rescued at least a dozen of the refugees here, and she’d heard that he and his core of handpicked elite (that included his mother and wife) had actually taken over the base from the Air Force before J Day. There was also his knowledge - he seemed almost psychic at times, the way he understood the terminators’ attacks. The way he understood how Skynet, well, thought.
“Why did you send him away?” Alex asked plaintively.
John, Cameron, Sarah - even Justin himself - had explained the reasons to her before, but memories of reason were no comfort to her aching heart. John understood that, so he explained again.
“The Terminators will only get more sophisticated, and more dangerous - those we can turn to our side will become even more useful. Anyone can learn to disable a Terminator, but not many can learn to reprogram them. Justin is one of only a few at Cheyenne.”
“So why didn’t you and Cameron train him, like you did Mandy and Tony?”
“Because Justin’s much smarter than they are, and has the potential to do a great deal more.” John regarded Alex’s anxious face, and relented. “I know you’ve guessed that there’s more to it, and you’re right. If things go to plan, Justin will move beyond reprogramming Terminators to making something even more important. I could train him like Mandy and Tony, yeah, but for what I have in mind, he can only learn from a couple of people, and it’s best he meet and develop a working relationship with them now.”
“If Justin’s so important to your future plans, then why didn’t you send anyone with him?” Alex demanded.
“Because a group of armed people is going to attract attention. Skynet gets curious, best case scenario it’ll kill him outright, worst case it follows him back here and finds our base. Worst of worst case scenario-“
John didn’t say anything. Alex knew.
Worst of worst case scenario, Skynet found out about wizards and magic. All the terror of the witch hunts beginning anew, with not only Skynet but maybe even the remaining humans, resentful that magic hadn’t managed to stop science. Once Skynet learned about the Veil, the magical barrier that separated the mortal world and the magical one - It would find a way to tear through. The magical world would be almost defenseless against the Terminators, and if the Grays managed to recruit wizards (TJ and Ronald came to mind), the Resistance was doomed, too. Even in Cheyenne mountain, only the Connor family knew about the existence of magic.
“Justin has the flying carpet, Alex - it got you two here safely, didn’t it?” John tried to reassure her. “That’s the main reason I can afford to send him alone. Justin is very, very good at what the pair of you do - you should have more faith in him.”
“I do. I do. It’s just hard to remember when I wake up from a dream or a nightmare, and he isn’t there to hold me. When I don’t know how much longer I have to wait.”
“Alex, this is necessary,” John told her firmly. “What Justin is doing - what we are all doing here - affects more than one person. Everyone is important - but no one is irreplaceable.”
Alex looked at him searchingly. “How did you get like this? Looking at everyone surrounding you as chess pieces? Knowing exactly how much use they’ll be in the war, and how much you’re prepared to sacrifice for them - or have them sacrifice for you?”
John gave a small, bitter chuckle. “I’ve been practicing for a long time. I spent my entire life training for this war.”
Sometimes, even Alex knew when not to push. So she just looked back at the monitors. Searching anew.
“I do know what it’s like, you know,” John told her sympathetically. “To love someone so much they’re in your blood. To have someone be as necessary to you as breathing.” He looked down at his hands, the flourescent lights gleaming off the silver metal of his wedding band as he twisted it on his finger. “No matter how crazy everyone else thinks you are. Even if the other people you love think you’re wrong, or twisted, or corrupted.”
“Why did you and Cameron choose silver for your wedding rings?” Alex asked impulsively. She didn’t have a real reason for asking; but any distraction from the endless waiting was welcome.
John chuckled, a real one. “It’s not silver, it’s coltan. Justin’s actually been working with the friend of ours who made them.”
Alex frowned. “Is coltan an element? I’ve never even heard of it.”
“You will.” John’s voice had that I-know-something-important-I’m-not-telling-you-because-you’re-not-ready-to-know-it timbre again; what Alex and Justin had taken to calling the Oracle voice.
They watched the monitors in silence together.
“Will he come back to me safe?” asked Alex. She’d sworn that she’d never be one of those people, who worshipped and blamed John Connor like he was Christ reborn. But treating his words as Gospel… she could do that once in a while, couldn’t she?
“He will.” John’s voice was as absolute as she needed it to be.
“So why is he two days overdue?”
John didn’t give her any answer.
Maybe that was why she’d made that oath; not just because John had enough on his plate and she and Justin could take care of each other. But because when it came right down to it, she’d never really had blind faith in anyone but Justin.
* * * * *
As Justin passed through the checkpoints, he knelt to pat one of the dogs. Getting back up with a wince (because his back still hurt like a son of a bitch), he looked up to find Aiden Ford - the closest thing he had to a best friend these days - approaching him.
“Justin! Thank Christ you got back - Alex has been climbing the freaking walls. I think Medical was on the verge of dosing her food so she’d stop haunting the guard-post.”
Justin couldn’t hold back a smile - he’d missed Alex with a physical ache, and it was nice to know he hadn’t been alone. Falling into step with the other soldier, they headed for the elevators, and Ford leaned close.
“I highly recommend that you spend the next few nights treating your woman really, really well, if you get what I mean.”
Justin opened his mouth for his usual denial that Alex was his woman - but this time, the words wouldn’t come.
He was just thirsty from the trip, and the blood loss from his wound. That was why.
* * * * *
A few minutes later Justin was ensconced in MedBay, stripped to the waist and sitting on a bed. Apparently his makeshift treatment hadn’t worked quite as well as he thought and there were still a few needles left in his back - that would explain why he still hurt so much. At least Intelligence would have some to analyse.
Closing his eyes, he rested his head on his folded arms and listened to Jennifer talk to one of the nurses from behind the curtain.
“Should I call Alex, Doctor Keller?”
“Yes. Even though they aren’t blood related, she’s his next of kin as such. Things like that are going to be murky from now on. Maybe we should start asking everyone on base to nominate someone to serve as NOK for their medical files?”
“Suggest it to one of the Connors at the next heads of department meeting.” A pause, then the same young woman continued, “If they aren’t blood related, how do they have the same surname? Are they married?”
On any other day, Justin would have choked in shock.
“No, they’re stepsiblings…”
Why exactly did everyone think that, anyway? Everyone on base seemed convinced of that story, but how had it gotten started in the first place? He’d never referred to Alex as anything but his sister, and he couldn’t think of any reason why Alex would say anything different. One of these days he’d ask her about it.
Fingering the coil of precious wire in his pocket, Justin smirked to himself. It was ironic, really; he’d been a day and a half late because he’d taken several long detours to avoid the short-range observation droids that dotted the California skies. But for all his caution, he’d nearly been taken out by a single ground-pounder less than a day from base.
Ducking behind a tree, Justin gritted his teeth against the pain in his back. What the hell had the Terminator used to get through his shields? When he’d set down the carpet to stretch his legs and answer the call of nature, he’d automatically turned on the personal magical force-field that always reminded him of the Enterprise’s defenses. True, the shield-spell was meant to deflect spells, not projectiles, but Justin thought he’d compensated for that. He hadn’t heard a sound, and silencers still made a faint noise. The pain in his back was focused in pinpricks - had the Terminator used something with less impact, but more kinetic energy?
Not only did they hurt like hell, which could affect his concentration, but what if they had some kind of remote capability? Some kind of homing beacon ability? The organic coverings of the Terminators might be crude, but they could be equipped with anything Skynet had ever accessed information about - including military projects that weren't ready to be released to the general public.
Mentally cursing, Justin thought rapidly. Despite his high levels of magical competency and learning, he knew barely any medical magic. It was the most exacting of the magical disciplines, and the hardest to master. Dad didn’t even know much - Justin had gained the equivalent of a basic First Aid certificate while taking his monster hunting course, thanks to tutoring from Professor Crumbs. Grimacing, Justin awkwardly held the wand behind his back and tried an adapted magnetism spell to remove the foreign fragments. The fingers of Justin’s free hand dug into the bark of the tree, and he ground his teeth together. If he made a sound he was dead.
Shuddering with the effort of controlling his breathing, rather than panting with effort, Justin still couldn’t resist bringing his wand into view to inspect what he’d been hit with. His eyes widened at the sight of the dozen senbon needles sticking out of his wand. Had Skynet run across some Naruto reruns as it explored the net between going on-line and J Day?
Hell, at least it wasn’t Twilight. Sparkly Terminators with fangs would have been beyond insane.
Justin froze as he heard a heavy footstep. Gripping his wand tightly in his hand - despite his firearms training, he hadn’t even thought about the sidearm he carried at the small of his back - he drew on his pain and anger to power the spell. He’d need to actually see the Terminator - no one had ever invented a true long-distance attack spell. Pressing his back against the helpful tree, he ignored the pain from his wounds and kept his voice as low as he possibly could.
"Some people are a gem, some people are a rat. To learn who's who, give me the ears of a bat."
With his ears re-shaped, Justin could track the Terminator, now slowly approaching his location. Moving slowly, Justin inched around the tree, so that he would spot the Terminator first. At least he hoped so.
Holding his hands out in front of him and parallel, Justin shaped the spell in his mind, so that it would form instantly. There was a reason most of the battle-spells were just one or two words. He’d have to time this just right.
The Terminator was just a few feet away, standing in the clearing while it scanned the area. Justin licked his lips and whispered, “Blitzkrieg.”
Lightning sprang into life around his hands, jumping from his palm to his wand and back again, the needles dropping from his wand as their points melted from the sheer power.
A crunching noise heralded the Terminator’s arrival. Justin stared at it from behind, and saw what could only pass as a human from a half-mile away. At only six feet, it looked like a department store mannequin given locomotion.
“Strike!” Justin hissed, and lightning spat from his wand.
The Terminator jerked in a dreadful parody of the jitterbug, half-turning to look directly at Justin.
“Strike!”
This time the Terminator went down, falling like a log.
How long until the system reboots?
* * * * *
After being kicked out of the observation post, Alex was trying to distract herself from her ever-increasing worry by talking with Sarah Connor, when a call came through on the other woman’s radio. While Alex couldn’t hear everything, she heard the word ‘Russo’, and jumped to her feet.
Sarah looked up at her from the radio, and nodded swiftly.
Alex swayed on her feet; it was only now, with Justin home safe, that she could relinquish the tension that was the only thing keeping her going.
Sarah stood as well, frowning as she took Alex’s arm.
“Breathe deep, count of ten,” she ordered. “Breathe in, then out. Is your head spinning?”
“Not really. It’s just…”
Sarah smiled understandingly. “I was the same way, once, when John came home after being away for a long time. Justin’s in medbay, getting checked out - he got into a dustup with some metal, apparently, that’s why he was so late.” She paused for a second, and released Alex’s arm. “Go.”
Alex nodded her thanks, then sprinted out the door. She couldn’t see the people she passed in the halls, or hear their calls. All she could hear was her heart pounding in her chest, beating out Justin’s name again and again.
With 30 stories underground, Cheyenne mountain had plenty of room for everyone - in fact, about half the lower levels were still off limits, until they’d been cleared for anything top-secret and harmful that the military might have hidden away. The original designers hadn’t skimped on the medbay - it took up fully half of level five. Alex knew she wouldn’t be allowed into the exam room - Doctor Keller was very strict about that - but she’d been careful to make friends with several of the nurses; Callie was on duty that shift, and led her to an observation window.
“But in order for the shield to work, you would need to calculate the variance precisely and adjust it for each variable, more or less constantly. A human brain is not capable of doing that.”
“That’s the beauty of magic - humans can make things like personal defense shields work! Once the wizard has focused their will to provide the outline and end result, the magic itself will take on the form required.”
Putting her glass of water back down on the table next to the chess board, Alex just rolled her eyes and re-assumed her usual position during Justin and Cameron's physics vs. magic arguments-slash-chess games of epicness; lying on the couch with her feet up on the armrest and her head pillowed on Justin's thigh.
These days, Alex and Justin didn't like being any further apart than they absolutely had to. So Justin always sat on the couch during these matches so Alex could stretch out next to him. Alex found the whole thing more boring than Dad lecturing her on using magic responsibly, but Justin enjoyed it, so she just mentally shrugged and either studied or napped while he played.
"Perhaps we should focus on finishing the game. After all," Cameron said calmly, "It will be our last for some time."
For a second, Alex hated the entire Connor family. Because it was true. Because it was their decision to send Justin away from her for months, and their decision to not let her go with him.
Biting her lip, Alex rolled onto her side and slid a hand under Justin's knee, wrapping her arms around his leg. Squeezing her eyes shut to keep the tears back, she nearly jumped when she felt a gentle pressure on her head. Moving slowly so as not to dislodge Justin's hand, she turned her head so that she could see his face.
Justin toyed with the Black Queen in his right hand as Cameron spoke about quantum something-or-other, but his left hand was stroking her hair. He wasn't looking at her like she was his sneaky little sister. He was looking at her like she was the only thing he lived for.
Alex just smiled back at him. Because he was her only reason, too.
She watched him through the glass, bare to the waist and lying on his stomach. The medic couldn’t see Justin’s face as she pulled out a half-dozen needles, then treated the small but deep puncture wounds in his back, but Alex could. Every time Justin grimaced in pain, she hissed in sympathy. With every inhalation, she became more certain.
Screw rules. To Hell with ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
Justin belonged to her, and she to him, in a way that went beyond DNA. This last week had shown her that there was no escaping that - in the darkest hours of the night, she’d caught herself wondering if magic or a bullet would be the best way out of a life without him. Justin was her reason for living, plain and simple.
It was time she claimed what was hers, and gave Justin what was his in return. Alex had always taken what she had to have, and she’d never needed anything in her life the way she needed Justin. If he was still in denial, she’d make him see the truth - but thinking back to the way he’d looked at her before he left, Alex thought maybe he was closer to seeing the truth of things than she had been.
With that in mind, Alex borrowed a radio from one of the medics and contacted Sarah, to ask for a favour. Sarah was happy to help, and even volunteered to have Cameron work transport. Alex could have done it herself with a levitation spell, but sometimes it was nice to have help.
* * * * *
Luckily, Justin hadn’t had to stay in medical for long, and roughly an hour after entering the mountain, he was leaning against the elevator wall, fighting not to slide down it in exhaustion. At least he didn’t have far to go.
One of the benefits of him and Alex getting to the Mountain so soon after J Day (relatively speaking), was that they’d been able to pick out their own quarters. He and Alex hadn’t even considered getting separate rooms when they came here, so they’d ended up in one of the guest suites, meant for lesser-ranked politco’s. (Cheyenne had been built as a bomb shelter fit for the President, after all). A medium size bedroom/reception area with ensuite bathroom, and a spiral staircase leading up to a mezzanine level that they used as a study and magical workspace - they needed the space, what with Justin studying everything he could about the Terminators and their weaponry, and Alex reading everything about negotiation and diplomacy that she could get her hands on.
Plus, the spiral staircase reminded them of home… before here.
Justin could feel the weariness dragging at his bones as he trudged down the corridor. John had given him the okay to leave his report to tomorrow, and Justin fully intended to spend the next twelve hours horizontal and snoring, as soon as he reassured Alex that he was back in one piece.
His plans changed when he opened the door to their quarters, and candlelight spilled out to welcome him home.
Justin stepped inside, and gasped. He didn’t know how the heck Alex had done it, but hundreds of candles floated in the air above, endlessly burning. Even though they never burned lower, or dripped wax from their pointed bases, their light never dimmed.
But then he looked beyond the candles, and saw a real, honest-to-God bathtub, an old-fashioned stand-alone with claw feet, gleaming white porcelain with bubbles foaming just below the brim.
“I figured that you still liked baths, and remembered it had been awhile since you had one.”
Justin whirled to find Alex standing next to the doorframe - he’d been so enraptured with the candles that he hadn’t even noticed her.
“Do you like it?” she asked uncertainly.
Justin let his smile speak for him, as he moved forward to engulf her in the biggest hug he could manage.
“I know I don’t tell you this enough, but I love you, Alex.”
Alex hugged him back, and Justin closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of her hair.
Now he knew he was home.
Alex’s hands rested on his back, and Justin could feel warmth spreading through him from every place their bodies touched. The heat started to seep downward, and Justin broke away with a sense of disquiet.
“Can’t let the water go cold!” he exclaimed.
“The water’s enchanted, like the candles,” Alex told him. “They’ll stay warm as long at you need it to.”
Justin eagerly moved past her to the tub, kicking off his boots and dropping his mud-stained jacket on the floor. At least some of his spare set of civilian clothing was still usable. He tore his bloody T-shirt over his head, and was reaching for his belt buckle when he froze. Waitaminute, where was - “Um, Alex?”
“I’m in the bathroom!”
Justin sighed in relief, and finished undressing. As he sank into the tub, he gave a moan of appreciation that echoed off the walls. Letting himself sink up to the neck, he rested his head on the rim and closed his eyes, letting the heat of the water seep into his bones.
“I think I died and went to Heaven,” he mumbled.
“Not quite yet.”
Justin’s head snapped up, and he stared at his sister, standing at the foot of the tub.
Undoing her shirt.
“What are you doing?” he rasped.
“Joining you,” Alex told him matter-of-factly.
Justin watched in fascination until her shirt hit the floor, and she started working on her pants. Suddenly realizing that he was watching his sister strip, Justin tore his gaze away, leaning over the side to give her room, even as he fastened his eyes to the floor.
When the water started moving, he wasn’t surprised that Alex didn’t sit in between his feet. He wasn’t surprised when he felt the smooth curve of her hip against his. He kept leaning towards the edge, even though it made his back hurt.
“Honestly, Justin,” Alex sighed in exasperation. “Would you just chill? This is supposed to be a relaxing experience.”
Justin sighed, and half-shifted into the most comfortable position, his slick body sliding easily against hers. After all, he and Alex had slept entwined every night they’d been together since J Day. Of course, in all those cases they’d both been fully clothed, and he couldn’t feel soft, yielding curves against his upper arm and chest.
Alex reached around - pressing her breasts into him more firmly - and rubbed his back with a featherlight touch. “Justin, it’s alright,” she soothed. “Just exhale, okay?”
Justin sighed again, and rested his head in the niche formed by her neck and shoulder. Closing his eyes, he tried not to notice that while the bubbles were piled high in the tub, what he couldn’t see he could most certainly feel. Trying not to notice how good it felt.
Alex stroked his hair and hummed to him - Justin couldn’t identify the song, but it was slow and sensual. Alex pressed a kiss to his hair, then trailed a line of soft, slow kisses across his forehead, before pressing her lips to the bridge of his nose and each cheekbone. Then she pressed her lips to his. It wasn’t soft or slow. It was demanding, full of barely-suppressed need, and sent him reeling.
For one long moment, Justin let himself soak in the sweetness of her kiss. How long had it been, since someone had touched him with desire? It felt like years - it probably was, since he’d lost Juliet. Justin felt the wet tip of Alex’s tongue trace his bottom lip, asking for entry, and it was enough to break the spell.
Justin’s voice was hoarse as he roughly jerked his head back.
“Alex, we can’t!”
“Why can’t we?”
“Have you somehow forgotten that we’re siblings?”
“Have you noticed that somehow no one believes that? We’ve referred to ourselves as family ever since we got here, but I’ve lost count of how many people refer to us a couple.”
There really wasn’t anything that Justin could say to that. Not with Ford’s words - and his own lack of denial - still ringing in his ears.
“There’s no one left in the world who knows that we’re related by blood,” Alex told him flatly. “There’s no one left who cares enough to find out.” Trailing a hand down his chest, down beneath the water, she continued, “We have nothing left to lose, except each other. With nothing to lose, there are no consequences. With no consequences, there are no limits.”
Justin was wavering, she could see it in his eyes. He was almost hers -
the fingers of his free hand dug into her shoulder; she’d bruise tomorrow.
“We do this, and I will never be able to let you go,” Justin told her, his eyes dark with resolve. “If you don’t get out of this room right now there’s no going back, do you understand? You’ll be mine forever - forever and beyond. There will never be anyone else, for either of us, and if I find you with another man, I’ll kill him.”
“I find you with another woman, I’ll kill her and you,” Alex shot back.
Justin slammed his mouth down on hers, and Alex moaned into his mouth, drowning in their passion. The warm water swirled about her body as she and Justin rolled in the water, and when they broke off for air, Alex was straddling him, her arms around his neck and her breasts pressed against the hard wall of his chest. Her blood running hot and fierce, currents of sweet pleasure making her whole body tingle, Alex dived in for another kiss, and their tongues fought for dominance. One kiss followed another, and Alex lost track of how long they’d been making out before Justin broke off, his voice breathy.
“If we do this here, one of us is gonna drown. We do have a bed a few feet thataway?”
Alex nodded breathlessly, before she carefully stood up and climbed out of the tub. She didn’t bother to grab the towel, just stood on the bathmat she’d conjured up and let the remaining bubbles slide down her skin. She wasn’t shy about her body - Alex knew she was beautiful, and had never seen any point in denying it. She knew she’d made the right decision when she saw Justin’s eyes follow the trails, even as he climbed out himself.
Suddenly a little bashful - not about her nakedness, but his - Alex pushed it away and kept her eyes on his face. She couldn’t let Justin think for a moment that she had any doubts about this. They’d already passed the point of no return; either they took this all the way, or their relationship would be forever damaged. Taking Justin’s hand, she started to lead him to their bed. Halfway there, Justin pulled back hard, and when their bodies collided he moved swiftly, picking her up in his arms like something from an old romance novel.
“You’re such a hopeless romantic,” Alex snickered, as he carried her to the bed, bridal-style.
“You got a problem with that?” Justin laughed back.
All of Alex’s nerves dropped away, and she shook her head, still chuckling. What had she been nervous about? This was still the dorky guy who’d needed twenty-odd attempts at his first kiss. This was still her brother, who’d taught her how to fly the carpet. They were still Justin and Alex, and that was all she needed to know.
Justin knelt on the bed, lowering her gently to the comforter before he stretched out full-length beside her. Deliberately, he settled his body against hers, curving one hand over her hip, the other sliding underneath her to rest on the small of her back.
Alex inhaled sharply as she felt his fingers gently touch her breast, thumb drifting across her nipple as it hardened under his touch. Her breathing slowed and deepened, and her eyes drifted closed as her breath seeped out in a faraway sigh.
He leaned over to kiss her again; her tongue tangled with his, and as she stroked the bare skin of his stomach and chest, she could feel him groan as well as hear him. Alex looked into his eyes, seeing the desire there, and smiled slowly, before she slid her hands up his bare spine, feeling Justin tense and shudder beneath her touch. Justin tilted his head and deepened the kiss. Alex eagerly opened her mouth to his, feeling the rush course up her spine. She shifted, loving the slow, subtle way he was rocking his hips against hers, and the rush surged between her thighs as she pushed him away slightly, and rolled them so she was on top, straddling his stomach.
Justin had to take deep slow breaths to keep control of himself, as his sister straddled him, grinning. She bent down and kissed him, her kiss so hot he could feel his body temperature rise in response, and he forgot to breathe for a second. Determined not to let her have it all her way, he decided on a drastic move. Reaching up to stroke her breast again, he reached down with the other.
Alex froze, her entire body quaking as he stroked her between her legs.
“Justin - oh! Oh, Justin, it’s so good,” she panted.
Smiling at just how powerfully she responded to him, Justin told her, “It’s okay, Alex, we’ve got all night.”
“No, you don’t get it,” Alex half-snapped, half-moaned. “I’ve never managed to get this far before with another person! Just make me come already, please!”
He’d never been able to refuse Alex anything that mattered; Justin groaned and adjusted his fingers until he found her hard nub, rubbing it firmly until Alex threw back her head and cried out his name.
Panting, she collapsed on his chest as she waited for her head to stop spinning. As soon as she caught her breath, she looked up at him and demanded, “More. Do that again.”
“Okay,” Justin replied. “But I get to be on top.”
Alex laughed as they rolled again, and wrapped her legs around his hips. She could feel his heavy hardness right at the entrance to her core, and she tilted her hips up to try and make him enter her. As he slipped inside her, a low throaty moan shuddered from her lips.
As he felt Alex’s warm, slick body close around him, Justin threw his head back and closed his eyes, clenching his teeth in his effort not to climax then and there. He hadn’t ever felt anything like this before; not even losing his virginity to Juliet had had such an impact on his senses. Ever so slowly, he slid deeper, trying to imprint every second into his memory so that it could never dim.
Justin rocked his hips gently, moving in small, slow thrusts that made ripples of pleasure curl through her. She kept her eyes open, as fascinated by the intensity of his gaze as by the ripples of sensation that his touch sent pumping through her. It felt so easy and natural to move in rhythm with him - as if she’d been doing it for years - even as she gasped for breath.
Then the ripples were joined by a shimmering wave of heat that seemed to start at the base of her spine and spread until it melted all her bones. Each slow stroke shivered through her, turning her body into a mass of aching nerves and hungry skin that could only be satisfied by his touch. She shoved her fingers in his hair to draw him down for a drowning kiss, arching her body against his for more skin-to-skin contact.
There were so many sensations rocketing through her, she couldn’t decide what felt best. There was pleasure from his mouth, the gentle weight of his lips against hers, the tangle of their tongues and the strangely familiar taste of him. There was more in the slide of his skin against hers, laced through with the faint tremors that whispered of barely controlled passion. But she was fearless in his arms, even as the answering shivers rose in her own body. As her body heated up and the need built inside her, Alex moaned his name and dug her nails into his back.
He could feel the pressure coiling at the base of his spine, and the spiral tightened inside him, ready to explode. He buried his face in her neck, clinging to the razor’s edge between arousal so deep it hurt, and the blinding release that would bring an end to everything. He turned his head to lick the sweat from her throat, and felt her short nails scrape down his spine. When they reached his backside, she dug in, trying to push him further inside, and he twisted his hips. Her nails bit into his shoulder and backside as she came again, and the small pain was all it took to send him falling with her. All he could do was swallow her cry of rapture as he felt his climax crash through him and pulse inside Alex.
Justin couldn’t take his eyes off hers; instead of cuddling, they laid on their sides, so close they could feel each other’s body heat, looking into each other’s eyes. Something about the silence was charged; the only word Justin could use to describe it was sacred, and he was reluctant to disturb it.
“Alex?” he murmured. “Have you really never had an orgasm before?”
“Nothing like that,” Alex replied, her voice barely above a whisper. “Never with another person. Harper used to say that I had intimacy issues. Especially after she finished her Intro to psych course. She said that I couldn’t climax with any of the guys I slept with - and there were only a couple - because I couldn’t let myself go with them. I couldn’t relax with them when we were intimate because I didn’t trust them, so I was always on guard, waiting for the wrong move. She said it would come when I found someone I could trust implicitly.”
Alex licked her lips. “I could never tell her that the only person I ever trusted that much was you.”
“It’s always been there, hasn’t it?” Justin asked thoughtfully. “The potential for this - us being more than brother and sister. Maybe it’s because we were raised knowing we’d have to face each other in battle someday, maybe it’s because we grew up knowing that the normal rules didn’t apply to us, but it’s always been simmering between us, deep down where we were too afraid to look.”
“Maybe it’s none of those things,” Alex retorted quietly. “Maybe this is just what we were born to be, and we couldn’t see it until we were ready to handle it.”
Justin nodded. “Maybe that.”
Justin licked his lips, and finally acknowledged the truth of what Alex was to him. What she had always been to him.
Everything.
And now he could say it.
“I love you, Alex. With everything I am, and everything I will ever be.”
“I love you too. Forever and beyond.”
This is my now-completed fic for ApocaBigBang (There's lots of awesome stuff there, check it out! I particularly recommend Amathela's fic)
TITLE: The Only Way Out is Through
AUTHOUR: TaleWeaver
FANDOM: Wizards of Waverly Place / Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles crossover
WORD COUNT: 20,020 (story alone), 21,994 (including DVD extras)
SPOILERS: TSCC up to ‘Born to Run’. WOWP up to ‘Wizards vs Werewolves’.
RATING/WARNINGS: R. M/F sex, consensual incest between siblings. Major character death, mentions of violence including sexual assault. And a couple of F-bombs.
PAIRINGS: Justin/Alex (primary), John/Cameron (established)
DISCLAIMER: The Terminator franchise was created by James Cameron, and remains the property of Twentieth Century Fox Studios. Wizards of Waverly Place was created by Todd J Greenwald, and is owned by the Disney Channel. There’s also a couple of guest characters, courtesy of Stargate: Atlantis, owned by MGM and the SyFy channel. No profit is being made from this work, and no copyright infringement is intended.
AUTHOUR’S NOTES: this is actually about two-thirds of the story I originally planned but I just couldn’t finish it in time. I may go back and re-release this later, with several sections expanded and my original part one added, at least (I never really had much planned for part two, anyway).
SUMMARY: Even after their world is shattered by Judgment Day, Justin and Alex Russo find there is still magic in the world - and miracles can still happen.
NOTES: Many thanks to Visionary, who beta-read part of this story and gave me some very helpful hints (I'd completely forgotten about Sarah's cancer, for one thing). You can find his story 'So let us not talk falsely now' on ff.net.
MUSICAL NOTE: Many, many thanks goes to kat aka liquidlights, who did a lovely fanmix for this fic. You can find her fanmix, my soundtrack, and the gorgeous covers she did for both at http://community.livejournal.com/staylost/25931.html
Part One: the Year of Miracles
Approximately ten percent of the human race is born with the powers of a wizard. The wizarding race had practised strict population control for centuries; whenever a wizard family had more than one child, the children had to fight a magical battle when the youngest came of age - only the winner kept their powers. There was also artificial controls placed on the natural flow of magical ley-lines in the mortal world, so that juvenile wizards - and those who chose to live outside the boundaries of the magical realm - had to work with whatever power the Wizard Councils of each country were willing to release for their use.
But on April 19, 2011, the Skynet Missile Defense System went on-line in the United States. Three days later it became self-aware, and triggered a nuclear apocalypse. Three billion people died. The survivors called it Judgment Day.
In the aftermath, humanity began to recover and rebuild. Until Skynet unveiled its own soldiers - the cyborgs called Terminators. Living flesh over metal skeletons, with the most advanced computer chips ever created for brains. As the human Resistance became better at fighting the Terminators, they became increasingly more sophisticated, until some broke the barrier that Skynet itself had not. Not only self-awareness, but true sentience.
Eventually, one man rose to lead the Resistance, and became the first genuine world leader - and Skynet’s most hated enemy.
John Connor.
Skynet reached beyond the barriers of human understanding to create the Time Displacement Engine, and sent several Terminators back in time, with orders to find and kill John Connor before he became a threat to Skynet. But what can be created can also be re-created, and the Resistance built time machines of their own, sending back protectors not only for John, but for others destined to play a crucial role in humanity’s survival. The war between Skynet and the human race raged not only across the globe, but across time itself.
When Judgment Day came, the barrier that separated the magical and the mortal worlds, called The Veil, was made opaque and unyielding by the nuclear radiation. No travel, or even communication was possible between the worlds. All the controls shattered, and the flow of magic was restored to its natural currents, once again surging freely throughout the world.
Wizards - and ex-wizards - who lived in the mortal world were forced to fend for themselves along with the mortals they lived alongside. On one hand, they had access to magic and its power like never before. On the other, very few spells had been designed for use after the end of the world - and wizards died at the hands of the Terminators just as easily as everyone else.
Part One: The Year of Miracles
December 22nd 2011 : Winter Solstice
Somewhere in Colorado
Justin Russo was very much afraid that the magic carpet had been irreparably stained with his blood. Alex was going to kill him.
Of course, if the Terminator ten feet away woke up and got to him first, the state of the carpet wouldn’t matter much.
“One hundred and twenty two seconds,” he muttered to himself.
His feet slipping in the loose dirt, Justin half-raced, half-staggered forward to where the T-500 lay facedown. All the information he’d just learned about the cyborgs racing through his head, Justin fumbled in his jeans pocket for his Swiss Army knife.
“You’ll only use the bottlecap? I think not, Alex.”
Falling to his knees beside the prone Terminator, Justin shifted it’s head to the side. In too much of a hurry to grit his teeth, Justin slashed and hacked at the synthetic hair - it looked like a cheap Halloween wig! - and rubber scalp to expose the port he knew had to be there. Ripping at the slices he made, he ignored the pseudo-blood on his fingers, letting out a half-sigh of relief as the cover came into view. Wedging the knife-blade in the seam, he dug and rocked the blade back and forth until it snapped. Nearly howling in fear and frustration, Justin ignored the sweat running down his face and the blood soaking through the back of his T-shirt. Gulping in a deep breath to calm himself, Justin dropped the knife and dug into his memory for the quickest summoning spell possible.
“Come to me, this I plea,” he gabbled.
Dad had always said that the strength of the magic often depended on how badly you wanted the spell to work. He really, really wanted the spell to work - and it did. Not only did the cover to the port come flying out into his hand, the CPU wrenched loose of its socket and came too.
Gripping the chip in his hand tightly, Justin slumped back onto his heels, and panted for breath. After a few moments, he was calm again, working wholly on reason instead of instinct.
He’d dropped his wand when he went for the knife. “Sloppy,” he muttered in self-recrimination. Picking it up again, he swiftly repaired the knife-blade, before he switched the wand to his left hand and pointed to his right, held out flat with the palm facing up. “I travelled through danger just to get here; please show me who else is near.”
A 3D topographical picture of the landscape surrounding him materialised over his hand like a hologram; Justin scrutinised it carefully, but no lifesigns for humans or cyborgs showed up. That meant he had the breathing room to dispose of the Terminator remains properly. Getting to his feet he hooked his thumbs through his belt loops and surveyed the corpse.
The signs of the Bliztkreig spell were clear - there was no way to mistake them for bullets. All the flesh had to be destroyed to hide the evidence of magic, and then the endoskeleton so that it couldn’t be re-used. Even though he’d just been learning how to re-program Terminators, there was no way to take the endo back. The existence of the flying carpet was top, top secret, and no one would believe that he’d dragged the endo all the way back to Cheyenne. The CPU also had to go. Nothing ever really gets erased from a computer, especially one this sophisticated; Justin couldn’t take the chance that someone rummaging through the files could unearth some sensor data.
Placing the CPU onto the still body, Justin took a deep breath and concentrated on focusing his remaining energy.
Holding his wand over the corpse, he spat “Incinerāre!”
All the organic matter turned to ash. Justin tried to not breathe in, but the smell still made him gag. He’d been too occupied with Alex to notice it last time, and the stench was even worse than when the spell incinerated human flesh.
The CPU had disintegrated, as the first point of contact for the spell, so all that was left was the endoskeleton shining in the sunlight. Justin carefully went through his memories of the metallurgy section of his Introduction to Engineering textbook, to be sure his idea would work. A muttered couplet turned the endo to liquid, and a spiraling swirl of his wand separated it into blobs according to element.
Staring at the tiny puddle of gold, Justin flicked his wand towards him in a teasing motion, and the puddle became a golden thread, floating through the air to wind loosely around his left forefinger. Another, larger spiral sent the metallic puddles scattering across the clearing, each hitting the earth in a different place and soaking into the ground to become mineral deposits.
Justin wavered back and forth on his feet; that last spell had drained his magical reservoir to dangerous levels. Staggering back to the magic carpet, he collapsed onto the familiar weave. He’d left his jacket on the carpet before the Terminator found him, and he’d somehow managed to miss it when he started bleeding, so it was still wearable. Scrunching it up under his head, he used the carpet’s own power reserves to erect the emergency stealth shield, and set it to wake him up one way or another in an hour. That should be enough rest time to make it back.
As he fell into the black, his last sight was of the gold wire wrapped around his finger. Surely there was enough to make something nice for Alex’s birthday.
Cheyenne Mountain Resistance Base (formerly NORAD)
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Alex hated waiting.
Hated more than knowing she wasn’t allowed to carry a gun when killing machines roamed the land, or not being able to tell a chauvinistic pig exactly what she thought of him because he had the only living cows for miles, or living underground six and a half days a week.
But all she could do now was wait.
Wait for Justin to come back to her.
When she’d been in elementary school, they’d all gone on a family trip to Maine, and stayed in some tiny seashore town. What had it been called again? Castle Cove? No, Cabot Cove. Whatever. She and Justin had had a blast chasing each other all over the beach (Max, on the other hand, had become temporarily addicted to clam chowder). But the thing that Alex had loved best about the B & B they were staying in was the widow’s walk - a little cupola and fenced-in balcony, up on the peak of the roof, looking out to sea.
She wished she had one now - so she could look out at the land surrounding them, searching endlessly for an indication that Justin returning. So maybe she could find out that much sooner that she had him back. The monitors in the main observation room weren’t nearly clear enough for her, and she’d been banned from the guard station - they were worried that she’d do something stupid. In her heart of hearts, Alex had to admit that maybe they had a point about that.
It was too early in the war to start negotiating treaties with other groups, and all their supplies were up to date right now, leaving her confined to the base. She couldn’t read the diplomatic case studies forever, and given that everyone who wasn’t an actual fighter shared out the chores, hers didn’t take longer than an hour a day, leaving her with no distraction.
“He’ll be back soon,” came a quiet voice behind her.
Alex didn’t reply, just stayed watching the monitors as General John Connor came up behind her, and leaned on the safety rail that lined her self-appointed post in the central hub of the observation room.
At first, Alex had found it strange that the man in charge of all of Cheyenne Mountain base was the same age as her. But a week after she and Justin had arrived here, back in June, she’d seen him in action.
John Connor had the wisdom and authourity of a combat veteran several decades his senior, and no one doubted that he’d earned it the hard way, though no one knew where. He’d personally rescued at least a dozen of the refugees here, and she’d heard that he and his core of handpicked elite (that included his mother and wife) had actually taken over the base from the Air Force before J Day. There was also his knowledge - he seemed almost psychic at times, the way he understood the terminators’ attacks. The way he understood how Skynet, well, thought.
“Why did you send him away?” Alex asked plaintively.
John, Cameron, Sarah - even Justin himself - had explained the reasons to her before, but memories of reason were no comfort to her aching heart. John understood that, so he explained again.
“The Terminators will only get more sophisticated, and more dangerous - those we can turn to our side will become even more useful. Anyone can learn to disable a Terminator, but not many can learn to reprogram them. Justin is one of only a few at Cheyenne.”
“So why didn’t you and Cameron train him, like you did Mandy and Tony?”
“Because Justin’s much smarter than they are, and has the potential to do a great deal more.” John regarded Alex’s anxious face, and relented. “I know you’ve guessed that there’s more to it, and you’re right. If things go to plan, Justin will move beyond reprogramming Terminators to making something even more important. I could train him like Mandy and Tony, yeah, but for what I have in mind, he can only learn from a couple of people, and it’s best he meet and develop a working relationship with them now.”
“If Justin’s so important to your future plans, then why didn’t you send anyone with him?” Alex demanded.
“Because a group of armed people is going to attract attention. Skynet gets curious, best case scenario it’ll kill him outright, worst case it follows him back here and finds our base. Worst of worst case scenario-“
John didn’t say anything. Alex knew.
Worst of worst case scenario, Skynet found out about wizards and magic. All the terror of the witch hunts beginning anew, with not only Skynet but maybe even the remaining humans, resentful that magic hadn’t managed to stop science. Once Skynet learned about the Veil, the magical barrier that separated the mortal world and the magical one - It would find a way to tear through. The magical world would be almost defenseless against the Terminators, and if the Grays managed to recruit wizards (TJ and Ronald came to mind), the Resistance was doomed, too. Even in Cheyenne mountain, only the Connor family knew about the existence of magic.
“Justin has the flying carpet, Alex - it got you two here safely, didn’t it?” John tried to reassure her. “That’s the main reason I can afford to send him alone. Justin is very, very good at what the pair of you do - you should have more faith in him.”
“I do. I do. It’s just hard to remember when I wake up from a dream or a nightmare, and he isn’t there to hold me. When I don’t know how much longer I have to wait.”
“Alex, this is necessary,” John told her firmly. “What Justin is doing - what we are all doing here - affects more than one person. Everyone is important - but no one is irreplaceable.”
Alex looked at him searchingly. “How did you get like this? Looking at everyone surrounding you as chess pieces? Knowing exactly how much use they’ll be in the war, and how much you’re prepared to sacrifice for them - or have them sacrifice for you?”
John gave a small, bitter chuckle. “I’ve been practicing for a long time. I spent my entire life training for this war.”
Sometimes, even Alex knew when not to push. So she just looked back at the monitors. Searching anew.
“I do know what it’s like, you know,” John told her sympathetically. “To love someone so much they’re in your blood. To have someone be as necessary to you as breathing.” He looked down at his hands, the flourescent lights gleaming off the silver metal of his wedding band as he twisted it on his finger. “No matter how crazy everyone else thinks you are. Even if the other people you love think you’re wrong, or twisted, or corrupted.”
“Why did you and Cameron choose silver for your wedding rings?” Alex asked impulsively. She didn’t have a real reason for asking; but any distraction from the endless waiting was welcome.
John chuckled, a real one. “It’s not silver, it’s coltan. Justin’s actually been working with the friend of ours who made them.”
Alex frowned. “Is coltan an element? I’ve never even heard of it.”
“You will.” John’s voice had that I-know-something-important-I’m-not-telling-you-because-you’re-not-ready-to-know-it timbre again; what Alex and Justin had taken to calling the Oracle voice.
They watched the monitors in silence together.
“Will he come back to me safe?” asked Alex. She’d sworn that she’d never be one of those people, who worshipped and blamed John Connor like he was Christ reborn. But treating his words as Gospel… she could do that once in a while, couldn’t she?
“He will.” John’s voice was as absolute as she needed it to be.
“So why is he two days overdue?”
John didn’t give her any answer.
Maybe that was why she’d made that oath; not just because John had enough on his plate and she and Justin could take care of each other. But because when it came right down to it, she’d never really had blind faith in anyone but Justin.
* * * * *
As Justin passed through the checkpoints, he knelt to pat one of the dogs. Getting back up with a wince (because his back still hurt like a son of a bitch), he looked up to find Aiden Ford - the closest thing he had to a best friend these days - approaching him.
“Justin! Thank Christ you got back - Alex has been climbing the freaking walls. I think Medical was on the verge of dosing her food so she’d stop haunting the guard-post.”
Justin couldn’t hold back a smile - he’d missed Alex with a physical ache, and it was nice to know he hadn’t been alone. Falling into step with the other soldier, they headed for the elevators, and Ford leaned close.
“I highly recommend that you spend the next few nights treating your woman really, really well, if you get what I mean.”
Justin opened his mouth for his usual denial that Alex was his woman - but this time, the words wouldn’t come.
He was just thirsty from the trip, and the blood loss from his wound. That was why.
* * * * *
A few minutes later Justin was ensconced in MedBay, stripped to the waist and sitting on a bed. Apparently his makeshift treatment hadn’t worked quite as well as he thought and there were still a few needles left in his back - that would explain why he still hurt so much. At least Intelligence would have some to analyse.
Closing his eyes, he rested his head on his folded arms and listened to Jennifer talk to one of the nurses from behind the curtain.
“Should I call Alex, Doctor Keller?”
“Yes. Even though they aren’t blood related, she’s his next of kin as such. Things like that are going to be murky from now on. Maybe we should start asking everyone on base to nominate someone to serve as NOK for their medical files?”
“Suggest it to one of the Connors at the next heads of department meeting.” A pause, then the same young woman continued, “If they aren’t blood related, how do they have the same surname? Are they married?”
On any other day, Justin would have choked in shock.
“No, they’re stepsiblings…”
Why exactly did everyone think that, anyway? Everyone on base seemed convinced of that story, but how had it gotten started in the first place? He’d never referred to Alex as anything but his sister, and he couldn’t think of any reason why Alex would say anything different. One of these days he’d ask her about it.
Fingering the coil of precious wire in his pocket, Justin smirked to himself. It was ironic, really; he’d been a day and a half late because he’d taken several long detours to avoid the short-range observation droids that dotted the California skies. But for all his caution, he’d nearly been taken out by a single ground-pounder less than a day from base.
Ducking behind a tree, Justin gritted his teeth against the pain in his back. What the hell had the Terminator used to get through his shields? When he’d set down the carpet to stretch his legs and answer the call of nature, he’d automatically turned on the personal magical force-field that always reminded him of the Enterprise’s defenses. True, the shield-spell was meant to deflect spells, not projectiles, but Justin thought he’d compensated for that. He hadn’t heard a sound, and silencers still made a faint noise. The pain in his back was focused in pinpricks - had the Terminator used something with less impact, but more kinetic energy?
Not only did they hurt like hell, which could affect his concentration, but what if they had some kind of remote capability? Some kind of homing beacon ability? The organic coverings of the Terminators might be crude, but they could be equipped with anything Skynet had ever accessed information about - including military projects that weren't ready to be released to the general public.
Mentally cursing, Justin thought rapidly. Despite his high levels of magical competency and learning, he knew barely any medical magic. It was the most exacting of the magical disciplines, and the hardest to master. Dad didn’t even know much - Justin had gained the equivalent of a basic First Aid certificate while taking his monster hunting course, thanks to tutoring from Professor Crumbs. Grimacing, Justin awkwardly held the wand behind his back and tried an adapted magnetism spell to remove the foreign fragments. The fingers of Justin’s free hand dug into the bark of the tree, and he ground his teeth together. If he made a sound he was dead.
Shuddering with the effort of controlling his breathing, rather than panting with effort, Justin still couldn’t resist bringing his wand into view to inspect what he’d been hit with. His eyes widened at the sight of the dozen senbon needles sticking out of his wand. Had Skynet run across some Naruto reruns as it explored the net between going on-line and J Day?
Hell, at least it wasn’t Twilight. Sparkly Terminators with fangs would have been beyond insane.
Justin froze as he heard a heavy footstep. Gripping his wand tightly in his hand - despite his firearms training, he hadn’t even thought about the sidearm he carried at the small of his back - he drew on his pain and anger to power the spell. He’d need to actually see the Terminator - no one had ever invented a true long-distance attack spell. Pressing his back against the helpful tree, he ignored the pain from his wounds and kept his voice as low as he possibly could.
"Some people are a gem, some people are a rat. To learn who's who, give me the ears of a bat."
With his ears re-shaped, Justin could track the Terminator, now slowly approaching his location. Moving slowly, Justin inched around the tree, so that he would spot the Terminator first. At least he hoped so.
Holding his hands out in front of him and parallel, Justin shaped the spell in his mind, so that it would form instantly. There was a reason most of the battle-spells were just one or two words. He’d have to time this just right.
The Terminator was just a few feet away, standing in the clearing while it scanned the area. Justin licked his lips and whispered, “Blitzkrieg.”
Lightning sprang into life around his hands, jumping from his palm to his wand and back again, the needles dropping from his wand as their points melted from the sheer power.
A crunching noise heralded the Terminator’s arrival. Justin stared at it from behind, and saw what could only pass as a human from a half-mile away. At only six feet, it looked like a department store mannequin given locomotion.
“Strike!” Justin hissed, and lightning spat from his wand.
The Terminator jerked in a dreadful parody of the jitterbug, half-turning to look directly at Justin.
“Strike!”
This time the Terminator went down, falling like a log.
How long until the system reboots?
* * * * *
After being kicked out of the observation post, Alex was trying to distract herself from her ever-increasing worry by talking with Sarah Connor, when a call came through on the other woman’s radio. While Alex couldn’t hear everything, she heard the word ‘Russo’, and jumped to her feet.
Sarah looked up at her from the radio, and nodded swiftly.
Alex swayed on her feet; it was only now, with Justin home safe, that she could relinquish the tension that was the only thing keeping her going.
Sarah stood as well, frowning as she took Alex’s arm.
“Breathe deep, count of ten,” she ordered. “Breathe in, then out. Is your head spinning?”
“Not really. It’s just…”
Sarah smiled understandingly. “I was the same way, once, when John came home after being away for a long time. Justin’s in medbay, getting checked out - he got into a dustup with some metal, apparently, that’s why he was so late.” She paused for a second, and released Alex’s arm. “Go.”
Alex nodded her thanks, then sprinted out the door. She couldn’t see the people she passed in the halls, or hear their calls. All she could hear was her heart pounding in her chest, beating out Justin’s name again and again.
With 30 stories underground, Cheyenne mountain had plenty of room for everyone - in fact, about half the lower levels were still off limits, until they’d been cleared for anything top-secret and harmful that the military might have hidden away. The original designers hadn’t skimped on the medbay - it took up fully half of level five. Alex knew she wouldn’t be allowed into the exam room - Doctor Keller was very strict about that - but she’d been careful to make friends with several of the nurses; Callie was on duty that shift, and led her to an observation window.
“But in order for the shield to work, you would need to calculate the variance precisely and adjust it for each variable, more or less constantly. A human brain is not capable of doing that.”
“That’s the beauty of magic - humans can make things like personal defense shields work! Once the wizard has focused their will to provide the outline and end result, the magic itself will take on the form required.”
Putting her glass of water back down on the table next to the chess board, Alex just rolled her eyes and re-assumed her usual position during Justin and Cameron's physics vs. magic arguments-slash-chess games of epicness; lying on the couch with her feet up on the armrest and her head pillowed on Justin's thigh.
These days, Alex and Justin didn't like being any further apart than they absolutely had to. So Justin always sat on the couch during these matches so Alex could stretch out next to him. Alex found the whole thing more boring than Dad lecturing her on using magic responsibly, but Justin enjoyed it, so she just mentally shrugged and either studied or napped while he played.
"Perhaps we should focus on finishing the game. After all," Cameron said calmly, "It will be our last for some time."
For a second, Alex hated the entire Connor family. Because it was true. Because it was their decision to send Justin away from her for months, and their decision to not let her go with him.
Biting her lip, Alex rolled onto her side and slid a hand under Justin's knee, wrapping her arms around his leg. Squeezing her eyes shut to keep the tears back, she nearly jumped when she felt a gentle pressure on her head. Moving slowly so as not to dislodge Justin's hand, she turned her head so that she could see his face.
Justin toyed with the Black Queen in his right hand as Cameron spoke about quantum something-or-other, but his left hand was stroking her hair. He wasn't looking at her like she was his sneaky little sister. He was looking at her like she was the only thing he lived for.
Alex just smiled back at him. Because he was her only reason, too.
She watched him through the glass, bare to the waist and lying on his stomach. The medic couldn’t see Justin’s face as she pulled out a half-dozen needles, then treated the small but deep puncture wounds in his back, but Alex could. Every time Justin grimaced in pain, she hissed in sympathy. With every inhalation, she became more certain.
Screw rules. To Hell with ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
Justin belonged to her, and she to him, in a way that went beyond DNA. This last week had shown her that there was no escaping that - in the darkest hours of the night, she’d caught herself wondering if magic or a bullet would be the best way out of a life without him. Justin was her reason for living, plain and simple.
It was time she claimed what was hers, and gave Justin what was his in return. Alex had always taken what she had to have, and she’d never needed anything in her life the way she needed Justin. If he was still in denial, she’d make him see the truth - but thinking back to the way he’d looked at her before he left, Alex thought maybe he was closer to seeing the truth of things than she had been.
With that in mind, Alex borrowed a radio from one of the medics and contacted Sarah, to ask for a favour. Sarah was happy to help, and even volunteered to have Cameron work transport. Alex could have done it herself with a levitation spell, but sometimes it was nice to have help.
* * * * *
Luckily, Justin hadn’t had to stay in medical for long, and roughly an hour after entering the mountain, he was leaning against the elevator wall, fighting not to slide down it in exhaustion. At least he didn’t have far to go.
One of the benefits of him and Alex getting to the Mountain so soon after J Day (relatively speaking), was that they’d been able to pick out their own quarters. He and Alex hadn’t even considered getting separate rooms when they came here, so they’d ended up in one of the guest suites, meant for lesser-ranked politco’s. (Cheyenne had been built as a bomb shelter fit for the President, after all). A medium size bedroom/reception area with ensuite bathroom, and a spiral staircase leading up to a mezzanine level that they used as a study and magical workspace - they needed the space, what with Justin studying everything he could about the Terminators and their weaponry, and Alex reading everything about negotiation and diplomacy that she could get her hands on.
Plus, the spiral staircase reminded them of home… before here.
Justin could feel the weariness dragging at his bones as he trudged down the corridor. John had given him the okay to leave his report to tomorrow, and Justin fully intended to spend the next twelve hours horizontal and snoring, as soon as he reassured Alex that he was back in one piece.
His plans changed when he opened the door to their quarters, and candlelight spilled out to welcome him home.
Justin stepped inside, and gasped. He didn’t know how the heck Alex had done it, but hundreds of candles floated in the air above, endlessly burning. Even though they never burned lower, or dripped wax from their pointed bases, their light never dimmed.
But then he looked beyond the candles, and saw a real, honest-to-God bathtub, an old-fashioned stand-alone with claw feet, gleaming white porcelain with bubbles foaming just below the brim.
“I figured that you still liked baths, and remembered it had been awhile since you had one.”
Justin whirled to find Alex standing next to the doorframe - he’d been so enraptured with the candles that he hadn’t even noticed her.
“Do you like it?” she asked uncertainly.
Justin let his smile speak for him, as he moved forward to engulf her in the biggest hug he could manage.
“I know I don’t tell you this enough, but I love you, Alex.”
Alex hugged him back, and Justin closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of her hair.
Now he knew he was home.
Alex’s hands rested on his back, and Justin could feel warmth spreading through him from every place their bodies touched. The heat started to seep downward, and Justin broke away with a sense of disquiet.
“Can’t let the water go cold!” he exclaimed.
“The water’s enchanted, like the candles,” Alex told him. “They’ll stay warm as long at you need it to.”
Justin eagerly moved past her to the tub, kicking off his boots and dropping his mud-stained jacket on the floor. At least some of his spare set of civilian clothing was still usable. He tore his bloody T-shirt over his head, and was reaching for his belt buckle when he froze. Waitaminute, where was - “Um, Alex?”
“I’m in the bathroom!”
Justin sighed in relief, and finished undressing. As he sank into the tub, he gave a moan of appreciation that echoed off the walls. Letting himself sink up to the neck, he rested his head on the rim and closed his eyes, letting the heat of the water seep into his bones.
“I think I died and went to Heaven,” he mumbled.
“Not quite yet.”
Justin’s head snapped up, and he stared at his sister, standing at the foot of the tub.
Undoing her shirt.
“What are you doing?” he rasped.
“Joining you,” Alex told him matter-of-factly.
Justin watched in fascination until her shirt hit the floor, and she started working on her pants. Suddenly realizing that he was watching his sister strip, Justin tore his gaze away, leaning over the side to give her room, even as he fastened his eyes to the floor.
When the water started moving, he wasn’t surprised that Alex didn’t sit in between his feet. He wasn’t surprised when he felt the smooth curve of her hip against his. He kept leaning towards the edge, even though it made his back hurt.
“Honestly, Justin,” Alex sighed in exasperation. “Would you just chill? This is supposed to be a relaxing experience.”
Justin sighed, and half-shifted into the most comfortable position, his slick body sliding easily against hers. After all, he and Alex had slept entwined every night they’d been together since J Day. Of course, in all those cases they’d both been fully clothed, and he couldn’t feel soft, yielding curves against his upper arm and chest.
Alex reached around - pressing her breasts into him more firmly - and rubbed his back with a featherlight touch. “Justin, it’s alright,” she soothed. “Just exhale, okay?”
Justin sighed again, and rested his head in the niche formed by her neck and shoulder. Closing his eyes, he tried not to notice that while the bubbles were piled high in the tub, what he couldn’t see he could most certainly feel. Trying not to notice how good it felt.
Alex stroked his hair and hummed to him - Justin couldn’t identify the song, but it was slow and sensual. Alex pressed a kiss to his hair, then trailed a line of soft, slow kisses across his forehead, before pressing her lips to the bridge of his nose and each cheekbone. Then she pressed her lips to his. It wasn’t soft or slow. It was demanding, full of barely-suppressed need, and sent him reeling.
For one long moment, Justin let himself soak in the sweetness of her kiss. How long had it been, since someone had touched him with desire? It felt like years - it probably was, since he’d lost Juliet. Justin felt the wet tip of Alex’s tongue trace his bottom lip, asking for entry, and it was enough to break the spell.
Justin’s voice was hoarse as he roughly jerked his head back.
“Alex, we can’t!”
“Why can’t we?”
“Have you somehow forgotten that we’re siblings?”
“Have you noticed that somehow no one believes that? We’ve referred to ourselves as family ever since we got here, but I’ve lost count of how many people refer to us a couple.”
There really wasn’t anything that Justin could say to that. Not with Ford’s words - and his own lack of denial - still ringing in his ears.
“There’s no one left in the world who knows that we’re related by blood,” Alex told him flatly. “There’s no one left who cares enough to find out.” Trailing a hand down his chest, down beneath the water, she continued, “We have nothing left to lose, except each other. With nothing to lose, there are no consequences. With no consequences, there are no limits.”
Justin was wavering, she could see it in his eyes. He was almost hers -
the fingers of his free hand dug into her shoulder; she’d bruise tomorrow.
“We do this, and I will never be able to let you go,” Justin told her, his eyes dark with resolve. “If you don’t get out of this room right now there’s no going back, do you understand? You’ll be mine forever - forever and beyond. There will never be anyone else, for either of us, and if I find you with another man, I’ll kill him.”
“I find you with another woman, I’ll kill her and you,” Alex shot back.
Justin slammed his mouth down on hers, and Alex moaned into his mouth, drowning in their passion. The warm water swirled about her body as she and Justin rolled in the water, and when they broke off for air, Alex was straddling him, her arms around his neck and her breasts pressed against the hard wall of his chest. Her blood running hot and fierce, currents of sweet pleasure making her whole body tingle, Alex dived in for another kiss, and their tongues fought for dominance. One kiss followed another, and Alex lost track of how long they’d been making out before Justin broke off, his voice breathy.
“If we do this here, one of us is gonna drown. We do have a bed a few feet thataway?”
Alex nodded breathlessly, before she carefully stood up and climbed out of the tub. She didn’t bother to grab the towel, just stood on the bathmat she’d conjured up and let the remaining bubbles slide down her skin. She wasn’t shy about her body - Alex knew she was beautiful, and had never seen any point in denying it. She knew she’d made the right decision when she saw Justin’s eyes follow the trails, even as he climbed out himself.
Suddenly a little bashful - not about her nakedness, but his - Alex pushed it away and kept her eyes on his face. She couldn’t let Justin think for a moment that she had any doubts about this. They’d already passed the point of no return; either they took this all the way, or their relationship would be forever damaged. Taking Justin’s hand, she started to lead him to their bed. Halfway there, Justin pulled back hard, and when their bodies collided he moved swiftly, picking her up in his arms like something from an old romance novel.
“You’re such a hopeless romantic,” Alex snickered, as he carried her to the bed, bridal-style.
“You got a problem with that?” Justin laughed back.
All of Alex’s nerves dropped away, and she shook her head, still chuckling. What had she been nervous about? This was still the dorky guy who’d needed twenty-odd attempts at his first kiss. This was still her brother, who’d taught her how to fly the carpet. They were still Justin and Alex, and that was all she needed to know.
Justin knelt on the bed, lowering her gently to the comforter before he stretched out full-length beside her. Deliberately, he settled his body against hers, curving one hand over her hip, the other sliding underneath her to rest on the small of her back.
Alex inhaled sharply as she felt his fingers gently touch her breast, thumb drifting across her nipple as it hardened under his touch. Her breathing slowed and deepened, and her eyes drifted closed as her breath seeped out in a faraway sigh.
He leaned over to kiss her again; her tongue tangled with his, and as she stroked the bare skin of his stomach and chest, she could feel him groan as well as hear him. Alex looked into his eyes, seeing the desire there, and smiled slowly, before she slid her hands up his bare spine, feeling Justin tense and shudder beneath her touch. Justin tilted his head and deepened the kiss. Alex eagerly opened her mouth to his, feeling the rush course up her spine. She shifted, loving the slow, subtle way he was rocking his hips against hers, and the rush surged between her thighs as she pushed him away slightly, and rolled them so she was on top, straddling his stomach.
Justin had to take deep slow breaths to keep control of himself, as his sister straddled him, grinning. She bent down and kissed him, her kiss so hot he could feel his body temperature rise in response, and he forgot to breathe for a second. Determined not to let her have it all her way, he decided on a drastic move. Reaching up to stroke her breast again, he reached down with the other.
Alex froze, her entire body quaking as he stroked her between her legs.
“Justin - oh! Oh, Justin, it’s so good,” she panted.
Smiling at just how powerfully she responded to him, Justin told her, “It’s okay, Alex, we’ve got all night.”
“No, you don’t get it,” Alex half-snapped, half-moaned. “I’ve never managed to get this far before with another person! Just make me come already, please!”
He’d never been able to refuse Alex anything that mattered; Justin groaned and adjusted his fingers until he found her hard nub, rubbing it firmly until Alex threw back her head and cried out his name.
Panting, she collapsed on his chest as she waited for her head to stop spinning. As soon as she caught her breath, she looked up at him and demanded, “More. Do that again.”
“Okay,” Justin replied. “But I get to be on top.”
Alex laughed as they rolled again, and wrapped her legs around his hips. She could feel his heavy hardness right at the entrance to her core, and she tilted her hips up to try and make him enter her. As he slipped inside her, a low throaty moan shuddered from her lips.
As he felt Alex’s warm, slick body close around him, Justin threw his head back and closed his eyes, clenching his teeth in his effort not to climax then and there. He hadn’t ever felt anything like this before; not even losing his virginity to Juliet had had such an impact on his senses. Ever so slowly, he slid deeper, trying to imprint every second into his memory so that it could never dim.
Justin rocked his hips gently, moving in small, slow thrusts that made ripples of pleasure curl through her. She kept her eyes open, as fascinated by the intensity of his gaze as by the ripples of sensation that his touch sent pumping through her. It felt so easy and natural to move in rhythm with him - as if she’d been doing it for years - even as she gasped for breath.
Then the ripples were joined by a shimmering wave of heat that seemed to start at the base of her spine and spread until it melted all her bones. Each slow stroke shivered through her, turning her body into a mass of aching nerves and hungry skin that could only be satisfied by his touch. She shoved her fingers in his hair to draw him down for a drowning kiss, arching her body against his for more skin-to-skin contact.
There were so many sensations rocketing through her, she couldn’t decide what felt best. There was pleasure from his mouth, the gentle weight of his lips against hers, the tangle of their tongues and the strangely familiar taste of him. There was more in the slide of his skin against hers, laced through with the faint tremors that whispered of barely controlled passion. But she was fearless in his arms, even as the answering shivers rose in her own body. As her body heated up and the need built inside her, Alex moaned his name and dug her nails into his back.
He could feel the pressure coiling at the base of his spine, and the spiral tightened inside him, ready to explode. He buried his face in her neck, clinging to the razor’s edge between arousal so deep it hurt, and the blinding release that would bring an end to everything. He turned his head to lick the sweat from her throat, and felt her short nails scrape down his spine. When they reached his backside, she dug in, trying to push him further inside, and he twisted his hips. Her nails bit into his shoulder and backside as she came again, and the small pain was all it took to send him falling with her. All he could do was swallow her cry of rapture as he felt his climax crash through him and pulse inside Alex.
Justin couldn’t take his eyes off hers; instead of cuddling, they laid on their sides, so close they could feel each other’s body heat, looking into each other’s eyes. Something about the silence was charged; the only word Justin could use to describe it was sacred, and he was reluctant to disturb it.
“Alex?” he murmured. “Have you really never had an orgasm before?”
“Nothing like that,” Alex replied, her voice barely above a whisper. “Never with another person. Harper used to say that I had intimacy issues. Especially after she finished her Intro to psych course. She said that I couldn’t climax with any of the guys I slept with - and there were only a couple - because I couldn’t let myself go with them. I couldn’t relax with them when we were intimate because I didn’t trust them, so I was always on guard, waiting for the wrong move. She said it would come when I found someone I could trust implicitly.”
Alex licked her lips. “I could never tell her that the only person I ever trusted that much was you.”
“It’s always been there, hasn’t it?” Justin asked thoughtfully. “The potential for this - us being more than brother and sister. Maybe it’s because we were raised knowing we’d have to face each other in battle someday, maybe it’s because we grew up knowing that the normal rules didn’t apply to us, but it’s always been simmering between us, deep down where we were too afraid to look.”
“Maybe it’s none of those things,” Alex retorted quietly. “Maybe this is just what we were born to be, and we couldn’t see it until we were ready to handle it.”
Justin nodded. “Maybe that.”
Justin licked his lips, and finally acknowledged the truth of what Alex was to him. What she had always been to him.
Everything.
And now he could say it.
“I love you, Alex. With everything I am, and everything I will ever be.”
“I love you too. Forever and beyond.”