FIC: The Only Way Out is Through Chapter 1 part 2
The Only Way Out is Through
The Year of Miracles, part two
20 March 2012: Vernal Equinox
Alex woke early, for a change. She couldn’t figure out why, though.
Did she have an assignment today? No, she’d finished that survey for the Connors yesterday - less than a month until the first anniversary of Judgment Day, and the inhabitants of Cheyenne mountain had to decide how to mark it. Sarah wanted a moment of silence before getting back to work; Spencer, the head of intelligence, wanted a full-blown ceremony of mourning. Alex personally wanted to throw a ‘Fuck you, Skynet, we’re still here!’ party. John had promised to consider the notion.
Oh, well. Alex mentally shrugged and snuggled deeper into Justin’s embrace, enjoying the feel of his sleep-warmed skin against her own. They both slept naked, now - not only did they need to conserve their sparse clothing, but it was just more practical; anything they wore to bed just ended up on the floor in short order, anyway.
Justin shifted a little in his sleep, and Alex felt his morning erection against her backside. She smiled smugly to herself, and calculated her chances of getting a morning quickie.
* * * * *
At almost that same time, something strange was happening on a plateau three-quarters of the way up Cheyenne Mountain.
In the darkness of the shadow cast by an overhanging piece of rock, the air itself tore open, the wound glowing gold. Slowly, the glow intensified and the tear spread, its edges smoothing and widening, until a golden rectangle hung in the air, stretching to the ground.
A medium-height figure appeared in the doorway, and stepped through. As soon as he stood with both feet, the doorway twisted on itself and disappeared.
Max Russo took a long look around, trying to figure out where he’d landed. Frowning in confusion, he reached into the back pocket of his jeans, and pulled out what looked like a scrap of parchment. Unfolding it, it turned into a map, but the topographical markings weren’t in a form that any surveyor would have recognised. A small golden dot marked his current position.
“Okay,” Max muttered to himself. “I did come through the Cheyenne Mountain portal. So how did I wind up so high up? Professor Crumbs said the node was underneath the mountain.”
Shrugging, Max brought out his wand and pointed it at the map.
“It doesn't matter if I have to travel near or far, show me where Justin and Alex are!”
A second golden dot - this one slightly larger - appeared on the map. Max blinked a few times, trying to work out what it showed him.
“They’re still together - yeah, that fits. But they’re… inside the mountain? What the heck?”
Thankful for the short trip but puzzled - it couldn’t be that easy, could it? - Max kept his wand close to hand, as he shrugged his loaded backpack more securely on his shoulders and started for the small path at the edge of the plateau.
* * * * *
As he sat on the edge of the bed and bent over to tie his shoes, Justin was still grinning.
“If you go to the mess hall like that, everyone’s going to know you just got laid,” remarked a drowsy voice behind him.
“So what?” Justin smirked.
“You are such a guy,” Alex snickered.
Justin twisted so that he was half-lying on his side, propped up by one elbow, with his legs still dangling over the edge and his face right near his lover’s.
“I seem to remember a certain late shift last week, when you shamelessly seduced me on top of my desk, then strolled through the outer lab still doing up your shirt.”
Alex smirked. “That was for Mandy’s benefit. She’s been trying to nail you since we came here.”
“Seriously?” Justin asked.
“You didn’t even notice?” Alex snickered.
“I have far more interesting things to occupy my time,” Justin replied, leaning forward to kiss her. Their lips were just about to touch, when the walkie-talkie on his bedside table crackled to life.
“Hold that thought,” Justin told Alex, before rolling to his feet. Picking up the radio, he pressed the transmit button and spoke.
“Russo here. What’s going on?”
Ford’s voice sounded a little shaken, even distorted by the radio. “Justin, man, there’s a kid at the front gate. Says he’s your brother.”
* * * * *
As he followed his guide deeper into the mountain, Max became more and more disoriented. He knew they were on level ten, but that was about it.
“So are you Justin’s brother, or Alex’s brother?”
“Both,” Max muttered. Weren’t they there yet?
“Oh, so you were born after your parents got together,” Ford commented.
“Well, yeah.”
In other circumstances, Max might have mentioned that so were Justin and Alex, but he was so joyful at the prospect of seeing his brother and sister again that he barely heard anything Ford said anyway.
A few more turns, and Max found himself staggering backwards, as his brother and sister threw themselves at him simultaneously.
“Guys… gotta breathe!”
* * * * *
An hour later, Max was seated in what looked like a conference room, with Justin on his left and Alex on his right. Their clasped hands rested on the table, but Max didn’t mind not having his hands free.
“So, the Veil is still impenetrable for the most part?”
Max nodded. Justin and Alex had already told him that magic was considered top, top secret, and the three people sitting across from him were the only ones at the base who knew about it. Once they’d filled him in on the state of the world, even Max could understand why.
“Some of the most powerful wizards around, especially those who specialise in portals of some kind, have been trying to break through to the mortal world ever since the Cataclysm - that’s what we call Judgment day over there. No luck. I think it was someone in the taskforce who was also in the Wizard Heritage society that suggested trying during the original four great holidays - the solstices and the equinoxes - at the sites of the major nodes. Professor Crumbs pulled some major strings to get me on the first scouting party - he was only able to do it at all because I’ve lived in the mortal world.”
“How did you escape the bombs?” asked the stone-faced young woman who faced Justin.
Max took a deep breath. “I didn’t find this out until a few days after, but in the weeks leading up to the Cataclysm every seer in the wizard world was having constant visions of disaster. Heck, even some of their close relatives were having nightmares all the time. The only thing everyone agreed on was that it was happening in the second half of April. Our Uncle Kelbo heard some stuff, and it really scared him, so he came to visit us and talk Mom and Dad into all of us going to the wizard world for awhile, until whatever was supposed to happen happened. Mom, Dad and me were having lunch when he came. Uncle Kelbo was really upset, but Dad said they couldn’t afford to shut down the sub station for a couple of weeks, or take me and Alex out of school. Uncle Kelbo was getting more and more panicky, when this huge rumble sounded, and I looked out the window and there was this gigantic dark cloud rushing toward me. Uncle Kelbo was standing right next to me, so he grabbed me and teleported us to the Russo manor in the wizarding world. He tried to go back for Dad and Mom, but the Veil had already shut down.”
Max looked down at the table to hide his face, reflexively squeezing Justin and Alex’s hands. He didn’t think he’d ever forget the look on Kelbo’s face when he realised that he hadn’t moved fast enough, and Jerry and Theresa were left alone to face whatever was coming.
“You say the seers knew about Judgment day? They didn’t try to warn anyone?”
That question was from the fiercely beautiful woman sitting across from Alex, and something about the grim, hard tone of her voice made Max nearly trip over his tongue in his hurry.
“No, they didn’t know. They never could figure out what kind of disaster they were seeing. You gotta understand, a wizard family has to last at least ten generations to build up enough power in the bloodline to produce a seer, and even then they’re really rare. All the old families live behind the Veil, and have for centuries, and they normally only have one kid each. I know for a fact that the Russo’s are the only old family with a branch in the mortal world.”
Alex looked startled. “The Russo’s are an old wizard family?”
Justin rolled his eyes at Alex, and Max was beyond relieved to see that at least some things hadn’t changed.
“Alex, the founder of the Russo line was the pet wizard of the Borgia Pope!”
"Wait a minute," Alex said accusingly. "Dad's entry on the family tree said that he was the fifth generation wizard in the Russo family."
"The Russo family, yeah. It got shortened - or changed due to messy handwriting - from Rusetto at Ellis Island."
“Seriously? Why does no one tell me these things?”
Max snickered, and continued, “What I’m trying to say is that none of the seers alive now has ever had much contact with the mortal world. They didn’t understand what they saw.” Max shifted in his seat and admitted, “To be honest, none of them ever considered that the disaster was in the mortal world. It never occurred to them that the mortal world could produce anything with enough power to affect them.”
“What about Chernobyl?” Justin asked, puzzled. “My friend Nicholas from WizTech was a foreign exchange student from St Vladimir’s, and his family lived in Prypriat before the whole mess. That’s how I knew that the Veil had closed on J Day.”
Max shrugged. “Maybe they don’t have any seers in Russia, these days? Wizards had to go really far underground during Communism, right?”
The young man across from Max nodded to himself, and asked, “So, what kind of support is the Wizard world going to be able to provide us? Are they interested in providing it at all?”
“Oh, lots of people want to help,” Max assured him. “The old families don’t have anyone this side of the Veil, but there aren’t actually many of them around anymore. At least half the population has someone here. I don’t know much about the organisation of things, but it’s going to take awhile. The portals are only opening on the solstices and the equinoxes, and they think it’ll stay that way for years - maybe even decades. I don’t know much about this sort of thing, but I think most of the support will have to be behind the scenes stuff - if we need to keep magic secret, I don’t think there’s going to be many wizards who can help out in the front lines. But shipping you food, or doing repairs or rebuilding? That stuff we can do. But you gotta understand, not many wizards are equipped to survive in the real world.”
“I have to say, I don’t really get that,” the older woman - Sarah? - frowned.
Justin grimaced. “Remember how Max said that the old wizard families generally only have one kid each? Well, there’s a reason for that. For the past several centuries, it’s been a law enforced by the wizard council. Whenever a family has more than one child, the children have to compete in a magical battle once the youngest comes of age - that’s eighteen, now. Only the winner gets to become a full wizard - the others lose their powers completely.”
“But why would they impose a condition like that?” Sarah asked. “Wouldn’t they want to keep their population strong and healthy?”
Justin shrugged wearily. “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Or the witch hunts. Those started in the 14th and 15th centuries, and lasted more or less right up until the 18th. Even a few cases after, in Europe. Not to mention the shitstorm in Salem…” Justin ran his free hand through his hair. “The Council had to impose some sort of population control, especially on wizards living in the mortal world. I don’t know who came up with the idea of turning the family championships into winner-takes-all, but it worked. Before J Day, about ten percent of the human race was wizard-born. After the one wizard per family rule took hold, only about ten percent of active wizards lived in the mortal world - that, and active children of former wizards, like us. Of course, there were cases where it backfired; in the US witch hunts, no full wizard was hurt - but about twenty former wizards were killed.”
“Wait,” John said, looking from Justin to Alex to Max and back. “What about you three? What happens when Max turns eighteen?”
“Nothing.” Justin’s voice was absolute. “The family competition is one of the oldest traditions of our race, but originally it was only used to determine the family champion.” Justin turned to face his siblings again. “Alex, do you remember when we had to have the competition early, in the Caribbean? The incantation Dad used - it specifically said the winner would gain all the power of the participants. That’s what got me thinking afterwards; maybe if you change the beginning incantation-“
“You change the result!” Max exclaimed.
Justin nodded, “The competition started because the strongest wizard automatically inherited any family property - like entailment - and was legally bound to fight for the Council in times of war. The Wizard Council made the competition into its current form - but they can’t enforce it anymore. I’m not giving up my magic, and neither are you two.”
"Just as well, it's not like our band would be very successful now, anyway," Alex joked.
Justin gave a dark chuckle, "What about my old plan B of travelling the world beating robots at chess? True, there's a lot more robots in the world nowadays, but none of them are really the type to play chess."
None of the Russo's saw Sarah Connor's eyes go wide and her mouth go thin - as if she was pressing her lips together hard; or John Connor look down at the table and bite his bottom lip - hard.
"It is unfortunate," Cameron remarked. "I enjoy my chess matches with you. Perhaps we should start placing bets?"
Justin gave his friend an affectionate smile. "Thanks, Cameron, but it's not really the same."
“How do you know all this stuff about the wizard competition?” Max asked in wonder. “I’ve been behind the Veil for the past year, and I never heard of any of this!”
Justin smiled sadly. “Juliet told me. She was more than two thousand years old, Max, she knew all along. But before me, no teenage wizard ever dated someone old enough to know different. Problem is, no one would have just taken her word for it - I spent over a year trying to find a genuine record that I could go public with.” He chuckled bitterly, “Would you believe that two days before J Day Juliet’s mom got in touch with me, saying she’d found a book with all the details? But I never got the chance to actually inspect it.”
Everyone around the table looked grim and depressed, until Alex decided to break the mood.
“Hey, Max, you don’t know the good news! All the factories broke down, so the power isn’t controlled anymore!”
Max just looked puzzled.
Justin sighed again, and took on his old tutor guise. “Max, what are ley lines?”
The answer came promptly, rattled off as if learned by rote.
“Ley lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths that are thought by certain adherents to dowsing and New Age beliefs to have spiritual power.”
“Thank you, Cameron,” Justin snickered. “But real ley lines are a kind of mystical river system, spread all over the world, that carry currents of magical power. Where two lines meet or cross, it’s called a nexus. When five or more meet, it’s a major place of power, and it’s called a node. There’s one under this mountain, which is probably why Max came out here.”
“Heck, I didn’t know you guys were here. I just aimed for the node.” Max frowned, “How did you guys get here, anyway?”
“We were flying over the river when it happened. We saw the missiles hit Manhattan, and thought that heading to the heart of the disaster wasn’t very smart. Justin remembered that Cheyenne Mountain was built as a nuclear shelter, and figured that someone would be here eventually who could tell us what had happened, and put us in touch with whoever was co-ordinating relief efforts to New York. Well, that, and we were so lost,” Alex admitted. “Having some sort of goal was really the only thing keeping us going.”
“So when the bombs hit, and the Veil hardened, it also destroyed all the controls the Wizard council placed on magic in the mortal world,” Justin continued. “So all the natural currents of magic are full again. You need to be careful what spells you cast for awhile, until you get used to the increased power and learn to control it.”
Max finally untangled his hands, and reached into his sleeve. “Well, maybe this will help.” The wand he extracted looked like a silver tree branch, and glinted in the flourescent lighting. “Uncle Kelbo gave me the family wand. We can take turns with it, I guess.”
* * * * *
Two days later, Justin, Max and Cameron were gathered in the shooting gallery on level fifteen.
“I don’t know about this, Justin,” Max said doubtfully.
“I had to learn how to shoot too, Max. I don’t carry a gun with me unless I leave the mountain, but I practise every week, just like everyone else here.”
“Even Alex?”
“Not Alex,” Cameron responded sharply.
Max looked at her.
“Cameron, the bullet ricocheted,” Justin told her patiently. “It’s not like she was even pointing it outside the range.”
“You have told me so many times. But my job is to keep John fully intact and unharmed. Including his backside.”
Max looked at Justin.
“Alex shot the leader of mankind in the ass?”
Justin sighed and nodded. “It was an accident.”
Max replied thoughtfully, “Anyone else? That’d seem strange.”
After Cameron taught Max the initial ins and outs of the gun - including the rule ‘don’t ever point it at something you don’t want to shoot’ - she made him fire off two full clips, so he could get used to both the sound and the recoil. Making him watch her clear it, then repeat the action himself, she farewelled the brothers and headed off to the armoury.
Max leaned back against the counter that separated the actual firing range from the shooter. “That was kind of scary.”
Justin leaned beside him. “It always is. It should be. Thing with offensive spells? You’re using the same wand you use for all your spells. You’re carrying a tool, not a weapon. But holding a gun - firing one - you can’t escape the realization that you can kill someone with it.”
Max looked up at Justin. “Have you ever? Killed someone, I mean?”
A year ago, he would never have even dreamed he’d be asking his older brother that question.
Justin looked straight ahead at the wall. “Not with a gun.”
His voice was barely above a whisper, but it was shockingly loud in the silence.
“With magic?” Max asked quietly.
Justin nodded.
“What happened?”
He was not going to make any judgments. While he’d been waiting and training behind the Veil, Alex and Justin had been struggling and fighting for their lives. He knew there had to be scars on them both, the kind that don’t show up on the skin, and this had to be one of them.
“It was a month or so after Judgment day - we’d had at least one full moon, I remember that much. I don’t even know where we were. Missouri, I think, because I’m fairly sure we found a little tributary of the Mississippi. When I was off scouting to see if we could find some landmarks, Alex decided to take a bath. You can use a wand to keep yourself clean, but it’s nothing like actual washing, y’know?
“While Alex was swimming, someone else came along. I don’t know what his name was. I just know he was big, and angry, and scared, and the only time I saw him he was holding Alex down on the ground, struggling, while he tried to undo his belt.”
Max inhaled sharply, but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.
“You know how many battle spells I’ve studied - most of them are only one word casting. Alex and I had been practising them a lot during the journey, because I knew we might have to use them someday. When I saw that bastard with Alex, when I saw what he was about to do - I didn’t think, I just reacted. I didn’t even reach for my wand, just held out my hand and shouted ‘incinerāre’. He just - turned to ash.”
Seconds later, he’d been holding a sobbing Alex in his arms. He hadn’t given a single thought to the man he’d just killed, just his sister in his arms - still naked and dripping wet.
“I was a little scared of how Alex would react, but once she’d cried herself out, she just told me that it was too bad there wasn’t anything we could salvage from his body. But maybe it was just as well, because using anything that he’d touched would have made her nauseous.”
Justin shook his head and smiled a little, at his admiration of his sister’s courage.
“We never mentioned it, after that day. We didn’t need to. I don’t regret it. Never have, not even for a second.”
A few minutes later, Justin had asked Alex why she hadn’t waited for her bath until he was around to watch her back, and she’d stammered something about not wanting company.
Justin frowned in thought, as a sudden thought struck him. Had Alex already sensed what they were going to become, even then? Dreaded that the chemistry - the sympathy - that had always existed between them would turn into something she was afraid to admit was possible? Was that reason she’d been so reluctant to undress around him?
He hadn’t even realised what his hands were doing, until Max cleared his throat.
“So… what’s that you’re playing with? Wire?”
Justin looked down and blinked. “Didn’t even realise had this out. I got it out of a Terminator I took down a few months ago, though maybe I could make it into a ring or something for Alex’s birthday present. Problem is, once I do that I’m not sure how to harden the gold so it doesn’t get bent out of shape or snap.”
“Well, you’ve got a couple of months yet. Maybe we can toss the idea around later?” Max offered.
Justin looked up and nodded. “I’d like that, Max. Thanks.”
* * * * *
Max still couldn’t believe it - he’d figured out something before Justin had? But Max was sure his idea for finishing Alex’s ring would work. Impatient to tell Justin, he ran all the way from the mess hall to level twelve. But when he burst into Justin and Alex’s quarters, Max really wished he’d knocked first.
While he stood still in shock, Alex and Justin broke apart and rolled off the bed swiftly. Alex standing at the end, hurriedly putting her shirt back on, and Justin at the side nearest to Max, with a panicked look on his face.
“Max, it wasn’t what it looks like!”
“So, you weren’t fooling around and about to have sex?” Max asked skeptically.
Justin opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Alex took a deep breath, and tried for a casual, matter-of-fact tone of voice. “Yes, we were. Are you going to tell everyone we’re actually related by blood after all? Or are you never speaking to us again?”
“How long have you been doing this? Before J day?”
Alex shook her head. “No. We started a couple of months ago - winter solstice, actually.”
Justin hissed at her, “Alex! TMI?”
Alex looked back at him and made a face.
“Seriously?” Max asked. “I kinda thought Mason was your beard, and Justin couldn’t figure out how to break it off with Juliet after the Caribbean. Well, that and he felt guilty about her becoming a Mummy’s slave.”
They both turned to stare at him.
A shadow fell over Max's face, and he looked more somber than Alex ever thought was possible.
"Justin, Alex - you're all I have left now. You really think this is going to make me hate you?"
Justin immediately wrapped their little brother in a bear hug, and Alex joined in as soon as she reached them. Almost crying with relief and joy and love, she buried her face in Max's shoulder, and felt Justin's arms shift and reach around Max so that his arms held her, too.
"But guys?" Max's voice was muffled by Justin's shoulder. "We need to work out a signal or something. 'Cause I don't ever wanna walk in on you doing this again."
Alex couldn't stop snickering for five minutes straight.
21 June 2012: Summer solstice
Waverly Place, New York City
It wasn’t much of a homecoming.
Justin, Alex and Max stood at the corner of Waverly Place, looking at the wrecked building that they had once all called home.
“Guys, you can stay here if you want,” Justin offered.
“No,” Alex shook her head. “We all go together. We need to find out if the Lair is intact.”
Max nodded in agreement, and they entered through the wide hole where the front window used to be.
The three of them had come back to New York a full month ago, but this was the first chance they’d had to come here.
John had been contacted by a member of a major resistance group, located in the ruins of Manhattan, and asking for mutual aid and intelligence. After careful consideration, John had decided to take a shot at Cheyenne Mountain’s first real alliance with another resistance group, and asked Alex to negotiate the agreement.
Justin had volunteered to come as technical advisor (that, and not wanting to be separated from Alex for long), and Max had been asked to play bodyguard - to all their surprise, Max had adapted the intense training he’d been forced to undergo before coming through the Veil to his compulsory military instruction, and had quickly become one of the Cheyenne Mountain elite squad. Besides, if it was just the three of them, they could take the flying carpet, and cut at least a month off the travel time.
The Russo’s also had another purpose; to find out if the Lair was intact.
The Lair wasn’t a separate room in the Loft; it was actually an interspatial claudication, or a pocket in space. That was why you could enter it through the restaurant freezer, as well as from the loft on the floor above. If it was intact, all the magical paraphernalia inside would have been preserved also, which could be of immense value. Depending on the format and strength of the original spell, it was even possible the three of them working together could shift the anchor-space to Justin and Alex's quarters at the mountain, effectively giving them a secret room to practise magic. However, if it was viable, it could only be done on the solstice, the mystical holiday boosting their powers.
Looking around the remains of their home, Alex blinked back tears, and twirled the ring on her right hand with her thumb in an unconscious gesture of self-reassurance.
She’d gone to the basement first, but there was no indication that Harper had ever returned from her trip to Queens to hunt down a bolt of cherry-patterned brocade. Looters had torn through the building, and a line of bullet holes across the far wall indicated that Terminators had hunted some human survivors through here at some point. Her pink fur wallpaper hung from her bedroom walls in shreds, and her few remaining clothes were so torn and stained that they couldn’t be worn. Justin had gone white when he saw what had happened to his action figure collection. Oddly enough, Max’s room didn’t look any different.
But no one expected what they found in the Lair.
At first glance, Jerry and Theresa Russo looked like they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms on the loveseat. It was only on close inspection that the mummified condition of their bodies was evident.
Max slumped down on the floor beside the workbench, his head in his hands. Alex pressed her hands to her mouth to keep from wailing. Only Justin was level-headed enough to notice the bottle, note, and stack of envelopes on the table.
His voice trembling slightly, Justin told them, “From what I can tell from the note, and from what Max told us, Dad and Mom saw the shockwave from the missiles approaching, and figured they’d be safest in the Lair. But when the Veil went into lockdown, so did the exits from the Lair, and they were trapped here.”
“So they starved to death?” Max asked hoarsely.
Justin shook his head. “Lack of air would have killed them first. But Dad thought of that. He mixed up a batch of Dreamless Sleep potion, and they both took it. It would have been a lot easier on them - and they’d live longer, by using less air. The bottle holds a counteragent, with instructions on how to use it in the note.” Justin’s voice cracked on the last word, and for once he didn’t state the obvious; that no one had come. Picking up the envelopes, he fanned them in the air. “Mom and Dad wrote separate farewell letters to each of us.”
“Let’s wait to read them when we get home,” Alex suggested quietly.
“When we get home?” asked Max.
Alex gestured around. “Well, it’s certainly not here. Not anymore.”
After a few minutes discussion, the three siblings used a simple levitation spell to move Jerry and Theresa’s bodies to the roof of the building.
“We can’t take long,” Max muttered. “It’s daylight, so the fire won’t be too noticeable, but if there’s a metal out there with infrared…”
Alex nodded. “You’ve got the family wand, so you do the last spell.”
Justin, Alex and Max raised their wands.
"Wait," Justin said suddenly. Moving forward, he knelt by the side of Theresa's body and reached toward her back.
"Justin, what are you doing?"
All the Russo's winced as a sharp crack rang out, and Justin grimaced as he drew Jerry's wedding ring off the now-broken finger. Once the light gleamed off the metal, Alex drew in a sharp breath of realisation, and leaned over to reach Theresa's left hand.
Moving back into position, Justin raised his wand and started the pyre. Alex added force to increase it. Once the fire was well advanced, the flames high enough to hide what was happening to their parents’ bodies, Max raised the family wand.
“Incinerāre,” he breathed.
Maybe it was because Jerry and Theresa’s bodies were already dried out, but there wasn’t any stench. Once the fire had died down, Alex summoned a large gust of wind to carry the ashes away.
“Should we get started on moving the lair?” Justin asked quietly.
The wand in Max’s hand caught the sunlight, and Alex suddenly said, “Stop. Come here.”
Reaching out, Alex took the family wand from Max, and stared at it. She was starting to feel the tickling in the back of her mind again, the one that always gave birth to her most outrageous schemes - the ones that always worked, even if not quite the way she’d originally planned.
“Justin, hold the base,” Alex ordered. She wrapped her own hand around the middle, her pinky nestled against his index finger and thumb. “Max, grab the top. Now move until we’re in an inside-out triangle, the same distance apart.”
Justin grinned at her, and she knew he’d guessed her plan.
“Together we are greater than the sum of our parts,” he declaimed, “So let us all share in the magical arts.”
Alex grinned back. “We’re all grown up and have learned how to share,” she recited, “so giving us all power is only fair.”
Max frowned in thought, as they felt the tension, the potential build in the air around them.
“We all agree that we should stay wizards, and magic shouldn’t follow the laws of… old gizzards?”
Justin and Alex stared at him incredulously, and Max grimaced in apology and shrugged. He never really had moved much past ‘make me a peanut butter and jelly’ in spell improv.
But it didn’t seem to matter; the wand in their hands dissolved into a glowing light that formed into a ball above their heads. As they watched, it started to spin, faster and faster until the ball became a tornado. The swifter it spun, the more it grew, until it started to glow gold with white-hot edges, trailing sparks of molten sunlight.
Alex forgot to breathe, until spots started to dance in front of her eyes, then she gasped as the magical tornado exploded soundlessly, shooting fireballs into all three of them.
All the Russo’s started to glow, and it was just like she remembered from that battleground outside time - being filled with light and power, and knowing that anything was possible.
The titanium wand in Justin’s hand flashed as it caught the golden light emanating from his body. She looked down at her own hand, and saw an identical wand clutched in her fingers. A sideways look proved that Max held one too.
Justin gasped, and she looked at him, still aglow. He looked at her with incredulous eyes, and asked in disbelief, “Is this what it was like for you, before?”
Alex nodded, and knew that Justin now understood exactly what she’d given up, the day she wished on the Stone of Dreams to keep their family together.
Alex reached out her arms, and her two brothers rushed her. They all locked together, and half-danced, half-careened around the roof in a massive hug.
The Russo’s had found a new way. The Russo’s had forged a new path.
Alex lost track of time in her brothers’ delirious embrace of celebration, but eventually they had to break apart. Less than a second later, she could feel the familiar pressure of Justin’s hand on her hip as his arm curled around her, bringing her close. She looked into his face; the glow had faded away now, but she could see echoes of the golden sparks dancing in his eyes.
Justin dipped his head and kissed Alex, and the sparks danced between them and behind his eyelids. He could taste the sweetness of the world made new all over again in her kiss, making him dizzy with all the possibilities in the world spread out before them.
“Alex? Marry me?”
“Of course,” Alex answered instantly.
She started the kiss this time, bodies pressed together so tightly that light couldn’t come between them.
“Woah, guys, wait up!”
They broke the kiss just enough to look at their brother, making a t-sign with his hands.
“Time-out here guys, just think for a second.”
One second passed, then Max continued, “Am I giving the bride away, or best man?”
They answered simultaneously.
“Duh, both!”
22 September 2012: Autumnal equinox
Jerry and Theresa's rings now hung from Max’s dog-tag chain; he'd offered them to Justin and Alex, but they didn't feel comfortable using for them for something their parents would have blatantly disapproved of.
Justin took a deep breath, and slid the gold-wire ring onto Alex’s left ring finger - she'd refused to take it off her right hand until just before the ceremony started.
“So, by the power invested in me by… uh…” a nervous General John Connor stumbled to a halt.
“Being fate’s bitch!” someone heckled from the audience.
“About damn time I got something out of it - um, sorry.” John cleared his throat and continued, “I now pronounce you husband and wife, so go ahead and - oh well, looks like you’ve already figured out the next part.”
Justin broke off kissing Alex for the first time as his wife (and thinking that made him as dizzy as Alex’s kisses), only to murmur, “I didn’t always love you this way, but I always loved you this much.”
Alex nodded in reply, “Forever and beyond, Justin. Don’t ever doubt it for a second,” before pulling his head back down to hers.
The Year of Miracles, part two
20 March 2012: Vernal Equinox
Alex woke early, for a change. She couldn’t figure out why, though.
Did she have an assignment today? No, she’d finished that survey for the Connors yesterday - less than a month until the first anniversary of Judgment Day, and the inhabitants of Cheyenne mountain had to decide how to mark it. Sarah wanted a moment of silence before getting back to work; Spencer, the head of intelligence, wanted a full-blown ceremony of mourning. Alex personally wanted to throw a ‘Fuck you, Skynet, we’re still here!’ party. John had promised to consider the notion.
Oh, well. Alex mentally shrugged and snuggled deeper into Justin’s embrace, enjoying the feel of his sleep-warmed skin against her own. They both slept naked, now - not only did they need to conserve their sparse clothing, but it was just more practical; anything they wore to bed just ended up on the floor in short order, anyway.
Justin shifted a little in his sleep, and Alex felt his morning erection against her backside. She smiled smugly to herself, and calculated her chances of getting a morning quickie.
* * * * *
At almost that same time, something strange was happening on a plateau three-quarters of the way up Cheyenne Mountain.
In the darkness of the shadow cast by an overhanging piece of rock, the air itself tore open, the wound glowing gold. Slowly, the glow intensified and the tear spread, its edges smoothing and widening, until a golden rectangle hung in the air, stretching to the ground.
A medium-height figure appeared in the doorway, and stepped through. As soon as he stood with both feet, the doorway twisted on itself and disappeared.
Max Russo took a long look around, trying to figure out where he’d landed. Frowning in confusion, he reached into the back pocket of his jeans, and pulled out what looked like a scrap of parchment. Unfolding it, it turned into a map, but the topographical markings weren’t in a form that any surveyor would have recognised. A small golden dot marked his current position.
“Okay,” Max muttered to himself. “I did come through the Cheyenne Mountain portal. So how did I wind up so high up? Professor Crumbs said the node was underneath the mountain.”
Shrugging, Max brought out his wand and pointed it at the map.
“It doesn't matter if I have to travel near or far, show me where Justin and Alex are!”
A second golden dot - this one slightly larger - appeared on the map. Max blinked a few times, trying to work out what it showed him.
“They’re still together - yeah, that fits. But they’re… inside the mountain? What the heck?”
Thankful for the short trip but puzzled - it couldn’t be that easy, could it? - Max kept his wand close to hand, as he shrugged his loaded backpack more securely on his shoulders and started for the small path at the edge of the plateau.
* * * * *
As he sat on the edge of the bed and bent over to tie his shoes, Justin was still grinning.
“If you go to the mess hall like that, everyone’s going to know you just got laid,” remarked a drowsy voice behind him.
“So what?” Justin smirked.
“You are such a guy,” Alex snickered.
Justin twisted so that he was half-lying on his side, propped up by one elbow, with his legs still dangling over the edge and his face right near his lover’s.
“I seem to remember a certain late shift last week, when you shamelessly seduced me on top of my desk, then strolled through the outer lab still doing up your shirt.”
Alex smirked. “That was for Mandy’s benefit. She’s been trying to nail you since we came here.”
“Seriously?” Justin asked.
“You didn’t even notice?” Alex snickered.
“I have far more interesting things to occupy my time,” Justin replied, leaning forward to kiss her. Their lips were just about to touch, when the walkie-talkie on his bedside table crackled to life.
“Hold that thought,” Justin told Alex, before rolling to his feet. Picking up the radio, he pressed the transmit button and spoke.
“Russo here. What’s going on?”
Ford’s voice sounded a little shaken, even distorted by the radio. “Justin, man, there’s a kid at the front gate. Says he’s your brother.”
* * * * *
As he followed his guide deeper into the mountain, Max became more and more disoriented. He knew they were on level ten, but that was about it.
“So are you Justin’s brother, or Alex’s brother?”
“Both,” Max muttered. Weren’t they there yet?
“Oh, so you were born after your parents got together,” Ford commented.
“Well, yeah.”
In other circumstances, Max might have mentioned that so were Justin and Alex, but he was so joyful at the prospect of seeing his brother and sister again that he barely heard anything Ford said anyway.
A few more turns, and Max found himself staggering backwards, as his brother and sister threw themselves at him simultaneously.
“Guys… gotta breathe!”
* * * * *
An hour later, Max was seated in what looked like a conference room, with Justin on his left and Alex on his right. Their clasped hands rested on the table, but Max didn’t mind not having his hands free.
“So, the Veil is still impenetrable for the most part?”
Max nodded. Justin and Alex had already told him that magic was considered top, top secret, and the three people sitting across from him were the only ones at the base who knew about it. Once they’d filled him in on the state of the world, even Max could understand why.
“Some of the most powerful wizards around, especially those who specialise in portals of some kind, have been trying to break through to the mortal world ever since the Cataclysm - that’s what we call Judgment day over there. No luck. I think it was someone in the taskforce who was also in the Wizard Heritage society that suggested trying during the original four great holidays - the solstices and the equinoxes - at the sites of the major nodes. Professor Crumbs pulled some major strings to get me on the first scouting party - he was only able to do it at all because I’ve lived in the mortal world.”
“How did you escape the bombs?” asked the stone-faced young woman who faced Justin.
Max took a deep breath. “I didn’t find this out until a few days after, but in the weeks leading up to the Cataclysm every seer in the wizard world was having constant visions of disaster. Heck, even some of their close relatives were having nightmares all the time. The only thing everyone agreed on was that it was happening in the second half of April. Our Uncle Kelbo heard some stuff, and it really scared him, so he came to visit us and talk Mom and Dad into all of us going to the wizard world for awhile, until whatever was supposed to happen happened. Mom, Dad and me were having lunch when he came. Uncle Kelbo was really upset, but Dad said they couldn’t afford to shut down the sub station for a couple of weeks, or take me and Alex out of school. Uncle Kelbo was getting more and more panicky, when this huge rumble sounded, and I looked out the window and there was this gigantic dark cloud rushing toward me. Uncle Kelbo was standing right next to me, so he grabbed me and teleported us to the Russo manor in the wizarding world. He tried to go back for Dad and Mom, but the Veil had already shut down.”
Max looked down at the table to hide his face, reflexively squeezing Justin and Alex’s hands. He didn’t think he’d ever forget the look on Kelbo’s face when he realised that he hadn’t moved fast enough, and Jerry and Theresa were left alone to face whatever was coming.
“You say the seers knew about Judgment day? They didn’t try to warn anyone?”
That question was from the fiercely beautiful woman sitting across from Alex, and something about the grim, hard tone of her voice made Max nearly trip over his tongue in his hurry.
“No, they didn’t know. They never could figure out what kind of disaster they were seeing. You gotta understand, a wizard family has to last at least ten generations to build up enough power in the bloodline to produce a seer, and even then they’re really rare. All the old families live behind the Veil, and have for centuries, and they normally only have one kid each. I know for a fact that the Russo’s are the only old family with a branch in the mortal world.”
Alex looked startled. “The Russo’s are an old wizard family?”
Justin rolled his eyes at Alex, and Max was beyond relieved to see that at least some things hadn’t changed.
“Alex, the founder of the Russo line was the pet wizard of the Borgia Pope!”
"Wait a minute," Alex said accusingly. "Dad's entry on the family tree said that he was the fifth generation wizard in the Russo family."
"The Russo family, yeah. It got shortened - or changed due to messy handwriting - from Rusetto at Ellis Island."
“Seriously? Why does no one tell me these things?”
Max snickered, and continued, “What I’m trying to say is that none of the seers alive now has ever had much contact with the mortal world. They didn’t understand what they saw.” Max shifted in his seat and admitted, “To be honest, none of them ever considered that the disaster was in the mortal world. It never occurred to them that the mortal world could produce anything with enough power to affect them.”
“What about Chernobyl?” Justin asked, puzzled. “My friend Nicholas from WizTech was a foreign exchange student from St Vladimir’s, and his family lived in Prypriat before the whole mess. That’s how I knew that the Veil had closed on J Day.”
Max shrugged. “Maybe they don’t have any seers in Russia, these days? Wizards had to go really far underground during Communism, right?”
The young man across from Max nodded to himself, and asked, “So, what kind of support is the Wizard world going to be able to provide us? Are they interested in providing it at all?”
“Oh, lots of people want to help,” Max assured him. “The old families don’t have anyone this side of the Veil, but there aren’t actually many of them around anymore. At least half the population has someone here. I don’t know much about the organisation of things, but it’s going to take awhile. The portals are only opening on the solstices and the equinoxes, and they think it’ll stay that way for years - maybe even decades. I don’t know much about this sort of thing, but I think most of the support will have to be behind the scenes stuff - if we need to keep magic secret, I don’t think there’s going to be many wizards who can help out in the front lines. But shipping you food, or doing repairs or rebuilding? That stuff we can do. But you gotta understand, not many wizards are equipped to survive in the real world.”
“I have to say, I don’t really get that,” the older woman - Sarah? - frowned.
Justin grimaced. “Remember how Max said that the old wizard families generally only have one kid each? Well, there’s a reason for that. For the past several centuries, it’s been a law enforced by the wizard council. Whenever a family has more than one child, the children have to compete in a magical battle once the youngest comes of age - that’s eighteen, now. Only the winner gets to become a full wizard - the others lose their powers completely.”
“But why would they impose a condition like that?” Sarah asked. “Wouldn’t they want to keep their population strong and healthy?”
Justin shrugged wearily. “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Or the witch hunts. Those started in the 14th and 15th centuries, and lasted more or less right up until the 18th. Even a few cases after, in Europe. Not to mention the shitstorm in Salem…” Justin ran his free hand through his hair. “The Council had to impose some sort of population control, especially on wizards living in the mortal world. I don’t know who came up with the idea of turning the family championships into winner-takes-all, but it worked. Before J Day, about ten percent of the human race was wizard-born. After the one wizard per family rule took hold, only about ten percent of active wizards lived in the mortal world - that, and active children of former wizards, like us. Of course, there were cases where it backfired; in the US witch hunts, no full wizard was hurt - but about twenty former wizards were killed.”
“Wait,” John said, looking from Justin to Alex to Max and back. “What about you three? What happens when Max turns eighteen?”
“Nothing.” Justin’s voice was absolute. “The family competition is one of the oldest traditions of our race, but originally it was only used to determine the family champion.” Justin turned to face his siblings again. “Alex, do you remember when we had to have the competition early, in the Caribbean? The incantation Dad used - it specifically said the winner would gain all the power of the participants. That’s what got me thinking afterwards; maybe if you change the beginning incantation-“
“You change the result!” Max exclaimed.
Justin nodded, “The competition started because the strongest wizard automatically inherited any family property - like entailment - and was legally bound to fight for the Council in times of war. The Wizard Council made the competition into its current form - but they can’t enforce it anymore. I’m not giving up my magic, and neither are you two.”
"Just as well, it's not like our band would be very successful now, anyway," Alex joked.
Justin gave a dark chuckle, "What about my old plan B of travelling the world beating robots at chess? True, there's a lot more robots in the world nowadays, but none of them are really the type to play chess."
None of the Russo's saw Sarah Connor's eyes go wide and her mouth go thin - as if she was pressing her lips together hard; or John Connor look down at the table and bite his bottom lip - hard.
"It is unfortunate," Cameron remarked. "I enjoy my chess matches with you. Perhaps we should start placing bets?"
Justin gave his friend an affectionate smile. "Thanks, Cameron, but it's not really the same."
“How do you know all this stuff about the wizard competition?” Max asked in wonder. “I’ve been behind the Veil for the past year, and I never heard of any of this!”
Justin smiled sadly. “Juliet told me. She was more than two thousand years old, Max, she knew all along. But before me, no teenage wizard ever dated someone old enough to know different. Problem is, no one would have just taken her word for it - I spent over a year trying to find a genuine record that I could go public with.” He chuckled bitterly, “Would you believe that two days before J Day Juliet’s mom got in touch with me, saying she’d found a book with all the details? But I never got the chance to actually inspect it.”
Everyone around the table looked grim and depressed, until Alex decided to break the mood.
“Hey, Max, you don’t know the good news! All the factories broke down, so the power isn’t controlled anymore!”
Max just looked puzzled.
Justin sighed again, and took on his old tutor guise. “Max, what are ley lines?”
The answer came promptly, rattled off as if learned by rote.
“Ley lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths that are thought by certain adherents to dowsing and New Age beliefs to have spiritual power.”
“Thank you, Cameron,” Justin snickered. “But real ley lines are a kind of mystical river system, spread all over the world, that carry currents of magical power. Where two lines meet or cross, it’s called a nexus. When five or more meet, it’s a major place of power, and it’s called a node. There’s one under this mountain, which is probably why Max came out here.”
“Heck, I didn’t know you guys were here. I just aimed for the node.” Max frowned, “How did you guys get here, anyway?”
“We were flying over the river when it happened. We saw the missiles hit Manhattan, and thought that heading to the heart of the disaster wasn’t very smart. Justin remembered that Cheyenne Mountain was built as a nuclear shelter, and figured that someone would be here eventually who could tell us what had happened, and put us in touch with whoever was co-ordinating relief efforts to New York. Well, that, and we were so lost,” Alex admitted. “Having some sort of goal was really the only thing keeping us going.”
“So when the bombs hit, and the Veil hardened, it also destroyed all the controls the Wizard council placed on magic in the mortal world,” Justin continued. “So all the natural currents of magic are full again. You need to be careful what spells you cast for awhile, until you get used to the increased power and learn to control it.”
Max finally untangled his hands, and reached into his sleeve. “Well, maybe this will help.” The wand he extracted looked like a silver tree branch, and glinted in the flourescent lighting. “Uncle Kelbo gave me the family wand. We can take turns with it, I guess.”
* * * * *
Two days later, Justin, Max and Cameron were gathered in the shooting gallery on level fifteen.
“I don’t know about this, Justin,” Max said doubtfully.
“I had to learn how to shoot too, Max. I don’t carry a gun with me unless I leave the mountain, but I practise every week, just like everyone else here.”
“Even Alex?”
“Not Alex,” Cameron responded sharply.
Max looked at her.
“Cameron, the bullet ricocheted,” Justin told her patiently. “It’s not like she was even pointing it outside the range.”
“You have told me so many times. But my job is to keep John fully intact and unharmed. Including his backside.”
Max looked at Justin.
“Alex shot the leader of mankind in the ass?”
Justin sighed and nodded. “It was an accident.”
Max replied thoughtfully, “Anyone else? That’d seem strange.”
After Cameron taught Max the initial ins and outs of the gun - including the rule ‘don’t ever point it at something you don’t want to shoot’ - she made him fire off two full clips, so he could get used to both the sound and the recoil. Making him watch her clear it, then repeat the action himself, she farewelled the brothers and headed off to the armoury.
Max leaned back against the counter that separated the actual firing range from the shooter. “That was kind of scary.”
Justin leaned beside him. “It always is. It should be. Thing with offensive spells? You’re using the same wand you use for all your spells. You’re carrying a tool, not a weapon. But holding a gun - firing one - you can’t escape the realization that you can kill someone with it.”
Max looked up at Justin. “Have you ever? Killed someone, I mean?”
A year ago, he would never have even dreamed he’d be asking his older brother that question.
Justin looked straight ahead at the wall. “Not with a gun.”
His voice was barely above a whisper, but it was shockingly loud in the silence.
“With magic?” Max asked quietly.
Justin nodded.
“What happened?”
He was not going to make any judgments. While he’d been waiting and training behind the Veil, Alex and Justin had been struggling and fighting for their lives. He knew there had to be scars on them both, the kind that don’t show up on the skin, and this had to be one of them.
“It was a month or so after Judgment day - we’d had at least one full moon, I remember that much. I don’t even know where we were. Missouri, I think, because I’m fairly sure we found a little tributary of the Mississippi. When I was off scouting to see if we could find some landmarks, Alex decided to take a bath. You can use a wand to keep yourself clean, but it’s nothing like actual washing, y’know?
“While Alex was swimming, someone else came along. I don’t know what his name was. I just know he was big, and angry, and scared, and the only time I saw him he was holding Alex down on the ground, struggling, while he tried to undo his belt.”
Max inhaled sharply, but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.
“You know how many battle spells I’ve studied - most of them are only one word casting. Alex and I had been practising them a lot during the journey, because I knew we might have to use them someday. When I saw that bastard with Alex, when I saw what he was about to do - I didn’t think, I just reacted. I didn’t even reach for my wand, just held out my hand and shouted ‘incinerāre’. He just - turned to ash.”
Seconds later, he’d been holding a sobbing Alex in his arms. He hadn’t given a single thought to the man he’d just killed, just his sister in his arms - still naked and dripping wet.
“I was a little scared of how Alex would react, but once she’d cried herself out, she just told me that it was too bad there wasn’t anything we could salvage from his body. But maybe it was just as well, because using anything that he’d touched would have made her nauseous.”
Justin shook his head and smiled a little, at his admiration of his sister’s courage.
“We never mentioned it, after that day. We didn’t need to. I don’t regret it. Never have, not even for a second.”
A few minutes later, Justin had asked Alex why she hadn’t waited for her bath until he was around to watch her back, and she’d stammered something about not wanting company.
Justin frowned in thought, as a sudden thought struck him. Had Alex already sensed what they were going to become, even then? Dreaded that the chemistry - the sympathy - that had always existed between them would turn into something she was afraid to admit was possible? Was that reason she’d been so reluctant to undress around him?
He hadn’t even realised what his hands were doing, until Max cleared his throat.
“So… what’s that you’re playing with? Wire?”
Justin looked down and blinked. “Didn’t even realise had this out. I got it out of a Terminator I took down a few months ago, though maybe I could make it into a ring or something for Alex’s birthday present. Problem is, once I do that I’m not sure how to harden the gold so it doesn’t get bent out of shape or snap.”
“Well, you’ve got a couple of months yet. Maybe we can toss the idea around later?” Max offered.
Justin looked up and nodded. “I’d like that, Max. Thanks.”
* * * * *
Max still couldn’t believe it - he’d figured out something before Justin had? But Max was sure his idea for finishing Alex’s ring would work. Impatient to tell Justin, he ran all the way from the mess hall to level twelve. But when he burst into Justin and Alex’s quarters, Max really wished he’d knocked first.
While he stood still in shock, Alex and Justin broke apart and rolled off the bed swiftly. Alex standing at the end, hurriedly putting her shirt back on, and Justin at the side nearest to Max, with a panicked look on his face.
“Max, it wasn’t what it looks like!”
“So, you weren’t fooling around and about to have sex?” Max asked skeptically.
Justin opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Alex took a deep breath, and tried for a casual, matter-of-fact tone of voice. “Yes, we were. Are you going to tell everyone we’re actually related by blood after all? Or are you never speaking to us again?”
“How long have you been doing this? Before J day?”
Alex shook her head. “No. We started a couple of months ago - winter solstice, actually.”
Justin hissed at her, “Alex! TMI?”
Alex looked back at him and made a face.
“Seriously?” Max asked. “I kinda thought Mason was your beard, and Justin couldn’t figure out how to break it off with Juliet after the Caribbean. Well, that and he felt guilty about her becoming a Mummy’s slave.”
They both turned to stare at him.
A shadow fell over Max's face, and he looked more somber than Alex ever thought was possible.
"Justin, Alex - you're all I have left now. You really think this is going to make me hate you?"
Justin immediately wrapped their little brother in a bear hug, and Alex joined in as soon as she reached them. Almost crying with relief and joy and love, she buried her face in Max's shoulder, and felt Justin's arms shift and reach around Max so that his arms held her, too.
"But guys?" Max's voice was muffled by Justin's shoulder. "We need to work out a signal or something. 'Cause I don't ever wanna walk in on you doing this again."
Alex couldn't stop snickering for five minutes straight.
21 June 2012: Summer solstice
Waverly Place, New York City
It wasn’t much of a homecoming.
Justin, Alex and Max stood at the corner of Waverly Place, looking at the wrecked building that they had once all called home.
“Guys, you can stay here if you want,” Justin offered.
“No,” Alex shook her head. “We all go together. We need to find out if the Lair is intact.”
Max nodded in agreement, and they entered through the wide hole where the front window used to be.
The three of them had come back to New York a full month ago, but this was the first chance they’d had to come here.
John had been contacted by a member of a major resistance group, located in the ruins of Manhattan, and asking for mutual aid and intelligence. After careful consideration, John had decided to take a shot at Cheyenne Mountain’s first real alliance with another resistance group, and asked Alex to negotiate the agreement.
Justin had volunteered to come as technical advisor (that, and not wanting to be separated from Alex for long), and Max had been asked to play bodyguard - to all their surprise, Max had adapted the intense training he’d been forced to undergo before coming through the Veil to his compulsory military instruction, and had quickly become one of the Cheyenne Mountain elite squad. Besides, if it was just the three of them, they could take the flying carpet, and cut at least a month off the travel time.
The Russo’s also had another purpose; to find out if the Lair was intact.
The Lair wasn’t a separate room in the Loft; it was actually an interspatial claudication, or a pocket in space. That was why you could enter it through the restaurant freezer, as well as from the loft on the floor above. If it was intact, all the magical paraphernalia inside would have been preserved also, which could be of immense value. Depending on the format and strength of the original spell, it was even possible the three of them working together could shift the anchor-space to Justin and Alex's quarters at the mountain, effectively giving them a secret room to practise magic. However, if it was viable, it could only be done on the solstice, the mystical holiday boosting their powers.
Looking around the remains of their home, Alex blinked back tears, and twirled the ring on her right hand with her thumb in an unconscious gesture of self-reassurance.
She’d gone to the basement first, but there was no indication that Harper had ever returned from her trip to Queens to hunt down a bolt of cherry-patterned brocade. Looters had torn through the building, and a line of bullet holes across the far wall indicated that Terminators had hunted some human survivors through here at some point. Her pink fur wallpaper hung from her bedroom walls in shreds, and her few remaining clothes were so torn and stained that they couldn’t be worn. Justin had gone white when he saw what had happened to his action figure collection. Oddly enough, Max’s room didn’t look any different.
But no one expected what they found in the Lair.
At first glance, Jerry and Theresa Russo looked like they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms on the loveseat. It was only on close inspection that the mummified condition of their bodies was evident.
Max slumped down on the floor beside the workbench, his head in his hands. Alex pressed her hands to her mouth to keep from wailing. Only Justin was level-headed enough to notice the bottle, note, and stack of envelopes on the table.
His voice trembling slightly, Justin told them, “From what I can tell from the note, and from what Max told us, Dad and Mom saw the shockwave from the missiles approaching, and figured they’d be safest in the Lair. But when the Veil went into lockdown, so did the exits from the Lair, and they were trapped here.”
“So they starved to death?” Max asked hoarsely.
Justin shook his head. “Lack of air would have killed them first. But Dad thought of that. He mixed up a batch of Dreamless Sleep potion, and they both took it. It would have been a lot easier on them - and they’d live longer, by using less air. The bottle holds a counteragent, with instructions on how to use it in the note.” Justin’s voice cracked on the last word, and for once he didn’t state the obvious; that no one had come. Picking up the envelopes, he fanned them in the air. “Mom and Dad wrote separate farewell letters to each of us.”
“Let’s wait to read them when we get home,” Alex suggested quietly.
“When we get home?” asked Max.
Alex gestured around. “Well, it’s certainly not here. Not anymore.”
After a few minutes discussion, the three siblings used a simple levitation spell to move Jerry and Theresa’s bodies to the roof of the building.
“We can’t take long,” Max muttered. “It’s daylight, so the fire won’t be too noticeable, but if there’s a metal out there with infrared…”
Alex nodded. “You’ve got the family wand, so you do the last spell.”
Justin, Alex and Max raised their wands.
"Wait," Justin said suddenly. Moving forward, he knelt by the side of Theresa's body and reached toward her back.
"Justin, what are you doing?"
All the Russo's winced as a sharp crack rang out, and Justin grimaced as he drew Jerry's wedding ring off the now-broken finger. Once the light gleamed off the metal, Alex drew in a sharp breath of realisation, and leaned over to reach Theresa's left hand.
Moving back into position, Justin raised his wand and started the pyre. Alex added force to increase it. Once the fire was well advanced, the flames high enough to hide what was happening to their parents’ bodies, Max raised the family wand.
“Incinerāre,” he breathed.
Maybe it was because Jerry and Theresa’s bodies were already dried out, but there wasn’t any stench. Once the fire had died down, Alex summoned a large gust of wind to carry the ashes away.
“Should we get started on moving the lair?” Justin asked quietly.
The wand in Max’s hand caught the sunlight, and Alex suddenly said, “Stop. Come here.”
Reaching out, Alex took the family wand from Max, and stared at it. She was starting to feel the tickling in the back of her mind again, the one that always gave birth to her most outrageous schemes - the ones that always worked, even if not quite the way she’d originally planned.
“Justin, hold the base,” Alex ordered. She wrapped her own hand around the middle, her pinky nestled against his index finger and thumb. “Max, grab the top. Now move until we’re in an inside-out triangle, the same distance apart.”
Justin grinned at her, and she knew he’d guessed her plan.
“Together we are greater than the sum of our parts,” he declaimed, “So let us all share in the magical arts.”
Alex grinned back. “We’re all grown up and have learned how to share,” she recited, “so giving us all power is only fair.”
Max frowned in thought, as they felt the tension, the potential build in the air around them.
“We all agree that we should stay wizards, and magic shouldn’t follow the laws of… old gizzards?”
Justin and Alex stared at him incredulously, and Max grimaced in apology and shrugged. He never really had moved much past ‘make me a peanut butter and jelly’ in spell improv.
But it didn’t seem to matter; the wand in their hands dissolved into a glowing light that formed into a ball above their heads. As they watched, it started to spin, faster and faster until the ball became a tornado. The swifter it spun, the more it grew, until it started to glow gold with white-hot edges, trailing sparks of molten sunlight.
Alex forgot to breathe, until spots started to dance in front of her eyes, then she gasped as the magical tornado exploded soundlessly, shooting fireballs into all three of them.
All the Russo’s started to glow, and it was just like she remembered from that battleground outside time - being filled with light and power, and knowing that anything was possible.
The titanium wand in Justin’s hand flashed as it caught the golden light emanating from his body. She looked down at her own hand, and saw an identical wand clutched in her fingers. A sideways look proved that Max held one too.
Justin gasped, and she looked at him, still aglow. He looked at her with incredulous eyes, and asked in disbelief, “Is this what it was like for you, before?”
Alex nodded, and knew that Justin now understood exactly what she’d given up, the day she wished on the Stone of Dreams to keep their family together.
Alex reached out her arms, and her two brothers rushed her. They all locked together, and half-danced, half-careened around the roof in a massive hug.
The Russo’s had found a new way. The Russo’s had forged a new path.
Alex lost track of time in her brothers’ delirious embrace of celebration, but eventually they had to break apart. Less than a second later, she could feel the familiar pressure of Justin’s hand on her hip as his arm curled around her, bringing her close. She looked into his face; the glow had faded away now, but she could see echoes of the golden sparks dancing in his eyes.
Justin dipped his head and kissed Alex, and the sparks danced between them and behind his eyelids. He could taste the sweetness of the world made new all over again in her kiss, making him dizzy with all the possibilities in the world spread out before them.
“Alex? Marry me?”
“Of course,” Alex answered instantly.
She started the kiss this time, bodies pressed together so tightly that light couldn’t come between them.
“Woah, guys, wait up!”
They broke the kiss just enough to look at their brother, making a t-sign with his hands.
“Time-out here guys, just think for a second.”
One second passed, then Max continued, “Am I giving the bride away, or best man?”
They answered simultaneously.
“Duh, both!”
22 September 2012: Autumnal equinox
Jerry and Theresa's rings now hung from Max’s dog-tag chain; he'd offered them to Justin and Alex, but they didn't feel comfortable using for them for something their parents would have blatantly disapproved of.
Justin took a deep breath, and slid the gold-wire ring onto Alex’s left ring finger - she'd refused to take it off her right hand until just before the ceremony started.
“So, by the power invested in me by… uh…” a nervous General John Connor stumbled to a halt.
“Being fate’s bitch!” someone heckled from the audience.
“About damn time I got something out of it - um, sorry.” John cleared his throat and continued, “I now pronounce you husband and wife, so go ahead and - oh well, looks like you’ve already figured out the next part.”
Justin broke off kissing Alex for the first time as his wife (and thinking that made him as dizzy as Alex’s kisses), only to murmur, “I didn’t always love you this way, but I always loved you this much.”
Alex nodded in reply, “Forever and beyond, Justin. Don’t ever doubt it for a second,” before pulling his head back down to hers.