Chapter One Alex Learns the Truth

"What do you mean, I'm not your real daughter?" Alex asked in astonishment.

"Oh, mija," Theresa Russo began, but Alex cut her off.

"Don't call me that. Don't call me mija. That's not what I am. Now, thanks to this I don't know who I am."

"Alex, I know that this is a lot to take in, but we do love you as if you are our daughter."

"That's the problem, dad, Jerry, whatever I'm supposed to call you. You love me as if I'm your daughter but I'm not. Why did you wait until now to tell me and who are my real parents?"

Jerry looked over to Theresa for some kind of help. He found none. Instead, she was crying into a hand full of tissues, surely still hurting from Alex telling her not to call her mija, the term of endearment she had picked out for her the moment she saw Alex's big brown eyes.

"Honey, I can explain all those things to you, If you will calm down and just give me the chance."

Alex took a deep breath. She wasn't known for being patient, nor was she known for allowing people to hurt her and then hanging around for them to tell her why. At eight years old she was very stubborn and very head strong. This time, though she decided to listen to the two people she had believed to be her parents.

"Okay, so talk." Alex said sternly.

Jerry couldn't believe the strength behind this little girl. A part of him wished that he never had to tell her the truth about not being his daughter. She was everything he would've wanted in a daughter. However, that was where he knew that he had to accept that this day would come. Of course, none of them thought it would come this early in her life.

"Alex, it's hard to explain. If you have any questions along the way feel free to jump in and ask them, okay."

"Harder than the day you explained to Justin and I that we were wizards?" she asked in a curious tone, anger still underlying it.

"Yes. You see Alex, in the Wizard World, as you know, there are rules and laws just like here in the mortal world. They have their own council, the Wizard council, that determines what the laws are and how the people who break them should be handled."

"Jerry, is this a lesson, or are you going to get around to why I'm not who I thought I was?"

Jerry cringed at her using his first name. He had called her daddy for so long that it just didn't feel right for her to call him anything else. "I suppose I should have seen this coming as well though." He thought to himself.

"Alex, your real parents, were wizards. Karmine and Xander . They were very powerful , clever wizards. I even studied with them at WizTec. Everyone thought they were destined for greatness, even Professor Crumbs. Then they started changing. They had once been sweet and what the mortal world would refer to as the "All-American" couple. Then, things became very different. They stopped coming to school functions and started spending a lot more time alone. At graduation, Xander, your father was asked to give a speech and he refused. They didn't even show up to graduation. In their family, there was no wizard competition because they were the last of their blood lines."

Jerry paused to give Alex a moment to let everything she was being told to sink in. He wanted her to understand it. Or at least as much as she could at eight years old.

"A few years after graduation Xander was offered a seat on the wizard council, which he also turned down. I'm not sure what happened over those years, but the wizard council got word that Xander and Karmine were involved in black magic. A very powerful black magic that threatened to drain the magic from the most powerful wizards. When the Wizard Police did a raid on their lair, they found you. Karmine and Xander were preparing you to be the innocent sacrifice they needed to complete a spell that would have shifted the moral compass for good. You were taken away and they Wizard Council sentenced your parents and all those involved to death."

Alex took in a deep breath but never let a tear fall. She wasn't the type to let people see her cry, even at such a young age. She looked from Jerry to Theresa and noticed that her mother had never stopped crying.

"Okay, so how did I end up here, with you?" she probed.

"Well, I had just turned my powers over to your Uncle Kelbo and Professor Crumbs brought you here at a year old and asked us to take you in. He knew that I was a good teacher and that since I no longer had powers then no one would ever expect that they would place you with me. They would have expected them to place you with a more powerful wizard family."

"When I looked into your big brown eyes," Theresa cut in, "I knew that you were the perfect addition to our family. There was no way I could turn him down."

"We talked to Crumbs and he agreed that in order for you to truly be a part of this family that the Russo family powers should be yours as well. He gifted them to you along with the right to fight for them when that time comes."

A long silence fell over the room. Jerry moved over to Alex and wrapped his arm around her.

"I don't understand, why are you telling me all this now? If Crumbs erased any memories from my previous parents then why would you tell me at all?"

"Well, there's one part I wanted to leave out until you were a little older. There was a prophecy and Crumbs believes it involves you and this family. 'From the heart of evil, a child is born, yet from them she must be torn and given to the family of love, it's where she belongs and together the greater evil they will rise above.'

"So I am part of some big prophecy now?"

"Well, you Justin and Max. "

"Okay, well this is a little much for one night."
"Oh mija, we love you and we just want to protect you."

"I know mom." Alex thought a moment then made up her mind, "I love you guys and I want to continue to be a part of this family. But, dad, for some reason my place doesn't feel right. It never has. How do you know that I'm the baby from the prophecy or that I'm supposed to be your daughter."

"Because, you fit right here in our hearts."

Jerry and Theresa both hugged their daughter and she hugged them back. Justin slipped back out of the door of the lair, where he had been spying and hearing everything that had been said. Alex saw him out of the corner of her eye, but didn't say anything. She just hugged her 'parents'. She still couldn't shake the feeling that something in the prophecy wasn't right, but she was only eight. So, she let it go.