Better Black and White
a JONAS and Wizards of Waverly Place crossover fanfic
"…sometimes a fight is better black and white."
One battle does not win the war, and once again the fight to keep the forbidden power on Earth is ignited as two eternal opponents are allied against an unlikely enemy that have always been considered inferior. When the enemy lives amongst you, how can you be sure who to trust? For some, it's a test of love and loyalty as the line between mortal and immortal is drawn in with a big fat permanent marker. And what follows sets the whole world off into a battle pitting magic against modern technology to the death.
"…if you cut me i suppose i would bleed the colors of the evening stars…"
Families are torn apart, friendships forever broken, relationships dashed upon rocks, and there is not a country in the world who hasn't joined World War III. But if there was one thing to be thankful for, the Lucas family thinks they've found it - their family is one that has managed to stay together. But everything's about to change when the three Lucas brothers are once again torn apart by a new prophecy that makes it clear -- only one side can win, and they're not all on that same side. One boy betrays them all by making a decision that destroys the fates of the three brothers forever. And they're not ready to sacrifice everything again...
"…you can go anywhere you wish, 'cause i'll be there wherever you are, my darling…"
Each brother must follow his heart to have a chance at survival, and for each of them, it's easier than they expected. For one, it's to save the girl who saved his own life once, and to finally achieve that happily-ever-after ending he's been dreaming of. For the second, it's to figure out his true feelings about a girl he's barely thought twice about loving, and he has to do it quick - his life and her life hang on the line because of it. And for the third, his decision to turn traitor is influenced by the one he's always loved - the one he could never love.
"…i found out nothing comes without a cost, life was just a game we lost…"
Alex, Stella, Macy, Juliet. Nicholas, Joseph, Kevin, Justin. Each of their lives hangs on the line, a single poker chip in the game of war. They are the eight teenagers that could - and would - change the world. Except they can't all survive. At least one must die. And none of them wants that one to be them. One boy is the traitor to their own kind and blood. Another can't tell white from black, right from wrong, love from losing. The third comes from nowhere to become the one of the most powerful of his kind. And the fourth goes from one species to another in a horrible accident that changes the way the game is played. The girls are divided in the same way - one is the one who lures the traitor, another is the gray between her lover's black and white, the third shares the eternal power, and the fourth is the one who changes that last.
And as they'll learn, it all comes back to haunt you in the end.
"…so, what will it take to make or break these hints of love? only time, only time…"
A/N: Are you excited? I am. Pumped. This is going to be EPIC. It said so on my JONAS pencil. EPIC. People will change, die, all sorts of fun stuff. Let the evil begin. I also learned today (probably yesterday by the time I actually post this) that there's going to be a new episode of JONAS on the fourteenth! I considered actually waiting, but the most I'm going to wait is a couple days until I go searching for it on the internet. Haha.
And in other big huge Jonas news, STAY! Who's heard it? Who loves it? ME! Although, of course, it was like one of two major highlights of the concerts I went to back in January – Stay, and Fireflies. Math class, for a second now: adam young x nick jonas x joe jonas x kevin jonas = LOVE. Or, if you want to simplify, owl city times jonas cubed is LOVE. Fireflies + Nick? Lizzy's happiness goes through the roof. Stay? She can no longer think. That boy is an amazing songwriter and an amazing singer. And since it's supposedly rumored to be about Selena… well, I couldn't resist.
Oh, and Alex in heels equals me in heels. Enough said. This is a ridiculously long author's note, so let's get the boring stuff over with.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, but yet, I tend to seriously hurt all of them more often than not. Plus, I have the benefit of owning stock in Disney, so I own stock in the Jonas Brothers and in Selena Gomez and David Henrie and all the other random people… unfortunately, I also own stock in Miley. –shudders-
chapter one: [tell me that you'll] stay
(apov)
I stood in my room, looking in the mirror, and was amazed at what I saw. Harper, for once, had come through and made me a dress that (I hoped) would knock poor Nicholas off his feet. It was sparkly, red, and beautiful. And I was wearing it.
Six months ago, you could have asked anyone who knew me in the slightest bit if I would ever a) go to Harper for fashion advice and b) wear a dress like that, and they would have laughed in your face. But I felt like a new person now – Nick had changed me, just as I'd changed him. Love did that to you.
"Thank you so much!" I squealed, and hugged my best friend close to me. She hugged me back, either thrilled (and surprised, no doubt) that I liked the dress she'd made me or just happy that I was happy. And I was, of course – and couldn't remember a time when was more happy than this.
"You're welcome," she said with a smile, then looked away, a little sheepishly. "Promise next time we can double date? You, me, Nick, and Zeke?"
"Ugh, Zeke!" I groaned. I had momentarily forgotten about the alien-geek that was Harper's boyfriend. You know, if "momentarily" lasted for about two months, yeah, that's what happened. I felt the old Alex bubbling up inside of me, ready to make some snide comment about alien language league, but I kept her inside. "Um, maybe."
She eyed me weird. "Go on, say it. You can't act completely out of character for six months without breaking once."
I sighed. "Fine. Absolutely not. Not only would it ruin my image, but imagine if Nick was seen with him? The paparazzi would be all over that." It might have been worth mentioning that the paparazzi didn't know I was dating Nick (we'd managed to keep it a secret – half of our dates had been to the sub shop), but I left that small part out. Harper overlooked that, and instead called me on how I insulted her boyfriend of eight months (longer than I had been with Nick… but even I knew that eight was more than six) even though she had practically given me permission.
"Thanks for the psychotic rant, Harper. Really appreciated, especially after you practically gave me permission to do that," I told her once she was done.
"It's true," she muttered defensively, and towed me out the door downstairs. "Now, Nick's going to be here soon, so you should be downstairs waiting. Take the purse, and if anything goes wrong, call me." She tried to shove a purse into my hands, but this was where Harper's fashion sense had gone wrong – it was red and sparkly, sure, like my dress, but unlike my dress, it had little lobsters on it.
"Um, thanks, Harper, but that's the ugliest thing I've ever seen," I stammered, trying to be nice and mean at the same time. Why I even tried, I still wasn't sure. Nick claimed to like my sarcastic humor, and could be sarcastic himself if he tried, but I wasn't so nosy and suspicious of my boyfriend to actually go into his head and see if he was lying to me or not.
Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm forever, eternally, and magically bonded to my boyfriend. So if I so choose, I can hear what he's thinking and he can hear what I'm thinking. And we can telepathically communicate. Stuff like that. It happened partially by accident, partially by purpose. If you missed that, you might want to go back a little bit. Like a lot. Because some of this might not make a lot of sense. Mostly all of it. Unless you just want to just focus on the romance stuff, but believe me, there's not too much of it. Not as much as I'd like, anyway.
Anyway. Back to the story, because most of you knew that much already.
"I think it's cute," Harper pouted, her lower lip sticking out.
I rolled my eyes. "Come on, you're you."
She was about to reply to my comment when my mom called out from downstairs, "Alex, honey, Nick's here!" Harper gave me one last shove, and I caught my balance just in time to keep from falling down the spiral staircase.
"Hey, beautiful," he said once he saw me. I blushed furiously and looked away from him, embarrassed. I tripped on the bottom stair, but he was there to catch me. Okay, so that's all terribly cliché, but the good action bad-romance stuff is coming, okay?
"Thanks." I stood up and straightened out my dress. My parents were not-so-secretly staring at me and my red dress and high heels. It was all a joke – Harper's idea.
"I wasn't expecting you to get this…" He trailed off, speechless. And it was obvious he wasn't, he was wearing what he would always wear – plaid shirt, cute Lucas-brother skinny jeans, curly hair just so perfect. "Wow."
"Harper's idea," I muttered. From the top of the staircase, my red-headed friend gave me two thumbs up and held out the lobster purse. Nick read my face (and my thoughts) and started laughing, and he got me started too.
"And that is why we have Stella," he murmured in my ear, and I grinned. "The dress is nice, though, really."
I blushed even harder when he said that; my face was probably the color of my dress by now. "Aww, look, Alex is blushing," Max teased, grinning. I took a running start to go tackle him, tripped after two steps in my heels, and Nick caught me again.
"I think I'll go change," I said, eager to get out of the stupid heels and dress.
"No, don't," Nick said quickly, holding me by my arm as he pulled out his wand. Within seconds, he turned his plaid shirt and jeans into something he still looked just as cute in – a collared shirt, dress pants, and a tie. He was still just as adorable, though – nothing could change that.
"Obviously you learned magic from Alex," Justin muttered, a smile on his face. Nick smiled right back – God, how I loved his smile – and pulled me close to him again.
"Everyday I wonder what you did with my daughter," my dad said, and Nick chuckled slightly as I listened to his heartbeat, pressed up against his chest. I think he was trying to make me blush again, but only Nick could make me blush.
"Thank you for letting me take your daughter out," he said, being polite and cute and everything else he was while looking into my eyes. I wanted to look away, but his chocolate brown eyes held me trapped in his gaze.
My mom smiled. "No, thank you, Nick," she said as he led me out the door. On his way out, he picked up a guitar – it was his, he left it here on occasion – and brought me outside. I eyed the instrument suspiciously, as if he was hiding a bomb in there. He smiled and shook his head when he heard my thought, but didn't say anything. We walked down the street in silence, me stumbling over my feet and him catching me every time. I'd like to say that I was doing it all on purpose simply to get him to hold me, but I couldn't walk for the life of me in heels.
We reached a corner of the street, and he took out the guitar, strumming it softly. I eyed the ring and dogtag around his neck as he tuned it, and he whispered softly, "I wrote you a song, Alex. No more covers, old songs this time. It's all for you."
I couldn't speak as he began to play his instrument, stunned into silence by the simple beauty of his playing. And he hadn't started singing yet.
"It's hard to believe where we are now, your hand in mine feels right somehow," he sang, softly, perfectly. "The night is so still, don't make a sound, it's almost perfect baby, so promise you'll never look down…"
'cause we had our past, i know
let's leave that behind
'cause none of it lasts,
all that we have is tonight
'cause you're not the only one
who's ever felt this way
don't let the world cave in
just tell me that you'll stay
now that the pain is done
there's no need to be afraid
we don't have time to waste
just tell me that you'll stay
"Beautiful, one of a kind," he continued, and I couldn't help but think that he was exaggerating, "you're something special baby, don't even realize that you're my heart's desire, all that I've needed and more, but I promise, babe, I'm not who I was before…"
There wasn't more true words spoken on this planet – over the past six months that we'd known each other, we'd all changed. Nick found out he was a wizard, at first, and we fell in love, saved the world from an evil spirit that was possessing him, and attempted to hide from wizard hunters who were also his brothers. Did you miss that part, too? If you did, go back and read the first one. We put all that work into it, even me, and if you're just going to blow it off, then you won't understand anything and I'll be mad. Like, really mad.
Back to the better stuff. Namely, Nick's indescribable song.
'cause you're not the only one
who's ever felt this way
don't let the world cave in
just tell me that you'll stay
now that the pain is done
there's no need to be afraid
we don't have time to waste
just tell me that you'll stay.
"I'll stay, Nicholas," I whispered, as loudly as I could manage without choking on my tears. You know that feeling you get when you finish the jigsaw puzzle of life, and every single piece of it fits together perfectly, so that it creates one big picture of perfection? I was there, and living in the moment, with Nick and no one else. When he set the guitar down and pulled me close to him, I noticed that his eyes mirrored the happy tears that were in mine as well.
And then we kissed, because the Hallmark moment wouldn't be complete without it.