Chapter 2 – A Jump Back in Time

Alex enters the empty lair, immediately starting to search for her father's Time Machine and finds it poorly hidden on the back of a cabinet. She quickly sets the date, but before she pulls the activation cord, she realizes that there is a big possibility of finding herself there, or worse, finding someone else of the family. If only there was a way of not being seen!

Then it comes to her mind, just like that, a spell that she doesn't remember seeing anywhere, but she remembers it. The reason why she knows it … let's face it, it's so like her to need this one.

"What I am doing, no one can come between. Keep me unnoticed, unable to be seen." She charms, pointing her wand at herself. The wand glows but she cannot notice any difference. Well, she is going to find out anyway.

Alex pulls the cord to activate the Time Machine. A vortex forms around her playing a weird animal sound, and when it unveils, she is still in the lair. Quickly she hides the Time Machine, in a better place this time, and leaves the lair. This hiding spell is better be working.

Outside, in the SubStation, her father and mother are working as they do every day. As she goes through the crowd unnoticed, Alex smiles on her way to the stairs, now aware that the spell works. If only she could remember where this spell comes from. Well, this is not important, she has to go to her room and find that wand so she can go back as soon as possible.

Alex gets to her room and starts looking. It has to be here somewhere, so her first attempt is in her usual hiding places. The box under her bed with Justin's favorite things from his room, the back of drawers, it isn't there. Then she has to look in other places, she looks everywhere in the wardrobe, in every drawer, in every box and she cannot find it anywhere. Then she is forced to stop before she can find anything when she hears something from the hallway.

The door opens and past Alex comes in, closing the door behind her. She goes straight to the full body mirror to check herself out. It feels so weird seeing herself this close. In a second, when this feeling goes away, Alex finally notices what her past self is wearing. She has to admit it, she is looking gorgeous, a very sexy outfit, and matching make-up. Okay, this has to be for some date, only thing is, she has no idea with whom that would be. Past Alex takes her magazine and sits on the bed, as if she is waiting for something.

Things could not possibly get worse. How is Alex going to look for the wand now? Well, things do get worse when Justin storms in the room. Great! What now?

"Did you see my wand?" He asks. Okay, that rings a bell.

Justin drops his father's old training wand over Alex's dresser and starts looking for his. That is it. That's what she remembered about seeing the wand while reading her magazine. She knew she had seen that wand. Maybe Justin took it to help him finding his wand.

But, no! Wait! Alex doesn't remember this. What is just unfolding in front of her, this never happened.

Hey, and Justin is rummaging the entire room, and she is getting annoyed to see that. So why is past Alex so calm?

Only now past Alex gets out of the bed and calmly walks to meet Justin. "Maybe I can help!" Past Alex offers with a very relaxed tone. And Alex notices it, even if keeping that playful tone, she is being genuine.

"Good! Look around that side of the room, then." Justin asks.

What the hell is going on in here? This not only never happened, but there is no way Justin would come in and start looking around like that with her approval. Why isn't past Alex screaming at him for barging into her room.

Past Alex takes Justin's hand to make him stop and look at her.

"I mean…" Past Alex says flirtatiously. "…I may need an incentive to remember where it is." She pulls him to her, hugging him to keep him close.

Future Alex freaks out. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

Alex gawks at the two in front of them, and witnesses Justin smile back. They lean closer and kiss each other, on the lips.

Alex can only scream to the top of her lungs. She runs out of the room, and down the stairs, and all the way down to the lair, where she takes the time machine and returns to her time.

Alex arrives in the lair, with her legs wobbling like jelly. She refuses to believe that what she just saw really happened in her past. She sits on the recliner chair… well, she actually drops herself on it. Both of her hands cover her face in despair, she is actually panting. The image of her and Justin kissing refuses to leave her mind. She brings her legs up and hugs them. This cannot be happening.

Alex stays in the same position for a long time, making her best to calm down, repeating in her mind that if she doesn't remember, it never happened.

At some point, Harper gets worried about Alex's disappearance and goes to the lair to look for her. When she gets in, she finds Alex on the chair.

"Alex!" She calls for her. Alex almost jumps off the chair.

"Dammit, Harper!"

"What are you still doing here? Why haven't you came up?"

"I just needed to clear my head." Alex tells her, but there is no way she is getting into details.

"Are you alright? Did you take the wand?" Harper asks her.

"Dammit! No! I forgot." Alex answers with disappointment.

"You had one thing to do. How could you forget?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Alex says, very serious.

Harper brings a smile on her face, for what came to her mind. "Really? What happened? Did you run into an old boyfriend?"

"EW, Harper! Gross!"

Okay, Harper doesn't understand, but she respects her friend and lets it go. After some struggle and a lot of complaining, she convinces Alex to go up to eat something for lunch. When they are coming out of the lair, Justin is serving tables. Alex freezes when she sees him, gawking at him.

"Alex, where have you been? It's your shift, you should be here. Max had to fill in for you." Justin says.

Alex just runs upstairs, and Harper goes after her.

"What was that all about?" Harper asks when finds her in the living room.

"Just let it go, okay?" Alex says going to the kitchen.

Harper finally notices it on her tone. She really is upset. Whatever Alex saw in the past, it was too much for her, too much to accept. So she stops bothering Alex about what happened and Alex has her lunch, silent the whole time. Harper has never seen her like that.

In the afternoon, Harper goes out with Zeke. She thought that, if Alex doesn't want to talk to anyone, leaving her alone would be the best for her. Worse time ever because now that Alex is alone she cannot stop thinking about what happened in the past. She tries to go on with her day, she even gets her things done, but she can't forget. Throughout the day, she does her best not to run into Justin, and when she can't avoid it, she just runs away. Justin gets a little suspicious, considering the wand thing, and even tries to run after her to find out what is happening, but Alex runs into her room and locks herself in.

There are lots of things Alex would not care about, but this one she has to understand. If this was a part of time they have forgotten, she has to know why and who did it, and especially who would be demented to make her and Justin a couple. That because someone did that to them, she would never do that to herself.

Alex refuses to believe that past she witnessed can be real. That could only happen if … okay, now she is getting somewhere. She just remembered the You-niverse mirror, where everybody believed everything she did was right, in an alternate universe inside the mirror. Maybe what she witnessed was someone's alternate universe where they were not siblings. And, as disgusting as it can be, they started dating. Well, if there is a person other than Justin who would know this answer is her father, maybe he can help her.