"Huh? Why?" Justin asked, clearly dumbfounded by the revelation. "If they could save a fellow Werewolf or Vampire, why would the two races forbid it?"
"Simple," Mrs. Greyback answered. "The hatred between our two races is so deep that our leaders would rather lose one of their own than let an enemy of theirs live. And the problem is if we were to save Juliet and if the Van Heusen's were to save Mason; then the leaders of the two races would be able to sense it and would kill all 6 of us."
"Well that's stupid," Alex muttered angrily. She was really hoping that they could get this over and done with quickly, so while the others stood there she brainstormed some ideas; literally. "New plan!" Alex exclaimed. "For now we'll focus on rescuing the two. After that we'll deal with the transformations."
"And how do you plan to do that?" Mrs. Van Heusen asked.
"I've got a couple of ideas in mind but it will be difficult at best," the Chosen muttered. "I'll have to see Master Eraqus about it."
The 4 nodded and after saying goodbye they went their separate ways.
"So do you really have a new plan or are you just saying that?" Justin asked his sister.
Alex smirked and winked playfully. "Well you'll just have wait to find out, won't you?"
ȸ
"Well? Say something."
"What do you want me to say?"
"Oh I don't know! Maybe you can say something like 'excellent plan Miss Russo! Very well thought out! It will most definitely work, so as a reward I shall make you head of the Wizard World' or something."
"Something."
"Now that's just rude!" the girl fumed. Alex Russo was currently in the Wizard World largest/only Citadel which was where the members of the Council resided. The place wasn't that big as the Council was only around 20 people and they were just old and worn bones hidden by wrinkly skin that would make any beautician wince in horror. There were a few servants here and there but not many of them actually lived in the citadel. Anyway, Alex was Master Eraqus' study – a rare privilege apparently – and was discussing her plan to save Mason and Juliet with him.
"So let me get this straight. You and Justin will go into the Kloden Wildwood and you will cast that tracking spell you wrote. Then you will freeze them and transport them to your home where you will invoke the power of previous chosen ones to reverse the curse?"
"Yeah."
"You do know that it only takes one chosen and a simple spell right?"
"…."
"Miss Russo?"
"WHAT!" Alex screamed, startling the old man. "Are you effing kidding me?"
"You didn't know?"
"Do I look like I knew? If I did I wouldn't have spent all those nights without sleep working on the spell. Grrr…"
Master Eraqus backed away slowly, he didn't want to be on the receiving end of a female chosen's rampage. The last time he was he thought he'd never be able to have kids. Not that he ever had anyone willing to carry said kids or even be with him at all. There was the occasional hag but he always refused. They tended to be too clingy – especially since the wanted to put him and a cauldron and boil him but that's not really the point. The point was that Chosen Women were Hell Incarnate when they were mad.
"What's the spell?" she demanded.
"I'll email it to you by wand," he replied breathing in relief when she zapped herself out. He looked out the window and sure enough a storm was brewing. Master Eraqus frowned and concentrated, willing away the storm that Alex's anger had summoned, and when he was done he frowned deeply. "I'm beginning to think she has too much power under her control, that storm took far too much for me to dispel. What do you think, Crumbs?"
"Personally I think she has proven herself capable of controlling her power. You can't put her at fault when she isn't aware of the extent of her powers," Professor Crumbs replied from his position at the doorway.
"I suppose you're right but I can't help but worry. The power she possess has only begun to awaken yet she is almost as powerful as me, maybe even more."
"Can't you look into the future and see what will happen next?" Crumbs asked casually, not expecting Eraqus to look at him with great alarm clearly shown on his ancient face.
"How do you know about that?" he demanded. "No one knows about that ability of the Chosen!"
Professor Crumbs frowned. "Crumbs didn't know about that? What a shame. And here I thought I was doing great at impersonating him."
Before the Ancient Chosen could even react the impersonator took out his wand and morphed into a shrouded figure. "I've waited an eternity for this chance and thanks to that wretched Russo it is finally here! SHE will be pleased."
"Who are you?" Eraqus demanded, both curious and frightened as it must have took great power for this person to shield his true identity from a Chosen. And now he was going on about a chance to do something and how ironic it was that it was 'Russo' was the one to enable his revenge against her. Master Eraqus stopped following the conversation after that since the guy started rambling about beards and how cool and all powerful they would make him look and as the lunatic paced around the room, Master Eraqus discreetly moved his wand over and flashed himself into safety. The last thing he heard before the standard white light engulfed him was "Dammit! He got away!"
ȸ
"You ready?" Justin asked softly as he walked out onto the terrace to join his sister.
"Yeah I guess so," she replied. "It's just, I feel like I'm walking in circles, like no matter what I do I'm going to fail just because I'm not good enough."
"What makes you think that?" he asked.
"Everything!" She exclaimed. "So far everything I've done has been out of pure instinct. I defeated that huge white monster without even knowing what I was doing! I was ready to head into the wilds with untested spells and I was going to do a whole ritual that was not only unnecessary but would probably have done more harm than good!"
"What do you mean more harm than good?"
"I meant exactly what I said! Eraqus said that one chosen and a simple spell was enough but I was ready to invoke the power of who knows how many Chosen. Can you imagine was damage that much energy would have caused; to both Mason and I? And the rest of the city – not excluding you guys?"
"I'm not sure I really get it," Justin admitted. "You only would have invoked the energy needed , right? And if you needed just one chosen then you wouldn't have invoked any energy at all."
"What do you know," his sister screamed. "I'm the freaking Chosen One here! I'm the more powerful wizard! You are just a useless idiot!"
Justin's eyes widened dramatically his pupils seemingly getting brighter in realization. The tall teenager then smirked, knowing he reason behind his sisters behavior. "You're afraid," he stated. "You're afraid that things will go wrong, so instead of building your hopes up and failing, you'd rather not try at all and not face failure, isn't that right?"
The emotionless loom he received was answer enough.
"Come on Alex," he told her, pleading for her not to give up and bring the light back into their lives. "You can do this! You're strong; brave; smart. You may think you're only a failure but you're not. You're the strongest person I know and I think you proved that when you won the wizard competition when we were in the Caribbean."
"So I'm the best of a bunch of losers… greaaat…"
"…"
Feeling a strange prickling sensation close to her neck, yet not daring to turn around, Ales whispered a summoning spell so quietly that you would not have been able to hear it even if you were pressed up right against her with your ear right next to her mouth.
Within moments a large mirror appeared ahead of Alex and she caught Justin's shocked form remove its hands from their position next to her neck.
"Justin, would you care to explain why you were trying to choke me?"
"I wasn't actually going to choke you," he mumbled knowing what was to come next.
Alex sneered, turning around to face her brother and holding a finger in front of him – a simple gesture that made him shiver in fear.
"Please don't," he begged.
"I'm sorry but it's the only way you'll ever learn," she answered not looking sorry at all.
ȸ
5 minutes later Justin found himself hanging from a newly erected pole in the middle of Waverly Place. Every so often people would stop to gawk and laugh at his embarrassing situation befor snapping a photo and moving on. Even going to prom with a she male as his date wasn't as embarrassing as this – especially since quite a number of guys tried to flirt with his date do they couldn't really make fun of him for that.
But at least Alex was feeling better now. Justin snickered, thinking of his sister. She'd changed so much in the past week but no matter what, being petty and vindictive would always cheer Alex up, the girl was just too evil for her own good.
ȸ
Meanwhile, while Alex was in her room cackling evilly and Justin was hanging from a large pole somewhere in his underwear, Max Russo took the time to do something that happened just as frequently as the discovery of a new Chosen One. He thought. He thought of all the changes in his family recently, he thought of his sisters new status and he thought of what a relief it was that he wouldn't lose his powers in the competition. Max thought of the friendly and brotherly Mason and the sweet and charming Juliet – and he thought of their disappearance as well as the mission to rescue them. The teen though of how small he felt next to his siblings – there was the All Powerful Chosen Alex and the intelligent, studious and lovable Justin, while he was the dorky, stupid Russo that people shied away from thinking him to be a pathetic freak.
"It doesn't have to be that way, you know."
Max was distracted from his musings by a mysterious voice. And it wasn't the lack of a face or body that made the voice mysterious but the sound of it. Max felt warmth and comfort radiating from it, and at the same time he felt hatred and rage. When he closed his eyes he saw bright vibrant lights on one side and opposing these radiant beautiful lights here was a storm of black red and dark purple and blue. The colours of evil, rage and darkness.
"I can help you be the person you desire, if you help me."
Max stammered, "Um… yeah; sure! I'll do anything you want just make me smart like justin and strong like Alex."
"I was hoping you'd say that."
All of a sudden a black cloud appeared overhead and was absorbed by Max, turning his eyes red and his hair and complexion slightly darker. "Don't worry Max, I'll give you everything you want – just as soon as I destroy your sister!"
Well I hope you enjoyed that! Considering it was a rushed piece of work. Most of it was done today, but hopefully it's not too bad.
Don't forget to review!
:D
