9. Hello

JJ clung to Sydney's arm and observed Joe with large eyes.

Sydney smiled down on him and gently kissed his temple. "It's okay. It's my fault this is happening so late. You should've known him from birth."

"Um… hey." Joe meekly waved to JJ.

JJ became uncharacteristically quiet and remained attached to Sydney's arm.

"Mommy, I'm sleepy." Jade yawned and snuggled into Sydney's side. "Can we go home yet?"

"We'll be home before you know it, sweetie." Sydney kissed the top of Jade's head. "You can go ahead and go to sleep. I promise we'll go home soon."

Jade mumbled a soft reply and quickly fell asleep leaning on Sydney.

"So… you two obviously have a lot of talking to do. I'll just take Jade and leave you two alone for a little bit." Sydney began to stand up.

"No!" JJ and Joe shouted simultaneously.

Joe sat down in front of Sydney and Jade. "I think you should stay here, and you know, help break the ice a little?"

"I guess I could. Are you sure you're not still mad at me?" Sydney turned away and started to scratch her wrist.

"It's okay. I don't blame you for anything." Joe grabbed her hand to stop the scratching. He smiled at her and she smiled back. She opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly interrupted.

"Hey, JJ." Skyler waved at him as he and Anna joined them.

JJ grinned. "Hi, Uncle Sky."

"How have you been, kid?" Skyler ruffled JJ's hair and sat down next to him. Anna sat down next to Joe and they tightly hugged each other.

"You mean before all this? I've been good. You?"

"Well, your mom's been keeping me pretty busy lately." Skyler smirked at Sydney and she rolled her eyes in response.

Joe watched the exchange with a mix of emotions. He was hurt that Skyler knew Joe's son better than Joe did. They slipped into conversation so easily and behaved liked they knew each other for years, which they probably did. Joe felt jealous of their connection. He wanted that with JJ. After all, JJ was Joe's son, not Skyler's. Joe felt something touch his hand. He looked down to see Sydney's hand on top of his.

She smiled at him with calm eyes and softly kissed him. "Skyler's trying to help. Just listen."

"So how is pello-pila going?" Skyler leaned back against the wall and casually grinned at JJ.

"Great! We won our match last weekend and coach says that we could win the championship if we keep it up!" JJ bounced with excitement.

Joe gave Sydney a quizzical look and mouthed 'pello-pila' to her.

She leaned in to whisper in his ear. "It's a sport that's really popular at the Warp Academy. It's sort of like soccer combined with dodgeball. It's very magic heavy, but at JJ's level it's not so intense."

Joe was almost too engrossed in figuring out what a sport consisting of a combination of soccer and dodgeball would look like to pay attention to the conversation. He snapped back to reality at the mention of magic.

"Learn any cool, new magic tricks lately?" Skyler watched Joe out of the corner of his eye with a bemused grin on his face.

"Well… I was practicing this thing where I could manipulate the time currents," JJ looked down at his hands, "but it wasn't working out very well. I was planning on practicing it during my next training lesson."

"You've already started training, huh?" Skyler glanced at Sydney with a concerned expression on his face.

"Trust me, Nicole and I will be having a long chat about that." Sydney scowled.

JJ looked like he wanted to say something, but decided against it. "What if you showed me how to do it, mom? You were always so awesome with this kind of stuff. We don't really have anything else to do while we're here."

Sydney frowned and caressed JJ's head. "I really shouldn't, JJ. This place is bad enough for you. You need to conserve your energy, not spend it."

JJ sighed and looked away. "Okay."

"He's right though. We have a lot of free time. We should discuss a plan of action." Skyler looked around the cell. It was very dark and hard to see. It smelled like death. All the walls were cracked and there was so much grime on the ground that you couldn't see the floor.

"How much exploring have you done, Anna?"

"Not much. I was too busy watching over Jade."

"There might be a hidden secret somewhere that could get us out of here. We'd still have to figure out a way to get home, but at least it's a start." Skyler stood up. "Joe, help me look around?"

Joe couldn't think of any reason to say no, so he got up and began to walk around with Skyler.

"I want to help too." JJ moved to get up, but ended up yawning instead.

"Oh no, you don't." Sydney pulled him back over. "You need your sleep."

"But I want to help. I can do it," JJ pleaded with her.

"I know you can. That's not the issue. You're clearly tired. Don't strain yourself. Get some rest." Sydney wrapped her arm around him.

"Fine." JJ leaned his head on Sydney's shoulder and was soon sleeping.


"He's a lot like you," Skyler spoke as if this was a normal conversation for them. They were now across the room from the girls and JJ. "I mean, JJ stands for Joe Junior. If you were the same age, you could pass as twins. He likes sports and he's very in to magic. Though I think that's because he's trying to impress Sydney. JJ is a great kid, but he can be a bit of a mama's boy."

"Magic, huh? Maybe I can show him a few tricks." Joe smiled at the thought.

Skyler chuckled. "I mean actual magic. He's a god, Joe. Your card tricks may amuse him, but he has actual powers. He took after Sydney in that department. He has a lot of her fiery spirit in him."

"Oh."

He took after you too. You have just as much magic inside you and he does.

Joe jumped and spun around, expecting Isis to be standing behind him or something.

"You okay?" Skyler gave him a curious look.

"Yeah, fine. I thought I heard something." He went back to examining the cell.

Ignoring me will not help, Joseph.

"Would you just go away?" Joe growled.

"Sorry?" Skyler stared at him in confusion. "What did you just say?"

"Nothing." Joe blushed and turned away before Skyler could ask more questions.

You need to prepare yourself. He's coming for you.

"Prepare myself for what?" Joe thought to Isis. "It'd be nice if you could be direct with me for once."

Your crossroads.

Oh, that. Joe sighed. The decision he was going to make that could destroy the world or save it from a destructive end. He felt a heavy weight on his shoulders. This wasn't something he had time to deal with at the moment. His main priority was to get his family home safe.

You can't avoid fate, my child.


"Thank you, by the way." Sydney smiled at Anna.

Anna blinked. "For what?"

"For taking care of Jade while we were searching for you guys. I know she can be a bit of a handful." Sydney watched Jade as she peacefully slept beside her. "Motherhood is not the easiest job in the world."

"It's no problem. Of course I would take care of her. She's my niece, I love her. It was just like extreme babysitting." Anna grinned. She watched Jade and JJ sleeping on Sydney. "So, what's it like?"

"What? Being a mom?" Sydney smiled down at her children. "It's exhausting, disgusting, challenging, frustrating, terrifying, and chaotic."

"Oh." Anna nervously put a hand on her stomach.

"But it is also wonderful, magical, beautiful, elating, thrilling, and the most amazing experience you will ever have in your lifetime." Sydney kissed the top of JJ and Jade's heads and then turned to Anna. "I wouldn't change a thing. Why? I would recommend being married for a few years before you and Sky have children together. It definitely makes things easier."

"Um… we don't exactly have a choice." Anna bit her lip.

"What are you talking about?" Sydney studied Anna and glanced down at her stomach. "Oh, Anna."

"Don't tell Skyler! I haven't had a chance to tell him yet, but I will, I promise." Anna wrapped her arms around herself. "I just have to figure out how first."

Sydney ran a hand down her face. "It's not Sky I'm worried about, but you better tell him soon. Trust me on that. You do realize I won't be able to stop Joe from killing him when he finds out? There will be nothing I can do to prevent that."

"He won't kill Skyler… will he?" Anna watched her brother search around the cell with her fiancé. "Oh, no. He's going to get the wrong idea. This isn't all Skyler's fault. I swear we waited until we were engaged to even start… you know."

Sydney shook her head. "I doubt that's going to help."

Anna sighed, "I'm too young to be a widow."


A/N - Sorry for the short and mostly uneventful chapter, but this is more of a set-up for the end. There's about 3-4 chapters left in this.

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