10

Justin woke with a start sweating and screaming in bed. His bed sheets were tangled and wrapped tightly around him as if he had been mummified. He was hanging off the bed with his arm sticking out over the floor; upon realizing where he was, he fought and kicked to free himself. Scrambling to his feet distressed and hysterical, he stumbled a bit and rushed to get to his feet, then staggering around in the dark as his father and mother came to find him. Jerry looked at him and squeezed him tight realizing he had did it!!!

"Dad… Dad…" Justin was frantic and panic-stricken. "There was a dream. There was a…"

"Justin…" Jerry had never been so proud. The loft was restored, the shop was back and the family back together. "When you saved your sister, you broke the spell. It's the other night again! It's over!"

"But it was so real!"

"Justin, it was a simple wish spell powered by the Dreamscape…" Jerry was glad to have his family back. "That's why it seemed so powerful. You did it! You saved your…"

Alex started screaming! Theresa turned around and rushed to her, just barely missing Max in the hallway. With Jerry and Justin behind her, she rushed to Alex's room, threw open the door and hurried to comfort her daughter. Screaming her head off, Alex was experiencing night terrors. Pulled out of the dream too violently, her mind was not back yet. She was still partially there and conscious at the same time. The reality shock left her confused and out of control. Upon seeing Justin, Harper in her long nightgown rushed to hug him from after her nightmare.

"Where am I?!!" Alex's eyes were full of tears. "What happened? Who am I?!!" She was going through dream withdrawal.

"Lexie, you're home!" Theresa tried to calm her.

"Alex!!" Jerry tried to help her as he pulled her close. "Baby, you're home!! You're okay!!!"

"I don't know you, people!!!" Alex pushed her parents away, jumped out of bed in her t-shirt and sweat pants and backed in terror from these people watching her. "My name is Hannah Montana!!!" She had a Tennessee accent. "I don't live here!!!"

"Jerry, what's going on here?" Theresa didn't know what to do as she looked to her husband the wizard for guidance. Justin and Harper watched in shock. Max couldn't believe what she had said.

"We didn't separate them fast enough!!!" Tears falling down her face, Jerry distraughtly pulled his hand back over his head. "Her memories are still mixed up with Hannah's." He looked to his daughter. "Alex, honey, it's me! I'm your father. You got to…" He saw movement beyond the edge of the bed. Someone was on the floor, lifting herself up to her feet by the bed… Brushing her long blonde hair back, Hannah noticed Alex's wand on the nightstand, hitting it so it flew up into the air and then grabbing it from over her head.

"No…" Jerry backed up as she came closer. "This is impossible. You can't be here." He watched as Hannah came closer to him holding Alex's wand on him, looking around the room confused and reached out to Alex, grabbing and pulling her close, taking her hostage at the tip of the wand to her throat.

"Dad…" Justin defended his mother and Harper as the family backed from the shade of the pop star. "What's happened? I still don't have my wizard powers!!!"

"She still has them, Justin…" Jerry revealed unsure what to do. "Along with Alex's and Max's…" He looked to Hannah holding Alex captive. Although Miley Stewart was asleep on the West Coast, her dream counterpart was in Alex's room on the East Coast. To her, this was all still just a dream. In another few hours, she'd be waking up, and she was still going to be a wizard when she woke up.

"Hey, Alex…." She whispered to the middle Russo daughter, holding Alex in front of her as a shield. "Missed you at the concert. Being Hannah is a lot of fun, right?"

Alex nodded her head ready to be her again.

"If we're going to do it again, you're going to have to be me again."

"Okay…"

"Jerry…" Theresa looked to her husband as they were backed into the hall. "Do something!!!"

"There's nothing I can do…" Jerry realized Hannah was going to rejoin with his daughter. "She's got the power. She's got the kids' wizard powers!!"

"Uh, dad?" Max saw a ball of light coming up the stairs from the loft. It was covered in a thick ethereal mist and as it came closer, Max saw the outline of a beautiful woman around it become clearer and more defined. The spirit of Susan Stewart was still near them. Pulling upon the powerful energies of this place left behind by the residue of countless spells, the ectoplasm made her look nearly alive once more. She crossed between Jerry and Theresa, before Harper clutching Justin and paused before her daughter holding Alex captive.

"Momma?"

"Miley Ray Stewart!" Susan spoke upset with her daughter. "I am so ashamed of you! You let that girl go and let her have her powers back. I raised you to be better than that!!!"

"But momma…" Hannah held on to Alex by the throat in front of her in the hall. "I'm a wizard now. I can bring you back to life now. I got so many cool powers. You won't believe what I can…"

"Hush your mouth!" Susan shook her finger at her daughter. "How would you explain to your daddy and Jackson me suddenly being alive much less all the people who attended my funeral? I raised you better than this, baby girl! Now, you let Alex go and return home."

"But, momma…" Hannah let Alex go to rush to her father's loving embrace. Father and daughter were reunited.

"But nothing, Miley!!!" Susan's spirit was slowly fading away as she tried to stay in the realm of the living. "Now, you go on home now…"

"But momma…" Hannah's dream form was fading away as the wand fell from her fingers. "I miss you so much…." She evaporated into nothing as Alex picked up her wand from where it had landed. A deep breath, she looked to her father with a light smile and then to Justin, her mother, Harper and Max. Her memories and true identity were returning. Twirling her wand over her head, her t-shirt faded and broke apart into a blouse, her sweatpants merged into a skirt and dark tights extended down her legs.

"I'm back!!!" She grinned with her identity back. Her parents hugged her tightly. Justin hugged her too and swung his wand to his room to make his action figures come to life and start partying. On the shelf over his desk, three-inch tall Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon Five and Battlestar Galactica figures were dancing and celebrating. Max tried to mystically summon a midnight snack and got hit in the face with a cream pie. Harper hurried to hug Alex, but things were not as joyous everywhere. On the West Coast, Miley woke from her dream bathed in the moonlight entering her room, the sound of the distant surf and sea birds ringing over the beach house. Her eyes were full of tears. Weeping distraughtly, she sank her head into the pillow buried under long locks of brown hair and cried her eyes out. Her heart was pouring with emotion, her eyes translucent in the dimmed night as she mourned her mother. Her chest bawled several times trying to stop before she felt someone's hand stroking her back. Thinking her mother was back, Miley spun round to see her.

"You!!!" It was Alex sitting at the edge of her bed in the dark room. "You're real?!"

"Yeah…" Alex shed a tear and sniffed a bit. "I'm sorry about your mom."

"I miss her so much…." Miley was slow to forget her dream. "I mean… I never realized just how much until I was you and shared your mom." She paused a second wondering if she had any magic powers left. "You're a wizard?"

Alex nodded a bit secretly.

"Uh… you know, now that you have your magic back again, could you…."

"I'm not that powerful a wizard." Alex tried to be sensitive. "Much less a very good one…" She confessed with an embarrassed look away.

"So, I guess everything is back to as it was…" Miley sniffed a bit. "Oliver and Lily are back together, you got your powers back, Lily isn't in love with Jackson… Oliver won't recall being in love with me, will he?"

"No…" Alex revealed. "It will just be a dream to them that they will quickly forget, but you still might have to deal with Michayla…"

"Alex…" Miley sat up a bit more in bed, looked for her dad and turned back to Alex. "It is Alex, isn't it? Is there anything you can do about…"

"Michayla?" Alex sounded. "To tell the truth, I'm not crazy about her myself. She looks like someone I know and it creeps me out!" She giggled a bit with Miley as if they were sisters. "Look, it may be three o'clock here, but it's eight in the morning on the East Coast, and I've got to be getting to school soon. Um, you can keep my secret about me being a wizard, right?"

"If you keep my secret about being Hannah Montana…"

"Deal!" They shook hands then hugged as friends.

"I so loved being a wizard!" Miley grinned a bit.

"And I so loved being a pop star!!!" Alex hid a little smirk.

END