The four of them appeared in the lair, and Tootietootie immediately stepped away from the other three. "Well," he said, nodding to Justin and Alex, "I wish you the best of luck together, and the best for your baby."

"Thank you," they both said in return, holding hands and smiling. He smiled and nodded in return, then went on. "Alex, since you won the competition, your children will be eligible to be wizards, just as the three of you were, due to your father winning. "Normally, you'd have the option of giving up their eligibility in favor of another sibling's children, but any children Max might have should be eligible from their mother, since he won't be permitted to marry a mortal without giving up the powers." He paused and smiled, then went on, "And it appears that giving it up for Justin's children won't be an option, since they'll also be yours."

Alex was disconcerted for a moment by that, and after a second, said, "Uh… I hadn't really thought about that. Is there anything we have to do now?"

"No," Tootietootie replied, shaking his head. "You'll be contacted when your first child's powers start to come in. It's possible that your child might not even inherit the potential - although it's very unlikely, with both of you being wizards."

"All right," Justin said to that. "I can definitely do the training."

Alex gave him a look, said, "We can do the training. I do know a few things too, you know." She grinned, elbowed Justin slightly. "Enough to win the competition, at least." Justin didn't say anything to that, but simply hugged Alex for a moment.

Tootietootie turned to Jerry as Alex shifted to return the hug. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you again, Jerry," he said, offering a hand to him. "but until we meet again, farewell."

"Goodbye," Jerry said in return as they shook hands, and then Tootietootie waved his wand with a last nod to all of them, and was gone. The three of them stood silent for a moment, until Jerry spoke.

"Well… I guess I should go to talk to your mother. Kind of soften her up for you." He sighed and frowned as he started to turn, but Alex reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"Dad… honestly, you've never really been good at explaining things to Mom without getting her mad. It might be better if you don't."

Jerry grimaced, but nodded. "Yeah… I suppose you're right. So… who's going to talk to her?"

"I will," Alex and Justin both said at the same time. They looked at each other, then Justin said, "You're better at persuading people - but if Mom needs to be mad at somebody, I'd rather it be me than you." He squeezed her hand, said, "With you being pregnant, you'll want to be able to talk to her."

Alex shook her head. "I'm not letting you try to take all the blame," she said. "It's not like you did this all by yourself," she said, smiling. "I kind of cooperated."

"You did more than 'kind of' cooperate," Justin said with a grin, and started to move to kiss Alex when their father cleared his throat.

"Umm - I'm still not completely comfortable with this," Jerry said, grimacing a little, "so could you keep it to hugs and things like that around me right now?"

"Oh, right - sure. Sorry," Justin said, but Jerry waved it away.

"I'll leave you two alone for a minute. I can at least tell her that Max won, but he didn't come back with us. I'll leave the other stuff to you."

Alex nodded, and she and Justin waited a moment until their father had left the room, then kissed, with Alex stretching up as they wrapped their arms around each other. They held the kiss for several seconds, playing with each other's lips and tongues before breaking it to look into each other's eyes, smiling.

"I thought I'd lost you," Alex said, ruffling the hair on the back of Justin's head. She lowered herself down from tiptoe and relaxed against him, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I know I don't say it much, but I need you. Especially now."

Justin kept his arms around his sister, holding her almost uncomfortably tight, and swallowed before he spoke. "I - he -" He stopped and shook his head, lips smacking a little as he worked his mouth, not sure what to say.

Alex squeezed him in return. "It's okay. Say he. That - that Justin wasn't you. He wasn't anything like you."

"I remember it all, though," Justin said then. "Everything he did, everything he thought, everything he knew. It's all here in my head. He - he didn't love you. He didn't care at all about anyone but himself." He squeezed harder, enough to draw a noise from Alex, then loosened his grip. "Sorry. It's just... it's like some kind of slime, inside my head. Everything feels dirty. He was laughing inside, when he killed Max. At the end, he was ready to kill you. And -"

"Shh." Alex stretched up again, kissed Justin on the cheek. "It wasn't you. It was the spell. It's okay. I know you'd never do anything like that. You're my Justin, and you'd never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it."

He nodded to that, slowly, though the look on his face was still pained, and when he spoke, his voice was bitter. "I don't think Max believes that right now."

"Give him time. He remembers... that Justin killing him. And he doesn't know you as well as I do. And... if you have the memories of that other Justin," Alex said, realizing it as she was saying it, "he has memories about him, too. That's got to be confusing." She paused a moment, then said, "I went to the lair in 2008 to get the crystal ball I used to find where you were being born. He was there, and... he said something about knowing what you - what that Justin had done to me. I think -"

"He raped you," Justin said, closing his eyes. "I remember it." He turned his head upward, away from Alex, and she reached up, put her hands on both sides of his head, forcibly pulled it down and looked into his eyes.

"That wasn't you. And I don't remember it anyway. So don't beat yourself up about it. I love you, and you love me, and I know you would never hurt me. Okay?"

Justin nodded jerkily, closing his eyes, licked his lips and swallowed before he answered. "Okay. But... I don't think I want to play rough for a little while."

Alex smiled a little, gave her brother a soft kiss. "Sure," she said, then sighed. "I guess I need to get out there and talk to Mom before Dad breaks down and starts to try to talk to her about us." She lingered a few more seconds, holding onto Justin, then finally let go with a deep sigh. "Come on. Let's go out and face the music."

They went out of the lair, holding hands until they got to the stairs. There, Alex went first, frowning a little as a plan took shape in her mind about how to handle telling their mother. As she reached the living area, Alex consciously dropped the frown and put on a timid look.

"There you two are," Theresa said, coming over to them. She gave Justin a hug, then Alex. "Your father tells me you gave Max your powers," she said as she released Alex, "and that you have something you want to tell me yourself?"

Alex nodded in reply, suddenly finding it hard to speak. "I... can we talk about it alone, Mom? Please?" She bit her lip as she found that she didn't need to fake nervousness at all now.

Theresa gave Alex a curious frown, but nodded. "Of course, mija."

"We'll be downstairs," Justin said, and he and Jerry headed down the stairs, Justin casting a last look back at Alex as he did. As they left, Theresa and Alex moved to the couch and sat down.

"All right," Theresa said. "What do you want to tell me about that's so important that you gave up your wizard powers?"