"Alex, come out of the lair!" Alex shuffles on the brown couch in despair, reaching for her wand which was on the further end of the table. She was in no mood to talk to anyone, and especially not her brother since she tried consoling him about the same thing a little over an hour ago.

"It's open." Her voice cracks as she strains herself to speak, dried mascara caked over her flushed cheeks as her brother checks up on her.

"Mom and dad got stuck in a traffic jam. They won't be home for a couple of hours. Mom told me to bring you some of her soup, she left me the recipe so I could make it in case of extreme emergencies." Alex can't even force herself to smile, she finds that when she's sad and she tries to fake her emotions, it just makes her even more depressed in the long run.

"I'm not hungry."

"Alex, you need to eat something. Did you at least drink some water?" She blows her nose into a tissue in response, turning away from her brother on the big brown chair that her father adored. At this point she'd probably insult him, but she was far too hurt to even think of hurting someone else's feelings. It was like the last time all over again, when Alex thought he was cheating on her but he was trying to hide the fact that he was a werewolf.

As she drifts off to dreamland and replays the memory in her head, Justin kept blabbing on and on about staying hydrated after lacrimation and a flaring hypothalamus and explosions, and she knew she was definitely tuning him out.

"Alex, I'm breaking up with you." Alex felt her heart shatter into two. It was worse than last time because Mason sounded like he really did want to break up with her.

"Why? Give me one good reason why we should break up." Mason folded his arms close to his chest as he stood as far away as possible from Alex.

"I'm cheating on you. The reason why I was so dodgy with you earlier is because she called. The other girl." Alex's jaw hangs open. Without thinking, she sputters, "You dog!" Mason keeps his mouth shut as Alex proceeds to curse him out, saying things that she knows she'd regret if she were to ever get back together with him in the future. Yet, here she is, with full confidence she can say she will never ever date Mason Greyback again, even if he went to the ends of the Earth to win her back again.

"I didn't want to tell you sooner but this other girl...she might be pregnant. I might be a father. I think it's best if we stay together just for the baby-"

"Get away from her." Justin's angry voice booms through the room as he opens the door, holding his wand in a fighting stance, the way that Wizards in combat are trained to hold their wands, and he protectively stands in front of his sister, voice laced with pure hatred for the man that crushed her hopes for their future.

"Justin, I—"

"I knew there was something off about you the moment you proclaimed your love for Juliet in your wolf form. All that stuff you told Max about 'werewolf instincts' or 'muscle memory' was just bullshit, wasn't it?" Mason hangs his head low as Justin reveals the truth to Alex.

"This entire time you had another girl? You were cheating on me during our entire relationship?" She sounds shocked, naturally, and hurt. Mason really screwed up this time.

"Not really. She was more of an ex-girlfriend but we had an on-again, off-again relationship? It was complicated. She's a werewolf, same as me, we had a passion that lasted for 2 centuries. When I met you, I made sure to tell her it was over. Then one day when I was having dinner with my parents they invited her over and then we discovered that there was still some kind of spark between us? It's very confusing."

"It doesn't sound very 'complicated' at all. You should have broken things off with Alex the moment you realized you had feelings for another girl, or you could've been honest and told her about her the moment you started dating. Going behind her back, cheating on her—It sounds so unlike you, Mason." Alex suddenly puts her hand over Justin's arm, forcing him to lower the wand as he protects his sister with his body.

"Yeah, but it could be part of his other side," Alex walks over to the werewolf, eyeing her brother to make sure he doesn't do anything rash before she continues, "The side of you that I witnessed during the Wizard of the Year ceremony, could that by any chance be responsible for this?" She gestures to him, as if to show that his physical being was controlled by a wolfish personality.

"Can't say for sure. I've had many aliases, many names in the past, but one thing I do know is that I really, really want this family. As much as I would have loved a future with you, I need to go to her. She needs me now, I'm sure you'll find someone better. You're young, pretty, and absolutely delightful. I enjoyed being your boyfriend, Alex Russo."

"Keep her name out of your mouth." Justin threatens him with the wand as Alex shakes her head in disbelief.

"Stay safe, and I guess you were right about one thing." Alex gives him a tight hug and a pat on the back.

"What?" Her lips curl into a mischievous smile as she prances back behind Justin.

"I do deserve better." With a wave of his wand, Mason dissipates. Unfortunately, Justin teleported him back home, and he was left with a shaking Alex. He's never seen his sister react like this in the past. She's been through some bad breakups, but never anything that affects her physically. He had to make sure she got rest, and plenty of water.

"...and that's the history of purified water. Oh, look at that, it's midnight. We should probably get to bed." Alex snaps herself out of her daze as Justin finishes his uninteresting Ted Talk about water. He teleports them to his room, and he shakes his head when he realizes that he brought his sister along with him instead of teleporting her back to her own room.

"Justin, can I sleep with you?"

"Sure, but I've gotta warn you, this room is pretty creepy at night."

"It is night."

"Whatever, goodnight." They keep a pillow between them like how they did when they were kids and they had to share one room when their grandparents used to live with them and Max needed his own room since he was a baby.

Alex can't believe that Justin still wears pajamas to bed when regular teenage boys wear boxers or sleep naked. She's thankful that he doesn't do the latter and opts for the more kid-friendly stuff. She herself sleeps in a faded top and sweatpants when the night is young. She really hates staying up too late but also waking up early.

When they wake up, they're tangled in each other's embrace, Alex's forehead pressed against Justin's warm chest, and he doesn't miss how she smirks as she inhales his scent, practically killing him with her close proximity.

The morning is quiet, and the atmosphere is far too calming for Harper's liking. She immediately points it out as the young adults pass around the carton of milk without hurling an insult at each other, or tease each other like they do everyday. She watches as her best friend eats her breakfast in utter silence.

"Hey Justin, is everything okay?" He shrugs, his normally bright eyes dull as he stares at Harper deep in thought.

"Juliet broke up with me." He rubs his nose, his spoon clattering into the bowl as he rushes to the pot of boiling tea.

"I'm sorry. Do you know what's going on with Alex?" She asks, her candy cane hat distracting Justin from answering her clearly. "Justin?" He re-engages himself, shaking his head as he pours some cereal into the bowl of milk.

"Mason broke up with her. Don't ask her about it, I was there when it happened and I almost attacked the guy." Harper gasps, stealing a glance at her best friend as Justin scratches his ear, and he avoids the gaze of his equally broken-hearted sister.

"It's okay, Harper. If you want to ask me about Mason, go ahead." She picks her tooth with her finger, placing the empty bowl in the sink before sitting down on the ugly orange couch that they've had for so long.

"Why did you break up?" The sound of breaking glass from the kitchen surprised Alex and Harper, the two girls finding that Justin had just shattered one of their family mugs.

"Sorry, I can't do this. I can't see you like this." His breath is shaky and uneven, it's clear that he's about to burst into tears at any moment. Alex hated seeing him like this even more.

He looked ready to combust.

"Justin, what are you doing?" He holds up his wand as his sister jumps to her feet, rushing after him.

"I'm gonna destroy that fucker."

"Justin! No." Alex gasps as her brother disappears in a flash, and she quickly gets her own wand out of her boot as Harper grabs a croissant from the fruit bowl.

"There you are. Hey, Mason!" He suddenly stops in his tracks when he sees who he's with. "Juliet? What are you doing here...with him?" Justin gasps when he sees a familiar necklace around her neck, and it was glowing bright red.

"Justin, never thought I'd run into you here." Justin looks around the area for a moment, realizing that he was somewhere he'd never been before. It looks like his hatred towards Mason really did bring him to the correct location.

"Justin!" Alex calls out to her brother, just as she appears in front of him, right in front of the couple who lied to them both. "Oh my god. You're...you guys were...Justin." She nearly faints but her brother is there to catch her, and Harper observes the scene from a bench nearby with a croissant in hand.

"Juliet is in love with Mason, who put the necklace on her. He bought the same exact necklace for Juliet which he bought for you and seeing as they are together when Mason told you he has a werewolf girlfriend, we can assume that they've been seeing each other behind our backs for a while now." Justin sounded more angry than depressed, even though Alex saw that side of her brother yesterday. She knew he was hurting and the only way how she knew the pain would go away was if she moved on. That was before she found out he was cheating on her with her brother's girlfriend, of course.

What was even worse about this entire situation was that it was like the first time they came to Transylvania and Mason professed his love for Juliet because of "wolf impulse." Justin was beginning to question the very existence of such a thing, since it seemed to him like Mason was very much in love with Juliet and she returned those feelings. The same feelings she told she no longer had for Mason. She told him that she chose him. Clearly, she wasn't fully over him.

"I changed my mind about you, Mason," The werewolf backs away, trying to avoid confrontation as the wizard challenges him. "I guess I want to destroy you after all." Alex doesn't even make an attempt to stop Justin, who shoots out a spark of magic from his wand as his ex-girlfriend backs away.

"Ow, watch it, clump nugget. It took you long enough to figure it out, I've had this necklace for months." Juliet spits as Justin continues zapping at their feet, making them move further back. He wasn't blind, he could see the cliff that was a few hundred feet behind them. He was serious about destroying them but not killing them.

For werewolves, the healing process takes minutes. Vampires can fly, and since Juliet has her powers back, she can probably catch Mason and fly far away. He knows these two were in no real danger, but he wanted to see them at least fall off the edge of a cliff. He takes a mental note on cutting down how much time he spent with Alex during the day, seeing as it was starting to affect him and making him a very violent person.

"Here, take your stupid necklace and leave. I hate you for breaking my heart, and I hate you for breaking my brother!" Alex shoves Juliet off the edge of the cliff, earning a gasp from Mason and a shriek from Harper. Since Harper didn't know any better, she really thought her best friend just killed someone.

Justin gets a hold of Mason, his hand tightly fastened around his neck and his wand aimed at his forehead. Alex trudges towards them, scowling at him as he growls at her in his half-wolf form. Alex can't believe she actually went out with this monster. She didn't judge him because his werewolf form made him look like a beast, she went out with him because she fell in love with who he was on the inside. There was a time when she took pity on him, changed herself so that she could please his parents, even forgave him for eating her last boyfriend! Yet, the Mason that stood before her is a true monster, who cheated on her and couldn't even bother to tell her the truth about the girl he was cheating with. "You know what, we should take him somewhere that dogs hate to go, just to spite him." Justin grits his teeth, simply pressing the tip of his wand deeper into Mason's forehead.

"Or, I could just wipe his memory completely and let him figure out this wolf stuff from scratch." Alex shrugs at her brother as he makes the suggestion, making Justin scratch his head in thought. She wanted something painful and quick.

"Throw him off the edge of the cliff, Justin. He did steal your girlfriend, after all."

"This is for Alex, you piece of garbage!" He launches Mason off the edge of the cliff, surprising everyone as he chuckles afterwards, hearing him scream all the way to the bottom. When Alex pushed Juliet, she stayed quiet. She could already fly, so it was no surprise when the two of them reappeared a few minutes later, flying towards the bed of trees further down the cliff.

"You people are heartless!" Harper shrieks as the Russo siblings high five and share a hug.

"They cheated first!" They exclaim in sync, getting along surprisingly well despite the shit they just went through together. Harper thought that they would at least try deflecting the blame onto each other but at this point, they couldn't even defend their exes. They were bamboozled, hard.

When the three arrived back home, Max, Teresa, and Jerry were sitting on the couch, minding their own business. Jerry of course, ends up tossing his popcorn bowl up in the air after seeing his oldest kids and Harper appear out of thin air. He still wasn't used to Alex's new and improved powers since she was now the family wizard and instead of taking a fraction of a second to teleport somewhere, she teleports much quickly, even faster than the blink of an eye, like half a blink of an eye.

"What did I say about magic in the living room?" Theresa warns Alex as she chuckles nervously, much high-spirited compared to the day before.

"Guys, can I have a word with you on the terrace?" Jerry calls them out for a discussion as they share equal looks of discomfort. They didn't like talking to their father about personal stuff, that was more of a Justin and Alex thing. "I know that you just got out of serious relationships but it's unhealthy for siblings your age to hang out and get along so well. I know what your mother says about sticking together and getting along, but it couldn't happen at a worse time. Listen, you might not like what I have to say but I'm afraid that if I don't say it, things will take a dark turn." Alex looks at her father with concern as Jerry sweats from standing in place. That's how she knows it's serious, the pit stains say it all.

"Dad, you're scaring me. What's wrong?" Jerry clenches his jaw, looking between his beloved son and daughter, unable to bring himself to tell the truth.

"In the Wizard World, it's common for siblings to fall in love and even get married. Since Wizards are technically not even humans, there's a low chance of them having Children with deformities. For thousands of years, Wizard siblings have produced offspring and many of them failed to live up to expectations of their Wizard parents. The thing about Children with their parents being from the same Wizard family is that they directly inherit the power of a full wizard. They're incredibly unstable and thus, the magic council decided to create a law that stopped such a thing from happening. So if two siblings were to get married, they wouldn't be allowed to reproduce."

"Okay, that's weird but what does that have to do with us?" Alex played dumb because she knew what direction this was heading.

"The law didn't stop everyone. Eventually, Professor Crumbs had to use a time travel spell and create the law long before the incest-marriages started being acceptable in the wizarding world. It didn't work, though, as the siblings that fell in love in the alternate timeline somehow found their way back to each other again. They couldn't get married and have children, but their relationship was of that nature. All of those couples are miserable because of that," Jerry looked between the siblings as Justin and Alex stared at him in anticipation.

"I'm afraid you'll end up the way I didn't want you to. So I'll just ask, Justin, do you love your sister?"

Alex waits for her brother to answer, noting how flustered he looked as he was put on the spot.

"Of course I do, she's my sister. What did you want me to say, dad?" Alex smirks as she glances at her brother out of the corner of her eye. She knew Justin well, and that he was beating around the bush simply because his emotions were too complicated to explain.

"Alex, are you in love with Justin?" She shrugs as her father asks her in a serious tone, obviously wanting an answer. "What are you two doing? Stop playing around, this is serious. If either of you have romantic feelings for each other, come to me first, alright?"

The Russo siblings awkwardly shuffle around their father as he sternly speaks to them. Justin knew this had something to do with the prophecy, and of what it clearly said the eldest wizard siblings having to do something forbidden to spur a revolution of sorts. Nothing like the rebellion, of course, but more like something that will turn the Wizard World upside down.

Justin pulls Alex aside to speak to her in private, away from their parents as they were still in the loft and well within earshot of them.

"Justin, what dad said about incest...do you think it has anything to do with the prophecy?" Justin rubs his temples, clacking his teeth together and racking his brain for some answers.

"I think it has something to do with the last line, "Eldest siblings who shall not be named, the ones who partake in what is forbidden must come to a decision, for there was a reason greater that the powers were granted to two and not one," Who are the only wizards in history from the same family, siblings in fact, who finished the Wizard competition but got to keep their powers despite having named a winner? It was us, Alex. I'm pretty sure this prophecy is about us. As much as I hate to admit it, we're the only ones who match the criteria of the prophecy, Max still has those mummy eyes stored away in a glass container, and we'd be lying to ourselves if we said there was nothing between us." Alex jumps up, immediately going into one of her defense modes.

"Ew, how could you say that?! You're my brother and we're supposed to fight and hate each other but stick together when things get tough. You get me out of trouble and give really good life advice. If you tell me that you're in love with me, we're done Justin. There's no way I'm letting some stupid prophecy decide what I do with my life." Alex puts her foot down, disgusted with herself mainly for hurting Justin when he helped her through the hardest breakup of her life.

His blue eyes were filled with sadness, and she hated seeing her big brother like this. The worst part is that she caused it. While Alex fought her own demons, Justin wiped his nose with a handkerchief. Alex headed up to her room while Justin stayed on the terrace, looking down at Waverly Place with a blank expression.

He can't believe he admitted it, but he knew it was true. He loves Alex Russo, with all his heart, and he knew that now that she knew, there was no going back. Unless he cast a crazy time-travel spell, of course. He wasn't insane yet, he still needed to fulfill the prophecy. This was the first time he felt important. Being the headmaster at Wiztech wasn't all that glamorous, only in title.

Justin isn't cruel though, so he isn't going to force her to like him back. He just needs to let things take their own course. If that meant he had to wait, it was okay with him. Besides, he needed to return to the school soon anyways. When Justin left for Wiztech in the afternoon, Alex was more hurt that he left without saying goodbye instead of annoying her by knocking on her door a couple of times before popping into her bedroom using magic.

She knew that after that chat on the terrace with their father, there was no dancing around it now. So what if she has a teeny tiny crush on him? Justin is literally the only guy who's been around her that didn't disappear, or turn into a wolf (apart from the one time he started turning into a werewolf after his girlfriend kissed his cheek), or leave her for his own selfish reasons. Work is important, and she knows he's always wanted to have a higher standing in the Wizard World.

Instead of moping around about Mason all day, she was going to get off her ass and start finding more books on the prophecy. She hated to admit it, but researching would be helpful. She was also intent on figuring out more about what her father said about the laws on incest in the Wizard World. Apparently, even Crumbs couldn't "fix" it with time travel. He can't change the way people are attracted to each other.

She found some articles on the old computer, going on the Wiz Wide Web to find stories on Wizards that fell in love with family members. Alex made sure to be very careful with her research. One misstep could cause all hell to break loose in the Russo household. She decided to keep her research under lock and key. There was no way she was going to give Justin what he wants because she likes him.