Part 11

A/N: I've returned! And I do believe this is it, you guys, the last chapter! Guess what? Remember those tickets I was talking about a while back to go see a show taping of WOWP? Todd got me some!!! I get to go in March!!!

Okay, enough bragging. On to the end!

Jerry and Theresa are sitting side by side in what looks to be a hospital waiting room with the exception of the walls being made of the grey stone blocks and decorated with the colorful tapestries that frequent the Wiz Tech campus. Head on Jerry's soldier, Alex is fast asleep while Max snores gently into his mother's lap. Theresa watches him sleep, stroking his air lovingly.

"They're really wiped out," she says quietly. "I don't know how they can sleep at a time like this."

"It was all that magic," Jerry explains, "I'm surprised they could keep up a steady stream of power for as long as they did. Even experienced wizards would be exhausted after that level of magic use."

Alex moans and slowly blinks her eyes open. Groggily, she glances over at the clock hanging on the far wall, and after seeing the time, sits up straight and fully awake. "Oh my gosh, I've been asleep for three hours?!" She turns and glares at her dad. "Why'd you let me sleep that long? What's happening with Justin?"

Max leans up a little, looking around his surroundings in confusion before wiping some drool off his chin. "What's going on?" he asks.

"Everyone, relax," Jerry soothes, "Removing taint is a slow process. We haven't heard anything, but let's just hope that no news is good news. There was no point in keeping you awake while we waited."

Alex, not convinced, continues her panicked questioning. "What if no news isn't good news? I mean, what if they're in there trying everything they can but nothing's working? Maybe they just don't know how to tell us that he's not going to be okay? But he has to be okay, because, because he's my brother and he risked his life to save me!"

"You all risked a great deal to save everybody," Crumbs says as he enters the room. "Thanks to you children, everyone in the wizard world is safe now…and I do mean everyone."

Alex jumps to her feet. "Wait, does that mean…?

He nods his head and she leaps towards him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "Thank you so much!" she cries, her voice muffled in his robes.

"No, no, I cannot take the credit for this," he chuckles. "I would never have found Justin's spark if not for the two of you. Checking his mind for it was a wonderful idea! It is his strongest asset and I should have thought to check there from the start; and removing the taint was mostly Justin's doing. We began pulling it out slowly, but once we started, he found a way to push it out of his body almost faster than we could contain it! If anything, we should all be thanking you for stopping the evil trio and thereby helping us locate the missing students."

Max stands up and stretches. "You can worry about what you're going to get us as a thank-you present later. Right now I just want to see Justin."

The Russo's all stare at Crumbs with pleading looks on their faces. He strokes his beard a few times in thought before answering. "Well, I suppose it would do him good to see his family-"

"-Yes!" Alex and Max cheer, jumping up and down.

"-but," Crumbs continues, "only for a little while and please do try to keep calm. You must think of recovering from taint in the same way as one would recover from a sever illness. It has certainly taken its toll on his body and he'll need plenty of rest before he's completely well."

"We understand," Jerry nods, "Right guys?"

Alex and Max nod vigorously before glancing at each other, exchanging excited smiles. Crumbs coaxes them to follow him back down the hall towards Justin's room, Jerry wrapping his arm around Theresa as they walk. She reaches up to grip the hand around her shoulder, a relieved smile on her face and a small joyous tear in her eye.

Crumbs stops just outside of a large wooden door and takes a step back. Alex looks at him, hesitating, so he holds his hand out towards the door in invitation. Slowly, she grabs the handle and pushes the door inwards, peeking inside. Her jaw drops open as she looks around the room, which completely resembles Justin's own bedroom, with the exception of the hospital bed that he is laying on and the softly beeping monitor whirring beside him.

Crumbs leans down over her shoulder. "Much better than that sterile, boring white. Don't you agree?"

"It's fantastic," Alex breathes, stepping into the room and making her way over to Justin's bedside. Max makes a little hushed "wow" behind her, but she ignores him as she visually examines her brother. He is adorned in a black hospital gown, the trim on its collar and sleeves the same gold material that adorns the Wiz Tech robes. Against the black gown and black sheets covering him, the bandage wrapped around his arm where he took the magic blast looks impossibly white.

"Justin?" she whispers, and when he doesn't stir, she repeats his name a little louder. He continues to lay motionless and she looks back at Crumbs. "I thought you said he was better. Why won't he wake up?"

Jerry steps behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "He is better, sweetie. He's just very tired; he'll wake up when he's ready."

"But…what if that takes days?" Alex protests, "I can't wait that long. I have to tell him…I have to tell him that what he did was so, so…stupid!"

Theresa looks sharply at her. "Alex!" she scolds.

"What?" Alex asks angrily. "It was stupid, and careless, and dangerous, and he shouldn't even have had anything to do with any of this! It was me they were after, not him! I don't even know why he came for me – I'm mean and I make fun of him and call him names and rearrange all the stupid little silver guys in his space-city thing so he has to spend hours fixing it – but, he still came for me and now he's, he's like this! It's not fair! I'm the one they were trying to get revenge on, and I'm the bad one, so how come all I ended up with was a purple unicorn bandage on my knee and Justin almost…he almost…"

Alex begins to cry and moves closer to the bed, staring down at her brother, "…and he has to wake up so I can tell him that I'm sorry for all the trouble I cause him, and to thank him for saving me, and to say how much I really look up to him and sometimes wish I could be more like him, and…and…"

She leans over and gently wraps her arms around him, crying into his chest.

"…and how cool I'm going to look with a scar on my arm and an awesome story to go with it?" Justin says quietly. "And it's a robot city from the future, not a space city."

She raises her head up to see him smiling at her with a look of exhaustion, apology, and genuine happiness all mixed together. "You're okay," she laughs, leaning down again to give him a hug. Her smile drops and realization sets it, and she sits straight up, wiping the tears off her face. "Wait, how long have you been awake?"

Max laughed. "Since we walked in. He learned that from me – I pretend to be asleep every time mom walks in to tell me to clean my room." He stops and looks back at Theresa, who is crossing her arms behind him. "Oh man, now I have to find a new way to get out of cleaning my room. Thanks, Justin."

"Hey, you're the one that tattled on yourself," Justin says, then turns back to Alex. "I just wanted to see what you'd say – I figured whatever it was, you'd never say it to me if you knew I was actually listening."

Alex points her finger angrily at him, then drops it, sighing. She looks away from him for a second, then locks eyes with him. "Well, now I know you're listening, and I still need you to know that I meant every word I said…about you being stupid and careless-" Justin opens his mouth to speak, but she stops him. "-I'm not done, yet. Normally you're like super smart, and annoyingly cautious, and avoid anything not even remotely dangerous at all costs; but you go against all that every time I get in trouble, and you don't even care what might happen to you."

"I know," Max agrees, "Do you know how much trouble he's gonna be in for having me put mom in that comic book?"

"Oh, no," Theresa says, "I am not going to be the bad guy, here. Justin, it was very brave what you did. It was very brave what all of you did…but if any of you ever scare me like this again, I'm coming after all of you. Understand?"

They all laugh, and Theresa looks around at them. "No, I mean it," she says, "It won't be funny when it happens."

Max laughs again and starts to argue that she's bluffing, and while they go back and forth, Alex slips in a little "thank you" to Justin while the rest of them aren't paying attention.

He shakes his head, smiling. "Call us even," he says, and she looks at him quizzically, but the argument dies down before he can explain.

"All right," Crumbs pipes up, who has been standing quietly off to the side. "That's enough excitement for now. Justin needs his rest, and I think so do all of you. You should all go home and you can return in the morning."

The kids start to protest, but Jerry holds his arms up to quiet them down. "No, he's right, we could all use a good night's sleep. Justin, we'll be back first thing tomorrow, I promise." He bends over and gives Justin a big hug.

"Okay, Dad," Justin gasps, "let go, I can't breathe."

"Oh, sorry, sorry," Jerry remarks, backing away.

Theresa gives him a much gentler hug and pauses to run a hand through his hair. "I love you, baby. You'll be okay tonight?"

"I'm fine, Mom," he assures her.

She nods and backs away, and Max steps up to bump fists with his brother. "Justin, I gotta admit, you were pretty awesome."

"So were you," Justin laughs. "Looks like I'll have to watch my back for you in the Wizard's Competition after all." Max smiles and Justin continues. "I would have been useless without your help, Max. Thanks, man."

Max nods appreciatively and joins his parents at the door so Alex can say her goodbye. She gives him a hug, and while she's close, he whispers in her ear. "You won the Wizard's Competition, but you gave your powers up, anyway."

She sits up, arguing softly, "But that wasn't a big deal, I didn't get hurt or any-"

"It was a big deal for me, Alex, and for Max. It was the biggest sacrifice I've ever seen anyone make, and I'm glad I finally got the chance to return the favor."

She smirks. "Huh, I guess that was pretty selfless of me." She sticks out her hand. "All right, then, clean slate for both of us."

They shake hands, laughing, before Alex joins the rest of the family at the door. They wave to Justin one last time and turn away, Crumbs shutting the door behind them.

The Russos talk to each other excitedly as they walk into their house, Alex, Max, and Justin sporting gold, star-shaped medals around their necks.

"I still can't believe our kids earned the highest award for valor in the wizard world!" Jerry prattles on. "Here, let me have your medals so I can frame them and hang them in the lair."

The kids all protest that they want to keep them in their rooms.

"No, no, no," Jerry argues, "I want every wizard – every thing from the magic world that can – to be able to see these. And I already told you, Max, you can't turn it into a ninja throwing star, so you might as well let me hang onto it."

"You do not know the meaning of fun," Max states, but hands the medal to his dad, anyway.

"Thank you. Alex? Justin?"

"Fine," Alex says, pulling the medal off her neck. Justin hesitates a little, but gives in.

Giddily, Jerry hugs all three medals to himself. "Ow! Those points are sharp…I guess they would make good throwing stars." He shakes his head before looking at Theresa. "Come on, honey, let's go find a cool frame for these and you can help me find the perfect place to display them."

He grabs her hand, almost dragging her out the door. Max turns and heads up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Justin asks.

"Oh, now that we really are famous super heroes, I need to get a much better costume. I mean, Maximan was cool and all, but he didn't show off my skills well enough. I'm thinking more along the line of 'Heat Blast Max' or 'The Sand Stopper' or even 'Spell Juggler' because I had to do both. Yeah, that sounds like a good one."

He dashes up the stairs, leaving Alex and Justin smiling in their Max-understanding. Quietly, Justin turns and strolls out onto the patio, unconsciously rubbing at his arm just below the bandage. Alex joins him as he looks out at the city lights.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

"Yeah…it's just hard to believe everything started right here."

She follows his gaze towards the people and traffic buzzing around the city below them. "I know, and none of those people down there even know what we did. The trio might not have stopped with the wizard world. We might have just saved the whole world, and no one down there will even know…"

As she rambles, Justin very slowly edges away from her. Just as he steps inside the door, Alex notices he is no longer beside her. She turns and he smiles at her, giving her a little wave as he shuts and locks the door. She rushes forward and tries to open it.

"Oh, ha ha, very funny Justin. Open the door," she laughs. When he shakes his head, she reaches down towards her boot, saying, "Fine, I'll just unlock it myself," but stops smiling when she realizes her wand isn't where it normally is. Looking back up, she scoffs as Justin waves it around in front of her. Twirling it in his fingers, he turns and walks away, leaving Alex slamming her hands against the door.

"Justin! Come on, Justin, it's cold out here! Oh, okay, no more clean slate! I am so getting you back for this! Justin!!!"

A/N: The end!!! I hope you all liked it! Wow, first fic I actually finished – I think I'll go wrap up the other ones, then maybe I'll come back and write another one of these. So much writing to do and so little time! Well, I'll see you on the next go around! :)