Hi. No, I'm not dead. I'm so sorry. Never trust my time keeping. Excuses at the end. On to the story.

Disclaimer - I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place.

Chapter 14

Alex pressed her hands tight against her ears as she was zapped into the familiarity of the transporter, her brother doing the same. Opening her eyes slightly she, she was realized that she was still in 'mid location', neither the lair she'd just left of her destination, as the blinding light indicated that she had not yet reached the place. She let out a sigh, before carefully opening her eyes again.

"Justin, " she asked, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to keep the brightness away from her pupils, "does this transport seem a little different to you? I mean just look…"

Her brother gasped, with his hands still on his ears and eyes tightly shut. "Alex!" he exclaimed, and Alex would have been able to hear the seriousness in his voice even if her won eyes were still closed. "Don't open your eyes during a transport!"

"Why not?" Alex asked, knowing the answer from learning it in her first year of wizard school, but asking it, to annoy Justin, nonetheless.

"The brightness of the transporter that takes you to the destination… It's almost blinding! Alex, close you eyes, I don't want you to get-"

But before he'd even had chance to finish, he was interrupted by a loud yell coming from his sister. She yelled again, in what sounded like pain, and Justin knew he had to help her despite having to abandon his sense of sight.

"Alex? Alex what's wrong?" he shouted worriedly.

"My eyes, Justin, my eyes!" Justin quickly turned his head, with his eyes still shut, to the direction that Alex voice sounded like it was coming form. She had moved, or so it seemed like. She was no longer standing next to her brother.

"Alex, I… I can't see you! Where are you? Don't move, no – come back to me!"

"I can't, Justin! I can't see! Justin, I can't see, you have to help me!"

"I can't open my eyes, though, or I'll-"

"Please, Justin!" The pleading and obvious pain in her voice hit Justin hard. She generally sounded, not only scared and worried, but in danger. "Please, Justin, you have to help me!"

Hearing Alex's breath catch in her throat, Justin just acted on instinct. He opened his eyes, and was too, like his sister, greeted by the painfully bright light. He yelled, his eyes burning from their new surrounding, and he squeezed them tight again, rubbing them, before opening them once more.

"Justin!" he heard, Alex's voice obviously coming from behind him. He quickly turned around, still vigorously rubbing his eyes so that he would at least be able to see properly, despite them being already open anyway.

"I'm coming, Alex, I'm just-"

"No please, come quickly! You have to see this!" he heard again, though this time on the opposite side to where he was facing. He pulled his hands away from his eyes, opening them widely, his pupils finally accustomed to the brightness. He looked to both of his sides.

"Seriously, Justin," he head again. Alex voice still caught in her throat, it seemed, however sounded slightly different. "You have to see this."

Quickly turning round, not wanting to miss where his sister was again, he started at what was in front of him and held his breath in shock.

In front of him, and to the side of Alex, was a large, silver, metal door, with what looked like red 'smoke-in-a-can' drifting out from it. Neither Justin nor Alex had ever had time, or yet, had ever thought, to make a pit stop during a transport to stop and smell the roses. Was there an unusual, scary looking door all the time? They wouldn't know. But somehow, they both got the feeling that it was something special.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," Justin said, suddenly confused. "I thought you were being blinded or something! Or that's what it sounded like, anyway."

"Yeah… I just wanted you to open your eyes so you could see this cool door."

"See- So I could see the door?" Justin sighed impatiently, before running a hand through his hair and moving closer to Alex. "Alex, don't… Don't do that. You really scared me." He put he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug, before she pulled back from him and looked up into his eyes.

She pouted, half sarcastically. "I'm sorry, Justin," she said, genuinely surprised, but touched that he would say something like that. "I just knew you wouldn't open your eyes if I just told you to."

Justin raised his eyebrows, getting ready to say something in his defense back to Alex, but then sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't have."

Alex giggled, before leaning forwards and lightly kissing Justin on the check. They then both returned their thoughts to the initial subject – the door."

…

"Yeah, what do you think this is?" Alex asked confusedly. She's never seen a door in a transport limbo before. Well, in actual fact, she's never seen anything in a transport limbo before; Justin and her father had always instructed her to keep her eyes close. To not get practically blinded by the bright lighting, she guessed. However, she'd always assumed that the transport limbo would be dark, or just black even.

Interrupting her thoughts, Justin practically read his sister's mind.

"I thought this in between space was just darkness or something," he said quietly. He walked slightly closer to the door, carefully, in case some sort of explosion, or volcanic eruption, or other dangerous wizard world limbo space event would occur.

"And also, Justin," Alex started, following behind as her brother walked forward, "how is it even possible for us to be doing this?"

Justin turned his head round. "Doing what?"

Alex moved her arms around, gesturing to the whole area. "This? Walking and talking and… peeking paused in the limbo like this?"

Justin thought for a second, taking in what Alex had just said. It was true. Usually, when travelling from place to place through a transport, the journey would take a wizard on average; twenty to thirty seconds each way. But him and Alex had been in the limbo space for at least ten minutes by then. Their dad had never told them they could just 'stop' like that. They didn't even know that it was possible.

"For some reason… I don't think we're really wanted at Aunt Julia's… Wherever they are's house." Justin replied finally. "You, you can't. You can't stop in a transport, no one can; I don't even think Crumbs would be able to."

Alex frowned slightly in confusion. Well, as Justin had said, they had been stopped for a reason. But somehow, Alex knew… That door in front of them would be useful.

"Justin?" she said half confidently.

"Yeah?"

"Push on that door."

"What?"

"The door right in front of you. Push it, there must be a reason why it's-"

Justin chuckled slightly, sounding bot humored and uncertain, interrupting Alex in her sentence. "No, no, no, no, no. We are not opening that door. Alex, have you never seen any of those wizards' horror movies? You never push on the weird doors, especially ones that are in the middle of a place that people aren't even supposed to stop at! Sorry, Alex, I think we'll just have to try and flash ourselves out of here, because there is no way that we are going through that do-"

…

"I told you not to just leave the book lying on the lair table though!"

"Well, Alex is involved! She's not one to take an interest in anything that doesn't look like it involves her!"

"How did they even get here?"

"I don't know. We could ask them when they recover?"

Alex's eyes fluttered open from the sound of conversation, and her own name being said. She tried to sit up slightly, but physically was unable to. She had a splitting headache. It was as if she had landed head down onto a concrete floor.

She rubbed her eyes, before opening them wide to get them used to the bright light. She looked around. She wasn't in… The transport limbo anymore. She wasn't back at home, or in her room. In fact, she had no idea where she was.

"Alex?"

Alex looed to the right to see her brother leant back in a chair next to her. He had obviously just woken up, and had a confession just as confused on his face as she did.

"Justin…" She put her hand to her head, feeling the effect of just using a little amount of force to talk. "Where the hell are we?"

"You guys are awake. Oh, I am so glad you are okay."

Both Alex and Justin shot up in unison, turning around to where the voice was coming from, despite the extreme dizziness they then both got to their heads. Justin had to rub his eyes a few times, and Alex just sat there in shock.

It was their mum.

And standing just a few meters behind her, was their dad.

Alex gasped, and open her eyes wider in shock. "Mum? Dad? What are you doing here? Where are… Where are you? Where are we? Where's Max, where's-"

"Shhh, mija, your head must hurt real bad," her mum said, walking over to her and place her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "Lie back down, lie back down, mija."

Alex did as she was told, still stunned, before hearing her brother gasp, and shot back up again.

Justin was staring at the far corner of the room. "Max."

The youngest of the Russos, Max, was sat on a big, metal chair, with his wrists strapped to the arm rests and an ankle strapped to the leg. He looked like he was sleeping, but he could well have been unconscious.

"Oh my God."

Justin stood up and faced his parents, his dad now walking closer and his mum standing up right from Alex. "What happened to Max? What have you done to him? Are you are real pa- I'll bet you're not even our real parents!"

His dad walked closer to him. "Justin, we are your real parents."

"Then why is Max unconscious with his limbs strapped to a chair?"

"Jerry, I really wish you hadn't had left that book in the lair. They weren't supposed to find out about this. They're not even supposed to be here."

Alex stood up too, walking over to Justin to appear to be gaining more authority. "Fin out about what? Mum, dad, why are we here? You're, you're keeping something from us!" she stuttered. "Me and Justin both know it! Please, just tell us!"

"There's nothing to tell, Alex," her Dad said, but didn't meet here eyes. "It's just… This wasn't supposed to happen. But don't worry. Nothing's changed."

"A lot has changed, actually," Justin said under his breath, before standing slightly closer to Alex.

Was Justin going to tell their parents how they were… Feeling? No… Alex was hardly thinking straight about this herself. She couldn't, they couldn't tell their parents. It would just ruin… Everything.

Justin and Alex watched as their parents looked at each other. They said no words, but it was obvious that they were both thinking something. Theresa had a sorrowful look on her face. And Jerry had no emotion on his face at all.

After a while, their mum slowly turned her head again and walked closer to Justin and Alex. She stared at them, before smiling sadly. She held onto Justin's right hand, And Alex's left hand, creating the a 'ring-around-the-roses" circle. She took in her breath slightly.

"You two are in love, aren't you?"

Both Justin and Alex's hearts almost completely stopped. The pain and dizziness on their heads disappeared, the confusion of where they were was taken away, they couldn't see, they couldn't feel. They're hearts just skipped a beat.

Oh my God. Alex thought.

Justin, somehow, was able to read his sister's mind.

I know. He thought. They know we love each other.

By the way, the story will be ending soon. :]

Okay, so I've been going through a lot of hard stuff lately. Long, personal, hard to explain… Not an excuse, but yeah. Also, I went on a school trip to the States and obviously had no computer. I'm really sorry for the long gap.

ALSO, I wanted to upload my Victorious story RIGHT NOW, but… It's on my other computer. I'm at my grandma's house using my mum's Mac, the Victorious story is on my Dell at home. I will try to upload it before Monday. I promise. Please read it if you like the show. I might even try to update this story before Monday too. :] I'll try.

Anyway… Sorry, again… Review? :]

- . x o