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Chapter twenty-one: So, what do we do now?

Chris old apartment, night

Wyatt was dead tired. It had already been a long day, even before their spontaneous trip to the future.

Chris still wasn't back from his "interrogating". As proud as he was for his little brother finally getting over his right-and-wrong-issues, he couldn't help but worry a bit about this unexpected turn of events. He wondered how much his brother had changed in these past years.

About ten minutes ago, he had finally retired from the living room and the others to Chris bedroom.

He had enough of the nervous and disturbed glances which were shot at him. Not that he wasn't used to it. But being in the same room with the people who raised his children was simply awkward.

Besides, without his powers, he couldn't do something, anyway. God, he hated feeling so helpless!

All he could do was trust Chris in finding them.

And since we was so damn tired, he might as well get some sleep.

The boys bedroom, night

"So, let me get this straight." Alex said as he tried to summarize what both he and his twin had been told today. "We are twins. Our parents are Wyatt and... Isabelle?", he glanced for approval at his twin who simply nodded.

"Chris is not only our whitelighter, but also our uncle and Wyatt's brother. Benji is our uncle, too. He's the brother of our mother and Lara.", Alex rambled on.

"Yeah. According to my adoptive dad, our father was the most powerful magical being in the whole world." Nicky went on.

"And he used his power to stop the ancient fight between good and evil. He became the leader of the whole magical community.", Alex added.

"Right. He killed many people in the process; that's why there was a resistance formed against him."

"And Chris fought against his own brother. When he realized he couldn't stop him, he went to the past to save him, because he thought someone had corrupted Wyatt. But then... what? Something happened that made Chris give up? And he came back and joined Wyatt?", Alex asked sceptically.

Nicky shrugged."Looks like it. Chris turned our father's regime of terror into a whole new movement and together they ended the resistance."

"And then our father met our mom? How?"

"I've no idea. Neither my d... Jesse nor Lara told me about that.", Nicky answered.

"Right, Lara. So, according to what she told you, our parents fell in love with each other and had us. But not a whole year after we were born, there was a putch of some demons. Our parents were killed. Lara, Chris and Benji managed to escape with us. And then what?"

"Lara told me that Benji blamed her for the death of their sister and that's why he persuaded Chris that Lara was the wirepuller behind the putch. And because Chris and Benji were best friends, he believed him and they both went into hiding from her."

"Do you believe that?", Alex threw in.

Nicky looked unsure. "I don't know what to believe anymore."

Alex couldn't really blame him, therefore he let it slide for now and went on. "So, Lara thought it was her duty to rule things from now on, because we were to young and she wanted to stop chaos breaking out. Therefore, she made herself the new ruler of the community. Chris and Benji thought we were in danger and to protect us and prevent her from finding us they split us up. They gave you to Chris former friend and ally Jesse and his wife Anna and me to Adrianna."

"Yeah. But why Adrianna? Was she in the resistance, too?" Nicky looked curious at his brother.

Alex frowned. "Not that I know of. But she and Benji know each other. He told me he saved her life once."

"Maybe that's why she took care of you. To return the favour."

"That or she had a crush on him and was more than happy to raise what she probably thought "his" child.", Alex grinned. Little did he know how near the truth he was.

"Come on, be serious." Nicky grinned back. It was scary how easily they got along, despite being apart for thirteen years. Scary... and utterly comforting. As ridiculous as it was, but for the first time in a long while, Nicky felt complete.

"Okay.", Alex relented. "Back to the important issues."

The queen's manor, night

"Well, that went better than I thought.", Lara mused as she sat in her favorite armchair.

After managing to calm Nicky down and give him her version of the last thirteen years events, she had hope again to get at least one of the twins on her side.

And now that she had both of them in her care, Chris would soon be hers. With a little persuasion she would hopefully get him to be with her and if not, well...

"Jerek", she called.

No five seconds later, the red haired demon stood in front of her. "Yes my queen?", he replied dreamy.

Lara just rolled her eyes. Throwing her hair back, she stood up and grabbed a piece of paper from the couch table and handed it to him. "I need you to get these ingredients."

"Of course, my queen." Jerek took the sheet from her and skimmed the list. His eye brows furrowed. Liguoria, violet essence, canary feathers, rose essence, rat eyes, ...

"Your majesty, may I dare to ask what you are planning to do with these ingredients?"

Lara clicked her tongue in annoyance. "What does it look like?", she snarled.

Jerek stared dumb fonded at her. "Like a love potion.", he answered.

"That's what it is.", his queen replied arrogant.

Jerek was even more confused. "But why would you need a love potion? Which man in his right mind could possibly resist your beauty and your charm?"

"Chris", Lara muttered lost in her own thoughts.

Jerek felt jealousy rising in him almost immediately. "Well, he's a coward.", he declared – and regretted it in the same moment.

"How dare you talk about my love like that you disrespectful bastard?!", Lara bellowed as she slapped him hard in the face.

"Chris is an absolute stunner. He's smart, charismatic, powerful and attractive. He's everything that you aren't! Every woman would be lucky to have him! Damn it, even my sister couldn't help but notice it – and she was married to Wyatt! But Chris is mine! I will have him and you are going to help me with it! Otherwise you'll suffer a death so painful and pathetic, you wouldn't even wish it your worst enemy! Understand?!"

Jerek knew one wrong word now and she would make her threat come true. Therefore, he swallowed his anger, his jealousy and his hurt feelings back and simply nodded.

Lara calmed down a bit. "Good. And now get out of my sight and get the ingredients!"

Jerek bowed down obediently. "Yes, my queen."

And with that, he shimmered out.

The boys bedroom, night

Alex looked questioning at his sibling. "So, what do you think she wants from us?"

"Actually, I've asked her that."

"And?"

"Well, she was vague. She said she would take care of us from now on and that we all would be a family again."

Alex huffed. "Who's "we all"? You, me and her? Or our uncles and our father, too?"

"No idea. Wait, what do you mean "our father, too"? Remember he was killed during this putch.", Nicky frowned.

Alex raised an eye brow at his twin. "That's what Lara said. Doesn't mean it's true, though."

"So, you don't trust her?"

"No, do you?"

Seing Alex intensive stare, Nicky turned his head away. "I don't know."

"You gotta be kidding me?" Alex gaped at his sibling. "She kidnapped us! She took us away from our families. How can you even consider trusting her?"

At this, Nicky returned his gaze angry to the other boy. "Well, maybe because everyone else lied to me?! As far as I can tell, she's the only one telling the truth here, besides you."

"You don't know that!"

"Not for sure, but so far she has played with open cards! I don't think she lied to me about being my aunt, and as I can see, she didn't lie to me about you being my brother, either!"

"Doesn't mean she didn't lie to you about other things!"

"So what? You pronounce her guilty until it is proved otherwise?"

"I know she's lying about at least one thing! And even if I didn't know it, still doesn't give her the right to take us away from our parents and decide whom we belong to!"

"We belong to our family! And since she is family I can understand that she wants us with her. She searched for us for thirteen long years!"

"And what about our parents?"

"Haven't you been listening to me?! That aren't our parents!"

"Of course they are! Then they didn't conceive us, so what? Does that erase thirteen years of raising us, caring for us and loving us? If yes, then you are really an ungrateful brat!"

"I'm not ungrateful!", Nicky growled. "I love them more than anything! And of coure I appreciate all that they've done for me. It's just... how could they lie to me like that? I trusted them and they..."

"Jesus, aren't we a drama queen!", Alex snorted as he turned to take another look around the room.

Nicky was getting madder by the second. Who did this... guy think he was to talk to him like that?!

Angry, he snatched a pillow from the nearby bed and threw it straight to his brothers head.

When his head made contact with the pillow, Alex spun around to come face to face with his new found twin who was red with fury. And Lara said he used to be the calmer one – please!

"Don'...Again.", Nicky gritted out as he stared his sibling down. He usually was a calm nature but enough was enough!

After a few minutes of silence - and staring contest – Alex finally said: "Alright. This doesn't get us anywhere. We still need to figure out how we are supposed to get out of this one."

After a moment, Nicky seemed to slump in on himself. "You are right.", he gave in. "But what could we possibly do? As nice as the room is, it's a magic proofed cell. If we're trying to get out of here with our powers an alarm will go off. If we are trying to get out of here without our powers we'll have to jump out of the window and fall a few floors down, provided we manage to get it to open. Either way we're screwed!"

Alex smirked. "I said that once to Chris. You know what he answered?"

"No, what?"

The young teen's eyes sparkled conspirely. "You are only screwed when you run out of ideas!"

Nicky actually managed to smile a little. God, he was so tired. He desperately needed some sleep, but he would probably ending up with bad dreams anyway.

Alex suddenly straightened up. He stared intently at his twin. "What did you just think?"

Nicky turned his attention back to his brother. "That I'm tired."

"No, the other thing after that!" Alex replied impatiently.

"That I would probably end up having bad dreams anyway." Nicky's brows furrowed. "Why do you ask?"

Alex jumped up and started to pace the room excited. "That's it. Dreams. Yeah, that could actually work.", he murmured.

"What could work? You are not making any sense."

Alex spun around and faced his confused sibling. "Don't you understand? You have just found a solution to our little problem! Lara said the alarm would go off if we'll try to orb out or destroy the door, walls or window. She didn't say the alarm would go off if we used our powers otherwise."

"You mean you could... burn up something and nothing would happen?"

"Well, we can try. If the alarm goes off we simply say that I wanted to show you how my pyrokenesis works."

Before Nicky could protest Alex snatched a piece of paper out of his pocket and dragged his twin in the bathroom. Standing in front of the sink, Alex put the piece of paper in it, concentrated and pointed a finger at it. It went up in small flames.

Hearing no alarm go off, the twins waited briefly before grinning at each other. Alex washed down the burned remains and they went back into their bedroom.

"I'm surprised she lets us use our powers at all.", Nicky declared as they both took a seat on Nicky's bed.

"Yeah, me, too.", Alex replied. "She has to be really confident in herself – not that that would surprise me!"

Nicky grinned. "So, what do we do now?"

"I say we create a spell to get into someones dreams."

"Yeah, question is who's dreams we'll enter. BTW, I never created a spell before."

"It's not that hard. You only have to rhyme. However, creating a spell that works the way you want is way more tricky! As for the who part – I think Chris is our best bet, isn't he?" Alex looked for approval at Nicky.

His brother looked unsure. "I don't know, man. I mean he's our whitelighter and our uncle. You told me he was right there when you were kidnapped – do you honestly think he'll just sleep, not knowing where you are and whether you're safe or not?"

Alex huffed. "I guess you're right. He'll probably be up all night, looking for us. Same will go for Benji."

"And our adoptive parents.", Nicky added. As mad as he was at them for being lied to, he knew they loved him and would do anything for him. "So, who will it be?"

His twin brother racked his brain. Who else could they contact? Than it hit him.

"Our father."

Nicky was confused. "But he's dead."

"Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. However his past self his pretty much alive."

"His past self? What are you talking about?"

"Listen, before I was kidnapped, Benji saved me from a demon. With him was a guy named Wyatt. A guy that looks pretty much the same as the one holding one of us on this picture here." Alex explained as he pointed at the picture standing on the nightstand.

Nicky looked at it.

"However, when we were back to safety Benji and he were fighting about his powers not working. Wyatt said it was because he's in the future."

Nicky understood. "So, we're trying to enter his dreams then."

"I think it's the best bet we'll get."

"Alright. A spell then that rhymes. Ehrm..."

"I want to enter my father's mind, " Alex started.

"An idea. So, something that rhymes on "mind"; hmm... maybe "find". But what?", Nicky replied.

"Huh, a way in his dreams?" Alex tried to go on.

Nicky nodded. "That's good. So, uhm... a way in his dreams I wish to find?"

"Yeah. Let me think... what about "to meet him there and get some help"?"

"What rhymes on "help"?"

"Don't know. Ok, maybe then" to meet him there and get a clue"?"

"What the hell I'm supposed to do.", Nicky completed.

Alex laughed. "Not bad. I think we have it."

Nicky grinned back. "So, how do we do this?"

His brother thought about it. "I suggest we lay down on the bed. Something tells me we're probably going to loose our consciousness."

"Good point."

They both laid down next to each other on Nicky's bed and started to chant.

"I want to enter my father's mind.

A way in his dreams I wish to find.

To meet him there and get a clue

what the hell I'm supposed to do."

Not two seconds later their vision started to blur and they both fell into a deep slumber.