Summary: "They- they took Max, and he was shouting and screaming, and trying to fight, but he's only a little kid, Justin. They took him to this room, Mom and Dad were crying for him, and Max for them, and for us-" "Shhh…we'll find them Alex, we'll find them. I promise."

DISCLAIMER: WOWP does not belong to me, but the Property of Disney

Pairings: Jalex (of course; however probably won't seem very strong because context of the story. But it will be there with probable lemon (although I'm starting to have doubts). YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Beta: brokenflower (Thanks! (^_^))

Notes: See, as promised, not a whole year before the next update. Hope you like it

Don't forget to review! I'd like honest feedback.

Chapter 8

Broken Family Promises

Alex sighed as she dropped a leg from the chair to the floor, resorting to leaning on the other leg that was pulled to her chest. She looked at the door and then to her aunt, sitting beside her. They were both clean of Justin's blood, due to Alex's magic.

"How much longer are we going to have to wait before they tell us anything?" Alex questioned anxiously referring to the fact that they had been waiting in the Wizard Hospital for a few hours since arriving with a bleeding Justin. Upon realizing the situation, nurses and doctors quickly rushed into action, placing him on a floating gurney and disappearing, literally, from the entrance.

"Give it time Alex," Megan said for the umpteenth time, quickly learning that Alex was not a patient person.

"But it's been hours, how much longer it is going to be?" Alex whined wrapping her arms around her raised leg and pulling it closer to her

Megan's eyebrow twitched, "I'm sure that-"

"Russo!" The named was called out and both female Russos jumped to their feet. They watched as a bronze colored female doctor, with a small nub on her forehead entered the waiting room.

Megan faulted at the sight of the doctor.

"How's my brother?" Alex questioned pushing past her aunt, moving toward the doctor.

The doctor smiled at the older Russo before turning to the eager younger one and gave a small warm smile. "We were lucky; we got him just in time. Justin will make a full recovery, he's sleeping peacefully now."

The doctor returned to look at Megan and smiled again, "How are you, Megan? You look well."

"Doctor Hoof," Megan let out with a breath, surprised.

Alex narrowed her eyes at the interaction, let out an annoyed groan, and folded her arms. "Yeah, yeah, you know each other, fine; meet, meet greet, greet whatever. Can be go back to my brother now?"

The doctor once again looked at the impatient teenager and nodded reverting back to business. "Let's talk in my office." She pulled out a doorknob from her pocket and pushed it into the air and pulled it back toward her, a door appeared and opened a doorway into an office. Alex and Megan walked through it, followed by the doctor who pulled the door behind her, which disappeared when it closed.

The doctor invited them to sit down in the two chairs in front of her desk, which she leaned against, placing the doorknob at her side.

"Let me introduce myself," she said placing the folder she carried with her down on the table. "My name is Dr. Doctor Hoof."

"Let me guess, Elf?" Alex questioned her eyes looking to the doctor's ears which often were tell-tale signs of an Elf, aside from the occupational name.

Doctor smiled and gave a half shrug and nod, "Half; half elf and half Unicorn." She pointed toward the nub on her forehead, not ashamed of her nationality, but proud of. "Shrunken while at work, my tail is wrapped around me while I'm here too..." She chuckled lightly making it hard to decipher if she was joking or not.

"Doctor huh…" Alex smirked.

"Well my parents did have high expectations for me, plus Unicorns are notorious for their healing abilities, it wasn't that much of a long shot." Doctor nodded with a smile.

"She's one of the best doctors in the Wizarding world." Megan replied with a sense of fondness.

"She's only saying that because I was her teacher."

"Teacher…?"

"It wasn't just that, I wanted to train under you for a reason."

"Wait wait," Alex interrupted, injecting in the conversation, "Training for what?"

"You never told her?" Doctor asked with a tilt of her head, surprised.

"She's my niece…" Megan said first, to dispelling the thoughts of Alex being her daughter, Doctor nodded in understanding, because that was her first thought. "But no, the only people I ever told were my brothers, and that didn't end well for me now did it?" Doctor gave her a comforting smile.

"Hello… still confused here, someone wanna start explaining?"

Doctor sat up straighter against the desk and looked at Alex, "Your aunt was my apprentice…sort-of, and had she won the Wizard Competition, she would have become, in my opinion one of the best doctors in this world, after more training and practice of course."

Megan gave her former mentor a warm smile.

"It was a shame; she was rather quick at picking up treatments."

Alex snapped her fingers and turned to her Aunt, "That's how you knew about all that stuff to heal Justin." …and why you're so angry with Dad and Uncle Kelbo… she added silently

"That was your work?" Doctor questioned Megan pleasantly surprised. "I should have known… I thought I recognized those healing sutras. You always had a unique way of doing things."

"Alex did the magic, I just provided the know-how." Megan stated, it was always good hearing praises from someone you looked up to.

"Speaking of know-it-alls," Alex intercepted, seeing as how this conversation was getting her nowhere.

"Who said anything about-?"

"-I want to see Justin."

"Right, your brother, Justin Russo…" Doctor said standing up and rounding her desk to her to sit in her chair. "There is a reason I brought you in here first." She dug in her pocket and pulled out a small sealed clear jar, placing it in the middle of her desk to give both Russo's a clear view of its contents.

"Eww…what is that thing?" Alex scrunched up her nose at the object; even Megan's expression was sour. There was an instinctive dislike of it and need to be away from it, they both sat back in their chair as if to put as much distance between them and the thing as possible.

It was a small object that looked somewhat like a beetle, it was not bigger than the tip of one's thumb; it was a disgusting shade of brown but it was hard to tell due the blood that caked it.

Doctor picked up the jar and examined it lightly, "We're unsure of its legitimate name because we are not the ones that factored it. We do call it, however, a Bug Bomb, because it has a nasty habit of acting as a bomb and blowing up itself and its host." Doctor looked from the jar to the Alex and Megan. "The host was Justin."

"You're saying that thing was inside Justin?" Alex questioned eyeing the jar with dislike, there were many insults she could have attached with that statement but she couldn't, it almost took Justin's life. "How?"

"I had Alex scan Justin with her magic and that was not there." Megan noted shaking her head.

Doctor nodded her head, "Of course you couldn't see it, it has the ability to hide itself from magic, and its coating is made from plastic which makes it impossible to be detected by magic. You would have had a better chance using an X-Ray from the mortal world. Unfortunately, that's not its only defense." Doctor picked up Justin's file and pulled out an X-ray, and held it in the air where it stood and brightened up making it possible to see.

It was a 3-D scan of Justin's right shoulder. Doctor turned it on its side, and pointed to the front of the shoulder, with a pen.

"What occurs is, when its pod is ejected, it goes through the body, and in the process of a millisecond, perhaps that time it takes you to blink, it releases the bug, and then the pod is shot out through the back. Many tend not to look for anything to stay on the inside if there is an exit point, which Justin had.

"When Doctors come across this, and believe me, it's very few and in between, they tend to overlook that and in the end the patient is destroyed by the bomb."

"How long does it take for the bomb to go off?" Megan asked taking in Alex's hand when it reached for hers.

"Seventy-two hours," Doctor replied with absolute certainty, Alex frowned, "and that's only if it's not removed by the ones who put it in. During the first seventy-two hours the bug implants itself in its hosts, and for lack of better words, causes immense torture to the victim. Which brings me to my next point; the only groups known to make such an inhumane tool are the Wizard Hunters. Have you recently had a run in with them?"

Megan frowned and nodded her head, "They had a run in with them; they took my brother, Jerry, his wife, Alex and Justin's parents, and their little brother. Luckily they escaped." She answered gesturing to Alex. "But that was a week ago, not three days."

Doctor leaned forward in her chair her eyes wide in surprise. "Interesting, that has never occurred before. We haven't learned very much on the Bug Bombs, but what we have managed to decipher is that during the three day period the bug acts as a transmitter, transmitting its location to the hunters. If they are not removed by the Hunters on the third night, it self-destructs, instantly destroying the wizard-host. Luckily we discovered a safe way to remove them without activating its self-destruct mechanism.

"The bomb itself uses a mixture of advanced technology and magic, likes that I have not seen elsewhere; the ingenious little shits…" Doctor replied snidely, "Unfortunately it's very effective, so for it not to go off in Justin, within the first three days…that has never been heard of. Exactly what happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

Alex and Megan relayed the story they heard from Justin, adding in when Alex woke up to find him under the pile of destruction in the lair. The doctor listening intently, nodding as it went on.

"I think his magic protected him," Alex said softly, pulling her hands free of Megan's to cross in front of her chest. "He was under there for days without food and water, and when I found him, he was hurt, but not dying, we both went to Mars. I mean I'm not a nerd like Justin, but shouldn't he have been worse?"

The doctor nodded slowly leaning back in her chair, "It does makes sense actually, The Russo Magic has always been strong especially when done while protecting, plus Justin's magic was strained to its max. There is a possibility that even in his state, when his magic was wrapping around him to protect him from the lair's destruction that it also formed a barrier around the bug to prevent it from activating its GPS and destruct mechanism.

"It would certainly explain the burn marks on the plastic coverings, it was fighting it. When freed, Justin's magic retreated but it caused the bug, at that point, to activate."

"What, do you mean that they were tracking us?"

Doctor nodded with a shrug, "That's a possibility, I'm not too sure how the GPS system works and I don't believe there has been a lot of progress in tracing where the bug transmits its location to. However, just in case I advice not to return to your prior location."

"Can you use that to do it?" Alex asked pointing at the glass jar.

Doctor shook her head, "Justin pretty much had accurate aim, when he stabbed himself with-scissors was it?" They nodded, "It was a very lucky shot, and he somehow managed to disable the self-destruct system, which is why he's still alive. Had he not, most likely when you arrived he would have already been dead."

Alex's hands flew to her mouth in shock, as her eyes widened, she could clearly remember his pleas to "get it out" that he was grunting out as dove the scissors in, had she stopped him, then he would have been…dead. It would have been her fault.

The thought was too much to bear and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I don't tell you this to upset you, but you need to understand the seriousness of this situation."

Alex pushed her disheveled hair behind her, she needed him.

"I want to see him, now!" Alex demanded standing up from her seat; Megan followed suit agreeing with her.

"Of course," Doctor replied, dropping Justin's files on her desk. Picking up the door knob as she rounded her desk; she repeated her earlier actions opening a doorway in the thin air.

They could see Justin resting peacefully on the bed in a small room.

"When he awakens you are free to go after some papers are signed." Doctor said with a smile, resting her hand on Megan's shoulder.

"Thank you," Megan said gratefully; they shared a brief hug before pulling away.

"Oh! One more thing, before I forget," Doctor said with a snap of her finger, stopping them from moving forward, "it's protocol that when we take in Wizard Hunter victims that we contact the council, we have done that. You may be contacted soon, just to let you know."

"I understand," Megan said with a nod, Alex just turned and went to Justin's bedside, taking his hand in hers. Doctor pointed out a call button, so if they needed anything, she could be contacted, then she closed the room behind Megan opting to give them privacy.

"Justin…" Alex said softly, rubbing her fingers across his knuckles. She watched as his eyes slowly blinked open; they connected with hers and he gave her a lazy smile.

"How are you?" he asked in a soft whisper.

"Stupid Justin," Alex said wiping at her eyes, and let out a huff of air, she was exhausted with herself, for the last couple of days she had been doing nothing but crying. What better way was there other than taking it out on him? "You almost kill yourself and you ask me if I'm okay, you're such a loser."

Justin smiled and brought a hand up to wipe away her tears, "I'm sorry…" he said softly, dropping his hand again, but then the memory came back to him and he shot up, with surprisingly ease, and grasped his bandaged shoulder, "Where!"

"It's out." Megan intercepted, joining Alex at the bedside.

"What was in me?" He asked feeling around his shoulder, taking comfort in not discovering any moving lumps.

"A blow-up tracing bug, or something," Alex replied shuddering, but then she smirked at him, "I always knew there was something wrong with you, maybe we should have you fully checked to see if you have a bug in your brain, because no one could be such a nerd and enjoy it."

"Funny," Justin deadpanned, "however you would have to be in certain countries to obtain any type of bug that inhabits a person, and I for that matter have been not."

Alex returned the dead stare with one of her own, "No I actually think you enjoy it."

Megan shook her head at their banter, it reminded her of her own relationship with her brothers, and the thought brought a painful feeling inside, so she pushed it away, as she had been doing for the past decade.

"It was from the wizard hunters, they must have implanted you or something."

Justin shook his head, "I don't remem…wait," he paused wracking his brain, "I did a spell… restruction destruction, and then I think I was shot…"

"You think…?"

"I don't really remember; everything was coming down, I just remember my shoulder hurting and falling, I did a spell to protect me from the collapsing room…and then Alex."

"There was a lot going on," Megan soothed rubbing his leg over the cover, she smiled at him, "but that's over, how do you feel now?"

Justin tested his shoulders by rotating and upon feeling no pain he smiled, "Nothing hurts, I'm still sore in some places, but I feel fine." He looked suspiciously at the two, "you didn't have Alex mess around with me again did you?"

Alex rolled her eyes and mumbled loser under her breath, but Megan chuckled shaking her head, "You're in a hospital in the Wizard world," she said calming his fears, "and they took care of you."

"Yeah," Alex nodded, "apparently, Aunt Megan knows the doctor."

"She was a teacher of mine during my wizard training years.

"Apparently she was training to become a wizard's doctor, but then you know the whole competition-Kelbo thing…" Alex trailed off not wanting to invoke any bad feelings, but gestured to her aunt.

"Oh…" Justin said confused as he looked between Alex and Megan, then he snapped his fingers, "Oh! You mean Dad winning but giving his powers to Uncle Kelbo but not Aunt Megan thing, which makes sense why you were mad because he gave your dream away…" Justin caught Alex's glare and smiled sheepishly, "which Alex didn't want to mention because it's probably a depressing topic for you and makes the whole thing completely…awkward."

Alex deadpanned, "Ya' think… and they say you're the smart one?" Justin returned the dead look.

Megan chuckled with a shake of her head, waving away the concern, "Don't worry about it, I'm fine, really."

Alex bit her lip not daring to speak on the subject, at least she had more common sense than Justin, but depending on the situation depicted if she would ignore it or not.

"So ya sure you're feeling better? Because really, you said that the last time and then you stabbed scissors into your shoulder."

Justin smiled at his little sister, and teased her, "Aww, you're worried?" He demonstrated his well-being by rising from the hospital bed.

"What! Psh…no, I was totally not worried." Alex responded, but contradicted her words when she grabbed at his arm when he looked unstable on his feet. She then wrapped her arms around Justin's midriff and planted herself under his chin.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" She said still upset.

Justin smiled and wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders, "I'm sorry," he mumbled into her hair, "I promise; it won't happen again."

"It's good to see you on your feet, Justin." Megan said pulling him into a hug once the siblings pulled away from each other.

"It's feels good," he agreed, "now we finally go and save them." He looked at Megan, "I know that it's been a week since they've been kidnapped, but I think if we go back to the scene of the crime we can try to find clues as to where they have been taken."

Megan became worried. "Wait-"

"Maybe we can find a spell that could show us their location."

"That's right! We could GPS Max's location; thanks to the spell that Dad had me put on him after last month when we went to the mall and he wandered off and got lost."

"I still don't understand how he ended up in the monkey cage at the Bronx Zoo." Alex chuckled in disbelief.

"He always had a weird fixation of that place."

"Wait…"

"So we should get back to the lair." Alex said lifting up her foot to pull her wand out of her boot.

"Wait!" Megan yelled, grabbing on to Alex's wrist before she could cast her spell.

"We can't wait any longer; they could already be fighting for their lives." Justin disagreed.

"I meant "wait" as in you're not going." Megan pulled Alex's wand out of Alex's hand. She took a step back and looked at her nephew and niece. "You guys have no idea what you're doing, who you're going up against."

"I do."

"No. You. Don't, Justin," Megan implored. She moved closer to him grabbing his shoulders forcing his attention on her. "You think you know who and what the Wizard hunters are, but you really have no idea. They're dangerous mercenaries with no compassion for life who do not discriminate against gender or age.

"You have no idea how lucky you were to make it out there alive and you barely did that. Better wizards than you have died by their hands, and I won't have you go looking for them, just so the same could happen to you. "

She looked at Alex who glared at her, and returned the glare, "What were you going to do, huh? Ask them to please give your back your family? You going to fight your way in, with the chance of getting captured or worse killed? It's not going to happen, not on my watch."

Megan turned away from them, needing to separate from them.

"No offense, Aunt Megan, you can't stop us."

Megan turned on them and glared harder, "No offense, Justin, but I may not be a wizard but I can still stop you."

Alex took a step toward her aunt, anger in her eyes. "You know, I used to be afraid that because we're kind of alike, and Justin is like Dad, and Max is just like Uncle Kelbo, that if I were to lose the competition to them, then I would do what you did and abandon my brothers."

Justin touched Alex's hand to pull her back but she pulled away taking another step toward Megan. "It took them a lot on their part to convince me I would never do anything like that, because we love each other too much to let that happen. But then, at some point you must have loved them too, so really the fear stayed with me."

"Alex…" Justin said stepping behind Alex and resting his hands on her shoulders, but she shrugged them off, shaking her head.

"I had this fear up until I arrived at your house a few days ago and then, it was gone. It was gone because I realized that I am nothing, nothing like you," Alex spat with hatred. "I may not always get along with my brother, and sometimes I'm ashamed to say they're related to me, because let's face it, Justin is the Queen of Nerds-"

"Hey-"

"-and Max is just too plain weird; probably due to the fact that he may or may not have been dropped too many times on his head when he was a baby-"

"-By you-"

"But no matter, how many times they embarrass me, or we fight and I'm really mad at them; I will always, ALWAYS, have their back. The idea of either one of them being in pain, "Alex shook her head and held her stomach, "it physically hurts."

Taking a deep breath, Alex tried to control her emotions but...damn, she thought she was done with this crying business, "When I first found them gone, before I found Justin," she said through her quivering voice, and wiping furiously at her falling tears, "I thought they were all taken by those hunters and I wished I was with them. For those few minutes, I didn't care what they would do to me, it did not matter, wouldn't matter as long as we were all together. As long as I got to die with them…"

"Alex stop," Justin begged, ignoring his own shaking voice, as he stepped behind his sister and wrapped his arms over her shoulders. He did not want to hear those words coming from her mouth, not now, not ever.

Alex shook her head, but didn't pull away from Justin. She continued glaring at Megan who wrapped her arms around herself. "I'm not like you because I would never turn my back on my family, after I was told they were missing. I would never say I don't care."

Megan shook her head in confusion, "I may be upset with them but I would never say-"

Alex held up her palm and a familiar answering machine magically appeared causing Megan to freeze her words.

"First," Alex snapped, "don't lie to me. Second, you should know that if you leave for any given period of time, I snoop, especially when bored." She pressed play and Megan's cold voice filled the room.

"Look, I heard what you said, and I don't know what you want from me. I don't speak to my brothers; I cut off all communication with them a long time ago. Besides, Jerry was always known for his abrupt disappearance, probably took the family on vacation, I'm pretty sure they have the means. Now I really have to go before I'm late for work."

"Megan please, just a few moments of your time. I really don't think that to be the case, I checked their bank records and nothing indicating a trip-"

"I really don't have time for this…"

"Their place was destroyed, Ms. Russo-Megan, there's evidence indicating that Max, the youngest one, was severely injured. There's are witnesses that heard a loud commotion and one even with…some proof that shows Max and your brother and his wife being taking away in an unmarked van. And it is unclear what happened with Alex and Justin."

"Look, Megan… I'm not sure what your relationship with your brother is…"

"-egan…Megan, are you there?"

"I-I-…I'm sorry Detective Ames, was it? I don't know what you want from me but I haven't spoken to my brothers in a year and that was because Jerry's kids bombarded their way into my life, and before that, eighteen years when I cut off all ties with them. So now if you would please, I-I have work-"

"Ms. Russo-Megan, please, they'reyour family, can't whatever feud that separated you in the past be put aside, Jerry's children are missing…they're your family." A pause. "You mentioned your brothers, so I'm guessing you met Kelbo Russo, is there any contact information."

, "I-I don't know…I'm not in contact with any of them.

"But they're your family…don't you care?"

"That's where you're wrong Detective Ames, I don't have a family, so please don't call me again, I can't afford the long distance."

The recording ended and the room stretched out in silence, Justin arms dropped from around Alex and he took a step forward next to his sister.

Megan shook her head, "You don't understand…"

"Understand what?" Justin asked in a low voice, as he took the machine from his sister's hands, "That you gave up on us without even trying," he met his Aunts eyes who had enough sense to step back in fear at the look he was giving her.

"It was too late Justin, trying to find them with magic is dangerous and impossible, and without magic…it's hopeless."

"So that's why you said you DON'T HAVE A FAMILY? WHY YOU GAVE UP ON US?" He yelled as he threw the machine against the wall, ignoring the crash it brought. Megan, even Alex jumped at the impact, both surprised by his anger.

"JUSTIN!"

Justin backed away ignoring the burning sensation in his eyes. "Alex warned me that you wouldn't care to try to help but, but I didn't believe it because no one could hold on to something that petty against this." Justin sneered disgustingly, and then shook his head, "but I was wrong."

"Justin-Alex, just listen to me." Alex shook her head and turned away.

"No…Megan," Justin sneered, no longer considering her family, no longer her Aunt, "thank you for getting us this far, but I think you should leave."

Megan eyes widened and she took a step forward, Justin raised his hands and Alex's wand flew out of Megan's hand and into his. "Knock knock, whose there, doorus appearus," he mumbled and a doorway appeared beside Megan.

"Go…" he nodded toward the door.

Megan looked between the two but only received hostile expressions back. She let out a huff of air in annoyance, fine she would give them time to cool off so they could talk calmly later, but there is no way she was going to abandon them.

She failed with her brothers; she was not going to fail his kids.

"I'll be back," she warned.

"Don't bother," Alex replied, holding her glare.

Megan wisely did not reply and turned to leave.

"Not going anywhere, I hope Ms. Russo?"

Megan faulted in her steps as Professor Crumbs appeared in front of the doorway with a gentle smile on his face, which was surprisingly easy to detect with his foot long beard.

"Professor Crumbs," Alex expressed in glee as she ran to the man and threw her arms around his torso. The professor smiled fondly at the girl and patted her back softly.

"It's good to see you Alex," he looked up spotting the young male wizard, "and you too Justin, I heard what happened and wanted to check up on you both personally , it's good to see you in health."

Justin forced a smile, not truly up for it, "Just barely…" he quietly replied, the professor nodded in understanding.

Professor Crumbs turned to the young woman who once was a student of his at WizTech, "Megan, it has been a while hasn't. You have grown up beautifully child."

Megan smiled back warmly, "Thank you Professor Crumbs, it's good to see you also."

Alex pulled back from the professor brushing off the feeling of his beard against her face, an annoying but fond feeling, "You have to help us Professor Crumbs, they took Max, and Mom and Dad."

Professor Crumbs frowned but did not voice his concerns, urgent business prompted his visit.

"The Wizard Council has called upon you, and I wanted to see you there myself."

Justin eyes lightened up, "The Council, if anyone who could help us find our parents it must be them right? They could get the trolls to help us find them."

Professor Crumbs shook his head. "I'm afraid it won't be that easy," he warned, "but we will talk about that once we get there, for now they are expecting us." He held his arms out and beckoned the three Russos to gather close. With a wave of his arms, the four disappeared from the room.