"Shattered Image"

"Oh lordy," Isabella moaned. "You mean to tell me that 'NSync is gonna be asleep forever?"

"Not if I can help it," Tammy replied. She looked at the boys' sleeping forms and slapped herself on the forehead. "How could I not know that damn song? It's pretty popular right now."

"This is like a bad remake of 'Sleeping Beauty'," Isabella groaned, sitting on the other couch. "¡Ay de mí!"

"Would you cut it out?" Tammy said, the irritation evident in her voice. "I'm tryin' to figure out how the fuckin' song goes. I think I heard Justin singing it one day."

"Do you think they have the tape or CD?" Isabella asked, hope suddenly filling her eyes.

"Maybe," Tammy said, her eyes hopeful also. After a half an hour of rummaging through the guys' CD collections though, their search proved negative. "They don't have it," Tammy frowned. "We are so dead."

"Well, you said it's a pretty popular song," Isabella shrugged. "Maybe it'll come on the radio."

"Good idea, Belle," Tammy said, running to get her radio. "I hope it comes on soon, though," Tammy commented, looking out the window. "That sign says we have two-hundred more miles until we hit Albany. And with the way James is driving right now…"

"That means we have about two more hours to wake them up," Isabella finished.

Tammy flipped on her boom box and the two sat and listened for an hour, going nearly insane with impatience. They endured repeats of a lot of the same songs, and songs that just sucked. "If I hear 'Oops… I Did It Again' one more time," Tammy growled.

"And this station obviously has no qualms about playing the Backstreet Boys atleast five times during the hour," Isabella scowled, then howling with agony as yet another Backstreet song came on.

Forty five minutes later, the bus entered the city of Albany and the girls still hadn't heard the song. "Shit!" Tammy punched a fist into her palm. "What are we gonna do, Belle? How are we gonna explain why the boys won't wake up for even one second?"

"Shh!" Isabella shushed her. "Listen!"

"And after the commercial break," the DJ announced, "I'm gonna be hittin' y'all with a lil' 'NSync, Sisqo, Pink, and Savage Garden."

"That's just what we need!" Tammy cheered. She calmed down and said, "I just hope it plays before we get to the hotel."

"Damn that Serena… She knew we didn't know that damn song," Isabella scowled. "Why couldn't she just say when we snap our fingers they'll wake up like any normal hypnotist?" She sat back and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, throwing up her hands in frustration. "She's crazy, man! She's fuckin' nuts, I tell ya. Not all there, man. Singing a damn song to wake someone up… Whatta nutcase."

The girls sat nervously for the next ten minutes, shaking and worrying as they got closer to the hotel. Suddenly, the girls heard the opening chords of the much needed song and jumped up, almost screaming with relief. Isabella turned up the radio and the girls listened to the entire song. "I hope we got it memorized," Isabella sighed as the song went off.

"We can do it," Tammy nodded confidently. As they opened their mouths to sing, they heard James call, "Alright people! We're here! Get your stuff and come on! They've been looking for us."

"Hurry!" Isabella exclaimed. The two quickly started to snap their fingers to a beat and sing, "I knew I loved you before I met you. I think I dreamed you into life. I knew I loved you before I met you. I have been waiting all my life…" At that, the five guys slowly opened their eyes and yawned.

"Ohhhh!" JC moaned as he cracked his stiff neck. "Man, that was the best sleep I've had in a long time! So relaxing." He looked at the very weary-looking young ladies who were glaring at him. "What?" he asked, as they turned and walked off the bus. "Chicks," he shrugged. "Go figure."

"Yeah," Chris grinned, suppressing a yawn. "Chicks."

Two days after the whole Gentro incident, the boys showed no signs of remembering Gentro or knowing any of the girls' secret skills. As a matter of fact, Yasmine was back in town and the guys were trying to convince Tammy, Isabella, and Yasmine to go out with them.

"C'mon!" Joey begged, dropping to his knees. "We're in Chicago! Chi-Town! How can you not wanna go out?"

"Aren't you guys tired after the concert?" Yasmine rolled her eyes.

"Nope," JC replied, bouncing in the air. "We're ready to party. We're gonna be here tomorrow, too, so we might as well go out tonight."

"I don't know," Isabella shook her head.

"What don't you know?" Justin jumped in. He got out of his seat and knelt at Isabella's feet, laying his head in her lap. "Please?" he begged, looking up at her with the puppy dog eyes.

"That doesn't work anymore, Justin," Isabella frowned, pushing his head out of her lap.

"Well," Lance chimed in lightly, "you think you wanna make a decision in the next five minutes? I mean, the bars at clubs do close at midnight."

"I know you ain't talkin', Lance," Tammy glared at him. "You can't hold your liquor anyway. You need to stay home."

Lance's eyebrows immediately shot up in offense. "What?" he exclaimed. "I can so hold alcohol. What are you talking about?"

"She's got a point there, Lance," Chris called from the bathroom. Walking out he continued, "Do I need to remind you about the last time you got drunk? You felt the need to climb up on the table in the club, strip down to your boxers, and smack your ass for the next five minutes off of Boyz II Men's 'On Bended Knee'. As amusing as it was, I don't think Mama Bass woulda been happy hearing about that."

"But don’t forget to remind him what happened after that," Justin volunteered with a smirk.

"What happened after that?" Yasmine asked nosily, enjoying Lance's embarrassed blush.

"Oh yeah," Chris laughed. "Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Lance turns to this really hot chick and shoves his tongue down her throat."

"Whoa," Yasmine laughed.

"But that's not the worst of it," Chris continued excitedly, "'cause just when you really thought it couldn't get any worse, Lance totally pukes all in her mouth."

"Eww!" Yasmine cried, looking at Lance.

"Oh, c'mon!" Lance scowled. "It could've happened to anyone."

"Not me," JC snorted.

"Yeah," Tammy rolled her eyes. "Only a white boy from Mississippi like you can get so smashed that he throws up in somebody's mouth. Why?"

"'Cause he's from Missi--" Chris started.

"No," Tammy cut him off sharply. "It's 'cause he can't hold his liquor."

"I love the way you guys are talking about me like I'm not in the room," Lance rolled his eyes with a frown. "Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome," Tammy smiled sweetly. She looked at the guys and half-grinned. "I guess we can go out tonight," she sighed. "Somebody's gotta protect y'all from the seemingly inevitable rape charges your drunk asses might accidentally prompt."

"Let's go get ready," Yasmine climbed wearily out of her chair.

"Don't take long," Justin warned.

"Yeah," JC added. "It seems to take girls atleast two hours to get ready!"

"No," Tammy corrected, walking towards her, Isabella, and Yasmine's room, "it takes ugly girls two hours to get ready. And insecure girls. We don't need to meticulously apply make-up and spend hours in the mirror convincing ourselves that we look good. We'll be ready in less than forty five and still look good as hell. Count on it."

"Humph," Justin challengingly crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll believe it when I see it."

Exactly forty five minutes later the guys heard Tammy wail from the girls' room, "I hate it! This looks horrible!"

"What'd I tell you?" Justin said to Chris.

"No, it doesn't!" Isabella argued. "That's off the chain! We'll ask the boys." She opened the door connecting their room to the suite's living room and called to the guys, "Hey y'all, come tell Tammy she looks awesome."

The guys walked into the room and stopped abruptly, their jaws dropping. "Wow," Chris whispered.

"Whoa," Joey gasped.

"Whoo!" JC whistled.

"That's awesome," Justin nodded as he looked at Tammy's skin tight leather pants, bra top, and long, ankle-length trench vest to match her pants. "That's more than awesome," he continued with a grin, "that's whoa."

Tammy scowled, placing her black leather pimp hat on her head and tilting it at an angle. "Shut up, J. I told you that you don't say that right, so don't say it around me anymore." She looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. "I feel weird," she pouted.

"'Cause you never wear girl clothes," Isabella answered, tugging on the bottom of her short leather skirt.

"Everybody in leather, huh?" Joey grinned wolfishly as he watched Yasmine smooth out her leather catsuit.

"Yeah," Yasmine smirked. "We're unstoppable tonight. We on fire." All three of the girls started to rap, "The hot girls, the hot girls on fire!"

"Damn right, you are," JC laughed. "You make me feel unsexy."

"Aww," Isabella cooed, shaking out her hair for a more tousled look. She turned and picked up her purse. "Well, we're ready," she smirked.

"And in forty five minutes," Tammy added.

"Then let's go!" Lance ushered them out of the hotel room, and they all joined up with their bodyguards in the lobby.

Half an hour later, they were in one of Chicago's hippest clubs and enjoying every second of it. Kind of. Tammy was watching Lance out of the corner of her eye, who had met up with an old friend and was sharing yet another drink with her. "What's wrong?" Justin yelled in Tammy's ear as they danced to Jennifer Lopez's "Feelin' So Good".

"Nothin'!" Tammy yelled back as she twirled around him. "C'mon Timber-boy, show me some of those smooth dance moves you do!" She started to laugh loudly as Justin turned his butt to her and started doing some seriously ghetto booty drops. "Get it, boo!" she called, still laughing.

Yasmine meanwhile was on the other side of the club, also watching Lance. "Damn," she muttered as she saw Lance start to stumble around, trying to do the Running Man. "Even when he's drunk he doesn't have much rhythm." She got to her feet and walked over to him. "Hey boy," she grinned, gently pulling his drink away from him.

"Hey Yasmine," he slurred, already smashed out of his skull. "Ya wanna dance?"

Yasmine thought back to his sad attempts at the Running Man and started to say no, but then figured that if he danced, he couldn't very well drink anymore alcohol. "Okay," she laughed, pulling him on the dance floor.

The two jumped on the dance floor as "The Thong Song" came on, and the club immediately got hyped. "Ugh!" Tammy said, walking off the dance floor with Justin, "I hate this song now! It's so gay!"

Yasmine on the other hand, was trying to help Lance stay steady on his feet. "I love this song!" he yelled, spazzing around trying to dance.

"Uh, me too," Yasmine grinned half-heartedly. She reached out to steady Lance again, trying to control his off-beat movements. Lance took that as an advance and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her roughly against his groin area. "Oh no you don't!" Yasmine snapped, quickly pulling away. "This guy is so retarded when he's drunk," she muttered to herself as Lance turned away from her and started humping the air. He locked his hands behind his head as if he were being handcuffed by the police, and started to hump the air very slowly, still not on beat with the popular Sisqo song.

"Yeah, baby!" he slurred as he started to walk away from Yasmine, still humping the air with every step he took.

"Oh no," Yasmine moaned. "I gotta get his ass." She started towards Lance and suddenly got blocked by a mess of dancing people. "Excuse me," Yasmine sucked her teeth with all-out ghetto attitude, "but could you please get the fuck outta my way? Yes, you," she glared at the group of girls, who silently parted. "Thank you," she scowled, running to Lance.

"Oh sweet Lord in heaven," she gasped, her jaw hitting the floor. If Yasmine wasn't so worried about 'NSync's reputation, she might have laughed at the scene in front of her. Lance had his left leg propped up on a table edge and was gracing some poor unfortunate girl with pelvic thrusts less than two inches away from her face. The girl obviously looked uncomfortable with the scene in front of her. "And who wouldn't be," Yasmine muttered irritably as she stalked towards the inebriated Mississippian, "I know damn well if one of my idols was shakin' his two-inch Oscar Meyer wiener in my face, I'd wish I were somewhere else." She walked up to Lance, who was still pumping the air slowly with his eyes closed, and snatched him by his ear. "What the fuck is your problem?" she purposely yelled in his ear. "Don't answer that," she added as an afterthought.

Isabella was lounged at a table with two very cute Chicago natives when Yasmine stomped up to her with a laughing Lance in tow. "Problem?" Isabella asked as Yasmine scowled at her.

"Yeah, him," Yasmine jerked her head at Lance, who was still laughing at a joke none of them seemed to hear. "He's wasted and we gotta get him outta here before he ruins 'NSync's squeaky clean image."

"Since when do they have a squeaky clean image?" Isabella asked while gesturing to the two boys to hold on.

Yasmine sighed in frustration. "You know what I'm talking about! Now help me find Tammy and the others so we can get him outta here!"

Isabella sighed also, getting to her feet. "Well guys," she said with a mock frown of sadness, "I gotta go. Tell me that phrase I taught you that means 'See ya later'."

"Te quiero comer, mami," the two boys recited in unison as Yasmine frowned, then rolled her eyes at their ignorance. As she and Isabella walked off dragging Lance, Yasmine said, "You taught them to say, 'I wanna eat you" and told them that it really means, 'See ya later'? You are so going to hell."

"Yeah," Isabella smirked, "I know. But not for a while." She ran off to gather up the others and 'NSync's security as Yasmine dragged Lance over to the table Justin and Tammy were sitting at, and told them the problem.

Half an hour later, four very annoyed pop singers were dragging a very drunk Lance through the hotel lobby. "What are you doing?" Lance yelled loudly before Justin clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Will you shut up?" he hissed, then sending a friendly smile to the front desk clerks. Tammy, Yasmine, Isabella, and Lance's old friend Mary followed. "This sucks," Isabella scowled.

"I know!" Lance yelled after Justin removed his hand. "These guys are assho--!" His expletive was cut off as JC covered Lance's mouth with his hand until they got to the elevator.

"How often does this happen?" Mary asked the group as Lance giggled and played with Justin's curls.

"Would you stop that?" Justin slapped Lance's hand away. Turning to Mary, he answered, "This only happens when Lance drinks."

"And how often is that?" Yasmine frowned. She had never seen Lance like that before and didn't like it. He was so unlike the calm, laid-back Southern gentleman she knew and adored. Instead, his normally innocent green eyes glittered with mischief and he was groping everything in sight… even JC, who slapped him upside his head. "Would you stop, Lance? No one's in the mood for that shit," he scowled.

"Where's the security?" Tammy asked Isabella in Spanish. "We could kinda use some help here."

Isabella replied in Spanish, "I gave them a subliminal command back at the club to go up to their rooms before us and go to their rooms, not coming out 'til morning. I figured that three buff security guards carrying a drunk 'NSyncer into the hotel would attract a lot of unneeded attention." Tammy and Yasmine nodded their agreement as the guys wondered yet again what the girls could possibly be talking about.

The group exited the elevator and started towards the two suites. "This sucks," Isabella repeated. "Now I see what you mean when you say he can't hold his liquor, T."

Tammy snorted, completely disgusted with Lance. "Word."

"Hey," Lance looked around suddenly. "Where's all the bright lights? The music? The women?"

"We're not at the club anymore, Lance," Chris rolled his eyes. "We had to leave before you molested some poor fan."

"Oh?" Lance grinned nastily at Joey. "Didja bring any chicks back with you? I'm ready for some action!" He turned to Mary and put his hands on her butt, pulling her against him and nuzzling her neck.

"Eww, get off me, Lance!" she pushed him away. Justin immediately jumped in and pulled Lance away roughly. "What's your problem, man?" Justin snapped. "Calm down!"

Lance scowled and pushed Justin forcefully into the opposite wall. "Get offa me!" he slurred, stumbling slightly to the left. As Justin came at him again, he threw his fist wildly, which happened to connect with Justin's jaw. As Justin fell backwards holding his jaw, Chris, JC, and Mary tried to grab for him. JC and Chris tried to grab his arm, and Lance squirmed and wiggled out of their grasp, his face contorted with anger.

Tammy, Yasmine, and Isabella hung back, watching the scene with a certain sense of awe and disbelief. They were captivated by what they saw, for they had never seen the boys act like this. It was usually all about the jokes and just enjoying each other's company, but now that the skeletons were flying out of the closet at a demonic pace, the girls wondered if perhaps the chips had finally hit the fan and the popular group would go out like all the other boy groups: fighting and hating each other.

Yasmine and the others started to intervene when something very unimaginable happened. So unimaginable that everyone in the hallway froze, as if the shock of what took place paralyzed them. It started as a chain of hits: Lance hit JC and pushed Chris away, and Mary, fed up with Lance's antics, slapped him angrily in hopes of calming him down. It was then that everything went into super slow motion. Tammy saw Lance's hand rise and swipe at Mary's face, connecting with it with a loud crack. Mary flew against the wall roughly and Tammy immediately began to see red. She looked at Lance, her perfect image of him shattered. He wasn't the kind, sweet, innocent Lance she had imagined him to be; he was a maniac, a drunk, and most of all, an abuser. "And I have no tolerance for abuse," Tammy muttered as an image flashed across her memory.

As Tammy looked at Lance's angry face, it suddenly transformed into Tony's, and Tammy felt something take over her. Like some kind of demon, and the demon decided that she was thirsty for another murder.

Tammy took three long steps towards Lance and wrapped her left hand around his neck, slamming him against the wall and raising him three inches off of the floor. Lance immediately started choke from lack of air, but Tammy's grip never loosened.

"Are you crazy, boy?" she said with a deadly calm. Everyone in the hallway seemed frozen except for Isabella and Yasmine, who were looking at Tammy's arm and noticing something odd happening. "Oh hell no," Yasmine shook her head, not believing what she was seeing.

"It can't be," Isabella murmured, her gaze transfixed on Tammy's right arm. The arm with the tattoo of a black serpent ready to strike, the very same snake that was… "Alive?" Isabella whispered, still staring at the living snake on Tammy's arm whip it's head back and forth. As much as she didn't want to believe it, the evidence was right there in front of her. The very same snake that was supposed to be a mere picture on Tammy's flesh was alive, and sticking it's tongue back in and out, and baring it's sharp teeth, as if ready to strike and kill. And the look in Tammy's eyes wasn't any better. Her eyes were blank and almost… reptilian. As if the snake had taken over her and wanted to kill.

"I could kill you now, boy," Tammy hissed, her eyes transfixed of Lance's green ones. He was starting to turn purple from a lack of air and Yasmine wondered why no one had stepped forward to help Lance yet. A glance at them showed that they all looked scared and paralyzed. Yasmine instantly remembered something she saw on the Discovery Channel about how a snake hypnotized it's victims and paralyzed them with fear. "Hell no," Yasmine shook her head again, then decided it was time to jump in. "Stop it, Tammy!" her voice rang out. Tammy ignored her and continued to hold Lance in the air. "I said stop it!" Yasmine repeated, yanking Tammy's hand away from Lance's neck, resulting in him hitting the floor with a painful thud.

Tammy turned to Yasmine, her eyes still full of the serpent's hate, and suddenly calmed down. "I'm outta here," she scowled, stalking off.

"Are you okay?" Yasmine asked, helping Lance to his feet. She glanced at Isabella, who was leaning against the wall with her head down, seemingly in thought. "What are you doing, Belle?" Yasmine asked. A second later, she got her answer.

Serena appeared, saying, "What now?" She looked at the scene in front of her and realized that the guys of 'NSync, who were gaping at her in disbelief, had seen her materialize. "Are you crazy?" she asked Isabella. "Why'd you call me now? Here?"

"You know what you gotta do," Isabella sighed. She relayed the events that needed to be erased telepathically to Serena, who nodded.

"Wha--?" Joey stuttered, who had been strangely silent up until that moment.

"Here we go again," Serena sang, turning to the boys.

"How'd you do that?" Justin asked, the fear apparent in his eyes.

Serena answered with a smile, "I'll tell ya right now. Look deep into my eyes…" As she continued to drone out instructions to the guys, forcing them to forget the fact that they had seen Tammy lift Lance with one hand, almost kill him, and Serena's materializing from thin air, Isabella thought about the moving snake on Tammy's arm. "So that whole 'controlling' bullshit is really true," she mused. No matter what fallout of the fight the boys of 'NSync were gonna have to deal with the next morning, Isabella knew that they were definitely gonna have to learn more about their powers.