renda awoke before Marco did feeling extremely disoriented. She didn't believe what she'd experienced with Sonny had been a dream. She was positive it had really happened. It made absolute sense to her that there was this Limbo Land your mind went to while your body shut down for the night. It wasn't a very nice place at times. It was a place where those nightmares that made you wake-up screaming really happened. The place where erotic dreams took place. And now the place where she and Sonny could be together, if only while they slept.

Why did she have to fall in love with such a messed up individual, Brenda sighed. Half the problems they had were because of Sonny being afraid of their love and trying to run away from it. Of course, the other half of their problems could be laid directly at her doorstep. If she were honest with herself, she was just as messed up as Sonny was, but in a different way. And maybe therein laid the answer to her question. She and Sonny fell in love because they were made for each other. They were two very messed up individuals who found a great love together and that's just the way it was.

She looked over at Marco who looked so like Sonny while he slept, but was so different from him when he was awake. She couldn't help wondering if part of the reason she and Sonny were the way they were was because of the previous existences they lived and were in love together. While Brenda would willingly die for Sonny, which she had done literally as Belinda Jerrold, Sonny was terrified of their love for each other. Could part of that be because on some subconscious level he remembered that his love for Belinda had gotten him killed? It did put a whole other face on the situation, especially when you took into consideration how determined Marco was not to go back and face the fate that awaited him. If the memory of Marco somehow still lived inside of Sonny, his fear of their love and him seeing it as destructive, would explain a lot. The part of Marco that still existed inside of Sonny was determined not to let history repeat itself and let his love for Brenda lead to his ultimate destruction.

Brenda shook herself out of her introspection of all the ramifications of the situation she and Sonny found themselves in at present. If she wanted to start collecting the items Magda needed of Marco's to reverse the spell she cast, there was no time like now to start. Getting out of bed carefully, she went over to her purse and took out her minature sized manicure set. Removing the scissors from it, she returned to bed and carefully clipped a lock of Marco's hair off. Unfortunately the snip of the scissors awoke Marco and he glared at her with suspicion in his eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded to know.

Brenda clenched her fist closed over the lock of his hair she was holding in the palm of her hand. Then she used the scissors in her hand to snip at her cuticle. "I have a hangnail." She told him. "And I was just snipping it off." She added nastily. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Why don't I believe you?" He responded in the same vein.

"I don't know." She slid her scissors back into her kit. "And I don't really care. By the way." She took out a pair of toenail clippers and handed them to Marco. "Before we have sex again, clip your toenails. Last night was like having sex with a tiger with those sharp claws you have for toenails."

"Again?" Marco smirked. "You're already anticipating our next encounter? Then I take it you were pleased with my performance and are eagerly awaiting to experience it again."

"You take it wrong." She told him. "I hate to deflate that over inflated ego of yours. No wait, that's not true, I love doing it. Contrary to your opinion of your sexual prowess, one rut hasn't convinced me to give up on trying to bring Sonny back, which means you'll have to do it again. And when you do, I'd prefer your nails to be clipped."

"Does it occur to you this is a bizarre conversation for two people who had wild hot sex together the night before to be having." Marco retorted. "Shouldn't you be telling me I'm the best you've ever had?"

Brenda rolled her eyes in disgust. "You're not." She told him baldy. "So why would I lie and claim that you were."

"I was good enough to put you out like a rock all night." He reminded her. 'So I'd say that makes me pretty darn good, wouldn't you?"

Brenda didn't tell him that she had willed herself to go to sleep in hopes she could be with Sonny and that if she'd had her choice she would have never woken up again so she could have stayed with Sonny forever. "Whatever." Brenda got back to the issue at hand. "But if you want to have sex with me again, I suggest you trim your claws and I'd prefer you did it now."

"Fine." He pulled back the bedsheet and set to work trimming his toenails. Brenda made sure to keep track of where he threw the clippings so she could gather them later. Two down, and two to go. Now all she'd need to do was get some of his fingernail clippings and a vial of his blood. The blood would be the hardest thing to obtain and she still had no idea how she was going to get it without Marco figuring out why she wanted it.

Marco handed her back the clippers when he was finished. "Now that I've done something for you." He turned to her. "How about you doing something for me?" He gave her body a leering look.

"Just what did you have in mind?" She returned his perusal with one of her own.

"It occurs to me that the best way to get you to give up your quest to bring Corinthos' back." He boldly slid his hand between her legs and cupped her. "Is by giving this more pleasure than it's even known before."

"You really are crude." Brenda complained, but didn't move his hand away from her. In fact, she quite liked the feel of it just where it was.

"And you love my crudeness." He boasted. "I bet your precious little Sonny never made love to you like I did last night?"

"What we did was not making love." She corrected him. "It was just sex, pure and simple."

"And you loved every minute of it." He didn't disagree with her classification of what they'd done together. "And there are a whole list of other things I could do to you that you'd love just as much."

"Such as?" Despite herself, she felt herself being turned on by what he was saying. One of her deepest and darkest desires had always been to explore all the avenues that sex had to offer her and Alcazar had fulfilled that need in her the many years she'd been with him. But she hadn't been able to enjoy them to their full potential because the one she was doing those things with hadn't been Sonny. While she and Alcazar had done those things together, she would secretly pretend he was Sonny, but that always fell flat for her because deep down she knew he wasn't Sonny. Besides, she knew Sonny being the control freak he was he would have never agreed to it, because it was all about losing all control, while Sonny was all about keeping it. Now it was like Marco had somehow looked inside her mind and was offering her the chance to do all those things with Sonny that she'd always longed to do. Brenda felt like Eve being tempted by the apple. It would like be living out her most darkest fantasies. She could have the passion of being with Sonny with a man who'd be willing to go to the dark sexual places with her she knew Sonny would never agree to go to.

Marco mentally sifted through everything he'd read in Brenda's diaries that she had written during her days with Alcazar for just the right carrot to tempt her with. He'd never done any of those things himself, but she had written about them in such great detail, he was sure he'd have no problem doing them. In fact, when he'd read about Brenda's sexcapades with Alcazar, he'd been incredibly turned on by them and had wanted to experience the same thing with her. But, Marco cautioned himself, he had to be careful. He had to play it like he believed she had never done these things before and he believed he was tempting her to the dark side of sex. So maybe it would be best to start out with something that didn't stray too far off the forbidden path. Because if he got into the heavy stuff right off the bat, she might begin to suspect he'd read her diaries about how she wanted to do these things with Sonny and she'd realize he was using her own private thoughts and fantasies against her to control her and make sure she gave up all plans to try to send him back.

"Such as this." He rolled her on her stomach before she even knew what was happening. While she was recovering from that shock, he spread her derriere apart and came deep inside of her. While she was still gasping from the shock of his penetration there, he fastened his arms around her waist and settled her comfortably in his lap as he sat back with his cradled between his thighs. "Do you like this?" He whispered in her ear as he bit down on her earlobe. "Do you like having me inside you, this way."

"Yes." Was all she could manage to pant, as she became totally lost in the fantasy that this was Sonny doing these things to her. Reveling in the sound of his voice whispering in her ear. The feel of his body against and in her own. This was everything she dreamed it could be and more.

It only got better when she felt his hands on her breasts. "You know." He cupped her breasts in his hands. He squeezed them. And then he toyed with her nipples. "I can make you come in several different ways like this." She felt his hands leave her breasts and slide down to the nest of black curls between her thighs. "I can make you come like this." He spread her apart and began to work her body into a frenzy until he felt her convulsing against his fingers. "Or..." He didn't give her body a chance to calm down before he slammed her on her stomach and began ramming in and out of her. "I can do it like this." Each word was emphasized with a thrust in and out of her body.

When he was finished, she was beyond herself. She continued to lay limp as a rag on her stomach as she felt him pull out of her. He dropped a kiss on her upturned bottom, then trailed kisses up her back. Then he ruined the fantasy and had her plummeting back to earth. "Don't think your Sonny would have done that for you." His voice taunted her. "Only I can give you this. And I will as long as you don't try to send me back to my own time." He added. "If you want this to continue, forget all about Sonny and accept me as him."

He got up off the bed. "Now I'm going to take a shower." He walked to the bathroom, then looked back at her. "If you can summon up the strength, we could take a shower together." When he got no response, he shrugged and closed the bathroom door behind him.

She glared at the closed door, loathing both him and herself. When they were having sex together, she kept forgetting that he wasn't Sonny. It was only afterwards she remembered who he was and was disgusted with herself and him. She glared at the door, once again. He really thought he had her wrapped around his finger and a little hot sex was going to make her forget all about the love of her life and to let him die in his place. Wrong, Marco.

With determination, she climbed out of the bed and fished out the nail clippings from the waste basket. Then she pulled on her clothes and walked out of the bedroom. Feeling the way she did about Marco, it was best if she was gone before he finished his shower.

Brenda managed not to run into anyone until she walked out of the front door and headed to the elevator, just as Jax was stepping off it. All her loathing for Marco disappeared as she was suddenly in fear for his safety. If Jax could find someone to send Sonny back to a previous existence, just what did Jax have in mind for Marco. And if anything happened to Marco, she would never be able to bring Sonny back. Did Jax realize that and was that why he was here? Did he intend to kill Marco to trap Sonny in the past forever and then travel back in time to kill Sonny, as well.

"What are you doing here?" Brenda spat.

Jax treated her to a contemptuous look as he took in her wanton appearance. "My god!" He spat back. "You've been with him, haven't you?"

"You stay away from him, Jax." She warned him. "I know what you did to Sonny and I won't let your harm him, too."

"So much for your great love for Corinthos." He scorned her. "As long as it looks and sounds like him that's all that matters to you, isn't it."

She slapped him across the face. "Why can't you just go away and leave us alone." She cried. At one time she thought Jax had been the best thing to ever happen to her. She had thought he was better than Sonny and had even treated Sonny like he was inferior to Jax. How could she have been so wrong. If she had never gotten involved with Jax, this would have never happened to Sonny.

"Just let me go, Jax." She begged of him. "You'll never have me or my love. Just leave Port Charles and find yourself a new life and love for yourself somewhere else."

"And you'll never have, Sonny." He retorted, as he glared at the door of Sonny's penthouse. "Not in any way, shape or form." He meant Marco. "I'll see to that."

"Why?" She demanded to know. "Because I love Sonny and not you? To punish me for not loving you and for loving Sonny?" She added. "Jax, you knew the score when you met me. You knew I was madly in love with Sonny and was prepared to do anything to get him back. You even agreed to help me do it." Then she suddenly laughed bitterly as she finally came to a realization. "But that was all a lie, wasn't it? You never wanted me to get Sonny back. No, you looked on me as a challenge to conquer. I was like just another company for you to takeover. You thought you'd have no problem taking me over and making me love you the way I did Sonny. But I didn't behave in the way you expected me to. I never stopped loving or wanting Sonny. So you're going to make me pay for that by taking away from me the only man I've ever truly loved." She sneered. "You really are a prince."

"You used me." Jax accused. "How many times did you use me when you couldn't have your precious Sonny. How many times did you leave me high and dry when you could?"

"I didn't force you to be with me." Brenda said in her own defense. "You only were with me because you still hadn't won. You still hadn't conquered me and made me love and want you more than I loved and wanted Sonny. That's the only reason you took me back time after time. It was all about your ego and proving to yourself that you could see a woman who was madly in love with another man and make her feel the same way about you that she felt about him. I was the ultimate challenge to you." She added. "And if you had conquered me, you would have dropped me like a hot potato and moved on to the next challenge. Because you haven't won, you won't let me go until you've completely destroyed me. It's the only way you've got left so you can win."

"And I will win." He promised her. "I've taken Sonny away from you and I'll take Marco away from you, too. And when you're completely alone, then you'll know how I felt when you left me for Sonny and made me feel second best to some lowlife gangster who came from the wrong side of the tracks."

onny had been feeling apprehensive throughout the entire day as the time came closer and closer for him to go to St. Timothy's Church to pick up Belinda. He didn't know why he had such a strong reaction to a church he had no conscious memory of ever having been to, but he did. From the moment Belinda mentioned the name of the church he'd been filled with unease. He could even hear a voice screaming inside of his head to stay away from the place, because if he dared to go there he'd be opening up a can of worms he just didn't want to open. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to go there. She ordered him to come and pick her up and he had to follow her orders.

The feeling of unease grew as the carriage drew closer to the church. He didn't know how he knew he was getting closer to the church, but he did. The weather wasn't helping to erase his feeling of impending doom. The closer he got to the church, the darker the sky began to grow. Then lightning began to streak across the sky and the earth began to shake from the thunder that was beginning to echo more and more often. The rain finally began to pour down as Sonny finally arrived at St. Timothy's.

Sonny climbed down from the carriage and secured it to a hitching post. Pushing his wet hair off of his forehead and he looked up at the imposing image of the church. He couldn't figure out why this place was provoking such strong feelings inside of him, but he didn't like it. It made him feel like it had some kind of control over him and he couldn't stand it. So he decided to face whatever was waiting for him and began to walk towards the imposing structure.

As he did, flashes of memories began to flash before his eyes. He saw himself walking in the rain towards this church, but he was dressed in strange clothes. Clothes like he had been wearing when he woke up in the stables. It was a stormy night, too. He was soaking wet from the rain by the time he came in sight of the church doors. Then the doors began to open and she was standing in the doorway. She looked just like Belinda, but she was dressed completely different. Brenda, the name suddenly flashed through his mind. This was Brenda. Then another memory flashed through his mind. It was about a stormy night, too. He saw Brenda standing in the same doorway of the same church dressed in a wedding gown and he was standing in the rain watching her. It was their wedding day, he knew somehow, but he wasn't going to go inside that church to marry her.

The flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder brought on another memory. He could see the flash of gun fire coming from a gun as someone was emptying a gun into his body. He could feel the impact of each bullet as it entered his body. He could see her running to him and cradling his wounded body in her arms. The last thing Sonny remembered before he lost consciousness and fell to the ground in a dead faint was her screaming his name. Only the name she screamed wasn't Marco. It was Sonny.