Viktor exclaimed as my eyes were slowly adjusting after the brilliant flash had died down. I could hear footsteps and some shoving as the others gathered around me.

"I think we have found the source." Casey swallowed hard. Blinking rapidly for a few more times, I was finally able to see again and couldn't help but be in awe of the machine in front of me.

"It's beautiful." I breathed, staring at the eerily lifelike machine in front of me. It had a clear casing that's fluid in shape, with an intricate set of crystal like pipes inside flowing with electric blue fluid. For a moment we all just stood there, absorbing the beauty of it.

"We need to turn it off." Diego said, snapping everyone out of the trance. "Whatever it is, it must be the reason behind all these. If we turn it off everything would return to normal."

"But the barrier would also close down." Fred pointed out, staring accusingly at Diego. He still didn't think we could trust him. "That means whoever shot Vulture out there could easily come in and attack us."

"The Academy has its own defence system." Diego said, ignoring Fred's tone. "One that Mr. Andrewson could activate if he isn't in a coma."

The two of them continued to stare at each other and Natalie threw me a please-help look. Sighing, I weighted our options in my head and turn to look at Viktor.

"Do you think you can work out how to operate this thing?" I asked and Viktor turned to inspect the machine more carefully. It wasn't as big as I imagine something that could power two massive barriers to be, only about two meters tall and one meter across. From where we were standing I couldn't see any buttons or control panels on it at all.

"There must be a hidden latch somewhere..." Viktor muttered to himself and everyone's attention focused back on him. Casey and Iris went back to wheel Vulture into the room properly, taking care not to roll the bed over Mr. Oscar.

Pulling out the notebook Mr. Andrewson gave me, I wondered if there was a clue inside for this as well. If the cover was the key to entering the second barrier, would the back be instructions to operate the machine?

Flipping to the back, I was disappointed to see that it wasn't inlaid with hieroglyphics like the front. Having leafed through the entire book, I didn't recall seeing anything that could help me with operating a futuristic machine.

"I found something." Viktor said, his body bent halfway around the machine and probed at something. Suddenly, whirling sound was coming off from the previously silent machine and everyone took a step back in alarm.

"What did you do?" I asked, panic gripping my heart as the machine continued to make noises loud enough to wake the dead. I threw a glance back at Mr. Andrewson, hoping that he would jump up from his comatose state and offer us help. No such lucks.

"I...I don't know." Viktor stammered and raised his hands into the air, taking a few steps back for good measure. I took a step forward, but Diego stopped me quickly.

"Let's wait this out." He said. The colours of the blue liquid intensified even more and seemed to be glowing. I had to shield my eyes again and saw the others do the same out of the corner of my eyes. The noise now resembled something akin to a human scream before everything suddenly died down.

"Ok..." The blue light seemed to lose all the life in it and dimmed down. I took an uncertain step forward and this time Diego didn't stop me. There was now a panel on the front, a kind of circular depression with a dial.

The dial resembled a clock with twelve points ending in a symbol; on closer inspection, I realized that I knew some of them very, very well. "It's the Originals' family crest." I whispered, my finger running over the de Silver sigil; there was one that I couldn't recognised, one with a unicorn. And the dial wasn't a dial after all – but a needle-like prick in the middle only. And I had a sneaking suspicion that this thing doesn't run on just technology.

"Surely not..." Viktor trailed off, running both his hands through his hair in frustration when he saw the settings. "I really thought this is a machine."

"You are still right." Iris piped out form the back, scaring Fred. "I think this is a biometric identification system."

"Why can't they use finger prints?" I muttered under my breath, but Diego heard me and laughed. Rolling my eyes, I started putting my finger towards the pin prick.

"Maybe we shouldn't be so rash." Natalie said worriedly, eyeing the machine with uncertainty. "What if this thing poisons Gail?"

Fred coughed and I gave him a glare. That would suit him quite well. Whether or not I would get poisoned by the futuristic machine, I was the only one here with Original blood unless we were to drag Mr. Andrewson over. Hm...

"Maybe we should use Mr. Andrewson's blood?" Diego mused, great minds obviously think alike. We all turned to look at his unsuspecting form hanging on the chair and I wondered if that might be a little too mean of me.

"Let's just get this over and done with." I said and pressed my index finger onto the prick. The pain wasn't too bad, and I watched as the needle retracted with a drop of my blood and the de Silver and Balikova sigil glow a bright blue.

"Wait, you are a Balikova too?" Diego turned to look at me in surprise. Someone knew their Original sigils well. I nodded at him; it wasn't exactly a secret, but the fact that I was also distantly related to Victoria Balikova just never came up in conversations. People usually stop asking questions after noting that I am a de Silver and looked exactly like my ancestor who died over three hundred years ago. This wasn't exactly something you dropped on someone during a normal conversation; or any conversations.

"I need to sit down." Diego muttered, putting an arm against the wall for support. I turned my full attention back on the machine, where the dial had now disappeared seamlessly into the main body and a hologram like panel appeared on my eye level.

"Analyzation complete." A singsong female voice announced, startling me. However the real shock came when my face and personal details appeared, projected by something on the surface of the machine somehow. "Abigail Lyndsey de Silver Beckett, born 30th June, 2399. Daughter of Richard Malcom de Silver Beckett, direct descendent of Akram de Silver through line number 13, and Florence Jade Story, direct descendent of Victoria Balikova through line number 4. Code Blue initiated."

Blinking, I noticed something that looked like a timeline below the machine, but before I could get a proper look the details vanished – replaced by today's date. Even though I knew my mother was a descendent of Victoria Balikova, I couldn't help but wonder what the line number meant.

"My word, Miss Abigail Lyndsey de Silver Beckett; what an interesting family history you have." Vulture's cracked voice punctuated the silence and everyone looked at him in surprise. He was struggling to sit up and was quickly stopped by Iris.

"Glad to see you are not brain damaged." I retorted; turning back to see if by any luck a control panel had popped up.

"Current age: eighteen. Access level: S." The voice continued and my heart almost stopped in anticipation. This got to be good! "Please state your command."

Looking at the machine with hopeful eyes, it took me a moment to realise that I was supposed to speak my command. Throwing a questioning glance at everyone for some bright ideas, I decided to give it a wild shot.

"Explain the current situation." I shouted, perhaps a little too loudly, making Diego jump next to me. The machine stayed silent for a little while before another screen popped out.

"First barrier is now under attack. There was an earlier breach that is now fixed." The voice announced and an eerily high definition video was put on showing a group of people firing at the wall. Everything was blue and white and the angle was taken from above, making the scene a little hard to observe. But the group was large. Too large.

"Second barrier has been deactivated." The voice continued, showing the front gate that was left wide open by us. We probably should have closed it on our way in. "Seven people have entered the Freeze Zone and Sleep mode is being affected by the deactivation and intrusion. Please state your command."

Sleep mode... that didn't explain to us what the caused the comatose state of everyone. "Please reactivate the second barrier and disable Sleep mode." I called out. "And reinforce the first barrier."

A green light flashed across the screen and the heaviness we felt in the air began to subside. I looked at the three sleeping figures expectantly. It was actually scary how easy this had been so far, well apart from the problem with getting in the first barrier. It was as though someone anticipated our arrival. Did Mr. Andrewson add my details into the machine and authorized my clearance level? Mr. Oscar did take some of my blood when I entered the Academy.

Giving the machine some lingering looks, we decided to evacuate everyone out of the room saved from me so we wouldn't overwhelm Mr. Andrewson and co when they wake up. As soon as the Sleep mode were deactivated, our watches, I mean personal device, started working again. So Natalie and Fred were to check on the people in the Great Hall while Casey and Viktor would take a sweep around the Academy checking if there were any stragglers not in the Great Hall. Diego and Iris would wait outside with me while keeping an eye out for Vulture who was trying to get out of bed without success.

Taking a long look at Saralisa Spenser's face, it was hard for me to bring my mind around the fact that she, too, knew my ancestor Akram three hundred years ago. I wondered if Mr. Andrewson knew her real identity, but somehow I doubted it.

"Abigail?" Mr. Andrewson's questioning voice brought me out of my reverie and I couldn't even begin to describe how relieved I felt when I heard his voice. Even though Katerina had been an immense help in every way possible, but hearing his voice was like I had finally gone home.

"Mr. Andrewson!" I blinked away the tears threatening to spill out of my eyes and wondered where the sudden burst of sentimentality came from. "How are you feeling?"

My headmaster blinked at me, then again as he looked around looking a little lost. After several seconds Mr. Oscar began stirring from the ground as well and Saralisa's eyes were twitching.

"You were all passed out when we arrived." I explained, talking slowly so that he had time to take the words in. "We managed to start the strange machine and deactivate the Sleep mode."

Just like that, as soon as I finished the last two words Mr. Andrewson's head snapped at me, Saralisa's eye opened and Mr. Oscar leaped up from the ground. "The Sleep mode." Mr. Andrewson repeated, looking at me like I was telling him that the Apocalypse had taken over the world. "How long had it been?"

"Since when?" I asked uncertainly, then decided I should just tell them the date. "Today it's the 27th July, 2417."

Sharing a look with each other, Mr. Andrewson stood on his feet and nearly fell over. "The barriers." He gestured frantically in the air as he struggled towards the machine. "Apocalypse!"

Not entirely sure what he was saying, I decided I should just play along and helped him to the machine. Sticking his thumb on the surface for a few seconds, a blue glow rippled from it and the dial appeared instantly. Blinking at the advance technology, I watched as Mr. Andrewson shakily pressed his thumb on the prick again and the Balikova sigil glowed.

"Peter Walter Andrewson, born 5th April, 2382. Son of Eric Peter Andrewson, a direct descendent from Victoria Balikova through line 1. Current age: 35. Access level: SS. Please state your command."

Surprised that Mr. Andrewson didn't have the highest level of access, I glanced at the photo of a younger Mr. Andrewson and saw a line of events, similar to mine, under his name. Again, it disappeared before you can look further, but I caught the word Headmaster in it.

"Diagnostic report." Mr. Andrewson said, his voice quivering and I was beginning to have a feeling that even though Mr. Andrewson knew how to operate this, he didn't expect to use it.

"Running diagnostic. Diagnostic complete." The voice said, "First barrier under attack, second barrier re-established and fully functional. Sleep mode deactivated. Power remaining: 10%. Time before power runs out: 5 hours. Please state your command."

Blinking in shock at the swear word that Mr. Andrewson just uttered, I tried to absorb the bad news that we only had five hours left before the barriers run out.

"Is everything okay?" Diego's head popped in through the door and his face froze when he saw Mr. Andrewson standing next to me. I frowned at him – I thought he would be happy to see our headmaster up and running – but his face quickly changed to a smile.

"Deigo." Mr. Andrewson smiled at him, acting more like himself. "Who else is here with you?" Mr. Adnrewson turned to me and asked. Diego had moved in to help Mr. Oscar up and Saralisa was stretching her arms out as I tried to bring them up to speed as much as possible, starting with the test.

"I am here with Natalie, Fred, Casey, an SMS student Viktor Graham and two UGE operative code named Iris and Vulture. They are waiting outside the door; Vulture was hurt when we entered through the first barrier." I swallowed hard when I finished relating all the events, grabbing for my bottle of water in my backpack. Mr. Andrewson's face was an unreadable mask and I could feel the weight of Saralisa's glance. She must know about the portrait hanging on the walls of Katerina's castle. And that I knew who she was.

"Edmir." Mr. Andrewson turned to Mr Oscar, "Perhaps you would tend to our friend?"

Mr. Oscar smiled when I caught his eye and I smiled back. He had been kind to me since the start and I was glad to see that he was okay. Diego gave me a look and nodded slightly towards Mr. Andrewson before accompanying Mr. Oscar out. He wanted me to ask about the machine.

"What is that thing?" I asked Mr. Andrewson, wasting no time. Mr. Andrewson sighed and sank back down to the chair that he just got out of, looking as though he had aged ten years. Saralisa had her hands interlocked and lips pursed – surely she would know even if Mr. Andrewson didn't.

"Have a seat." Mr. Andrewson said and I quickly obliged, "It's a story best heard off your feet."

Saralisa made no move to leave and Mr. Andrewson didn't say anything – I wondered briefly if it meant that he knew who she really was. But my attention was quickly focused back on Mr. Andrewson as he began telling me the bizarre tale.

"This is a machine that was presented to the Originals on the day that the Academy was created." Mr. Andrewson said, "From a man claiming to be from the future."

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And here it is! Arguably the third most important chapter/plot twist after de Silver and the Originals from Selection.

Is everyone happy that I updated? :D This really isn't a cliffie, is it? :P Comment and vote - let me know what you think!

Unlike the other two - I didn't have this one in mind until very, very recently. And as much as I want to keep this to myself, I am just not good at it. This chapter and the next are a potential backdoor pilot for the THIRD POE CHRONICLES - about these future time travelling peeps and the 12th house with the unicorn (sorry, somehow I chose the unicorn in a panic so we are stuck with it unless I revise it when I edit).

Anyway, the Dark Ages would be a priority, and we will see how the story matures in my mind from now on. But like I said earlier - I have every intention of exploring the POE universe as much as possible.

Also, isn't it kind of funny how the new X-men movie is called the Apocalypse? I almost fell off my chair when I found out!

A very Happy New Year to you all! And may 2016 be a great year to everyone.

P.S. on a side note, I just wrote my 2015 travel in review for my travel blog. If anyone is feeling nosy in my life, feel free to pop over and check it out:

http://www.laughtraveleat.com/behind-the-scenes/my-2015-travel-review/

P.P.S I almost forgot! I found THE PERFECT AKRAM - his a German actor called Jannis Niewohner, pic is attached. I will post Victoria Balikova's actress pic up next chapter. I do like it better when I can visualise them. Makes it more cool and real.

P.P.S I will be uploading a synopsis/intro/teaser of this backdoor future thing on my facebook page later today - so go and like my page :P