"We have been talking. And we have a lot of questions for you young lady." My Dad said, putting his patronizing voice on. It had always worked when I was younger, but now it only served to annoy me. But me keeping everything a secret from them was kind of a crap move, so I guess I do owe them an apology.

"I am sorry." I said, trying to go back to my 5-year-old reasoning. "I found out what I could do when I was like 5, and back then all I could think about was not ending up like the mutated children I see in the hospital. Then nothing really happened until the Legre came into the Citybase..."

"What is it that you can do?" Mum asked, her eyes assessing me. "Your brother has inherited the Balkova genes, but it seems that you can do more."

I nodded, lifting up the small table next to the sofa. "I got the de Silver genes too. Somehow it skipped two generations." Both of my parents stared at me, and I wiggled under their glance, uncomfortable with the setting.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, my Dad sighed and shook his head. "I guess there really isn't any use in discussing what have already happened, although I am disappointed that you didn't think you can trust your own parents."

Biting on my lower lips, I let my Dad's attempt to guilt trip me slid. It was something he loved to do ever since I was young, and even though I was on the wrong this time, you couldn't blame the young me for being vigilant. And honestly, I might lobe my parents, but we had never been close.

"Alright..." I sighed as well, filling them in the adventure that is my life for the past two years to my parents. It was strange to recount all the tales, and I was surprised at how clearly I remembered everything. From the conversation I had with Nigel, getting picked up by Miss Sewell and my time at the Academy. Mr. Andrewson, the Classification test that went south, and then how we ended up on the run in the forests. Mum was silent through the entire thing while Dad's frown deepened. I then went on to how Nirmal had swooped in to help.

"And you just trust her right off the bat?" Dad questioned; he was the kind of person who had to have an opinion about everything, kind of like Lynette, actually. "What if she wanted to take advantage of you, or sell you to some facility?"

"Well, she isn't like that." I said, trying not to roll my eyes. My Dad continued on a rant about how I trusted people too easily and how they could have been this or that, like he actually knew how the POE world operate. He was the kind of person that had an opinion about everything, kind of like Lynette, actually. But no one likes a know-it-all, let alone one that doesn't actually know anything.

When he finally finished, I carried on and told them about going incognito and the Ganesh Family guard, I could tell that Dad wanted to say something again, but I quickly dodged it by jumping into the attack and how I ended up with the de Silver family. His family.

"Are you saying that you had no idea whatsoever about the de Silver?" I asked, watching my Dad's reactions closely and actually probed around his brain, trying to pick up on some juicy tidbit. Lynette was his mother, surely he would have noticed something.

"No." My Dad shook his head, and from what I could tell he was telling the truth. "She had always been hot and cold towards us, always over bearing and attentive, as though she was waiting for something to happen. Of course, now it all makes sense. She loved your grandfather a lot, but when he died, things just started going from bad to worse, and she even kicked me out of the house when I turned twenty one. From then on we haven't really kept in contact. I didn't even invite her when your mum and I got married, and she only started coming back into our lives when you were born."

Of course. She hoped that Dad or Aunty Janet would be a POE, but both of them turned out to be a norm. Then she hoped that the next generation would be one.

To distract Dad from mopping, I went on and reveal the message Akram had left for me, and of the plan that had brought me to Katerina and about the Originals. Both of them listened with wide eyes, Dad never having heard the story before and Mum being out of touch with the recent developments. After that, it was the meetings with the UGE, the trip to the Academy and the visit to Balikova family.

"Why did you run away?" I asked Mum, "Even without powers, grandpa and grandma would have accepted it."

Mum shook her head. "You have no idea how competitive it was being in a Legacy family. Three hundred years is a long time and there are many branches in the family and limited seats at the elders council as well as resources. We were compared to others in our generation since we could walk and even though your grandparents had been understanding in my lack of powers, it was difficult to live under the scrutiny and whispers of the others. I saw a chance of escaping that life for myself and I took it. Your uncles had been kind and they stayed away to be with me, but they wanted to escape as well. With Louisa taking charge, I didn't see the need for us."

Louisa. That name was oddly familiar. Then I remembered, she was mentioned by the Sea Legres when we first met, the last girl who could communicate with them.

"We took the Army truck from Edinburg Citybase to London – we had to pull some strings, but we managed to bribe our way there. And of course, I met your father." Mum said, glancing over at Dad, whom looked uncomfortable to be addressed. "He was everything I wanted to be – normal, with a steady job and a house. I didn't know that his mother is a de Silver until you were born, although I never thought it would be an issue."

My mind was still floating around when I felt a foreign presence, and my eyes widened when I realized it was my mother's. She was trying to see what Dad's reaction was. My mind was in utter confusion – I had assumed that she didn't have any powers at all...

She must have sensed me too, because she threw me a look that portrayed both sock and warning. I leaned back against the sofa, my mind unable to comprehend what had happened for a moment; I thought the whole reason why she never returned to the Balikova family was mostly because she didn't get her powers, which was the reason for the trip in the first place. This didn't make any sense. So she could read people's mind all these time and yet she had never used it? Why? I knew that I had abused my power more often than not when I was still in London; wouldn't it be funny if I had used my powers on Mum back then? She would have found out and that would completely change everything.

"So after you met with your other grandparents? What?" Dad asked impatiently, and I filled them in with meeting Chungkit Wong in Hong Kong Citybase and how we went outside the Walls to talk to the Sea Legres. And of course, after that we had come to London Citybase and they knew the rest.

"So, that boy that showed up at the last minute..." Mum started, obviously talking about Tom and my face flushed. This was not happening. I would rather be talking about my irresponsibility and Akram and saving the world than having the 'boyfriend' talk with my parents.

"What boy?" Dad suddenly looked alarmed; he was never very observant, which I guess was why he had no idea that his mother was part of a Legacy Family with super powers and her wif and children are POEs, too.

"The French one that carried her." My Mum rolled her eyes, and it was like we were a normal family. Talking about the boyfriend of the daughter. Argh.

"He's my boyfriend." I finally said, hoping that my confession would stop this torture. "And he will stay my boyfriend."

"I would have like that Viktor boy more, but this guy seems fine too, what's his name?" Mum mused and I felt the urge to just run out of the room.

"Tom." I finally managed to coax his name out, Mym seemed to be enjoying making me feel uncomfortable, while Dad was still deciding whether he should give in to his curiosity or play the protective Dad role.

"Well, bring him to meet us soon; and meanwhile try to stay safe, I don't want to be a grandmother yet." My mother deadpan and I bolted out of the room, too embarrassed to even say another word.

"There you are!" John de Silver exclaimed, and I was never so glad to see another human being in my life. "Everyone has been wondering where you have been."

"I, er, was just talking to my parents." I stumbled a little through my words, but John didn't notice. He just kept talking.

"Great talk by the way," John said, swinging his arm around my shoulder and steering me down the corridor. "You have inspired a lot of people."

"Yeah?" I replied, saying it's more like a question as I could see that he was hinting about something more. We had reached the staircase by then and I could hear voices. As we descended the stairs, I could see the back of Lynette's head as well as Gerald's grandfather, both of them talking to a man that looked vaguely familiar.

"Hello there." the man looked up and I tried to remember where I had seen him before, then another girl appeared in leather garb and my mouth dropped.

"Trevor? Maria?" their names rolled of my tongue as I stopped in front of the two mercenaries who had brought us into the Yunan Citybase.

"Hey you!" Maria said, looking at me up and down like she was meeting me for the first time.

"How, why are you guys here?" I asked; I had nothing against mercenaries, especially since these two saved our bacon from the scums that wanted to sell us off to the highest bidder.

"We were actually in Pax for some business when we saw your broadcast." Trevor said; and from the way he said business, I guessed that they were here to auction off whatever goods they recently acquired outside the Citybases. "Things have been chaotic for a while now, and running into you outside Yunan Citybase was just one of the incidents. We knew that something was wrong and it took your message for us to see how bad things really are. And we wanted to help."

My eyes widened as I took in the good news. This was more than I had hoped for when I demanded the UGE let us talk about our side of the story. I had wanted the public to rally with us, not against us, but having someone here because of that had raised my hopes up higher than they had ever been.

"And we are just talking to them about it." Lynette said, turning around. When she saw Dad, her eyes narrowed, but not in the usual condescending way. I wondered whether or not she felt bad for being so harsh on Dad and Aunt Janet; she couldn't blame something as uncontrollable as genetics on them, even though she might want to.

"We are about to get a conference call with the UGE, they had called in for an emergency meeting." Gerald appeared beside me without a sound and I almost had a heart attack. "Apparently there is urgent news."

Slipping into a spare room where Grandpa Hugo and most of the other important members of the Legacy Families had already gathered, the screen flickered on and I could see Richard Simmon's face. He looked a little ruffled, and the General was beside him.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the unscheduled call but there has been a recent development that needed to be addressed." Richard immediately said, his hands laced together. "I will let Gerenal Kirkpatrick explain."

The General, whose name I finally found out stepped forward as Richard made way for him, his face more serious than I thought possible. "Our geotechnical reconnaissance team had uncovered some interesting data outside of the Egypt Citybase, near the ancient Pyramids. It appeared to be a geological anomaly which on closer inspection, turned out to be an extensive building. Larger than we had ever seen."

His words sent a chill down my spine and shuddered t think what the base of the Apocalypse would look like. They had started the World Ender Bombs, so they would have had plenty of time to stock up and build themselves a huge facility right under the nose of the Old World Government. And who knew what kind of improvements they might have made in the past three centuries plus?

"We are now installing monitors around the entire area." The General continued, "And we are starting to call in reinforcement to the region. There will be mass movement moving out from Pax in 19:00 hours sharp, we would like you all to be on board and help ease the conflicts with the Legres."

The room fell into a silence and I could almost hear the wheels turning in everyone's brain, trying to decide whether or not this was a trap or if it would work to our advantage. I felt a little worried at the mention of the Legres; while we had broadcast the renewal of peace to everyone around the world, the Legres didn't quite had the same system and it was something that we had yet to address. Unfortunately, time was not our friend at the moment.

"How much space do you have?" I asked, ignoring a few alarmed and angry glances that was sent my way. We were never going to get anything done if we were to second guess our allies' every move. And I had to trust that the UGE saw the bigger picture and was willing to work with us.

"Bring as many people as you want." Richard interrupted the General, the latter shot him an evil look that was not dissimilar to the ones I was receiving here. "But meet us there on time."

The call ended abruptly, and I didn't have to be a seer to know that Richard and the General would be in for a talk. Not up for another round of political talking with the people who cannot see the perils we were faced with, I placed my arms on my hips and decided to go first.

"We need to be in Egypt Citybase and know where they are based if we want to be one step ahead of them. And the truth is we are not; we don't even know what their big plan is. The only thing we can do is to target their head and hope that if we cut it off, it will be dead for once and for all. We don't have time to second guess everything if we want to stop them."

The sound of clapping from behind me made me jump and I turned around to see Lorenzo and Gerald walking in, along with most of the younger generation. Nirmal and Sue gave me an encouraging smile while Casey raised her thumbs at me.

"If you don't want to go, we will." Elena said; she had a fierceness about her that none of us had; whether it was from birth or something else I couldn't tell. Fabio, whom I hadn't got much of a chance to talk to, was right beside her and the two of them pretty much stared at everyone around the table as though challenging them to defy them.

"Go." Grandpa Hugo said, a smile on his face. "It'll be your world more than it will be ours. Perhaps it's time for you to take over."

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Cynthia's face lit up and then dimmed as she looked at me. Gerald pretty much had the same expression, both of them unsure of how their position would be affected by me. I had never had a taste for this kind of thing, but I couldn't help but think that maybe I would be a better leader than either of them.

"We have an hour to get everything wrapped up, then we will head to the airfield." I declared, and watched as everyone else filed out to pack. It still shocked me sometimes how everyone listened to my command now, though I knew there would come a moment when it will become a double edged sword. However, trained everyone was, we were not prepared to battle with our own kind, let alone people that we knew but got brainwashed. When the moment came when we might have to fight them, I had no idea what I would do or how they would react, but it was a strong possibility that I had to prepare for.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Tom asked, his signature frown was back on. Fred and Natalie was right behind him, and Casey, Diego and Viktor were there as well. I nodded at Tom briefly before I looked at Diego.

"Do you want to go?" I asked, watching him closely. Under normal circumstances, Diego would be an asset for us as he knew things about the Apocalypse. However, with the mystical curse that almost killed Lorenzo and the absence of Saralisa to save him, him coming with us wouldn't be that useful. In fact, he might even get too distracted or just end up dying when he accidentally tried to reveal information.

"I need to come." Diego said, determination shinning from his eyes. "I need to find Iago."

"Had they taken him as well?" Casey gasped; she was never the one to hold her tongue. Diego's determination slipped and in its place were a trickle of fear. Fear of how everyone would react when they learned the truth.

"We will find out." I answered. "Together."

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Monday update is back - and this time without a cliffie! Rejoice! 

Anywho - I want to apologise for not replying to a lot of comments, I have been on electronic detox, which doesn't mean that I am away completely, but I try to stay away from them as much as possible since m eyes are not really getting better. Bummer.

Some explanation from papa Richard about how much he knew about the de Silver family is over due, and I am glad I got around to it, and we will get back to Diego and Iago soon as well!

A lot of you probably don't remember Trevor and Maria, I mean, I did too...haha

There's another mention of Louisa, the girl who had the Legre communication genes before Abigail, she's not an important character in this story, though her story is interesting and I might write something on her :) I need to find a way to expose more about the world of the POE families and mercenaries anyway.

Prepping for the Dark Ages is under way, and I must say, this story would be Mature and might be a bit Game of Thrones-ish, so be wear those of you under 18... 

As always - comment and vote!