----------an extra long update to make up for the confused posting last week!--------

I folded my hands neatly on my lap in an attempt to compose myself through physical actions. But the only thing that it did was make me uncomfortable and anxious. Nirmal was equally tensed next to me, something that I didn't see often in her. The rest of the younger generation of the Legacy family milled about in the room, all of us still in the clothes that we wore for the livestream since we flew right back and marched ourselves to Katerina's apartment.

"The livestream is a success." Viktor said, coming through the door with dishevelled hair and a bundle of nervous energy. "There's apparently uproar everywhere, particularly the Citybases that were blocked from receiving the earlier footages. The UGE had been pestering the main base and I think we have an hour or two before our presence would be missed."

Nodding, I surveyed the room taking in everyone's mood; it seemed that all of us were nervous and some confused. Chungkit Wong had disappeared, herded away by Saralisa as soon as we arrived. I had told Katerina that we needed to talk and the Original had nodded in understanding.

A staff came in and set down a tray of tea and biscuits for us, and I picked one up just to have something to do with my hands. I wasn't in the mood to eat anything when I was this close to getting answers to the mystery that had been plaguing me for what seemed to be forever.

"What do you think they are hiding?" Nirmal asked, keeping her voice low so the others wouldn't hear from their various pacing or thinking place in the spacious living room.

"A lot. And I am really hoping that they will finally tell us." I answered; too wired up to explain to Nirmal about all the little bits that I picked up over the last year.

Finally, Katerina, Saralisa and what looked to be a completely recovered Chungkit entered the room. Everyone immediately paused what they were doing and gathered around.

"Well done." Chungkit said, giving me a smile. I nodded at the Original, feeling a little flattered by his attention and a nibble of guilt at the fact that I let him offer himself up to be held by the Sea Legres

"Doesn't this remind you of what we were like?" Katerina smiled, there was something a little different about her, but I couldn't quite figure it out yet. She was talking to Saralisa, who looked more tense than usual, but gave a stiff nod of acknowledgment to Katerina's question.

"Miss Katerina." Sebastian did a little bow to Katerina, who looked dotingly at the young man.

"Sit down, Sebastian." She urged, and then turned to those who were still standing. "In fact, can everyone please take a seat?"

Everyone obliged, after all this was a) her home and b) she's like three hundred years older than us.

"Abigail, can you tell us what is going on?" Lorenzo demanded, pinching his nose and looking like he hadn't slept in days. "One minute you wanted to add Viktor to the group in case something happens, the next you whipped out the original Peace Treaty Contract and added both of your names on it."

The three Originals looked at me in surprise, and I glared at Lorenzo's version of the truth. That was not what happened.

Nirmal, being the lovely person that she was, quickly jumped to my defence. "Lorenzo is exaggerating; I think it was the right thing to do. Moreover, the Legres didn't object."

I could see Ben Smith nodding at Nirmal word, but he seemed to be a pretty easy going guy and I doubt he would have anything bad to say about anybody. But of course, I would never get off that easily.

"I think before we all jump into conclusion, we should give Gail a chance to explain." Cynthia cut in, though a glint in her eyes told me that her actions weren't purely selfless. She probably hoped that I would embarrass myself or make a bigger mess out of this so they would all tell the Balikova family what a failure I was, so she could take on the role that I had never wanted to compete with her over. Spoiled brat.

So this was how I ended up having fourteen sets of eyes staring at me, waiting for me to explain my actions. I sighed, the only thing my explanation would bring was more questions, but hey, they were asking for it.

"I would have to start from when we broke back into the POE Academy," I began, filling them in on the mysterious Time Guardian and the twelve dials, as well as why I thought Viktor was the twelve person. Then I moved onto a little bit about Akram and his message to me, as almost everyone here didn't know about this, and who knew what kind of lies their family might have said to them about the reinstatement of the de Silver family.

I wasn't sure whether or not I should divulge the more personal stories with Saralisa and my speculation on Katerina and her powers. But as the eyes of everyone continued to bore a hole on my head, I decided that we all deserve to know what our ancestor did, or at least, some part of it.

"What really happened?" I asked, feeling like I was on the verge of word vomit and yet had nothing to say because I was so nervous. "Why is it so important that there are no photos or information of you all apart from the bare basics?"

The only reason why I caught the concerned look Saralisa and Chungkit Wong gave Katerina was because I was watching carefully, and it passed so quickly that I almost felt like I imagined it. But the silence that came as the rest of us waited for the three of them spoke stretched, and I wondered whether or not they were going to tell us anything at all.

"Is it true?" Nirmal suddenly spoke up, looking at Saralisa, "About how Yasim died?"

Saralisa flinched like Nirmal's words were a physical punch to her face, leaning back away from us slightly. Katerina reached up and held Saralisa's hand on her right shoulder in a supportive gesture, which only served to make me more curious.

"Yes." Saralisa answered and Nirmal tensed like something just told her that Homecoming day would be cancelled this year. Saralisa looked beyond uncomfortable, but there was no mistake in the expressions on Chungkit and Katerina's face: guilt.

Yasim's power was power absorptions, my mind jumped to how Saralisa used my powers to aid Lorenzo's near-death aneurysm, and how Katerina and Cungkit managed to live for three hundred years. I felt like the dots all connect now and I couldn't help but stare at the Originals with wide eyes. Surely even they wouldn't do it...

"He gave all his powers and more to me so I can keep another two members alive." Saralisa answered, her voice pained and she looked like she would rather be anywhere than here. "He wasn't supposed to give up that much, but he didn't want the consequences be on me."

Saralisa's face told me that she had said more than she wanted to, and promptly closed her mouth. Nirmal still didn't look like herself, her fingers twisting around each other and a faint red glow could be seen from her fingers. She was upset enough that her powers started manifesting. Not good.

"Why would he do that?" Nirmal asked; more a rhetorical question and I felt like we were still missing a piece of the puzzle. Yasim was the oldest of the Originals when they converged, and if he was anything like Nirmal – he would have been a big brother to them all, trying to protect them from harm. But surely he wouldn't just give up his life like that. That must be something that we didn't know. However, I knew that Saralisa was done answering more questions.

"In fact, it's probably time for us to go." Chungkit suddenly said, and at first I thought he wanted to leave. The horror on Lei An's face clued me into the fact that he didn't mean going away from this place, but from life.

"No!" Lei An shouted, then began to spoke to Chungkit rapidly in Cantonese (I finally learned that apparently that speaking Chinese is not a thing; people in Hong Kong Citybase speaks Cantonese, while the rest of the Chinese Citybases mostly speak Mandarin). Chungkit's replied were brief and passive, and I could tell Lei An wasn't happy with his answers.

Guilt bubbled up inside me and I wondered if his time being trapped in that water cocoon thing had somehow affected him. I knew that even if it had affected him, it would be the last straw of over three centuries of living, but in my heart I knew that I really shouldn't have left him like that, but I didn't know how else we could prove to the Sea Legres that we were serious with our offer for peace.

I had let Chungkit sacrifice himself for us, despite the fact that he had done so much already, and it's eating me up inside that he was basically telling us that he didn't want to live anymore.

"I have been alive for three lifetime's worth." Chungkit said, switching to English all of a sudden. "I have done all that I can and see all that I wanted and more; I have no more business lingering around in a world that's in capable hands now. Our existences have acted as a cushion for the POE community and the world for centuries, but this was never meant to last forever."

Pursing her lips, Katerina nodded and a wave of panic and sadness washed over me. Chungkit was right; we had been using the existence of the Originals as a crutch, perhaps even more so in the recent years than usual. Katerina had kept the UGE on their best behaviours and Chungkit Wong had kept the continual peace with the Sea Legres; without him there, the situation might deteriorate like the other continents. Heck, even I had been relying on Katerina for her hospitality and help.

In fact, we had yet to address the other Legre leaders in the America and we would need to negotiate with the mercenaries and various POE families, UGE and SMS on the peace treaty with the Legres. We might have taken the first step towards long lasting peace, but there are many more steps to be taken before we get there.

"But what about the UGE? And SMS? And the Legres?" Cynthia looked accusingly at the trio, her tone was unnecessarily harsh. I winced, knowing that this stickler for rules felt like the Originals were abandoning us, but didn't she see that they had done all that they could? They deserved a break from all these. Life wasn't always black and white, just because they finally wanted out doesn't mean that they were abandoning us. There is a time where all things have run its course and not matter how much we wanted it to, nothing lasts forever.

"We won't be able to make it without you." Joelle added pleadingly, looking extremely lost. Similar vibe was coming off from Sebastian, Lei An and Ben, but Marcus, Lorenzo and Elena didn't seem like they cared at all.

"It's not our decision." I finally said; Nirmal nodded in agreement. "Don't you think that they have done enough for us?"

"It's time for us to pick up the burden ourselves." Elena said, and I was surprised at her outburst. She hadn't been particularly respectful of the Originals, but then they had done the least to help her, and at least she wasn't being all accusing like Cynthia. "We are not children, we cannot expect help from people for everything."

"I agree with Elena." Nirmal said and Chung nodded.

The room fell into another silence after that, no one seemed to be in a mood to speak. I wish Kailey was here so she could turn the mood around a little; a sudden beeping sound penetrated the quietness and Viktor jumped and attempted to dig his phone out of his pocket.

"Hello?" Viktor answered the phone and I could hear muffled voices from the other side spilling out words like no tomorrow. Viktor nodded and made some agreeing noises, unaware of the fact that he was now the center of attention.

"We need to get back, the UGE sent people." Viktor ended the call as he spoke, "They want to talk."

"Please don't do anything before we have a chance to talk about this again." I looked into Katerina's eyes and plead. I didn't know what I would do without them. Katerina didn't look pleased about this, but she nodded and put a hand on the side of my face.

"You have done well." She said, smiling. "I know you want to know the truth, but sometimes a secret is best kept hidden. Perhaps, one day, you will uncover the story – but it's not time yet."

A little confused by her riddle talk, I nodded; I felt frustrated that I couldn't get more answers, but also a little guilty that I had forced them into a corner and made them answers things. And I was also scared. What would the world be like without the Originals if they all decided they want to die?

---

"There you are!" Lynette exclaimed as soon as we were through the front door, as though she had anticipated our arrivals. "We have all been trying to locate you. You can't just disappear like that."

"We needed to bring Chungkit Wong to Saralisa's." I answered before anyone went and spill their guts, I didn't need Lynette to give me her two cents in this matter nor did I particularly want her to know anything that I was doing.

"Well done on the contract, by the way." Lynette told me and patted me on my shoulder in a grandmotherly way. "Akram would rest in peace now."

I resisted the urge to tell her that she had no idea what Akram were like, and that she had her wishes confused with his. Luckily, Tom appeared as soon as we rounded the corner and he immediately came to me.

"Are you okay? You look stressed." He picked up on my mood and asked; I nodded, then shook my head to let him know that I will talk to him later about it. We had more pressing matters to attend to.

Sue appeared along with Fabio Alvarez-Carillo, both looking a little frazzled. Grandpa Hugo and a few members of the Legacy family higher ups followed and looked relieved to see us.

"Abigail, you are needed in the conference room. Nirmal, Elena and Lei An, would you come along as well please." Grandpa Hugo said, a slight pained look on his face. I didn't miss the indignant look on Cynthia's face when she heard that she wasn't included, and she wasn't the only one who felt left out.

"Don't bring your boyfriend." Lynette said before I could even open my mouth and I wanted to smack that look on her face. Why did she have to be such a disagreeable person? Why couldn't I just have some normal hat knitting grandmother?

"Don't worry about me, I need to check on Matthias. I will talk to you later." Tom said, then he seemed to hesitate for a second. I was about to raise my eyebrow at his odd behaviour (not that it wasn't normal) when he gave me a quick peck on the cheek before running away, his cheek suspiciously red.

"Now that's what I call a kiss and run." Lorenzo muttered behind me and I turned around to glare at him, wishing that I had someone on hand to smash into his face. He earned a few chuckles from the other legacies, but I didn't get a feeling that they were making fun of me so I let it dropped.

"Quickly ladies, we haven't got all day." Lynette ushered us forward and pointed towards the conference room where Lorenzo nearly died. That could have been a good day.

The atmosphere was tense inside the room, and I immediately spotted Kimberly, the lady from the SMS and wondered what she was doing here.

"Abigail." Kimberly smiled and stood up, giving me a quick handshake, and I saw that Richard Simmons, the UGE representative that I met was seated next to her. He nodded in greetings, and I discreetly looked around, but didn't spot the president. Looks like he was too busy to attend.

There were a few other members from the SMS and UGE that I vaguely recognised, as well as three people dressed in military garb. Representatives from the Legacy families were here too, of course, and the four of us shuffled along to the last remaining seats.

"Maybe we proceed?" A middle age guy with balding hair and a severe face, one of the ones in the army uniform, inquired, and Richard nodded.

"Our operatives in the Egypt Citybase had been scouring for information for the past 48 hours." The general began, which meant that I probably missed the introductions. "On surface, everything seemed fine, but we managed to gain the trust of a local who pointed us in the right direction."

Pulling out a clicker, he turned on the projector that they must have brought along and images flickered on against the wall. It showed an earth coloured city with low houses and a distant wall.

"We did a midnight raid in one of the houses from the information lists." The man continued, clicking onto the next photo which showed a close up of a very bland house that looked just like the rest. "However, they had set up some kind of distant alarm and were alerted to our arrival and cleared most of their gears out before we arrived."

Clicking onto the next photo, it showed the inside of the house. It was like a tornado had swept through the interior leaving it a complete mess.

"However, we were able to do a forensic analysis of the equipment that remained. And we found indications of POE activities as well as chemical traces that indicate large scale weapons. Including bombs."

Accusing glances were already being thrown our way by some members of the UGE. I didn't understand their mentality sometimes; it seems that they think that POEs should be responsible for each other's action. But there are good and bad people, just like there are good and bad POEs. We are not that different, after all, we are still the same species.

"They are one step ahead of us, and now that you have gone and out yourself to the world, you have made life more difficult for us." another younger military person said, she was a blonde who appeared to be in her late thirties and a surprisingly friendly face. Although her words were anything but. "You have broken the contract for peace between the humans and POEs. I hope you understand that there will be repercussions."

Shocked at her blatant words, I could feel my body start to shake at the audacity of the words. They were the one who had been developing anti-POE technologies behind us for years, and now she was accusing us of breaching the contract. Was she for real?

"You do realized that the UGE and SMS had long since violated that contract with the development of anti-POE technology, and we have plenty of witnesses who can testify to that." Grandpa Hugo said, his voice unbelievably steady given the insult we had just received. "What we did was giving the real heroes the credits they deserved. You droned on and on about how POE had been a threat to the world and yet you forget who had saved us all and enable the building of the Citybases."

The female army lady did not seem at all persuaded, though a few of the others did bear a guilty expression at Grandpa Hugo's words. I was sick and tired of them treating us like we were some sort of criminals. This was fast turning into a huge debate as another member of the UGE decided to step in and defend themselves, and I was growing tired of it.

"Enough." I shouted, pushing away my reservations at shouting at a bunch of people who were way more senior than me in life and in authority. "I know that our relationship had never been perfect, and that each side has reservation to the other. But that is not the reason why we are here today. We are here today because if we don't do something about the Apocalypse, there will be nothing for us to fight over. Period. I understand that you might not agree with the fact that we had revealed ourselves to the world, but you can't hide the truth forever. It's time we reveal to the world who had saved them from the Dark Age, and the threat that we are facing."

Startled, everyone turned to me and I used the moment of stunned silence to catch a few breaths to calm my heart rates.

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Richard looked at me with interest, his eyes sparkling.

"Give us an hour on TV." I answered, a plan forming in my mind. "We need to really let the world know who we are and that we are all at risk from the Apocalypse's plan. We can't let them fool us again."

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And the countdown to the end of Revolution continues! And I might actually change the name to Revelation when I edit it, it was a toss up between the two when I created a new work and somehow typed in Revolution, but Revelation might be more suitable since it's more about the grand reveal of  the POE to the world.

How is everyone doing? I was in Beijing last weekend until Tuesday and it was a nice trip - finally ticked the Great Wall of China and Forbidden City off my bucket list! Not that you might care :P

Anyway, I think perhaps it's a good time to give you warning that I WILL be hosting a short stories competition at the end - but I want to know what kind of prizes you guys would be interested in, here's some ideas:

1) A character named after you in the Dark Ages (I do keep using this one) + a dedication in the future

2) A live Q&A session with yours truly - me, via google hangout or skype where you get to ask me a million questions if you wish, but I will only answers those that won't spoil the upcoming series' plot

if a bunch of you are interested in this - we can sort out a periscope session or something

If there is any prize you want to see - let me know

As always - comments and vote (I am getting around to replying everyone's comments, but it's piling up a bit faster than my laptop speed can cope!)