The small graveyard, which was cloaked in a shroud of heavy mist, held four people as they stood around a freshly covered grave. "Amen," the priest finished speaking and gave the two teenagers a nod before slowly walking away.

"I am sorry for your loss," the man said as he turned to face the siblings. "Your mother was someone very special to me." The girl slowly looked up from the gravestone and met the man's gaze. "You're Marc Weiland?" Her voice was soft but the tone was icy. Her dark brown eyes held a distant, haunted look.

He nodded slowly, not sure where she was going with the questioning. "Mama had nothing but good things to say about you," she finally spoke as she felt her brother's hand on her shoulder. "She used to say that besides her 'boys', you were one of the only ones that she could ever trust. Mama even called you her brother, even though you weren't related. A family was a choice, she used to tell us."

Marc nodded slowly, his eyes starting to burn with unshed tears. He had missed the bright eyed blond haired bird that had captured his heart and brought a little joy into his lonely world. "We called you because Mama told us, in the end when she was getting worse, that we could trust you and you alone.

"She didn't want anyone to know who we were, so she made sure to keep us off the radar. Aries and I are ghosts." There was something proud about how she said that as if she knew exactly what she was saying. "Mama made sure that we knew the skill sets required for us to succeed in the Academy if we wished to join one day. I believe that she knew this day would come sooner rather than later."

"Your mother was smarter than a lot of people gave her credit for, that's the truth." Andromeda nodded her head, her jaw ticking. "I have a condition if Aries and I are to return to Charleston with you, Uncle Marc."

"And what would that be?" He was curious. To his knowledge, the two of them had never left the ten-acre mountain home that they had grown up on. "No member of the Blackbourne team is allowed to know just who my brother and I are, or our status should we join the Academy."

"Rome..." Aries spoke softly but his sister just shook her head. "No Aries," she said as her back stiffened and a defiant look crossed her face. "All nine of them, in my eyes, is responsible for Mama's death. They made her trust them; they made her fall in love with them and made her believe that family was a choice, a choice that would always come first. And when she truly needed them, they just turned their backs on her and walked away without looking back."

Marc opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it when her eyes hardened. "I watched as my mother tried to piece together a shattered heart that the men she loved, destroyed. She struggled every year to get over it, but it just drove her into an early grave. They told us that her heart had just quit beating but I know the truth. My mother died of a broken heart and the ones that broke it, are the ones that killed her." Marc studied the two hard, his eyes slowly taking in every little detail about them that he could find.

Suddenly, it dawned on him. How he missed it before, he had no idea. But both of these kids were North's. Of that, he was one hundred percent positive. He had to get them back to Charleston. "We have a deal." Rome nodded and looked back at her brother. Together, they laid a rose on the mound of dirt. "Goodbye Mama," they whispered before Aries took his sister's hand and began to lead her towards the waiting car. He may have been the younger of the two, by only ten minutes mind you, but right then- he knew that his sister needed someone to lean on for a change.

Marc watched with a heavy heart as the twins slipped into the car. Turning his eyes back towards the headstone, he spoke softly. "You've done a good job in raising them, Sang. But to make them ghosts, I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do.

"Sure, it kept them and you out of sight from the boys and the Academy, but it just makes it harder for the kids when they get older. You remember the struggles you've faced when you first met them-when you first found out that you were a ghost. But I promise that I'll take good care of them. I'll enter them into the elite training and they'll be the best of what we have to offer. They'll make you proud, sweetheart."

Wiping a stray tear off his cheek, Marc swiftly turned and hurried towards the car. They had an early flight to catch and there was nothing left for any of them now. As painful as it would be, the future awaited them and he was eager to see how it would turn out.

As he shut the driver side door behind him, he couldn't help but think about how the rest of his team would react when they found out about Andromeda and Aries. Not to mention the promise that he had just made to them about keeping the truth about who they were a secret from their father and his team. With a shake of his head, Marc pulled away from the curb and sped out of the cemetery.