I felt like someone just poured a bucket of cold water over me and my brain froze for a second. This series of unfortunate events that kept piling on one another was making me choke, both mentally and physically.

After the initial shock subsided I turned towards the others. The despair on their face was evident; Tom’s signature frown was back in place, Emily was gripping the side of the stretcher so hard that her knuckles turned white. Amelia gasped and everyone’s eyes darted towards Steven to gauge his reaction. As usual his face gave nothing away but I knew what we had to do.

“Some of us would have to get there first.” I said, standing up straight. The Lupa instinctively took a few steps back and I gave it a raised eyebrow. Now was  not a good time to get me mad with petty trust-issues.

“We are not splitting up.” Steven said firmly, shaking his head. I folded my arms across my chest and stare at him. The situation wasn’t ideal, but I needed to go back; I was the one who convinced them that it was safe to stay there with the Legres. Jeremy and Kailey can’t communicate with the Lupas and they would have no idea that people were coming for them. It would be my fault if they were captured or worst, killed.

“We can’t just let them catch Jeremy and Kailey!” I exclaimed, my voice raising an octave. I hated leaving people behind, “There is still a chance to get back to them before it’s too late.”

“You don’t know that.” Steven said passively and I threw my arms up, frustrated.

“If you would just let me go back I could get them and we could retreat somewhere until we are cleared.” I reasoned, but Steven still didn’t look convinced.

Before the argument could escalate further, a disgruntled moan sounded and we turned around to see Vladimir’s eyes fluttering open. He looked right at us frozen in mid-argument and blinked.

“I am fine.” He said, his voice cracking a little. Emily rushed to his side and held a bottle of water to his lips and he drank from it gratefully, his eyes locked with Emily’s and the two of them seemed to be communicating with each other via stares.

“No you are not.” Almost all of us said simultaneously and Vladimir winced at the volume. Emily bended down even closer to Vladimir and started whispering to him, presumably to comfort him. I fidgeted my feet as agitation continued to cruise through me and I began to bit on my lower lip.

The wolf let out a low growled and I turned towards it in surprise, thinking it would have left already; however it seemed to be waiting for our decision as well. How long would it take before they find them? I asked the Legre and it gave me an impatient vibe.

A few hours or a day, so you better hurry. The grumpy Lupa responded, I could sense a few nerves as it dug around with its front paw. I contemplated about just making a run for it but that would cause a rift in our group that could be a potential fuse for trouble later. I had to remind myself that no matter how hard this is right now I had to think of the bigger picture.

Please just say yes. I thought fervently as I watched Steven pacing up and down. Just agree. It’s not even that big of a risk.

The Lupa looked up at me and I gave it an annoyed look, even though none of what’s happening was its fault. I kept repeating the words in my mind like a mantra, which surprisingly helped me calmed down significantly.

Suddenly Steven came into a halt and turned towards me, I looked at him expectantly hoping to hear a favorable reply.

“Let’s go then.” He said, surprising everyone. Vladimir began coughing again and Emily’s brow furrowed together, rubbing a hand up and down his arm. Tom and Steven went forward to pick the stretcher with Emily hovering beside them like a protective hen. I nodded towards the wolf who slithered out of the cave in the blink of an eye.

“You go first, we will catch up.” Steven said and I nodded. As I broke into a brisk walk I couldn’t help but wonder what had caused this one eighty change of attitude. I wouldn’t flatter myself to say that I had persuaded him; after all he made it extremely clear that saving Vladimir was a one off. Did he had a moment of clarity or was it something else?

My mind flashed back to the isolated incident when Fred Bowen lost control; something similar had happened. Could it be that I was capable of mind control? My heart seemed to freeze at that idea. I knew that it should excite me, but somehow I felt like a ton of brick just added themselves on my shoulder.

With great power comes great responsibility. This was a phrase that Mr. Andrewson had put in his notebook. And that burden was coming down to me hot and heavy right now. I also knew that this was definitely not something I should tell the others, the power to control others mind is even more dangerous than mind reading. The reaction from others in regards to this can be catastrophic.

I eyed Tom uncertainly as my thoughts drifted, wondering if he would react any differently from a normal person if he knew of my power to manipulate others’ mind. I knew what the answer I hoped for would be, but if I learned anything from being a telepath for the past fourteen years is that human mind is the hardest to predict.

Slowly I began to speed ahead of the others, being the only one who hadn’t exerted myself earlier on nor carrying an injured person. As the distance between us drifted apart I began to felt the presences of several Lupa nearby, escorting me back to the camp site. For a moment I felt like some kind of warrior wolf princess running through the forest with her pack. Then I shook my head at the silliness of it.

Feeling fatigue beginning to seep in I slowed down to a jog and asked the nearest Lupa how far we had got. The answer was a favorable ten km, which meant I could get there in an hour if I kept my pace up.

Be quick a new Lupa appeared alongside another and sent me a message. The other human seemed to be coming closer.

My heart quenched at the new information and I immediately sped up, ignoring the protest of my tired muscle. I knew in the back of my mind that I shouldn’t stray too far from the group behind but the urgency of the situation left me no choice.

As I legged the last few kilometers, I could sense a small group of people coming in from the positive direction towards the camp. I wrecked my brain to think of a way to communicate to Jeremy and Kailey but knew that I couldn’t speak to them in their head from this far. I urged my legs to move faster but to no avail; I was simply exhausted.

My heart was pounding by the time I arrived and I was relieved to find two startled faces looking at me, suffering no sign of abuse and seemingly unaware of the current predicament. I waved at them to come to me as soon as they were within the view.

Despite not knowing the reason of my request they complied relatively quickly and ran towards me. I had kept waving at them like a lunatic and the moment they were within hearing distance Kailey opened her mouth, presumably to shout but I quickly crossed my outstretched arms indicating her to stop.

“Come on, quick!” I whispered furiously as the two were finally in front of me and I shoved them forcefully into the dense thicket behind us, sensing that the team coming towards us was not far from reaching. I sighed in relieve as I realised that they probably don’t have a sensor with them so they would have no idea we were gone; although our campsite would be a bit of a giveaway.

“What is going on?” Kailey whispered back to me as I horded them into a fast jog back towards the direction that I came from. “Is something wrong?”

“There is no time to explain.” I said, my breaths becoming increasingly uneven from the extreme amount of exercise that I had done. “We need to meet up with the others.”

We broke into a run as I searched our surrounding to make sure the coast was clear. Called me paranoid but I still didn’t felt fully safe yet. I was glad that Jeremy and Kailey didn’t question me further, it would have been hard to explain.

I felt my body relaxed as my mind sensed the gang a mere two kilometer away from us; although I had no idea what we were going to do afterwards, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. Jeremy and Kailey gasped when the others came into view, noticing Vladimir laying on the stretcher.

“That was very irresponsible of you.” Steven said as soon as we were close enough, reprimanding me in the sternest voice I had ever heard him used. I ducked my head down in shame, although I did what I thought was right, there was no denying that it was a reckless move.

“Where are those people?” Tom asked, which reminded me that we better kept moving.

“We ran away before they saw us at the campsite, but they can be hot on our trail right now.” I said breathlessly, digging around my small backpack for my bottle of water. Tom handed me his immediately and I took a big gulp and returned it to him with a smile.

“I don’t think Vladimir can take any more traveling.” Emily said, frowning protectively over the stretcher. I closed my eyes and tried to sense my surrounding again, but a sudden wave of dizziness washed over me and I nearly collapsed on the ground.

“Hey.” I opened my eyes and found Tom’s hands on my shoulder steadying me. I must had black out for a second. “You should rest too.” He said, looking worryingly at me.

“I am fine.” I said at the same time as Vladimir, and both Tom and Emily’s frown deepened.  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to regain my strength. I could feel Tom hovering around me protectively and a smile tugged at the corner of my lips; he was too sweet.

“What is that sound?” Kailey asked, her heads snapping in different directions searching for whatever it was that she heard.

I looked around in alarm, and my heart sunk as a group of people seemed to appeared out of nowhere and started walking towards us.

I blinked, not sure if I was hallucinating; however the gasps from the others confirmed that these people really were there, appearing out of the blue.

“Who are you?” Steven asked, stepping in front of us protectively and glaring at the approaching group. I was surprised to see that it consisted of nine people, predominantly in their early twenties. I felt a tug on my sleeve pulling me behind him, shielding me from the eyes of the new party.

Peeking over Tom’s right shoulder, I watched as a young man stepped forward in the group, assuming the leader position; a beautiful red head stepped forward briefly and whispered something in his ears and he nodded.

“We detected unusual activities in this area.” He started, his eyes trailing across every single one of us, taking in our torn clothing and mud-ridden hair. “We found Legres and human intermingling nearby, perhaps you know something about this?”

I narrowed my eyes at the red head; she must be the mind-detector of the group then. I just hope she wasn’t a telepath as well. I saw the man’s eyes rested on Vladimir on the stretcher and my chest tightened. If this confrontation goes south there was every possibility that Vladimir would die here.

I watched warily as Steven seemed to be gathering his thoughts together. “We know nothing.” He said, then his glance flickered to Vladimir. “One of us is gravely injured; we are just heading back to the Citybase.”

 The young man’s face remained impassionate as he assessed the situation. “Which clan are you in?” He asked finally. I wondered if news of what happened to the Ganesh family guard has got back yet, it wasn’t like I knew any other names of family, or clans, whatever they call it.

“We are just mercenaries.” Steven said, his voice even and betray no hint of emotion. “And you?”

“We are the de Silver family clan.” The young man said with his head held high. Proud expressions appeared on their faces. My heart leaped and my hand shot up to touch the necklace my grandmother gave me. The words from her letters came back to me and I searched the newcomers’ cloths for any sign of the sigil. And on the armband of their cloths I found it. The exact same design.

Suddenly everything made sense, the odd behavior of Lynette when I was growing up; her proud demeanor and her dissociation with my father, who had no power. The letter that she sent me with the cryptic words, she probably suspected that I am a POE but wasn’t sure.

“Madeline.” The young man suddenly said; I waited for one of his group mates to respond but to no avail. Confused, I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eyes and saw Emily raising from beside the stretcher and looking right at him.

“What is going on?” Amelia asked in alarm as the two of them stared at each other as if communicating. Realization dawn on me; if we were hidden in this mission for some other purpose, why wouldn’t some other group plant their members to do the same?

“What happened to Vladimir?” he asked, I couldn’t say that I was surprised that Vladimir was also part of it; the strange connection between Emily and him was enough to convince me. Although he should have used a cover name.

“We were ambushed, you were right. The Apocalypse are back.” She said, a simple sentence that blew my mind. Surely she couldn’t mean it as THE Apocalypse, the ones that detonated the World Enders to destroy the world. If that was true, the resources and members of this group were staggering. They pinpointed us and almost eliminated us in the wild.

I did the math in my head and sighed for the sake of Ganesh Family; out of the seven of us four only three were truly loyal to them. That’s more than half, they really needed to screen the people who came to join more closely.

“Emily, what is this?” Steven asked, his face darkened and for the first time he looked like he was about the burst. To her credit Emily, or should I say Madeline looked a little ashamed.

“They were put into the Ganesh family guard in peace.” The young man said, “We suspected some members of the Apocalypse had infiltrated into all the major clans and schools; but we didn’t anticipated an attack of this scale. We caught a distress signal and came.”

Madeline looked from the young man to Vladimir and back, as if struggling about something. Neither of us had move even though whoever this guy was had stated numerous time that he came in peace to help, there was no way we would trust  them this easily; not after what had happened.

“The thing that we were talking about.” Madeline started, her words making no sense at all to us, but it caught the young man’s attention immediately. “I think I found it.”

Right after she said that, she glanced right at me and my heart lurched. All the time she was watching me came back to me and I wondered how much she knew of my powers. And what was it that this de Silver guy was looking for. My hand tightened around the necklace; my grandmother gave this to me for a reason, I am pretty sure that whoever this guy was we would be related. Hopefully this can save me from whatever the hell was going to happen.

I could feel Tom’s body turning rigid and he grabbed my hand protectively. The young man looked our way but could only see the top of my head with Tom shielding me from sight. I put a hand on Tom’s back to let him know that it was okay and stepped out of his shadow.

The two of us looked at each other, and I saw that we shared some similar features. The straight nose and fierce blue eyes, the same brow shape. I could see confusing flickered in his eyes, as with the others.

“What’s your name?” I asked, wanting to make sure that we were indeed related. He seemed taken aback that I was initiating the conversation and paused for a few seconds before responding.

“John. John de Silver.” He said, eyeing me uncertainly. “What is yours?”

My fingers moved up to the cord of the necklace and I took a deep breath. This is it, all or nothing.

“My name is Abigail Beckett.” I said, watching as disappointment, more confusion and relieve flooded through his eyes, which all vanished the moment I pulled out the necklace. Gasps sounded from the people behind them and my heart pounded against my chest manically.

“How did you get that?” John asked, his voice quivering letting me know that he was shocked.

“My grandmother’s name is Lynette de Silver.” I said, watching his face closely and saw a flicker of realization on his face. “I guess this means we are related.”

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sorry sorry for the big gap again :P I somehow managed to get sucked into half-a-gazillion workload not to mention London was having a tube strike (those of you who live in London and relate what a nightmare it has been!)

Anyway turth out - I knew a few of you had suspected about Lynette and yes, the de Silver is a power family in the POE world. The origin story will be explored in the Dark World prequel ;)

The Apocalyse are back too - presistent things aren't they?

This is the major plot in Selection but fear not - I have more tricks hidden up my sleeves so stay tuned

don't forget to vote and comment - let me know what you think about this twist!