----sorry this took so long!--------
"Hi." I spoke into the camera, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu as I stared into the wide lens, remembering the time when I had to shoot that impromptu video on the plane with Eleanor and Tristan. "I know that you must have a lot of questions regarding what happened during the Legre Peace Treaty Day. Some of you might have known about the POEs already, but for those of you who don't. Here's our story."
The camera moved from my face to Nirmal, who was standing next to me. We had decided that it would be best to speak in turns and explain each of our own ancestor and a part of the POE history.
We were standing in the official TV studio at Pax, where all the news segments are shot and produced before sending out to the world. I would have thought they would arrange a recording; but a live broadcast was both a blessing and a curse. We had to make sure we didn't give out any information that would be classified or say something wrong. It wasn't easy coming up with a usable script in short notice, but this morning was the best timing we could get and we couldn't wait any longer.
"We might be called Protectors of Earth." When the camera finally panned back to me, I started delivering our closing speech, jolted out of my little reverie. "But we are just as human as you. We want to protect the world and the legacy that our forefathers had fought for. We are all in this together, help us to make sure that we have a future on this Earth.
The cameraman held up a hand as he counted down from five before cutting the shot and I breathed a sign of relief; there were a few stumbles here and there, but overall it was better than I would have hoped for.
"You are good to go." The producer smiled and nodded at us, seemingly at ease with the fact that we were POEs. I hadn't exactly been out and about much, but the people that I had met hadn't seemed alarmed by us. By now our faces had been screenshot repeatedly from the livestream and discussion had brewed up a storm online. If the UGE hadn't been so preoccupied with the Apocalypse's threat, they would probably want to kill us.
However, I wasn't an idiot and I knew that we had a short time window to imprint a good impression on the public. The UGE, and to be honest, quite a lot of people won't be so willing to embrace POEs with an open arm. And that's just how the world works. We needed to show the world that we are not the threat, while using the powers that might be what they are afraid of to help protect them. It was a delicate balance.
"Let's go." Viktor appeared next to me, and I nodded. Shaking the stray thoughts from my head, I had done all that I could to try and make things better, but there will never be an ideal situation when people would suddenly accept POEs open armed. They will always be afraid of things that are out of their control.
"How are we going back?" Joelle asked; it wasn't a far walk from Katerina's apartment from here, and our driver had disappeared. Just as we thought the UGE were being cooperative, they pull a stunt like this. It was almost like Vulture was coordinating everything, it was definitely his style.
"We can always walk." Lorenzo sniggered, and I wondered why he was so unaffected. After all, the Apocalypse now knew exactly which side he was playing for and who he really was. I would have hid under a rock. But he seemed perfectly happy.
After asking around for a good half an hour, we had realized that everyone seemed to be under strict order not to give us a ride back. Grabbing a few hoodies that were left lying around, I was glad that some of the boys wore light jackets – we would have to risk heading out. Sooner or later people would arrive at the studio and we couldn't still be here by then.
"Quick." I waved and Elena grumbled something about wishing to fly off. However, that would make her a moving target for all to see.
Cynthia, do you think you can shield us from sight for a little? I asked the Balikova and the corner of her lips twitched down.
I will do my best. Cynthia said, I could sense that she was reluctant to do it. But at the heat of the moment, I could tell that it was more because she couldn't do it. Her powers were more limited than I thought.
Frustrated, I wished that we had brought Casey along; she would make short work of this situation. The same could be said about Charmain, although a group of people disappearing in the middle of the street would probably ruse even more suspicious. In situations like this, soft powers were more useful.
"Why are they looking at us?" Joelle whispered, tugging her hood further down her face. She was a sweet girl, always helping diffuse tension, not that there was a lot of disagreement. Apart from the occasional scuffle between Marcus and Lorenzo, and a few snobby comments from Elena and Cynthia, most of us got along fine.
"Maybe we should dig a tunnel?" Ben suggested, always the sensible one. But he didn't understand urban structures.
"It will be too difficult, we would need to avoid all the infrastructure." Lei An shook her head, stomping on the ground. "Not to mention the tarmac."
"Cheer up, we have already made it so far." Sebastian said, his long legs carrying him further forward than any of us. It was true that we remained undetected so far, but he forgot that we had only made it five minutes or so. "I don't see anything going wrong."
"In the next two minutes." Lorenzo coughed, making us chuckle, and Sebastian mock scowled at him. Despite the fact that Lorenzo had a mean mouth, somehow everyone hadn't been completely offended by him. In fact, they seemed to tolerate him.
"Can you be less offensive?" I scolded Lorenzo, moving next to him. I was all for a good joke there and here, but his timing had been inappropriate. "And couldn't Bugatti send someone else? Now the Apocalypse know exactly who you are."
"Oh Abby, are you worried about me?" Lorenzo smirked, waving his hand around like it was no big deal. But I didn't miss the fleeting sadness in his eyes.
"I just don't want you to die on us. You just got back after all." I replied, gauging his reactions.
"Nay, I just got back to being me." Lorenzo answered, and that look appeared again. "Plus, I knew these guys before I went off."
Several thoughts flashed through my mind; it appeared that the Legacy families aren't that segregated from one another, and that Lorenzo's time undercover had affected him more than I could imagine.
"Psst." An odd sound from our left captured my attention, and I turned to see a face peeking back at me from the corner of a building. "Psssst!"
"Casey!" I squealed, attempting to keep my volume down. "Help!"
"Already done." Casey seemed to exsolve from the building, her camouflage as on point as ever.
"Thank god you are here!" I exclaimed, giving her a quick hug. "Let's go quickly!"
"Viktor." Casey said, glancing at the boy who was already offering her a wry smile. "I thought you learned how to control your powers."
"About that..." Viktor drawled out, looking sheepish. "I only did it for a few seconds, and it's hard to control."
Rubbing my face, I sighed. Next time I would remember to have an exit strategy in place. This was turning out worst that I thought. Casey coughed, and I raised my eyebrow. Then a familiar voice called out.
"Hey." A shiver went up my spine and I saw Tom standing behind me, hands shoved in his trouser pockets. I heard a few snickers behind us and Tom's cheeks redden. I smiled at his embarrassment; this was the reason why they love teasing us so much. Not that my own blush was helping things much.
"How is Matthias?" I asked, regretting my rushed words a little. Matthias seemed to come out when my brain was in a frozen state, not that I had seen him much. He seemed even shyer than Tom and it was difficult to get more than a few words out of him. Not that my mind should be thinking about that right now.
"Charmain is with him." Tom smiled; if I didn't know how Charmain felt about Viktor, I would have been a little jealous. Okay, quite jealous.
"We better go, the streets are getting crowded." Lei An said and Joelle winked at me. Feeling my face flushed even warmer, I attempted to glare at her, but it didn't quite work.
"He insisted on coming, don't look at me." Casey raised her hands up in a surrendering gesture. I looked around, trying to think of a way out of this. Viktor couldn't be left alone and on his own...
"Don't worry about me, I will go to Katerina's. Just send Charmain to get me." Viktor said, waving his arm around as he dashed off in what I hope was the correct direction without waiting for any response.
"I guess that's settled then." Casey clasped her hand together, seemingly completely uncaring of the fact that Viktor had just ran off on his own in the big bad world. "Don't worry about Viktor, he's a big boy."
"Is he running in the right direction?" I asked Nirmal, who nodded.
"We should get going. The sooner we get back, the sooner we can get Charmain to collect Viktor. Wherever he ends up." Ben said, ushering us forward. "Thanks for coming to get us, Casey."
"Not a problem. Great speech, by the way." Casey replied, and we fell into silence as we navigated the streets, staying close together to make things easier for Casey. I was slightly distracted when Tom slipped his hands into mine, and I almost shook it off out of shock.
"How have you been?" Tom asked, keeping his voice low and pulling me closer to him. We were at the back of the group; but I knew that Marcus and Sebastian could hear us.
"Been better." I smiled, staring at our intertwined hands. I had been dying for some time to be with Tom, but now that we were here, I didn't know what to say or do.
If his action was any indication, Tom seemed to be feeling the same way I do as well. What I wouldn't give to understand his mind right now. But all I can felt was a soft murmur in French. And I wasn't going to poke around his head since he would notice.
"It's almost like we are taking a walk in the city." Tom suddenly said, a slightly sad smile on his face. "If we ignore these people in front of us." A few huffs and snorts sounded and I knew that they were all listening to us as though their life depended on it. Despite having a ton of things that I really wanted to talk to Tom about, my mind continued to draw a blank as we became closer and closer to Saralisa's apartment. I wondered what was wrong with me and whether or not if some of my ability to articulate was lost by the blow to the head or if there was a certain gene that had gone missing that would allow me to deal with a situation like this. Perhaps it's both.
"Hey." Tom nudged me again and squeezed my hand, jolting me out of my thoughts. I still hadn't replied to him, and my thoughts were so preoccupied that I had momentarily forgotten what he had said.
"You know that there is nothing going on between me and Charmain, right?" Tom asked, pulling me to a stop and the rest moved on. His amber eyes stared back at me and I felt a rush of warmth. I had never seen him like this before, his eyes searching mine trying to understand why I had been so quiet. "And I would have stayed with you if I didn't have to go and rescue Matthias."
"I know. I am not blaming you for anything." I answered, trying to string words together that would explain how I was feeling. The rest of them had gone on, leaving the two of us in the streets, but I supposed teenage couples were everywhere to be seen as no one was paying us much attention.
"That's the thing..." I started, pausing again to consider my words. "There always seems to be something that one of us needed to do. Something that we need to put in front of us." Tom opened his mouth, but I raised my free hand up, stopping him. "I am not saying that I blame your, and I know that you don't blame me. All I am saying is that there always seems to be some bigger issue we needed to deal with, that we have never been truly together in a normal setting. I know that what I feel for you right now is there, but is it because of the situation we are in, or is it real? I don't know if I want to find out."
Sighing, Tom reached up and tucked a strand of my hair behind my hair, taking a step closer to me that my nose was almost touching his collar bone. Releasing my hand, he looped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug.
"You worry too much." Tom said, his lips incredibly closed to my ears and I shivered as the air tickled the sensitive skin there. "No one knows what will happen in the future. Not even Katerina is 100% sure." He added, as though he felt my eyebrows raised. "I don't care if I have to wait a year, ten years or fifty years, there is something different about you that I had never felt with anyone else. Feelings are not always explainable or correct Stop overthinking things and tell me that you feel it too."
I had never heard him sounded so vulnerable before and hearing him said those words felt like a huge burden had lifted off me. I remembered the conviction that I felt when I talked to Diego, that I would choose Tom and I felt my fears evaporated. I realized that I had been more afraid than I thought I was about how Tom thought of our relationships, but now I know.
"We will better hurry back." Tom said, holding my hands again. I knew, then, that this was one thing I would be different to Akram. I wouldn't let the love of my life go like he had with Victoria. Even if we didn't turn out to be a match made in heaven; no one was perfect for another, but we can work to be perfect for each other.
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"'Sup sis." I was surprised to see Daniel waiting for us at the door; it wasn't exactly a free for all situations inside and he would have to by pass some kind of security. I hadn't seen him since our arrival; my family had disappeared into a world of their own since our arrival, and frankly I had been too busy to find them.
"Dude, you were on TV!" Dan squealed, attempting to high five me and I chuckled. I was glad to see that he was completely unaffected and seemed to be himself. Not that I would know what he was really like now, after all, being eleven and thirteen are very different.
"Where's Mum and Dad?" I asked, tugging Tom along with me. We might as well just kick things into high gear. It wasn't like everybody didn't know already.
"Meh." Dan shrugged and didn't comment on my hand holding with Tom, which meant that he was too preoccupied to notice. "They have been fighting a bit, but at least they are still talking."
I nodded; yelling is better than nothing. "Where are they now?" I asked, giving the security guy we passed through a friendly smile. His eyes widened when he looked at me and he even bowed a little. What was that about?
"East wing, second floors." Dan replied, looking like he would rather be anywhere else but there. "Don't say I didn't warn you not to go up."
Feeling a bit guilty for dragging my little brother into this mess, I ruffled his hair and pointed him towards where I thought the kitchen was, where he bounced off to with unhealthy enthusiasm.
"I will wait for you in the main room." Tom said, giving me an understanding smile before disappearing in another direction, but not before he pointed me in the right direction as well.
Knocking on the last door at the end of the East Wing, I waited tentatively for my parent's voice. However, when no one responded, I knocked again and wondered if Dan was setting me up or not.
The creaking of a door that wasn't the one in front of me got my attention and I turned around to see my Mum peeking through the door behind. So I was at the wrong door. Feeling embarrassed, I skipped over to my Mum and she gave me a tight-lipped smile.
"Abigail, come on in." I didn't miss the way she scanned the surroundings before letting me in, or the weary look in her face. Nervousness built inside me and I immediately started mentally prepping myself for all eventualities that might happen.
Dad was inside the rather spacious room as well, staring pensively out of the window while perched on an arm chair. Mum headed over to a sofa direction opposite, where I assumed she had been sitting before I arrived.
"So, how are things?" I asked, looking from one parent to the other.
"We have been talking. And we have a lot of questions for you young lady."
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Hey all - sorry this chapter took forever, I rewrote it twice because I wasn't satisfied with the pace or the way it went, but here it's the new chappie - all about the truth, love and family!
How do you think the convo with the parents would go? We will finally get some answer from Florence and Richard (if you guys remember their names).
And of course, a tabigail moment for you all.
We are still counting down to the finale and I cannot wait. Keep your fingers crossed that the worst part of the writer's block is over for me and it'll be smooth sailing on our way to another grand reveal. Nothing but the best plots for you guys.
As always, vote and comment!