Carlisle's POV

"Things will not get better for your granddaughter, Carlisle, until they first get much worse."

I scanned Demetrius' face over twice as he spoke those chilling words. He had come into my office as I was putting the medical supplies away. He must have wanted to tell me something that he didn't want the others to hear. Perhaps what would lie ahead of my family would frighten them too much to hear for themselves right now.

"How much worse do you suppose it will get?"

"These are not mortal wounds we are dealing with," he said, speaking very quietly. "This is something else that most people never come across in ten thousand years."

"Have you ever come across a condition like this before," I asked. Maybe it was something he'd only ever read about or heard of before. Maybe he had never witnessed anything like this in person, and so we would be basing everything we were supposing off of hearsay from one of his old scrolls.

"I have," he said. "Brook needs to be healed, Carlisle. She needs Hydra's magic."

"How can we find her?"

"It's not merely a matter of looking," he replied. "And it's more than that, even. She will need even more than magic."

"What else must we provide?"

"You are all already providing it," he said. "For now." He began pacing back and forth beside my desk. He took a long while to think before he spoke. "Your family will begin to fear that little girl," he said while he continued to pace. "That is when things will get very difficult for her. They will begin to question whether she is worth the sacrifices they must make to help her be restored. Hydra's temple is where we must go, but no physical road can lead us there. Were that the case then anyone could stumble upon it at any given point. No – her temple is hidden and each must walk a certain path before finding it. But it cannot be found on one's own. A complete, dedicated group is required. From start to finish, whoever decides to make this journey, each person must remain united in the cause to save her. If even one teammate loses temperance of thought and begins to feel that the cost of the journey is no longer worth the prize it merits then all is lost and the temple can never be found by any in the group who set out to find it."

"So you mean to tell me that the journey will not require trekking over high mountains and dry deserts?"

"It is far more dangerous than that, Carlisle. Testing how long you can physically persevere is not the point of this mission. For a vampire or a werewolf such a journey would mean very little indeed. Your mental strength and your emotional endurance – those are what will matter in the end. Each member will be tested very rigorously in these areas and one person's experience will differ from another accordingly. What can you stand, Carlisle? What can you take?"

"I can stand and take anything that will heal my granddaughter," I assured him.

"I know that is true." He stopped suddenly and looked to the door. "What about them, though? What can they take? What can they stand? Knowing that death and the death of loved ones, as well as facing many fears and other challenges, are very probable sacrifices that they will have to make, are all of the members of your family, as a whole, strong enough?"

I stopped to give my answer to this question a long, hard look. I wasn't entirely sure that every single person in that living room downstairs could handle being pushed to their breaking point without snapping and giving up altogether. Charlie was only a mortal man in mind and character, and even though he would never die because of Tanya's venom and Bella's alpha blood, it was important to consider the fact that he had never wanted this sort of life for himself. His experiences in our strange world among the living dead were very limited and he was always afraid of what he would learn about us next, even though he did a very good job of hiding such fears. If he could go back and remain oblivious to this world of ours, he would be all to happy to do it.

Jacob and Jen were expecting a baby boy within the month. Would they be willing to sacrifice the security of their future, and that little boy's future, only to rescue the daughter of a very good friend? What of the Wild Cards? They were strong when they had the upper hand, but how well would they handle being the ones facing torture's devices? Might it come to that for them? Could I ask them to take such a risk?

"You don't know, do you," he asked. He did not sound surprised.

"I know that Brook is loved by every single individual in that room."

"Love is strong. Or, it can be. But will it endure through the kinds of trials that they will all face if they make this voyage? Can they press on for the sake of Love, even when it terrifies them? Or when it hurts them? When it causes them to bleed, or if they should feel their bones breaking in their flesh? Even vampires are not immune to the risks that lie ahead, friend."

"How can I know who to invite?" I asked.

"Oh, that's simple," he said. "I'm afraid we don't really have a choice there. Anyone found under your roof come morning will be required to go. It will be one of the first steps in opening Hydra's magic. They must stay or go throughout the night willingly, but not be warned that if they stay then they must partake of the dangerous journey."

"What if they stay until the morning but are not truly committed?"

"Then I'm afraid you will have a problem."

I worried about who would stay. If I couldn't warn them, could I at least send them out on an errand? Maybe something as simple as having them go to the store to pick up a gallon of milk? Charlie would be the first one I'd send away, but only because I couldn't bear the thought of a mortal man suffering. And Jen. I couldn't risk the wellbeing of a mother-to-be. And then Jacob, her husband, who also just happened to be the leader of an entire pack of kids who relied on him for leadership. And then the rest of the Wolves. They were all so young and untested in their resolve. Could they really handle such a journey as this?

Before long I could find reasons to disqualify almost everyone from going. This might just be too much to ask of anyone other than Edward and myself. That is not to say that Bella and the rest of the family didn't love those girls just as fiercely as their father and I did, but would it be reasonable to put so many in danger? One's own worst fears could quite possibly kill someone for good. Why test so many if it wasn't necessary?

"This is what tests you," Demetrius said, interrupting my worried thoughts. "I'm sorry to intrude. I understand that I barely know you. But I can see your mind working." He walked around to my side of the desk and stood before me as he continued. "It is understandable. Since the beginning of your family, you have been the head of it. You feel personally responsible for every individual in this house right now, vampire, werewolf, and human alike."

"I do," I admitted.

"Each one, in his or her own way, is a part of this family. Of your family." I nodded my head to agree with him. "So trust them, my friend." He put his hand on my shoulder, and I felt a great calm rush through me. "Trust them," he said again. "If they are not here in the morning, it is not because they do not love this family. It would not be because they don't care for the child. And if they are, even if it seems unlikely, they will have a fair chance at making it through all of the trials that come their way."

Something inside of me began to feel confident at his words. "I certainly hope so," I said.

"I will come with you," he said. "I am not afraid of the tests that will try me. I have been tried in similar fashion before."

"That is very kind of you," I said. "I wouldn't know how to get started without your knowledge."

"It is not so much my knowledge that you require as it is Caius'," he said grimly. "I'm afraid we must depend on him."

"Do you trust him to be honest?"

"I would never trust him to be such under normal circumstances. But where we're all going, it will make an honest being out of you if you ever wish to escape it. Whether or not he chooses an honest path, though, I guess that depends on whether or not he wants to return to the outside."

"Where are we going, by the way?"

"Deep inside our hearts," Demetrius said as he turned to stare out of the large window. "That is the best that words can do to describe it, I think."

"How can Caius get us there? Why do we need him?"

"He knows the words we need to set ourselves apart and enter the quest. And the appropriate gestures to open the gates to the road."

"Gestures," I asked. "But he doesn't have any hands."

"He will in there," Demetrius said. His eyes narrowed, and then he looked at the floor. "He will be restored to what he really is in there."

"A full-bodied vampire?"

"No," he said, shaking his head slowly. "A blind man."

"And the rest of us?"

"As we were all truly born to be, so shall we be… in there."

I considered that idea for a moment. I had lived out my days as a vampire the best I could as a man. But to truly be a man again was a notion that I couldn't quite wrap my head around. What would all of that entail? Would my speed of thought diminish? Would it be possible for me to become physically wounded? And...

"Will I sleep again," I wondered out loud.

"Of course you will. How else are you to dream?"

"To dream..." I relished in the possibility.

"Or to have nightmares," he grimaced. "I suppose that depends on the sort of man you really are. Perhaps many of us will have nothing to fear. But perhaps others…"

For some among us I knew that living the life of a vampire was a hard business. The thirst was often overwhelming and when no self control was applied then appetites reigned. Some of us had red eyes – a sign of not exercising such temperance. If restored for a time to being a mortal man or woman, would the guilt from having slaughtered so many people be an overwhelming plague?

Would past demonstrations of not having self control be a sign of things to come? Would some fall short of high ideals and not be successful on the journey because they lacked the control to do so? Would they cost the rest of us to not make it as well? Would they cost us my granddaughter's life?

I paused a moment to feel for an answer. I knew that there was no other way available to us to save Brook's life. There was no other way to restore her to her full self, and I knew that I would be willing to sacrifice just as much to save every single one of those that I was asking to help me save her. And I had to hope that they would be willing to sacrifice for me the way that I was willing to sacrifice for them.

"If we don't make it…" I shuddered at my own thought. "If we don't find Hydra…"

"Then the worst will come for the child," Demetrius warned. "We must do all in our power to see that it doesn't come to that."