AN: Hello my wonderful readers! I am sooooo very sorry that it has taken me so long to update :( things have been crazy hectic since school started and it's hard to find the time to write (a descent chapter anyway), soo i sincerely apologize for the delay, I will try to get them out whenever I can, so please please please just be patient with me. I will stop apologizing now and let you get on with what you really want to do (which is read the latest chapter!)

Chapter 21: A Plan

"What do you mean a war?" Celeste replied, bewildered and confused. Nicolas said he had something very important to tell her and that it was mandatory that she knew, so that she could change it. There were a lot of things she wished she could change: that she never had cancer, that she could have been there to protect him from Margo, that she destroyed the VAIN Organization when she had the chance, instead of running like a scared rabbit after the murder of her family.

Her life had been anything but normal, and she wished there was some form of normalcy in it . . .but there wasn't. Ever since she was diagnosed with CNSC, central nervous system cancer, which attacked the tissue in her brain and spinal cord, Celeste had a hard life. Because of the cancer she couldn't do much with her body, it was a challenge for her to walk, to eat, to do anything. She hated herself because it; the entire family had to adapt and change because of it, and her twin brother, who she cherished like the most prized jewel, took it the hardest.

Nicolas blamed himself for everything that happened to her, and wished that he had the cancer instead of her, but more than likely, if the roles had switched, Celeste would have wished the same thing for herself. He suffered along side her, and would never leave her when she had to have surgery or chemotherapy. Nicolas remembered the time after she had chemo; her head was wrapped in a white material, and she looked like the life had been completely sucked out of her: the color and glow from her skin was gone and replaced with dark circles and sunken in eyes. That entire night he stayed with her, against his parents words, and watched after her, rushing her to the bathroom when vomit began to build inside of her (one of the side effects of chemo). That night he didn't get any sleep, but he didn't care. Celeste was fragile and weak, he was more than willing to stay there. And when she fell asleep, he would look down at her and the familiar taste of salt water would run down his cheeks and to the corner of his mouth. Nicolas would never cry in front of Celeste, their mother and father did it enough; someone needed to be strong for her.

"It's the Council." He replied. Nicolas led her to a large rock in the middle of the meadow and sat her down on it, sitting across from her on the grass Indian style. "The Council is planning a complete extermination of vampires across the globe . . .and anyone affiliated with them."

Celeste shook her head in confusion. "This can't be possible. If they plan on killing off all vampires and anyone affiliated with them, then that means-"

"Yes." He answered. "VAIN would be destroyed to, and anyone involved."

"B-but that can't be. Why would the Council do that? To destroy nearly half of the human race and then themselves, it doesn't make any sense!"

"To them it makes perfect sense. Once half of the humans and vampires are gone there will be no need for VAIN anymore. The Government will stop funding them and eventually people will be sent to kill the remaining people of the organization. It will be like it never happened."

The gears began to turn in Celeste's head. So the Council was just trying to beat the Government to the punch, killing off their own before the big guns could get involved. After the vampires and humans are killed off, it would become survival of the fittest: every man for himself. The government was so involved with VAIN that they have profiles on every person in the organization: their powers, the relatives, likes and dislikes, strong points, weak points . . .how to kill them. Celeste had no doubt in her mind that when it came to her that they were going to get Margo and kill them both together, since their fields never worked when the other was around for some unknown reason.

"So what am I suppose to do?" Celeste asked in defeat. "How am I supposed to stop something as major as this?" Nicolas took her hands in his and gripped them. He gave her a gentle smile and kissed her knuckles.

"You already are sister, by resisting them."

"I'm not sure if that's going to be enough." She looked down at the ground.

"When we were kids you always told me that if I believe in something strong enough, then it can happen." Nicolas gently grabbed her chin and lifted her head up to meet his eyes. "You have always been strong Celeste, even since we were seven and you killed a spider in my room I was deathly terrified of."

Celeste laughed at the sudden memory, remembering her brother jumping up and down on his bed in sheer terror while pointing in the corner of his room at a spider the size of a quarter. She ran in with one of their mothers red pumps and smashed it against the spider, later grabbing tissue and picking it up before flushing it down the toilet.

"The point is, you don't believe in yourself as much as others do. Now maybe that's because your being modest, or you don't see your full potential, but I see it. I've watched you turn into an independent, strong, reliable woman who loves and cares for everything around her, and wants to protect that." Nicolas ran his thumb across her cheek lovingly. "Now you just need to see that for yourself."

"What is this?" Eric rolled the see-through orange prescription bottle between his thumb and forefinger. There was no label, only direction: take two times a day with a lot of food; stand for five minutes after consumption. Harrison snatched it out of his hands as his fingers started to turn the white lid to open the bottle.

"You don't need to know." Harrison clutched it in his hand. He scowled at the vampire, his chin jutted forward and eyes narrowed at him. Georgina slapped him on the back of the head and took the bottle from him, putting it in a small backpack Eric hadn't noticed. Harrison rubbed the back of his head and grumbled childishly, saying a few minor curses at the woman.

"It's the medication administered to us during the drug trials; it's the only thing keeping us alive." Georgina sat at the edge of the bed, next to Aurelia. Harrison grumpily leaned against the closed bedroom door. Eric noticed him roll his eyes but ignored it, he figured this was a very sensitive matter.

"The secret one." Eric nodded his head.

"Yeah." Aurelia huffed. She grabbed a similar prescription bottle out of her pocket and rolled it back and forth between her fingertips. Her gaze was fixed on the small white capsules on the inside, as few as there were, and her corners of her lip curled in disgust. Her eyes closed momentarily, then she passed the bottle to Georgina, who placed it in the backpack. "I hate this shit." She scratched the side of her head out of agitation.

"We do too." Harrison crossed his arms over his chest. Georgina's grip on the backpack tightened.

"What did you mean, that the drug is the only thing keeping you alive?" Eric looked at them.

"This drug is the only thing keeping the cancer away." Harrison replied.

"If we stop taking it, then it comes back, worse than ever . . .stronger than ever." Georgina added. "The cancer never completely disappears, it just gets stored and locked away; then over time, it builds, and grows."

"Think of it as a junk file cabinet." Aurelia said. "Random shit goes in, then a lock is always placed on it. Over time more and more shit gets put in and that lock keeps it all in the cabinet. We're the file cabinets, the cancer is the shit, and the medicine is the lock. The medicine keeps the cancer at bay so that is has no effect on us, but it can't prevent it from growing or spreading through out our bodies."

"That makes no sense." Eric replied. "How can they give you something that doesn't work? That doesn't solve the original problem?"

"Because it had a different side-effect that no one could have predicted, that's why. And the scientists are afraid that if they do anything to alter it, then that side-effect will disappear." Harrison said.

"So I guess you could say we're like ticking time bombs." Georgina chuckled. It wasn't out of humor but out of the depressing truth about it. When they stopped taking the drug the lock would come off, and it would only be a matter of time until they died.

"That means Celeste has been taking it this entire time?" Eric stood up and went over to the catatonic girl, looking down at her.

"No," Harrison answered. "she's gone eight months without it. That's why she is like this."

"What else do you know?" Eric combed his fingers lightly through her hair; he could hear her struggled breathing.

"It depends," Aurelia said, "what do you want to know?"

"Who's Margo?" He asked without looking at her. The three foreigners glanced at each other, silence filled the room.

"Margo . . ." Georgina walked over to the bed and looked at Celeste, her face filled with remorse and undeniable pain. She looked at Eric. "Margo was Celeste's fiancé."

AN: Thank you thank you thank you for reading and please please please review!