Sometimes, when the weight of their lives begins to bare down upon her, she finds herself wishing she could just turn back time and start all over again. To tell those scared little girls that everything would be ok if only they didn't make the decisions they had, to not lose the faith that they had once clung so desperately too.

If she could, Mercy would change it all at the drop of a hat if it meant that she wouldn't have to watch her sister slowly destroy herself, if it meant that they could erase all the terrible things they had done in the past. If it just meant they could be happy for once in their long, miserable lives.

But those were just dreams she thought as she watched Hope sleep in the bed opposite her own, breathing uneven as she sometimes struggled for oxygen. It wasn't a concern, but it still pained her to see the other in such discomfort. Hope's lungs had never been the same after her illness, damaged from Mercy's first major attempt at using her gift to remove the tumour and irreparable unless she reversed Hope's immortal state and made quick work of the repair.

She groaned, swiping a hand across her face before forcing the guilt from her mind. She had saved her sister and that was all that mattered in the end. She took a moment to truly observe her surroundings for the first time since their arrival. The room was beyond lavish, decorated in lush shades of cream and gold, the furniture clearly antique mahogany and of the finest quality she thought as she took a step across the carpet, bare feet feeling caressed by the plush material as she curled her toes further into hit and felt a little sigh of delight pass her lips.

Neither she nor Hope had ever been much for luxurious possessions, both agreeing upon a modest life style to mask the fortune that their business dealings had created over the years. But that clearly wasn't a tactic that their current 'hosts' enforced, seeming to prefer to surround themselves in the finest things their money could buy.

"What... day is it?"

Hope's groggy voice broke Mercy from her thoughts, turning to watch as the blond attempted to lift herself from the bed only to fall back once more, roaring in indignation and beginning to thrash violently as she realised that her wrist were bound tight to the headboard. Mercy sighed, simply watching and waiting for her sister to tire herself out as she spoke.

"It's Tuesday. You've been out cold for a total of four days... I'd stop thrashing if I were you, that bed is probably older than you and me combined"

"Like I give a rat's fuzzy ass! When I get my hands on those bastards, I'll rip their heads off!"

Mercy smirked, continuing to watch as Hope attempted to bend herself double, seemingly trying to plant her feet against the headboard to add support to her attempt to break the bindings. It didn't appear to be working as, every time, she simply fell on to her side and tangled herself further.

"As much as I think that would do the trick in killing one of our delightful hosts, I doubt that you could do it yourself, or with the help of your clones. Vampires are notoriously difficult to catch and kill"

Hope froze, foot mid air, as she stared at her sister with wide eyes. Mercy simply nodded, answering the silent question that hung in the air as Hope seemed to calm down, her foot falling back to the bed and allowed her own mind to process the information.

"I guess that explains a few things. No one has ever been able to stand up against more than one of my clones at a time, and I doubt any human could move as fast as they did"

"No. But this poses a large threat for us. They seem to have no intention of letting us leave and I doubt that we could take on all of them even with your gift and mine combined. I get the feeling that there's a lot more of them than what we saw the other night"

Hope groaned, letting her head fall back with a heavy thud against the headboard. Things really did seem to be getting worse with each passing moment. Closing her eyes, she allowed a single clone to separate from her being, the feeling of her bindings falling loose before cancelling the clone and standing carefully from the bed, stumbling slightly from her lack of movement over the past four days.

"Why didn't you just summon a clone in the first place?"

"Because common sense doesn't enter my mind when I'm pissed off and also, I wanted to try and trash that damned headboard by myself if I could"

Typical Hope. Let emotions take the lead over logic every time. Their conversation was cut short, both women turning their heads to the door as it opened with a small creak, revealing the two younger looking vampires that had captured them. Mercy remembered the blond haired girl to be named Jane but fell short as she realised that she didn't know the name of the other, a young boy with dark hair.

"We heard your awakening. It is time for you to be brought before the masters"

"Nope"

Hope was back on the bed and hanging onto the headboard for dear life, but Mercy could see the glint of mayhem in her eyes. What the hell was she playing at? Jane scowled as she took a menacing step towards the bed, words dripping with venom.

"It is not a choice, human. You shall not keep out masters waiting longer"

Hope simply began humming to herself, bringing her feet up so that she was hanging from the furniture, swinging side to side slightly. The younger boy simply smirked, moving to stand beside Jane once more.

"Sister, I don't believe the mortal is listening to you... Shall I remedy this?"

Mercy simply slapped a hand against her forehead as Hope merely flipped the bird towards the two vampires. They weren't going to last the night at this rate. Or Hope wasn't at least. Maybe she'd be better simply going with the flow?

*The throne room*

An irritated snarl ripped through the stagnant air, causing Aro to roll his eyes as Caius dug his fingers into the arm of his throne, splintering the wood with the sheer amount of strength behind the act.

"Are you intent on destroying yet another Throne chair? This could possibly be the third in as many days"

Caius only snarled harsher at his brother's words. His patience was thin enough as it was without Aro making it worse.

"We have been waiting four days! Four days since those wretched little humans were brought here to quench the thirst of your curiosity and we have yet to see either of them!"

"Be calm brother, Jane explained did she not. The one named Hope was in a drug induced sleep"

Caius roared, his temper finally snapping as he stood from his throne, launching the beautifully carved piece of furniture towards the throne room door, words little more than a snarl towards his brother.

"You think I care for the human's state? If she were incapacitated then the other should have been brought forth alone! Leave the drug fuelled creature to her pathetic behaviour!"

"Good God! What a dick!"

Aro and Caius turned to the doors, Aro's face lit with overwhelming excitement whilst Caius seethed at the unknown female's voice, her words only making his already frayed temper spike once more as he searched for the source of the voice.

Jane and Alec were stood in the doorway, both looking vaguely irritated as two very unfamiliar bodies caught the attention of both Aro and Caius separately. A tall raven stood beside Jane, rolling her eyes at her sister as expletives poured freely from her lips, her pitch black hair falling to the centre of her back, a beautiful contrast to the deathly pale of her skin with mismatching eyes of crystal blue and enchanting green. She seemed like a goddess to Aro as he felt a part of his own being become settled at the sight of her. He had waited so long for this day.

Oppositely, a fair haired woman was dumped unceremoniously upon the floor from her position upon Alec's shoulder, a shouted curse showing her dissatisfaction at the gesture as she stood and turned to face the kings upon their platform, rubbing the sore section of her ass from her landing. Caius noticed the devilish gleam in her eyes above all else, saw the spark of challenge as he rose from his throne and took a single step forward. She was shorter than the raven by a good few inches, the same mismatching eyes but the opposite way around, the blue sitting to the left and the green to the right. An annoyed scowl painted her pretty cupid's bow lips as her gaze seemed fixed on him. Was this what it was meant to feel like? Finding what his kind knew as a soul mate?

"What are you staring at Barbie? I'll have my clones rip that pretty head of yours clean off!"

Unfortunately, humans seemed much denser to the connection of soul mates than vampires were. Caius was about to reprimand her, his feet beginning to move of their own accord as Aro placed an arm across his chest and stopped his actions.

"Control yourself, brother mine… I know how you feel but for another"

Caius snarled, unhappy to be kept back from the woman as Aro took a few steps forward, a smile upon his lips that spelt unequalled delight, his bloody red eyes never leaving the face of Mercy as she sent a blank stare back towards him.

"Ladies, I trust that you have been alright since your arrival? No issues of mistreatment to report?"

Mercy scoffed, finally letting her indifferent mask drop as she finally settled for an expression of sheer disgruntled annoyance.

"You're asking if we're alright? The monkeys to your organ grinder attack us in the streets, destroy a number of my sister's clones and then knock myself out when she has fallen unconscious before bringing us to someplace we have no clue of, and you're asking if we're ALRIGHT?!"

"You must forgive the actions our guard took my dear, but yourself and your sister are notorious throughout the past century for your strange abilities and talent for vanishing. We could take no risks with either of you"

This time it was Hope who snarled as she found herself stomping over to Aro, not seeming to care as a number of the vampire guard hissed in warning.

"Forgiveness my arse! Just tell us what the fuck you want and let us get home. I have a drug syndicate to manage and Mercy has smuggling to control"

"Quite the lucrative little criminal you both are. But neither of you shall be leaving"

Hope snapped her gaze to the side, a twitch in her right eye as she squared up to Caius, failing to notice the lower ranking soldier that was sneaking up behind her. Mercy simply rolled her eyes, knowing instinctively what was about to happen.

"Oh, we'll be leaving, there's no way in hell we're staying in a castle full of walking talking corpses. We had enough of that as children, thank you kindly!"

The next moments unfolded quickly as Hope felt hands wrap around her throat, twisting and snapping the vertebrae of her upper spinal column, heard the sound of Caius roaring in anger as Mercy attempted to run towards her sister, only to be gripped also and have teeth sunk into her throat as Aro lunged for the opportunistic vampire.

The sisters lay upon the cold marble of the throne room, all eyes on the scene that unfolded before the gathering as the renegade vampire shouted something about not wishing for anyone to speak so poorly to his kings before both Aro and Caius tore his limbs clean from his body in their rage.

Mercy's laughter was the first to break the hostile atmosphere, all eyes finally fixing back upon both she and Hope as the fair haired sister forced her body into a sitting position, her head in an unnatural position with the column of her spine protruding through the skin where it had been snapped as her hands gripped the side of her skull and snapped it back into its correct position, the sound of her bones fixing back into place and restoring to their previous position.

The sight was horrifying as she stood first, turning to face Mercy as she lay upon the floor, body writhing as she bit back screams of agony, the bite wounds in her throat bleeding heavily for a moment as a second fluid began to ooze out, glistening and clear as it melded with her spilt blood until nothing was left to give and the wound began to stitch back together, leaving perfect unmarred skin in its wake.

"Just like we can't kill you that easily, you can't kill us that easily either… Mercy has frozen us in time, her ability meaning that our bones will never stay broken, disease will never trouble us and we shall always remain in the state that we were when she granted us immortality. Your venom can't alter us either; her gift will only push out whatever seeks to harm us"

Hope helped her sister to her feet, taking a moment to inspect that the wound had definitely healed as Aro clapped his hands in joy and a maddened gleam came to his eyes once more.

"Magnificent! Her abilities have truly moved forward since we first started monitoring you both, it makes me question whether the gift will make any true difference in magnifying them. But the question now is, how far can your own gift go Miss Hope Sinclair?"

The two sisters took a moment to register the vampire before them. What had just occurred should have horrified him, not excited him! Hope moved slightly closer to Mercy, whispering in her ear

"I'd wager that we've entered some form of twisted reality here Mercy, and laughing boy here is the supreme leader"

"I can here you, I guarantee that a vampire's hearing is not something to be trifled with"

"Aw crap!"

Hope hung her head in annoyance

"Just show him Hope, it's not like we have any reason not too"

With a sigh, Hope nodded and felt the multitude of rips within her soul as, one by one, each of her clones came into view, filling the throne room beyond comfort as Caius gave a shriek of surprise.

"For the love of god woman, how many clones do you have!"

"At my last count, somewhere near the two hundred mark. If you look out into the corridor, you'll see they're flooding out their too"

As if to confirm what she had said, Felix forced his way through the mass of clones and pulled the door open only to reveal yet more of the blonde doppelgangers, all seeming to argue amongst themselves as Hope simply raised her hand and clicked her finger, causing them all to vanish once more.

"The last thing any of you want is for them to start brawling. It gets messy really quickly"

Aro couldn't contain his delight as laughter ripped from him and both girls sent incredulous glances his way.

"Delightful! Simply wonderful. It is decided, you shall remain here and bring your skills to the coven!"

Hope and Mercy simply stared at him as they muttered to each other, neither failing to see the gleam in both vampire's eyes as Caius gazed at Hope and Aro looked longingly at Mercy.

"Laughing boy is definitely serving the tea for this mad hatter's tea party"

"He's definitely a fruit cake if he thinks I'm cooperating with anyone here"