3-Escaping

"Perfect...But how do we get a hold of her?" Courtney asked. She took a look around the room, nothing came to mind. There was no pay phone or computer. There was no obvious way to contact the outside world.

"Arianna..." The name came out almost as a sing-song. Everyone turned to face the now dead Princesses who were still on the wall. Courtney now had her eyebrow raised at her niece. All eye slowly turned to the blonde who was still slumped against the wall with Alan.

"Yes?" She asked, her voice high and snooty, the way it had been when Courtney had first met her cousin.

"Take that tone all you want...But we both know that you are now the one who has the answer to this one." Courtney told her niece. Arianna didn't reply, or even look at the wall. She refused to. It always hurt to think of the two, let alone to face them.

No one knew what the older Courtney was going on about. It was as if Courtney and Maria talked in confusing riddles on purpose, only to confuse them to eternity.

"Arianna..." Younger Courtney whispered her cousin's name across the basement. "You...YOU HAVE A CELL PHONE!" She yelled, the answer suddenly dawning on her.

Arianna slowly let a smile over take her face. She slid a hand down her blue pajama top and pulled out a small silver device. That's what you get when your pajamas don't have pockets. She tossed it to Courtney and she caught it flat in her hands.

"Cell phones are banned in Scarlatina...How do you have one?" Taylor asked, narrowing her eyes down on Arianna. The blonde shrugged her shoulders.

"I have the power to have one."

"Bitch..."

Courtney rolled her eyes, starting to dial the numbers into the phone. It was a good thing she had taken the liberty of remembering the house number for Duncan's. If she hadn't, they would have been screwed since it was unlikely anyone else, including Duncan and Rebecca themselves, knew it. No one ever used phones in Scarlatina; it was quite a rare thing since everyone had bleepers. Bleepers, of course, no one had on them.

"She says she's on her way..." Courtney sighed a breath of relief; hopefully nothing would go wrong now.

"You know what, Courtney?" Maria spoke up once again from the wall. "You also know something...Something very important...Halves are the key to the reason."

"Okay-"

"ARE YOU TWO TALKING TO YOURSELVES AGAIN?" Came a loud yell from Courtney and Maria's side of the communication. "I THOUGHT I HEARD VOICES!" Maria and Courtney signaled for everyone to be quiet with their fingers as they both turned to face someone who was not seen on the screen.

"No one was talking, Grandma." Courtney said.

"I HEARD VOICES!" The woman yelled again.

"I sometimes hear voices..." Maria's face was straight, but she had a sort of day-dreamy look in it. "No one else hears them, though." Courtney stared at her sister like she was insane, which she was. "It's okay...The voices said it was okay."

"I HEARD VOICES!" The woman repeated, this time louder.

"THERE WERE NO VOICES, GRANDMA!" Courtney screamed.

"NO NEED TO TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME, YOUNG LADY!" The old woman shouted back, and then came the noise of a slamming door.

"Old bat..." The older Courtney muttered. "I swear-"

Younger Courtney's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell to the floor in a pile. The image of Maria and Courtney instantly disappeared and everyone rushed to Courtney's side.

Arianna had her hands at the ready and Duncan helped rest Courtney's head on his legs rather than the stone floor.

"J-Just another draining spell..." Courtney's eyes opened up as if nothing had happened at all. "How are you feeling?" Courtney didn't answer; she just rubbed her head with on hand and helped support her body with the other. "Court..." The brunette shook her head, blinking a few times.

"Yeah..." She whispered, her voice sounding weak and tired.

"Get some rest." Duncan told her, trying to encourage his fiancée to rest her head back down on his lap. Courtney didn't.

"I-I'm fine..." She insisted.

All eyes moved to the door at the top of the staircase as a very loud bang came from the other side of it.

"HELLO!" Came Belle's little voice. Courtney got to her feet and ran to the staircase as if she hadn't just fainted a moment ago. Eric was instantly at her side. The two crouched by the door, so happy that someone had finally come to their rescue.

"Belle, please, baby girl, try and melt the lock." Belle didn't reply, but everyone was hoping it was going to be okay. Belle knew how to control her powers, sort of. She couldn't have messed it up too badly, right?

Eric turned to look at the lock; it was now starting to glow slightly red on the inside. At least they knew Belle was trying.

"I can't..." And now giving up.

"Belle...its uncle Eric." Belle sniffled, as if she was crying. "Belle, I know you can do this, okay? I know you are going to melt this lock for us all, okay?"

"Okay..." Belle went silent once again and this time the lock glowed brighter than ever. A loud click and the entire thing melted into brass goo that dripped right down the door frame.

"Belle, stand back!" Courtney called. She gave her daughter enough time to scurry away from the door before raising her leg and kicking it down. "YOU GORGEOUS LITTLE GENIUS!" Courtney smiled, scooping her little girl up into her arms. She held her close to her, as if she had been afraid she was going to lose her for a moment.

"That's Belle..." Alan mumbled. He hadn't meant for anyone to hear, but vampires have very good hearing.

"Best part is she's only two and a half weeks old." Taylor told him.

"Even better..." Alan muttered, but everyone was now running up the staircase. The escape to freedom had begun; Duncan and Trent helping Geoff since he was too weak to support himself, but it was quite short lived.

Heather was waiting for the group as they neared the entrance to the castle. Her long, black hair was swaying at her sides, her piercing grey eyes staring directly into Courtney's.

"Clever girl...Sending the baby to come fight your battles for you." Heather didn't take her eye from Courtney, she didn't even blink.

"You're right..." No had been expecting Courtney to say that. Of all things, not that. She dropped Belle down to her side and the little girl hid behind her mother's legs as the two kept talking, "Let them go Heather...It's me you want."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Heather replied, she didn't even bother with a smug grin. Her face was dead straight; unimpressed by everything they all had to offer.

"Let them go, Heather!" Alan spoke up, pushing his way forward.

"Alan!" Heather snapped, her eyes finally moving from Courtney to him. "You're on my side! You're a Tracker!" Alan let Heather continue. "Me and you have to stop these freaks! These 'things' don't belong in our world."

"The only freak I'm seeing is you." Alan replied.

"Whaddya know?" Duncan spoke up. "This boy speaks sense after all." Heather was shocked. She had not expected him to side with the enemy after everything. Sure, she had locked him in the basement, but it had been for his own good.

Courtney took a step forward, towards Heather. Her eyes were full of sorrow and sympathy. Courtney knew why Heather was doing this, but she needed to hear it from the girl herself.

"Heather, why are you doing this?" The brunette asked.

"YOU KILLED HER!" Heather roared. Courtney didn't flinch, but Belle ran straight from behind Courtney to her father's side. She was now quite scared herself.

"And you killed Courtney." Gwen reminded Heather. "Now we're even."

"Why do you even care if Celia's dead, Heather?" Arianna asked. That small detail was not making so much sense to the rest of the group. "Celia was one of us." She made it sound as if they were two different species of animal, when, realistically, they were all human.

Heather didn't reply at all. She closed her eyes for a minor moment, taking in a deep breath. Courtney didn't push Heather, she knew she was hurting. And, no matter what had gone between the two, Courtney still felt sympathy for the emotionally injured girl.

"Heather...I'm sorry for what happened." Heather's eyes hot open, almost glowing of evil in the darkness of the Tracking Academy. "I never meant for Celia to die. It wasn't revenge for killing me, I promise you it wasn't. It was an accident." Heather didn't reply. "I didn't know she was unconscious. If I had known...I-I would have helped her...We were just in so much of a rush to get out of there...The whole building was going to collapse, we had to escape." Still no repsond from Heather, she just kept staring straight at Courtney. "I may not know what pain you're going through...But my friends and family do...And I am sure they would not wish this pain upon you, no matter what you've done to us." Heather closed her eyes again for a minor moment.

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" Heather screamed, her whole face scrunching up. "You killed her...You KILLED Celia..." Heather's voice trembled as she said her name. "You killed her, Courtney...You killed my sister for the pure fun of it!" Heather yelled. "My sister! My ONLY sister! My ONLY relative I had left in this world!"

Everyone gasped. That they had not been expecting.

"SISTER?" They all shouted. Well, everyone but Courtney. Courtney had known. The reason she had been seeing so much similarities between the two was because they were sisters. Half-sisters. Maria had been, once again, right. 'Halves are the key to the reason.'

"Heather...I know Celia was your sister." Courtney took in a shaky breath. "I am so sorry for what happened...But It couldn't have been stopped. I am so sorry..."

"SORRY DOESN'T BRING BACK THE DEAD!" Heather screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a miracle that none of the other Trackers had awoken from all the yelling that was going on.

"D-Do you want Celia back?" Arianna asked, speaking up for the first time. She stepped forward, next to Courtney, so that Heather could see that she was not joking about it.

"Arianna..." Courtney warned her cousin.

"No..." The blonde whispered in reply to her cousin. "If we got you back, it is only fair that Heather gets Celia back." No one else said anything, but they were all thinking how bad of an idea it was. "You just have to promise us, Heather, no more war...No more fighting. We give you Celia and it's all over..."

A/N: Well...What a nice dramatic chapter that was...=O!

WILL HEATHER CHOOSE TO BRING BACK CELIA?

LOL!...You never know...;) LOL!

So...I have been writing this for the past few hours...It is now 22:08 according to me laptop...I think that means eight minutes past ten...I think...LOL!

I had a good day today...I just hope that Aaron has finished that oneshot now...;) LOL!

I was in a bad mood today...So Aaron started writing me this oneshot based on this series...It's good...AND funny ;) LOL! Just what I needed...Once he is finished I shall upload it for ya'll to read, no matter what he says...It shall be uploaded...

Oh look...It is now ten minutes past 10...10:10...LOL!

Okay...

OMG! Today I tried drawing an almost stick figure style Scarlatina...OMG! FAIL! LOL! Seriously...I shall have to redraw a better version...LOL! I mean it...It was such a FAIL! ahaha! But I got a good laugh outta it ;) LOL!

Thank you to;

Clarissa: I KNOW! Poor, poor Finn...LOL! haha! Thank you :)

XxPurpleChickxX: haha! I know...I was reading and was trying to work out if my word count was right or not ;) LOL! I hope it was...Thanks :)

Pandah N. Reaper: True, true...My vampires aren't happy ALL the time...I think...LOL! ahaha! A poker music band called Bing Wings...LOL! I can totally see it now...ahaha! Maria is now also one of my favorite characters, too...But, yes, I do not think she shall be making another appearance...LOL! Thank you :)

CyD12Inklover: haha! CELEBRATEION! LOL! Thanks :)

PeguinsRcute:...I know what you mean...At least I think I know what you mean...LOL! Thank you :)

Aaron'sInAMineField: YES! Please, start writing LOTW again...I LOVE that story :) LOL! But I honestly weren't thinking of you...Mostly...;) LOL! VOLT THE FISH HAD BETTER TAKEN OVER! I love you VOLT! LOL! Aaahhh! I like your new idea, as you know...I shall maybe use it in later stories ;) Thanks :)

pomtdwt:...Poor, poor Jean...='(...ahaha! Thank you :)

Thanks for reading, please review :)

This chapter was not as long...=(

It is late and I need SLEEP!

SPEAKING OF SLEEP! I'm getting a new-MUCH COMFIER-Bed! LOL!

Love, ChloeRhiannonX