I shot awake, all my muscles contracting as I let out a cry. After a few moments of sheer agony, the wave of pain ended and I could relax, sucking in a deep breath as my head pounded like it'd been smashed in with a boulder. Nausea took hold of my body, making my limbs quiver as I sucked in a breath of air.

"You're awake." A voice rang out, and I lifted my head. The figure in front of me was blurry, but so familiar.

"Finn?" I said, my voice hoarse.

"Wrong brother." Nocen said, standing closer in front of me. He came into focus, and I shut my eyes at my mistake.

I'd almost believed that this had been one elaborate dream...

"I'll go tell Felix that you're up." He said, dark eyes watching me when I opened mine. I was so tempted to try and reach in to wake him up completely, but I didn't know what would happen if I could or couldn't. Nocen dissolved into grey, and I was alone.

When the floor finally stopped spinning, I lifted my head to look around at my surroundings. The entire room was lifeless, poorly lit, and filthy with mud and dried blood coating the floors.

My hands were bound over my head by thick chains that were attached to the ceiling, letting me dangle in the air. I tried extending my foot to see if I could touch the ground but another spasm of pain shot through my body, making me shudder as I whispered.

'You're awake.' Karmen's ghost appeared beside me, her words hitting me with deja vu from Nocen's just moments ago. 'And the aftershock of Merexto, what Felix injected into your neck, will hover around for a little while longer. Nice dye job, by the way.'

"How are you here?" I asked, grimacing. More pain shot through my spine, making me grit my teeth as I shut my eyes. When I was able to open them, I saw for myself what dye job Karmen was talking about. Long strands of my hair hung by my face, but instead of being their usual caramel color they were black as night.

'I'm not dead if that's what you're thinking. Remember how you visited Matilda on that one occasion? I'm doing the same here through my pearl except unlike your sister you have the ability to see others who can journey in the same way you can.'

"I don't understand..." I coughed, "why is all this happening? Felix said all those things..."

'Felix has always been trying to deceive you, and turning you against Secta and the guardians is just one of his many tricks but you figured that out. You need to know this: Finn is your mate. He and Cybele have never been in that type of relationship...'

'I know for a fact that they almost were.' I retorted inside my head.

'Cybele is Nocen's mate, and because Finn and Nocen are siblings, they can to a degree feel one another's emotions and sometimes accidentally register them as their own. When Finn met Cybele, he subconsciously felt Nocen's bond to her and believed that she was his mate even though she wasn't. That's the only reason they ever had potential, and Nocen to some level feels a love for you too. Remember that: he won't let Felix or the others destroy you because of Finn's bond.'

'Why didn't... Finn just tell me...?' I said, looking to Karmen.

Before she could answer, we were interrupted, both Maven and Nocen appearing into the room with others in tow. Felix stood talking to a woman that I'd never seen before.

She was tall, statuesque with a small waist and long legs. The woman was tan, dark hair flowing off her shoulders and down her back. Those eyes of her's were a stunning grey, paired with her high cheekbones and full lips. Turning her head, she looked at me, an unreadable expression on her striking face.

"This is our girl." Felix said, extending a hand.

"You have her tied up. How barbaric." The woman said, her voice tainted with an accent I'd never heard before. "I'd prefer if you let her down. I hate the sight of chains."

Maven walked towards me, and using both hands, she snapped apart the thick chain holding my body up in her fists. I landed on my feet, my knees shaking. I wasn't up long as Maven shoved my shoulders, making me fall flat on my face.

My hands were still bound, and my knees collided with the floor, pain shooting through me as I cried out.

The woman nearly screamed, "be gentle with her, you whore! I'll break your kneecaps if you even bruise her's!"

My stomach swirled, and I shuddered, watching as my vision blurred. The dark haired woman knelt on the ground in front of me, resting a hand on the side of my head.

"The pain will be over soon, Kate. I won't let any of these low lives harm you again."

"Who are you?" I said, lifting my head to look into her grey eyes.

"You're my replacement." She said, her face hardening as she ignored my question. "I'm sure that Secta and Cybele have told you all about me."

The cogs inside my head turned, trying to procure a name or something that would seem fitting for this woman.

She finished before I could answer. "My name is Penelope Danvers. Sound familiar?"

My eyes widened as I stared at the woman in front of me. This was Penelope? The Penelope? "You're supposed to be... dead."

"Another one of the many lies they've told you." She shook her head, patting my cheek before standing up straight. "I'm very much alive as you can see. Of course Secta would want to hide me from you."

"None of this makes sense..." I said, pushing myself up on the palms of my hands. "How... why...?"

"Secta and Cybele deceived me just as they are trying to deceive you. It's my duty to liberate you, to save you from falling under their spell just as I did so long ago until Noxia made me wiser." Penelope let out a deep breath, "I was naive, living on earth where creatures like us didn't exist. Cybele came and 'saved' me from my meraki, recruited me to join her and the demons that took her to Earth. I was a human unaware of the other worlds until they took me back to Opulentia with them. I even felt bad for Cybele, constantly abused by her stepmother but it was all a lie."

"She never wanted to hurt you, Penelope." I looked up at her, but she hardly seemed convinced.

"Don't defend them. You don't know them as well as I do. You see, Kate, I was you, the first you that they took under their wing. Secta lied to me and said that I was his child, that he was the father who I never had. I'd lived my life alone in foster care because my parents abandoned me, and he knew how to pray on that hole in my heart to make me believe in him. He knew Cybele was his daughter and even confessed that he'd lied to me, and that hurt like hell. Noxia understood what he'd done, how much he'd wounded me. Kate, she took my pain away, and she can take away your's. I know that your parents are gone just as mine are, so we aren't all that different, are we?"

She kneeled in front of me, running her fingers along the back of my head.

"We're so alike if you think about it. We're the lost children, the ones they want to redeem. They tell us that they're making us heroes when they just need more power to kill off their enemies. He wants to make you his successor, doesn't he? He's training you like his little apprentice, but honey, deep down he can't stand it that you might be able to outdo him. He made me feel special, but he never wanted me to reach my full potential. Cybele never did either, and she betrayed me in the worst way to remind me of it. I loved Nocen too you know, but she took him away from me. She was a liar just like Secta was, proving just how alike they really were. It pained me because she'd done such a thorough job making me believe that we were best friends, one of her only girl friends. Isn't that what she's been telling you?"

The information was swirling inside my head, oddly enough making so much sense. Penelope and I were alike, Secta and Cybele's favorite orphans. Secta wanted me to fill his position; had he once told Penelope the same? Nausea filled my stomach as I choked, groaning. No, no this wasn't right. "No..."

"Yes, you know what I've been through because he's doing the same to you. You're smart enough to see it, to feel in your veins that something isn't right. Don't ignore it; that's how you survive." Penelope touched my cheek, "dear, I know how much they've hurt you. It breaks you apart when they tear you away from your home, torturing you as much as they claim to love you. Secta told you that he'd kill you if you turned out like me, didn't he?"

I looked up to her with wide eyes,"how...?"

"He threatened to end my life too on several occasions. He wanted me to be great, the Prodigy, and he abandoned me when I wasn't. He never told you that, did he? The real reason he finally admitted to Cybele's pedigree was because I wasn't enough for him and he thought that she could be the Prodigy. Kate, he got rid of me. He wanted to kill me, but Noxia saved my life and I'm in debt to her. She's the mother I've never had, and she can be your's too."

"Penelope, I can't..." I shifted onto my knees as she grabbed my shoulders, giving me a firm shake.

"You can be whoever the hell you want to be. Don't let Secta or Cybele decide for you. They've wronged us both enough, and it's time for you to choose the life you want for yourself." She took my hand, holding out my open palm. "Show me your meraki. You can do it."

"I can't. It's too hard for me to control."

"Fuck control." She said, tapping my fingers, "you can't control something that's more powerful than yourself. Chaos is equally as beautiful as order, and Fate didn't make the universe for it to always be organized. Give in to the disorder, and praise the Goddess for her ability to make the forest fire that's blazing inside you. Secta makes it seem so formal, balls of light wrapped in ribbons but life isn't always like that. It isn't smooth and straight; it can be messy and wild, disorganized and lacking pattern but it's straight from the Goddess and beautiful just the same. Don't love your meraki, Kate. Surrender to it on your knees and accept Fate for who she is: the maker of all things imperfect and perfect. Everything she touches is beautiful even if we can't always understand it."

I felt my meraki swelling inside me, and I closed my eyes, taking a breath. In that moment I surrendered, feeling the power coursing inside me and building as I let go into it. My meraki wasn't tame, in reality so amazingly powerful, untouchable and beautiful that I'd never be able to capture it no matter how hard I tried.

Energy flowed through me in a way I'd never experienced before, making me gasp as it channeled into my palms. When I opened my eyes, my veins glowed bright like stars, a ball of golden light swirling in my hand.

Penelope smiled, extending her own hand. A blue orb danced in her fingertips, washing over itself again and again like ocean waves. It was water I realized, watching it swirl inside her grasp. It was beautiful, and it looked just like my own.

"You're more powerful than I am, Kate. Imagine what you can do especially since your meraki wasn't weakened by Felix's little poison." She laughed, "the possibilities of your greatness are endless! The world is yours if you just reach out and grasp it! I can teach you, mentor you to be who you're meant to become. They'll never understand you like I do, and you know that too."

"I don't want to be evil, Penelope." I said, moving my meraki through my hands as it glowed like the northern lights.

"You and I together could stand alone, away from this whole war and be free to be who we really are. It's that easy; we can just walk away!" Penelope took my hands, our meraki entangling together in a flurry of gold and blue waves like a tropical beach. "All we have to do is kill Secta and Cybele to have our revenge, and then the world is our's."