The Hundred First Generation: The Ancient Power Returns

Chapter Eighteen

"C-Celina!" I exclaimed in shock. I shot her a sweet but obviously faked smile with a wave. "What are you doing in here?"

"I believe that I just asked you that question," the girl said firmly, staring at me with a frown. "Renee? What are you doing in here?"

"I... I was just wandering around and I accidentally stumbled in here. Everything is cool. Don't worry about it. I should really get back with the others and so should you. Let's go and see if the rest of the group members are back yet. I'm sure that they are," I said, speaking a million miles an hour. I started to go for the door, hoping that Celina wouldn't sense my nervousness. 

Celina seized my wrist and shot me a look of concern. "I want to help you, Renee. Will you please tell me the truth? For me?" she asked. 

I looked down at my feet. Celina didn't sound anything like a traitor right then. She actually sounded pretty sincere. Perhaps I was thinking too much into things and she was fine. 

"Well... It's a long story," I said quietly. "Do you promise not to be mad at me when I tell you?"

"Why would I be mad?" Celina questioned, raising an eyebrow. 

I motioned for her to go over to the bed. We both took seats on its surface and met eyes. I let out a small sigh before speaking. "You see... I sort of stepped through the portal early to come back here. I saw you talking to that other girl. Crenia, I think her name was," I told her. "Please don't be angry. I was just worried about you."

Celina's eyes went wide. "What?" she asked in shock. "You... You overheard us?!"

I scooted away from her and held up my hands defensively. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you so unhappy!" I cried out. "Please don't be angry!"

"I'm just... I..." Celina looked down and clenched her hand into a fist. "It's going to put you in danger, Renee. That's why I wanted you all to stay behind. You don't have control of your powers yet. How are you supposed to defend yourself if the Trelosa find out the truth and attack?"

"What truth? Why would they attack us more than they already do?" I asked. "Celina, what are you hiding?"

Celina stared at the picture sitting on the table next to the bed. Her gaze went distant. "Crenia and I... We're not everything that you see. There's something different about us, Renee. You don't want to hear about it," she said. "Just trust me on that."

"I do!" I exclaimed. "I want to know for sure that I can trust you! Seeing you talking to her made me think that you were a traitor! I don't want to feel like that again!"

Celina sighed. "Alright. I'll tell you everything, just so long as you keep it a secret," she said. 

I nodded in response. "Consider it a deal," I told her. "Go on and tell me." 

"You see... Crenia and I... We're more than just acquaintances. The two of us are actually sisters," Celina explained. 

"Sisters?!" I gasped. "I didn't know that you had other siblings that were involved in this!"

"I do," Celina replied. "The rest of them are too young to tangle themselves up in this mess. Crenia and I are twins. She's a few minutes younger, though, so the magic passed onto me. Even if she didn't have magic, she still vowed that she would do something with her life that brought pride and honor to our family. She's doing that, just... Not in the traditional way, you see."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Do you mean... Do you mean because she's a Trelosa soldier?"

Celina nodded. "She's not actually working for Hakate. She's a spy that entered the group to find out any information about the group that she could get. She wants to tell the people fighting against them so that Hakate and the Trelosa soldiers underneath her will fall," she said. 

"Wow..." I said quietly. "I had no idea. I thought that you were ratting us out to her. Now I feel bad for even thinking that such a thing was possible..."

"It's alright. It's what anybody would have assumed after seeing the conversation I had with her," said Celina. She took my hand and shot me a warm smile. "Don't worry about it. Forgive and forget."

I nodded to her. "Thanks for that," I said warmly. "I'm glad that you're not too mad."

"I'm not mad. I just don't want you to talk about it in front of the others. I don't want to drag them into this. Communicating with Crenia is dangerous. I don't want to pull the others into that sort of danger. Getting you involved is bad enough," Celina told me. 

"I won't tell anybody. Just answer me one last question," I said. 

"What is it?" Celina asked. 

"Why was there a picture of you and her in here? I don't think that you ever talked about living here or anything. You just said that the house has been abandoned for years," I told her. 

"We never did live here. Crenia and I were born when this house had just been abandoned. It was all shiny and new back then. We decided to hang out in here from time to time to get a break from our siblings. We were rather close and turned this place into our secret hideout. We even slept here from time to time for sleepovers," Celina said, a small smile appearing on her lips at the memory. 

I smiled at her, but before I could say anything, a voice called up at us from the bottom floor. "The others are back!" came the loud voice. Judging by the heavy Australian accent, I could tell that it was Corinne. 

"Come on," Celina said, rising to her feet. "The sooner that we meet the others, the sooner that we can take down Hakate and the sooner things can go back to the way they were."

----------------------------------------

I'm low key tired but at the same time sleep is for the weak

unfortunately I'm very weak I'm going to go to sleep soon oops

-Digital