Written by **EYRAM**
Then the person looked to her, her eyes filled with shock and asked, with anger that could be felt in even the smallest vibrations of her voice, masking the fear she held deep within, the sadness from bad memories,
"Diane, what are you doing here?"
"Wow, Anne, and for a second, I thought you were actually doing okay, but now I see, tsk. You disappointed Mother a lot."
"And you are not the one to inform me of that do you not think I know that" Anne said, clearly weak, multiple cords connected to her body to keep her alive, she was weak and thin, obviously being fed the bare minimum so that she does not even have the energy to think of escaping and if she was Dhampir or Vampire this would not be particularly bad, but she was human, and weak.
"I think your condition is perfect for the execution of the final phase of my plan, and I want to give you special thanks for giving birth to daughters who look like me and are as stupid as you."
"What did you do to my children?"
"Relax, nothing too bad, if I were you, I would rather fear the mental trauma caused by your clone." Then she made her way forward, took out a syringe, and began to extract blood from her palm, particularly where the star was ingrained. Then her mother said,
"Regardless of how pure you manage to make your blood, you will never be a true Starweaver."
"Well, I do not need to be true to be strong." Then, with that, she escaped, while the whole security force of the mansion made their way to the treasury, and Elaine was as far as Lance's wing. Serena had managed to pick the lock and light their research room on fire."
Then she destroyed all their equipment, the tools to keep track of experiments and the CCTV camera's but not before damaging all the footage leading up to their destruction, and like Diane, she had to make a break for it, without the knowledge that her real mother was stuck in the very same deathbed she was in all those years, and now it was the sixth going on seventh,
Soon they met up and Serena quickly hacked the fastest car in the garage and together they made their way out, Serena taking the wheel, and she was actually getting used to driving in the car after she was sure they had created enough distance between the mansion and stopped driving like a creative speed demon, she asked,
"So, what was in the treasury and what happened to cause that mass chaos?"
"I commend your hacking and teamwork skills; you and I could make a great spy team. Are you sure you are not some underworld gang's leader?"
"Yes, and you are avoiding the question."
"So, that says it then, I am not willing to tell you."
"I thought we were a team."
"First lesson, do not trust anyone."
"Who do you think I trust?"
"You are in denial, but I know you trust your dad, he can lie like a pro, he had centuries before you were born to practice it, and I can assure you that there is more to him than anything he had let on, he tells you he is a changed person and you believe him, for your sister I think you understand her clearly, but there are many you trust, you should not"
"Okay, so are you telling me or not?"
"I will either tell you, or replace your mom and teach you, you know you are like a daughter to me, I see a lot of me in you, the way you replied to my proposal was something young me would do" it was certainly strange having someone who looked to be younger than you, even though slightly but noticeably calling her a daughter, that was something she never thought to find on her to-do list.
"…"
"So, you do not want to answer."
"Okay, I believe it would be more profitable to learn from you, but from experience, I hate to be kept in the dark, so I want both options, and that should be affordable if you really see me as a daughter."
"Wrong answer, I would hence tell you what was there, but won't teach you." After a moment of silence, she said,
"Stop, this is not suspenseful anymore, just say it!"
"Your mother, Anne Starweaver, or should I say Blackwood, was there."
"No, are you trying to turn this back on me because I refused to choose?"
"The one on the outside was a clone. She is in horrible condition, but I guess you'll have to learn weaving a tapestry without a demo."
Soon Serena pulled over, at the first branch of Serene Technologies, the smallest but grandest branch, mostly full to the max, and hence required more security personnel to prevent more than a legally allowed amount of people from being inside.
Then there she stopped, and Diane had to leave. Serena was confused, shocked, and worried all at the same time. Her mother had been trapped in that room for only God knows how long, and she wanted to show her some support or give her help; she needed to break her out of there.
But at the moment that seemed impossible, the security would definitely be amped up as compared to both times she was there and managed to escape, moreover under those strict conditions how would she help her mother whose body was under such an ailment, she had no choice but to remain bedridden, it would be hard but with the same determination eleven year old her used to pull all-nighters at work and balance it with school but still manage to make it out on top, she decided to save her mother.
And she had certainly not wasted her time burning the Keepers of Light's research because she managed to get a glance at the cloning mechanism, and what that said was that there had to be a part of the original body connected to it as a never-exhausting source of DNA to maintain the clone's existence.
And beyond that, it needed a power source, as a clone could not eat; it needed energy from some other source. If she found the energy source or the part of its body that belonged to her mother, and she disrupted any of these two, the clone would be finished.
…
In the house, Seraphina had had a lot of time to reflect and work on things she was like a match that easily lit but would dim shortly after, she understood her sister would not always have her best interest at heart but that did not mean she did not want her to succeed, it was clear she did not offend her on purpose so holding a grudge would do nothing for her.
She tried to go on with daily activities, but felt empty, absentminded, without hate fueling her and any drive at all. She was quickly plunged into reliving bad memories, negative thoughts taking center stage in her head, all those times she was willing to give out her body to that lustful wolf, she felt so used.
The day she had a miscarriage, the person behind it, the sword that was stabbed into her stomach, it all seemed to come at her at once, all things that caused her pain taking priority over her thoughts, and it hurt, it hurt so badly, her heart was on pieces as she lay on her bed tear ducts dry from excessive crying,
She had been out of school for a long time due to this particular reason. It was all so hard, and even though she had a far sturdier body, and the physical pain of losing a child was at an all-time low, the mental blow hit far harder than anything, and she could not just brush it off.
Jack tried to be there for her, but he had a lot going on for himself as well and though he wanted to he also had other priorities, that his very life might be hanging upon, if there was anything he knew about Elaine, that was her being the stubbornest woman he ever met, even when she was weak, but now, with all that strength she would never give up till his head was just a figurine in her hall.
A new mayor was appointed, who was not a vampire and since Ravensville had become just like another regular town a lot of Vampires had to go to the Vampire settlement to avoid the sun if they could not afford a concealing ring, something that blocked UV rays from the sun, preventing Vampires from being weakened by it, but was only used by Vampires who had reached the Duke rank and above, or those who were appointed as Knights.
Due to this, the Army he kept in the city had been greatly reduced in quantity, and only high-ranking Vampires were present, but if Elaine, who was not weakened in the least bit, sent a stronger Dhampir after them, the higher rank would only go on to benefit her team, so he had to think of something fast.
…
Somewhere in the woods, was an army of snake-like humanoid beings, training gallantly preparing for a war, against a certain person, who stole their princess during a hunting session, for reasons unknown, but they were prepared to counter any measures these people had decided to put up, they sent spies to spy on the enemy trained troops to improve coordination, as they planned out a well versed assassination attempt, followed by a war of attrition, in case the assassination did not work.