FOOTSTEPS POUND INTO THE GROUND AT A QUICK PACE. Each individual, not including Margo, bustles around performing their respective tasks.

"Who is she?" Cliff asked.

"Her name is Shyleen Lao. Cliff, the O2, stat." The Chief said. Margo placed herself at the end of the examination table, out of the way of the others preparing to save the stranger.

"Close. Rita, run the IV. Gar, my case." Her father quickly spat out orders. Gar placed the metal case on the table and unlatched it.

"Okay. Larry, any time."

In one swift motion, Larry pulled away the sheet covering the woman. Large clouds of steam rose into the air from the frigid temperatures of her skin meeting the air around her.

"Oh, she's hot. Even for me." Larry said.

"What happened to her?" Rita asked.

"A protest she organized turned violent. A nearby tanker exploded. She was engulfed in liquid nitrogen." Chief paused to brush the hair from the woman's forehead.

"The doctors treating her said there was nothing they could do. But she's a good soul, one worth saving."

"Poor thing," Rita muttered sympathetically.

"This serum should help stabilize her body temperature," Chief said. Margo cautiously eyed the syringe.

"Mmm-hmm. There, I think." A vibrant royal blue is injected into the saline bag, but it doesn't have the effect they hoped for. The patient began to seize, and the monitor beeped urgently.. Margo found herself chewing on her lip as she grew more concerned and wished more than anything to be able to help.

Unnoticed to her, light beams flickered above her. Chief shot her a look that Margo and everyone else was oblivious to, everyone except for Rachel. The teenager perched above on the balcony tilted her head in confusion, and continued to observe the events unfold as suspicion gnawed at her.

"What the fuck?" Cliff drawled out the words in confusion about what was depicted on the screens above him. Shyleen's body temperatures decreased into negatives, rapidly descending.

"Chief?" Larry looked to the man for answers.

"What's happening?" Gar asked as Shyleen began to shake more violently.

"Her body is reacting to my serum," Chief said quickly while shining a light into the patient's eyes.

"It's freezing in here," Rita said as she wrapped her arms around herself. Margo had not noticed, unable to feel the temperature change. The group's breath billows out of them in small puffs of fog.

"She is altering the temperature around us. We need to keep her warm. Blankets!" Chief demands and Rachel's footsteps above signal she is hurriedly walking down the stairwell to join them. Shyleen's eyes were disoriented as they blinked open but they quickly filled with panic. She began to fight against them as she frantically spoke a foreign language that almost no one understood. That's the thing, being trapped in a stuffy old mansion with an extensive library meant Margo had a lot of time on her hands.

"Hey, uh, does anyone speak whatever that is?" Cliff asked the group as they struggled to place blankets on her.

Without hesitation Margo rushed her body over to Shyleen's bedside. Shyleen's eyes widened even more at the sight of her and uttered more hurried and confused sentences. Margo held her hands up in an effort to calm her.

"I know this is very terrifying and strange but I promise we are only here to help you." Margo spoke evenly to try to prevent from further agitating her. Shyleen's eyes flooded with tears of relief of being understood but it took only a moment for her expression to sour again. Others in the room shared bewildered glances, unaware Margo even spoke Shyleen's language.

"Please, please, make them stop, it hurts so much-" Shyleen broke out into a sob as a new wave of pain wrenched away her ability to speak with a wrathful passion. Margo's eyes watered at seeing this woman in so much agony. She wanted nothing more than to be able to hold on to her ice cold hand for dear life and offer any semblance of comfort.

"It's going to be okay, you're gonna be okay, it'll be over soon."

Shyleen's body only began to shake harder. Margo gritted her teeth as stress pulled her muscles and fists taught. No longer able to stand still, Rachel pushed her way in next to Margo and grabbed a hold of Shyleen's hand.

"Rachel?" Gar went ignored. Shyleen gasped and shouted in fear as Rachel's eyes became inky black and matching veins trickled down her cheeks. Margo's jaw is left agape at the sight. Her eyes widened not with fear, but curiosity.

"I can help ease your pain." Rachel's voice comes out distorted and Chief snaps his head toward the teen at the sound of it.

"I know you're frightened. It's okay. It's okay." She continued. Shyleen's breaths began to calm and her eyelids fluttered shut. In seconds Rachel's eyes return to normal as the darkness seemingly retreats inside.

A deep and tired sigh echoed from Chief's body. His eyes pierced through Rachel from across the table.

"Get sedation." He told Rita who did so with haste.

"And she's stable," Cliff announces to the room.

"She needs to rest," Rachel said and softly placed Shyleen's hand on the table. Chief only stared at Rachel, and Margo at him.

The dining hall was uncomfortably quiet, the direct opposite of the liveliness earlier in the evening. Rachel's leg shook under the table as she struggled to stay still during the tense silence. She glanced up at Margo, almost as if for support. Margo gave her a small but warm smile that faded away into nothingness once Rachel looked away.

"I didn't mean to be any trouble. I'm sorry." Rachel apologized. Margo frowned.

"Rachel, you've been anything but trouble." The words instinctively spilled out before Margo had a chance to stop them. The clearing of her father's throat made discomfort bubble in her stomach. She had no idea if it was his intention to make her linger in those feelings by straightening his dishware before he spoke, but it felt that way regardless.

"Don't be sorry. You helped us save that young woman's life, and we are very grateful for it. You were a surprise to me. That's all."

"I tried to warn the kid." Cliff interjected. Margo let out a quiet sigh at his attempt to placate her father.

"Well, we keep what we're doing here very secret, you see?" Chief assuaged Rachel.

"What is it that you do here?" Rachel questioned. Margo flicked her gaze over to Chief expectantly. Chief smiled softly and leaned forward to Rachel.

"I help people that others have given up on. I go beyond what medical science is willing to do... because I believe in hope. Don't you?"

Rachel looked away and back at her plate. Chief continued on.

"Our dear Rita had been in an institution for decades after a toxic gas left her cells unstable. I freed her. Almost like my sweet daughter Margo here." Chief motions to the two women. Rachel's eyes immediately lit up with a thousand questions for Margo at the word "daughter", but she avoided the teen's inquisitive gaze. It wasn't as if she could give the her an honest explanation about much of anything in the presence of her father.

"Then Larry. A pilot in the Air Force, he crashed his plane and was exposed to negative energy. He was given mere days to live. That was over 50 years ago. Cliff's story you already know. And finally, Garfield."

At the mention of Gar Rachel turned her head to look at him. He smiled at the girl as he munched on a strawberry.

"He cured me." Gar said simply with a shrug.

"From what?" Rachel asked with a furrowed brow.

Instead of letting Gar answer, Chief did so for him, "A rare disease he contracted from an even rarer species of primate in the Congo basin. Although, the cure I administered had unforeseen side effects."

"Chief thinks that I can unzip my DNA and rearrange it. It took me a while to figure it out, but-"

"So that's how you can... but why a-" Rachel's mind was running a mile a minute putting the puzzle pieces together.

"I don't know. He thinks it's psychological. Tigers have always been my favorite. Ever since I was a kid."

"So, you all just live here?" Rachel asked the entirety of the dysfunctional group, her eyes drifting over all of them .

"This isn't simply a sanctuary, Rachel. It's an incubation chamber, an experiment. The work I do on them will push medical science forward decades in a matter of years." Chief replied with the cadence of a practiced politician. If Margo could bleed she surely would have with the force in which she bit her tongue.

"I think I can help you, too, Rachel." Chief said, causing alarm to flash in Margo's eyes.

"It's getting late, shouldn't we show Rachel to her room for the night?" Margo was quick to intervene but it was seemingly pointless. Rachel tilted her head at her slightly for a moment before answering Chief.

"You- you can't help me." Rachel said to Chief.

"That's what they said about Cliff, Larry, Rita, Garfield...and Margo," Chief's hesitation to whether or not to include her name almost brought Margo amusement. "That I couldn't. That they were doomed. And yet, here they all sit, enjoying dessert."

Larry wistfully drums his fingers on his empty plate while Rita puts another large bite in her mouth with a content smile.

"If you'd let me examine you, do some tests..." Chief trailed off and left the offer up in the air. Rachel let out a wary sigh, not ready to believe anyone could help her.

"Rachel, you're not alone." Chief said softly and with one look into Rachel's eyes Margo could decipher the fear and desperation swirling together into a toxic cocktail of false hope.

Margo stared down at the plate in front of her. The milky reflection in the pristine china alerts her of her dismayed expression. She attempted to coach it back into the shape of the pleasant, obedient daughter. It doesn't work.

The words, 'I can't let him do this' rung resolutely in her mind.

Abruptly she leapt from her chair and followed after Rachel, Gar, and her father. Larry calling her name with obvious confusion falls on everyone's ears but her own. In her haste she doesn't see her father evidently waiting for her, only the back of Rachel and Gar's heads as they descend into the basement.

When Chief is suddenly in her eye-line she instinctively takes a few steps backwards as her hair flashes white as snow. Unbothered by this he walked closer until he stood in front of her.

"If you pull any of your tricks, I will know." He said the words soft and sweet, a tone that has easily disarmed many. One that has appeared to lure Rachel into trusting him with her abilities. She hated him.

Margo's eyes are pointed firmly into the patterned carpet. She traced the shapes with her eyes as Chief further invaded her space. Her jaw stiffened as his finger brushed over her chin as a false act of affection. Margo waited until she heard his footsteps dwindle before glaring fiercely at the spot he once stood. Her hair had simmered into burning crimson as anger flooded her veins. She clenched her fists and devised her plan.

Rita saw her as she exited the dining hall, clearly the one who volunteered to go investigate what was wrong with her. She instantly took in the shade of the young woman's hair, as it was undeniably hard to miss. Ultimately she refrained from commenting on it for the time being. "Margo?"

Feeling like she has no time to explain, Margo tightly closed her eyes to focus on doing something she's only ever done once. Before Rita can ask again, Margo is morphing through the floor and down into the basement.

•heyyy...... 👀
•so it's been a hot second! sorry besties! my mental health has been in bad shape but being to publish new stuff and give y'all good food makes me feel so much better!
•i know last chapter i said we would have our first dargo interaction but don't you worry, a follow up chapter is close behind this one!!
•see you soon lovelies!