|Are you sure you wanna play this game? Are you sure you wanna play it?

|Song: Traitor, Daughtry

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Lisa's P.O.V.

It was silent as we were led upstairs, through wooden doors and down a dirty hallway with only one lightbulb to light the way.
Finally we entered a room that seemed like if once had served as a gathering room. Now, the wallpaper was peeling off and the carpet was dirty and ripped at the edges.
There was one big table in the middle of the room, with plastic chairs randomly placed along side it. Two people sat at the far end of the table.

One was Gally.

He looked tired and miserable but gave us a small smile. His eyes seemed to linger on me for a second and I gave him a curt nod. The man who sat next to him was huge, more fat than muscle though.

'This is the headquarters of the Right Arm?' Minho asked, and I bit my lip bracing myself for the comment. 'Consider me a little discouraged.'

'We've moved around a lot, more times than we can count. But thank you for the compliment,' Gally answered, his smile gone.

'So which one of you is the boss?' Thomas asked.

Gally nodded at the fat man right from him. 'Don't be a slinthead. Vince is in charge. And show some respect. He's risked his life just because he believes things should be made right.'

I narrowed at the man, but his face was covered in shadows. 'And does Vince know how to talk?' I asked, my voice slow and cold. It was time I knew who was in charge of my organisation. I had to know who had taken Carter his place because I had always made it pretty clear that if something would happen to me I wanted him to become the new leader of the Right Arm.

'Enough!' Vince yelled with a deep, booming voice. 'Our whole city is overrun with Cranks, I don't have time to sit here and listen to childish talk. What do you people want?'

'Just one thing,' I answered, feeling anger take over. 'Why would the people of an organisation, build to take Wicked down, capture Immunes?'

Vince leaned slightly forward, but not enough to see his face yet. 'And who are you to know what this organisation its purpose is.'

'Lisa,' I simply answered all my nerves suddenly gone.

'No way,' Vince responded, but no surprise sounded in his voice. 'Our great leader has returned.'

I narrowed at the man, unsure what to say to that.

Then Vince turned to Gally. 'You trust these people?'

'Yeah,' Gally said, his gaze focused on me. 'We can trust them.'

Vince leaned forward and finally showed his face. He folded his arms on the table and narrowed at us with his piercing green eyes. A beard covered his chin and cheeks. 'Then we can't waste any time. We didn't mean to offend anyone, but we're collecting Immunes to mimic Wicked.'

'Why would you do something like that?' Dawn asked.

'We're going to use them to get inside Wicked's headquarters,' Vince answered.

If Wicked really was responsible for the disappearance of the other Immunes, it was so simple and yet so briliant.

'That might work,' Thomas said, turning to me with a slight smile on his face.
I bit my lip but didn't respond, something felt off about the whole situation.

'I'm glad you approve,' Vince said, his face an unreadable mask. 'We have a contact and the deal is already arranged to send them. It's our way in. We have to stop those people. Prevent them from wasting even more resources on a pointless experiment. If the world is going to survive, they need to use what they have to help the people left alive. Keep the human race going in a way that makes sense.'

'Do you think there's any chance they could ever find a cure?' Dawn asked, her voice small.

Vince let out a long chuckle. 'If you believed that for even a second, you wouldn't be standing here in front of me, would you? You wouldn't have escaped, wouldn't be seeking revenge. Which is what I'm assuming you're doing. I know what you've been through. Gally told me everything.' He paused and I felt Dawn trembling next to me. 'No we gave up on their...cure a long time ago.'

'We're not here for revenge,' Thomas said, I looked at him with raised eyebrows. I sure was. 'It's not about us. That's why I like it that you talk about using their resources for something different. How much do you know about what Wicked is doing?'

Vince leaned back in his chair. 'I just told you something, a secret that we've guarded with loss of life. It's your turn to repay the trust. If Carter and his people had known who you were, they would've brought you here first thing. I apologize for the rough treatment.' 

'We don't need apologies,' I answered. 

Vince stared at me. 'Tell me, Lisa, how do I know you didn't come back to take the throne. This was once your organisation, after all.'

I took a deep breath, I had expected that question, but I had no answer. 'I guess I just...' I clenched my hands. 'I wanted to see what had become of...this. Hearing about it wasn't enough. But I'm not planning on taking back the lead. I'm not a leader anymore, and besides who would listen to me? I'm just here to get my revenge on Wicked and live a happy life without them.'

Vince narrowed at me for a second but seemed satisfied with that answer for now. 'Alright then, we've told you what we know, now please share some of your knowledge with us.'

'Okay,' Thomas looked at me and I nodded at him. I knew we could trust Gally. Vince was still a mystery to me but if we were going to finish what I once started, this was the only way to do it. 

'Wicked thinks they can complete the cure, that they're almost there. The only missing piece is me. They swear it's the truth but they've manipulated and lied so much, it's become impossible to know what's real and what's not. Who knows what their motives are now. Or how desperate they've gotten, or what they might be willing to do,' Thomas said.

'How many of you are there?' Vince asked.

We all shared a glare. 

'Not much,' Minho answered this time. 'At least not much we can trust.'

I knew he was thinking about Teresa. I took a deep breath and tried to suppress the building rage that was threatening to overwhelm me once again.

'How many are in your group?' Dawn asked.

'Well, that's a hard question to answer. If you're asking how many people have joined us over time, I'd say a thousand.'
My heart skipped a beat. I had never even dared to hope for that much.
'But if you're asking about how many are still willing to fight. Then we're talking about a few hundred, unfortunately.'

'Are any of you immune?' Thomas asked.

'Almost none. I am not, and after what happened to Denver, I'm pretty sure I've got the Flare by now. Hopefully that doesn't count for the majority of us. And if we want to do something about it. We'll have to do it fast.'

Thomas pointed to the chairs. 'Can we sit down?'

Vince nodded. 'Of course.'

We all took a seat and I ended up next to Minho. He gave me a glare and I gave him a small smile in return.

'So what exactly are you planning to do?' Thomas asked.

Vince let out his rumbling chuckle once again. 'Calm down, son. Tell me what you have to offer in all this and then I'll tell you my plans.'

'Look, we know a lot of things about Wicked's headquarters and how things work there. And we have some in our group who've had their memories returned,' he pointed at Dawn and me, 'but most important thing is Wicked wants me to come back. And I think we can use that to our advantage somehow,' Thomas said.

'That's it?' Vince asked. 'That's all you have?'

'There might be something else...' Dawn spoke up and I frowned at her. She looked up from her lap, straight at Vince. 'Thomas isn't the only person Wicked is expecting back. I made a deal with one of the doctors a few weeks ago. He was going to use my blood to cure-,' she took a shaky breath and then turned to look at me. 'If I go back and tell Janson that I want to make our deal happen anyway, I can get inside. We can use this to our advantage. The only problem is, we don't have any weapons.'

At this last comment, Vince and Gally exchanged a knowing look.

'What?' Thomas asked.

'We've got something that's infinitely better than weapons,' Gally answered.

Thomas leaned forward. 'And what could that possibly be?'

'We have a way to make sure no one can use any weapons,' Vince said.

'How?' Minho asked.

'I'll let Gally explain that,' Vince gestured to the boy next to him.

'Okay think about the Right Arm,' Gally said and he stood up. 'These people aren't soldiers. They're accountants, janitors, teachers. Wicked basically has their own little army. Trained in the finest and most expensive weaponry. No matter how many weapons we have, we'd still be at a huge disadvantage.'

I had no idea where this was going. 'So, what's the plan then?' I asked.

'The only way to even the playing field is to make sure they don't have any weapons. Then we might stand a chance.'

'So, you're gonna steal them? Stop shipment? What?' Dawn asked.

'No, nothing like that,' Gally responded, shaking his head. 'It's not about how many you can recruit to your cause but who you can recruit. Of everyone the Right Arm has gathered, one woman is the key. Her name is Charlotte Chiswell. She was a lead engineer for the biggest arms manufacturer in the world. Every pistol, Launcher, grenade, you name it, used by Wicked, comes from there. And they all rely on advanced electronics and computer systems to function. And Charlotte's figured out a way to make every weapon useless.'

'Really?' Minho asked, sceptical.

'There's a common chip in every weapon they use,' Gally went on explaining, 'and she's spent the last several months trying to figure out a way to repogram the things. She finally did it. It'll take a few hours once she starts and a small device needs to be planted inside the building for it to work, so our people plan to hand over the Immunes and they will do the job. If it works, we still won't have weapons but at least we'll have a level playing field.'

'If not an advantage,' Vince added. 'Their guards and security detail are so trained in using those weapons that it's second nature by now. So I bet they've grown lax in hand-to-hand combat. Real fighting, sparring with knives and bats and shovels, sticks, stones and fists.' He grinned mischievously. 'It'll be an old-fashioned fight. And I think we can take them. If we didn't do it that way, if their weapons were still working, we'd get destroyed before it even began.'

I shared a glare with Thomas and felt a rush of excitement wave through me. And I could see in his eyes he felt the same. 'So how do you do it?' Thomas asked.

'We have three Bergs. We're going in with about eightly people, the strongest we can find in our group. We'll hand over the Immunes to our contact inside Wicked, plant the device, though that's gonna be our hardest task. And when it does the job, we'll blow a hole in the wall and let everyone else in. Once we've gained control of their facility, Charlotte will help us get enough of the weapons running again to stay in control. We'll do this or every last one of us will die trying. We'll blow up the place if we have to.'

I bit my lip. This was a good plan and with my memories back I knew the facility like the back of my head.
And for the first time in a long time I allowed myself to have some actual hope. If this worked, we could finally take Wicked down.

We would finally be free.

Vince continued talking, and had my full attention. 'If what Gally says is true, you and your friends will be a huge help to our planning team. Since you guys know the building inside and out. And every extra body counts, I don't care how old or young you are.'

'We also have a Berg, a friend of us can fly it. It's just outside the Denver walls on the northwest side,' Dawn said. Her eyes were ablaze with fire. A fire that apparently had burned the numbness of losing Newt away.

'Unless the Cranks have ripped it to pieces,' Minho added but he too seemed to have come alive by hearing this new plan.

'Where are you Bergs?' Thomas asked.

'Safe and sound enough,' Vince answered. 'We'd love to have another week or two to prepare but we don't have much choice. Charlotte's device is ready, our eighty people are ready. We can spend the next day or so letting you and the others share what you know, make final preparations and then we move.'

'How confident are you?' I asked, not wanting to leave a single stone unturned.

'Listen to me,' Vince said, leaning forward and piercing my eyes with his gaze. 'For years all we've heard about is the mission of Wicked. How every penny, every man and woman, every resource, how it all had to be devoted to finding a cure. They told us they found Immunes, that they were the key. While in the meantime, cities crumbled and the humanrace slaughtered each other. Then a young girl reached out to the outside world from inside Wicked, telling us what they were really doing and that they had to be stopped. And now, after all these years, we finally have a chance of making the wish of that girl, who set this all in motion, come true.' He fell silent for a second and I felt my hands were shaking.

Vince was right. We had already waited too long. It was time we finally executed this plan. 'Our people selling the Immunes could certainly plant the device once they're inside, but it would be a lot easier if it was in place when we arrive. Having the Immunes will get us into the airspace and permission to land but...' He raised his eyebrows at Dawn and Thomas. They looked at each other.

'That's where we come in,' Thomas said, looking back at Vince.

'Yes,' Vince said, smiling. 'I believe that's where you two come in.'

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And so the battle begins...

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! They finally met Vince, who I liked a lot better in the movies but that's just a side note, and the plan to take down Wicked is set in motion! I am so excited to write how this is all going to happen.

What do you guys think is gonna happen? Will Dawn and Lisa make it out alive? When will Minho finally take some action and tell Lisa he kissed her? Will Dawn and Newt ever reunite? And how will Janson react to Dawn returning to him? Let me know your thoughts!

xXx
UYM