THE SURVIVOR!
false flag.

MARG!

   THINGS HAD CLEARLY GONE SIDEWAYS FOR THE TRIO TASKED TO RETRIEVE MINHO. Margaret was the first to notice their absence. The re-head let out a curse she'd learned from Jorge as she punched the wall beside her.

"Puta madre!" The dull throb in her hand was nothing compared to the worry and anger coursing through her veins. In retrospect, she should have connected the dots earlier: the only plausible explanation for the alarm and all the guards they'd seen storming the building was that their friends were still inside. Newt, the person she loved the most in this crumbling and diseased world – along with her twin – was trapped.

All eyes were on her. Brenda, Nancy, and Gally were all staring at Margaret, waiting for an explanation, yet receiving nothing but a frustrated growl at first. "Newt is still in there, they all are." The red-head announced. "We thought they'd be here, and by the look on your face," Marg continued, noticing Brenda's panic-stricken expression. "You thought they'd be with us."

While Brenda attempted to get off the bus, Nancy had already jumped outside by the time Gally positioned himself before the exit. "You two stay with the kids." It was not up for debate. The boy's tone resembled that of his twin's, for it was commanding enough to convince Nancy to step back on the bus. "Wait here. We'll find them." Gally must have known that it would have been impossible to persuade Marg to stay behind, for he had already included her in his rescue plan. The red-head wasted no time in pulling her helmet back on, weapon tight against her chest as she tapped her foot rhythmically, waiting for her brother to sprint out of the garage. "Just wait for us, okay?" The two girls were given no chance to reply, for before they knew it, the siblings had broken into a jog towards the upper levels of the underground parking lot.

The twins' run did not last long. Soon enough, the lights coming from buildings surrounding WICKED's skyscraper caused them both to step into the darkness provided by a column. Two guards stood at the main entrance of the garage, blocking the siblings' only way out.

"Okay," Margaret begun, slowly turning to face Gally. "I need you to walk towards the exit. Act natural and play the part."

"What about you?"

"Don't worry, I've got it covered." They didn't have time to stop and formulate a fool-proof plan; therefore, Marg stepped back and disappeared from her brother's line of sight before the boy could question her any further.

As Margaret neared the exit by walking right beside the right wall, Gally marched rather calmly towards the two men tasked to keep guard. It wasn't long before the tallest guard noticed his approaching 'colleague', limbs tensing underneath his armor as he loudly cleared his throat.

"Why are you here and not inside?" The unknown man queried, their identical uniforms granting him the freedom to put formalities aside.

"I received orders to guard the front entrance," Gally replied, his voice deeper than usual.

While the tall guard seemed to have bought Gally's excuse, the burly man on his right let out a loud scoff as he took a step towards the disguised teen. Having foreseen such reaction, Margaret took advantage of the fact that the guards' attention was focused solely on her twin, and stepped outside the shadows.

"What's going on here?" Margaret barked, disguising her feminine voice by deepening it. Both guards before the red-head shared a glance, scrambling to salute the girl disguised as a higher-ranking officer. "Infected got your tongues, or are you going to answer my question?"

"S – sorry, Sir. We did not see you, Sir." The tall one replied once Marg had halted beside Gally. "He claims to have received orders to guard the front, Sir. We simply found it unlikely that –"

"Who are you to question his orders?" Margaret queried, her voice lacking any emotion as she stepped forward, disregarding the man's personal space. "You'd better mind your rank unless you wish to be stripped of it. Do you both want to be punished for your insubordination, or should I simply punish one of you to set an example?"

"No, Sir. I am sorry, Sir."

"It won't happen again, Sir."

Teresa had told them about those who wore uniforms like Margaret's; men who – under the protection of their leader, Janson – would often take the matter into their own hands. Had Margaret and Gally simply walked away, leaving both guards behind, they would have certainly aroused suspicion.

"Very well, as you were." Margaret calmly stated, her voice still deep enough to be easily mistaken for a man. "But first –" With no warning whatsoever, Margaret used a WICKED's handgun to shoot the burly man in the chest. The guard's body hit the ground with a loud thud, a pool of blood slowly surrounding his body. "Unless you want to meet his fate, I suggest you carry out your orders." The red-head ordered, placing the handgun she'd just used back where it belonged.

Margaret had never thought she would have followed Teresa's advice, yet, desperate times called for desperate measures. Shockingly enough, the brunette seemed to have told them the truth, for the last guard standing allowed both the red-head and her twin to pass without uttering a single word.

The building's main entrance wasn't far from the garage.

Unaware of their friends' position, the twins had agreed to head towards the location where most guards would be stationed. While well trained, it surely seemed that WICKED's personnel had yet to master the ability to be discreet; during their short walk, the twins had already gathered enough information to understand how Jensen had found out about the rescue group.

The front of the building was flooded by guards wearing all kinds of uniforms rushing to their assigned posts. Oddly enough, the chaos did not unnerve Margaret, but managed to calm her wild heartbeat slowly. The state of general panic could only mean one thing: while they might have discovered her friends' and boyfriend's true identity, they had yet to apprehend any of them.

Margaret had always been a realist. However, as she walked amongst WICKED's guards beside her twin, the red-head found herself clinging onto hope as if her life depended on it. The mere idea of losing the boy she loved, the one she considered a younger brother, and her two dear friends were causing her hands to shake – something that hadn't happened ever since her first night in her Maze.

Getting past the blocks that had been set up around the front of the building was easy; the uniform Marg was donning had people scurrying away, and mumbling apologies left and right.

So far, Margaret and Gally hadn't heard anything they didn't already know; that was, until a guard dressed in the same uniform as Newt addressed his team louder than necessary.

Apparently, the lack of subtlety was indeed a requirement for all of those WICKED hired.

"They've got them trapped." The man announced, his voice strained and accompanied by a rough cough.

The twins exchanged a glance, coming to a halt to overhear their friends' current location. According to the squad's leader, Newt and the others had no way out, but Marg knew better.

When the coughing – and possibly infected – guard pointed to where their friends had been cornered, Margaret allowed her eyes to trail from the glass window to a rather deep fountain right underneath it.

It was completely and utterly reckless; therefore, something that Margaret would have taken into consideration had she been in her friends' shoes. The red-head couldn't help but smirk, for Thomas's plans usually matched her own. WICKED might have thought their friends had no way out, but Margaret had just figured out their next move.

As all visible guards disappeared within the building, Margaret motioned for Gally to follow her as she walked towards the fountain. "They're not gonna be trapped for long, trust me." The fiery teen whispered through the helmet, taking cover behind a large pillar to hide from a squad. "They're gonna jump."

The silence that followed caused Marg to roll her eyes playfully. "How could you know that?" Gally's queried in disbelief.

"Because that's what I'd do," Margaret stated with a fleeting smirk.

Their conversation was cut short, for, suddenly, both twins noticed four figures tumbling down the building.

Unfortunately, Margaret and Gally were not the only ones to have noticed their friends plummet into the water. A team of six guards had already gathered nearby, making their intention to capture the four unaware teens as clear as day.

All it took was a quick nod, a silent conversation only the two of them could share, for the twins to join the armed guards.

One might have wondered how two people who hadn't seen each other in years could have come to the same conclusion within seconds; it should have been an impossible feat. However, the word 'impossible' did not belong to the twins' vocabulary. Margaret and Gally's bond ran deeper than any other WICKED had ever seen – it was the very reason the organization had split them to begin with. While already dangerous apart, together, the two of them were almost unstoppable.

Ava Paige had been the first one to notice the potential they held, yet the threat they posed had always been far too significant to be cast aside. Having been warned about Margaret's presence outside the city, the woman had decided to read her first notes about the siblings earlier in the day, some of her observations written in big, bold letters. Words such as 'hive-mind', 'aggressive', 'charismatic', and 'perceptive' connected both Margaret and Gally's names, a long straight line leading to an underlined, single statement: 'Subjects cannot be contained when allowed to be together – destruction level could prove to be catastrophic.'. Oh, how right she'd been.

Crouched amongst the unknowing guards, Marg inhaled deeply. The siblings planned to take their enemies down from within, which meant each teen had three targets to deal with.

The sound of multiple bodies crashing into the fountain's water caused Margaret to tighten her grip onto the weapon she held, knuckles turning pale – a stark contrast to her sun-tanned complexion.

While tense and dangerous, their current ordeal was also somewhat ironic. Much like her friends, the six unknowing guards all looked at Margaret for a plan of attack. Thankful for her higher-ranking uniform, the red-head nodded at her twin. "Follow us. Don't make a sound, and don't shoot unless I tell you to. On my mark." Marg whispered, her voice deep and tone commanding. "Now." She ordered.

Margaret and Gally were the first to leave their cover. The twins remained side-by-side, while three additional guards flanked each teen's side. With silent steps, the armed group neared the unsuspecting teens, who were far too preoccupied with their current location, yet all too little concerned with possible threats.

However, her friends were not the only ones who'd failed to pay attention to what truly mattered.

The guards' shaky arms and ragged breathing hadn't gone unnoticed by either of the twins. They must have been newly-hired personnel, a clear consequence of all the recent losses WICKED had sustained at the hands of Margaret and her friends in the past few months.

Had those men decided to side with someone else, Marg would have probably felt guilty, for she had taken advance of the nerves that had blinded them and charged her weapon without them noticing. However, the fact that those men had decided to side and work for WICKED was enough for Margaret to justify her actions.

The teen was far from perfect – that much she knew. Raised as a lab-rat, forced to endure endless pain and loss under the watchful eye of those who hid behind the walls of the nearby building, hunted and tormented, Margaret had been left with no other choice but to view the world in either black or white.

No amount of time spent with her dear boyfriend could have morphed the girl's point of view. Sure, she was no longer the girl who easily threatened the life of a possible ally; however, her core belief hadn't changed: you were either on her friends' side or the side of her previous jailers.

Silently cursing at her friends' carelessness, Margaret motioned for Gally to make their presence known while raising a hand to tell the guards to start charging their weapons. She couldn't give the WICKED's personnel any reason to doubt and suspect her.

It wouldn't have taken long for the guards' weapons to charge fully; all Marg could hope for was that she'd timed the charging period correctly, or things were bound to get far more complicated than what she'd predicted.

"You three, don't move!" Gally bellowed from beside the red-head, both twins aiming their weapons at their soaked friends.

Deepening her voice even further than before, and channeling Rat-Man's hatred, Margaret spoke up next. "You move, we shoot. It's the end of the ride, subject A-2!" She might have despised the brunette, but Marg would have lied had she said that she wasn't grateful for the information they'd managed to extrapolate from Teresa.

Upon noticing Thomas' right hand inching towards his gun, Margaret decided to utter a sentence only Rat-Man himself would have ever dreamt of using. "He doesn't need all of you alive. Do you really want one of your friends to die because of your actions?" The red-head taunted, causing Thomas to clench his fists in anger.

"Get on your knees with your hands in the air," Gally ordered, uttering the four words the twins had agreed on using when it was time to drop their act.

Acting in sync, Margaret and Gally faced their respective targets, their backs almost glued together, as they fired three shots each into the six guards' chests.

While most of the WICKED employees fell unconscious, one of them dropped on his knees, hand reaching for the weapon that had fallen on the ground. "You son of a bitch." The man growled at the disguised red-head.

Margaret rolled her eyes underneath the helmet, while Gally propped his weapon on top of the girl's shoulder and shot the man once more.

Jumping over the small hedge, and taking their helmets off, the twins came to a halt right before their friends. Newt was the only one to step forward, taking Marg's face into his gloved hands before placing a quick and desperate kiss on her lips. The brief moment shared by the two lovers was enough to calm their erratic heartbeats, and Margaret found herself unable to stop smiling even once they'd let go of one another.

The girl eventually smirked at Thomas. "Nice jump. I would have done the same."

"You guys are nuts." Gally breathed out, looking at both his twin and the brunette in disbelief.

Margaret snorted as she playfully hit Gally on the shoulder. "Thanks, little brother." She gingerly remarked, sirens blaring in the distance.

"Brother – what?" Marg heard Minho sputter as she flung her arm across Levi's shoulders, bringing the boy close to herself as if that'd be enough for her to keep the young boy out of harm's way.

With a quick hand motion, the red-head beckoned for the others to follow Gally, who was already walking towards an empty and concealed area. Even if in a hurry, Margaret hadn't missed Minho's puzzled expression, nor Thomas' quick explanation. "They're twins. I'll explain later."

"Next time, I am not letting you out of my sight." Marg playfully remarked, locking eyes with Levi – the boy she'd grown to consider a younger brother.

Unbeknown to Margaret, the virulent world they lived in was currently outstretching its poisonous arms, ready to snuff out one of the brightest lights that had ever walked its soil. 

🙤 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🙦

AUTHOR'S NOTE

i love 'the death cure', but the number of plot-holes is unreal. gally's rescue in the movie was never explained, so i decided to put a spin on it. ( by now i guess you've all guessed i loathe plot holes with all my being )

ready your tissues ya'll, you're gonna need 'em soon.

STOP leaving comments like 'update' and all its variations in the bloody universe. i've already explained it nicely on my message board months ago; comments like these only diminish my inspiration & delay any future update. this doesn't only apply to me, but to every writer on here .  

as always, leave some comments, vote, all the shebang! 

till next time!