Cheng Xin still hadn't woken up.

Neither had Alisa.

Red sat cross-legged on the ground, the punishing steel icy to the back of his barely-covered legs, watching them sleep as he washed his wounds. It hurt to move, his ribs aching and thigh burning with every step he took. His ankle was swollen to a size that human ankles probably weren't supposed to be, but at least he could still walk. Not very well, but it was better than nothing. He supposed he'd gotten off relatively easy compared to Cheng Xin, who'd taken it to the head, and Alisa, who'd spent their time in the freak hurricane screaming at air and then promptly passed out the moment her back slammed into the ground.

He took the time to carefully study his human body, getting accustomed to every inch of it and wondering if certain parts could prove more than useful, flexing his fingers and wiggling his toes. It was interesting, to say the least. Awfully weak, but interesting all the same. Although he supposed he would have to eat more if he was forced to remain human. He had no idea how the original Red had survived; he was as skinny as a twig.

He chewed on a paperdust sandwich as he waited, cringing at every bite. He hoped most human food was like the meal the old man had served him before he'd been thrown into the maze. The thought of it made his stomach rumble, so he closed his eyes and tried to get past the powdery taste of the sandwich as he ate.

There was the sudden screech of metal behind him, making him wince and curl up into a ball. It sounded far too similar to the scrap-metal junkyards on X9-7. He comforted himself with the fact that, at least, Vanguard's walls didn't play Justin Bieber when they moved. If they did that, he might have been forced to take the gun from his waistband and shoot himself in the head.

Once the shriek of grinding steel had subsided, Red untucked his head from between his crossed legs, wincing as he delicately pressed scabbed fingertips to his crushed ribs. With his luck, the fragile mortal bones had caved in and caused some kind of internal hemorrhaging. He would probably be dead in a few hours.

At this point, Red wasn't sure what was overexaggeration and what was truth.

When he finally dared look behind him, what he saw made him drop the remnants of his sandwich. He immediately sprang up, then fell again with a whimper of agony as his bad ankle gave way. After some groaning on the floor, Red risked standing up a second time, hobbling his way over to the sleeping twins and their slumbering dog.

He took a little more time to gaze upon Cheng Xin's peacefully asleep face that he'd have liked to admit, before shaking the boy awake. Cheng Xin woke without any noise or fuss, his long lashes fluttering upwards. He looked up at Red with questions in his groggy eyes, but Red was already waking Alisa up, urgency in his hands and hissed voice.

Alisa wouldn't wake up. Red continued shaking her, afraid his discovery would be sealed away once more, but she refused to even stir. When he was on the brink of giving up, her eyelids shot open and she promptly kneed him between the legs.

Red keeled sideways with a cry as Alisa flew upwards with a few words resembling oh my god I'm so sorry I didn't see you there um my reflexes are good, her dog in her arms. He hated human body parts with a vengeance. The organ between his legs had suffered two Alisa-inflicted hits already. He wasn't sure how much longer it could take the abuse.

Cheng Xin was soon at his side, helping him up as Alisa fired, "What's so important that you had to---" In too much pain to speak, Red merely pointed straight ahead. The twins' matching gazes shifted to Vanguard's walls, which had shuffled around to reveal a single metal door. That stunned all of them into silence

It was Cheng Xin who spoke first. "Is that..." he breathed, his voice full of unspoken hope. Red knew what he was thinking. They'd never seen a door in Vanguard before; it had always been room to room, hall to hall, no dividers save for the walls that held them captive. There were only two explanations: either it was an exit, or something far more horrible than anything they'd experienced so far lay behind that door.

"We've got nowhere else to go, anyway," Alisa sighed. She gathered her backpack, Jada tucked underneath her arm. "Shall we head to our deaths?"

"Don't be so pessimistic, Li," Cheng Xin chastised, one arm around Red for support---something which he was very grateful for, as he believed the pain in his groin would prevent him from any attempts at walking on his own---and if that didn't do it, his sprained ankle would. He slung his backpack over his shoulder, shame-faced at having to be held up like a child.

Together, the four made their way to the mysterious door, hoping that their ordeal would be over once they'd opened it and crossed the threshold. One hand on the doorknob, Alisa looked back at them, as if questioning whether to twist it. Red managed a shallow nod. With a loud klick-klock, the doorknob gave way and the door opened.

The sight that lay in front of them was not one they were prepared for, nor one they wished to see. A humongous room stretched out before them, computers and other devices Red couldn't identify littered over the tables, panels and various buttons lining the walls. Men holding a heavy assortment of weapons waited, all ready to attack at the drop of a hat. A chair in the middle of the room swivelled around to reveal a bald man in a well-tailored black suit, leering at them with knife-like teeth.

"I'm so glad you've survived this long," the man greeted. "Now the real fun can begin!"

Red was frozen in place, gaping at the man who'd forced him into this whole mess in the first place. Alisa stared, open-mouthed. Cheng Xin was the first to react, slipping his arm from Red's waist and dashing back the way they'd come, back through the door---back into the maze.

"Cheng Xin!" Alisa yelled, waking up from her shock enough to attempt a grab at her brother's sleeve. She was too late, though. He was gone, obviously having decided that facing a living death trap was a better option than a complete psycho.

The man let out a raucous laugh that echoed through the room. "He's a smart one, that kid. It makes sense, though. After all, I created him."

"WHAT?" Alisa shouted. Red felt hands snatch at him before he could move, forcing his hands behind his back and crushing his already-damaged chest, yanking the gun from his waistband. The cool barrel of a rifle was pressed into his neck. A warning. Next to him, Alisa had been restrained in the same way, a barking Jada taken from her and gripped tightly by one of the assisting men. She was white as a sheet, shaking from head to toe.

The man's grin was the same as the ones of the monsters straight from Red's nightmares. "Poor, poor, Alisa Lee," he mocked. "Having to lose her parents and her eye, and now..." He stood up from the chair, the movement of his lanky body sleek and graceful as he paced, a panther stalking its prey. "Who will you choose? You, or your companion? Someone must die, after all."

Alisa looked like a deer in headlights, trapped in conflict. Before she could answer, Red yelped, "Kill me!"

The man's evil gaze trained itself on him. For a moment, Red's heart swelled with regret. What have I done? He had no doubt that he would die. "Oh, Maverick. I don't think we've met formally. You can call me the President." Hearing the man speak the original Red's real name was a bolt of shock to Red's chest. "Sacrificing yourself to save your girlfriend, hmm?"

"She's...she's not my girlfriend," Red managed, his throat dry and tongue swollen. "Kill me. Don't harm Alisa."

"Heroes," the President sneered. "Always so self-sacrificial." He turned to the man holding Jada. "Kill the dog."

"NO!" Alisa screamed, lurching forward to save her beloved pet. However, the men restraining her only tightened their grip, rendering her unable to move. From his position, Red could see the rifle's muzzle poke harder into her neck, a bullet away from ripping her throat to shreds.

Jada wailed at the top of her tiny lungs as the man started squeezing her tighter, gripping her furry throat and crushing it between his big hands. Alisa's screams were so terrible, one would have thought that she was the one being executed instead. The barking grew more frantic as Jada's huge, brown-eyed gaze shifted around the room---as if searching for someone to help her while her neck was slowly snapped.

And then it was over, just like that.

Alisa crumpled into a sobbing mess as Red finally tore his gaze away from the limp lump of matted brown fur that the man had carelessly dropped onto the floor as if the dog was a meaningless piece of trash. His heart ached for both the animal and Alisa---and Cheng Xin, who would no doubt be devastated when he came back. If he ever came back. The thought horrified Red.

The President sighed. "Don't be so dramatic, Alisa Lee. It was just a dog."

Alisa slowly raised her head, her eyes burning with loss and fury. "Jada was part of my family, you fucking bastard!" she howled, struggling against her captors' grips. Red felt more hatred for the President than he'd ever felt for anyone in his entire life.

The President ignored her, turning to Red. "Ah, kids these days, so terribly emotional. Did you really think Vanguard was just a game?" He scoffed. "You poor fools." His predatory scrutiny switched back to Alisa. "Lee Cheng Xin isn't even your real brother. Why do you think he wasn't present in any of your earliest memories?"

Alisa wouldn't stop weeping. Red spoke first. "I...I don't understand. What do you mean by Cheng Xin isn't her real brother?"

The President turned to the buttons on the walls, his voice slimy and terribly unpleasant to the ears. "You see, children, Vanguard isn't just a maze, a simple game. Vanguard is an experiment, and you are the test subjects." He rolled his eyes, motioning to the men holding Alisa back. "Shut her up, won't you?" Hands were clamped over her mouth tightly, muffling her wails.

"What?" Red whimpered.

"Vanguard is a memory programme," the President said, pronouncing the words slowly and carefully. "All of you have been carefully selected and had your memories tampered with to see how you would cope in an almost apocalyptic environment." He traced a long finger down a shiny panel. "Becca Ainsley, for starters, was our first. She was meant to be an emotion-hardened weapon, but instead...perhaps one too many traumatic memories were involved."

Becca's madness was government-inflicted.

The President's hand lingered over a large red button, before slamming the heel of his palm into it. A small, silver box shot out into his awaiting hand. He snapped the latch on it open and yanked the lid up. He pulled out a tiny, golden object that looked like a mere scrap of metal from any junkyard. "These are memory microchips. Each one has the power to add memories---or suppress them. They're useful, really. You can do anything with them. Drive a perfectly sane young woman mad, trick an intelligent girl into thinking an artificial is her twin brother..." His smile was a leering grin. "Make a human boy think he's an alien."

Red couldn't breathe.

The President chuckled. "Really, Maverick, did you think you were really an alien? The letter was forged. Warren and Ari did their jobs well. Your natural memories were suppressed by the microchip we implanted in your brain until the time was right, then we leaked just a few of them into your mind. Most of your current memories are fake. X9-7 doesn't exist. It never did."

So...the spaceship crash never happened? I...never lived on X9-7? I'm not the son of the king's advisor? The people I know...the planet I belong to...they all never existed?

I'm not 05?

"Yes, Maverick, you are very much human," the President declared, answering Red's unasked questions. His throat fell into his feet as the world he'd thought he'd known all his life was torn to pieces with just one sentence. He glanced to the side, searching for something to tell him that this was all an illusion, that his entire reality wasn't fake.

Alisa was still crying.

The President turned on her next, grinning like he had the world in the palm of his hand. And perhaps he did, since he held the memory microchips between his fingertips. Red could sense the world lurking in those tiny chunks of metal. They had, after all, effectively fooled him into believing him he was from another planet altogether. "And you, Alisa Lee, never had a twin brother." He frowned. "Well, I suppose Lee Cheng Xin is your brother, in a way. After I took you into custody, I created him with your DNA."

He smiled victoriously. "Yes, children, Lee Cheng Xin is my greatest triumph, a special artificial created by me. He was made to see how an artificial would fare in Vanguard and given false memories of you. The same memories were given to you, Alisa Lee, and much of your childhood was suppressed in return." He laughed. "Although I suppose you did manage to break free of part of the microchip's hold eventually."

Even though Red's entire life had just been torn apart and stomped into the ground, he supposed Alisa had it worse. After watching her dog's murder, she now had to deal with the fact that her twin brother was, in fact, not her twin, but an artificial created with her genes.

"T-those m-memories," he stammered. "T-the original Red's ones. They're...they're mine?"

"Of course they are. In fact, the only one of the five of you with untampered memories was Lennox Cahill. The only normal one out of you freaks, really." The President turned away from them, his slitted eyes running over the chip in his hand. "He was interesting. But really, the experiment was a success, I would say. And now that it is over, I have no use for you." He waved in Alisa's direction. "Take her away and do whatever you want with her."

"NO!" Red screamed as the men dragged Alisa away, her bucking against their iron grips as muffled cries left her and tears poured down her face. "Kill me! Spare Alisa! Please!"

"Oh, they won't kill her. Maybe rough her up a bit, but they wouldn't kill her. And besides, Maverick, I could never kill you by my own hand. If your unfortunate death so happened to be an accident, or perhaps something self-inflicted, so be it. But I wouldn't be able to directly murder my own flesh and blood."

All the air flew from Red's lungs in a single gasp as the man's words sank in. "No..."

The President grinned. "Welcome home, son."