Chapter One

There was a certain darkness that haunted her air. She felt it wherever she went, and each time she would get out of her bed at night, the feeling would get stronger. The thoughts brooded in her mind, but she dare not say anything. There was a doubt she could feel about her instincts, knowing that her instincts haven't always been the most accurate, and she also thought if she were wrong about this, Edith and Agnes would ward her off forever.

Margo took another deep sigh in her bed, watching her chest heave and fall as she shifted her legs from under the covers to find another cold spot. Their room was exceedingly burning for whatever reason tonight...as it had for the past month. Not that Agnes noticed or Edith cared, but Margo took notice of every change around her. Gru was hiding something, maybe. Maybe not. Margo would toss and turn from the thoughts, and this was just another night.

She took her glasses from the small nightstand to stare at the moon, finally back in its proper placement. The room was filled with a complete stillness, so she could feel and hear her own heart beating lively within her gentle chest. It was a familiar beat, something to tell her that she was alive and that it was true, someone did want her and she was no longer alone in the world. However, there was even a doubt there. Gru denied her once, and the feeling never healed.

He could do it again whenever he wanted, Margo recognized that power, but she also knew how much she meant to Gru; how much all of them meant to him. Gru in turn meant a lot to her, being the first person to ever adopt all three of them at once. She had been fortunate to be with her sisters still and to have survived Vector's "wrath" as he worded the situation once.

It was always strange for Margo to think of Gru as a villain because she didn't see it until too late. She'd been sitting in the box of shame, silent, thinking about all that stuff in his lab, and when she recognized the large TV from time square, she knew Gru had been something made for trouble. Forgetting it all seemed to be easier and that is what she did. Edith was just disappointed and Agnes didn't quite understand the entirety of the situation, claiming she just missed Gru.

Being the oldest, Margo always worried for her sisters, especially Agnes. She would believe anything anyone told her, and that was dangerous to Margo. Finally, her bare feet hit the cold, wood floor. The room was far too hot and the moon was becoming a strain on her eyes. Quietly, Margo shuffled along the floor, glancing back at Edith and Agnes. As usual, when she opened the door, there was a minion.

Their eyes met; they'd been through this before. Margo never knew his name, but by now the circumstance was a silent understanding. The minion knew the drill since the first night she left the room: she would go to the kitchen, grab some water, stare at the walls of Gru's eccentric collections, and then stare off into the distance as her eyes focused on the button that would launch her into Gru's lab. There were nights she could hear him working down there.

"What is he doing down there?" she whispered to the minion. This was their first verbal exchange in two weeks.

"Ee pono," the minion shrugged. Margo sighed, walking solemnly to the kitchen for no one but herself. She took her regular blue glass, the one she always used when it was clean, and watched in a daze as the crystal liquid fell gracefully into the glass until she pulled away. Everything went dark again, and so she took to her routine and sat on a kitchen chair, perhaps the same one as the night before, perhaps not.

It was much cooler out in the kitchen, which Margo quickly grew to like. A yawn escaped her, but she paid no mind, staring at the glass, intently thinking about Gru. What could he possibly be doing down there? He was done the villain stuff, right? There were nights when she almost went down there, but then rebelled against it.

Tonight was different...Margo was just aching to know what was going on. The minion pulled at her wrist.

"I want to know," she whispered. "If you don't like me going down there, then you come back." At this proposal, the minion stopped, one finger in the air, jaw dropped as if about to make a suggestion. That one seemed to be good enough.

"Ew poko," his said, making his way to Gru's chair. Margo sighed as he disappeared into the basement, and she set her glass out by the sink as she'd done before going back to sleep.

By morning, Gru was chipper, as usual, but Margo wasn't buying any of that today. Edith and Agnes got ready for school while Margo slowly gathered her things and placed them into her backpack. This year, Margo took a separate bus from her sisters. She was entering high school...part time. Her classes were going so well, her math and language teachers referred her to a higher class level. So, part time, she was supposed to be taking two classes at the high school while excelling at the middle school level in other subjects.

...It was awkward to say the least.

"Margo? Are you ready for school?" Gru called from the kitchen. Margo pushed her glasses up on her face, yawned and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

"What are you doing down there?" Margo asked, walking into the kitchen.

"What?" Gru was taken aback by her accusing tone of voice. "What are you talking about?"

"I thought you were done with all that villain stuff...So, what are you doing down there? I can hear you ya know," Margo said.

Gru made an amusing sound with his lips.

"Pft, Margo," he said. "I'm not up to anything evil. I quit all that stuff, you know that honey."

"Then, what are you doing?"

"Stuff, very important things," Gru said. She sighed.

"I'm getting old for that excuse. That's what you tell Agnes when she asks you to play with her," Margo narrowed her eyes.

"I'm working," Gru said. "What more is there to be said?"

"That's what you tell Edith when she says that your previous excuse is what you give Agnes," Margo crossed her her arms. She wouldn't give this up.

Finally, Gru sighed.

"All right," he said finally. "You got me. I'm working on something very big. If you reeeeaaallly want to see it, I can only show you two parts of it. But, you cannot tell your sisters."

Margo's face altered. Couldn't tell her sisters? This would be on her mind all day.