A/N: YASSS! Two chapters in two days! I'm loving writing this story! I've thought out everything, so I will not be abandoning it. Also, NINE HUNDRED VIEWS OMG *faints* AND 18 REVIEWS! *faints again*

Right. So. I'm sorry if this chapter aint good, but it's necessary. Hope you enjoy!

Embers To Ashes: I'm really glad you liked the chapter! And omg, I didn't think anyone would like my OCs so much, it makes me so happy, seeing how much you liked Lee. :') And I do like writing cliffies, but I try and update soon, so as to not leave y'all hanging.

Lifelong potterhead: Thank you so much! I hope you like this chapter! I didn't think you'd like my cliffies though. ;)

Fiercetiger333: Thanks! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Right then.

Lee: You haven't done a disclaimer.

Me: *sigh* I have done a disclaimer. And is this going to be a routine, now?

Aidan: Yep.

Lee: I'll do it for ya.

Me: But…

Lee: Wizard DOES NOT OWN ANYTHING. ANYTHING AT ALL. ALL RIGHTS GO TO JAMES DASHNER. WIZARD'S BRAIN CAN'T THINK OF SUCH STUFF.

Me: ….

Aidan: Ouch.

Me: That hurt man, that hurt.

Me: BUT I OWN MY OCs THEY ARE ALL MINE YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO SAY IN THIS GET OUT OF MY SHUCK STORY RIGHT NOW.

Lee: *laughs* sorry, I just needed the reaction. Don't worry, you have a nice brain.

Me: Aww, really? :')

Lee: No. *runs away*

Me:

~.~.~.~.

Astrid screamed. With the glass shattered, Gail didn't have much of a weapon anymore. She raised a broken glass shard. Newt dove forward. She stabbed down to drive it into Astrid's skull, but Newt intercepted it, grabbing the sharp end. It cut his fingers, but he didn't care. He shoved Gail off of Astrid.

By now, the others had gotten over their shock. Alby and Thomas ran up and caught Gail's arms, trying to restrain her. She thrashed and kicked, screaming violently. Keith looked mortified by the whole situation. His sister had come back to him, only to attack his friend?

"LET ME GO!" Gail screamed. She was crying and yelling.

"Greenie, calm down!" Alby said. "You've been stung! It's an after effect of the Changing!"

Newt didn't pay attention to anything else. Astrid's head was bleeding profusely. "MED JACKS!" he yelled. On cue, Clint and Jeff rushed in. They didn't even bother asking. They simply picked Astrid up, and carried her away. Before going out of the room, Clint shot Newt a reassuring look, as if to say that they could handle this. Then they disappeared out of the room.

Gail had stopped thrashing. She was on her knees, her hands covering her face. Newt could tell that she was crying, but he felt no pity. He marched up to her and grabbed her collar, pulling her up to face him. "What the HELL was that?" He demanded. Gail was sobbing really hard.

"I don't know." She cried. "I really don't know. I felt so much pain and misery. When I saw her, I thought she was going to attack me. I really don't know what happened."

Newt let go of her collar. He understood this. Ben had sounded the same. Gail collapsed on the floor. "I'm so sorry!" she cried. Thomas reached down to pull her up, but she surprised all of them by jumping up herself. She ran out of the door, furiously wiping at her face.

Newt looked at Alby, who shrugged. "Guess all girls are psycho. Don't we live in a cheerful world." He said. Keith sat down hard on a chair. "Guys, I don't know why she did that." He said, looking at them helplessly.

Newt nodded. "It's not your fault Keith." He said. Keith shook his head. "Something's wrong. Gail would never do that."

"She's been stung. She's a little wonky now. I'm sure she'll be fine." Newt replied. He didn't believe it, but he didn't want Keith to know that. The girl, Gail, was pretty messed up, but at the moment, it made Newt's head ache to think about everything. So he simply didn't think about it.

Keith nodded, but he couldn't rid himself of the feeling that there was something majorly wrong with this.

~.~.~.~.

Teresa sat in front of the screen. On the screen were the on goings of Group A, where Gail had just attacked Astrid.

She couldn't help but marvel at WICKED. The technology was beyond any man's wildest dreams.

Gail had gotten stung all right, but only one memory was shown to her. Usually when one of the subjects got stung, they would be given all their memories, only to have them snatched away again. But Gail had been given only one. And even that wasn't real. It was completely computer generated, but it looked real enough to be true. Teresa obviously wasnt dead, and Thomas obviously wasnt in WICKED Headquarters anymore. They just needed to convince Gail of the task set for her. And their plan had worked perfectly. Gail was now intent on killing Astrid.

They didn't really need her to kill Astrid, of course. There was no point in that. This was another variable, thrown at them. They just needed to see what she did. What her responses were.

Teresa couldn't go into the maze now. Then Gail would know that the memory was a fake. This made her a little sad; she wouldn't get to meet Thomas for quite a while now. But she did what WICKED told her to do. If this was how they wanted to carry out their plans, then so be it.

Astrid and Keith were extraordinary. They had abilities one could only dream of having. Teresa didn't know how Dr. Gray had done it, but he had achieved his goal. He'd had to pay for it with his life, but Teresa had never liked him too much.

She couldn't help but feel sorry for Keith and Astrid. They were just kids, thrown into an unknown world where every step threatened their very existence. It almost made her doubt WICKED, but she knew that what they were doing was correct.

Still, as she flashed back to the emaciated bodies of Keith and Astrid she had seen in that boat, she felt a pang of despair. Dr. Gray had tortured them pretty badly. She had been almost happy when Gail broke in and rescued them. Gail had almost given her life, trying to hold back the men, but WICKED had rescued her. They'd picked her up in a helicopter. Teresa remembered seeing her when she arrived. She didn't recall ever seeing a stronger willed girl. Sure, Gail could be cold and rude, but if you got on her good side, she wouldn't hesitate to give her life for you.

Teresa turned back to the screens. Everything had been planned. Keith and Astrid's abilities, Newt and Keith's memories, Gail's task, everything. WICKED had many plans for the subjects; many variables to test them with. But the time for planning was gone. It had taken them several years to do so, but that phase was now over. It was time for the execution of their plans. They needed their responses, and they had many variables left to test. A very major one was about to be implemented.

The Gladers didn't know what was heading their way…

~.~.~.~.`.

Gail ran out of the door, wiping her tears. She stopped in the hallway and looked around. She spotted something that might have been the entrance. She spotted another boy coming towards her and let out another sob.

She ran towards the door and threw it open. Once outside, she was greeted by at least fifty boys, all looking anxious and worried. They all seemed a little startled to see her. She didn't care. She pushed through their group and started running. She didn't care where she was running to; she just wanted to run away from what she had done.

To her left, she spotted a forest and veered her footsteps that way. Every time her foot thudded against the ground, it sent shots of pain through her leg. She ignored it and simply ran.

She broke through the forest line and kept running. Finally, when her legs could take no more, she collapsed on the ground. She covered her eyes, trying to stop her tears, but they wouldn't stop. She didn't like crying, it made her feel weak. But every time she thought about the girl's face when she hit her with the glass, a new wave of tears would fall from her eyes.

She hoped the boys were convinced by the act she put up. The moment she realized she couldn't kill the girl then, she'd tried to make it sound as though she had done it on accident, and screamed and cried for the effect. She'd pretended to be distraught, and run out crying. It made her feel despicable, but she knew she couldn't do anything about it. Those were the fake tears she had shed. These were the real ones.

She tried to muffle her sobs. She had no words for how bad she felt, but even if she tried to convince herself that maybe, just maybe there was another way, the face of the girl would pop up in her head, the one who had been shot by the rat dude.

It didn't help that she seemed to be in an unknown place, with what seemed to be fifty boys and one girl. What made it worse was that she couldn't remember a thing about herself. Only her name, Gail, was what she could remember. And of course, she remembered Keith. She'd have to be dead to forget him.

Gail covered her mouth as another cry escaped her. She tried to cry softer, when a voice spoke up from behind her.

"Hey."

She spun around and saw a boy standing there. His face was unfamiliar. She didn't recall seeing him when she'd woken up. She turned away and hastily wiped the tears from her face, forcing herself to stop crying. She looked back at him and spoke in what she hoped was a stern voice. "Who are you?"

No luck. Her voice still broke. The boy smiled nervously and came to sit beside her in the dirt. She glared at him. "I asked you something." She said, not wanting to sound helpless. The boy shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I saw you run towards the forest, and you were crying, so I thought you might have done something bad, so I decided to follow you."

Gail glared harder. "I'm not weak. I don't need people to come check on me. And besides, I was heading back anyway."

The boy smiled again. "I never said you were weak. Crying doesn't make you weak, you know. It just means you're strong enough to face your emotions." Gail looked away from him, and rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't crying." She said. The boy scoffed and reached out with his hand. Before Gail could pull away, he wiped a tear from her cheek. She didn't know it had fallen from her eyes. "I can see that." The boy said, retracting his hand.

"What do you want? Why are you even here?" Gail snapped. She wasn't in the mood to talk, and this annoying boy didn't do anything to improve that mood.

"I felt a little bad for you, I guess. I've seen the other victims of the Changing. And when I heard the scream and then saw you run out crying, I knew you had hurt someone. Everyone was fussing over the people inside, and you ran here. So I followed you. I may be a Bagger. That doesn't mean I like seeing the dead bodies."

"You felt bad for me? Does it look like I appreciate sympathy?" Gail rounded on him. He held up his hands and laughed. "My bad." He said. "I didn't mean it that way. You should be going back now. That brother of yours will be worried."

Gail scowled. "Just go away. I'll come back when I want to." She said. But once again, her voice broke. The mention of Keith's name made the horribleness of her situation crash down on her. The boy seemed to notice this. "Hey, you okay?" he asked. Gail nodded, but a sob fought its way through her throat. She decided to play the weak-and-helpless girl again. Maybe that would hide her real tears.

She covered her mouth and was about to start weeping and bawling, but one glance at the boy, and she stopped. She somehow knew that this boy would see right through her, which was strange considering the fact that they didn't even know each other. Nevertheless, she wanted to avoid all suspicion.

So she wiped her tears again, and looked at him. "What happened after I…" she didn't need to finish. He understood. "I didn't see much after you ran out." He said. "But it probably isn't too bad if they aren't scouring the entire glade for you." He shifted uncomfortably. "Um, about what happened…" he started.

Gail cut him off. "I didn't know what I was doing. I felt like I was being tortured, and that made me go crazy. I didn't mean any of it." She said. She was surprised at how different her tone was with this boy. She sub-consciously had begun to show her true self.

The boy raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't talking about that. I don't even know what happened inside. I was talking about the you-running-out-like-your-pants-were-on-fire bit. You owe me an apology." He said. In spite of herself, Gail could feel a smile start to push through her features. She didn't allow it to show. "And why is that?" she asked.

The boy shrugged. "You stepped on my foot while running away. Do you even know how much that hurts?" he said, sounding truly hurt. Gail couldn't stop the smile this time. "I'm terribly sorry. Please forgive me for stepping on your foot." She said with mock repentance.

The boy's eyes widened. "She smiles!" he said, pointing at her with an awestruck expression on his face. Gail wasn't in the mood for jokes. She had allowed herself the smile, but she needed to stay focused. She was here for one purpose only. She needed to kill the girl, or her brother would end up dead.

She peered at the boy, getting a good look at him for the first time. He had messy dark hair which swept over his forehead. His brown eyes seemed a little sad and broken. Despite his attitude, Gail got the feeling that this boy wasn't one for conversation. He had pale skin, deathly pale.

The boy sighed. "Come on. We really should get back. You can give the others your explanation when we meet them." He said, getting up. He started to walk away, but Gail called out "Wait!"

He stopped and turned to look at her. "I don't even know your name." she said. The boy shrugged. "And I don't know yours." He said simply.

Gail hardened her gaze. "Gail. My name's Gail." She said. The boy nodded.

"Well, they call me Dusk." He replied.

"Dusk." Gail repeated after him. He nodded again. "Yes, Dusk. It really isn't that difficult to pronounce, only one syllable." He turned and started walking again.

Reluctantly, Gail followed. She tuned out everything as she walked behind Dusk. Her mind was trained on one thing and one thing only. She needed to kill that girl.

But how could I kill such an innocent looking person? she thought. She remembered how the girl had called her pretty when she woke up. She hated herself, hated the rat dude, hated everything for making her have to do this. But she needed to. She needed to do this for Keith. She didn't care about herself, as long as her brother was safe.

Hoping to get some answers about her surroundings and sudden memory loss, she followed Dusk without another word. She only hoped he wouldn't see the tears that wet her face once more.

~.~.~.~.

A/N: TA DA! Another un-Cliffy ending for all you wonderful people. I'm an Angel, aren't I?

Lol, kidding. Sorry, I have a really bad sense of humor. But please review and tell me what you thought of this chapter! I apologize if it was bad, but I needed to write this. I promise things will be explained in further detail as the story progresses. I have big plans for my OCs. ;)

A fellow Glader.