Aj: So let's just pretend that my streak is still continuing and this chapter was updated totally on time. Kay, here's your perfectly timed not late at all chapter.

"Maya," I breathed, the room taking on an arctic chill. She stared at me as apprehensively as a bomb. I supposed I was doing the same, struggling to find the right reaction. My palm tingled, itching where the scar still remained from the blood bond Maya and I had created, reminding me of so long ago when we were close enough to be two halves of a whole. I bit my lip, still not quite believing my sister was back, standing in front of me.

But she had abandoned me; ditched me and not spared a moment's thought on the consequences. She was selfish and greedy and the more I looked at her, the more I wanted to scream from how different she had become. Even after seeing what Maya looked like in the picture Ella had showed me and witnessing first hand the effect she had caused on those around he, it had been easy to pretend it was someone else. It was too easy to believe that I was just hearing the tragedy of someone else, a separate person that wasn't Maya.

The girl in front of me was Maya. It burned me inside to admit it, but the high heeled, tightly dressed, high maintenance snob standing before me was my sister. In the literal sense, at least. When I thought of my sister, I thought of the eight year old in messy pigtails that weren't quite even who faked being mature. The girl in front of me wasn't my sister, not really. The Maya in front of me was just the girl who abandoned me.

She had been the first one to leave me, starting a long series of future abandonments and betrayals to come. You never forget the first time someone decides you're no longer worth the energy wasted being near you. I know I didn't.

"I looked for you, you know." I breathed out, practically spitting my words into the silent air, "I—I don't know what's been happening here, what Dr. Bitch has been doing, but I tried to get you out of here. I guess it didn't work out as planned."

She continued to stare at me with a face as blank as a canvas, as she walked slowly, circling the room and glancing at the door periodically. The symphony of clacking echoing from her heels was making me sick, feeling all the more trapped in the enclosed fortress of a room.

A piece of me wanted to hop across the steel table separating me from her, shake her roughly by the shoulders, and demand to know if she got everything she had ever wanted by leaving me behind. If being betrayed and kidnapped by our own mother was worth it just to get away from me. Using record-breaking self control, I restrained myself. She was still my sister. An empty shadow masked with foundation, but at her core, she was still my sister. My other half. Back when we were kids, we were at our best when we were together. Even with Jeb's insane plots, were an indestructible duo able to accomplish the impossible. Our best bet of escaping whatever madhouse my mother ran would be together. We could sort out the rest later.

"Maya, do you know what she's been doing? Or why she took us and the other kids and Nudge? If we know what she's doing we can stop her together and get out of—'

A wave of air folded in on itself as a quick smack filled the air with the same harshness as a bullet. I felt a tingling sensation on my cheek that morphed into a red hot burning, pulsing and undoubtedly leaving a red mark where Maya's hand had just been. My hand flew to my cheek, my head snapped to the side, as my jaw widened in surprise, struggling to process where this unexplained flash of pain burst from in a white hot second. Maya, Maya had slapped me.

And it hurt.

The physical pain was trivial. It was the emotional pain that got to me. The pain stemming from the look of acidic fury Maya looked at me with, beating me to the ground with waves of raw hatred.

"Whore." She spat.

I didn't have a reaction, nonetheless a comeback. Not to that.

"What? Maya—"

"Shut up! You stole my life and you stole my boyfriend! Instead of helping me, of saving me, you lived my life and forgot that it wasn't even yours!"

Her screeching hit me like knives. Watching Maya, this version of her, made my stomach twist. For months I had been told by others what Maya was or who she had become. None of the stories came close to describing the monster in front of me. And I was witnessing it first hand.

"Your life was so pathetic without me that you just had to be me. You couldn't make a life or friends of your own so you had to resort to taking on your sister's identity just to get people to talk to you." Each word daggered into my core, tearing into me and continuing to bleed.

"You're a selfish, whiny, entitled brat." I burst, "You leave and abandon and break down everyone around you and expect undying loyalty no matter what you do. I didn't steal your life. You threw it away. Everyone hated you, Maya. I may have pretended to be you, but I still acted like me and everyone you hurt seemed to like me better. You have to wonder why that is."

She balled her fists, baring her pearly white teeth.

"Liar," She hissed, "That's all you do. Lie! You've spent so much time lying I doubt you even know who you are anymore."

"I could say the same for you." I shot back, "Do you want to know who you really are, Maya? You're selfish. You abandoned me, you left your own sister behind for a fancy new life. You betrayed your friends for popularity. You did god knows what to push Fang away all because your needs were more important than anyone else's. And you know what the funny thing is? You still ended up here." I gestured around to the not so grand bunker we had both been sacked in.

"Quit acting like you know me, Max. We haven't seen each other for four years. It's obvious from your pitiful impersonation of me that you know noting about who I am. You don't know me at all."

"Because I was never given the chance," I argued, growing more and more defensive by the moment, "You left and you changed, but so did I. People change, but that doesn't give you an excuse to be a bitch."

"If you really knew me, then you would know that I regretted leaving you behind. I missed you and considered calling almost every day—"

"Just because you thought about doing something doesn't mean the same thing as doing it." I interrupted icily, daring her to plead for sympathy.

She gave me a cold look, before continuing from where she left off in a whisper, "But you still betrayed me. How could you have hated me enough to fall in love with my boyfriend?"

I bit my lip, "I don't love Fang."

I could have said more to defend myself against her attacks. But I didn't.

"Max, that's your biggest lie."

The next few minutes were spent in a tense silence. I was fairly sure Dr. M was observing our scene. I was without a doubt that she was currently a very pleased spectator.

"My life has been over for a while," Maya whispered suddenly, "Fang was the only one who refused to give up on me, even when we both knew he should have. You may be afraid to admit your feelings for him, but I'm not. I love him and you can steal my life, but I won't let you steal him."

She looked up at me, daring me to argue. Ever since we were kids she had always tried so hard to assert her dominance over me. I was sick of it.

"Even if I wasn't around, you would have lost him, just like you've lost everything else all because you could never be happy with what you had. How could I have stolen what you already lost?"

Maya wasn't happy, I could tell by her slow morph of expression from somber to shocked. I didn't care. She deserved it.

My sister had abandoned me without a second thought. Nudge had been right so long ago. I was different from her.

I lied to Maya's friends, stealing everything she had for nearly four months of my life. I lied to Fang about more than I could count on one hand. While trying to accomplish a good thing, I manipulated Nudge and Gazzy together, sabotaging her ongoing relationship. I became so focused on just keeping the lie together, living in Maya's life that I had forgotten the real reason I was pretending to be her was to find her. And I failed. I let Iggy kiss me and cowered from discussing what it meant, leaving our friendship in jeopardy. I hurt the flock by lying to them. I put my friends in danger, a danger that got Nudge taken away.

I brought the flock back together.

I changed things.

"I don't regret any of it."

"What?" she blinked, confused. I stood up straighter, a cumbersome burden lifting from me.

"Everyday I was you, everyday I would enjoy myself or become emotionally attached, I would feel crushed by guilt every day. I was convinced that I was a horrible person. But not anymore, not after seeing you, not after being locked up in this hell hole. I don't regret it and nothing you can say or do can change my mind."

"You have to be joking," She scoffed in disbelief, "How could you ever see betraying your own flesh and blood as a good thing?"

"Maybe because I was a better you then you could ever dream of being." I sneered, no longer allowing myself to live in the shadow of infamy my sister had cast.

When I was younger, I looked up to her. For a brief moment, I hated her after she left. Now, I just pitied her.

For a moment, Maya looked like she was near tears, staring at me with utmost vulnerability. It didn't last long before a jolt ran through her, turning her eyes cold and merciless, a much less attractive contrast.

"A better me? That's hilarious." She seethed, venom spewing from her words, "You aren't better, Maxie. You will always be the screw up that destroyed more than you could save. If you were better than me, why would everyone leave you? You aren't good enough to share my face and soon, now that playtime is over and your charade is done, everyone else will realize it too. Soon enough you'll be back to nothing, right where you belong."

It hurt me more than it should have. I could feel an unquenchable fire erupting within me, just waiting for the touch of gasoline that would make me explode in a fit of rage. Until then, I continued to watch as Maya slowly moved closer to the sealed door.

"Tough talk from someone who is in the same situation as me. We're both stuck in here. The only difference is I have people on the outside who will miss me. You have no one."

I expected Maya to lash out, to be overflowing with anger. I half expected her to attack me, initiating the long awaited battle we both knew was inevitable. She didn't.

She smirked. It was cold, cruel, and heartless and, looking back on that moment, I would always regret not being more afraid. I should have done something, but I didn't.

And she just smirked.

"Wrong. No one will even know you're missing."

"What are you talking abo—"

It clicked. The pieces of the puzzle slammed together catastrophically and the realization hurt.

"Yes they will." I denied. Deny, Deny, Deny, and it will no longer be a lie.

She looked at me pityingly, still grinning in that malicious way of hers. In that moment, I noted, she looked like a picture perfect replica of our mom.

"You don't have to do this." I insisted, panic rising in my blood as she banged loud and hard on the solid door with her fist. Once, twice, why wasn't I doing anything?

"I need my life back and you're standing in my way. If you're so much better at being me, let's find out while you're finally left back with no one who cares for you."

This wasn't Maya. This wasn't my sister. This was the devil. I stood rooted to the ground, shaking and unable to just stop, but I knew the girl in front of me was wrong.

"It won't work. They won't fall for it. They're smart enough not to believe a murderer!"

She looked at me ominously, more serious than ever before, "I'm not a murderer."

The door opened.

"Maya, don't do this." I croaked. Her smirk was back in place. How could she look so happy while being so cruel?

"Maya." I cried, begging her to see her sister. To see what she was doing. To see—

She walked out the door.

"Maya!" I screeched, running after her.

The door closed. I fell to the ground, body racked in bonecrushing sobs.

Alone.

Aj: I think I kinda hate this chapter. Like, seriously it's so bad and short. Ugh. But at least I got it up to you guys so hopefully you don't see the suckage leaking from it. But I just want to say thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes, threats, and every other kind of review. I appreciate it all so much.

But seriously, how did you guys review so fast? I think all of you are magic because you guys reached what I thought was an impossible goal in like two days. That's insane and I love you all!

I know I'm way behind on replying to reviews, but I'll get right on that and deliver you a totally not sucktacular chapter soon. Can we make it to 666? (hehe)

-Aj