A/N: BACK! Really hope you enjoy this as it's a very busy one ~ Emma and Sarah
Disclaimer: Don't own TMR
Flo PoV
"What just happened, who does this girl think she is? But she's right, this is it," I thought "I'm going mad, insane, crazy. I'm going Crank. No. I am a Crank.
"Increased levels of brain activity speed up the Flare."
They think I can't hear, they think I'm out. I'm not out I'm trapped. Trapped in my head, trapped by the virus that's taking over.
A brother, Lizzy has a brother. Robb? Jeff? Max? Oh god their eyes. Lizzy's eyes, Newt's eyes. His eyes had always felt familiar. Familiar because she had them too. But he was not the only one who it could be. Thomas, perhaps. It would break her. It would kill her. He was her strength, he was her weakness. Like Newt is mine.
Though even he can't keep me from the Flare. The Flare, the virus, the death sentence that hangs over me, that I am sure is in me, that I know is keeping me company every second of the day, bearing down on me, eating me alive. Taking me.
A cure, he said there was a cure. It could save Newt. It could save me. It's hope. It's false hope. It is all that I want. It is a lie. I must have faith. I cannot be deceived.
Maybe it's too late for me.
But not for him.
And for him I will hope."
Lizzy Pov
"You're lying" My teeth were gritted together, my heart was trying to force it's way out my chest, "You're lying!"
I wanted to lunge, to wrap my hands around her small throat, to cause her the pain she was causing me.
"I'm not," She said, her smile laced with arrogance as my restraint grew thin, "He's one of them. Who could it be?"
"You'll lie, you'll never tell me the truth," I said,
"Oh but the truth will hurt so much," She said, pouting,
"You'll just tell me it's Thomas, to hurt me, you won't tell me the truth. I might not even have a brother,"
"You know that you do, you could feel it the moment I said it. You and Florence have spent years with each other in England, so your bond came naturally, am I right?" She didn't wait for an answer, "We could wipe your memories, but some things run deeper,"
I couldn't even tell her she was wrong, the pain had been real, a part of me remembered.
"Tell me," everyone waited on edge, it could have been any of them.
She laughed and clapped like a madman, crazed on a high of power and knowledge.
"Olivia, stop being cruel" Andy, who had been watching the whole display distastefully, chastised her. He turned to me.
"We knew we wanted you, I was young and in training when you came, but I remember, we went all the way to England to get you. Your parents put up a fight, and they lost. We wouldn't leave him orphaned and took you both. Your brother is Newt."
Frozen hands grabbed my heart, my breath leaving my body, my head leaving the vicinity of reality. Newt. Newt who isn't Immune. Newt who will die. I have been dying of thirst and offered water that will be snatched away before it touches my lips. Newt. My brother. My older brother.
I looked at him, vacant eyes, looking at me but not seeing me. I heard a low whisper,
"Two years my younger, twice the braver,"
"What?" I asked,
His glass eyes melted leaving a warm, terrified look.
"Sorry?" He replied,
"You said something,"
"Did I?" He looked confused.
Liv sauntered over from behind me and whispered in my ear, sending chills down my spine,
"Some things run deeper."
Flo PoV
Consciousness returned one sense at a time. I had my hearing but soon the earth below me formed. Sun heated paving stones sending warmth through me. A hand on my arm, a shadow on my face. I could then smell the hot stuffy air. I let my eyelids peel back revealing the world before me. A face; Jeff's.
"Hey," He said as if I had not just passed out, "You've missed all the drama,"
"Didn't miss a thing," I smiled meekly, "I heard it all, what's happening now?"
"They're talking, they haven't even hugged yet, you'd think after finding out you had your family back you'd go to them and get every last second with them,"
"She's in shock. He's going to die anyway, unless we get that cure," I replied,
"So you believe it too?" He asked, hope filling his eyes.
"I have to, I have to save him, not just for me, for her too now."
He helped me on my feet, no one even glanced at me, everyone was too focused on Lizzy. Always centre of everything really. Always being the hero. I'll be the hero if I get that cure.
Somewhere out of the corner of her eye she must have finally noticed me because her eyes widened, Newt forgotten she ran to me. Her arms were around me before I could blink.
"Thank God, Flo, you scared the crap out of me," She said in my ear.
"I'm sorry about Newt, about him being your brother, I know it must hurt," I said.
"It would have hurt anyway, It's going to hurt like hell, two of my best friends," She was almost in tears already,
"Not if they can give us the cure,"
She pulled away from me quickly, holding me by my shoulders and looking in my eye.
"You can't be serious? You can't believe them?"
"Don't you want to give it a shot?"
She stared at me for a moment, studying it, working out what if that was what I truly wanted.
"For you, I'd do anything."
"For me and for your brother," I added,
"Don't call him that," She said with a weary half smile, "It doesn't feel right,"
A scream seemed to echo from the sky, as I whipped my head up to see a figure jumping from the roof of one of the buildings. It landed on Liv, wrapping itself around her. She struggled to get it off, but it was quick and strong. It lifted its arm holding a piece of rusty metal about a foot long and drove it into her neck.
Andy tackled them both to the floor, but not before the Crank had done its work. Andy pulled out a gun and swiftly placed a bullet it it's head so that the jittering cries of the inhumane creature fell silent.
But we could still hear the cries.
They came like a crashing tide, sweeping in from all around, the roof, the streets, the doorways.
Andy knelt by her body wide eyed and full of disbelief. Lizzy took her gun out of her belt and fired at the one coming toward us before making her way towards him. I heard gunshots go off from all around me and dragged out my gun to join them. I glanced toward Lizzy who had dragged him to his feet. She was saying something to him, while firing at nearby Cranks.
He seemed lost in the pain of grief, but nodded and readied his gun.
My distraction cost me when a man barreled into me, sending me sprawling. He screamed down on me sending bile and blood across my face.
Well, if I didn't have the Flare before, I certainly do now.
My thought was light, but the heavy truth behind it weighed down on me.
Newt kicked the Crank in the ribs to get him off me, then promptly sent four bullets at him, one of which landed in the Crank's stomach, and the other in his eye. He helped me up and we fought on.
They came weaponless in their multitude, outnumbering us three to one. Everyone would have blood on their hands by the end. I saw friends being taken to the ground, one even got Minho down, though he bashed it off with his pole.
Soon the street was littered with bodies, there were so many of them. Some still twitching. I wanted to put them out of their misery, but Minho said not to waste the bullets. I turned away hoping that that would not be my fate.
We didn't lose a Glader, though Frypan had a deep gash in his leg caused by him falling on a piece of rusted metal. Jeff wrapped it up, but his face looked grim. Something told me the chances of it not getting infected were extremely slim.
Lizzy insisted that we needed to move, before more came. We would try camping out in a building. Somewhere with multiple easy exits and easy viewpoints.
We searched a few buildings in silence, only speaking when assessing them. We finally find an old office block. It had a lot of staircases, and all the rooms were interlinked, leaving no dead ends. The windows were minimal making me glad I would never have to work in such a stuffy vile place. I could feel the eyes of rats following me as I walked, I could almost hear the sound of their long pink tails sliding along the floor.
Still it was better than the sewers.
The windows were already thoroughly boarded up which saved us some effort. Old wooden desks lay smashed to pieces. As it grew cold Jeff began to build a fire, suggesting that we could heat up our food, eating something warm for once. Argument grew over the fact it could alert Cranks to our location, but the windows hadn't let in a shadow of daylight, so we doubted any could get out.
We sat around it, like children at a summer camp, but silent- feeling the shock and the grief for the lives we had taken. Were they really lives at all? The Flare had already done it's work. Like it would do on me, like it would do on Newt, like it would do on Alfie.
The fire consumed the darkness of the night, warming the cold air, yet I still felt cold as I drifted through the land of my thoughts.
Lizzy PoV
Blood. Splattered over my clothes, flaking off my hands, ingrained into my shoes. I wiped the tip of my gun on my trousers, though both items were so caked in it there wasn't much of a change. Liv's blood was not on my hands, but it had soaked into the knees of my trousers. I tried to tell myself it was her own fault for gloating that we had stayed there so long, but perhaps not. Perhaps I could only blame myself.
So many lost, so many gone, so many ghosts to haunt me.
But if I could cure Flo, if I could cure Newt…. My brother. I couldn't think about that now. About the cure, the stupid cure.
"There is no cure," I whispered under my breath, but Thomas who sat not far to my right must have heard as he replied,
"I know,"
"She doesn't," the pain in my voice was clear,
"Let her hope," he said, steady and emotionless, "It's all she has left."
The day hadn't just taken its toll on me. They may have been gone but they were once people and we had ended their lives.
Silence took a hold of us. I was cold, though the fire was warm. I think we all were. My eyes swept the room. Minho, Jeff, Robb, all sat staring into the flames. My eyes landed on Andy and I cursed myself under my breath.
You fucking idiot Lizzy.
He had lost someone. The only one he had, and I was bitching about how I had to kill. Losing Chuck was bad enough, but to lose the last person you have left? Even if she was a colossal bitch, that's gotta hurt.
"Be right back," I said to Thomas,
"Who saved your life this time," he said with a weary smile,
"No one, but Andy might need someone,"
"Why does that person always have to be you? Stay with me,"
"Thomas!" I looked at him aghast, how could he talk like that? I kept my voice hushed, but harsh, "I don't see anyone else going to help him, I don't see you lifting a finger, he needs someone, and if no one else will help, then I guess he needs me,"
"What if I need you?" he replied in an angry whisper, "Jesus, it's like you worry about everyone else, but me, I can handle myself right? Even though I'm the one there for you when you need me. I'm going out of my mind, my best friends are dying too, you're not the only one,"
"No, and I'm well aware, but Andy has just lost everyone, and all you're thinking about is yourself,"
He tried to grab my arm as I stood up, but I shook him off and walked away.
"Hey," I said quietly, slipping down the wall next to him. He didn't say a thing. "I'm… I'm sorry about Liv,"
It suddenly struck me that as the person who punched her in the face not an hour before her death, I wasn't the best person to be doing this.
"If you want some space just tell me to fuck off, but it you need someone, I'm here. I am sorry."
"There is no cure," He whispered quiet as anything, "There never was, I lied, I'm sorry, I just wanted to keep her safe. Now she's gone. It's all my fault,"
"It's not you're fault, you can't blame yourself, you tried to save her-"
"You don't get it. It's my fault we're out here, we're immune,"
"Wait, what? But this is… it's like… Crank City,"
"We worked for WICKED remember? They were taking new kids, taking them like they have for years, always bugged me. Taking them from their parents, like you were,"
"Or killing their parents," I said bitterly,
"Exactly, I hated it. And this kid, he was screaming, he was only a baby really, two or three. He didn't understand why they were trying to rename him, he didn't get it. Bit like you. They were going to torture it into him, worked on all but one. If you could remember…"
His eyes glazed over and I had to place my hand on his arm to wake him out of this state.
"I couldn't do it. I… I…. it could have killed him! I…" tears streaked his face as he became flustered and upset, "I tried to break him out. Liv saw me and tried to drag me back before someone caught me and kicked me out, and they did. Kicked her out with me, they thought she was helping. They sent us out with the next band of Cranks. They were disappointed that we would try and compromise their salvation. That us Munies didn't know how good we got it. So no matter what you say it is my fault, it's all my fault,"
His quiet sobs didn't break the stillness in the room, but they broke something within me. Through all the blame I felt I always had help, and now seeing someone else feel it brought me an odd comfort, and an odd care for the boy I had just met.
A shrill sharp voice cut through the stillness like a blade, echoing around the room, ricocheting off the walls.
"Ring a ring a roses," The sing-song voice was a girl's, and I rose to my feet confirming what I already knew, it was Flo's. I edged towards her slowly.
"A pocketful of posies," The song was slow and haunting. Each word seemed to be on the tip of my tongue before she said it, as if I knew the song too.
"Attishoo, attishoo," The high pitched screech of the notes sent shards of glass into my chest, an uneasiness beyond what I had known, causing me to cringe.
"They all. fall. down."
She stilled. I came round to sit between her and the fire, yet her eyes did not move. Glassed over and calm in an eerie way.
"Flo?" I whispered, not sure what to expect,
She continued to stare for a moment, before a piercing cry that became a hysterical laugh burst from her mouth. I almost fell back into the fire, but managed to stand up avoiding turning myself into cinders.
As quickly as it had began, it ended. Her face returning to the still expression she had held before. She turned her blank face up at me and I had never felt more terrified. For her. For me.
She began again in the same tune,
"You will live a long time,
Your years will far exceed mine," Her voice faltered from the light, childlike tone, to a darker one,
"A virus, A virus,
Will kill me now!"
Her hand swiped out in front of her, hitting my legs and knocking me to the floor. I rolled upon landing so I would only be left with a bruise, nothing worse. Within a moment she was on top of me, pinning me to the ground.
"You always got to be the hero! You get everything!" She shouted, with rage that I could never have foreseen she could possess, but it was worse when her voice became quieter with rage and darkness filling each work, "And now you get to live with Thomas, and you get to be happy,"
Tears streamed from my eyes. This is not her. This is not her. This is the Flare. THIS IS NOT FLO.
"You have everything," her voice rose again, making he turn my face away, "and me! ME!..."
She pressed her nose to mine, panting as she broke into my soul and searched for something, yet I did not know what she hoped to find.
She was calm, but her words still stung, "I get nothing."
She spat in my face as Max grabbed Flo by the waist quickly, hauling her off me before she could move. She did not scream or fight and I just lay there, shaking.
A/N: Please follow and review!