"The patient is asleep, sir. And her vitals are normal." A nurse called from her station at the woman's head.

"Good. Continue doctor." A sharp voice demanded.

"Randle...sir? Is...is this ethical?" The doctor hesitated. He held the scalpel over the woman's belly.

"Do I need to remove you from this project?" The man in the corner snapped. "We are trying to find a cure! Now finish the job!"

"Yes sir." The doctor mumbled.

He didn't feel right. There was something off about this whole thing. The woman on his operating table was four almost five months pregnant with twins. He wasn't told the extent of what they wanted to do with the twins. But he knew enough. They were planning to attempt to alter the one twin's DNA, by injecting the one with microbotes that were programed to change and reconstruct certain strands of DNA. It was all hypothetical and kind of shaddy. Human testing wasn't something he had signed up for.

He took a deep breath and with the nod of the nurse in front of him he began the very delicate operation.

"Sir? Just confirming one last time. Which twin am I altering?"

"In this case study it will be the smaller one. The female."

•×•

"Randle, may I introduce you to the founder of WICKED." Chancellor Anderson said.

The man with greying hair held his hand out the younger, "John Michael." He nodded.

"Randle Spiller. It's an honor to meet you." He nodded his head sharply, giving the older man calculated smile. He turned his attention back to the Chancellor. "Well, shall we begging this meeting? I'm a busy man."

"Yes yes." Chancellor Anderson waved a hand.

"I wanted to hear the updates on this..."

Randle turned his calculating eyes on the man who eased himself into a chair. Randle gave him another calculated smile, "I wanted to thank you for your funding on this ground breaking reasurch! The data we are collecting already is outstanding! And progress on the human alterations is going remarkably well! Our test subjects-"

"Randle? Drop the act, sit down and tell us exactly what's going on." The Chancellor sighed. He leaned back in his big chair, and picked up a small glass that contained whiskey.

Randle ground his teeth and sat stiffly in the chair infront of the Chancellor's desk. He sniffed indignantly.

"Our first human subject, the female incubator is falling-"

"You mean the mother is dying?" Anderson cut him off.

"Yes. After her artificial insemination, she conceived twin boys. The one, the smaller one was a a failure. Died after the first operation. The other one is doing well, but we have run into complications, and the mother is also experiencing complications which will mostly likely lead to a failed attempt."

"But the second mother?" John asked.

Randle nodded, he laced his fingers together, "yes, she is doing remarkably well. Also conceived twisns via artificial insemination. A male and female. The female was the smaller of the two and recieved the injection. So far the fetus vitals are strong. It hasn't rejected the microbotes and is reacting well to the genetic alterations."

"Interesting. If this works, we are a step closer to advancing the clone reasurch which would aid in saving humanity for this accursed disease." John nodded.

The three men paused, thinking off all the implications of human genetic DNA alterations could mean for humanity. John cleared his throat.

"How did you pick the mother's?"

"We went through a vigorous screening process we went through all of our employees. The one, subject 624, the one with the male and female twins, she was a doctor for us. She was helping in the reasurch labs. She matched all of the requirements. So we approached her-"

"Did she do this willingly?" Anderson frowned.

"We didn't...force her. She was... strongly encouraged."

Chancellor Anderson narrowed his eyes.

"Kevin," John said waving a hand, "it's all in the name of science! We are a step closer! It's all just a means to an end! We are all doctors and scientists here! We all want what's best for humanity. Don't we?"

Anderson paused and then plastered a smile on his face, "of course John. Randol continue. What is the next step?"

Randol shifted cleared his throat flipping through some papers in his folder.

"We need to remove the female fetus subject from the mother and place her in an incubator. We now need to make more...invasive alterations in the fetus's brain. The mother and male fetus are discharged and free to go. Once the fetus is full term and no longer requires the incubation, the mother may come to help with feedings and such for a short time.  however the boy might, is he's strong enough, be a wonderful applicant for the Maze Trials we have started prepping for."

The men both nodded and hummed.

"Well excellent work Randel. Keep it up and we might be saving humanity."

"Indeed."

The men got up, and headed to the door.

"Randel?" Chancellor Anderson called, "what is the name of the mother?"

Randel turned, "her name is Mary."

•×•

14 years later:

"Mary! Hurry! WICKED is going to be on our ass right away! Vince called, he said he was on their way. Would meet us at the intersection."

Mary came tearing into the living room pulling their daughter behind her.

"Come on Bee, we gotta move faster! Jorge, where is the locket? I can't find it!" She cried. "I can't leave without it!

"Here! It's here, Mi Amor. It's here." He pulled the necklace with the locker out of his pocket. He quickly clipped it around their daughters neck.

"Do we have everything?"

"It doesn't matter. We need to leave!" Jorge called again, throwing a backpack onto his back, he took their daughters hand and Mary pulled her backpack on.

Mary paused at the door and looked around their little home. There wasn't much to take with them. WICKED had taken everything from her, including her forced IVF babies. The first few months she was angry, confused and resentful. She still felt like that, but after feeling the babies move inside her and see them on the many monitoring screens and seeing them grow, she became attached and it broke her heart when they took her daughter away first at only 7 months pregnant. She was allowed to see her a few times, but after a few months all communication was cut off was and then they took her son when he was only 4.

Then an anonymous letter showed up on her desk, with two pictures; one of her daughter and one of her son. They were 16 now. The letter explained that a different doctor, presumably the one writing the letter was brought in when Randel, Chancellor Anderson and John Michael all caught the Flare and were either killed or died, this new doctor didn't have all the information about where the girl came from, and it took him years to track Mary down. This writer stated he was sorry he did find her because it now compromised her. The letter warned her they were coming for her.

So now here they were, 48 hrs after the letter, packing what little possessions they had, the files she stole from WICKED, and the memory stick she had also been given by a boy she was in charge of seeing every week for medical check ups.

"Mary! We need to go! Come on!"

Mary turned away, closed the door and fled down the dark deserted street after Jorge and their daughter. Her heart broke knowing she had two more children, that she was leaving behind at the hands of WICKED, but right now there was nothing she could do but run. Maybe one day. One day she would come back for them. She made a promise to herself. She would have her family back together.

•×•

× Whoa baby! HERE WE GO! ×