The Restored Girl

Chapter 1: WICKED

RHEA'S POV
"Who are the Andersons?" Sonya asks, laying her head on Newt's shoulder.

I raise an eyebrow. "Me. Dylan. The twins. Cyrus. The Seniors. The other Juniors. All of us."

"Yes," Sonya says, "but who are y'all?"

"The Andersons used to rule the world. We were in charge of all the WICKED facilities. And then Ava came in. She changed everything. Made sure the other facilities were... unused," I say carefully. "Unwanted. Because she knew how powerful the other Andersons were. That's what I heard, at least."

Thomas frowns. He looks at me. "Your Father."

Always the smart one.

"Was the Chancellor of Denver," I say bluntly. "He was until about recently. My Father wanted to stop the maze trials. He realised how wrong it was. He told me himself before I went into the maze. He was working towards it.

"Ava found out, of course. She couldn't have it. She wanted that cure," I say, then take in a deep breath. "She infected my Father. Eleven others caught the disease. She made Thomas, Aris, Teresa and Rachel kill them so the disease wouldn't spread."

Silence.

Then Thomas looks at Teresa, eyes wide. "Is it true? Did we kill them?"

"We had no choice," She whispers. "We found a letter Anderson was trying to write about cancelling the maze trials. Ava made a false letter instead to give to WICKED."

Aris looks at me, stunned. "I'm so sorry, Rhea."

I take in a shaky breath from under the hood. "You had to do what you had to do. I've avenged my Father by killing Ava."

"So that's why you're such a big shot here," Minho says. "Your Father was basically the leader of the world."

I shrug. "We like to think of it as a board of leaders. But yes, he was."

Then there's a knock at the door. It opens and Cyrus runs through, pouncing on me. I almost laugh.

"Kid, you're going to kill me," I groan as he suffocates me in a tight hug.

Cyrus holds on tighter and I gently pry him off. "What's up?"

"The others have arrived," Cyrus says cheerfully. "Dad told me to come down and get you."

"The others?" Harriet asks, raising an eyebrow.

"We're a big family," I say, taking Cyrus's hand. "You guys can walk around this floor, but don't head upstairs. Or downstairs. Just keep to this floor."

"Why?" Frypan asks.

"Restricted areas. You don't want the Seniors catching you around," I say.

Then Cyrus drags me out.

"I like your boyfriend," He says.

We've been here for two days, and they're all calling Newt my Boyfriend. I don't bother to correct them. Neither does Newt.

"Really?" I say, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Cyrus says, grinning. "He always says 'bloody' around me, and he treats me like I'm his age."

"I'm going to talk to him about that," I joke, pushing back my hood. My family doesn't like seeing me with it.

"No!" Cyrus exclaims.

I smirk. "Too bad. Come on."

We head into the elevator and up to the fiftieth floor. We step out and into a huge guest meeting room. The room takes up the whole floor, where we meet guests and have greeting functions.