Sympathy for the Devil {Liam Stewart | The Darkest Minds}

1. Changelings

"If I can be cured, you can be cured!" The voice that rang out from the girl in front of the camera was dripping with false positivity, her smile so bright it was a little bit painful. "I'm Maggie Lyn, survivor of the I-A-A-N virus, here to tell you, there is hope for your children." Maggie stood straighter, the hand of the president resting on the small of her back as a reminder to keep her posture. She kept smiling as she tuned out what the other kid was saying, Clancy Gray, the president's son.

"If I can be cured, you can be cured!" The two kids said in unison. Someone from behind the camera yelled cut, but Maggie couldn't relax, she was swarmed with people holding makeup brushes, and above their chatter she could hear the President snapping about how they needed to turn up the air conditioning. At that, Maggie could feel heat rise in her cheeks and the makeup people agree with the President, claiming that they're all sweating through their makeup.

"Hey, hey, hey, give her space to breathe." The voice that spoke over the muttering attendants was one filled with practiced diplomacy, and when Maggie looked over, Clancy was smiling at the gathered adults, his eyes glowing faintly amber, not that anyone else seemed to notice. They all sulked away and the glow from his eyes faded, but as he locked eyes with her, they both knew she had seen it. "Come on." He nodded to the side of the room which was mostly empty and out of the way of cameras, ushering her towards it. "I'm Clancy." He said, smiling just a little too kindly, though as the son of the President, it was a smile that had a practiced air to it.

"I know." Maggie said, unsmiling, raising her hands to press them to her cheeks in an attempt to cool them down, avoiding his gaze. "I'm Maggie." She was, above everything else, a survivor, so if she had to pretend not to see a clear demonstration of a Psi ability, she would.

"You saw what I just did, right?" Clancy however, would not let it go unacknowledged. His voice was soft, understanding even. Uncertainty of her own making filled her, she wasn't sure how he was so confident, he was barely a year older than her at thirteen years old, and yet he seemed so self assured.

"I won't tell anyone." Was all Maggie could manage. When she felt Clancy's hand rest on her wrist, she looked up at him with shock, but didn't step back. Every adult in this room was ready to sentence them to death if they got even the slightest hint that either of these kids were not reformed.

"I know you won't." Clancy paused, giving her a more genuine smile now. "What are you?" 'Are'. Present tense. He knew, or he could tell. Maggie hesitated.

"I'm -broken." She said, the second word sounding as though it had spilled out instead of another one. Clancy tipped his head to the side. "I'm -broken!" She said more insistently, though still quiet. Clancy's eyes glowed orange for just a moment as he asked her once more; it was as if he was reaching inside of her mind, trying to pull the answer from her lips, though he was just grasping at straws, like her ability to answer the question honestly was out of her control. "I'm. Broken."

Taking a deep breath, she placed Clancy's hand on her cheek as she reached into her hair to pull at one of the pins holding it in place. With the pin removed the hair barely shifted, but she put the metal pin into her mouth and moved his hand away, replacing it with her own once more. Closing her eyes, and with her hands over her mouth, she allowed the heat in her body to increase, and she opened one eyes ever so slightly with caution, watching for Clancy's reaction as she opened her mouth wide enough to reveal the now molten puddle of metal that had once been her hairpin. Snapping her mouth shut, she swallowed it.

"Maggie," Clancy told her softly, leaning down to be eye to eye with her, though the gesture felt a little condescending as he wasn't that much taller than her, "you're red." Maggie nodded vigorously.

She was chosen for the campaign because the people around her truly thought she was reformed; from her insistence that she was 'broken' to the way that she would never demonstrate her powers despite the almost torturous circumstances she had been put through, they really thought she was cured. Plus she was cute enough for television, and the government was pleased to hit their diversity quota with her face on the screen.

"We can keep each other's secrets." After a beat, he gave her a mischievous smile. "Mags." It took her a moment to realise he was giving her a nickname. "Because of the magma." He explained, and Maggie let herself smile, just a bit. Clancy leaned back as the director of the PSA began to call everyone back for another take, but he didn't take his eyes off of Maggie. "Come on, we'd better get back there."

"What are you two doing?" President Gray called over to them, and Clancy went back to smiling like he had been trained to do it.

"Just making friends, dad, we're normal kids after all, that's what we do." The words rolled off his tongue with such ease and confidence that Maggie nodded empathetically along with them, trotting back to the centre of the room by Clancy's side. "We've gotta be friends after all, we'll be seeing a lot of each other if we're the face of a new age."

The President didn't seem exactly happy, but Maggie, alone since being taken from her family almost a full year before, was ecstatic.