"You can't punish me, you need me." Thomas spat.

The woman before him, lets out a flattered, small noise. "Don't let yourself think so highly of yourself, Thomas, it can be very dangerous."

He rolled his eyes. He crossed his arms, shifting his weight on his feet. "Well, isn't that what you told me once, Ava? How important I am. How important the rest of us are? You need us more than we need you. Don't forget that."

Ava felt baffled but kept her collected, powerful posture. "What I need is for you to be on our side. I can't have you hiding secrets from us and playing these silly games...Which is why we're sending in Newt."

And once she spoke his name, Thomas instantly changed from fueled anger to pure fright, as if someone had switched the lights off and nothing left was the surrounding dark abyss. Ava watched the flicker of his eyes, how they turned soft at the sound of the boy's name, and how his strong, tensed shoulders fell slumped, and weak and she knew, that she had struck Thomas's weakest chord.

"W-what?" Thomas choked, "You can't do that, he's not apart of that, any of this. He works here."

"He is now." She said coldly. "And that's not even half of the punishment."

He feels to strong hands grip his shoulders and shake them violently. "Thomas we have to go!"

He blinks rapidly but he doesn't have a chance to regain any sense of consciousness as Thomas hears the eerily growl of the Griever as it comes crawling towards them from the end of the corridor. He turns his head and follows Minho as he darts towards an opening to their left.

Thomas can hear his heart beating in his chest rhythmically syncing with his running. His breath are loud and more like gasps but it doesn't stop him. The muscles in his thighs feel as if they've been stretched and worn weak and his feet are starting to blister from scraping against the surface of his shoes as he runs. But his will to live trumps any ache he feels.

They turn around the corners of the Maze until they can no longer hear the Griever behind them. Minho slumps down, his back leaned against the walls. He brings his knees up to his chests that's going up and down with his heavy pants. Thomas sits next to him with his head down as he tries to get his breath steady.

"We've got to go back for Alby." Minho says in tired breathes, his voice hoarse.

Thomas brings his head up, resting against the wall, and nods. "You could have made it, y'know. If you had left him, you could have gotten back in time."

"I know," Minho replies, looking back at Thomas, "but I couldn't leave him there. I could see Newt mouthing his name as I dragged Alby and I just couldn't give up, for him. He means a lot to Newt, after everything that's happened."

Thomas frowns, and he glances at Minho. "What do you mean?"

The boy next to him shakes his head and gets up. He pats down his pants, and Thomas sees the dusts flying off into the air. "Forget it. Even if we brought him back nothing would change things. Ally's been stung."

"Is there anything we can do to help him?" Thomas follows Minho and gets up from the ground, but he's swept away from consciousness.

"Is there anything we can do to help him?"

It's a girl voice this time. It's soft and gentle. Merely above a hushed whisper.

Thomas shook his head, looking past her shoulders to see if anything or anyone was listening. He glanced up at the cameras, checking if the rags that he's used to cover the lenses up were still there.

"There's nothing that's worked," he sighed, bringing his hand up to run it through his hair, "I've tried everything. I've begged, I've pleaded; I've messed everything up."

The girl in front of him sighed as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll make sure he's fine. As much as I want to help him, it's best not to push them to do anything worse."

Thomas cursed under his breath and started to feel tears prickle his eyes. "He's going to hate me for what I've done."

"Wait, what are you talking about," she said slowly, "They just needed another variable... right?"

Thomas slowly looked up at her. His eyes met her's and stared guilty into her bright blue eyes.

He regains consciousness again. Minho is shaking his shoulders just like before. "What the hell is wrong with you? Now is not the time to have a beauty nap, shank."

Thomas breathes heavily, chest rising up and down so quickly it feels like he's been running again.

"Its all my fault."