So, my holidays are over, and it's a new year!

Question of the Chapter: What was your favorite thing you got for Christmas? I got a pack of polychromo pencils!

Other Question: Do you think Newt and Lori's relationship will ever be the same?

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Lori and the others stand, looking at Teresa, who continues to approach them. How were they supposed to react to seeing her again? Lori wanted to approach her friend and welcome her back, but she was very wary of the blade that she wields.

As she moved closer, no one dared to approach her. Her face is stone-cold, looking as if she would kill any one of them. Even Thomas.

Who, at that moment, took a step towards the girl he had feelings for. But before he could move any further, something happened.
All around Teresa, more girls appear.

Lori turns in a circular motion, to see that they are being surrounded, distracted by the reappearance of their friend. Her group of girls also hold weapons, a varying array of blades including knives, swords, and machetes. Some even have bows and arrows, already aiming the tips at the Gladers. Where the hell did they find damn bows and arrows? We're barely finding food!

Within seconds they were completely surrounded. Everyone stands in an awkward silence for a few moments, before, Minho speaks up. Why am I not surprised?

"What's this crap about, Teresa? Nice way to greet your long-lost buddies."

Teresa didn't bother to answer, leaving everyone in silence once more.
Newt steps forward to stand beside Minho, his tall figure towering over Teresa.
"Teresa? What the bloody-"

"Shut up," she says. She didn't yell or get angry. She kind of said it calmly, yet strongly.

This frightens Lori slightly, but she decides to stand up for her friends anyway. She steps forward, facing Teresa, "No, Teresa. We haven't seen you in ages, and it's only fair that you explain where you were. Or why you have your little posse aiming arrows at us."

Teresa's facial expression remains neutral, as she swings her spear up, and holds it to Lori's neck. The girl tries to stay calm, attempting not to look frightened.
Newt goes to grab the spear, but Lori quickly swings one hand up to grab his, stopping him from getting himself hurt.

The darker-haired girl turns the spear away, walking deeper into the group of Gladers. She stopped briefly in front of Brenda, Lori can only see Brenda's face, and she does not look happy. Teresa continues, until she stands before Thomas.

He went to talk, but Teresa hit him with her spear, right in his cheek. He went straight down, hand rising to cover his blooming red cheek.

Teresa violently lifted him to his feet by the collar of his shirt.

"Is your name Thomas?" She asks, pointing the spear at said boy.

Thomas' mouth falls open, eyes widening like saucers. "You know who I-"

But once again, she didn't let him finish, swinging the spear around and smashing the butt of the weapon into the side of the boy's head, right where his ear is. Thomas didn't fall this time, just cried out, smacking his hand to the wound. "You know who I am!" the boy screams at her.

"I used to, anyway," she replies, bitterness lacing the words she spat out. "Now I'm going to ask you one more time. Is your name Thomas?"

Lori stands beside Newt, hands still gripping onto the other tightly, as the lethal scene before them plays out.
She couldn't help but worry for Thomas. After everything they've been through, this is the least they deserve, having someone else's memory taken away.

"Yes!" Thomas yells, his eyes showing the defeat which shadows his heart. "My name is Thomas!"

Teresa nods in silence, aiming her blade at the boy's chest once more. She walks away to rejoin her band of followers, shouting out to Thomas, "You're coming with us. Thomas. Come on. Remember, anyone tries something, the arrows fly.

"No way!" Minho shouts. "You're not taking him anywhere."

Teresa completely ignores Minho, focusing all her attention onto Thomas. "This isn't some stupid game. I'm going to start counting. Every time I hit a multiple of five, we'll kill one of you with an arrow. We'll do it until Thomas is the only one left, then we'll take him anyway. It's up to you."

Lori grips Newt's hand tighter, worried she might fall if she dares to let it loosen.

Teresa begins the count, and just after the first number, Thomas begins walking. Before she can stop herself, Lori lets Newt go, and runs to Teresa.

To her shock, none of the girls shoot her with their bows.
She stops in front of Teresa, standing between her and Thomas.
"We can't let you take Thomas, Teresa."

She almost smirks. Almost. "We didn't ask for your permission. Now step aside, Lori."

"No."

The girls stand there, just staring at each other. Arrows keep their aim locked upon the strawberry blonde, not faltering for a second.

"I don't want to have to kill you, Lori. You're not apart of this."

She doesn't let her guard down, not allowing Teresa to make her feel indifferent towards standing against her. "They are my friends. I will always be by their side, so I will always be apart of this. I'm sorry that you don't feel the same way about people who trusted you."

Teresa smirks, and gestures to her follows, who change the direction of their weapons. "Move, or your boyfriend becomes a pin cushion."

Lori feels her heart leap slightly, but Minho quickly picks up on this, and backs her up. "Your buddies back at WICKED must not have caught you up on the news. They wiped her shuckin' mind of Newt. She doesn't remember him."

The dark haired girl smiles, "She might not remember, but she still cares." She turns to look at said girl. "Don't you?" She can't help but avoid direct eye contact, unsure of how to reply in a way that Newt wont be hurt, but Teresa won't win.

Nothing.

"That's what I thought. Now, Thomas. One!"

But, before she could get another word out, Thomas begins to walk forward.
"Fine. Take me."

Teresa smirks, "I only made it to one."

"Yeah. I'm really brave like that."

Thomas' smart comment, earned him a spear in the jaw, resulting in him hitting the floor once more.
"Bring the bag," Teresa commands her comrades.

As a darker-skinned girl walks forward with a large burlap sack, Teresa yells at the Gladers. "We're taking him with us! If anybody follows, I'll hit him again and we'll start shooting you. We won't really bother aiming. Just let the arrows fly any old way they feel like."

Before Lori can say anything, Minho raises his voice. "Teresa! You catch the Flare that quickly? Your mind's obviously gone already."

Without hesitation, Teresa roughly smashes the butt of the spear into Thomas' head, causing him to fall flat onto his stomach.

"Anything else you wanna say?" Teresa questions. No one answers her. "Didn't think so. Put the bag over him."

The girls grab Thomas, opening the bag above his head. The girl said something to Thomas, but no one else was able to hear it, due to her speaking only loud enough that he could hear.

It only took them moments to have the bag slipped over Thomas' entire body, the boy being engulfed by the bag, before it is tied at his feet with a rope, stopping him from being able to escape.

He seems to struggle a bit within the bag. Eventually, his voice slips out of the bag, "Teresa! Don't do this to me!"

She leans down and punches him in the stomach, Thomas letting out a yelp.
"Since you obviously don't care about yourself," Teresa hisses, "talk again and we'll start shooting your friends. That sound good to you?"

Lori couldn't stand by any longer, she steps forward to face Teresa, shoving her away from the bag. "Get away from him, you psychotic bitch."

The girl with the dark skin came up behind Lori, pulling her hair, and throwing her to the ground. When Lori tries to stand up, the girl holds her spear to Lori's neck.

Teresa throws a sickeningly sweet smile Lori's way, before turning to the Gladers. "I meant what I said!" She yells. "There won't be a warning. Follow us and the arrows start flying."

The girls began to converse under their breath, low enough that even Lori couldn't hear. But not to mention, she also has an awful headache from nearly having her hair ripped from her scalp.

As Thomas is dragged away, Minho and Newt each grab one of Lori's arms, lifting her back to her feet.
"What are we going to do?" She asks, looking at each of the boys.

Minho looks at the girls as they walk away. "We follow them."

/\/\/\/\/\

It had been two days of walking, and they are still trailing Group B. Their group is close to the Pass from what Minho says, so they don't want to get to much closer. Plus, with the sun setting, they'll be setting up camp soon anyway, so they decided it to be best to stop walking for a bit.

Lori had spoken mostly to her brother on the walk, trying to see if they can connect any of their memories. So far, not much.
Lori told him about the encounters with their mother, and how she had said that she had sent them into the Maze experiments for their safety.

Aris said that what she said had sounded reasonable, but Lori didn't agree. He wasn't there when she had said it. It felt different to having it communicated through someone else.

Bad news is always easier to hear from another person.

She had also learned that Aris is also able to speak in minds, and that he had been speaking to Teresa whilst they were in their separate Mazes. He said that he knew he would meet up with Teresa again. That WICKED would reunite them. WICKED have something planned for them, he says, but he's not sure what it is.

Lori herself isn't entirely sure. She can't decide whether she entirely trusts him yet. It is true he is family, but so is her mother, and look how well that turned out.

On their travels, she had also spoken to Newt. He wanted to give her the chance to get to know him better, to see if anything rings a bell. He was being surprisingly optimistic, but Lori knows he's being like that, because she's being the complete opposite.

All this time and she still doesn't remember, so why keep trying? If WICKED took away her memories, it is of the highest possibility, that they are the only ones who can return them. She also figured that they are the ones planting the memories. Maybe trying to give her hope, she's not sure.

She remembered the encounter they had yesterday clearly.

Newt had approached her, asking if she had had anymore memories or dreams, that maybe he could tell her if they had happened in the Maze or not.

"Nothing yet, just small flashbacks."
She hadn't told him that she had seen the conversation they had had about his injury. She didn't want to bring it up in the situation they were currently in.

"That's too bad, " He had said. "After all you've been through, for WICKED to take your bloody memories, that just crosses a line."

Lori sighs, "I don't think anyone has drawn the lines for this battle. And if they have, WICKED definitely doesn't give a damn. Besides, I'm beginning to feel like I don't want to remember."
The expression on Newt's face pinched her heart. "What? You look like someone just killed your puppy?"

"Why would you not want your memories back?" He nearly shouts.

Lori feels taken back slightly, "Well, I just feel like there might be a memory I don't want to remember, or WICKED don't want me to know about, and that's why they're not coming back to me."

For a moment, Lori noticed his expression change, as if he knew something she didn't. Maybe the memory which is stopping her from regaining the rest.
"But without them, what about us?"

His eyes are filled with doubt and deep sorrow, like he just lost his world.

And in Newt's eyes, he did.

"If what we had was real, then we shouldn't need memories to rekindle it, don't you think? Give it time. Give me time. Please."

"Lori, I would give you all the time in the world. I would wait for you forever."

She felt the smallest smile take over, "You mean that? Forever?"

He looks straight into her eyes, nothing but honestly marking his features. "Forever."

It was at that moment, not when they were kissing, or hugging, or anything else, that he loved her.

And that, if she was honest with herself, she might just feel the same way.