~Sara~

The next day became an extremely hectic twenty-four hours. Thomas got released from the slammer, and he spent the entire morning with Newt to clear his mind.

Thomas was to start his training first thing tomorrow with Minho since they were giving him one day to fully rest from his whole adventure out in the Maze. Sara was happy for him; he deserved it.

Newt took full charge over the Glade, and now that he was a bit less stressed, he took over with professional leadership. Alby was still going through the Changing, and everyone else resumed their daily tasks, as usual.

Newt and Sara helped out in the gardens a bit to make up for some of the work they'd missed with Zart before Newt went to get Thomas.

Later, Sara headed over to the kitchen and helped Frypan once again, taking the chance to thank him for the kind gesture of making cookies for them the day before. He told her that Newt was the one who proposed and approved the making of the cookies, so she made a mental note to thank him later.

"Sara!" Chuck shouted, bursting through the door, almost making her cut herself as she chopped some potatoes. "Med-jacks sent me to get Thomas, but I don't know where he is."

"He's with Newt," she replied with a frown. She stopped what she was doing and washed her hands. "Chuck, what's going on? What do they need Thomas for?"

"Tell you later. Can you please take me to him?"

Sara nodded quickly and they headed out the door. She spotted them both talking to each other, standing near the entrance to Council Hall. Newt was trying to get Thomas to remember anything to see if it matched with what Sara had already told him.

"Thomas! Med-jacks are callin' ya. Alby's awake," Chuck told him.

Newt and Sara glanced at each other in surprise, and they followed right behind as Thomas hesitantly walked behind the younger boy.

"Uh..." Chuck stopped both Newt and Sara. "He doesn't want either of you. He keeps asking for him," he said, pointing at Thomas.

Newt looked slightly offended, and Thomas shrugged at him apologetically.

"No, come on." Newt grabbed his arm, "I need to see what's going on. I'm going with you."

Sara trudged behind as they reached the Med-jack hut. Chuck followed too, but Newt ordered him to stay.

Chuck looked so frightened. Something must have been very wrong for him to be that nervous—he didn't even question Newt's order.

Alby turned to look at them, alerted by the sound of their footsteps, and Newt approached him to try to talk to him. Sara gasped when she saw his bloodshot eyes darting from Newt, to Thomas, then to her. She'd rarely seen anyone go through the Changing, but the only times she did, they looked terrifying. This was one of those times.

"Everything's... gonna change... The girl... Thomas... I saw them..." Alby mumbled before closing his eyes, then laying back down on the bed.

When Newt asked him why he was calling for Thomas, Alby's face contorted in anger, and he shooed him out with an unexpected outburst of rage. "I wanted Thomas! I asked for freaking Thomas! Not you, Newt!"

Newt gestured to Thomas, who was looking even more confused and frightened than a few seconds ago. Sara took a step forward and grabbed Newt's hand, squeezing it to reassure him as she pulled him back with her so Alby could talk to Thomas.

"Leave," Alby muttered, beginning to hyperventilate.

"No way—I want to hear," Newt argued.

"Newt," Alby paused, "Leave. Now!"

A flash of hurt crossed Newt's features, and Sara looked at Thomas questioningly, wondering why the shuck would Alby only want to see him. Thomas only repeated that he had no idea what was going on. And Sara wondered if Alby might've seen her in one of those visions he had.

"But—" Newt protested.

"Out! You too, Sara! Both of you, leave!"

Newt's face fell completely, and Sara's heart sank. Alby had been Newt's lifelong best friend in the Glade. After this, it was natural for Newt to feel hurt and unwanted by Alby—who instead—called Thomas in, who was clearly a target to blame for everything wrong in the Glade.

After Alby yelled at them one more time to close the door, Newt and Sara stayed on the other side of the door, leaning their ears against it to see if they could pick up anything from Alby's conversation with Thomas.

After only a couple of minutes of them listening to no avail, Thomas suddenly screamed their names, telling them to go inside. When they burst the door open, they found Thomas trying to pry Alby's hands away from his own neck, from trying to strangle himself.

Immediately, Newt ordered Thomas to grab his legs, and Sara helped Newt who was trying to pull Alby's hands away from his neck. Newt used so much force that Sara got distracted for a second when she saw his biceps flexing.

Snap out of it, Sara. Now's not the time.

"Let go!" Newt screamed at Alby.

Alby began convulsing, and slowly, Newt was able to pry his hands away. He pushed down on Alby's chest, and Sara tried to whisper in his ear to calm him down as his body continued twitching, then he finally started to relax. His eyes seemed clouded, but other than that, he remained still.

After a few minutes, they finally let out a breath they were all holding in.

"I'm sorry, I... it wasn't me," Alby apologized to Newt. "I swear, it was like... I was being controlled or something."

"No, you tried to kill yourself," Newt reprimanded him, looking away from him.

Sara rubbed Newt's back and looked up at him. "Hey," she called out, nodding, "he's right. WICKED could easily control him. Don't be too harsh on him." She tried to include as much tenderness in her voice so she wouldn't sound too reprimanding, given that this was such a delicate subject for Newt.

She could see how it affected him. The way he was looking down at Alby with the same kind of disappointment he once felt in himself. As if he never imagined Alby could reach such a low level of insanity. He was the person Newt looked up to, the person who told him to be strong for the others.

Sara looked at Thomas, and his face was white as a paper. He just stood there, gawking at Alby as they all turned back to face him.

Newt shook his head as he grabbed the sheets that fell on the floor during the scene with Alby. "Whatever. Get your butt to sleep and we'll discuss it later," he said, patting Alby on the head, then adding, "you're messed up, shank."

Newt nodded toward the door, bidding Thomas to follow them all out. That was when they heard Alby mumbling something unintelligible.

"What?" Sara asked.

"Be careful with the girl... and... Newt, Sara... protect the maps." They all stared at each other in confusion, and Alby lay back down.

"You mean Sara, or... Teresa?" Newt asked, and Sara glared at him for a split second.

Alby was still, yet he replied. "I didn't see Sara at all. Teresa. It's her ya gotta watch out for."

That sounded horrible. What did Teresa even do?

The three of them stopped by the kitchen to grab something to eat, and Frypan let Sara have the rest of the day off to stay by Newt's side, since they were doing some important investigations. Newt continued to ask Thomas to try to remember, and Sara understood it must've been hard for Thomas since he really had a lot to do with WICKED, but he couldn't even remember much.

It was obvious that he did know at least something. She'd noticed how he suddenly zoned out, and remained deep in thought, like he was considering the thought of knowing some answers but was afraid to tell them. Sara didn't know if Rebecca might've been giving him some memories, or if it was WICKED who intended that he knew whatever he knew.

"I need you to accept the fact that people here don't trust you. We've heard it from Gally, Ben, Alby, and even the girl—Teresa," explained Newt.

Newt then took them to go see her. He affirmed that even though Sara had a lot to say about Thomas and Teresa, he still wanted to see any spark of recognition of her in Thomas.

Clint and Jeff had been writing down everything she mumbled, and they confirmed that she kept repeating Thomas's name, and also how everything with the creators had to end.

Sara wished she knew what WICKED wanted. Did it mean everyone had to leave, or maybe the trials were over? Or maybe it was a message from Rebecca, telling them it was time to escape. She wouldn't know.

The three of them pulled up chairs and sat next to Teresa, who was lying in a coma on the bed. Newt ordered Thomas to stare intently at her and try to see if he could recognize her somehow.

"Everyone knows you two worked together. Sara's mentioned it a lot. I just want you to be able to remember her," Newt told him.

"I do feel like I know her..." Thomas began, "...I just don't—"

He suddenly sprung to his feet and whipped his head toward Sara.

"What?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"You said that, right?"

She stared back at him blankly. "Huh?"

I said what?

"You repeated her name, we already know it's Teresa," Thomas replied.

"But... I didn't say anything," she said, with a shrug.

Again, Thomas jerked backwards, knocking the chair backwards, and he looked around the room, then at Teresa. "It was her! She said my name! She's... I don't know—she's talking to me, but... in my head." He looked extremely flustered, and it was almost amusing to watch.

Newt stood up from his chair. "Tommy, sit your butt back down. What are you bloody talking about?"

Thomas pressed his hands against his ears, and his eyes were full of confusion and terror.

Teresa's talking to him? What the shuck?

Suddenly, Thomas backed away, clearly disturbed, and he rushed out the door without another word.

"What the bloody heck was that?" Newt turned to face Sara, taking a seat once again.

"I..." she paused, then blinked back in realization, "...no way."

"What?"

"Kid's not as crazy as he looks," she said, shaking her head. "It's WICKED, Newt. We can't forget that they can pretty much do anything. Even let these two communicate telepathically."

Newt's frown only deepened. "I'm sorry—what?"

Sara sat on the edge of her seat, gaining a sudden interest in this newfound information. "WICKED put implants in each of your brains—which means—they can control you. Whenever. However they want."

A glimpse of realization hit him, and she knew he was thinking along the lines of that. "That's what... we just saw with Alby, isn't it?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "He wasn't willingly choking himself; they controlled him to do it so that he wouldn't open his mouth about what he saw during the Changing. That's why he was so confused. And now, they're letting Thomas and Teresa talk to each other in their heads."

His expression faltered. "But she's in a coma, how's that even possible?"

"I don't know," she admitted, shrugging. "Maybe if her consciousness is awake, the telepathy still works—I really don't know. But she is trying to communicate with him, somehow. We need to have Thomas talk to us about it," she said, continuing to press onto the matter.

Newt remained quiet, and she was about to ask what was on his mind, but he spoke up again. "They almost killed Alby, but... you already told us a lot more than we were meant to know. And nothing happened to you."

"No, it's different with me," she said, shaking her head, completely sure of herself. "I don't have an implant. They can't control me."

"But they watch us. All the time. They would've seen you by now, right? It's been nine months since you got here," he wondered.

She chuckled. "That's what Becca and I spent a lot of time on. She's best friends with technology, so trust me, she knows what she's doing. It's like if I weren't here. She can delete my image from video footage completely. And she's able to warp the audio, change it, so that what we're talking about isn't suspicious. So if a beetle blade's watching us right now, what they're seeing is a beautiful blond angel talking nonsense to himself like a psycho."

He scoffed. "And I thought you'd started to get bloody romantic."

"That sounded romantic in my head," she giggled. "Sorry."

He smiled briefly, and Sara knew he was trying his best not to let himself break down from the incident with Alby, then Thomas, and then the part about being entirely under WICKED's control. But it was so difficult. Even she felt scared, even though the recent events weren't as shocking to her as they were for the others.

Newt rubbed his face, passing a hand over his chin in deep thought. His forehead creased, and his eyes were distant. They'd been sitting in silence for at least five minutes, and Sara had already counted like ten sighs out of him.

She pulled her chair closer to his, and took his hand in hers. He slowly turned to face her, and Sara took the chance to reach out and move his hair out of his eyes, revealing his forehead a bit more. Using her thumb, she gently rubbed it to ease the creases of worry that always seemed to be a part of him now.

"Newtie, I know it's hard. You've got a lot of responsibility, and it's overwhelming. But I just want you to know that you don't have to do this alone. I'll always be with you, and this has gotta be over soon," she told him gently.

He rubbed her hand with his thumb and lay his head on her shoulder. "I know, love. It just feels too much sometimes."

"But you've dealt with difficult things before."

"Not like this." His voice was desperate.

She dug her fingers into his hair, scratching his scalp affectionately, and then she kissed the golden mess on his head. "Hey," she softly called to him, "I believe in you."

"And I appreciate it, seriously..." There was a brief pause, "...You're a sweetheart, you know that?"

Sara chuckled but she could feel the heat rising on her cheeks. "Well, I don't know about that. I care about you, that's all."

"Quit being so modest, I know you better than that," he playfully scolded.

"What? It's true," she argued, lifting his head off her shoulder, then stood up whilst holding his hands to help him stand too. "By the way, thanks for the cookies. I heard it was your idea."

"I care about you, that's all," he said, then winked at her.

She pushed him back lightly. "Stop stealing my lines, you don't even fit the modest category yourself."

They both ended up laughing, and it swelled Sara's heart with joy to see his smile.

She then noticed the band on his wrist was loose, and when Newt noticed, he turned serious, a solemn look took its place on his face.

She reached out to try to adjust it for him, since it probably loosened while he was struggling with Alby. But curiosity got the best of her, and despite Newt slowly trying to retract his wrist, she took the band off completely, and let out a small gasp.

Defeated, Newt sighed, fear and embarrassment reflecting in his eyes. "I—I can explain—"

"Shh." She clasped his hand and shook her head. "You don't owe me any explanations," she said.

His jaw fell open, and he gazed at her in awe as she softly ran her fingers along the scars on his wrist. Slowly, she moved farther down, interlacing her fingers with his, and brought his hand up to her mouth, gently kissing it.

Then she grabbed the band and motioned for him to turn his hand over. Once he did, she wrapped it back in place how it was, and secured the leather strings. If he didn't want anyone to know about it, she'd respect that. He did in fact use the band to wipe off his sweat.

Newt stared down at the band now back on his wrist, a million things going through his mind. Then he looked up at her. "I don't know what kind of bloody life this would be if you weren't part of it."

She pulled him into an endearing hug, and he immediately wrapped his arms around her. The movement sort of made them sway side to side a bit, and she ruffled his blond hair again, which she couldn't get enough of. He kissed her temple and buried his nose in her hair. She gave him a quick peck on the spot where his neck met his shoulder.

"You too," she whispered. After a few more seconds, she leaned into his ear. "Let's go talk to Thomas, okay? We'll take this one step at a time."

"Yah, let's go," he replied, and they let go of each other, stepping out of the Med-jack hut.

Minho was back from the Maze, and they saw him sitting alone, drinking some water at one of the tables in front of the kitchen. Hand in hand, Newt and Sara decided to approach him first.

"Hey, shuck-face, how was the run?" Sara asked him.

He gave her a slightly annoyed look. "How else? Same boring thing."

Fine. Dumb question.

"Well, at least tomorrow you get to train Tommy," Newt said, trying to lift his mood.

"Yippy." Minho's voice was monotone. "How's that supposed to make me feel happy? That means more work. The guy's a professional rule-breaker."

"Hey, he proved himself capable of more in one day than most Runner trainees do in a week. Maybe what you call 'more work' ends up being light work," Sara suggested.

That seemed to half convince him. "Hopefully that's the case." He grunted as he stretched his arms. After resting them out, he asked, "So, what's been happening around here? I heard dear old Gally is M.I.A."

"He's gone?" Sara frowned. "That shank's probably hiding somewhere, biting his fingers out of rage because Thomas is getting very popular, and I never got banished."

"Nah, he's actually gone-gone," he said, pointing his thumb behind his shoulder, toward a group of working Gladers. "Soon as I ran back, I've been hearing those shanks say he went into the Maze and they haven't seen him since. But I never saw him while I was running, so I don't know where the shuck he went."

"What?" Newt groaned. "Alright..." he said, throwing his hand up in the air, "...we'll wait and see if he comes back. If not, then... he's officially gone nuts, and gone for that matter."

"Good that," Minho agreed casually as he stood up. "I'm gonna go map my run. See ya, lovebirds."

He waved them off and they rolled their eyes. 

They finally set off to find Thomas to question him about Teresa, but seeing as they couldn't find him anywhere in the Glade, their last resort was the deadheads. It seemed to be everyone's hiding place now; not just theirs.

Newt spotted him first, and he nudged her arm for her to look where he was pointing. Thomas was sprawled on the floor, and they rushed to him immediately.

For a moment, Sara thought he was dead, but then she saw the steady rise of his chest. That was the strangest thing ever. He left the Med-jack hut in a frenzy, completely bewildered and disturbed, only to run away to the deadheads and fall asleep. Typical Thomas right there.

"Out of all things, this is how I least expected to find him," Newt said, raising an eyebrow and half-smiling. "How did he just fall asleep after all that?"

"I don't know. You think maybe Teresa sang him a lullaby?" Sara sounded like she was joking, but it was a possibility.

Newt actually snorted a small laugh. "Shuck it, Sara. Let's leave this shank alone."

"Shouldn't we wake him up?"

"Nah. He looks like he'll do shut-eye 'till tomorrow."

Sara told Newt to wait as she rushed back to their hut and retrieved a blanket, leaving Newt confused. She felt bad for letting Thomas sleep out in the open of the deadheads just like that, but they couldn't afford to wake him up, so at least a blanket would be nice.

When Sara returned, Newt smiled at her when he saw the blanket. She placed it over Thomas's sleeping body, and Newt fixed a corner of it that was folded in on itself.

"I feel like we're the Glade parents now," Newt blurted out.

"Then we must be awful parents if our children came out this disastrous." They burst out laughing as she took Newt's hand, and they walked back to the gardens to get some more work done until it was time for dinner.