~Sara~

She stared at the initials wide-eyed. No one said a word as they watched all of the beetle blades begin to scatter away.

"It's her," Sara whispered, and Newt gave her a timidly hopeful look. "The plan is on," she said, nodding at him.

Chuck frowned and tilted his head to the side. "But what's the plan, though? How are we gonna get out?"

"Same way I got in," was Sara's response.

"Shouldn't someone give a pep talk or something?" Minho asked, out of the blue.

"Go ahead," said Newt.

"Be careful, don't die," were Minho's words of advice.

"Great, we're all bloody inspired," Newt muttered and rolled his eyes.

"I'll do you a better one," said Sara.

Newt flashed her a smile. "Please. You're the boss, love," he said as he stepped aside.

Sara turned to the crowd, raised her hand, and shouted at the top of her lungs. "Alright, listen up! No one's gonna have to sacrifice themselves, alright? I promise, we're all getting out of here safely. Tonight is when it all ends. And we're going out there to fight the Grievers, but don't worry, none of you will die. So you better take your butts out there and fight—I'm not accepting cowards! I promised to get you all out, and that's exactly what we're doing right now."

There was silence for a few seconds, then an uproar of shouts and war cries filled the atmosphere. Everyone raised their weapons in the air.

"That better?" she asked Newt and smirked at Minho.

"Uh... yah," said Newt, who stood there, gawking at her.

She knew it was too much, and knowing herself, she was acting way more courageous than she truly was. Relieved that Rebecca was quite literally saving their existence, she still felt self-conscious as she realized just how dependent of Rebecca she was.

Minho scoffed. "Mine was better."

"Let's go!" Sara shouted, and they set foot in the Maze, jogging past the massive, unclosing doors.

Newt and Sara took the lead, but they kept the pace at a jog so that he wouldn't have to strain his leg so much. Sara really hoped it didn't hurt him as bad as his face was telling her.

They made sure that Chuck was running right beside them too. He was to be protected at all costs.

"You okay?" Sara asked Newt. He breathed in and out rapidly as they moved along, the others in tow. Sara knew it wasn't because he was already exhausted, but because he was in pain.

"Yah, haven't really lost my Runner sense," he replied in a joking manner, but Sara could see the sadness in his eyes. "Are you ready for this?"

"I am," she replied. "I trust that trying to escape the complex itself will be harder than escaping this Maze."

Led by Minho next, they rounded the first corner, jogging across the corridor, leading to a two-way end. They turned left, then right, they took another right, and then... they spotted them.

A group of Grievers were huddled together near the Griever Hole, forbidding the entrance, but also seemingly just... waiting. As if they were already expecting the Gladers to get there. The Gladers stood still, hoping that they wouldn't alert them into chasing after them.

But then Alby went entirely off the rails of the plan. "I'll be the distraction, you guys escape," he told them before rushing to the front of the crowd.

"No!" Newt, Chuck, and Sara screamed at the same time.

Out of reflex, Sara stretched her arm out and stopped him. "I said no one's dying. Get back!"

"You have a better plan?" he asked, mockingly.

"Yes!" she shouted. "We're heading back, and then left."

"What do you think you're doing? The Griever Hole's right there." Teresa gestured forward.

"Their game, their rules? Shuck their rules, we're taking the better way out," Sara insisted, and Teresa eyed her suspiciously.

"What about the code?" asked Thomas.

"Screw that too." Sara shrugged, a surge of confidence overpowering her.

Sara moved along, Newt and Minho following right after her, hoping that the others followed—which they reluctantly did.

The Grievers were obviously taken aback by the sudden change in route, and they all followed the group with their awful shrieks and moans. Their large metal spikes made those horrible clicking and whirring noises that menacingly got closer.

Everybody started freaking the heck out.

"This was your brilliant plan?" Minho huffed, turning to Sara.

Sara stopped for a moment, gripping her knife in her hand, and she turned to face the approaching booger-bathed beasts of garbage.

"What are you doing?" she heard Newt's nervous voice to her left.

"Sara!" she heard him, and a group of others shout.

But Sara ran toward the Grievers and surprised them by sliding underneath and slashing their flesh. She could hear the shouts and screams of the Gladers as they realized what she was doing, then they began to follow her actions. The hisses and shrieks of the thing as it got wounded were almost deafening.

However, Sara hadn't even gotten all the way across its body, and felt nothing else but a few scratches here and there, when it suddenly went rigid and powered off, collapsing to the floor. Sara had to roll out of the way before getting crushed, which gave her major déjà vu.

Despite the obvious astonishment, the others charged at the other Grievers and found hundreds of different ways to prod and stab at them.

The large group was surrounded by the other Grievers, and they all formed some sort of human defensive circle, their backs against each other. They went for a Griever each, sometimes pairing up against one. As soon as any of them barely touched a Griever, it did the same thing as the first one Sara attacked. It became completely still, powering off, then dropping to the ground.

During that encounter, the group had gotten trapped in a dead-end, but they suddenly heard the slow, grinding sound of stone and concrete. The Maze walls opened up a new passage.

"What the shuck?" Minho was bewildered. In all his years of running the Maze, never had a passage opened up for him; he always had to find his own way around while the moving walls threatened to crush him rather than provide an escape for him.

"Come on, let's go!" Sara urged them as she started running along the new, accessible corridor. "Enough gawking, just keep running."

Everyone finally followed her lead on command, and Sara gave a silent message of gratitude to Rebecca for coming to their rescue just in time.

Newt caught up to Sara, Chuck next, and Newt asked, "Can you explain to me what the bloody heck just happened out there? 'Cause for a moment, I think we're finished and the next, the Maze is making it easy for us."

Sara was already out of breath, but she tried the best she could. "She broke into the operating system of the Grievers and the Maze... I told you, she's a genius," she explained between breaths, and she made sure her voice was loud enough so that most of the Gladers could hear.

"This isn't how we were supposed to escape," Teresa complained, and everyone stopped jogging as they all stared at her like if she were crazy. Immediately, she tried fixing her slip-up. "I—I mean, then why would Thomas see that the Griever Hole was the exit so that we could punch in the code in the computer?"

At that point, Sara didn't even care that Teresa knew she lied to her at the beginning. They were finally escaping. "Well, of course WICKED would let him see the exit they want us to take. But the whole point of this is that we're ruining whatever plans they had for these stupid Maze trials."

Teresa stared back at her, horrified, which was enough proof to Sara that Teresa was in favor of WICKED. Even the others noticed something was off.

"Wait, so if this lady you talk about doesn't want us to die, why did she wait so long to help us?" Frypan asked Sara next.

"Well she's not only helping us. At the same time, she's guiding a group of girls and one boy out of their Maze too. All by herself. Try doing that sometime," she replied, a bit of sarcasm added too. She couldn't believe she was the one being questioned again when Teresa was the major suspect.

Chatter broke out among the Gladers, many of them curious about how there was an entire other Maze filled with people of the opposite sex. Sara didn't understand the surprise; she'd mentioned that fact before. And it wasn't exactly the time for reiterations while they were still inside the Maze.

"There's a boy? So, is he like their version of Teresa for us, or is it you?" Winston asked her.

"Her," she said, pointing to Teresa. "I'll present everyone to you guys once we get out. Two of the girls in there are my best friends," Sara added.

"How do they know Rebecca's helping them out? Is there someone like you with them?" This time it was Newt who asked. That was probably the smartest question she'd heard all day.

"No," she chuckled, smiling at him. "The girls probably caught on a lot quicker if Becca gave them memories the entire time like she said she would. Becca's taking care of their Grievers and Maze walls, but I'm sure they're doing just fine. Those girls are brilliant."

"Hold up, sister—" Minho was the first to start protesting.

Sara interrupted him immediately. "Don't get offended, you guys are too, but your stubbornness speaks louder sometimes. I got here to make sure you guys actually do follow the plan. You would've done well on your own too, but maybe it could've taken you longer, who knows. And... well..." she paused, feeling the heat rising to her cheeks.

"And you came here for Newt. Yeah, we get it," said Minho, smirking.

Sara rolled her eyes, feeling embarrassed, but when she let her eyes fall on Newt, he was smiling so sweetly at her. That was it. That smile alone was what literally pumped adrenaline into her system. If she were dying on a bed, and she saw that smile alone, she'd spring out of there and run a freaking marathon.

~Newt~

He was so impressed. This girl had gone through so much, she'd sacrificed so much, just to save the people who nearly killed her.

"I didn't think I'd become attached to you guys so fast," she continued. "I was better friends with the girls, and true, I came here early for Newt, but it was already a part of my agenda to come here for all of you. I mean, aside from the fact that many of you wanted to kill me most of the time," she added, and they all got a good laugh from that. "But yeah. And now's not really the time, but just know that it's been quite the adventure with you guys, and I wouldn't change it for anything."

The brief moment of gratitude and reminiscing got interrupted by a new pack of Grievers heading their way.

"Shuck!" Minho muttered. "We gotta go, we gotta go!"

They resumed their running and soon, they started noticing there was nothing catching up to them anymore.

As Newt looked back, he saw that all of the Grievers were toppling over one another, collapsing lifelessly to the ground at already a great distance from them. They didn't stop running, however, and new corridors opened up before their eyes, some of the remaining Grievers getting crushed as the walls closed back up, right after the Gladers crossed through.

This kept going on and on until finally, they neared a massive door-like compartment. One last Griever crept up behind them, and it charged straight at Teresa.

"Watch out!" Sara screamed and stabbed the Griever in the eye before it, too, collapsed right beside Teresa's feet. Teresa used her knife to cut its leg off out of spite.

She looked at Sara, pale-faced, and astonished. "Thank you."

After they watched that no other danger was lurking around, they faced the door again.

"Here it is. Where I came from," Sara huffed, still breathless from the run.

There was a mild booming sound as the door began to open, creaking, and slowly splitting down the middle. It was similar to the opening of the hole where the Box came up, back in the Glade.

They crossed through, and on the other side, there was a darker hallway, and the lights on the ceiling lit up one after the other, with an echoing clicking sound.

"Seriously? That's it?" Frypan asked.

"That was way too easy," Winston added, his tone smothered with suspicion.

Alby shook his head. "Something's off. This isn't how it ends."

"Would you all shut up?" Sara snapped. "We can't get near the computer station. We're heading straight for the weapons room. As soon as we get there, help yourself with as many weapons as you can carry. Real weapons. And we'll fight our way out. Becca's gonna contact some people that are willing to help us, and it'll be the end of WICKED."

Fight? It's not over yet? Newt thought to himself.

"I thought it was over. You're telling us that we, a bunch of teenagers, are gonna wage war on a whole government organization?" Frypan asked the question on behalf of all of them.

"Yeah," she replied matter-of-factly. "We're in some deep klunk because of WICKED. And we don't know where we'll have to stay while we find a safe home. The world's infested with the Flare virus. A lot more than half the population is. So yes, we have to fight."

"We should've stayed," Alby muttered.

"Stop being a baby and let's get to it already. I'm in the mood to shoot some creators," said Minho.

"I'll stay in the back so that no one gets lost," said Teresa, and made her way down the group.

Newt gave Sara a long look. She walked over to him and placed her hands on the sides of his face. "You okay?"

He looked at her with concern. "This is so bloody insane. A disease, a war—I don't know if it's even worth it."

"Hey," she said softly. "Don't think I'm not scared either. But it's the only chance to get our lives back. The one that's been stolen from us. And no matter what, we'll do this together. You've given me the strength and the hope that helps me get through this, you know? That's how I know we'll succeed, when I see the kind of future I want with you."

Newt nodded, feeling flattered. He didn't think he deserved to be given that kind of hope—he barely thought he deserved to continue breathing a few months back. "I love you, Sara."

"I love you, Newt. Always," she said with a smile.

She led them on, and the door to the weapons room was visible on the far end of the hallway they were running through.

"Gladers!" a woman's voice was heard from behind, stopping them dead in their tracks.

They all turned around, dreading the horrible thought of getting caught, that maybe this whole escape plan was a total failure.

There stood a woman with green eyes, wearing a white lab coat. She was probably around her late twenties, and she was holding a touchscreen in her hand while her other arm was in a cast. 

Newt turned to Sara for answers, but he didn't see her among the group anymore. She was already rushing forward, throwing her arms around the woman as she hugged back tightly.

"Becca," she said, beginning to cry, and the woman's eyes flooded with tears as she held onto Sara like dear life.

So it's her.

Newt hardly even recognized her, even though she did appear in his dream.

The reunion was so beautiful that he felt a little sting on his own eyes as well. She was basically Sara's motherly figure after she lost her mother. The person who'd taken care of her for two years, and even when she couldn't see her in person. And for that, Newt was eternally grateful.

He felt like he'd known her himself for years, not just from what he'd heard from Sara, but also from snippets of memories that he saw through his dreams, where she took special care of him and Sara.

"What happened to you?" Sara asked her as they let go. She was staring at the woman's cast.

"Oh." Rebecca's voice saddened. "I hurt my arm while working."

The rest of them all stood there, looking at each other in shock—and maybe relief that the woman wasn't who they thought she was.

After exchanging a few words, Sara waved Newt over, and his eyes widened. He timidly walked up to them.

"Uh... th—thank you so much for everything. I remember you—a little, but I know how much you've helped us. Thank you, Miss Rebecca," Newt said, as politely as he could.

She pulled him in and engulfed him in a hug. "It's my pleasure. And you can call me 'Becca.' Sara found herself a wonderful young man. She cares for you dearly, Newt."

Newt looked over at his beautiful girl. She was smiling at him, teary-eyed, then she walked over and hugged him along with Rebecca. He gave Sara a kiss on the cheek.

After they let go, Chuck rushed forward and practically jumped onto the woman's arms, and a grunt escaped her mouth.

"Ooh, hey there, Chuck," she said, cheerfully.

He let go of her and his cheeks turned red. "Sorry, I just... you're pretty awesome. Sara's told us all about you. Thanks for helping us get back home."

"It's lovely to see you all arrive safely. But now, we need to hurry," she said.

Sara took her place back with the group as Rebecca took a small device out of her pocket. They all moved out of her way, and she got to work to unlock the door of the weapons room.

Minho raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You forgot to mention she was hot," he muttered to Sara in a mischievously low voice.

Newt turned and frowned at him. "Seriously, mate?"

Sara had a disturbed look on her face. "Dude... she's twice your age."

Minho shrugged. "What can I say? I like to aim high."

"I heard that, young man," said Rebecca as she continued working the lock.

Sara jabbed Minho's ribs with her elbow, and he yelped. "Idiot."

Sometimes, the things Minho would say—and at such inappropriate times—were so ridiculous no one could really say much. Newt, more than anyone, knew what it was like to constantly have him around like that.

Rebecca groaned with frustration and she walked back, where they first saw her, trying to work something on her touchscreen.

"Becca?" Sara asked, sounding a bit nervous.

"Someone reinforced the security system, protecting it from every encrypted code I insert. I can't open the weapons room," said Rebecca, frowning and furiously tapping on her screen.

Sara walked up to her. "What about Group B? Where are they?"

"I'm keeping them safe in a vault underneath the complex. It's close to the Mazes. I told them to wait there until I met up with you guys and gathered the weapons. But now..." she shut the touchscreen off, "...I'm gonna have you guys wait in there with them until I figure things out."

"Um, do we got ourselves a problem, Miss?" Frypan asked.

Rebecca looked up at him, an apprehensive look on her face. "Janson already knows something's off. I can't shut off the beetle blades for them, so they must be looking for you by now. Yeah, I'd say we've got ourselves a problem."

Then Sara asked her something about The Right Arm—whatever that was. Minho looked annoyed, and several of the others were nervously looking around in case someone else surprised them.

"They didn't want to help," Rebecca replied, her face dejected.

Sara looked horrified. "What? But they hate WICKED."

"Exactly. They hate WICKED. And unfortunately, that includes me too," said Rebecca, pursing her lips. "So they insulted me and said they'll be ready when they deem it necessary, but that they won't seal any bargain with me. I'm sorry, guys." Her face fell, and she furrowed her eyebrows, looking remorseful.

"So, what are we supposed to do now?" Winston asked.

"Let's blow up the door of the weapons room," Minho suggested. "At least we'll be better armed."

"Blow it up with what?" Sara snapped. "We would need the stuff that's on the other side, genius."

Rebecca ushered the large group of them across several other hallways, and the rusty appearance of the walls and the airway tubes made it obvious that no one had been around there for years. It'd been an abandoned place.

Suddenly, Newt noticed Sara looking around the group as they continued moving.

When he asked her what she was looking for, she stared at him with slight uncertainty. "I can't find Teresa."

Newt scanned the others himself, even in the back where he'd last seen her, and indeed, she was missing.

"We've got a problem!" Newt shouted, getting everyone's attention. "Have any of you guys seen Teresa?"

Thomas, of course, was the one that freaked out. "The shuck you mean she's gone?" He looked around, frustration taking over him. "What if they took her?"

"Can't you talk to her in your head, shank?" Zart asked.

"She doesn't respond!" Thomas shouted.

"Calm down, Tommy. We'll see what's going on, but you need to slim yourself," Newt said, grabbing his shoulders.

Not a single person saw her leave at all. She vanished completely. Newt definitely didn't have such a cheery feeling about that.