~Sara~

Rebecca was right; it'd been an exhausting couple of days.

Sara's whole world was spinning around, and it hurt to keep her eyes open. Her arms and legs were almost heavy, and she didn't think she could even move. It didn't help that Minho and Thomas kept commenting about how pale she looked. She touched her own lips, and they were severely chapped.

And what was worse, she hadn't even seen Rebecca since she first put that mask on Sara's face, which also meant that she hadn't been able to go see Newt, and neither did she have the strength to get out of bed.

But no matter how many times she asked, the answer was always the same. No one knew how Newt was doing. And she quickly lost hope of getting him back but was so weak she couldn't even panic about it. 

Against her will, she closed her eyes once again.

❀❀❀

"What was that?" she heard Rebecca's voice before opening her eyes. Sara was now completely unaware of how much time had passed.

There was a long pause before Vince replied. "A call from the church," he said softly, and Sara didn't like the sound of his voice as he said so. "It's Jarrod."

Sara froze.

No...

She wanted to see him at least one more time, and now it was too late. 

But she had to be fair. There was absolutely nothing else that could be done for him, and he was in constant pain. He'd lived longer than he should've, actually. Another victim of WICKED's atrocious doings who deserved his rest too. And now he finally got it.

"I'm so sorry, Vince," said Rebecca, a lot quieter. Silence followed, and Sara tried listening carefully, a bit afraid that Vince was gonna have a major reaction. "Are you going back? We've been stationed in McGrath for a while; we're nothing but a couple minutes away from the church—"

"We're not gonna wait any longer," he said, to her surprise. Not another word about Jarrod was mentioned, and it sounded almost heartless to Sara. It made her wonder if Vince truly cared about people like she thought was the case with the sick boy. "The plan's still on—we're breaking in."

"Now?" Rebecca sounded frantic. Sara wished she could have the strength to get out of bed and stand beside her. They weren't ready.

"Your favorite children are gonna be dead anytime soon!" screamed Vince. "I'm not gonna hold back my people and the plans just because of those two."

"Then you wanna just parade into HQ with this giant berg and everyone in it? Janson's gonna kill you," argued Rebecca. "And no, I'm not gonna leave them, no matter what. Newt's unconscious, Vince. And Sara's too weak."

"Exactly," he snapped. "Which means they're only about a step away from joining Jarrod. We ought to move, now."

Sara heard a loud slam, causing her to flinch a bit. It was Minho, and he was not happy.

"I ought to break your shuck neck if you say one more thing about my friends dying," said Minho.

"Rebecca's right," added Thomas. "Even if you wanna break in, how the shuck are you gonna do it? 'Cause you won't count on me. I'm staying to watch out for my friends."

"Which reminds me..." Minho began, his tone a bit suspicious, "...where have you been sending people?"

Vince scoffed. "I'm trying to do my part of the deal between this woman and I..." he said, gesturing at Rebecca, "and you're gonna start getting all Sherlock on me?"

"Oh, absolutely not," Minho huffed, and Sara knew the classic insult was coming. "It doesn't take a genius to know you're into some klunk—but yes, I am in fact a genius compared to some," he said, eyeing Vince up and down. "Going in and out, we've noticed fewer cars around, you slinthead. A couple people from the berg are gone too, so where did they go?"

Vince started laughing, shaking his head at Minho condescendingly. "Boy, do you have trust issues," he muttered. "We're infiltrating them into the building, okay?" Then he made a mocking motion with his hands. "Sorry if we decided to get them out at night when you were sleeping. We wanted to avoid this argument, that's all." He sounded anything but apologetical.

"Wow, couldn't have just—I don't know... simply told us about it?" asked Rachel, noticeably irritated. "It's a big crowd, but we still would've wanted to know if some of our friends were actually missing or simply taking a stroll around the hill."

The arguments continued, but the voices sounded even more distant every minute until they were mere echoes. Sara struggled to keep her eyes open for as much as she tried to force herself to stay awake, and she was slowly slipping back into the slumber that drew her in while a bunch of tubes continued to flush her blood. She didn't want to fall asleep before she heard what Vince was up to, but it was too late.

❀❀❀

Sara kept her fist closed, and she was almost biting at her own knuckles as she sat in silence on the bed. All she could hear was the sound of her shaky breaths, and Thomas occasionally sighing.

"I'm scared," she blurted out.

Thomas looked up and walked over to sit next to her. "Me too. But I guess it was the only thing left to do."

"But we still have other things to worry about, and..." she trailed off, closing her eyes for a moment, "...to think I have to let him do that again. This time with both of us." She reached over to the metal tray and snatched a syringe, putting it into her pocket. Rebecca probably forgot it, but they couldn't leave any evidence of the procedure that had taken place.

Thomas wrapped his arms around her, and she hugged back, her eyebrows narrowing. Her head was hurting, especially with the myriad of unresolved issues they still had at hand.

"I know, I'm sorry," said Thomas. He eyed her carefully when they pulled back. "Are you okay?"

Sara only nodded, but there was no way she could calm down. 

She still knew nothing of Newt, and she began to think it was Rebecca trying to avoid telling her he didn't make it, and she just took him away or something. She didn't tell Sara anything—at least—she couldn't do it now.

It was difficult enough having to skip the whole 'oh shuck, I'm alive, now what' moment before everything happened so quickly. Living sucked. When did it not?

They heard a creak from the doors of the berg. 

Holding her breath, Sara stayed put. The sound got louder, and Thomas looked irritated as if he'd passed the phase of being scared despite what he'd told her. He was so used to it by then.

A crashing noise followed, and then sunlight hit the inside of the berg as the door compartment was broken apart completely.

"Wha—?" someone scoffed. "You two?"

"Rat Man!" Sara screamed as she and Thomas were on their feet.

"How did you find us?" asked Thomas.

Rat Man smirked, looking satisfied with his accomplishment. "It's not my fault the berg's been spotted by people who're particularly interested in profiting."

Thomas and Sara shared a look, and then they sighed with defeat. Sara shook her head, her lip trembling. "Us being the ones who most needed to get away, and now look."

Thomas laughed humorlessly before he glared at Rat Man. "Stop staring at us like you own the world. Get this over with. Let's go."

Rat Man's smile faded, and he gestured with two fingers, ordering his guards to search the berg. Nothing else was said, and Sara only looked at him scornfully. When the guards came back after searching the entire place, Rat Man frowned.

"Where are the others?" he asked in a low, menacing tone.

"We don't know!" Sara shouted.

~Rebecca~

She couldn't even put together the amount of guilt she was bestowing upon herself.

Surely after this, Sara would never find it in her heart to forgive her. She thought long and hard about it as the car hit bumps in the road.

She had Newt lying on her lap, unconscious, and still wired to the IV pole she hauled into the back of the car. It was pretty much useless to think it worked on him. Sara was gonna be okay. She was gonna live, but Newt wasn't showing any signs of waking up, and neither did Rebecca think he would ever.

Everything happened so quickly. Vince didn't want to wait anymore, and they couldn't just all show up together to WICKED HQ. With Newt in this state, she had to leave.

Vince didn't have a problem sending one of his men to drive her in a car with Newt and Chuck. She did it for their safety, and because she didn't want to have to let Sara see Newt like this. They were heading for The Right Arm's HQ while Vince ended up taking most of the Immunes back to WICKED HQ with him.

She knew that Minho, Rachel, and a few others were hard to convince, so it was no surprise Vince took them into his own group to go back to Point Hope.

Point Hope, Alaska. The very home of WICKED headquarters, and equally the biggest epitome of hopelessness.

Rebecca hated herself for forcing Thomas and Sara to remain in the berg by themselves to get caught by Janson on purpose.

It was like playing with fire, knowing that those two were of WICKED's and Janson's highest priorities. But if they were taken back to WICKED HQ, that would give the rest of them some time to continue the plan without being prosecuted.

It was really hard trying to convince Sara's friends to leave, and Jorge and Brenda as well; Rebecca felt terrible. She only hoped that when it would be time for all of them to rescue Thomas and Sara, that it wouldn't be too late.

"Why couldn't we just go back with them?" asked Chuck as the car was nearing the hill where the church sat.

"It's dangerous, Chuck," she replied, her voice shaky. She didn't think she would be able to hide the panic on her face, so she preferred not to look at the boy.

"You would have better equipment to treat him if we found a way to sneak back into the building," Chuck continued. Rebecca slowly turned to him, and the look on his face said many things. He'd seen so much tragedy. There were many things that would be hard to forget, for everyone involved, but Chuck was still a kid. It wasn't fair on him. But what he was asking for was impossible. "Why can't we go back?"

Rebecca's features saddened even more as she tore her eyes away from Chuck to look down at the older boy, lying unresponsive on her lap.

"You don't think he'll make it, do you?" The realization hit Chuck, and his face fell. Rebecca couldn't resist the disappointment in his eyes when she looked at them, and the way he said that. Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked away once again.

And then he asked it. The question she was unable to answer herself because she had no idea how she could do such a thing.

"How are you gonna tell Sara?" His voice cracked, and he patted Newt's arm, as if that could somehow wake him up. They were all in denial. It was unbelievable.

But Rebecca had to say at least something. She hadn't spoken a word, even after everything Chuck had asked.

She didn't want to tell Sara, in fact, that was why she decided not to tell her where she'd gone. She must've been worried sick about not finding Newt in the berg when she last woke up, but it could've been worse if Rebecca hadn't left.

"I don't know," was all she could tell the younger boy.

~Sara~

According to Thomas, about a month had passed after everything with Newt's letter, and it was during that month that everyone else left.

Sara wished she could've been awake for most of that; everyone else made decisions without her because they didn't have a choice, but it was still annoying.

Rat Man actually believed that Thomas had finally given in to WICKED.

It was a total surprise to Sara that WICKED's plan in the end was to gather their elites and choose a final candidate. And the honor wasn't to receive some golden medal for their work—no, no, no.

Thomas was to be a final candidate to be able to get his brain dissected to see if maybe there could be the answer that they didn't just waste millions of dollars trying to find during a doomed attempt.

How many people did WICKED hurt only for them to come to this? Even if they had found a cure elsewhere, the ends would never justify the means. Sara didn't think she could ever forgive WICKED, or Rat Man, or Teresa, Aris, Lisa, or any person who was okay with putting kids into these trials.

There was no cure. It was the same result as any other unethical trial in history had proven. 

Sara couldn't even forgive herself for being alive while Newt was most likely dead.

Even her own cure was a failure, and it wouldn't have been if she had just stood her ground and accepted what would've happened to her body if she decided to save him the way it was known to work. It wasn't time to explore undiscovered territory. That was exactly what WICKED did after screwing up with those first six children—Jarrod among them.

If only things would've been done differently...

She was sure that if WICKED had truly cared, they would have expanded their knowledge and found a way to use those six children in a way where no ethical standards, however minimal they were, were compromised. No Maze would've been built, and no trials would ever exist. 

Yet wishing upon that was not only impossible at the time things began, but also completely useless now.

Two guards locked Rat Man and Sara in a room, and Rat Man quickly scrambled around, ignoring her.

She watched as he knocked things over the metal trays, and quickly moved other things out of the way. Whatever it was he wanted, then he was really desperate to find it.

"What are you even doing?" she asked, getting really annoyed. She decided it was best not to start too aggressively; she had to give the others time.

Rat Man simply ignored her as he kept rummaging around. When she tried to peak over to see what he was looking for, she saw a syringe in his hand, but he still wasn't done looking for other things.

Sara gasped. "Whatever it is, you're wasting my time and yours. Just give up!" Maybe she shouldn't care anymore. She would annoy him all she wanted until he finally exploded. Maybe then would she get at least some truth out of him. "You feel so accomplished with our capture, but it's literally useless. And you've ran out of options. Just stop... before you have a heart attack or something—are you even listening to me?!"

"You think this is a waste of time?!" he screamed as he suddenly turned around, taking threatening steps in her direction.

It was then when she noticed his eyes. It gave her a shuddering feeling of familiarity. He was breathing rapidly as he uncovered his arm, moving his sleeve up. There was a web-like mesh of black veins on his forearm.

He was infected.

Oh, the sweet irony of things.

Sara almost laughed. "Well... pity there's nothing I can do," she said, giving him a small smile.

Rat Man almost sputtered at her, squinting his eyes with disbelief. 

"Did any of what I told you last time you were here mean anything to you? Ungrateful child," he added, almost mumbling to himself.

Sara sat straight, gritting her teeth as she gave him a fierce look. "What did you expect me to say, 'thank you for ruining my life?' Sure."

This man had the audacity to expect her to care that he had the Flare, when he had basically laughed in her face for not knowing how to save Newt. He had made her go through so much pain, and now at the first inconvenience of his, she was expected to treat it as an urgent matter.

"I prepared you for this exact moment since the day I took you in, you useless child!" he shouted, his body shaking with rage. Sara wasn't prepared to hear that, and especially what he said next. "Nevermind Thomas, nevermind Teresa—nevermind anyone else. Even WICKED! I took you in for one sole purpose, and you're gonna fulfill it right now. It's every man for himself in a world like ours, Sara."

She pushed herself off the hospital bed in a swift movement, and she sent her right palm directly across his face. The stinging sensation on her hand had nothing on her, however. It was satisfactory, enough to make the man step back in surprise as he held his cheek.

"You're so disgusting you even betray your own rat's nest," Sara muttered between her teeth. "And no, I'm not gonna help you. You're on your first stage, Janson, and you expect me to care?" She scoffed, and then she started laughing. The feeling was pleasurable, exquisite, and she wondered if that was exactly how he felt whenever he had a win against her in past confrontations.

"I order you to care."

She shook her head as she stood her ground. "You told me I wasn't willing to cure Newt, and we lived a nightmare with his disease. Now you're saying you don't even care about WICKED. You always put them above your own family. You're the worst." Sara grinned at him almost maniacally. "So I have some last words in case you decide to speed things up," she began, leaning closer to his face and softening her voice, "I wish you the absolute worst as you experience firsthand the kind of pain this stupid virus produces... A.D. Janson," she finished off before purposely spitting on the ground right in front of him.

And he retaliated with a direct hit to her face with the back of his hand. It sent her stumbling backwards until she caught herself on the bed behind her. The aching sensation on the side of her face was nothing compared to the fire that burned in her chest.

"I don't care. I needed you alive up until this point. I could even kill you myself after you give me what I want," he said, his words full of venom.

Of course he would.

It only reminded her of what he did to her family and his own, but Sara wasn't gonna let him take anything from her this time.

"No," she said, gaining some confidence after the hit. "I can't help you, even if I wanted to."

Janson grabbed her by the neck so suddenly, immediately obstructing her airways. As she was gasping for breath, he muttered, "I'm not in the mood for jokes. You're gonna get on this bed, and we're getting this done."

She clawed at her own neck, trying to make him release her. "I've... already done it," she managed to say in between gasps.

He released her immediately, his anger increasing exponentially. "You did it with Newt, didn't you?! How?" He awaited her answer, but Sara was too busy regaining her breath as she dropped to the floor. But before he could seize her again, he stepped back, realization hitting him. "Rebecca."

"Did you really think I wasn't gonna use my DNA on Newt, especially before you took it from me?" she asked. "You were wrong. I do care enough about him."

Rat Man shook his head. "You think you're better than me because you saved him? You basically left the whole world to its own mercy just to save your boyfriend," he said. "You see, we both are very similar, Sara. Maybe it runs in our family. We both had it in our own interest to save one person."

Sara tried so hard not to open her mouth to say anything she would regret. She knew the truth. In no way was she trying to be selfish again, even though that was an option she wished she'd taken. But Rat Man only wanted to play with her emotions and manipulate her into thinking everything was her fault.

Not anymore.

"At least I tried to save someone other than myself," she said, making firm eye contact with him.

Rat Man gave her a belittling look. He stared at her for a couple of seconds before a curious look invaded his features. "Wait, so if Newt's cured..." he began, and Sara became nervous, knowing where this was going, "...where is he?"

"He's..." She hesitated, trying to come up with an excuse before the sadness invaded her. "He's with the others. I don't know where they are, though. They left before I fully recovered."

"You're lying," he snapped. "That boy can't physically stay away from you. You didn't help him, I'm not stupid. In fact, you and Thomas casually being found by yourselves in the same place was no coincidence, right?"

"He died, okay?!" she screamed, unable to hide her pain anymore. In the middle of tears, she told him the truth, twisting it a bit. "I tried to save him. I couldn't. Now I'm gonna die too because of it."

"That's what you get for thinking you can save people, but you can't even save yourself. Even the great Maze escapade was a total failure," he said, smirking at her. Sara's eyes narrowed, wondering why he would bring that up now. "The trials are restarting, Sara. I made a deal with the man. I got all the Immunes back into the Maze by agreeing to stop prosecuting The Right Arm. The Immunes are WICKED's pay. But he also gave me what I wanted; you were my pay."

Sara was so angry she wanted to tear her own vocal cords from screaming. Why couldn't she just trust her instinct? She knew it—she knew that man wasn't someone she could trust.

Giving her no time to react, Rat Man began trying force her onto the bed and do the procedure anyway.

It was in those times when Sara could really see how much people valued their own lives in a crisis. No matter how much that person had ever loved in the past, nothing topped the love to oneself, even if it weighed down on them. But for someone like Rat Man, it wasn't that hard to do that. And now, apparently neither for Vince.

Sara struggled as much as she could, trying to stick her hand in her pocket for the only object available to defend herself, but he was still stronger than her, and she could barely move a muscle against his grip.

She internally begged for something to happen, just one thing, so she could get out of this one. Like if her own wishful thinking could somehow speed up whatever her friends were up to or send a signal to Jorge or Brenda—wherever they were. And Thomas. She didn't even know where he was, or if WICKED had already dug their hands inside to touch his brain.

Coincidentally or not, they started hearing noises outside the room, like indistinguishable voices followed by sounds of sharp contact.

During Rat Man's slightest moment of distraction, that one second of opportunity, Sara took her hand out of her pocket, busted the cap off the syringe, and injected the needle into his neck. When he felt the prick, he was already beginning to feel weak and couldn't fight her off before the entire liquid was injected.

She silently thanked Rebecca for leaving the sedative ready on that tray. Maybe it wasn't on purpose, but it saved her life.

The door burst open, and in walked Minho and Rachel with launchers in their hands. They were a bit shocked to see Rat Man's body on the floor, but nonetheless happy to see she was okay. She could even see Thomas, Brenda, and Jorge, still shooting some guards in the distance, as far as she could see from the room.

This wasn't over yet.