"Uncle Janson!" Sara yelled in surprise. Rebecca retreated a couple of steps back.

Janson held out his hand to motion her not to move. "No, no. Let me explain, Rebecca. Thank you for everything you've done for my little Sara here," he said.

"Okay," Sara began with uncertainty, "you said you'd explain this. So... I'm listening." Rebecca gave her a worried look, but Sara didn't dare look at her beyond her peripheral vision.

Janson pursed his lips before answering. "Don't worry about your friends. Everything's fine. The Maze... that's just the name we came up with for the area where they live right now; it's not an actual maze," he explained with a hint of humor on the last part. "The experiment simply consists of brain studies. Where they are, they get examined based on stimulus from various activities we have them do."

"What kind of activities?" she asked curiously. It didn't help that he kept avoiding the subject with simple explanations that had no context.

He crouched down to meet her eye-level. "Sara, I'm sorry if anyone here made it sound like they're in a horrible place, but I promise you they're safe. They actually get to have fun where they are." Sara raised her eyebrows. That's new. "Yeah, they do. They get to play games; they get to do pretty much anything they did in this building when they're not under any tests."

"Then why haven't you let me see them? If they're okay, why haven't I heard a thing from them?" Sara demanded.

Janson felt like he was reliving the past with Sara interrogating him to the point of insanity. "Because any contact outside of the experiment will tamper with the results. We need their brains to only be exposed to the stimulus from the tests."

Sara couldn't contain herself any longer. "I'm tired of excuses! Just tell me—you know—if 'trying to save humanity' is what you preach, then what happened to my parents? Why haven't you found half our family that went missing? Why did all these kids lose their families? Why am I not part of the trials? What's different about me, huh? If I were with them, maybe I'd be happier since I wouldn't be more of the prisoner I am when I'm stuck in this stupid building!"

Her bottled-up anger got the best of her, and Rebecca was silently wishing to be swallowed whole by the ground.

Janson gritted his teeth, squinting his eyes. "Everything I've done and everything I do, has been to protect you and the human race. You don't want to know what the Flare does to people. What it did to families all over the world. I promised I would punish the guards that killed your father, and I have. That—"

"You mean you killed the guards?" she questioned as she crossed her arms over her chest. His lack of response was sufficient proof of what she suspected. And it was the most plausible conclusion since she saw him shoot his other guards dead when he found her that day. None of that made any sense either; he was on a frenzy against his own men, and for the most futile reasons.

Janson tried to reason with her before he was forced to raise his voice. "Sara, listen to me. I would never do anything to hurt you. I'm a firm believer of loyalty. And when my guards don't follow that code, I must take certain measures, or else I could be endangering other people's lives. I would never intentionally harm anyone like that. And I promise you, everything's fine. Your friends are happy, and you will be too. But..." He placed his hands on her shoulders, "...I need you to trust your uncle. Tell me—what am I, who am I, without the love and support of my little niece? I'm nothing, Sara. Nothing."

But Sara still wasn't finished. "And what about when all is done—you know—if it's ever actually over? What will happen then?" she wondered.

"I'll give you the happiest life you could ever imagine." 

Once again, Janson didn't wear a deceitful look as he spoke. Sara thought she'd caught sincerity in his eyes again, just like the day he saved her from his own guards. Now there was an important decision to make on her end. It was time to decide who deserved her trust and who didn't.

Sara's mood didn't change with her uncle's promise, however. "But what about now? I feel like a prisoner here. While you sort your experiment thing out, I'm stuck here, with nothing to do, no one to talk to—no offense to Becca—I mean people my age."

Janson scratched his head. "I'm sorry you feel that way. But my job is to make sure you get what you want. That is why I want you to spend as much time as you need with Thomas and Teresa. They'll be your friends here. I'll allow them some free time each day for you. How does that sound?" He tried to make his voice sound lighthearted—make it accustomed to the unfamiliar emotion of being cheerful.

"I'd like that." She didn't know how to feel about that idea in reality. The company of the two wasn't particularly exciting.

Janson's expression became serious as he lifted his finger. "And after that, take this into account: I will not rest until I make sure that your life, after all of this is over, will be nothing but happiness. Nothing to worry about."

Sara shook her head, nonconforming. "Yeah, but a life without my parents or my other friends is pretty much an empty life to which I say, 'no thanks.' What makes you think I can trust you?"

He gave her a tiresome response. "Because I'm a man of my word. You'll see your friends again, and... I promise I'll find your mother and bring her back to you."

Sara remembered the rest of her family—they were missing but could probably still be found alive somewhere. "What about Margaret, and aunt Anne? Promise me you'll bring them back too."

Janson tightened his jaw. Once again, the memories of his own family seemed to be clawing back at him. Sara wondered when he'd let go of the pain; she'd tried hard to do it and it seemed to be working for her.

"I promise."

To Rebecca's horror, Sara sprung forward, throwing her arms around her uncle's neck.

"Thank you," Sara whispered. Rebecca stood close, behind Janson. As she caught Sara's eyesight, her eyes begged the girl for an explanation, but she received no response other than the blank look on Sara's face. "I trust you, and... I believe in loyalty too. WICKED is good, remember?" Sara continued.

The words echoed in Rebecca's head, each of them feeling like a sharp stab on her chest.

As Janson released Sara from the hug, she grinned brightly at him. "I'm going for some lunch, I'm starving!" the girl exclaimed before she turned around and ran out the lab room. "Later!"

Janson smiled, relieved that he got a hold of the girl's trust once again. Losing it was one of the few things that truly terrified him. 

He turned around to face Rebecca and sighed loudly. "Please do me a favor and explain what exactly were you trying to do." His tone immediately switched to a lower but menacing one. Rebecca was unfazed by it, however.

She held out her palm. "Keep your shirt on, Mr. Janson. I was going to inform you about her questioning immediately, but you were in a meeting, and I know those are really important—"

"No stalling. Get straight to the point."

"Right." She became more serious, "It's Chancellor Ava Paige. We both know she's not gonna be very happy with you if she discovers the truth about Sara. Sir, I only wanted Sara to be self-aware of the need to remain undercover from Ava. I had a different version to tell the girl, but..." she paused, slowly approaching Janson in an enticing manner, "I've got to admit, yours was convincing." Her voice lowered to a whisper as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

She caressed his hair as she brought her lips close to his ear. "You're better than this, Janson. Why would you ever think I'd betray you like that? I'd have to be a special kind of stupid." Janson harshly gripped her waist, bringing her closer to himself. She looked up at him. "You know I'm at your... entire service. You like loyalty, right? Mine is unlimited," she whispered seductively. Janson smirked as he breathed heavily, undeniably intoxicated by the woman's charm. He pushed her against the wall as he buried his face in the nape of her neck.

He brought his lips to her ear and whispered, "I would certainly hope so." He pulled back slightly and lifted her chin up with two fingers. "I would hate to get rid of such a precious creature like you," he whispered, with nothing but lust filling his eyes.

He let go of her instantly, however. "I have to go, unfortunately. Speaking of Paige, I've still got a meeting with her and a few of her men. I'll sort things out on her issue with Sara and all. Ava won't find out." Rebecca looked at him with a smirk playing on her face.

She nodded. "Don't worry, I've got your sweet little niece to take care of."

"Right," he said as he smiled. As he was walking out, he suddenly stopped and turned back around. "Oh, by the way, do you know what's been going on with the security cameras? They've been shutting off lately no matter how many times I call to repair them."

"Hm... that's weird," she muttered with a frown. "I'll talk to Lisa about it—she's in charge of surveillance." Janson nodded, and finally left the lab room.

As soon as he was out of sight, her smile instantly morphed into disgust as she pulled out her handkerchief from her lab coat pocket, and viciously wiped her neck.

❀❀❀

Rebecca found Sara throwing away her trash, and once the girl caught sight of her, Rebecca waved her over. Something was either very wrong or sugar coated with stellar acting from the girl.

"Wow, 'I believe in loyalty?' Really, Sara?" She whispered as the girl approached her.

Sara stared back at her, matter-of-factly, and maybe with a bit of pride. 

She scoffed, and that simple gesture made Rebecca relax for the first time since Janson surprised them in the lab. 

"Becca," she urged, "come on, what did you do to get him out of the way, huh?" She raised an eyebrow at the woman. Rebecca only pursed her lips together.

She sucked in a breath before opening her mouth to speak. "Things have changed. We have to be twice as careful—"

"We'll have time for that," Sara interrupted, dragging the words slightly. "For now, I'm sure you're going to have fun telling me the truth." Rebecca nodded. "To my room, now," she said, motioning with her head.

"I'll meet you there, I have to grab something first to show you. Now go, go, go," Rebecca sent her off.

❀❀❀

"So, what did you bring with you?" Sara asked once the two of them were locked in her room.

"My touchscreen. There's a couple things I'm able to show you from here—that even Janson doesn't know I have access to."

Sara raised her eyebrows. "Wow, I don't even know how you can manage to fool him that good."

Rebecca chuckled proudly. "Well, I'm just a simple front desk administrator... little does he know," she paused, humor reflected in her eyes, "and also, I'm your babysitter."

"Hey!" Sara laughed.

"Luckily, he doesn't know much about my talent for computer tech, and well... hacking—I guess you could call it. I've gotten my ways around here, and if it doesn't work..." Rebecca sighed, "...well, I only have one other choice—but anyway..."

Sara smiled at her. "Becca, you're amazing, you know? You're so talented, and you're strong for having to deal with a man like my uncle all these years. Man, and top of that, you had to deal with me!" she said with a laugh.

"Hey." Rebecca touched the girl's forearm, "he's wrong on that too. I'm not your babysitter, Sara. The only thing I've ever wanted, besides getting a job, was to have a proper family. To find a man that I actually love, and that would truly love me back. But that's clearly over for me. Janson stripped that chance away. But when you came into my life, I found my family. I don't just watch over you. I feel the need to protect you, like a mother would protect her daughter."

Sara smiled. "And you have."

"That's why I want to try everything in my ability to get you out of here and find a way to end this whole mess Janson created," said Rebecca. "I want to save all the children. I found the courage to start this because you're the brave girl that I know will not be afraid to confront what you're up against in order to protect your friends. And you're gonna help me fix this." Rebecca smiled warmly at her, and Sara wrapped her arms around her.

"Thank you so much, seriously. For everything. You're my family too; not Janson." They pulled apart. "Oh, and I'm sorry for scaring you earlier. I just didn't want him to be suspicious."

Rebecca grinned. "I'm glad." Then she remembered why they were meeting in secret again. "Okay, let's focus now." Sara nodded in agreement, taking a seat for the verbal rollercoaster Rebecca was about to activate. "Okay, if you need me to pause at any time to take it all in, let me know." Sara nodded rapidly, urging her to begin.

"Go for it."

Rebecca took a deep breath. "Your friends aren't safe."

Lovely start.

"The Maze isn't what Janson said it was. It is an actual maze. An intricate work of architecture worth millions of dollars." Rebecca pulled out her touchscreen, opening up a file that revealed a series of blueprints, far beyond Sara's understanding. She pointed to the blueprint image. "The kids are in a secluded area, the Glade, surrounded entirely by huge walls, where the Maze lies on the other side of them. All four walls have an entrance to the Maze, each with doors that automatically open at sunrise and close by sunset. The trials are meant to test their brains and observe their capacities based on their instincts of survival."

Sara frowned. "Oh, well that's not so bad. They only have to solve a Maze to get out, right? I don't see how Janson plans to cure a deadly virus like that, but I don't see the danger in it either," she said, relieved that her imagination was worse this time.

Rebecca looked concerned. "No, Sara. That doesn't even begin to cover it." Sara's eyes filled with fear as she continued to listen. "The Maze is filled with giant machine-like creatures with a lethal sting. We call them Grievers. The effects of the sting can kill unless the person gets injected with a serum. Your friends are literally trapped in there."

"You're joking." Sara began to panic.

"It's ridiculous, I know. They're barely even teenagers," Rebecca continued. "And on top of things, WICKED observes them, calling them 'subjects' all the time. With mechanical critters called beetle blades, we see the images through the monitors in the main lab that I was about to show you before Janson showed up."

Sara was horrified. "Whoa, whoa... wait, so Janson literally just gave my friends a death sentence? How does this promote a cure for a stupid disease!? Becca, explanation, please," she begged.

The urgency in Rebecca's voice was putting Sara on edge. "Your friends are dying, Sara. They die in the Maze, they die trying to escape, desperately wishing to know what they have to face and why."

"Well, why?!" Sara shouted in disgust.

Rebecca pressed her finger against her lips. Then she continued explaining once Sara settled down enough to get words through her. 

"Janson doesn't care how many lives he has to sacrifice to succeed. He wants the most capable kids to survive and endure additional trials, after they solve the Maze. He wants to extract the cure straight from the immune kids. He'll drain them, and ultimately sacrifice those lives to try to save many others."

Bitter tears were escaping Sara's eyes at the horrible things she desperately had wanted to know. All the theories she'd ever imagined were jokes compared to the sickening truth. When it all finally made sense, her entire world was shattered. All those desperate attempts to know everything, which only left her broken and terribly afraid for Newt and her friends.

"Why do you help him do this?" she asked Rebecca, unintentionally sounding accusatory, speaking in the present tense and all.

The woman shook her head sadly. "We were supposed to cure the world." She held a distant spark in her eyes, and Sara realized the woman had a brilliant career opportunity in retrospect that was tainted by WICKED. "They began with good intentions, but the thirst for power outweighed it all. Janson lost all humanity left in him." 

"Why though? What's his purpose?"

"I bet on my life to say he'd keep the cure to himself if he ever gets infected," said Rebecca with a disgusted tone of voice. She really sounded fed up.

Sara grimaced. "He wants to guarantee his own survival." Sweet old uncle, he was.

"There is so much he has in mind that would take a lifetime to tell you. What you need to know is that we have to try to spoil the whole experiment somehow," Rebecca said pensively.

"How?"

"A variable that he'd never see coming. It's the only way to ruin him. I don't know what that variable could be, but I can't stand to watch innocent people die anymore," said Rebecca; a firm expression on her face. "Do you see why I made you train this whole time now? You need to be prepared for anything."

Sara scoffed. "Yeah. I obeyed because I was bored, but I see now. We're still gonna need help though. There's no way we can do it on our own."

Rebecca nodded. "I was thinking of The Right Arm. They're activists who disagree with Janson. We can use Flat Trans tech to transport the kids to The Right Arm automatically so that they're taken to the Safe Haven. It's a place where WICKED would never be able to find them again, and where the Flare doesn't exist."

Sara sat motionless on her bed; her eyes wide. She couldn't believe what she was up against. It was so much more than she thought she could possibly handle. At first, she was willing to plan this out and carry it out with Rebecca with burning determination, but this... it was simply out of her hands. She'd felt fear before, but to say she was terrified now, was an understatement. Terror didn't even begin to cover it.

Rebecca feared the girl would refuse. 

"Sara, please say something. I told you it wasn't gonna be easy, but the one chance we have for this to work is waiting for us to take advantage of it. What do you say?" she asked, fully understanding the shock that overtook the poor girl. "Maybe I can come back later so you have time t—"

"No! I've got something to say." Sara took a deep breath and stared directly at Rebecca's expectant green eyes. Then she stood up and paced around the room, thinking carefully. "You're smart, Becca," she said, squinting her eyes. "We've tricked him for years. We can add a few more to the list. I'd say we do this. I'm not gonna watch my friends die. I won't let my uncle get away with this. And I think... I think I should go into the Maze. You'll be my eyes and ears here in the building, and I'll be the same for you but in the Maze."

"Absolutely not." Rebecca sighed desperately, exaggerating her hand gestures. "I can't just... expose you like that."

"It's the only way." Sara's voice was urgent. "That way, I can help my friends, and I'll be doing something useful out there rather than being stuck in here. Besides, I get to be pretty far away from Janson, don't you think?"

"That's true, but—"

"Does Janson know about The Right Arm?"

Rebecca passed a shaking hand through her hair. "Yes, he does. Sara, please understand that the chances of him not being ahead of the game, are minimal. And if the chance does exist, it won't take him too long to figure it out. We've gotta move fast." She paused. "Alright, but... I'd better go out for a while before he starts getting suspicious again." She stood up to leave.

Sara frowned and grabbed her by the arm to stop her. "Wait, y—you can't just drop that bomb on me and expect no questions out of me. I'm a ticking time-bomb here!"

"I'll address your questions as we go," said Rebecca with a stern voice. "That way I'll do both of us a favor. Time is precious, especially when there's so little of it." Rebecca began to leave but quickly returned. "Oh! Before I forget, I wanted to show you one last thing. I know it's important to you."

She went back to her touchscreen and opened up a different file. Then she pulled up live footage straight from the Glade and showed it to Sara.

And there he was.

The blond boy, wearing a beige hoodie that was slightly worn off by dirt, and he was resting on a hammock.

It was amazing what a year could do to a person, but he only looked slightly taller and older. And sadder. A dismal look, permanently glued to his face, void of any other emotion.

Even so, she found herself smiling at the memories of him in his time in the building. She gently touched the screen, hoping to feel closer to him after all that time spent missing him.

Newt...