She wakes by a yell. Her eyes open fast, her attention immediately on. It's Gally who's yelling above her, telling her to get up and follow before he's pulled away from her.

That last thing for sure makes her get up.

Quickly, the girl jumps out of the helicopter. She checks if the gun and knife are still tucked in her pants, then starts running through the sand. As she does that, she also checks if every Glader is there.

They are. Camil's being helped by a guard, in fact.

She also recognizes the sounds around her. And the names coming out of the masked men's mouths: there's Cranks trying to attack them.

A side of her wants to grab the gun and help, but she decides to follow the rest inside of the enormous stone building.

Somehow, she'll find a way to escape out of that once she has told the rest it's still WCKD. Bad people, since after all, it wasn't their intention to keep them safe in the Glade at all.

One of the very few wrong theories. She will make sure any other theory she ever comes up with is correct.

***

She doesn't take time to look around once they're inside. Maybe she should, for more information, but she mostly cares that there's still no Gladers missing, so she only looks at them.

Then she's walking after them—they walked away first, following a man—and then they're in a room, all alone.

The first thing she does after realizing they're safe as long as they're alone here, is hugging Gally. With the height difference that never changed, he lifts her up. Buries his face in her neck as she clings around him. It makes her feel more relaxed. But just a little bit.

"Everyone here?" Thomas checks as they sit down on some bean bags they find.

Gally's arm slides around her waist. "How's your ankle holding up?"

"Hm." She holds her leg up. Stares at it. "Definitely not better since it broke."

Gally's eyes shoot towards Thomas. "One day, you're gonna pay for throwing that shoe."

"Dude, you punched me in the face, locked me up, wanted to banish me, yelled at me multiple times, and a lot of other thing. I think you got your revenge."

"That was my revenge on you for building the Maze," he says dryly. "If it weren't for Joan liking you, you'd be dead."

"I saved you—"

"Absolutely you did not."

"Wait, you punched Thomas?" She frowns. "What others details have I missed?"

"I roasted him," Thomas starts. "He—"

"That's not true."

"It's very true," Newt grins. "He was like, 'yeah you've been here—"

"Shut up," Gally spits.

"Yeah," Minho agrees. He looks up. "Can we all just shut the fuck up and instead of happily bickering consider we lost like half of the Glade? Grieve?"

She remains silent, guilty yet unable to agree. She doesn't want to grieve. So much pain and for what? It's better to forget. Move on. Save who are left, then worry about your own health.

Before anyone can reply, though, the door opens and a man steps inside. Thomas is the first to jump up. The rest follows.

Grayish hair, turtle neck, leather jacket, wide grin... she knows this man as Janson.

***

Joan doesn't bother to listen to his bullshit about this being a way to way station, a safe place before they go to an even safer place. All lies.

Once they're finally done walking around—her ankle is getting quite annoying by now—they stand in front of a hallway.

"First," Janson finishes, "let's do something about that smell."

"Why thank you," she murmurs, though she also realizes that after all those days, they can't be smelling good.

His fault; he locked them up there themselves.

"Joan." Unexpectedly, his eyes fall on her. "I want to have a talk with you. Thomas, you too. How about you shower first as I talk with Joan? Then she goes to the cafeteria as I speak to you?"

Wow, that's funny!

They never told Janson their names.

"I don't like that idea at all," Gally insists. "How about—"

"I don't think I asked you anything, did I?" Janson glares at him, then motions for Joan to follow. "Come on, kid."

She gives Gally a 'don't worry' glance, the gun and operation knife pressing against her skin, then follows Janson through some hallways, all the way into a room that only has includes two metal chairs, a metal table, and a camera in the corner.

Janson lies his hands down in front of him. "So... Joan."

"That's me. Lovely how you know that. Are you a mind reader? Or a stalker? I don't remember telling you my name," she murmurs.

It would be so oddly satisfying to give herself away telling him she knows he works for WCKD. But she keeps it to herself... for now.

"I just wanted to ask you a few things," he says, ignoring her, "about WCKD. Your experience in the Maze. I understood that you could control those Grievers? Have a connection with that Gally?" 

"Shouldn't you know?" She mumbles.

For a few seconds, Janson stares at her. Then his lips purse together and he leans back into his chair.

"Yeah, I've got you figured out already," she announces.

His eyebrows move up. "Well done. I guess that gives me the chance to continue immediately. Because I have a proposal."

"I'm listening."

"Your friends," he starts. "Ben, Alby, Clint... you can save them. Obviously there's some terms to it, but are you interested, first of all?"

She hides her shock and the pounding in her chest at this sudden thing, and hearing their names. "That depends on what I'll have to do."

"You keep your mouth shut about us being WCKD. You keep your friends calm. That's it."

Her head tilts to the side. "It almost sounds too easy to be true." A pause. "Okay. Maybe. But I have a few things I want, then."

His eyebrows raise again.

"You'll answer every single question I'm about to ask you. If I ever find out you're lying, I'll stop lying about you being good. You're gonna keep my friends alive. If you hurt them in any way, I'll hurt you ten times worse," she summarizes. Her arms cross, both for some kind of protection and to seem tough. "Deal?"

He hums, slowly. Then, "Alright. We have a deal."

"How come Gally and I share these connections?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm sure I have time."

He sighs, clearly not in the mood to explain all of this. "You know about your past? That you weren't in our building at first?"

"Yeah. My parents and I worked against you."

Janson nods. "Of course, we did not approve of that. I assume you have wondered why you were the only girl."

"I was send because I needed a punishment," she says. "I know that. It was because I worked against y'all, wasn't it? And to get my mother to watch me suffer in there?"

"You're intelligent, really." His grin starts to form again. "The plan we had has failed. Failed because of our own mistakes."

"What plan?"

"To kill you," he says, almost as if it's the most casual thing in the world. "We knew enough about Gally to know he was reckless, and he opened a reckless part in you, even before the Maze. We figured out that if we put the same chips in your bodies, you'd be depending on each other."

"You assume Gally would be so reckless that he'd die."

"Something like that. Obviously, we had a plan, as I said. To take him in our control at the end. But unfortunately, you managed to convince him to come with you. We could still make it work out, but when the Grievers also didn't show up to sting him, we couldn't do anything."

"Why didn't they show up?"

"That's a whole different subject than this one,"
Janson replies.

"So? You said you'd answer all my questions."

"But you haven't even had your answer to the first one yet."

"I have. You send me there, knowing I'd die along with Gally if y'all connected us."

"Yes. If the boy dies, you die."

She's not sure if she's supposed to like that thought or not.

"He once told me he can feel the pain my body makes. Like headaches, or cramps. But if I break something, he won't feel it unless my body is working to heal itself. He doesn't feel scratches because it doesn't hurt for scratches to heal," she explains, even though Janson already knows. "How come he didn't feel the pain I felt when Thomas killed a Griever?"

"The things you share with Grievers are purely your connection with them. It aparts from the chip with Gally."

"Why didn't the Grievers show up when we escaped?"

"There was little left of the control you had over them. But, as you might've figured out by now, there's someone with a very familiar blood type as you, isn't there?"

"Thomas," she says. "He's subject A2?"

He smiles in satisfaction. "Yes. He's your cousin, but I doubt that's new news."

"Our blood is so similar the he also takes part in controlling the Grievers? Is that why the Griever chased him in the Maze? Because it was curious about Thomas? And no Grievers showed up because even though he didn't know it, Thomas could control them and he was hoping they wouldn't show up, so they obeyed?" 

"Exactly."

"Okay." Joan lets go of a breath at all this new information. "I think that's enough. But don't think I won't come back with more questions."

"I'll keep it in mind."

She stands up. "Good."

"Good," he replies carefully, also getting up. "And Joan?"

"What?"

"Whatever it is in your mind that you fear, whatever's stopping you, kill it."

Her eyebrows start to furrow. "I have no idea what that means, but alright."

"I expect to see you tomorrow," he adds, right before she can reach the door handle.

"Why?"

"Reasons."