(Part one of two. If you enjoy review :) I do not own Maze Runner)
WCKD shock troops were scanning implants and calling out letter-number combinations.
Janson spoke.
"Where's Thomas?"
"Right here."
Thomas walked into sight. His silhouette framed by firelight from the devastation burning all around. Four guards approached him with their launchers raised.
"FREEZE!"
Thomas complied, raising his hands. The guards brought him forward to Janson who greeted him.
"Thomas."
- With a punched in the stomach. Thomas folded to his knees. Vince fought to help him only to get restrained.
Janson spoke. "Get him in line."
The sound of helicopter gunships circling above affirmed the hopelessness of the situation as shifting spotlights painted the area in random directions. Janson casually turned his gaze around at the kneeing immunes he spoke.
"Ok. ...Bring her in."
Thomas was placed next to Minho on the line. Minho spoke.
"Why didn't you run?"
Thomas didn't respond right away. He was staring forward at the ground, shaking his head slightly.
"I'm tired of running."
Only then leveling his eyes toward the pitch black horizon as a Massive Berg approached from the southwest. The downdraft from its stabilizer jets momentarily relieved the cold of the frigid air. Everyone watched as the Berg's engines wind down and the rear hatch lowers. Four WCKD Black Guards emerge ahead of Ava Paige dressed for cold weather entirely in white. The spotlight of the orbiting helicopters focused on her and her path of advance towards Thomas. She traded words with Janson and called out.
"Ok, let's get them on!"
Ava motioned to the guard to get Thomas up. He stumbled forward to face her.
"Hello, Thomas."
The look on her face was almost contrite as she spoke. Out of a crowd of WCKD Black Guard's Teresa emerged. She took her place beside Ava Paige.
"I'm glad your safe."
Teresa looked into Tom's eyes. Her gaze filled with indecision and pain.
Frypan spoke. "What the hell... Teresa?"
Newt looked just as confused. "Wait-what's going on?"
Thomas had to close his eyes before he could make the admission to his friends.
"She's with them..."
He spoke clearly as and looked Teresa dead in the eyes. For a split second, they were the only ones there. Teresa's cheeks were red; she'd been crying before. Her trademark confidence and certainty was absent in Tom's presence. Teresa couldn't look him directly in the eye, even though she tried.
Minho looked over a Thomas. "Since when?"
Janson approached and spoke.
"Oh, Teresa's always had an evolved appreciation of the greater good. Once we restored her memories, it was only a matter of time."
The entire time Janson spoke she couldn't look at Thomas. By the time he finished Teresa's eyes had closed. Teresa spoke.
"I'm sorry... I had no choice. This is the only way. We have to find a cure."
As Ava spoke, Thomas couldn't help but feel he was privy to a high-level appeal.
"She's right. This is all just a means to an end. You used to understand that, Thomas. No matter what you think of me. I'm not a monster. I'm a doctor. I swore an oath to find a cure!"
Teresa found the courage to look Thomas in the eyes again. Her face was racked with pain that she couldn't hide from him but that he was unwilling to see. As Ava spoke, Teresa clung to the hope that something she said would stir up a realization within Thomas something that would give Teresa a path back to him. Paige continued.
"No matter the cost... I just need more time."
Mary spoke emerging from the crowd.
"More blood."
"Hello, Mary."
Teresa looked away sensing the shift in Ava's demeanor. Ava continued.
"I hoped we'd meet again. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances."
Mary spoke.
"I'm sorry about a lot of things too. But not this. At least my conscience is clear."
Ava spoke.
"So is mine..."
A single gunshot rang out as Paige's executioner, Janson coldly dispensed some perversion of justice. Ava spoke over the sound of Vince screaming for Mary.
"Come on Janson. Load them up. Let's go."
Thomas' eyes found Teresa's. She felt herself breaking from within even as Paige hooked her arm and started leading herself to the Berg. All at once she realized she was witnessing the fruit of her decision and questioning everything. Ava spoke.
"All these people. Get rid of them. Let's go. Let's go!"
Ava lead Teresa up the Ramp of the Berg.
Thomas felt something snap within himself too. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let WCKD win. Not without a fight. Thomas wheeled around and suddenly punched one of the guards. He grabbed a grenade from the disoriented soldier's belt and with a high pitched electrical whir, he armed it.
"Everyone stand back!" He shouted.
A loud airhorn proceded Jorge slammed a hijacked dump truck into the one the WCKD troop helicopters. The helicopter practically detonated upon impact. Its rotor blades shot like shrapnel into the crowd. In the chaos, many of the immunes including Vince were able to fight to their feet and disarmed their captors. A moment later everyone had either and weapon in their hands or one leveled at them. Thomas shouted again still with his grenade in hand.
"Let them all go!"
Ava spoke.
"You know I can't do that!"
Teresa was watching Thomas intently from the ramp of the Berg. She could see on his face he felt cornered. What she did pushed him too far. She couldn't let him do what she knew Thomas was prepared to do. Teresa whispered to Ava.
"He's off the rails. He'll do it. I have to bring him back."
Teresa's voice pierced the tension of the stalemate as she spoke directly to Thomas.
"Thomas please. Come talk to me."
Janson spoke up.
"Yes, listen to Teresa. Everyone can come aboard the Berg, and we can end this peacefully."
Teresa spoke.
"No."
She walked passed Janson and Ava Paige off the ramp of the Berg.
"Tom and I need to talk about this alone."
Teresa started walking towards the cliff overlooking the desert that Thomas found her at before. She looked back at Thomas.
"Are you coming?"
Thomas was still holding a grenade surrounded by his friends. He handed the incendiary device to Minho and spoke.
"Hang onto this; I'll be right back."
Minho took the grenade. He held out the device to demonstrate he was just as willing as Thomas to use it. Newt spoke.
"You sure about this, Tommy?"
Thomas nodded as he walked to follow Teresa. Thomas spoke.
"Considering we're about to blow ourselves up Newt, it can't hurt."
It was surreal for Thomas to be walking through the active combat zone with fires burning all around. Passing fighters from both sides knowing they were all ready to die over this exchange. Their momentary reprieve granted by Teresa's say so. For Thomas, it wouldn't have been the first time a handful of words from Teresa changed his world. He couldn't have expected the lengths she was willing to go to but unbeknownst to him, he was about to find out. Thomas climbed the sloping trail up to the top of the cliff where Teresa was waiting for him. Teresa spoke.
"Please Thomas, It doesn't have to be this way. If we just go back-"
"-Go back!? Teresa we just fought our way out of the Maze and across the entire Scorch to get away! How could you even consider going back?"
"Because it's the right thing to do Tom!"
"..."
Teresa pushed her hair out of face looking exasperated. She spoke.
"Don't you see all of this is such a waste. Fighting is only going to get more people killed and for what?"
Thomas spoke up.
"To be free from all this shit!"
Teresa shook her head.
"How can you call this freedom Thomas!? Do we have freedom from want? Freedom from fear? Freedom from pain?! WE HAVE NONE OF THOSE THINGS-"
"-BECAUSE WE'RE BEING HUNTED TERESA!"
Thomas started pacing as he pointed toward the overmatched survivors surrounded by WCKD's Shock Troops and continued.
"...Teresa, how could you? We finally, finally found people we could trust. People who aren't trying to sell us or experiment on us and you led WCKD right to them."
Thomas stopped pacing and walked back toward Teresa shaking his head.
"When we were in the Maze, and I told you it was us that did this to them. Were you just acting when you almost cried? Pretending that it hurt you to hear that? Or is that girl from the Maze still in there? Was she even real in the first place?"
"I'm right here Thomas; it's still me! And yes all of that was real it did hurt me and still does! But I didn't understand what was going on when we were still in the Maze. I didn't know the reason we were there."
Thomas' composure began to break, but he wrestled his emotions back into check. Teresa's eyes were glassy with unfalling tears. She walked in front of Thomas and put her hands on both his shoulders forcing him to see her face. Teresa spoke slowly.
"The world is dying Tom... And we were trying to save it, you and me... I can't give you back the memories they stole from you, but emotional recall is much harder to erase completely. Just try to remember Tom, and if this doesn't feel familiar to you, then I promise I'll do anything you say."
Teresa reached up and held the back Tom's head. She had to stand on her tip toes for her lips to have a chance to reach his. Thomas' posture was unyielding. It was his hands that betrayed him at first. He felt them reach around Teresa's waist and lock together behind her pulling her closer. Teresa's kiss began delicately as if she was helping a trauma victim take his first few steps after recovering from a serious injury. Teresa was determined for her kiss to lead Tom back. Thomas hated to admit it. But everything about that kiss felt right. He tried to pull back, but his hands couldn't be convinced to release her. Teresa was still holding fast to him too. She starred at Thomas with her vivid blue eyes. Thomas' mind spun to that moment in the Scorch after he got drugged, and Brenda kissed him. The look on Teresa's face now was identical to his vision of her then. Only now his 'vision' had revealed itself to be a memory. Thomas felt a pulse of anger knowing Teresa had just won the bet. He tried to speak to admonish Teresa. But Tom's powers of speech had joined the insurrection begun by his hands which still had Teresa pressed so tightly against him Tom could feel her heart beating faster through his chest. They were face to face on the edge of another kiss, but Tom saw something on Teresa's face he didn't expect. She was the perfect reflection of his anger. Teresa had become a mirror for Tom's feelings of betrayal. Some part of Tom had sensed it from her the moment Mary told them all that Thomas had revealed the location of every WCKD installation. And in this moment where emotions were raw, and feelings were laid bare, he could see Teresa felt just as betrayed by Tom's actions as he felt by hers. Teresa spoke.
"Good, I can see your still in there too."
Teresa took one hand off Tom's shoulder and slapped him across the face. It was hardly the most diplomatic move Teresa could have chosen, but at this moment she was past caring. Thomas didn't recoil or release his hold on her. Teresa once again found her hands locked behind Tom's neck pulling herself up to his mouth. Before she reached his lips, she spoke.
"That's for leaving me."
Teresa's next kiss landed so hard on Tom's lips it felt like a bite. But the flash of pain did nothing to diminish the thoughts racing through his head. Thomas deepened Teresa's ire-laced kiss and pushed her back against the cliff. Even in Tom's anger he somehow found his hand between the hard rocks and the back of Teresa's head cradling it without having any recollection of how it got there. By now, Tom's entire body had joined the rebellion against his desire to hate her. Every measure of resistance was evaporating as he was losing self-control.
A single point of a red laser light hit the wall of the cliff where only Teresa could see. She pries her fingers from the back of Tom's head to make a hand signal to the WCKD snipers Thomas never knew were there. A split second later, the laser sight turned off. Teresa grabbed Thomas' left shoulder and pushed his right hip causing both of them the roll into the darkness and cover of a small cave in the cliff wall.
Down below Janson put a hand up to his ear as a buzzing sound like static proceded some report from the snipers above. Ava Paige narrowed her eyes at Janson and spoke impatiently.
"So?"
Janson had a self-satisfied look on his face like everything was going according to plan. He spoke.
"Teresa is negotiating in good faith."
