TERESA UNBOUND

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters, or the series, or anything else in the series. That's James Dashner's thing.

Thomas followed her through the forest and was thoroughly confused. She had sounded like the girl he had known before, but she still did not look at him as they walked the path.

"Teresa… what have you been doing all this time? With all the-" She held up her hand, cutting him off, and still not looking back.

"Do you know Aris, Tom?" It was quiet but direct, which caught Thomas off guard. "What does that have to do with anything? Wait, how do you know Aris?"

"I know Aris, Tom. I know him much more than you'll like, I'm sure. He was there before the Maze. He can speak to me the same way you can." Thomas fell silent, stunned. Aris had known this entire time? Or perhaps Teresa was lying… what was it?

"How is that possible, Teresa? No, you must be lying, that's it! That's what you've done! This is all just a-a trick, some kind of-" Teresa stopped, turned, and glared at him, frustrated, though Thomas did not have the faintest idea why.

"Tom! How can you be so stupid!?" If she had expected him to believe any more of her fantasies, Thomas had imagined that telling him he was stupid would not help her cause.

But then she noticed something beyond Thomas' shoulder, and then did something that Thomas hated even more. She smiled.

"Tom. Aris is right behind you, and he is carrying a big knife. Let's go." At these words Thomas felt a cold something touch his spine, what he assumed to be the knife, and then heard Aris' voice, though now it was noticeably unpleasant. "So good to see you again, Tommy."

Thomas gritted his teeth as they resumed walking. Flashes of memory echoed in his mind. The sign on Teresa's door, the mark of the betrayer. Harriet's explanation of what Teresa had told them.

More flashes came. The kiss in the Scorch, that unearthly bliss, the request to trust her, and all of it had been a lie. Thomas remembered Aris' reaction to Teresa's name, and realized that had been a lie too.

It had finally sunk in. Teresa had betrayed him, and Aris knew. This made Thomas wonder then, if she had done this, whether or not she had ever been on his side to begin with.

They eventually reached a small industrial building, marked only by a clearing of the dense foliage. Thomas began thinking rapidly as Teresa somehow opened the door of the building. She had a spear, Aris had a knife, and Thomas had nothing. Teresa could also probably kill him with her bare hands.

This meant that surprise was Thomas' only ally. As they went inside the building, Thomas saw a small room, or perhaps a vat, being the only thing of particular note. Other than this it was a simple chamber, without so much as a window.

Aris moved closer to Teresa, and then seemingly remembering, added to Thomas under his breath, "Don't try anything, Tommy."

And then it happened in slow motion. With almost no effort or resistance, Aris slid one arm around Teresa, and then they were kissing. Thomas felt even more utterly repulsed, if such were possible under the circumstances. He had no doubt that the either of them could be convinced to see reason, the way they rubbed the salt into wound, and this hardened his resolve enough to decide what to do.

He looked back at the pair of them, which he thankfully saw were now separated, Teresa typing something into a panel adjacent the door of the tiny vat-room, while Aris unceremoniously half-dragged Thomas to a distance near them.

Noticing Aris' gaze focused on Teresa's movements, and his slacker grip on the knife as he did so, Thomas decided to make his move.

"What did Rachel look like as she bled to death?" The question seemed… too cold for Thomas to say, even to himself, and Aris showed this with a visible look of confusion mingling with pain at the memory resurfacing. Thomas felt a snarl creep upon his lips.

"'Cause you're going to join her!" He slammed his body into Aris', toppling him over against the wall, trying to wrestle the knife from his hands. Successfully, the knife dropped to the floor, and Thomas liberally began punching every inch of Aris that he could.

As Aris fought, he managed to push Thomas off of him, and then found the knife again. Thomas' hands found the knife's grip, and he pushed with all his might…

The knife slipped from Aris' grasp, then found its way into his shoulder. Thomas was shocked by the speed in which it buried itself into its owner's flesh, to which Aris made a howl of pain and staggered backwards.

By this time, Teresa had turned, and Thomas felt a loud crack against his skull, falling on the ground. But before he could recover from the hazy stars that danced around him, Teresa struck his hand with her spear, causing him to clench it and drop the knife, which she retrieved.

Aris had found a way to his feet, and kicked Thomas as Teresa held him up, tossing him into the vat-room. Teresa called to him, "Tom! You have to do this! It's the only way!" but he did not hear her, did not hear the desperation with which she yelled at him.

All he could feel was anger and bitterness. And in a voice that was both his and not his own, he screamed at the pair of them, "I – HATE – YOU!"

Teresa stepped back, a look of alarm on her face, while Aris merely sneered, and began to the door. "See you in Hell Tommy!"

The door shut, and gas filled the air. But Thomas allowed himself to fall to the floor. If they wanted to gas him, after he had come all this way, whatever. He had been defeated. And now he was going to die.

Thomas awoke and felt… something. That must mean that he wasn't completely dead, at least. He looked around, but saw only blackness. He felt for walls on his hands and knees, and realized that he must still be in the vat-like room.

Thinking about it, Thomas also noticed he felt no pain. Indeed, he felt better than he had been in quite a while. Even the wounds inflicted by Teresa-

The thought of Teresa brought back all the pain that was not physical. The pain of her betrayal, her actions towards him, and most of all…

Thomas knew that nothing could be the same between them. Ever. And that was what made Thomas scream with anger.

Apparently, for once in his life, Thomas could let go all of his feelings, expecting no retribution from any audience. And so he did. He cried, he screamed, he yelled, and thought of nothing but all of the things that had been coursing through him, ripping through him.

Of course, this did almost nothing to comfort him, as all of the memories persisted in their stubbornness, but at least he could-

His line of thought was interrupted most suddenly by a banging on the door of the vat-room, accompanied by muffled shouting. At this, Thomas' heart began to accelerate its tempo. That was most likely Teresa, no doubt wanting to torture him again for some odd and depraved reason. But this time, Thomas thought darkly to himself, this time he would be ready for anything.

He leaned against the door. Any second now, Teresa would open it, and he was determined not to fail. The hinges cracked, and Thomas pushed with all his might as the figure of Teresa stood in the doorway. Knocking her down, Thomas ran towards Aris, who was close behind.

Aris did not appear to realize that Thomas was still alive. His cry of surprise was covered up entirely by the loud crash of his body against the floor. "Tom!?" The note of panic in Teresa's voice as Thomas prepared to again pummel Aris was convincing enough for him to turn his head, though he still held Aris by the collar.

"Tom! Please! Stop!" The plea was all too familiar. She had begged for other things from him, in similar fashions no less, and Thomas would not be swayed. When he replied it was the sound of the monster within him that spoke.

"Why should I? I can't trust either of you! And I've had enough!" What happened afterwards, Thomas would never forget in his deepest sleep. Thomas screamed, an unnatural scream of rage, as he found the knife and drove it into Aris.

Thomas' vision became a red blur. All he could see was crimson, all he could feel was hatred, and the sounds of the knife cutting through Aris' heart. It was almost too much…

Thomas lost control. What little restraint he had vanished as Aris' screams were a catalyst for him, and he drew out the knife to repeatedly stab Aris, a blow for each and everything he had suffered: the Maze, the grievers, Alby's death, Chuck's death, the wasteland of the Scorch, the infected bullet, Teresa's betrayal.

Ironically, it was the frenzied thought of her that brought Thomas back to his relative state of reality. He looked down, and under any other condition would have been appalled. What remained of Aris resembled something worse than roadkill. All too well, the image of Gally's broken corpse replayed over and over again in Thomas' mind. He had stabbed Aris. And Aris was now dead.

He stood, the knife still clenched in his hand, and still saturated with Aris' blood. Thomas knew that even as much as he had hated Aris at that moment, he would never forget the rush of life that escaped Aris even as he died by Thomas' hand.

But he didn't care. So what? No amount of punishment for taking the life of a traitor could compare to the Hell that he had lived through just to get to this point of the journey anyways. And this thought reminded him of one more loose end.

He turned around to find Teresa. An unfamiliar expression of horror was pronounced on her face, her hands covering her mouth as though to stem the need to vomit. Thomas surveyed this with a vague curiosity. As much as he wanted to kill her and take vengeance, somewhere in his conscience was screaming at him that it would not be an easy thing to do.

But she had betrayed him, and this was not to go unanswered. He approached her slowly, unsure of what she would do, and to his immense surprise, she stepped back hastily, dropping her spear, and raised her hands in a placating gesture.

"Do it T-Tom. Kill me!" Thomas was taken aback. There was no way she would simply surrender! It must be a trick, he told himself, that's what she's doing!

"What is this Teresa? Some kind of trap?" He heard her choke back a sob, and realized that she was on the verge of tears. "No Tom. My lies are done, and I've done terrible things to you. End this. Kill me."

Only the first part of what she had said registered in Thomas' mind. "Wait, what do you mean 'done'?" She looked away, tears now streaking her face, and ignored his question. "I'm not asking for forgiveness. You deserve to- to-" She faltered, then seemed to break down completely.

Thomas' heart twinged. He knew he could not trust her, but she had gotten what she wanted. Why would she deceive him now? But if she was simply a pawn of WICKED, maybe…

"Teresa… tell me why you did all of this. Why did you betray me?" At his words, Teresa's face brightened by the slightest fraction and she nodded. "O-of course. You should know why. Well, it's…" She looked away. "We didn't know much, so I'll tell you what WICKED told us."

"Right after we got separated, I found Group B. I went with them underground through the tunnels to the mountains. And then I found you. I- I know what I did was awful Tom, but WICKED said they would kill you if we didn't co-operate! I'm… I'm sorry."

Thomas watched and listened in silence. For what it was worth (in his opinion, very little), it seemed like she was telling the truth. But something occupied his mind. A burning question, and something that he had wondered about for some time. He had to ask.

"What about… the kiss?" Teresa, to her credit, did not flinch, rather, it appeared as though she had expected that to be asked of her at some point. She was quiet, but approached Thomas cautiously, as though nearing a volatile explosive.

"There was one thing I didn't lie about Tom." She carefully reached out and placed her hand on his arm. When he did not react, she moved closer. They were now face to face.

"I love you Tom. I always have, ever since you found me in the Glade, and WICKED can't change that. I'm sorry I hurt you." She looked into Thomas' eyes with apprehension.

He wanted to believe her. He longed for her to be telling the truth. He could even sense that she longed for him to accept her story. But then she had said…

He could not deny his emotions any longer. The knife dropped. In a movement that surprised the pair of them, he embraced her. She shrieked for a split second, then realized what had happened, and hugged him back, crying softly onto his shoulders.

"I-I don't deserve this Tom. I-I can't-" Thomas' hand found her hair, and he rubbed it as he whispered to her. "Shhh… Teresa, it's going to be alright." She sobbed slightly louder this time, but said something that confirmed to Thomas that she was telling the truth.

"I'm sorry Tom." It was more felt rather than heard, but her presence returning to his mind made it all the better. At that moment, they loosened their grip on each other, looked into the others' eyes, and kissed.

Thomas felt the world explode. The feeling of Teresa's lips on his own was more glorious than anything he had ever felt, even more than the first time they had done so. He could feel his elation mixing with her own in his mind, and he could not imagine anything better.

They stayed this way for some time, until eventually they ran out of breath and parted. Thomas' pain was forgotten, replaced by his love for Teresa. She gazed back at him, herself looking dazed, and made another move to kiss him, when she noticed his watch display and cursed.

"Tom! We have to leave! We have to be at the safe haven in five hours!" At this, Thomas' eyes widened, and remembered the cure that they had to find. "Right. Let's go!"

Teresa found her spear, and Thomas the knife, and the two of them ran out of the building and into the woods surrounding it, the safe haven their goal. They had to find the cure.

Well, that's my first published fanfiction! Please, rate and review! Tell me what I did wrong, or else I'll probably make the same mistake again!