A/N: I own nothing from the Maze Runner Trilogy. All rights to James Daschner and the writers of the Maze Runner movie. The idea of the story is to replace a male protagonist with a female protagonist and see where that takes the plotline of the story, so much of the content written by Daschner, meaning actual paragraphs and sentences, are the same. I give all credit to Daschner for the words he's written. I've made the obvious alterations (changing 'he' and 'him' to 'she' and 'her', etc.) but it's truly an A/U story, so I've put my own spin on much of it.

This chapter is told in Minho's perspective. I really loved the scene in TMR movie where Teresa woke up and started hurling rocks at the Gladers, and there was no way that Marisa wasn't going to be just as badass. Dialogue is mostly taken from the movie, so credit to the writers of the film.

Chapter Three

Minho heaved a heavy sigh, but kept his expression closed off. He hated this part, the one where he had to kill some poor shank's hope, squashing it like a bug. It was always great to get a new Runner, but introducing him to the realities of the Maze was a buzzkill that came with the territory. Gabriel, the newest Runner, looked like he'd just klunked his pants.

"So you're saying that after all this time, there's no—"

He broke off, head snapping towards the still-open heavy iron door of the little cement hut, where Minho was already looking. Gabriel's ears weren't as sharp as Minho's, but that was to be expected. Minho had been combing the Maze longer than most of the boys had been Gladers, and his senses were pretty much impeccable.

"What is it?" Gabriel asked, but he had his answer before he finished speaking. Two boys, some of the younger ones, were thudding towards them, puffing breathlessly. They skidded to a stop against the frame of the hut, panting.

"Hey!" Minho said angrily. "What are you guys doing? You're not allowed in here."

He didn't need to say this. Everyone knew that the Runner's hut was off-limits, for the very reason that Minho hated getting new Runners—to protect the secret. The other posts were open to anyone, but the Runner's hut was off-limits to everyone except for the Runners themselves. And Alby, of course.

"Sorry," Huffed Braeden, a thin black kid with wide brown eyes. "It's just the...uh—"

"It's the girl." Cut in Clyde, a stocky boy with a mop of curly brown hair.

"What, is she awake?" Gabriel asked, trying to keep the curiosity in his voice mild. He'd never seen a girl in his memory, but he knew that the box occasionally brought one up and according to everyone who had seen one, this girl was seriously good-looking.

"You could say that." Braeden said, and without another word, they were crashing back through the trees towards the green. Minho and Gabriel exchanged a look, and darted out after them.

Despite the younger boys' head-start, Gabriel and Minho had passed them before they even emerged from the trees—they weren't Runners for nothing. But instead of heading towards the sick house where the Medjacks had carried the girl to when she fainted, the younger boys were sprinting off to the tower. Without asking, Minho and Gabriel changed their direction to the tower as well, where a large crowd had gathered beneath it for no obvious reason.

Minho pulled up short beside Chuck—who had been the most recent arrival until now.

"Chuck, what's going on?" Gabriel asked apprehensively. But there was no need for the worried tone; Chuck was laughing, his hands on his hips as he doubled over. Taking a breath, he lifted a pudgy hand and pointed towards the tower, chuckling, "Girls are awesome."

Collectively the two Runners turned, zeroing in on what was happening. About three dozen Gladers were gathered at the tower's base, which was already weird because it broke protocol. But it kept getting weirder the longer they looked. Most of the boys were covering their heads with something—a brass tub, a plank of wood, a wicker basket—and they were shouting hoarsely as small objects were catapulted over the side of the tower towards them.

"Are those rocks?" Minho asked, bewildered.

"She was throwing fruit at first, but I guess she ran out." Chuck was still laughing.

Minho put it together at the same time as another voice rang out, much clearer and higher than the ones he was used to hearing, "Leave me alone!"

He shook his head and started over at a trot, in no hurry to get pelted with a stone from the Greenie. As he neared the tower, he heard Gally's scratchy voice bark, "HEY! Throw one more of those things, I'm—OW!"

Minho pressed his lips together, suppressing a smile. As far as Glader's go, Gally was his least favorite, always aggressive and bullying and condescending. It was a nice present to see him get clonked on the head once in a while.

"Go away!" The girl yelled down at them, lobbing another few rocks over the side as the boys kept yelling.

"We come in peace!" Frypan hollered, ducking a gray rock the size of a first.

"What happened?" Gabriel asked amid a few cries of "Duck!" as more rocks rained down on them.

"Well I don't think she likes us very much," said Newt, his voice quivering with laughter as he dodged a stone, which bounced off the plank of wood Winston held over his head with a thud.

"What do you want from me?" The girl screamed, tossing down several medium-sized pebbles, which clanged against tubs and pots over the yells of surprise and Jeff's frantic, "Take cover, y'all!"

"We just wanna talk!" Winston called up. A few more rocks. A chorus of "OHHH"s.

"Woah, woah, woah, HEY!" Newt screamed, stepping out from under the plank of wood. "We're not going to hurt you, we just want to talk. I promise." There was a pause, then an eighth of a face edged towards the side of the tower top.

"I promise." Newt said softly. "We're not going to hurt you." The girl leaned forward a little more, so a fourth of her face was visible, but she still didn't speak. '

"Can I come up? Just me?" Newt asked gently. The girl didn't respond, but disappeared back into the unseen tower top. Newt took a breath and a step forward. "Alright, I'm coming up." He said calmly. The Gladers watched his slow progress as he began to ascend the rickety ladder to the tower top. In seconds, he was out of sight.