A/N: Hello there! I'm really tired, so this note wont be long.
Embers To Ashes: I agree. Poor Clint. Astrid really is crazy huh? Thanks for the review!
Lifelong potterhead: Thank you for both the compliment and the review! :)
Okay…
Me: Wow, you two are surprisingly quiet.
Aidan: You were tired, so we decided not to bother you.
Me: That's really nice mate, thank you.
Lee: We are nice. We define Niceness.
Me: The story. Lets get on with the story.
~.~.~~.~
Astrid drove the needle so hard into Clint, that it snapped. She growled loudly and punched Clint across the face. "STAY AWAY FROM ASTRID!" she yelled.
Newt and Keith grabbed her arms and pulled her back. Clint yelped in pain as he pulled the broken needle out of his shoulder. He looked at Astrid with fear in his eyes. He turned his gaze to the others.
"She's crazy!" he cried. Alby looked at him gravely. Astrid was glaring at him, head bowed down. Her hair fell in her face, making her look menacing. Her eyes held pure hate. She was breathing heavily and baring her teeth. Clint hurriedly got off the bed, clutching his shoulder.
"I'm just gonna go." He said. He hurried out of the room, casting a frightful glance at Astrid.
Zart, Frypan and Chuck were awestruck. This wasn't the Astrid they knew. The girl was usually so cheerful and happy. And Clint was a nice kid; he didn't mean her any harm. So why in the world would she become like this?
"Get out." Alby told them. They looked at their leader with shock. He narrowed his eyes. "Didn't you hear me? Get out!"
The trio quietly shuffled out, not wanting to contradict Alby in such a situation.
Astrid was still glaring at the spot where Clint had been sitting. Her fists were clenched. Newt extricated her arm from Keith's grasp, shooting him a meaningful look. He pulled his sister into a hug. "It's okay Astrid. No one's gonna hurt you. Just calm down." He said. Astrid still continued to glare at the spot.
Thomas was now more confused than ever, and that was saying something. One moment, she was laughing without a care in the world, and the next, she was turning into this monster. There was something seriously wrong with this girl. He respected Alby for letting him stay, thought he thought it was more for the reason that he thought Thomas might have some connection with the new girls than out of friendship.
Astrid pulled away from Newt and wrapped her arms around herself. She shook her head. "They can't hurt Astrid. Astrid won't let them. Bad people. Very bad. Astrid running. Bad people coming? Bad people eat Astrid. Bad people… Bad people… Bad people..." She muttered to herself, while rocking back and forth.
"Let's give the greenie some room, shall we?" Alby said. He looked at Keith. "You stay in here. Make sure she doesn't kill herself. And make sure she doesn't kill you."
Keith gave Alby a curt nod. Gail hugged him once more and stood up. Her mind was spinning from what had just happened. She'd thought Astrid had just been a little high-strung when she'd first met her. But now, she was beginning to realize that the girl was absolutely crazy. Nothing she said made any sense. Her sentences were borderline manic. She was now rocking violently. Keith sat on the edge of her bed, as far from her as he could.
Newt glanced back at his sister. He couldn't understand one bit of what was going on. Astrid has absolutely no reason to hurt Clint. He hadn't even said anything threatening. He knew it should have been him staying behind with her instead of Keith, but he also knew that he was needed in every important discussion that happened in the glade, being second in command.
The others went out and closed the door behind them, leaving Keith alone with Astrid. She was still shaking her head, muttering. He inched closer and reached out. He tucked her hair behind her ears and removed her hands from around her.
"It's okay Astrid. It's alright. They won't hurt you anymore. They aren't here anymore." He soothed, pulling her into a hug. He'd known why she was doing this.
He'd had a memory about it. In fact, it had been his first memory. He and Astrid had been strapped to beds, and this man had walked up to them, with a large syringe. It had been a magnified version of Clint's needle. He jabbed it into Astrid's arm. Keith didn't know what had been in it, but the moment the man had pressed the plunger, Astrid had started screaming. She screamed for so long and so hard, that her mouth had started bleeding. Her bed had been wet with tears. Whatever had been in the syringe had hurt Astrid to the core. When she'd seen Clint, the fear of syringes must have resurfaced.
Astrid had become quieter now. Keith didn't let go of her. Mainly due to the fear of her screaming again. But also because he didn't like seeing her hurt.
Her breathing slowed down, and Keith could hear little puffs of breath come out of her mouth. He pulled her head away and looked at her. She seemed to have fallen asleep. He set her head gently on the pillow and sat down on a chair, smiling. Astrid may have been Newt's real sister, but for now, Keith was the elder brother taking care of her.
~.~.~.~.
The minute they'd come out of the room, Alby rounded on Newt. "What is UP with that sister of yours?" he demanded. Newt was a little shocked to see him behave like this, but he put a hand on his friend's shoulder, shaking his head. "I don't know, mate, I don't bloody know."
"It almost seemed as though she was afraid of something else, and Clint reminded her of that." Thomas put in. Alby turned to him. "What?" the leader asked.
Thomas shrugged. "Think about it." He said. "She doesn't even know Clint. Why would she hurt him? And the way she was talking about bad people, it made no sense. Keith said that people had tortured her to the point of insanity, right? Maybe they had used syringes sometimes."
The other three were staring at Thomas with open mouths. Newt finally found his voice. "Hate to say this, Tommy, but you're probably right. It does make a lot of bloody sense, doesn't it?"
Maybe the others would have added some more, but they were cut off by the infirmary door being thrown open. A boy rushed in and collapsed.
"Minho, what the hell?" Newt exclaimed. He rushed forward and picked the boy up. Thomas peered at the new arrival, Minho. He had well-muscled arms and dark hair. He looked Asian. His face was covered in dirt and grime.
"Wanted… see… greenies…" He managed to say in between rasps of breath. Newt put him down on a nearby chair. He looked at is friend. Minho had spent his entire time in the glade running in the maze. He'd never come back so tired.
"Catch your shuck breath first." Alby ordered. Minho glared at him. "Slim it." He shot back. Thomas was surprised to hear someone speak to their leader like that, but Alby was nonchalant.
Newt handed Minho a glass of water, which he drank in a single breath. He sighed and placed the glass on the ground.
"I heard that some new greenie had come, so I ran all the shuck way back from the maze. Heard it was a girl." Minho declared. His gaze flitted up to Gail, as though he'd just now noticed her, which, considering how she was standing behind Newt and Alby, he had. His eyes widened.
"Holy mother of Frypan. You really are a girl!" he said. Gail smiled. "Last I checked." She replied.
She came out from behind Newt and Alby, and held out a hand, which Minho shook. "Gail." She said. Minho winked. "The name's Minho, greenie. And don't let these shanks fool you. I'm the real boss of this place." He said, giving Alby a look that showed he was joking.
Minho looked at Thomas, and his eyes narrowed. "And who are you?" he asked. Thomas followed Gail's example and held out his hand. Minho shook it a little cautiously.
"Thomas. I arrived here three days ago." Thomas introduced himself. Minho nodded. "Pretty crazy huh? With all these Greenies. I don't even know which one of them to call greenie anymore." He grinned.
Thomas was starting to like this guy. He had a sarcastic and laid-back attitude, which almost served as a relief from their situation. Minho looked at Newt, and pointed at Gail. "She the one that's your sis?" he asked. Newt shook his head.
"My sister's inside. And in case you've forgotten, Minho, her name's Astrid, not Gail." He replied. Minho nodded, but didn't seem to care much.
"Alright, enough of this mushy mushy introduction. Minho, you've seen the greenie, purpose fulfilled. It's shuck two o clock in the morning. We better get some sleep while we still can." Alby said, cutting their somewhat cheerful conversation short. He looked at Newt. "Newt, show Gail to her hammock. Give her some place near her brother, but not too close. We don't want another episode from your beloved sister." He said, not bothering to apologize for his rudeness. Newt had grown used to it.
"Minho, get your butt to sleep. Thomas, you do the same. We'll talk about the greenie tomorrow." He continued, and when everyone turned to give him a bewildered look, especially Gail, he added quickly "Astrid, I mean."
Alby opened the door and walked out, Minho dragging himself after him. Thomas nodded at Newt and Gail before heading out as well. Gail turned to Newt.
"Let's go, shall we?" She said. Every word she said to him tasted like poison. She had been sent here to kill his sister, and she was pretending to be his friend. She hated herself for it, but there was no other way, she was absolutely convinced of that.
Newt gave her an apologetic glance. "Yeah, I just needa…" He motioned towards the door to Astrid's room. Gail understood. "Sure." She said.
Newt opened the door slowly and peeked inside. Keith had fallen asleep on a chair beside Astrid's bed. Astrid herself was snoring softly. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep. She slept with a tiny smile on her face, as though she were dreaming of all things nice. Newt smiled to himself and closed the door.
"Let's go." He led Gail out of the infirmary, walking her to her hammock. He didn't know what the next day would hold for him, no one did. But he hoped against hope that even in these days of surviving in a place surrounded by a maze with monstrous creatures, Astrid would be safe.
~.~.~.~.
WICKED was beyond words. The way each variable had been calculated, it was incredible. They'd only shown Keith the specific memories, to which they needed his responses. Astrid's reaction to Clint's needle was perfect. And Gail was carrying out her role beautifully.
Ava Paige leaned against her chair. She drew in a breath. What they were doing to these kids may have been wrong, but their purpose was correct.
She looked at the image of Keith and Astrid, both children sleeping peacefully. She remembered the first time she had gone to visit them in the facility, to check on how the experiments were going.
Dr. Kendall Gray had been researching all his life. Finally, as he had claimed, he had found the answer to their problems. It was a way to give superhuman abilities to normal human beings. It had been Astrid and Keith's bad luck that they had gotten selected for the test subjects.
The first time Paige had visited them, it hadn't been pretty. She closed her eyes and let the memory flow through her.
She was standing in front of a glass window. On one side, Jansen and herself were sitting on wooden chairs, looking through the glass. They were waiting for the two kids they had come to check on. Their killzone department had been doing well. It was time to see what Dr. Gray had been doing. The facility wasn't particularly hygienic, and Paige could tell that Jansen was disgusted.
A door opened in the glass room, and Dr. Gray walked in. He was in his trademark white lab coat, his thinning hair looking as revolting as ever. Every time Paige saw him, she wanted to puke, but managed to maintain a formal expression.
"Welcome to my lab!" he yelled cheerfully, a bit too loud. He spread his hands. "Without much further ado, I present you with my prized possessions. My little guinea pigs. My masterpieces." He motioned to his side, somewhere where Paige couldn't see. "The Freaks!" he declared.
For a moment, Paige wondered why he would name Keith and Astrid 'freaks', but the next moment, the two kids entered the room, and all other thoughts abandoned Paige's mind.
She didn't know what she had been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been this.
Keith and Astrid were barely recognizable as human beings. Chains bound their hands and feet together, the red marks visible on their wrists. They were shoved in by two giants of men, who followed them in and handed Gray something that looked suspiciously like a whip. They were bleeding in multiple places, but weren't crying, almost as though they had gotten used to pain. Their heads lolled forward, and they stared up at Paige and Jansen. White hospital gowns hung off their bodies the way a shirt would hang off a scarecrow. Their wrists were frighteningly thin. Their eyes were so sunken, it was almost as if they were trying to go back inside their heads. Dark circles covered the skin around them. Keith's hair had grown long and shabby. Astrid's, usually a light blond, was sweaty and dirty, the color having become something of a disgusting brown.
They looked like corpses who had learned to walk.
Paige wanted to protest against this inhumane treating of these two, when Jansen put out a hand to stop her. Gray sneered. He flicked the object in his hand, and it turned out to be a whip after all.
"Show the visitors your talents, freaks." He ordered. The kids didn't move. The other two men shoved them from behind, but they still refused to do anything.
"Fine. I'll teach you to never rebel against me." Gray said. He raised the whip and lashed it against Astrid's back. She yelled and fell to the floor. He hit her again. Keith cried out her name, and got a whip on his face in return. The most disturbing part was that Gray seemed to actually enjoy what he was doing.
"Do a bear Astrid, do a bear!" he cackled like a little child. He hit Astrid with every word. Tears streaming down her face, Astrid morphed into a bear. He laughed and hit her again. "Do a bird!" Astrid turned into something that looked like a parrot. "A Dog!" Gray ordered. Astrid obeyed. He kicked her in the side, which must have hurt in her small form of a dog.
Under different circumstances, Paige would have been awed. But seeing the kids being whipped with every word that crossed Gray's mouth was simply too much.
"Your turn!" he told Keith as Astrid morphed back to human form. He slammed blow after blow on Keith's back, and Keith finally gave in, turning invisible. A second later, he reappeared near the far corner of the room.
Gray walked up to him, and grinned. Keith looked at him with hopeful eyes, as if to ask whether he had done enough not to get whipped. He got rewarded by being clubbed in the face with the handle of the whip.
Jansen flinched and Paige turned away. The last thing she would remember of that gruesome night was Astrid and Keith's screams that filled the atmosphere.
Paige didn't like remembering that night. Keith and Astrid had been kept under conditions that would make the most heartless of people sympathize. She looked once again at the screen showing the kids, who had gone through the torture which she wouldn't have even in her worst nightmares.
She hoped they could survive the next variable that was about to be thrown at them.
~.~.~.~.~
A/N: So YEAH! This story will have a lot of memories, because Keith and Astrid's backgrounds matter, don't they? Also, I know that in the book, Minho meets Thomas later, but this is fanfiction, right? So in my story, he meets him earlier.
Please review and tell me what you thought! I'm sorry if it was bad, but the action will start very soon!
A Fellow Glader.