Reply to Clever Name: I'm a really big Gally fan too! At first I really thought he was a douche in TMR, but then when I got to know him in TDC, he just kinda got stuck in my head for all the possibilities I could do with him... Hmmm :3

Thanks for your wonderful words! Wow, I honestly never would've thought I have good writing skills, or a well thought-out plot... Maybe it's the humility talking, but I don't know, lol. It's nice to know I get commended like this every once in a while. Makes me feel all special even though when I'm kinda not. :)

A/N: I'm back again! I have awesome news for you guys! :3

For convenience, I have split this chapter into two. Supposedly, this 2-part chapter was gonna be the ending to the story, but I just can't finish it like this, so I'll extend it a bit more. Ain't ya glad? :D

Now, there'll be a little bit of warning: there will be an (sort of) OOC Gally coming your way. Remember: the story takes place right before TMR which means characters haven't matured entirely prior to their true personalities. However, I'm pretty sure Gally had already expressed this specific type of emotion, besides ruthlessness and arrogance, something that made the character so profound and note-worthy and just plain writable, as to what we saw in him in the latter part of the book series. So yeah.

Lastly, this 2-part chapter is really gonna be a roller coaster of emotions, because we're about to go through the focal point of the story, and I just can't see it any other way than to express A LOT of things, so yeah. Don't be surprised if at one point you're gonna be happy and glad and then everything went downhill the next.

Anyways, enough about me now, enjoy!

Chapter 9

Her Fate Part I

The first thing he ever did come morning was to visit her. To check on her. It was probably the only thing that makes it worthwhile living in this whole shuck place. He admits it now, but he knew he couldn't bear to say it. Not out loud; to her maybe, but never in front of the Gladers.

He was glad, actually. That he could do this small, tiny thing for her. How his day would already be made after seeing her flush a smile as he went on his way. It was a selfish thought, really. One that he could only get and no one in the whole entire Glade could ever have. Not even that snoop of a British accented guy whom he couldn't stand (and also remembered colloquially that every girl had always been swooning for).

Much less to his concern, he hadn't washed himself or cleaned up his wounds or anything of the sort. He just headed out from Homestead and had already been jogging towards the Deadheads the moment he had the perfect opportunity to sneak out.

He arrived in the grove in the nick of time. Again, it was still unkempt from all the trash and other personals scattered around the ground. He also found out she wasn't there. He tried looking for her in the Graves and also the place where he'd found her yesterday, but she wasn't there either.

Strange. Gally swore he should've seen her if she wasn't hiding inside the forest. He already got the fact that she was getting a little bit agitated living inside the Deadheads, so this was probably the best time for her to take a stroll without anyone noticing, but the Glade was all too empty for him not to see her, right?

But if she wasn't in the open fields, or even in the Deadheads, then…

No. It's impossible. She couldn't risk it.

Heading inside the Maze? That was out of the question.

So, if she wasn't in either of the three, then where was she?

Returning back to the grove, he stayed there for some time. Gally sat just outside the hollow of the tree and waited. For her.

Maybe she'll head back soon. He arrived a bit too early anyways (much to his denied excitement) so it was only a matter of time before she comes back... to wherever she was at.

Thinking about it though, just made him feel all the more uneasy. Seconds turned to minutes and agitation slowly turned into anxiousness. Then, there were thoughts starting to riddle in his head. Assumptions and signals flagging all over him that slowly started to make sense. He wasn't a fool. He knew if things were being hidden from him. As a matter of fact, even he was doing it on his own.

Sure he had his doubts. The moment he saw her crouching and staring into a bush in the edge of nowhere could've— should've ticked him into knowing what the heck was that all about. There was something about that single piece of moment that made his nerves tingle with concern, one that he couldn't shake off. Now, he didn't want to end up being a snoop just like Newt. He hadn't checked the messed up bed sheets inside the tree or the trash littering all over the place even if he wanted to. He trusted her so much for that that he couldn't let his doubt break whatever trust they had for each other.

But there was just this one thing, that silver lining of uncertainty that played along his mind. That maybe, just maybe, along those days that he was gone, Newt had already found out about them and he was stringing her along as quick as the thought came up to his head. Or that maybe she could already be helping WICKED and the Creators about probably anything by now.

Or worse, she was lying to him the whole time and he didn't even know about it.

No.

He shook his head in contempt and dismissed his thoughts away. Maybe it was Changing 1 that made him feel all this sentimental and loopy. She was just gone for awhile anyways. He should've known better than to know every place she went. Sure she was his responsibility, but so far, he hadn't exactly given her any edict that said that she couldn't roam outside the woods forever. No. Nothing like that.

After all, she was never the type to manipulate people. Look at her. She was just a teenager like he was. How could she even have the gall to do that if she did?

If she wanted to keep secrets, then he'll let her. If she wanted the perfect moment to explain it to him, he'll wait for it.

It was Marie after all.

It was then that Gally noticed he was sitting right next to two small figures that tumbled into the ground when he had moved slightly. When he tilted his head, he saw the wooden carvings looking at him almost soullessly. He slowly picked one of the two up.

It was the first one she ever made. The Queen. It had fine details of the rounded face with closed eyes, looking as if she was sleeping. There was a calm, distinct emotion coming off of it. A look of regality, royalty. Something special even though it was just a simple wooden piece. The crown was more embedded now, with the chips that resembled as gems. The hand slapping her in the face was a bit comical, but it had somehow placed a slight hint of admiration above it all.

He then picked the other one. The first thing that came into mind that it resembled a look of nobility and stride. A Knight. Though when he thought of knights in his head, it's nowhere near what he saw on this piece. It had an oval-like face, much like the Queen's, but the eyes, instead of sleeping, it was open. It was more stern and serious with just a light speckle of annoyance. It also had a very tiny potato-shaped nose, he guessed that that was somehow adding insult to injury. How she carved that rotund nostrils, he didn't know. It also had a headpiece, but it obviously didn't look like a crown. It was a fine-crafted helmet.

What made this fine art more intricate was a drawed out horse with triangular ears and square nose carrying the Knight. Also a sword— but it wasn't a sword. It looked like more of a club, hinting another comical nuisance to the piece. Also, he had noticed that the piece wasn't carrying a shield at all.

Somehow, he had this strange feeling that the whole Knight almost personified...

He smiled at the thought.

After his curating, he pocketed the Knight-piece, hoping that she wouldn't notice it when she came back. It was for him anyways. He remembered he asked from her this specific art and she willingly obliged. So it really wouldn't hurt if he had taken it by now.

He gazed towards the sunrise overlooking the eastern side of the maze. Looking at it, it was quite majestic. The cool, crisp shine emanating from it and the slowly warming glow he'd grown accustomed to. It's really strange, is all. For a prison, he never knew such a natural promise would be given to them.

The sun would be up soon. He didn't know what time it was, but he better get going. He didn't want Alby extending his hospital stay just because he was out of the bed when he woke up.

So, Gally stood up, patted his back to rub off some leaves that got stuck, and headed back to Homestead for another day in the Glade.

One last thought came up to his head before he got out of the forest:

I wonder where the Greenie went?

He remembered things. He remembered her mother, his parents. He also remembered he was taken away from them one late summer morning, only to be put inside the headquarters of WICKED, the one and only name he'd seen scattering across the Maze. He then remembered studying at that horrid place when he was little. A school of sorts. He'd learned counting, sports, a little bit of survival basics— almost anything you could ever imagine for any chosen prodigy like him. But what they focused most on him was Science. Physics (surprisingly for a young age). Then machinations for building things.

He remembered when he first saw a prototype Griever. It didn't look like the ones that they fend off inside the Maze, far from that. There were also others like that as well, but the Grievers had fascinated him the most. Now, he wasn't part of WICKED. In fact, he detested them. He didn't remember what the reason was, but they made him do it. He helped develop the Griever Project. When it was finished, all they ever did was lie to him more.

When he was of age, he remembered it. He woke up in one undefined time, seeing men in white hazmat suits barging through the door, bounding and gagging him into the floor as they dragged him towards a more technologically inept Changing room. He was pushed into a glass prison and was trapped there for about a minute or two, until it was slowly being filled by a vat of yellow-bluish water— Changing 2. It was until then that all of his memory were temporarily wiped away.

And then when he had undergone Changing 1, he had learned those memories back. That he knew that he was sent inside the Maze for a purpose, and the biggest clue of them all was to kill somebody inside.

Who could it be?

Was it Alby? Minho? Newt? Zart? Ben?

There were plenty more Gladers to mention, and especially, there were plenty more coming.

However, with all those detailed memories he had been given, all those hints about the sun scorching the earth and that they were somewhere beneath it all; those memories that clung dearly to him, not one was, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

Her existence in his life.

Gally paused in his work and just stood there, thinking.

His whole entire morning, he spent it by recalling if there's any moment in his life that he had met her. Back when he was a child, back when he was taken, back when he stayed the entirety of his pre-adolescent years inside a dungeon that suited its name.

But he hadn't. She didn't exist in his life way back when. He didn't even know her. Which meant that her significance to him was nothing at all prior to when he met her that time inside the Maze.

But, that's just it, right?

There's just something about her that made her so un-forgetful. If he were to go through every Change again, he's sure to have remembered her at some point. Yet he didn't remember her now.

So, what was she in his life?

The thought left him a small, struggling feeling that she wasn't capable of doing it. Of betrayal. After all, from the very first time he saw her, she was running away from them. Away from the Grievers. Away from the Creators.

Casting a shadow at the sun in the middle of the sky, he looked at it and guess that it could be minutes, maybe half an hour more before they take could their lunch breaks. Which meant that he was going to see her again.

This time, he was going to see her. He was really sure of it.

However, that wasn't what fate had planned for him.

As he leveled his gaze back again, his eyes rooted at the small figure across the Glade. The South Door.

He bleared his eyes again, checking to see if he was only hallucinating from the heat, but he figured that he wasn't at all. Sure, the figure was there. He checked to see if other people have noticed, but it seemed that he was the only one that saw it.

Strange. He thought.

He took a few strides towards the South Door. Slowly, the figure grew larger and larger as he approached it. When he was halfway through, just by the Box which was in the middle of the Glade, he never would've thought that it was a she.

His eyes widened when he noticed it was her all the time. Marie. Standing (again) in plain sight, but this time, in the middle of the day where everyone should have noticed her by now. But they didn't. Yes, it was truly her.

When he got nearer and nearer, he noticed the jet black hair scrunched up and all frizzled, the skin white from the beginning but now a little bit tanned after all these days. She was looking a little bit thinner now than before; her small figure just standing there within a large distance's reach.

And then he noticed she wasn't facing him, but the huge dented walls with the same thorny steel on one side, and punched holes on the other. The South Door.

Then the next thing she did surprised him most.

She took a step forward. A very small stride.

And then another.

And then another.

Slowly.

She could do it. She could do it. She clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly, trying to relieve her of the stress as she slowly walked forward. Looking ahead, she saw the vast expanse of what she thought would be the Maze. It was gloomy as she would've suspected. The high walls have mitigated the sunlight that pored through it; all she could see was the blank pathway and the steel and vines hanging up from above.

They did it. Her request was granted. Somehow, someway, Gally didn't visit her in the Deadheads that morning. She didn't hear the same rustling pattern of the leaves, or the clanging of the bowl against the spoon whenever he took a brisk, heavy step. She was just curled up in her bed sheet inside the hollow of the tree, thinking, contemplating. She didn't even want to take a peep outside, as somehow, it would jinx her of the favor she desperately pleaded to them.

She was just tired, actually. Tired of it all. Tired of hearing Gally's suffering during those three days. Tired to wake up in the middle of the night hearing the louder moans of the Grievers just outside the walls. Tired of her being cooped up in some strange land that she wasn't even supposed to be part of. She was just tired of it.

Marie wasn't at all depressed, or having that suicidal thought of sending herself right through the Maze just for them to be happy. No. She just doesn't want to see anyone getting more into trouble because of her. To see anyone get hurt because of her. She didn't want that for Gally. And seeing him like that three days ago, it was all too unbearable for her to rediscover again.

It was now or never. Gally should be coming to the Deadheads soon, and this will give her plenty of time to follow that Beetle Blade from yesterday.

But somehow, fate had other plans for her this time.

"Marie!"

She gasped. It was Gally. She was sure of it. For all those weeks that she spent time with him, she should've known that masculine snarl from anywhere.

She froze and rooted in her place, then turned around to see Gally stomping towards her, not really pissed, but more of a baffled look really. There was also a hint of worry there too.

What would she expect? If they would ever switched places, she would be worried about him too.

But the real question was,

Why was he here?

He reached her in no time at all. When they got together, Gally looked behind his shoulder to see if anyone spotted them yet, but Marie had already doubted someone would be looking besides him. She cursed in her thoughts. He shouldn't have known. He shouldn't…

He looked at her and had practically exploded his question right there in front of her. "Wha—what are you doing here?"

"Gally, I—"

"How come they couldn't see you?" There was this tone of dread in his voice when he interrupted her. It was right there and then that a glint appeared in his eyes. A look of discern etched in his face. It was a look of betrayal. He knew. He knew.

Gally slowly backed away, like he had seen horror and abandonment personified right in front of him.

"Gally, it's not what it looks—"

There was a soft thump when his back suddenly flattened behind him. Gally had hit something. She didn't see what it was, just the Glade and the Glader right in front of her. He had also turned himself around to see what he had hit. He even moved out of the way, but there was nothing.

He reached out to whatever it was and his hand flattened, surprisingly, unbelievably, like he had been touching a wall of some sort but it wasn't visibly there.

It's like, it's some kind of very thin, very transparent, glass-like wall.

His hand now curled into fists and then banged into it. A disconcerting sound rumbled all around them, like the whole walls surrounded them in a room. He then searched along the walls feet by feet, trying to feel if there was a door or an opening to it.

Marie took the opportunity to feel the invisible wall too. Although she had noticed the pathway towards the Maze didn't have it, but any other than that, she was sure they were locked in some type of one-way room leading straight inside.

Thinking about it, maybe Gally did come for her earlier. But they somehow had distorted her into thinking that he didn't. They created, programmed, whatever— this invisible wall so that it would look like the both of them weren't around for each other.

"I can't get out." He said as he gave up looking for a way inside the Glade.

"Maybe that's why they can't see or hear us." She deduced.

Gally turned to his shoulder, but didn't exactly look at her. Just a sideways glance. His gaze then went ahead to the Gladers who were starting to fix their lunches.

"What did you do?" He asked.

She paused. How could she break it down? She didn't have the courage to do it, to explain to him what she did, why she did it, and how she did it. Heck, he wasn't even supposed to know these things right now. But somehow, it seemed that the Creators didn't fulfill this part of the deal. And she was disappointed at them for doing this to her.

Stilling herself and clenching her fists, she breathed out a collective sigh she'd been holding and looked straight at him.

"I've talked to the Creators."

This made him turn his attention, his gaze now into hers. Green eyes met with blue.

She shook her head as she continued, "Not directly. But ever since you've taught me about the Beetle Blade, it made me think about the past few days." She raised a hand before Gally could interrupt her again. "I haven't lost my mind, Gally. I've been thinking about everything for the three days you've been unconscious."

Telling that to him made her cringe a bit. The memories were coming back again. The screams, the howled pain. She remembered she curled herself up and covered her ears, bearing it until the stroke of morning. Then, she started to shake.

"I didn't do it for myself, you know. I..." She stopped. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes.

Gally only muttered a very soft, very low, "Why?"

"I wasn't supposed to be here, Gally. You know that. I can't live in a world where it doesn't want me in it. And seeing you being hurt because of my being here, I just can't survive knowing it's my fault…"

"So, what, you're telling me you're going to waste your life by throwing yourself inside the Maze?" He splayed his arms haphazardly.

"No! No. It's not—" She struggled out her words. "I'm… I'm turning myself in."

"Turn yourself in?" He repeated. This time, there was a hint of anger in his voice.

"I can't risk the fact that someone's gonna get hurt again because of me. Because I was here and they don't even know about it. What will they think about that, huh? That God punished them to the Grievers because He just wants to? I mean, that's just cruel judgment right there."

"Did you even think that this just might be what they wanted from you, huh?" Gally scolded. "That when I got stung, you'll be riding the guilt train and then run off like now?"

"Would you risk that?"

He paused and ducked his head, trying not to speak. She knew he wouldn't risk it. No matter how dumb and annoying he thought they were, the Gladers were still family. And she wasn't. She was only there because she was just trying to survive. Her past self didn't even want her to be known inside the Glade, and that everything between the two of them must always remain a secret. So what could she be truly doing there? What was her pre-defined purpose?

The answer was simple.

"Why can't you just admit it? I'm nothing." She said.

"No, you aren't."

She froze and wide-eyed. Slowly, he began to tilt his head back up, looking at her with something she couldn't express. Her hands started to visibly shake, she couldn't help it. It's like his eyes had flailed into her soul, piercing through it and made her heart clench. Making her nervous.

The look in his eyes told her he was crushed. He was broken.

It was the first time she ever saw him like that.

"Don't you ever think for a second that you are nothing. That you're not supposed to exist. Because you do. You're here now." He slowly walked towards her, feeling her tremble as his figure got closer and closer. "You're here with me."

He made a slight pause and took a good look in her eyes. The eyes that started to flow tears into her plush red cheeks. That she herself showed signs of a person starting to break as well, even though they both knew that she was already broken the moment he said those words.

"Ever since I saw you inside the Maze, you were there. You became part of my life. I took you in and cared for you. You were something. How can you ever think that you're worthless?" He continued.

She shook her head again. "You could've saved any girl that come running at you in the Maze. It doesn't matter…"

Again, another pregnant pause.

"To be honest, I would've. There's no point denying that I would've saved anyone given the circumstances." He approached closer, and then held her shoulder. "But I'm… I'm glad. That it's you."

His eyes were hazy now. Something about his longing gaze entranced her. Something that made her heart flutter and knees wobbly. She didn't know what it was, but it was getting closer and closer…

"I… I happen to like you, Greenie. In… In more ways than one."

"No. I can't… We can't."

At long last, in this conversation, Gally had managed to chuckle. He then closed in and whispered in her ear. "Don't deny it. You feel it too, right? You and I…"

And then sin. Gally didn't finish those words, as his lips were pushed into an unusual crevice. But it was the perfect thing that had ever fit into his mouth. Her scent spiked his senses to a maximum; hearing, smelling, tasting. His eyes had then turned closed, engrossed with an ephemeral bliss.

Her lips were on his. She didn't know what happened, but there was a sense of something primal in it. Like she wanted to. Or perhaps, for better or worse, needed to. She felt all the happiness and the sadness. The craving and the loathing. The anger and the pleasure.

The world be damned. The Glade be damned. WICKED be damned. It didn't matter anymore.

She kissed him. She finally kissed him.

And just like that, fate seemed to play with them one more time.

As quick they got together, she detached to him in tears. However, they just can't seem to separate physically yet. As their foreheads were still glued to each other, never letting the other go.

She was crying now. She didn't know why. Maybe it was because of the impending separation. Yet all she ever yearned for was to be with him. To be safe. To be happy. But, it was all the more selfish if he keeps on getting hurt because of her. So she had no choice.

"I'm sorry, Gally. I have to do this. I can't turn back now." She whispered, sobbing.

Gally's eyes were still closed, as if dreaming, and never wanting to wake up. "You can. Stay with me. What's one more thing to lie about when we've already done enough?" He pleaded.

"No. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Gally."

When she finally parted, she felt a newly found sense of loss, like she had been torn a limb and she couldn't recuperate. But she had to crawl away if she had to. Knowing that everybody will be safe. That he'll be safe.

She turned her heel but didn't look back, for she might really stay. Though she wanted to, she had already made a deal with the devil. And her soul can't be bought back now.

Marie peered towards the towering walls beyond her, seeing the familiar red lights blinking at her from the entrance, skittering across the vast expanse of surface. It called to her.

And she obliged.

He didn't know why he just stopped there, letting her go like that. The bliss had gone a little too far out for him to realize what was going on.

Until he opened his eyes.

She was gone.

Stupid.

The world around him seemed louder now, or was it just him? The echoes of the Gladers have become vibrant now, clearer. As if the walls did intend for them to be alone together. And now that they weren't, WICKED let it cease.

Stupid…

Something about what she said persuaded him. That all of her purpose here was nonexistent. That she wasn't part of the plan. What plan? And that it would be safer for everyone if she was just gone. But his own pride and selfishness won him over. He wanted her to stay. Shuck everything if it didn't come to that. And the way her lips were in his…

Stupid!

He unpocketed the Knight and looked at it. What was she trying to say to me? He thought. He couldn't see it in its eyes. He couldn't see it on the fat nose or on the club it was wielding. No. He had to see the bigger picture of it.

And then realization dawned over him.

He needed to save her.

A/N: *gasps* Click the next chapter! Quick!