Reunited

Sometimes, the truth hurt. The truth could stab you a millions times, yet your heart would still beat. You were wounded beyond recognition, yet you were still breathing. You were alive, and you had to live with those millions of stab wounds. You had to live with those wounds until they healed, but sometimes, they never did heal. And those unhealed wounds could kill someone. Sometimes, instead of going through all that pain, some just gave up. And that was the worst part: you had to choose between going through the pain to heal or choosing to give up by dying. Could you live with the painful truth… or were you going to lose yourself because of it? Were you going to choose the hard path or the even harder path? The truth was asking those questions to both Hope and Thomas; the truth was waiting for their responses, wondering what path they'd choose. But while Hope was responding to that question with depression, Thomas was responding with anger.

After climbing through the vents, Aris and Thomas had used the keycard to enter that door: the same door they'd seen those bodies covered in cloth enter the night before. And what they found through that door, baffled them to the core. Every single one of the called-on teenagers were being tied/held up by some unknown tubes, which seemed to be equally supplying and extracting things from their lifeless-looking bodies. There were rows of those teens, all of them in the exact same position. However, Thomas didn't have the time to check if Hope or Teresa were one of them before someone else entered the large room. Thomas pushed Aris away to hide, while Thomas hid himself behind a pillar.

"You sure this can't wait?" Janson. Janson's voice. Thomas would know that voice anywhere.

"She was very specific, sir." Another man's voice. "She wanted to speak with you personally."

"As if I don't have enough to deal with," Janson scoffed right as he and the random man walked past Thomas' pillar. "I swear, this woman knows exactly when she can make my bad days even worse."

"Just bear with me," the random man urged politely. "I'm getting some interference from the storm."

"Come on, it's good enough. Make the connection," Janson protested once he was standing in front of a large opening. Though, that opening wasn't an opening at all, since it turned into a large screen after Janson had given that order. But what that screen showed in the next moment, made Thomas almost verbally gasp. "Good evening, Doctor Paige. Lovely to see you again. Although, I admit, I wasn't expecting to hear from you quite so soon."

"Change of plans, Janson." When the woman actually spoke, Thomas was sure that his eyes weren't simply deceiving him. That was Ava Paige. That was her sitting at her desk and that was her voice. There was no doubt about it. "I'll be arriving a little sooner than expected. First thing tomorrow."

"Oh, well…" Janson kept his smile up. "We'll be delighted to have you."

"And… what about Hope?" Ava asked, making Thomas' eyes widen even more. "Is she alright?"

"I've just heard from our doctors that she's awake," Janson said. "The bullet wound is healing, and she's doing just fine."

"Good… That's good…" Ava let out a sigh of relief. "And how about the others?"

"I think you'll be pleased with the progress we've made." Furthermore, Janson motioned to the random man standing beside him, causing a couple of pictures to appear onto the screen right after. From where Thomas stood, he didn't necessarily see what they were showing. It seemed that Ava was experiencing the same thing, though, because she sat up from her desk and walked to stand in front of the screen. It almost looked like she was in the same room talking to Janson. "As you can see, early results have been extremely promising. Whatever it is you've been doing to them in there, it's working."

"Not well enough," Ava responded to Janson's glee with gloom. "I just received board approval - I want all the remaining subjects sedated and prepped for harvest by the time I arrive."

"Doctor Paige, we are going as fast as we can," Janson attested. "We are still running tests-"

"Try something faster," Ava Paige interjected sternly. "Until I can guarantee their security, this is the best plan."

"Ma'am, security is my job," Janson said just as sternly. "We're on twenty-four hour lockdown here. I am assuring you… the assets are secure."

Ava raised an eyebrow. "Have you found the Right Arm?"

"Not yet…" Janson replied, his smile faltering. "We tracked them as far as the mountains."

"So they're still out there?!" Ava raised her voice. "And they've already hit two of our installations! They want these kids as badly as we do, and I cannot…!" Ava stopped herself, but her glare remained. She took a step closer to the screen, an intensity in her eyes. "I cannot afford another loss. Not now, when I am so close to a cure. If you are not up to the task, I will find someone who is."

"That won't be necessary," Janson acknowledged while Ava walked back toward her desk. "Might I suggest we start with the most recent arrivals?"

"Just get it done," Ava snapped, sitting down on her chair. However, directly after Janson turned around, Ava had one more thing to say. "Janson… I don't want them to feel any pain."

Janson's smile twitched. "They won't feel a thing."

The truth did hurt. It was scary and it was unknown, but it also gave Thomas the chance to save his friends one more time. One more time, Thomas would have to escape from within WICKED's walls. Or, at least, that was what Thomas hoped. Therefore, once Janson had left the room with the other man, Aris and Thomas made their great escape back into the vents.

"You should really eat something," the doctor told Hope. This was the same woman that had rolled Hope away from her friends. "You haven't eaten anything in days, you know."

"I'm sorry…" Hope muttered. "I'm just not hungry."

As Hope sat in her bed, a tray of untouched food lying on her lap, there was no life in her eyes. And when she talked, her tone was blank and sad. Hope just didn't have the energy or the will-power to do anything or to try anything. She could only look down in shame and sorrow, her memories still stabbing every inch of her body. Those truthful memories were hitting Hope so hard that it felt like she was reliving them; like she was going through that same hopelessness, rejection, and loneliness all over again. Those feelings felt so current that it made Hope feel like the Maze was years ago. So long ago that Hope could barely remember what had happened only two days ago. The only thing Hope could truly remember was her past. She was being pulled in by them. Her memories were… sinking her into the depths of the deep, dark ocean.

"Belle…"

Hope remembered her name.

"These days, it's simply normal to hate."

Hope remembered her father.

"I love you…"

Hope remembered her mother.

"Stephen."

Hope remembered… Thomas.

"We'll be together forever!"

Hope remembered her family. Her friends.

"Teresa!

"Alby!

"Minho!

"Newt!"

Hope remembered Ava.

"I won't hurt you."

Hope remembered… Mara.

"I can save you."

"Mmm!" Hope let out a yelp the instant she heard Mara's voice in her head. Hope placed her hands over her ears despite the voices coming from inside her head. "N-No… Please…"

"Hope…?" The doctor turned toward Hope upon hearing her in distress. "Hope, what's wrong? What's hurting?"

"E-Everything," Hope whimpered. "Everything just… hurts."

"You're just going to have to stay calm," the doctor stated. "Remembering the entirety of your past will take time to fully digest. Your brain is overstimulated, and it needs you to stay calm. If you think too hard about it, then it's just going to hurt more."

"How…" Hope gripped her hair. "How do I stay calm?"

The woman took a deep breath. "Try not to focus on the bad things. Remember what makes - or made - you happy."

That was hard. That was a hard thing for Hope to do, since Hope wasn't the same person as she once was in the Glade anymore. That person was long gone, now replaced with a traumatized child that had chosen death instead of life. With Hope's hands on her ears, she could see the naked scars on her naked arms. Hope could see what she had done to herself, and the sight almost had her throw up again. Ugly, Hope told herself. Ugly. She dropped her arms, quickly covering them with her blanket. Now that Hope had remembered her parents, she now knew that her mother had to give them up. Unlike Mara, who had told Hope that she was "thrown away," Hope was truly forced to be given up. But although Mara was wrong about one thing, she was right about another thing. A worse thing. A thing so bad that it made Hope not being thrown away by her parents ten-times worse.

"I wish you'd just disappear!" Hope's parents may not have thrown her away, but Thomas had. Stephen had. Hope's own twin brother had rejected her without even remembering her. The other children, too. They had all thrown her away, and that was why Hope saw her scars as so very ugly. Those scars reminded Hope of her loneliness and her unworthiness. They reminded her that she was unloved even when nobody knew her. And if nobody loved her when nobody knew her, then who would love her once they got to know her? Who would… love the broken girl… with ugly scars?

"I will never let anyone or anything hurt you like this again, because you are… you are too bloody important to me. Every part of you… is important, and I… I don't wanna let you go."

Newt.

"If there is anyone here who deserves to talk about their misery, it's the girl who helps us move past it. Who helps us feel better."

Newt was…

"You've been dealing with a lot, haven't you?"

Newt was the only person…

"We all have out demons."

The only person in the world…

"But I don't want you to handle it alone anymore, Hope. I don't want you to wake up crying anymore. I don't want you to hide behind a smile. I don't want you to be alone, Hope. You deserve that kind of isolation."

Thump! Hope's eyes widened.

Thump! She felt her heart beat with life.

Thump! She felt her heart come alive.

Thump! Hope didn't think it was possible, but…

"You are strong, Hope. You're not at all weak."

The moment that Hope remembered Newt, the second that his name echoed through her head, the emotionless pit in her stomach ripped apart. And with it, came Hope's not-so-distant memories. Her memories… within the Glade. Hope remembered how happy she was, and how much she adored those boys. She remembered her friends, their smiles, and how much she cherished each of them. Hope's dark past drifted away because of her memories with them, and the only way that that darkness cleared… was because of Newt.

Newt was Hope's calm.

"It's okay…"

Newt was Hope's happiness

"I'm happy you're alive, Newt!"

Newt was Hope's feelings

"I didn't hate it…"

Newt was Hope's everything.

"I adore you."

Newt was the person that Hope-

"After you tell them the truth, they'll hate you."

No.

"They'll throw you away."

No, none of that mattered.

"Don't be selfish."

None of that mattered, because Mara was always right. Whatever Hope felt toward Newt, she could never act on those feelings. And however much Hope cared for her friends, she couldn't be with them. To Hope, she was too ugly and too dirty to be with them; through those years of torment, Mara had made Hope completely believe that she was unworthy of anything but rejection. Mara made Hope believe that there was nothing good about her - that she was too dirty for anyone to truly care for her. Hope would rather never see her friends again than make them live a life with her in it. That was what years of isolation and hatred could do to a person, and it was hard to free them from their life-long trauma. Someone was going to have to fight for Hope. Someone was going to have to cut the chains that Mara was using to choke Hope with. Or, maybe, it didn't have to be a 'someone'. Maybe, instead, this someone could become… some group of crazy boys.

"Your food's cold…" The doctor sighed after seeing Hope unable to move. "I'll go get you some more, okay? Just hang in there."

The woman took the tray of food off from Hope's lap, strode toward the door, and then exited the room. But sadly, even though Hope was the only person in there, she still could not move from her spot. Mara's chains were too strong; they were starting to rot Hope's heart once more. However, those chains wouldn't be able to fully consume Hope's heart… before sirens suddenly sounded through the entire compound.

"What the…?" Hope's head snapped upward. "What's going on?"

Hope knew only a few things, and those few things were everything that that doctor had told her. First: This place wasn't WICKED. Two: Hope was safe from WICKED. And three: Her friends were safe. Those three things were the only thing that Hope knew about this place, so the fact that loud, scary-sounding sirens were going off, made Hope more confused than anything. She had no idea what could've been going on outside of her door; she had no one to answer her, either. Though, Hope wanted to know. Curiosity and uncertainty coursed through her veins, and before Hope could stop herself, she moved her body to stand up from that bed.

"O-Ow…" Hope let out a small noise of pain once she did this. Placing her hand against her chest, Hope took a deep breath in… and out. It was true that Hope's bullet wound still hurt, but it didn't hurt bad enough that it caused Hope to be unable to move. Hence, while the sirens continued to go off, Hope trekked her way across the room and toward the door. The second that the girl opened that door and took a step outside of it, however, something (or someone) bumped into her. "Oh…!"

"Bloody hell!" That voice. That singular voice made Hope's eyes widen like saucers. More so, just like that undeniable voice, Hope knew whose body had run into her. And although he smelled different, Hope knew exactly who those arms wrapped around her and that chest in front of her belonged to. Slowly, Hope looked upward, and she was met… with Newt's dark brown eyes. "W-Wait… You're…"

"Oh my gosh, Hope!" Just then, another pair of arms wrapped around Hope and pushed her away from Newt. Hope, of course, let out a noise of surprise, but the young boy merely kept smiling his brightest of smiles. "Hope, you're okay! You're okay!"

"Woof, woof!" Likewise, Hugo ran up and jumped up onto Hope. The dog used her body as leverage to lick Hope's face, his tail wagging furiously. "Woof, woof! Woof!"

"Um, hey, Hugo! A-And Chuck!" Hope greeted the two during her moments of bewilderment. However, that shock only worsened when she saw who else was standing around her. Frypan, Minho, Newt, and Thomas were each showing the girl equally baffled looks, but the girl was more focused on her doctor being held at gunpoint by Thomas. "W-What's going on?! What did you guys do?!"

"Pfft," Frypan snickered, "nice to see you, too, Hope."

"And bold of you to assume we did something," Minho added. "This isn't our fault."

"That doesn't matter!" Thomas suddenly cut into the conversation. "We can talk later, but we need to find Teresa! And we need to get outta here!" Then, Thomas pointed his glare back at the doctor. "So, where is she?"

"Sh-She's only two doors down from this one!" the woman stuttered. "It's right there!"

Almost instantly, Thomas pushed through the group and equally pushed the doctor with him. But while Hope was still utterly flabbergasted, she abruptly felt someone grab onto her hand. And when Thomas slammed open the door to Teresa's room, that same hand pulled Hope into that room. Chuck slammed the door shut, while Thomas gave Minho his gun to protect the door. Then, once Chuck had finished barricading the door as well, he helped Frypan start tying up the other doctors in the room. When Hope witnessed this, though, uneasiness coursed through her veins. She didn't like what she was seeing - she didn't like seeing those doctors on their knees, fear in their eyes. But luckily for Hope, the owner of the hand that had pulled her into the room saw that uneasiness. Newt saw how scared Hope was, and he wanted to fix it.

"Hey… Look at me…" Newt said in a soft voice, gently placing his fingers against Hope's jawline and making her look only at him. At first, Hope's heart erupted with feeling upon feeling Newt's hand on her skin. Her cheeks heated up, and her eyes wavered as they stared at Newt's earnest face. That face…. His hands… Both of those things made Hope want to do things that she couldn't do. Thankfully, however, the things that Newt said next made Hope's bashfulness turn into seriousness. "Hope, I don't know what they've told you, but this is WICKED."

"W-Wait, what?" Hope stammered. "Are you sure?"

"Thomas saw something," Newt explained as quickly as he could. "Something bad… Something very, very bad."

"So now we're tryna get out!" Frypan commented while he finished tying up the last doctor. "And thank god we ran into you, Hope!"

"Yeah," Minho looked over his shoulder and smiled at Hope, "you always like to pop into our lives at the perfect time, don't you?"

BANG! All of a sudden, the group heard a loud bang behind them, yet this noise wasn't caused by any of their enemies. Instead, it was caused by Thomas, who was banging a window with a chair. Similarly, in Thomas' same direction, Hope was finally able to see Teresa's weak state as she got up from her bed. Therefore, despite everything that Hope was going through, the girl ran up to hold onto Teresa's arms. Teresa looked up from the ground when she felt someone supporting her, and her eyes widened upon seeing Hope.

"H-Hope…" Teresa gasped. "You're okay!"

"Kind of," Hope sighed, but there was still a smile on her face. "We gotta get out of here, though. It's not safe. Are you able to walk?"

"Yeah." Teresa nodded as she let go of Hope to stand up straight. "I'm okay."

CRASH! It was then that Thomas (with the additional help of Newt) crashed their chairs through the window, making glass fly everywhere.

"Come on, guys!" Thomas shouted to his friends, jumping over and through the broken window first. "Watch the glass! Let's go!"

Teresa jumped through next, using her sweater to jump over the threshold without getting glass in her feet, and Hope followed along in Teresa's footsteps, not having any shoes on either; the boys did the same as the two girls, but there was still one boy left in the other room. Minho, who hadn't pointed his gun away from the door yet. From that door, everyone could see that the guards were about to get through Chuck's barricade, so Thomas was forced to speak up. "Minho, we're good! Jump through!"

Hearing this, Minho instantly turned around and then threw the gun back over to Thomas. Furthermore, once Thomas had flawlessly caught the gun, Minho picked up Hugo to allow them both to jump over and into the other room. So now that everyone was in the same room, ready to go, that was Thomas' cue to run toward the metal door leading out of the room.

"Stay behind me!" Thomas shouted, but the second he opened up that door- "Woah!"

BANG! In a moment of surprise, Thomas shot his gun when he saw yet another guard standing there. This caused the guard to (obviously) get shot, but it also caused what looked like static electricity to surround his body. Whatever Thomas had hit the man with, definitely wasn't a normal bullet. Nevertheless, Thomas made the situation into a positive by running past the electrified guard with no problem, the rest of his friends following right behind him. The group then found themselves running down a long hallway, and although Hope didn't know how the group would get through the ginormous door at the end of that hallway, the girl followed her friends regardless. Though, it seemed that, maybe, her friends and her would get stuck after all.

"No, no, no!" Thomas yelled, hastily swiping his keycard through the card reader beside the door. But each time, the door never opened - the keycard wasn't working. "C'mon, work! Wo-!"

"Thomas…!" All of a sudden, a voice bellowed through the hallway, and it made all the hairs on Hope's body stick straight up. Her breath hitched, while her head shakily turned toward the voice's owner: a man with a smile that, in Hope's lifetime, she'd never be able to forget. It didn't even matter that there were several armed guards walking behind him. The thing that scared Hope the most was that smile. The smile… that belonged to A.D. Janson.

"What a waste…"

Janson's voice sounded through Hope's head.

"She's broken."

He had said those things… with a smile on his face.

"Open this door, Janson!" However, Thomas' blaring voice cut Hope away from her memories, and she ultimately saw what the boy was doing. With his gun pointed straight at Janson, and his feet moving toward the man as well, Thomas was facing the man straight-on. "Open the damn door!"

"You really don't want me to!" Janson remarked as he, and his posse of scary-looking guards, made their way closer to Thomas as well. "I'm trying to save your life! The Maze is one thing, but you kids wouldn't last one day out in the Scorch! And if the elements don't kill you, the Cranks will! Thomas, you have to believe me! I only want what's best for you!"

"Yeah, let me guess," Thomas growled. "WICKED is good?"

"Trust me," Janson's smile twitched, "you're not getting through that door, Thomas."

Click! But almost like the world had heard him, the door behind Thomas' friends clicked open. And once the door had lifted all the way up, everyone could see Aris and Winston standing there. Of course, neither Hope nor Teresa knew who this Aris was yet, but they were still thankful for the save. Moreover, when Aris greeted the group with a quaint little, "Hey, guys," Hope just had to smile.

"Thomas, c'mon!" Likewise, when the group ran through the door, Newt turned back toward his one friend not beside them. "Let's go! It's open!"

BANG, BANG, BANG! Thomas started shooting his gun toward the soldiers, quickly backing himself up with each bang. However, upon seeing that this gun was out of ammo, Thomas dropped that gun, whipped his body around, and started running toward that door as fast as he could.

"Stop him!" When Janson saw what Thomas was doing, he immediately started doing the same and started sprinting. Then, putting his communication device to his mouth, Janson acted out his final means to stop Thomas. "Shut the main vault door! Main vault door! Shut it!"

But Hope knew better than anyone that Thomas couldn't be stopped. Whatever obstacles were in his way, even if he got trapped on the other side of this door, Thomas would never stop. He would never give up. So when Thomas managed to slide underneath that door at the last second, a smile formed on Hope's face. Thomas truly was an extraordinary person, but why… Hope had to wonder why she was still a part of his story; she wondered why the world had chosen to reunite her with her friends again. Wasn't she unworthy of them? Wasn't she not supposed to be in their lives anymore? Wasn't she…

"And if you don't tell them who you truly are, then… then you are more selfish than I thought."

Hope believed herself to be selfish, so why…

Why did a selfish person like her deserve to be with selfless people like them?

A/N: SnowyDragon250, I was thinking the same thing. I do want to add some extra "bonding time" between them, since in the movies, they really didn't get a lot of those. I'll try my best to squeeze as many as I can.

Also, in regards to Mara having the Flare or not, I'm just gonna say that it's a little more complicated than that. ;+)