Blue and Brown

"Guys!" Thomas shouted. "We gotta go!"

BOOM! CRACK! BOOM! Thunder boomed through the clouds, while lightning cracked against the ground. But this wasn't any normal storm. Despite the dark clouds, and the obvious lighting and thunder, there wasn't a signal drop of rain. The only thing that dropped from the clouds was the lighting, which seemed to be getting closer with each second that passed. The group watched with horror as the sky lit-up with flashes of light, while they felt the Earth shake below them. This was bad. Really bad. Thus, upon seeing a lighting strike a little too close for comfort, Thomas finally snapped out of it and made the order to start running. But the quicker they moved, the faster the storm followed them. There was only one thing keeping the group running, and it was the conveniently-placed building only a few yards away from them. If they made it inside, then they'd be safe. Their backpacks may have been hurting their backs and legs, yet safety was still top priority.

They just had to keep going. They needed to forget about the pain and keep moving forward. And they couldn't stop moving forward… unless you were struck by freaking lighting.

The bolt of lightning hit the ground directly beside Minho, causing him to fall straight to the ground. Of course, Thomas and Newt were able to pick him back up, but in those moments, none of them knew if he was actually alive or not. Nor did they have time to dwell on it. They just had to keep moving until they were inside that building; they couldn't stop until they were safe. However, once they (miraculously) had all found themselves within the confines of the building, the notion of Minho's life hit them like a rock. If they lost yet another friend, then… then the world truly was a cruel, cruel monster.

"Put him down! Watch his head!" Thomas shouted from within the darkness. "Who's got a light?!"

Click! Newt clicked on his flashlight, giving everyone a clear view of Minho's lifeless body lying on the ground. They were each crowding around him with petrified looks on their faces, praying that everything would be all right. For once in this journey, they needed just one win. One, singular win would be enough.

"Minho!" Thomas yelled as she shook Minho's body.

"Come on, man!" Newt pleaded as well. "Come on!"

"Ruff, ruff!" Even Hugo started barking. "Ruff, ruff!"

Hope took a step back. She was the only one standing, but upon taking that step back, she almost fell to the floor like everyone else. If Minho died, then… then that would be the last straw. Just last night he'd talked about his pain, and how he merely wanted to protect his friends. That was all Minho wanted, so why was the world being so cruel? So unfair? Hope couldn't take the cruelty and the unfairness any longer. She couldn't bear it. Seeing her friends go through pain - the only friends she'd ever made - made Hope feel worse than when she was trapped in that apartment. It killed her inside. Hope would have done anything to keep her friends safe, so… so why did the world keep choosing her life over theirs? Alby, Clint, Gally, Jeff, Winston, Zart, and everyone else that had died: Hope wondered why she wasn't the one dead instead. Please, Hope prayed, don't die, Minho.

"Ugh!" Just then, a pained groan escaped Minho's lips. "Ow!"

"There he is!" Frypan beamed.

"Are you okay?" Thomas quickly asked. "Anything broken?"

"Uhm," Minho gave Thomas a weird look upon hearing that question, "what the heck happened?"

"You got struck by lightning, man!" Chuck exclaimed with excitement. "And you survived! You're awesome, Minho!"

"Oh, well…" Minho copied the boy's smile. "We know that already."

"Pfft," Newt snickered. "Just stand up, you bloody shank… N-Nice and slow, though."

"...Holy crap." Finally, Hope was able to let out the breath she'd been holding in. As the boys celebrated Minho's alive-ness, Hope had a celebration of her own. That snap back into reality, however, prompted Hope to suddenly notice something: the smell. It was rancid. Putrid. Flat-out gross. And it seemed that Teresa noticed it as well, since she had the same disgusted look on her face. "You smell that too, right?"

"Yeah…" Teresa nodded while Hope walked up to her side. "What is that?"

"Something dead?" Hope pondered, but then… her eyes widened in realization. "Oh cra- GET BACK!"

Hope grabbed onto Teresa's clothes and yanked her backward the second she saw a Crank appear out from the darkness. This made the boys snap out of their happiness, too, and back away from the numerous Cranks also appearing from the darkness. There were a lot of them, yet none of them were close enough to hurt them. They were stuck. They were… stopped by something. And by looking to where Newt shone his flashlight, Hope could see a chain sparkle against its light. The sight made Hope's fear turn into confusion. "They're… tied up? But by whom?"

"I see you've met our guard dogs!" A deep yet obvious female voice abruptly shot through the area. It was a confident voice: one filled with self-assurance and no hesitation. Similarly, from the group's right, the owner of this voice walked with that same confidence. She walked right past the chained up Cranks without even batting an eye, and once she was standing in front of them, she showed them each a smirk. "You guys look like shit… And… is that an actual dog?"

"Woof!" Hugo barked joyfully, prompting the girl's smirk to turn into a smile.

"Cute."

"W-Who…" Thomas shook his head in pure confusion. "Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter right now. Just follow me," she said while turning back around. However, when no one in the group followed, the girl's dark brown eyes looked over her shoulder and glimmered with amusement. "Unless you want to stay here with them."

Yeah, there was only one answer to that statement. Hence, the group that just kept getting larger followed behind the girl. Hope stared at the back of the girl's head, a feeling of scary familiarity consuming her. That girl's haircut… was the exact same as Mara's, only this girl's was brown and Mara's was blonde. And her confidence was something they shared, too. Of course, Hope knew that comparing the two was wrong, but… she couldn't help it. The smallest of things could send Hope flying back into her past. Nevertheless, Thomas' voice flew her back into the present.

"Hey," Thomas spoke up once they walked into another room, "how do you catch them?"

"'Catch them'"? the girl scoffed. "What, do you think we're stupid? We don't catch them - we just take precautions when people start to turn."

"Woah… That's actually really smart…" Chuck smiled with enthusiasm. "S-Sad but smart! Imagine if we could've done that with the Grievers!"

"Dude," Minho huffed, "why are you bringing those things up?"

"...Wait!" Teresa yelled as they entered a much larger room. "Those things back there are your friends? You just chained them up?"

The girl shrugged. "No worse than setting them close to Crank-land."

"What the heck is 'Crank-land'?" Frypan mumbled.

"Huh," the girl stopped walking and turned around, "you guys aren't from around here, are you?"

She then latched her hands onto a handle before sliding a large door open. But unlike her, who walked through the threshold completely calm, the group walked into that ginormous room with surprise in their eyes. It looked like a huge warehouse that was broken down yet still well intact, and there were orange lights illuminating the entire area. As the group walked, they got multiple stares from scary-looking men and women; those people had tattoos, torn clothes, and some even had large scars. Compared to the Scorch, this place was a luxury, but it didn't look like those people were very lucky at all. They looked like they'd been through hell, so Hope being Hope stared sympathetically at them. Right when Hope was about to walk up some stairs, though, she came face-to-face with one of those scary men. And her sympathy turned into fear.

"So now we're taking in strays?" the man asked, staring his old eyes straight down into Hope's. "What're we gonna do with 'em? Are they useful or… are they for fun?"

"U-Um…" Hope gulped. "W-What does that- Woah!"

"Try to touch her again, and I'm gonna cut off your hand," Minho threatened after pulling Hope to hide her behind his back. Furthermore, it was then and only then that Hope noticed Minho clenching the scary-man's wrist. She didn't even see that he'd try to grab her before. "So back off."

"You're a twig, kid," the man argued with a malicious smile. "You can't possibly think that-"

"Hey, Minho." Thomas, who was already standing on the stairs, stepped down a few steps to stand right beside the man. "You get his right, and I'll get his left. I think it'll be easy."

"I agree," Newt said as he now stood beside Minho. "And I'll cut it off. His hand and… maybe another thing."

"Oi," the man growled, "who do you think you're-"

"Back off, Barton!" the girl finally cut in. "They told you off, and Jorge saw them first… Don't be a dumbass."

Hearing that, the scary man took a step away from the three even scarier boys. Hope had watched with confusion in her eyes, not necessarily understanding her friends' angry reactions. Still, when everyone started making their way up those stairs, Hope did the same; this made the girl unable to witness Frypan and Chuck give the man the middle finger behind her. Chuck did it with both hands, while Hugo gave the man a growl. Either way, the group was able to move past the incident without any true incident occurring, so that was good enough for Hope. Moreover, it was true that the teenagers weren't getting a good feeling off of the place, yet they didn't necessarily have any other choice. Thomas was curious about what this 'Jorge' had to say, too.

"So, uh, who's Jorge?" Thomas asked, making the girl smile knowingly.

"You'll see... No one's come out of the Scorch in a long time - you've just got him curious… And me too."

When the girl looked over her shoulder to stare suggestively at Thomas, Hope couldn't stop herself from raising an eyebrow. Thomas had Teresa, and now this girl as well? He was a lady-grabber for sure. As Hope was thinking this, though, Newt let out a grumble after receiving a weird smile from a creepy man. "This place just keeps feeling worse and worse…"

"Let's just hear him out," Thomas proposed. "See what he has to say."

The girl led the group up another flight of stairs, and at this point, they were pretty high up. The ground of the building was now yards underneath them, which made the young Chuck gulp when he looked down. Nonetheless, Hope could tell that this 'Jorge' was high up on the pecking order. Not only was his "office" located so high up, but his name alone made people back up too. Whoever this man was, he was smart and scary enough to make thugs listen to him.

"Jorge!" the girl said once she'd reached the top of the stairs. "They're here."

"Shhh," the man 'Jorge' shushed. He was sitting over toward the far wall, his back turned to everyone, and his focus was on a radio sitting on his desk. The room itself was much nicer than the rest of the building: there was furniture, electronics, even some nice-looking food. However, when something seemingly didn't go Jorge's way with the radio, the man let out a curse of irritation. Then, he turned around, placed his hands onto his waist, and addressed the group face-on. "Do you ever get the feeling the whole world's against you?"

Hope took a full step back. For the first few seconds, Hope was glued to her spot one step behind everyone, her eyes wide. But then, upon seeing the man named 'Jorge' start analyzing everyone in the group, Hope immediately hid herself behind Frypan and Newt: she pulled their two bodies together, allowing no one to see her body or face. Obviously, this caused either of the boys to glance back to show Hope a confused stare, but when they saw Hope just shake her head, they didn't need an explanation. That uncanny fear in her eyes was enough of an answer. Sadly, though, Hope didn't have any answers at all. She didn't know how or why the man that had rejected as a child was here, nor did she understand why this young girl was with him. Either way, a simple glance in that man's direction… made visions of the past stab through Hope's heart.

"I can't stay here anymore - I don't wanna!"

Hope's cheeks turned red with embarrassment.

"P-Please! I'm scared!"

And her body physically shook upon remembering her actions.

"Get off of me."

Now, the same man standing before her friends, had rejected those actions.

This hurt.

It made Hope almost unable to breathe.

"Three questions. Where did you come from? Where are you going? How can I profit?" But when Hope heard Jorge's voice deepen during his final sentence, she did something without even thinking: her hand snapped upward to clench onto Newt's jacket from behind, and Newt himself tried to not notice it while Jorge continued his speech. On another note, no one - not a single person - had answered Jorge's previous three questions. Thomas' group merely glanced at one another, not knowing what to do. This caused Jorge, who now had a cup and pitcher in either hand, to shrug almost comically. "Don't all answer at once."

"...We're headed for the mountains," Thomas eventually said. "Looking for the Right Arm."

"Heh. You're looking for ghosts, you mean." Like everyone else in that room, Jorge laughed at that comment. Then, after taking a sip of water, Jorge continued and even walked closer to the group. "Question number two! Where did you come from?"

"That's our business," Minho stated without hesitation, but this… only made things worse. All of a sudden, a bunch of men grabbed each member of the group, holding them back from Thomas, who had his upper-body suddenly being pushed down. In response, Thomas started shouting and fighting back in retaliation, yet this didn't do much.

"Shut up, you big baby," the girl scoffed, pushing Thomas' upper-body down as well. She then placed this strange, buzzing machine right up to the back of Thomas' neck, causing a couple beeps to sound right after. The girl looked down at the screen of the machine, a shock forming within her dark brown eyes. "You were right…"

"Hm," Jorge let out a gruff as he took the machine in his own hands. That gruff turned into a snicker, however, once the man read the screen as well. "I'm sorry, hermano. Looks like you're tagged." Then, slowly looking back into Thomas's eyes, Jorge's expression turned dead-serious. "You came from WICKED, which means… you are very valuable."

'Valuable': that word echoed through Hope's head. As scary men and scary women slowly advanced toward the group of teens, Hope tightly shut her eyes in anticipation. She might have been afraid, she may have been shaking only moments before, but if she could help her friends… If she could do anything to lessen their "valuability," then Hope would do so. The girl tightened her grip on Newt's jacket… before ultimately letting go of it. So, right before any of those thugs could touch her friends, Hope made a sacrifice. "Wait…!"

The entire room went silent, the scary people stopped moving closer, and her friends anxiously turned their heads toward Hope behind them. But regardless of the unfamiliar attention, Hope knew that she needed to stay strong for this. She couldn't shrink or run away - she needed to face Jorge to protect her friends. Hence, Hope deliberately started walking past those same friends, her head downward until she stood directly in front of Jorge. She had done this, because she specifically needed him to see her eyes. She needed him… to remember her eyes.

"If you want value, then I'm the one you're looking for," Hope sighed and then finally looked her eyes straight into Jorge's. "You know who I am, don't you?"

For the first time, neither confidence nor humor showed on Jorge's face. This time, it was disbelief. His brown eyes widened, while the smallest of gasps left his lips. Jorge stared down into Hope's blue eye and brown eye, making it at last his turn… to hear voices from the past.

"I can't stay here!"

Jorge could still feel Hope's shaking hand.

"I don't wanna!"

He could hear her young yet tired voice.

"P-Please!"

And Jorge… After all those years…

"I'm scared!"

He had never forgotten that little girl.

The petrified, tearful girl that had begged for his help…

He had rejected those same eyes staring into his eyes now.

"Get them outta here," Jorge ordered, whipping his arm up to point toward his right. "I wanna talk to this one alone."

One of the men stepped forward. "What do you want us to do with 'em?"

"Tie them up," Jorge dropped his arm, "but don't hurt them. Our most valuable chica doesn't want us to."

"Hold on a second!" Thomas barked when one of the men tried to pull him away. "Hope! What're you doing?!"

"We can't just leave you here!" Chuck added. "It's not safe!"

Frypan shook his head. "And you can't expect us to just leave!"

"What if they do something to you!?" Minho yelled, prompting Teresa to do the same.

"What are you trying to do?!"

"Hope…" But upon hearing Newt's voice, Hope turned her head to look back at her friends. She looked straight into his eyes, seeing an uneasiness within them. "Hope, what is this?"

"This is me doing what's right," Hope said in a stern yet calm tone. "It's okay. I got this. You'll see me in a bit, alright?"

Hope had to cringe while she heard her friends' ongoing protests, so she turned her head away once more. Even when the men yanked them away from the room, she could still hear some of their angry words of protests. She didn't like that they were being separated, but she also knew that this could be the only way. Furthermore, Hope knew that Jorge used to be a member of WICKED, and she knew that Jorge knew about her own past with them. But what about now? Was he still with them? Or had he left? And who was this girl sitting in the room with them? Her and Jorge must have been close if he hadn't kicked her out of the room too. Hope needed to know what was going on, because she needed to ensure her friends' safety. For the time being, she needed to become the curious Thomas and the affable Newt.

Staring into Jorge's eyes, Hope didn't see malice or an evil man. She saw… a conflict swirling within him. A conflict that he couldn't contain any longer. Therefore, after everyone but the three had left the room, Jorge finally started talking in that Spanish accent of his. "What is this?"

"What is what?" Hope asked.

"What are you doing here?" Jorge furthered. "You can't be here."

Hope tilted her head. "Why not?"

"You know why," Jorge seethed. "The fact that you're standing here right now, proves that you know how important you are to Ava Paige. However, that doesn't explain how you're here."

"I'm here, because Ava - believe it or not - put me into a Maze," Hope explained, causing Jorge's eyes to widen once more. "And now, believe it or not, I'm fleeing with the same people within my Maze… Well, and not very unbelievable, WICKED is still chasing us."

"You lost me until the end of that explanation," Jorge huffed. "WICKED chasing you makes sense, but… everything else, there's no way. Ava Paige would nev-"

"Jorge!" Before the man could finish, the girl's voice interrupted. Hope looked right, Jorge looked left, both of them seeing the girl showing them each baffled glances. "Mind explaining to me who this girl is? And what's the devil herself has got to do with this? With her?"

"She's…" Jorge gazed back down at Hope. "Brenda, this is the girl I talked about a little after we first met: the little girl with a blue and brown eye."

"W-What?" the girl now known as 'Brenda' gasped. She snapped her head toward Hope, a new understanding within her eyes. "You're her?"

"I'm who…?" Hope murmured in puzzlement and then turned that puzzlement toward Jorge. "A-And you told her about-?"

"That doesn't matter right now!" It was Jorge's turn to interrupt. "What matters is why. If you're telling me the truth, I need to know why Ava Paige would send you into a Maze."

"But why…?" Hope questioned, making Jorge let out another huff.

"Because I need to know if you're still on good terms with her or not. I need to know if she would rather never see you again or… she'd do everything in her power to see you again."

"So what you're really asking," Hope smiled a sad smile, "is how much my value is?"

"You could say that." Jorge nodded. "Yes."

"Well, you're in luck, because I'm pretty sure she doesn't hate me," Hope acknowledged with a shrug. "I got hurt in the Maze. Or, well, I got hurt getting out of it. So, Ava brought me back to WICKED to heal me. And if that's not enough for you, she… she left someone behind. There was another wounded teenager just like me, right beside me, and yet they only took me back to WICKED. I-I even have the bullet scar, if you need that as evidence as well."

Hope couldn't stop herself from stuttering during that final sentence, since she hated talking about Gally. She had tried to keep the situation out of her mind (the situation where Gally was left to die and not her), but sadly, Hope knew she had to bring it up now. To prove her point, and to protect her friends, she had to think about Gally. And Gally… Gally's death hurt. He didn't have a choice - his mind was corrupted. He died for nothing, and Hope felt that she was equally saved for nothing. Even worse, WICKED had taken Gally's flowers from her, so Hope had nothing to remember him by. All she had left was his crying, lifeless eyes within her head.

"…P-Please, just understand that Ava saved me," Hope said after recollecting herself. "She saved my life, and it didn't seem like she was gonna let me or my friends go, either. But regardless of that, I… I beg of you to let my friends go free." Now, Hope's pleading eyes stared up onto Jorge's. "You can turn me in, you can sell me back to WICKED, but please let them go. They never did anything wrong, and they just want to find a home. A safe place where they don't have to worry anymore. P-Plus, I'll get you more money than all of them combined! You don't need them! And… A-And you know that…" Hope's eyes filled with guilt. "You know that I don't deserve to be saved… Y-You can do the same thing you did to me back then, but please not to them. You know that they… You know that they deserve freedom more than I do."

That blue eye and that brown eye stared up into Jorge's eyes, an urgency, a shame, and a fear within each of them. And although Jorge didn't show it, he felt the same exact emotions, because that look in Hope's eyes… was the same as back then. On that day, when Hope clung to his sleeve, her eyes had these same emotions within them. Her little hand, her young face, and her tears… Jorge had never forgotten her. He'd never forgotten about that day, because believe it or not, he felt guilty over what he had done. After all those years, Jorge had never forgiven himself for rejecting that sad little girl. And now that that same girl was begging him once more, but instead was begging him to put her back into WICKED, hurt Jorge even more. He had done this to her: Jorge had made her believe she was somebody not worth saving.

However, when Jorge glanced over at Brenda, he found strength within himself. He saw hope for the future - his future - and a way to move on. So, with Hope standing before him now, Jorge knew exactly what he needed to do. To move forward with his life, the man needed to stop running from his past, and instead, help to heal it.

"I will talk to your friends," Jorge ultimately said while looking his eyes back into Hope's. "And when I come back, you're coming with us."

Hope's eyes immediately turned confused. "Wait, where are we go-"

"Brenda, look after her," Jorge interjected, snatching his cane before walking toward where Hope's friends were yanked off to. "Don't let her out of your sight!"

Then, Jorge was out of the two girls' sight, leaving them to stand there alone and as perplexed as the other.

A/N: SnowyDragon250, yes. ;+)

And sorry for (another) late upload. This may happen often in the coming future, but we'll see what happens.