An intervention with a WCKD train, a close call with a group of Cranks, and a series of explosions at the Last City's walls. Those were the events that led up to their kidnapping.

As they ran from the bombs targeted at them from inside the City, they were grabbed by the group of men they spotted earlier when they made their way towards the wall. Ada found herself being pushed into the back of a white van alongside Thomas and Brenda.

Before she could process a thing, the van had jolted into action, and they were sat with three of their kidnappers in almost darkness with no clue as to where they were going.

Ada went to talk to Thomas, who she could feel trembling slightly beside her, when she found that the breath had been sucked out of her lungs. She went to inhale, but there was nothing there.

A wave of panic crashed over her as she began to hyperventilate. Shaky breaths rattled her entire body as she cried out for help, her hands clutching her throat desperately.

She was having a panic attack.

Ever since arriving in the Scorch, there had been a weight of anxiousness just pressing down on her chest. Sometimes it was barely there, and sometimes it built up to extreme heights. It had never felt as bad as it did then.

Thomas' hands moved to the back of her neck and to her hair, keeping her head still and her eyes firmly on him to help get her breathing back into a normal pattern. To an outsiders perspective, it would've looked incredibly intimate. But to her, it only felt platonic.

"Just breathe."

As she desperately tried to calm her heaving breaths, a hushed whisper from one of the guards made her gently push Thomas' arms away from her and look to the source of the sound. When she did, she found one had placed their wrist on another, who had seemingly gone to calm her down. Her distraction seemed to aid her in her recovery.

The guard whose arm was being held captive - like they were being held captive, funnily enough - averted their gaze from her completely, snatching their arm back and folding their hands over their chest. It was clear, even with the masks, that they felt flustered. But that's not what Ada was focusing on.

Why did they want to comfort me?

As she shuffled back into her space beside Brenda, she focused her eyes on the side of the van, so that the suspicious guard was just visible in her peripheral vision. And sure enough, they were acting suspicious again. Now that it seemed like she wasn't looking, they were staring at her once again.

Although it was impossible to make out the person's face, she found herself still trying to look through their red tinted gas mask to identify their features. 

The rest of the journey was utterly silent. Brenda had moved her hand to the girl's shoulder, comfortingly, and she rested against Thomas too, to keep herself calm by keeping her friends close.

They eventually came to a stop, and to their surprise, the back of the van was opened from the outside. The guards inside hurried them out, before jumping out after them, and instantly moving to shun them into a small group.

They found themselves on an old highway road now turned into a civilisation. Ada could see people gathered in conversation, and washing lines hanging down, and she could faintly smell bread being baked. 

The kidnappers looked out of place from the rest of the calm surroundings. And although they were a great contrast from those just sat or stood chatting, no one seemed bothered by the gas-mask wearing men wielding guns.

She pushed all of that out of her mind as she looked back to her kidnappers, who were now focused on two more white vans skidding to a stop in front of them. She most specifically looked at the guard she found suspicious, but even he wasn't looking at her currently.

In the first van came Frypan and Newt. They were pushed out of the van by two masked guards, who shoved them into line with Ada, Thomas and Brenda. Ada found Frypan's hand, squeezing his gently to signal that she was glad he was okay.

In the second van was Jorge.

Jorge seemed to be involved in a fist fight with the guard he had been stuck with, and despite the predicament they were in, Ada felt sorry for the kidnapper that had to deal with him. The man packed a punch, especially if someone had taken Brenda away.

He knocked the other man to the ground, hovering over him intimidatingly and with his fist still raised above his head. He snarled in the guard's face, hissing as he asked, "Where is she?" before hitting him square in the jaw.

Brenda immediately rushed forward, along with another group of guards who attempted to rescue the kidnapper from Jorge's grasp. She yanked Jorge from the man, calming him with reassuring words. He tugged her into an enthusiastic hug, relieved to see she was okay.

Despite the fact the kidnappers had grabbed them quite roughly - not to mention the whole kidnapping - Ada was getting the sense that they weren't actually in serious danger.

And then they all moved.

They were each seized by a masked guard, either pushed back into their previous position or shoved up against the side of a van. Ada furiously tried to fight the man with a hold on her, whose fingers were digging into her arms, most definitely leaving marks.

And then that guard approached them, speaking in a low voice to the man with a grip on her. She couldn't catch his voice, but whatever he said must have been powerful, because she was then let go.

"Who are you?" She asked in frustration, as he wandered a few steps away.

The guard turned back to look at her, and she watched as they hesitated, before ignoring the question completely. The other guards hadn't dropped their hold on her friends, and so she moved towards Brenda to help her out.

"Alright everyone just relax, we're all on the same side here!" The guard yelled out, holding his gun more tightly, despite the words he said.

And then Ada froze.

She felt every fibre of her being become tense as a whole ocean of emotions broke over her. She could recognise that voice anywhere.

But then she thought: what if it's not him? What if it's just someone that sounds and - now that she's noticed it - looks exactly like him?

Because now she's just admitted to herself how much she wants it to be him. And if it isn't; she'll be devastated. She can't go back to that same state of mourning. But if it is him, then all that mourning and grief was for nothing.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

"What do you mean? Who the hell are you guys?" Thomas broke away from the guard on him, whirling on the possible boy returned from the dead in an oblivious state of rage.

Ada saw it again: the same hovering of hesitation from the guard. For a split second, she ripped her eyes away from him to look to Newt, who had wide eyes of horror and a spark of belief.

"It's not-" He began to mumble under his breath to her.

"I think it is." She replied firmly, despite her trembling figure.

Because now that she had studied him, she had no idea how she had missed it. And her heart was breaking in that moment. 

Gally wanted to comfort her in the van. He wanted to keep her safe from the man with a hold on her. And he just wanted to see her.

She knew all of these things.

And she just didn't know how she was supposed to feel. Not now, after six months of believing he was gone. 

She hated to admit it; the fact that she accepted he was gone.

But clearly, she hadn't accepted it that deeply. Because the split second she had a suspicion he was still alive - despite being alive - she hopped onto that train of thought without a flicker of thought to how she watched Minho spear him in the chest.

He turned away, ever so slightly, raising his hand to his mask and lifting it over his head. In that moment, Ada melted. 

It was him.

He looked older, taller, and full of terror. No matter how much he wanted to look at the girl he had missed more than anything, he couldn't bear to see if she was watching him in disgust. And so he kept his eyes firmly on Thomas; the boy he knew wouldn't want to see him - therefore he was okay with it.

"Hey Greenie."

And then, despite everything inside of him that screamed about a fear of rejection if the girl didn't want to see him, he couldn't resist catching her eye to see her reaction. He had never stopped loving her, but as she stared at him, she found herself falling harder than she ever had before.