⁰⁰     ▇ ¨. ༢ ͎۪۫ 𝒕𝒘𝒐 ... ❜

━━  ❛  𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔. ❜  ‧˖˚. ☄︎ ͎۪۫ ◞⁺.
❪ part 03. location: unknown.
©kiiizones, all rights reserved ❫.

𝑱𝑨𝑵𝑺𝑶𝑵 𝑯𝑨𝑫𝑵'𝑻 𝑨𝑮𝑬𝑫 much. Only the hair around his temples had spun into a dull grey; his face was still as thin and pale as it had been in her nightmares. His eyes were black and dull like broken coals, an odd half-smile twisting his features as he took them all in. Emis braced herself as he cast his eyes towards her━but nothing happened. His gaze swept over her as if she were air or smoke. There wasn't a sliver of recognition.

She felt the shock twist into confusion, and then the unmistakable broil of hot anger in her bloodstream. But it was him. The same Janson from her nightmares━from her memories. His eyes black and glinting and hauntingly familiar. Like the windows of a house you'd grown up in but one that was filled with dark, awful memories.

She remembered him, despite the fact that she remembered practically nothing else. So what was he playing at? Surely, he hadn't forgotten what he'd done to her. The pain he'd put her through? The thought roiled the anger in her bloodstream until it was almost white-hot. She clenched her hands into fists by her sides.

Janson seemed to take no notice. "You kids doing alright?" He addressed them as a group. There was only a stunned silence in response. He shifted. "Sorry about the fuss," he added, "we had ourselves a━a bit of a swarm." His face split into what Emis assumed to have meant a sheepish grin. It rolled an involuntary shudder down the length of her spine.

Newt seemed to take the shiver as her being cold; he wound an arm around her waist and drew her closer to him, his eyes flashing with brief concern. She stared back at him, wondering how on earth she was going to get him to believe her.

"Who are you?" Thomas broke the silence in a careful voice. Emis was relieved to see that he looked doubtful━the lack in trust meant that it would be far easier for her to get them to listen.

Janson's smile widened. "I'm the reason you're all still alive, and it is my intention to keep it that way." He said it with great relish, as if he expected a chorus of thanks or applause. There was no response. Emis felt her heart rise up into her throat. "Now," he said, seemingly unbothered by their lack of response. He took a step backwards, out of the doorway, and the white light was hard as it outlined him again. "We'll get you kids squared away."

He turned on his heel to head back the way he had come, clearly expecting them to follow suit. There was a registering pause.

Minho shucked his Runner's harness back on, wearing a sceptical expression. "What's with the Rat-Man?" He asked warily.

"I don't know." Thomas replied, glancing back at him. "He said he's the 'reason we're all still alive'."

"And you believe that?" Teresa had her arms folded across her chest. "I don't know..." She sounded unsure. "How do we know we can trust this guy?"

Emis stepped forwards to reiterate that they couldn't 'trust this guy', but Newt had already started speaking. She closed her mouth with a snap, a horrible, cold hopelessness spreading through her chest as he spoke.

"Look." He said, his voice slightly brittle. "I know we've all been through a lot, but we escaped. We've been waiting three years for something like this to happen━and, I don't know━for now things seem like they might finally be looking up." He sighed. "I get it. It's going to be hard to trust anyone for a while━but━but look at these guys! They seem to know what they're doing, alright? I need a chance to catch m'breath before we go around trying to escape anything again." He finished with another sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Newt's right." Said Frypan. "Let's just see what he has to say."

"'Rat-Man'?" Ed mouthed to Minho as the others turned to leave, his expression halfway between trying-not-to-laugh and deeply-unimpressed. Minho flipped him off and went to head out after Thomas.

Newt made to leave as well, but Emis caught him by the wrist and jerked him back.

"Emis━"

"Newt." She said, the words spilling from her chest in a frantic rush. "I know it sounds impossible━I know, but we can't trust him━"

"Emis, hey." He disentangled himself from her, placing his hands on her shoulders. He didn't seem angry. His eyes were warm and kind and glassed over with exhaustion. "I know how hard this is for you, I know, but we don't have any proof━"

"Yes we do!" She fought to keep her voice from rising to a shout. "Yes, we do, Newt, it's in here! It's in my head━"

"Emis!" His voice hardened. "Look, I understand, but you can't━"

"No you don't! You don't understand." She cut back. "Please, Newt, you have to believe me, he's with them, he's━"

"Is there a problem here?" Janson had returned. He was standing in the doorway, the others a few paces behind him. Emis hadn't realised how loud they'd gotten. His face had split into a cold smile. "A little disagreement?" He offered sympathetically. "I'm afraid it'll have to wait. There's a lot to be done."

"Apologies." Newt sounded exhausted. He stepped away from Emis, refusing to look at her. She realised with a shot of disbelief that he was embarrassed. "We've, uh," he went on. "We've been through a lot."

Janson nodded. "I understand." He said, still wearing that awful smile. "Come on, let's get this done with as quickly as possible. And then you can return to your..." He trailed off with a low chuckle. Emis wanted to strangle him. "Disagreement." He said it with a twist of humour.

Newt didn't say anything, but gestured with a nod of his head that he understood. Janson took a step back, turning around again, and as Newt followed him out, Emis felt an icy pain jerk through her chest. He didn't believe her. And what was worse, is that he seemed hurt by her.

Her eyes sprung with tears, suddenly. Cursing herself, she wiped them away with the sleeve of her shirt and hurried after the others. Somehow, she tried to remind herself. Somehow I'll have to persuade them. Before it's too late.

She fell into step beside Minho, who shot her a brief look of concern. "You alright?" He asked.

Janson was leading them through a small hallway that had cut off from the huge warehouse they had come through. The walls were the same grey concrete; there were banners and signs plastered up displaying more jumbled letters and numbers, things like 'WARNING' and 'CONSTRUCTION AREA. KEEP OUT.' There were people everywhere, wearing hard-hats and workers' overalls, or sporting more military gear and wielding guns or tasers.

"Hang on." She said, breaking into a small smile. "You're not saying you're worried about me, are you?"

He grumbled something, clearing his throat. "Shuck, no." He turned to stare at the back of Newt's head, who was a few paces ahead of them. "I just don't want to be here when you, y'know. Get pissed off."

She bit her lip. "Minho━" She began, but Janson cut her off from the front.

"You can call me Mr. Janson." He said, in a loud voice. They had turned into a wide, warehouse-like room. The ceiling was much lower than it had been in the hangar area, lined with a complicated network of pipes and wires and fluorescent overhead lights. The air was alive with the sounds of construction work; it reeked of sawdust and metal and paint, and sand, as if the air from the desert had found its way in somehow. "I run this place," he continued. "For us it is a sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world."

He turned to glance over his shoulder to check if they were still following behind him. "You all should think of it as a way-station. Kind of a home-between-homes━watch yourselves." He added, as a shower of sparks scattered from the metalwork construction overhead.

Thomas stepped over a tangled belt of wires that had been strewn across the floor. "That mean you're taking us home?" He asked, only slightly desperately.

Janson threw him an unreadable look. "A home of sorts." He admitted, turning to face the front again. "Sadly, there wouldn't be much left of wherever you came from. But," he continued, "we do have a place for you. A refuge, outside the scorch, where WICKED will never find you again." He turned to face them. "How does that sound?"

The roiling, angry tide of her bloodstream had finally gotten too much for Emis to ignore any longer. "Like a lie." She almost growled it.

Janson stopped short, turning to face her. The others had stopped as well. Newt was staring at her as if he didn't know her at all. Somehow, it spurred her on. A reminder that she had to convince him. Convince them.

"I beg your pardon?" Janson's expression was one of mild surprise.

"I know exactly who you are." Emis said, cutting forwards through the group until she was standing directly in front of him. "You're a liar, Janson."

He was looking at her with a bewildered, slightly wondrous expression. As if she were a lunatic. It only made her angrier. He had his hands raised up as if he were trying to get her to calm down. "I can assure you, Artemis━"

There it was. Her name. As soon as it left his mouth, a flare of blinding-hot rage flushed through her. He did recognise her. The thought was an odd relief, but Emis could barely feel it. It seemed only to intensify the anger as it twisted her gut.

"Wait." Ed cut in from the back. "You know her name?"

"Of course." Janson gave a nervous chuckle. "Everyone knows who she is. Who you are." His eyes were dancing with an odd, fond realisation. As if he were looking at a mound of treasure instead of a filthy teenage girl with an uncontrollable temper.

"You're her." He was still speaking. "WICKED's crown jewel. The Huntress." His face split into its familiar, cold, pointed grin. Emis felt the last chord of restraint inside her snap, and with a flood of hot, surging strength, she threw herself at him.

Everything seemed to lapse into triple speed. Janson was stumbling back, throwing his arms out, and Newt's arms were going around her waist. "Emis!" She heard him yell her name, but it was muffled and far-away, as if coming from the other side of a locked door. "Emis━God, Emis, stop it!"

She thrashed out of his grip, throwing him backwards. He stumbled into the others, Thomas dodging to the side and throwing an arm out to stop him from hitting the ground.

Emis wrestled forwards as Janson's foot caught on one of the wires, and he went crashing to the floor. "Sedate her!" She heard him release a strangled cry. "Get her under, don't let her━"

Emis screamed. A sudden wave of freezing-sharp pain had opened up in between her shoulder blades. Twisting around, she saw that the probes of a taser gun had been shot through the material of her shirt. Reaching back, she wrapped her hands around the bare, open wires, ignoring the blinding-hot, razor pain as it ripped up against her skin, and yanked it towards her.

The man attached to the taser gun came flying forwards. She dropped the gun, and raised a hand to catch at his shoulder. He swung around her, his weight stiff and awkward, but she managed to keep her grip on him. He crashed to the floor, and she hauled him up with a grunt, and threw him as far as she could.

He soared away from them, his back slamming hard against a stack of metal crates, and Emis heard his bones crunch as he slumped onto the floor.

"Get away from her! Stop!" Teresa was yelling, her voice high and panicked. Still, Emis could only hear her distantly over the thunderclap of blood rushing in her ears. "Stop!" She said again, "You'll only make it worse!"

Janson was backing up again, his expression one of frozen horror, and Emis lunged towards him with her arms outstretched, preparing to throttle him, and he was there, so close━ and then someone was slamming a syringe into the back of her neck.

She let out a sharp cry of pain as the needle hammered into her skin, releasing a cold, achy numbness that spread like water down the length of her spine. The needle was yanked out, not gently, and she felt everything inside her collapse.

She slumped onto the floor, the room spinning and swinging like a carousel. The world blurred out into blotches of colour and light, and she could hear someone━Newt━calling her name, before her head hit the ground, and she was plunged into darkness.

"𝑺𝑯𝑬'𝑺 slipping back." A voice came floating from somewhere above her.

"What?"

Emis felt as if her body had been submerged in setting concrete. The darkness was still there, but very faintly she could glimpse tiny pinpricks of white light. She tried to open her eyes, but it was as if they had been sewn shut. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but again, her lips were cemented together. With an inward groan, she tried to move her fingertips, and felt a flare of cold excitement as they flinched a little to the side. There was a noise of alarm.

"Look!" The first voice was back. She didn't recognise it. "There, she just moved━"

"The dosage wasn't strong enough. I knew it. Stick her again." This voice was cold, and slightly harsh. A woman's voice.

"But, Doctor Mulligan━"

"Stick her again. We can't afford for her to wake up now. Recovery is only just halfway complete."

"What'll happen if she gains full consciousness?"

A sigh from above. "You don't want to find out." A pause. "Now stick her again."

𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑺 jerked awake, suddenly, as if someone had dashed a glass of cold water in her face.

She hauled herself into a seated position, bracing herself for the familiar blood-rush to her head, the spinning dizziness, but nothing came. And that sickness feeling from earlier━that had gone too.

She blinked, glancing around to take in her surroundings. She was in a bed, the mattress soft and warm underneath her, twisted in sheets that were made of white cotton. Cotton. She ran her hand over the fabric. She had almost forgotten that a physical softness like this existed.

The walls and the floor were all painted a bright, hard white colour too. Even the metal bed-frame was white. Beside her, there was a metal nightstand━ painted the same colour━and on it there was a single cup of water. Or what Emis guessed to be water, anyway. An odd, sharp foreboding had opened itself up inside her chest. A distant feeling at the back of her mind told her that this much white could only mean one thing.

She went to take the cup, and froze. Her arm was bare, the sleeves of her hospital gown only just capping over her shoulders, and the skin was soft and pale and completely blank. She must have been dreaming; if this was real, then her skin would not be clear, but covered in hundreds of tiny white scars instead. And every scar would be identical.

With her heart in her throat, she turned her hand over. In the centre of her palm, there should have been one of those same scars━a white, thin-lined circle, with another circle inside it, and a line shot through it━from when she had cut into it.

It was blank.

She released a sharp breath. "What's going on?" She attempted to speak, and was relieved to find that her voice was its normal dry rasp. "Is anyone there?"

There was nobody in the room with her, but Emis was alert enough to know that in a situation like this that at least one person would be watching her. If not a whole roomful, with clipboards and cameras and microscopes.

"Hello, Artemis." A cool, not unpleasant voice floated up against the silence. She started, whipping her head around to try and lock onto the source of the voice. It was loud and amplified, as if coming through a microphone. But there was nobody in the room except her. Emis was beginning to realise that if her eyes lingered on the same spot for more than a few seconds then the white would start to turn nauseating.

The wall directly in front of her disappeared, suddenly, and melted away into a thin, transparent pane of glass. Emis jumped again, a cold bolt of shock zigzagging down her spine.

There was a woman in front of her, with blonde hair so harsh and fair that it appeared almost white. It was swirled up into a neat, tight updo, and her face was cold and sharp-angled. She was beautiful, but it was a frosted, poisonous beauty. Like admiring the patterns on the scales of a python. Her lips were curved into a smile.

"I'm glad to see you're awake and well." The woman continued. Behind her was a small, clean lab area. There were men and women milling around, wielding test tubes and flasks filled with a thick, deep-red substance which Emis could only assume to be her blood. There was a control panel shoved up against the back wall. The woman was sat at a desk, surrounded by paper stacks and a large, expensive-looking microscope. There was no sign of a microphone, but Emis knew there had to be one somewhere. "How are you feeling?"

Emis ignored her question. "Who are you?"

The woman faltered, clearly taken aback. "You don't remember me? But━oh. Of course. He took your memories━"

"Answer the question." Emis said, the cold shock finally wearing off. A little strength was returning to her voice as it curved into a snarl. The woman released a hum of amusement.

"It's nice to see that nothing's changed." She stood up, pushing her chair back. She was clearly unfazed by the aggression. "My name is Katherine." She said, walking around the desk to stand directly in front of the window. It was a bold move, and Emis could tell what it meant. I am not afraid, it said. You are no threat to me.

Emis curled her hands into fists underneath the blanket.

"You knew me once, but," Katherine waved her hand. "You don't remember that now. So I'll introduce myself again. My name is Katherine." She repeated it. "And you are in my charge. It is my job to make sure that you are at your best and most content while you undergo these trials━"

"Trials?" Emis cut her off sharply. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Katherine gave her a withering, patronising smile. "Well, Artemis." She said it as if reciting the lines from a script. "You've been through a lot. We need to get your levels in check━"

"━Levels? What levels?"

"━monitor hormone release, emotional capacity, nutrients, that kind of thing." Katherine's eyes were sparkling with amusement, though the patronising smile did not budge.

"For what?" Emis said it through gritted teeth. She could feel the familiar surge of anger as it coursed through her bloodstream. This Katherine woman, whoever she was, whoever she had been in her previous life, was beginning to aggravate her.

She gave another wave of her hand. "Well, for one," she said, "we'll be working closely on your anger issues."

"Anger issues'?" It ripped out of her chest in a cold, incredulous laugh. "What━you mean, you're saying that this━what's happened to me━is my fault?"

"No." Katherine's smile had disappeared. "Only the result of a ..." for the first time, she looked unsure. "Minor complication."

"'Minor complication'?" Emis kicked the blankets away from her legs and swung herself out of the bed. She braced herself for that familiar hit of dizziness, but then remembered, distractedly, that they had taken care of that. In fact, as she straightened up, her legs━bare of any scar or mark━felt impossibly strong. Stronger than they had ever felt. Her whole body did, strung with an odd, flexible strength that she had never experienced before. She turned to glare at Katherine.

"What have you done to me?" She asked, her voice sinking to a whisper. "What is this? Who are you?"

Katherine's lip curled. "This is the problem with trying to work with adolescents." She said bitterly. "Teenagers will always refuse to see the bigger picture."

"You didn't answer my question." Emis replied in a low voice like crackling fire, moving so that she was stood directly in front of the window, opposite Katherine. "What have you done to me?"

"We have made you better." There was a simplicity to the way she said it that made a coldness crawl across Emis's skin. "We have rebuilt you, Artemis, to be the best that you have ever been. Physically, now, you are stronger than we could've ever imagined you to be. Emotionally, however, you are weak." Katherine straightened up. "And we are going to fix that."

"What are you talking about?" Emis could hear the raging disbelief in her voice. "What━what, so what you're saying is that you're trying to get rid of anything that makes me possibly human?"

"Artemis." Katherine sighed. "You must take a different perspective on this whole thing━we are building you so that, perhaps one day, years from now, a humanity will emerge that is, indefinitely, indestructible."

"That's a lot of big words for a pathetic excuse." Emis replied dryly. Katherine stiffened. "And I don't see how any of this has got anything to do with humanity, seeing as I'm only a woman, and I sort of need a man for that part." She gave another sour laugh. "Unless, I don't know, you're as stupid as you look?"

Katherine's eyes fluttered shut. "Yes, I can see now that it will be hard to co-operate with you━"

"You've known that from the start." Emis cut in.

Katherine straightened up. "Perhaps." She said bitterly. "Although, I did have hope. Maybe you weren't going to be as altruistic and small-minded as your friends in the Maze were."

Emis felt everything inside her freeze. "'Were'?" She repeated, her voice breaking finally. She moved fast, a flash of movement, and she was up against the window with her palms flat against the glass. It was cold against her skin. "Don't you mean 'are'?" All the strength had gone from her voice. "Tell me what's happened to them. Where are they? What have you done to them?!"

Katherine was backing up. She tripped into a shelving unit behind her, sheets of paper scattering onto the floor. She was wearing an odd, uncharacteristically pained expression on her face. Emis noticed distantly that the other scientists had left the room. "Artemis." She said, in a breaking voice. "I'm sorry. There was nothing we could do━"

"Where are they?!" Emis threw herself at the window, but it made no difference. Her hands bounced off it as if made out of rubber. "Where are my friends?!" Her voice was strangled and desperate now. "What have you done to them━what have you done? Where are they?"

"I'm sorry, Artemis." Katherine said, her voice almost distant and faint over the sound of Emis flinging herself at the window. "I am truly sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Emis roared. "Let me see them━I want to see them━"

"You can't."

"WHY NOT?!"

"Because, Artemis," Katherine said, and her voice was heavy and soft. "Your friends are dead."

     ⁰⁰ ❛ 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 . . .☄︎ ⋆࿐໋ ˖

          newtemis had their second scrap ;-; &. ugh we really have to hate katherine. let me know what you thought! a huge thank you for all the feedback you left on the last chapter, i promise i'm trying to get better at replying to comments. but every single one of you make me so incredibly happy, so thank you! chapter three will be up soon!

          also, do you prefer longer chapters or shorter chapters? in my mind a long chapter is around 5000 words &. up, but please let me know which you'd enjoy reading more!

love, 𝒓𝒊𝒓𝒊. *♡・.