Newt was fuming now. He was trying hard to keep it contained. He needed Evelyn. He didn't see Rex or Ruffio so that ment Evelyn was still being stitched together. He should have gone with them. Then these stupid guards wouldn't have found him. And what if she was cranking again? He needed to be there for her. These guards needed to leave so he could go find her.

"You’re sur-" Tall Mustache started to say.

"NO!" Newt screamed. "Don’t let them come near me! Or Evelyn! Ever!"

Lights swam before his eyes. He expected a retaliation, the butt of a Launcher slammed into his face, or worse. But he had taken them by surprise, preempted any normal response they may have chosen.

Without saying a word, the short guard and his tall, hairy-lipped friend left the bowling alley.

Newt closed his eyes and tried not to see Tommy in the darkness of his mind. Tried not to see Minho. Tried not to see Sonny. Tried not to see Jorge or Brenda, Teresa or Alby, Gally or Chuck. He tried not to see his sister, Sonya. But all his memories from the past, his family started to flash before his eyes.

He saw them all.

And his heart broke.

He fumed as silently as possible, aware that the spectacular anger he felt was beyond irrational, but still unable to do anything about it. Every breath hurt his chest, only filled half his lungs. The decision he and Evelyn made to leave their friends and the Berg had been almost impossible, unbearable- but the right one. How could they place this burden on Evey and him, forcing them to make that same decision again? He shook with rage, cradled the Launcher in his arms like a baby, considered turning it on himself to snap him out of these spiraling thoughts. It wouldn’t kill him, after all. But it sure would wake him up.

He needed Evelyn. He needed her now. He tried to stand up.

"Newt, you okay?"

Newt twisted his head. Jonsey. How had Newt and Evelyn chosen to cast their lot with someone like Jonesy...like Goose,  instead of relying on their best friends on the planet, in their family? He really was losing his mind. 

"No!" he berated himself. "We did the only thing we could."

Having the Flare was bad enough. Having Tommy and the others around to remind him and Evey of just how sad that was… He couldn’t take it. Newy simply couldn’t. There was no going back. Him and Evelyn had made a promise to each other. Try and stay sane for as long as possible. He would end it for her. He promised he wouldn't let her go past Gone. And Newt made Goose swear in his sister's grave he would end it for Newt. Tommy wouldn't do it. He couldn't. Tommy was too soft, Sonny was too soft. Minho couldn't either. Everyone broke their promises to Evelyn. Why would they keep it for him?

"Uhhh. Your Royalness?" Jonsey asked again.

"What?" He snapped, spit flying from his mouth.

"Rex is back...says Princess is almost done."

"Good."

"Newt?” Jonesy again.

"I’m fine!” Newt yelled. He turned his head to look at the sallow face of his bodyguard, framed by that ridiculous greasy black hair.

"Just leave me alone!"

He turned back to the wall. Lowered his head. Closed his eyes. Tried to suppress the anger that welled up in him like a surge of acid, like gasoline, lit with a spark, burning and burning. Why had they come back! Why? He repeated this over and over.

Newt's entire body feeling suspended in space, floating in a bubble of hot rage. It might’ve been an hour. It might’ve been only a minute, he didn’t know. But it took every ounce of his willpower just to keep himself from erupting at anyone within a hundred feet of him. More than once he had to push down the urge to shoot someone else with the Launcher, just to make himself feel better.

"Newt," Jonesy whispered from a few feet away, the harsh kind of breathy whisper that anyone nearby could hear. "The Munie guards brought those people back here! The ones you ran away from!"

Newt’s head snapped around. He looked at the front entrance of the bowling alley just as Minho walked into the building, his face shadowed by the outside light behind him. But there was no mistake. Right at his shoulder was the one person he dreaded seeing. Sonya. His baby sister. Her head held high, her chin held up. On Minho's other side was the huge form of Sonny. And then Tommy entered, right behind him, holding Brenda’s hand like a child.

Newt turned back to the wall so quickly that a dizzy spell buzzed his head. He’d caught a glimpse of Jorge right before he’d swiveled.

"Shuck. Shuck.shuck." he repeated as he started to rock. "I need her. I need her. I need her."

They’d come for him, anyway. They had come for Evelyn. Despite everything. Despite how many times Evelyn cranked out on their wild escape. Despite Evelyn almost taking Sonny out. Despite the note he’d written Tommy. Despite the note he’d left in the Berg on behalf of Evelyn and himself. Despite the message he’d sent back with that stupid Munie guard.

They’d come.

A fury came over him that was like a fog of poison gas. On the inside. On the outside, prickling his skin. He shook with it, couldn’t stop it. His heart hurt so badly. What was happening to him? Was this what it was like to push past that final barrier of the Flare, into the mad world of the Gone? He had seen Evelyn loose control. Maybe he was there now. She had said she remembers nothing. Except pain. She says rem remembered pain. He was in pain. Physically and emotionally.

"They’re almost over here,” Jonesy whispered fiercely, panicked for the first time since Newt had met him only a few days ago. He glanced at Rex who always wore a mask of stone. He was leaning on the wall again, his arms folded tight, legs crossed, and his eyes narrowed glarring at his friends.

Newt sensed his friends. He heard Minho’s breathing, heard the pattern of Tommy’s footsteps. He knew these people better than anyone. And for some reason he wanted to yell at them and beat them to a pulp. I really and truly am slipping , he thought. At least I don’t have to dread it, anymore .

It finally spilled out. Newt screamed when he spoke, trying to remember the odd words they’d used in the Glade like a badge of rebellion against their captors.

"I told you bloody shanks to get lost!"

His pulse took on a life of its own, thumping almost unnaturally in his temples, in his neck, in his wrists, in his chest. He could hear it. He swear he could hear it.

"We need to talk to you."

Minho said this, definitely Minho, though Newt could barely hear him. Newt sensed a shadow creep over his shoulder. "Don’t come any closer." He tried speaking calmly but with vile.

"Where's Evey, Newt?"

Newt had to close his eyes and shake his head. He couldn't hear her voice not now. Not ever. He couldn't. Sonya's calm and gentle voice would probably be the one that would break him. His baby sister.

"Not here right now." He spat. More spit flying from his mouth.

"Yes, Love, but where? Where is Evey?"

He ignored her. He couldn't. He needed Evelyn so bad. His body was trembling with the effort to stay where he was.

"Those thugs brought us here for a reason. They thought we were bloody Immune holed up in that shuck Berg. Imagine their surprise when they could tell I had the Flare eating my brain. And their surprise when my sweet little Evey cranked and took a few of them out. Permanently. Said they were doing their civic duty when they dumped us in this rat hole.” Words rushed out of him in a spasm of lies and deceit, truth no longer mattering. He needed them to leave, at any cost.

Tommy responded, a voice that felt like ice in Newt’s ears. "Why do you think we’re here, Newt? I’m sorry you and Evelyn had to stay back and get caught. I’m sorry they brought you here. But we can break you out- it doesn’t look like…"

The words faded into a roaring static, a buzzing that hurt Newt’s skull, all of it kept to the relentless beat of his pulse, which refused to stop, refused to quiet itself to sanity. Newt had the strange sensation that he was deaf, though noise came from everywhere, from inside and out. He felt a panicked loosening of his hold to reality, as if the entire bowling alley were fading from his existence. Movement was all he could do to latch back onto it.

He turned on his butt to face them. He gripped his Launcher like a lifeline.

Minho threw out his hands.

"Look like what Thomas?"

Newt knew that voice. And he smiled. It was twisted and manic. But Newt smiled. Evelyn was back.

---------------------------------

Evelyn had heard from Hatter that some Munies in a big black flying metal bird came into the Palace. He went running for Goose and the two of them, plus Spider showed up in Leroy's, through the secret door in the back of the kitchen.

"Your friends are persistent." Goose rumbled. He didn't look impressed.

"Fucking idiots." Evelyn snarled. "why are they here?"

"Well my Lady," Hatter bowed, "to whisk you away on a white horse and ride off into the sun set to live happily Madly after."

"I got one maybe two shucken days. I just about killed two of them. What in the actual shuck are they here for?"

Evelyn screamed. She tipped her head back and screamed. A loud long scream. Full of anger and resentment and bitterness. Evelyn could feel a rancid drumbeat in her mind. Like someone pumped acid through her heart along with the blood, all of it with a powerful machine, the regular surge of it getting louder within her. The crank had started to growl.

She ripped away from whoever was trying to bandage her. She didn't care anymore. She needed to get to Newt. She sensed movement. Twisting her head towards the door, she saw Hatter. He looked panicked, for the first time since meeting him. He always had a whistful magical whimsy about him, so when he looked scared it did nothing to calm the wildness inside her.

"Boss! They just entered the Alley!"

Goose let a string of curses out. Evelyn was already headed for the door. She had her hatchet in her hand.

Why? Why had they come back? Was it not enough she almost killed Sonny and Minho? Was it not enough they saw her loose it? She saw the fear in their eyes when she came back after cranking. Why now? Unless they wanted to just take Newt. Leave her here and take him. He was still mostly okay. Fear of loosing the only thing she had swelled inside her. It made her lungs restrict, breathing became hard. The terrible sharp feeling came back when she tried to breath.

No matter how hard she tried, Evelyn just couldn't get a proper breath, a full breath. The infection was in her lungs now. She felt it. She coughed. Making the pain worsen, but she couldn't breath. The black gooy phlegm appeared. It splattered the ground.

Getting rid of it helped slightly. At least for the time being. Her anger pushed her forwards. It fuiled everything. It ran hot as flames in her veins. It made her sweat.

Evelyn knew Goose, Ruffio and Spider were behind her. The crowd in the Central courtyard let them through. Evelyn only shoved one guy out of her way.

She got to the door of the bowling alley and stopped in her tracks. She saw them.

She saw them all.

Stumbling back into Goose her chest restricted again. She had to clamp her eyes closed. All of them where here. Minho. Sonny. Thomas. Sonya and Brenda. Even Jorge.

She couldn't breath, she clawed at her chest trying to breath.

"Hey Kitten...happy places...happy memor-"

"No!" She snarled. "No more happy memories. They didn't listen. And they broke promise. I hate them!"

Coughing a few more times, bringing up more blackness from her lungs she used the back of her hand to wipe her mouth and stormed through the building.

She approached from the back, no one but Rex saw her and the other gange members approaching. Newt still had his back to their friends. Thomas had said something, Newt was shaking with the effort to keep himself together. He turned on his butt to face their friends. He gripped the Launcher so thought his knuckles were white.

Minho threw out his hands in a passive defensive gesture.

"Look like what Thomas?" Evelyn snarled.

Everyone spun on their heels. Heads whipped around. Someone yelped in surprised. Evelyn had her bloody hatchet in one hand, black infected goo  still in her shin, covered in scratches, the clothes she was wearing and the white veins covered most of the one side of her body now. They were creeping up to her chin now. Her eyes were frosted like frost on green grass, her eyes had the crazy madness of the Flare.

Her old friend took a step back, almost tripping over someone’s zonked-out girlfriend. More words, like ants trying to break through the wall of noise in Evelyn's ears.

"Goose?"

"Welcome to the Palace." He mocked them in a bow.

"Princess? Are these Munies giving you trouble?"

"Princess?"

"Yes Minho. I'm a Crank Mafia Princess now. Better than a shucken healer from the Glade who gave my blood sweat and tears to a bunch of shucked face slint heads who couldn't keep their promises."

"This isn't who you are." Sonny tried to reason.

"Shut up!" Evelyn screamed. "You know nothing!"

"Where did you get a launcher?"

"Took it. From a Munie. He made me mad." Newt slurred. Evelyn smiled. It was a psychotic smile, twisted with lunacy.

"Munies aren't welcome in my Palace." Evelyn whispered, "right Goose?"

He nodded, "unless they are on my list."

Ruffio and Spider chuckled.

"The shuck? Evey? Pixy? You're covered in blood!"

"Don't worry. It's not mine." She smiled. Her eyes frosting more, the longer she stood talking the harder it was to stay somewhere coherent.

She saw a few take a step back. But Newt, Rex and Jonsey were behind them.

This obviously wasn’t going to work. She forced herself to gain a grasp, to push away the haze of rage. With a huge burst of will power she got ahold of the crank in her mind. Just a little. Just enough. Anything it took, now. They had to leave. They had to. How much longer could Newt and her take this?

Newt pleaded, threw every ounce of his concentration into speaking sincerely but firmly. Evelyn was thankful he spoke. It was hard to get words formed.

“I’m… not well. Evelyn isn't well,” he said. And as if in cue, Evelyn coughed violently, not bothering to cover it, she stumbled forwards shoved through Thomas and Sonya. And into Newt's lap. Panic in her eyes, she felt like she was drowning in her own lungs. Newt held her in one arm and the launcher in the other.

"Honestly, we appreciate you buggin’ shanks coming for us. I mean it. But this is where it bloody ends. This is when you turn around and walk back out that door and head for your Berg and fly away. Do you understand me?” Every word was an effort. His hands trembled with frustration, her had clutched Evelyn so tight it would bruise later, but they were both struggling to stay sane.

Minho was speaking. "No, Newt, I don’t understand. We risked our necks to come to this place and you’re our friends and we’re taking you home. You wanna whine and cry while you go crazy, that’s fine. But you’re gonna do it with us, not with these shuck Cranks.”

Evelyn's eyes were fluttering, she was gasping for breath. Her head was too heavy to hold. All she could do was cough up more black.

"I'm... almost...gone." she wheezed, finally finding the strength to look at Sonny and then Minho. "And... you cowards... couldn't keep a promise..." She snarled. Feeling a strength in her legs that wasn’t there seconds before, she kept to her feet. Tommy must’ve seen something crazy in his eyes because he stumbled backward and almost tripped.

Newt leapt to his feet right beside Evelyn. Newt pointed the Launcher at Minho and unleashed more anger.

“I am a Crank, Minho! I am a Crank. Evelyn is a blood crank! Why can’t you get that through your bloody head? If you had the Flare and knew what you were about to go through, would you want your friends to stand around and watch? Huh? Would you want that?"

Evelyn was swinging her hatchet, and quickly whispering in a sing song voice,

"Someone's gonna get it."