Minho, Thomas Teresa, Jason and I stood ready by the wall, waiting for it to open. I had one of the Griever heart cylinders and Minho had the other. We still had a few minutes before the door opened. I was tossing a knife into the air and catching it.

"Hey, Jessie. Thomas? Teresa?"

I turned around and saw Alby and Newt walking towards us. I slid my knife back into my holster. I stood up straight and saluted Alby.

"Good to see you up Admiral." I smirked at him as he rolled his eyes.

"Clearly you haven't changed."

"Would you like a hug instead?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing my arms.

"Shuck no."

"Good. Now what can we do ya for, Admiral?"

"I want a word with you three."

"What ever it was I didn't do it!" Thomas said immidiatly, throwing his hands in the air.

"It was probably me." A twisted smile formed on my face.

"I probably helped." Minho smirked.

Newt snorted and pressed his lips together.

"Yep! It was all Jessie!" Thomas was nodding.

"Tom? You got a guilty conscience? Something you wanna tell us?" Teresa asked, her voice was sweet.

"Ya, Tommy!" I emphasized his nickname. "Anything you wanna tell us?" I looked over at Newt and raised an eyebrow. The two of them both had pink cheeks and were avoiding eye contact. I grinned even more evilly. "Newt? Any kinda confessions you wanna get off your chest?"

"No." He snapped, crossing his arms tight, deliberately looking the opposite direction of someone.

"Not what Winnie told me..."

"What? Gossip and you never told me?" Minho gasped, holding his chest.

Newt went to open his mouth but Alby waved a hand with a scowl on his face

"Enough! Newt, Minho?  I gotta talk to them." Alby demanded.

"I'll tell you later." I winked at Minho.

Alby just rolled his eyes with a grunt of annoyance. He looked back and forth between the three of us for a moment. He did look so much better than when I last saw him, which was when he was still tied down on the bed. I didn't see him wake up, but the few times I did see him in the Med room.... His skin was back to full color, his veins weren't swollen and black; he seemed to have gained fifteen pounds in twenty-four hours.

Alby glanced at Thomas, and frowned, who was staring at Alby.

"Shuck it, boy, what you lookin' at?"

Thomas shook his head slightly, blinking a few times.

"What...? Nothing. Just seems crazy you healed so quickly. You're fine now? I heard it takes a while... Wasn't Jessie out for what a week?"

I nodded, "but that was my second time round. It hit me harder "

Alby flexed his right bicep. "Ain't never been better. Jeff says the Grief serum was a different colour. Must be a different antidote. Faster working an' whatever."

I watched him closely, he still seemed a little sweaty and I saw a slight tremor in his hand.

"Lier." I said flatly, and pointed at him.

Alby's eyes flicked and I saw him sag.

"You're right Jessie, nothin' but a lie. I feel like a piece of klunk twice crapped by a Griever."

"Yeah, you looked it the other day." I sassed, "but shoulda seen the other guy."

Alby glared, but the one side of his lip twitched. He glanced at Thomas and Teresa.

"I told ya before, only this one can talk to me like that." He warned.

"Well today you look brand-new. I swear." Thomas added with what I guess was supposed to be an encouraging smile.

"Suck up." I whispered

"Jerkface."

"Teachers pet."

"Stupid head."

"Idiot."

"Enough you two!" Alby roared. Teresa was giggling, I smirked and crossed my arms while Thomas glared at me.

"Alby," Teresa said, turning to him. "What did you want to talk to us about?"

"Yeah...yeah...so... I saw what I saw. It's kinda fadin', but I ain't never gonna forget. It was terrible. Try talkin' about it, somethin' starts choking me. Now the images are fading, the details disappearing...like that same somethin' doesn't like me remembering all the details."

"Yeah. I know." I said shortly. "The point, Admiral?"

"What was it about us? You kept saying you saw us. What were we doing?" Thomas asked, almost eagerly.

Alby stared at an empty space in the distance for a while before answering. "...I hope the Changing doesn't give us real memories...just plants fake ones. Some suspect it. I can only hope. If the world's the way I saw it ..."

He trailed off, leaving an ominous silence. He blinked and looked at me. "You said you never saw nothin' helpful?"

I shook my head. "No. Nothing relating to the Maze, the Glade or the Meadow. None of you guys were in any of my memories, except Tess; introducing her as my replacement."

Alby frowned. "But you said Gally might think it's fake?" He asked hopefully.

"That's what he said. But we haven't seen him in like 2 days. No one knows where he is. So...doubt you'll be able to ask him."

Alby's frown deepened.

"Look Alby. I told you before everything I know, I told you my past and what I remembered. And I didn't get choked out."

My face lost some colour and my hands felt sweaty. Teresa looked the same.

"We understand the whole it's not you controlling you thing. Trust us." I said quietly, nodding towards Teresa.

Alby's face softened, he placed a hand on my shoulder, and Teresa's, "Jess... Tessa, you guys ain't evil. You Thomas," he looked at Thomas, "you might be a shuck-faced slinthead-"

"An intelligent Idiot." I cut in, making Thomas huff. Alby had to suppress a smile and coughed a few times.

"But you guys ain't evil. Jess, you're a stubborn pain in my ass, but I KNOW you ain't a bad person, you ain't evil. I believe it was something forced, I believe it in my gut. You definitely ain't evil little warrior. And my gut tells me to trust ya. And if you vouch for these two then I'll back you."

Alby showed the slightest hint of a smile, a crack in his usually hard face.

"What you and Thomas did...riskin' your butts to save me and stayin' when Minho ran...that ain't no evil I've ever heard of. Nah, just makes me think the Grief Serum and the Changing got somethin' fishy about 'em. For your sake and mine, I hope so. At least the Serum I got. Jess, yours and Gally's memories seem... different. You'll be okay ..."

"Thanks Admiral." I nodded solumly. "I appreciate it." And I ment it. I had slowly grown to appreciate and respect Alby, he was slowly growing on me.

The familiar sound of stone grinding on stone and rusty gears was heard. The doors in the giant walls started to grind open. Minho was bouncing on his toes, ready to go.

"Gotta go." I saluted him one last time, and turned, just as I saw Minho slip through a big enough gap in the doors. Jason on his heels, followed by Teresa, Thomas and myself.

"Nice! Way to thomas that door!" I called to Minho. "Excellent execution."

"Jessie! Stop using my name as a verb!" Thomas yelled.

"Never!"

We ran for a while. All of us in silence, the only sound was out breathing and the slap of our feet.

"We're almost there guys, come on! The faster we get there the more time we have to look around!" Minho called over his shoulder.

We ran, increasing our speed and ran. We eventually all slowed down at the intersection of four and seven for a quick water break. The group of us was still quite quiet.

"Hey guys?" Thomas said between heavy breathing. We all looked around at him.

"So, I've been thinking-"

"Never a good idea." I muttered.

"Haha. But seriously, Tess and I were think-"

*Beep*

I froze. And cocked my head. Thomas had also stopped taking. Every head was swivelling around trying to figure out where the faint beeping was coming from.

*Beep*

I turned to look behind me. Nothing. Just the open hall to seven. Frowning I slowly turned around.

*Beep* *Beep*

Two beeps, but at different pitches. Teresa gasped at the same time as Thomas pointed at Minho and at the same time it clicked.

"The cylinder things!"

Thomas had grabbed Minho and spun him around. With a huff Minho let him rummage through his bag and grab it as I pulled mine out. Teresa and Jason came over and we huddled in a circle looking at the things. They were indeed beeping, in a rhythmic beat, every few seconds. But at different times.

"Wait! Hold on, look!" I cried. "Look, this one doesn't say seven. It's a four!"

"What? Why was it a seven when we pulled it out of the thing?" Jason asked with a frown.

I watched it beep a few more times, tilting it and rotating it. And I grinned when I figured out why.

"'Cause it was always a four. The light is just not working. Look, see?" I held it and tilted it when it beeped and flashed again, half the number light up while the other half looked burnt out. "See, look at the 7, and look at the 4. Almost the same."

"Well shuck me." Minho whispered, his eyes wide.

I snickered, when Minho caught my eye he smirked, and winked.

"That's what she said."

"It's what she did." He corrected, Thomas groaned, Jason and Teresa giggled.

"Nice." Jason whispered.

"Can we get back to the situation please?" Thomas whinned.

"Yes. Let's figure this out so we don't thomas this situation worse then it is." I nodded seriously.

Jason and Minho choked and everyone tried to hide their laughter, while Thomas ground his teeth and glared at me.

"Okay." Teresa said, trying to calm the situation and get us back on track. "So we have two cylinders, one leading us to seven and one to four."

"Correct."

"Okay, we could split up?" Jason suggested.

"I'd rather stick together." Minho his face in a frown.

"Well...guys? Uhh..." Thomas stuttered. His face going red and he looked at the ground. Teresa sighed beside him and rolled her eyes.

"Tom and I are tellepathic."

"What?"

"Telepathic. We can speak to each other with our minds."

"That's creepy." Jason shook his head.

"Well, why the fuck not?" I rolled my eyes.

"You...you guys ain't mad? Or creeped out or whatever?" Thomas asked nervously.

"Nah. This placed is pretty jacked up. Just why not add telepathic abilities into this." I shrugged.

"Facts." Minho nodded.

"Okay. So...if Jason and I go to four Tom can go with you two to seven and we can still keep in touch."

"Done." Minho nodded.

"Be careful." I said and handed Teresa the cylinder for four."

"Always." She gave me a twisted smile and wink.

I laughed. We split up and ran down our hall to seven. We set a quick pace, having lost time at the intersection. Minho and I rounded a corner in unison and then slowed to a stop. Minho spun around looking at the walls.

"That's strange!" Minho said to himself, still circling.

"What is?" Thomas asked, spinning in circles too, trying to understand what Minho was seeing.

Minho took off running again, he looked back at Thomas, "Seven isn't supposed to be open for another week!"

"Yeah, it's been open the whole time we had the cylinder." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah." Minho waved his hand, "just weird."

"Agreed."

A few more minutes of silence, running and focusing on breathing. The walls were rapidly becoming wider apart with less corners. Almost like it was spreading out. We came to a section with long skinny sharp looking metal flaps that went from the stone floor hundreds of feet into the air. There were rows and rows of them, all open. Thomas's head was spinning like an owl trying to see it all.

"Thomas! Focus!" I yelled. He had nearly tripped and ran into a blade because he was trying to look behind me. Minho had slowed down and was cautiously walking towards a heap on the stone floor.

He crouched down and gingerly picked it up. It was a white shirt covered in blood. I recognized it immediately, and took a step backwards.

"It's Ben's isn't it..?" Thomas asked, he ground and picked up a small piece of the feathers end of the arrow.

"Ya." Minho answered currently, looking up and around the area.

Turning away I could feel a tight burning in my chest. It was hard to breathe and my hands shook.

"What happened?" Thomas asked.

"I shot him." I snapped.

"What?" Thomas gasped.

"He lived or was allowed to live through the night and when we came to run, he attacked. She had to defend herself."

"But..killed him?" Thomas protested.

"Enough!" Minho roared, I could hear the anger.

I grabbed the straps of my backpack, trying to keep my shaking hands steady, walking away from the bloody shirt. It never bothered me before, when I had to take a life. I had to take a few lives in the other maze, and I knew I took lives before the Maze, but this one... taking Ben's shook me. Not as bad as Hers, but I still felt unsettled.

Minho stepped in front of me, his large hand grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me into his chest and gave me a tight hug.

"You did what you had to. And it was self defence." He whispered into my hair.

"I know." I mumbled back, "I don't know what's going on with me."

"You actually have a heart and maybe some morals?"

"Uhg, it's fucken awful." I grumbled.

"You okay to keep going?"

"Always."

He pulled away and intertwined his hand with mine and we went further down the hall of blades.

*Beep*

"Guys! It's beeping a lot more now!" Thomas called.

He hadn't let go of the cylinder since the intersection. He took a few paces to the right, it seemed to slow down. When he took a few steps the other way the beeping and flashing sped up.

"This is new!" Minho whispered, excitement in his eyes, as he looked down at me. I gave him a small smile back.

Thomas looked up, just as excited, "Guys, I think it's showing us the way!"

He took off at a sprint with the other two right behind. It led them through to the outer edge of the blades. I kept running, and ran past Thomas who had stopped suddenly.

"Wait, wait, wait..." Thomas shouted.

He spun a few times his face twisted in concentration, listening.

"This way! Come on!" 

He ran Minho and I following. We ran along a line of blades, and came to a few more towering stone walls, and a long stone bridge.

Minho and I stopped and stared wide eyed.

"This is never here!" He gaped at the huge walls and stone bridge walk way. My eyes were just as big, flicking all over trying to figure out what was going on.

"These blades must always be closed when this section is open, and...it must have something to do with that beeping Griever heart brain cylinder thing." I thought out loud, still having trouble processing what we were seeing. Minho just made a noise in the back of his throat, also too stunned to talk.

The bridge led to a dead end wall. On either side of the bridge was a straight drop, no railings, just a straight drop with no bottom to be seen. The dead end stone wall was a different colour, this wall was almost black, but looked exactly like the rest of the maze walls.

Thomas turned around, his eyes wide.

"What's wrong?"

"Tess said their cylinder led them to the Cliff!"

"I knew there was something off about these two sections!" Minho said, confirming his own suspicions.