˚ ༘✶₊˚.                         ⊹ ˚ .  THIRD ACT
❪       THIRTY-FOUR    ♥︎    ₊˚༢࿐
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The next morning around noon, Mae had gathered her band of brothers for a trip up to the train tracks through Vince's map of the rocky terrain. Newt and Peter were packed before Mae came to collect them, words falling short between the three when they had so much on their mind.

There was no room for mistakes.

Minho and Teddy's life depended on it.

Frypan had made to-go lunches for everyone before forcing Mae to sit and eat breakfast until they all parted ways. He had went on and on about how skinny she looks coming back. Mae rolls her eyes at him like always, eating what he made with a smile.

They bonded over how much they missed Gally.

It felt like they were the only two that did.

Now, they were hiking through the rocky terrain. Mae in front with a map in her hands, walkie on her belt buckle. Newt was only inches behind her, one hand holding his large backpack and the other at his side, fiddling with his fingers.

Peter and another boy named Aaron were chatting away about different foods that went good together. Their combos of canned meats and undercooked noodles seemed to make everyone's stomach grumble.

They fill the silence that sat between Mae and Newt.

"Do you think we're going to get him back?" Newt always breaks first, staring into the side of her face, "Or do you think this is a klunk plan like everyone else?"

Mae doesn't look back, squinting at the sun's heat, "Can never be too sure," She responds blandly, and for a second Newt almost thought she was being sarcastic, "Stopping a moving train, picking a specific container that has both Minho and Teddy, it's a one in ten chance that things go smoothly even with a single causality." 

Newt bit the inside of his cheek, "Can I get an optimistic answer? Or did you run out of those in the Glade?"

She looks at him, squinting to see his face, "Thomas and I spent months putting together this plan with Vince and Jorge, that's hours of dedication and hard work put into finding them. If anyone can pull this off, it's all of us. Like always. Good that?"

Newt smiles a little. He notes how Mae is learning to balance herself out more, coming down slowly from her high of violence after these last long months.

She'd grown rabid after the Scorch, wanting to take her anger out on anything in sight. She lashed out whenever new memories forcing themselves to the surface — even when she didn't mean to.

Mae had found comfort in her sadness, her anger, and it drove her down a hole that not even Newt couldn't get her out of.

Which is why they seemed to knock heads much more often.

Guilt and rage swarmed them.

However, the swarm has lessened the closer they get to fixing their family and getting to Safe Haven with the Right Arm.

Vince and Thomas were together in a car, chasing after the train while Jorge and Brenda divert the guards away with a distraction. If things go right, the train should stop right in front of Mae and Newt, with WICKED soldiers caught by Harriet and Frypan.

If things go right.

"Good that," Newt agrees, bumping his shoulder into hers with a grin, "I reckon after this you and Tommy should get married," He says suddenly, "I mean you already share a tent with him, what else."

Mae thinks genuinely on the topic. Marriage? The thought of marriage sounded insane to her. What does being married have to do with overthrowing her mother, which the girl thought was already a time consumer.

Then again. . . what girl didn't dream of locking down the love of your life?

"Thomas would be the marrying type, wouldn't he," Mae states in thought, "Happily Ever After's are lining up in front of me, is it not?"

"Childhood best friends to sweethearts," Peter quips from the back, finally joining their conversation, "It's cute, it's comfortable. He's literally the boy next door, maybe even star crossed lovers if you wanna bring WICKED supremacy levels into this—"

Newt snorts a laugh, "Good that."

Mae rolled her eyes, "Not funny."

"He's right though. Tommy is the kind of guy you take home to your parents," Newt says, "But in your cause, don't do that or it'll get us all killed."

Peter and Newt high-five.

"As opposed to what?" She questions.

"Arguing all the time," Aaron pipes.

Mae hums, "But where's the thrill in that? Is it supposed to be all laid out for us? What's wrong with a bit of arguing? You can't expect me to agree with a man on every decision he makes. I want passion. Romance!" She says in one breath.

The boys glance at each other.

"Anyway," She brushes a strain of hair out of her mouth, "I just don't think I could settle down right now with my best friends being held captive by my mother, who wants Thomas dead. Hm? Did we forget all of that? And for your information, Thomas isn't the love of my life."

Mae rubs her thumb against the rock on her ring finger, which was still held strongly together.

"Well don't wait forever," Newt warns lightly, "It's not like we get a second chance with the dead."

"How's it going over there?", Thomas voiced from the walkie talkie on her belt.

"Speaking of the Bachelor." Peter smirks.

Mae pulls it off and holds it to her mouth with a smile, "Extremely difficult," She says sarcastically, "Your end?"

A grunt of struggle could be heard from just a moment, most likely from Thomas jumping onto a moving train, after another long beat, he breathlessly says, "So easy."

Newt and Mae share a smile.

Their conversations died after that, the four making their way to Vince's spot on the map where they waited behind rocks, swapping canteens and eating the sandwiches that Frypan had packed for them.

Around ten minutes after, the sound of a screeching train could be heard from down the right side of the track. It skids to a stop almost right in front of them, with Thomas standing on top.

The sound of the loud whistle rings.

"That's the signal," Peter reminds.

Newt, Mae, Peter and Aaron are quick to pop their heads from behind the rocks, rushing towards the train at Vince's command.

Vince meets them halfway, Mae giving him a firm hug, "Smooth so far," She hums.

"Don't jinx us," He replies.

When Mae had run up to the freight cars, she could hear dozens of children screaming for help. As harsh as it sounds, they made it hard for her to hear for Minho and Teddy.

But apparently Thomas had better ears than her, because on the other side of carriage he slams his hand on the first one, claiming he heard them from the inside.

"This one! This one!"

"Teddy! Teddy, I'm here!" Peter shouts, banging his fist against the metal, "I got you, buddy!"

Newt pulls on his goggles, getting to work on removing the freight from the track. Aaron doing the same on the other side.

"Oh shit," Thomas huffed.

Mae followed his gaze overhead, where dozens of WICKED soldiers were running up the train track. Her heart skipped a beat. They were a lot closer than she thought they'd be.

"We're cutting it close," Vince voiced her thoughts in warning.

Thomas and Vince climb back on the top of the train to secure the rough boat ropes they'd use to pull the freight off the track. Mae rushed to Newt's side, pulling a gun from the bottom of his bag.

"Newt, how you doing?!" Thomas calls.

"Don't rush me," He replies.

The soldiers are close enough to shoot.

Bullets ricochet off metal, creating sparks that made Mae yelp for standing too close. She shoots as best as she could with what little she could pop her head out, the sound of Thomas and Vince shooting bullets above syncing with hers.

"Mae, get up here!" Thomas shouts, "Newt!"

"Almost there!" Newt dismissed.

"Not going up until he does!" Mae discards.

Thomas violently rolled his eyes at them.

Vince hops down from the train, shooting forward and out in the open, blocking Mae's line of sight.

She groans in frustration, but instead of trying to prove a point and get herself killed, she turns back to Newt, watching as he finally burned the metal off.

"Newt, Mae, go!" Vince shouts.

Mae shoves Newt up the later, practically grabbing his feet as they climbed up the side of the train fast. Thomas pulls Newt over and down on his stomach so the bullets wouldn't catch him, doing the same to Mae with a comforting squeeze of his hand.

Peter was holding tight onto the side of the train, waiting for our friends in the sky to come and get them as he dodged bullets.

Mae peers over, smiling at him, "How's it hanging?"

"I'm scared of heights and bullets are trying to end me right now," Peter says, "And I'm too scared to climb any higher."

"You're gonna regret that," She responds, holding her hand out, "Come on, before the animals start thinking the rain is yellow."

Peter inhaled and exhaled hard before grabbing Mae's hand and forcing himself on the roof of the train, onto his stomach, "I'm gonna puke."

"Where the hell are they?" Newt yells.

"I don't know!"

As if the universe wanted to give Jorge a grant entrance, the aircraft flies through the sky and hovers right over the freight car, dropping down a rusted hook that Thomas used to connect it.

Vince is the last one on before the freight is lifted from the track and into the air, Jorge flying away with over a dozen immunes and six alive friends.

Once the realization set in that it worked, everyone couldn't help but get on their feet and embrace each other with shouts of joy.

Mae runs up, grabbing the sides of Thomas' face with her well-known toothy grin, "I knew you could do it!"

Thomas matched her smile, leaning forward to peck her forehead before turning to Newt.

She looks down at Peter, who was stomach flat on the freight with his eyes closed.

"Peter! Celebrate!" She says.

He doesn't move, "That little shit in there better approach the crap I've gone through for him!" He bellows through the wind.

━

The freight was dropped at the Right Arm base, which was close to the sea where the majority of the people where were working on repairing a boat, so they could finally get to Safe Haven.

Vince had been working overtime on both projects and Peter has been helping him as a distraction from Teddy.

Mae held her breath when Newt opened the door, the group stepping into the cold darkness of dozens upon dozens of children with hands chained to the ceiling and feet chained to the floor.

"Aris!" Thomas spots first, rushing up to where Aris sat with Sonya, bruised and beaten, "Hey, you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine." He responds.

"Peter? Mae?" Teddy's head pops up three rows down the middle isle, his glasses slightly bent on his face— which was now pale and discolored.

He had grown taller in the last few months, or as much as she could note from the sea of heads blocking most of her view.

She sighs in relief tears forming in her eyes as Peter ran over to him faster that she could, wrapping his arms around his little brother with happy tears.

"You fucking idiot, I miss you," Peter cried.

"What, did you take seventeen wrong turns?" Teddy complains, smiling slightly. It was good to see they didn't break his spirit.

Mae feels a weight lifted off her shoulders as she dropped to her knees and hugged the boy, feeling as if the things she's done was worth something, "I'm so sorry, Teddy, I'm so sorry," She sobbed.

"For what?" He reels, "You didn't chain me in a train. But I can cross that off my bucket list."

He didn't have a bucket list.

Peter holds a teary smile, grabbing Teddy's shoulder, "Welcome back, Ted."

"He's not here."

Thomas' voice could be heard softly from the bottom of the freight, where he was talking with Newt. Mae's reunion was short lived, her head snapping around the rest of the faces to find one missing.

Minho.

Mae's eyes filled with tears at Newt's defeat expression, watching as he turned away from Thomas and breezed right past her.

"One in ten, right?" He says to her before ducking out the door.

━

Mae stood beside Vince as he addressed the crowd of immunes they saved in the freight car, over a dozen kids of all ages were standing around waiting for good news, waiting to be lead.

Thomas should be up there, however he left the motivational speeches to Mae whenever she came back from missions. They listened to her, having the daughter of WICKED's doctors openly rebel against her mother turns a lot of heads, makes people pay attention.

Thomas believed that was enough.

"Alright, listen up!" Vince began, "I know you've all been through hell, I wish we could say our troubles are over but we're not through this yet."

Mae nods, "WICKED wants immunes to drain for a cure. They won't stop until you're all dead, they'd rather wipe out the next generation than sacrifice their power in a new world order!"

Mumbles of conversation sweep through the sea of faces, taking in her words in with fear.

"We don't think you're worth sacrificing," Mae finished.

The crowd claps and shouts in agreement.

"So in two days, we're going to get this tub of rust sea worthy, and we're getting the hell out of here!" Vince shouts.

Mae's heart sinks, turning her head and seeing Thomas leaning against a wall. His lips are tugged into a set frown, his eyes doubtful.

Only two days left, and Minho was still under WICKED's control. It was their last chance, and they missed him by the wrong train.

"We're gonna go to a place where WICKED will never find you," Vince continues, "A place you can start over, a place you can call home. Are you with me?"

Thomas turns his head back, signaling to Mae to follow him to the medical tents to see Teddy and Peter.

Mae excused herself, smiling at the crowd before meeting Thomas halfway down the path, where he slowed down to walk with her.

"Newt's already in there," Thomas says.

Mae frowns, "Likely asking about Minho."

Thomas nods, looking down, "I don't know how I'm gonna look at him," He thinks, "I promised him this would work."

"We did the best we could, Thomas," Mae says, "We'll do better next go around."

Mae stands behind Newt in the medical tent, her face stone and her eyes burning with angry tears as Aris explained what had happened to them during their time at WICKED.

Teddy was sitting on a cot, bandaids on his cuts and a cup of water in his hands.

His eyes were distant behind his glasses as Aris spoke, most likely reliving the beatings he took.

She wanted to hurt her mother even more, knowing that she was the reason Teddy had to go through that in the first place.

Eight years old, a pawn of War.

Newt squeezes her hand on his shoulder before placing them back on his mug.

"You're lucky you found us at all," Sonya says, "They had us move around a lot. It felt like something big was happening."

"They were talking about a city," Aris informs.

Peter nods, "The Last City."

Sonya frowns, "I didn't think there were any cities left."

"Wait, so what about Minho?" Newt asked eagerly.

"Why wasn't he on the train?" Thomas adds in.

Aris and Sonya look at each other, their eyes debating on which one should deliver the news.

But it seemed like they were taking too long for Teddy's liking, as he placed the cup on the table with a deep frown, "He was on the train."

Mae's eyes instantly watered, places a hand over her mouth and walks out of the tent without a word.

She was overwhelmed with anger, her hands shaking at her sides as she crossed the sandy terrain with uneven steps, towards the walls along the shore.

Every breath she took was echoing in her lungs, she could hear her heartbeat in her ears, which made her eyes sting with tears.

The worst part is that she didn't know where she was going in her state. Just as far away as she could from her problems in that tent.

It wasn't until Mae was standing in front of the walls in front of the shore did she realize why she was going towards it.

The Glade.

Mae rested her shaky hands on the stone, breathing out with sadness. These walls reminded her of the walls she spent her best years in. As sick as it sounded.

They were all alive then.

Now they're all gone.

"Stop," She cries, rubbing her hand against the bumps and cracks of stone, "Stop crying. Stop," The more she ordered the more she went against it, "Please stop crying. . ."

Her eyes blur, a small cry bubbled up and escaped her lips.

Minho was on the train.

He would've never been on that train if they didn't escape the Glade. If they fought harder. She paces in front of the wall, her eyes watering as she replayed every step of their plan. How did they fail? It was full proof.

Minho was on the train.

"Stop crying!" She snapped out loud, slamming her fist into the wall. Her knuckles scraped against the bumps in the wall.

"Mae?"

The face of Nick, then Gally, then Minho take place before showing Newt's. His arms crossed over his chest as he looked at her with confused, squinting eyes.

Her heart broke, "Newt," Her chin quivered, "I'm so sorry, I thought we could do it, I thought━"

"I know what you thought," Newt says, uncrossing his arms. He wants to hug her, but something was holding him back, "You thought you were helping, you thought you were doing the right thing."

Her teary eyes narrow in confusion.

Newt sighs, opening his satchel and pulling out a rag, "I knew something was wrong when you didn't follow Brenda and Harriet out of Burke's safehouse," He removes the rag, and holds the handle of a bloody knife.

Mae looks away, "Newt━"

"Along the way this stopping being about just finding Minho and Teddy, did it?" He asked.

She didn't trust herself to talk, shaking her head.

"I won't let you kill Ava," Newt says firmly, "Thomas can do it, hell, I'll do it. Not you, it won't help you any━"

"You wouldn't understand," Mae says.

"I don't have to," Newt responds, "If you want to be a killer, fine. It wouldn't make me love you any less. But I know you, and I know that you won't get closure from killing Ava, it'll ruin you more."

Mae swallowed thickly, her tears drying as she sobered her feelings and stepped back. Newt wasn't here to comfort and she had to respect that,

However, this wasn't the Mae that stood quiet and took whatever her friends had to say.

That Mae was gone.

"Fine," She starts, "I wouldn't be the one to kill her, but I will be present when she is. Just because I want revenge on what they did, doesn't make me a bad person━"

He falters, "Mae, I never said━"

"I know," She cuts in, laughing in unstable hysteria, "I'm tell you that I'm not a bad person. I'm not a bad person for wanting everyone who's ever hurt us to die, or for wanting to be back in the Glade!" She points to the wall.

Newt's eyes watered as she broke down in front of him.

"Or that I'd never be happy with Thomas because he's in love with some 14 year old verison of me that I could never be again," She continues to laugh, throwing her hands up, "He's my best friend first, before anything, and I don't even know if I can have that relationship with him again after this!"

Newt glances back, "Mae, listen. . ."

She grabs at her face, then her heart, the laughter dying on her lips as she started to cry, "Because the man I love is dead and abandonded somewhere, rotting!" She shook, "And I can never see him again. I'm not a bad person for that!"

"You're not a bad person," He repeats in a whisper, dropping the rag with the knife and stepping forward, wrapping her in a tight hug, "You're not a bad person."

Her cries die into deep breaths, her eyes fogging from tears as she allowed Newt to comfort her.

And when her eyes cleared she saw Thomas standing just a few feet behind Newt, his hands at his side and his eyes misted with unfallen tears.

He gives her a comforting smile, one Mae feels she doesn't deserve. Her shoulders sag in relief. As much as she hated it, he knew the truth now.

"I called a meeting," Thomas voiced lightly, turning back towards the Safe house, "Starts in ten mintues."

Newt pulls away from her, wiping one last tear from her cheek, "I'll keep Burke between us," He tells her, "Not that I agree with your choices. I just know it's not something any of us need right now. Good that?"

She nods, "Good that."

don't worry everything is coming together.