"So when did you- you know- fall in love with her?" Thomas smirked, knowing he had him right where I wanted him, with his head in Fionaland.
"Woah," Newt defeated with his hands up, "What?"
"I may be slow to getting to know things around here, but...
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I wasn't out for long, thankful that I had managed to roll two rugs into my lab. Fainting was an odd phenomenon. I never liked the idea that my body could suddenly decide to stop.
I forgot dinner. Maps never cared if I had eaten or not. My new experiments considered it an unwanted variable.
A meal was packaged up for me in the den. I retrieved it and settle back into the lab, jumping into my work to keep the fight I had with Newt far from the front of my mind.
I made quick work of discarding the test that was compromised during the power outage. Supplies were limited so the waste of an agarose gel was not ideal. This would set me back a few hours. I couldn't waste the time or energy being aggravated by setbacks, just continuously restarting every time the power cut.
My dreams are filled with twenty-four-hour laboratories where I could sleep well knowing my test could run overnight. I often wondered if I had stayed with WCKD, how much progress I would have made. Or if I would have even solved the mystery by now. Another thing I did not have time to waste on was "what ifs" and possibilities I would never know. Only facts and observations were my friend.
I ratioed for Aris to come to my lab. In my examination of him earlier, there were several needle marks in his arms and on the back of his hands. If he could recall the procedure of treatment, I could possibly discover which avenues WCKD was attempting to find the cure.
An hour later, he was in my lab. His friend Sonya, trailing behind him. Her hair had been brushed and washed since I last saw her, but her expression was still sour. While I understand her dislike for me, she did not have to go out of her way to come to my lab and stare at me like I personally killed her friends.
Aris explained what he remembered about the treatments. They kept the immunes sedated for the bulk of the time, making it hard to recall. Most propositions I had already ruled out as possibilities in the past. WCKD expanded its efforts to find medical properties to prolong to inevitable, not cure it. The fancy labs that I dreamed of, were useless in their incompetent hands.
I leaned on my table, giving myself only a minute to bask in frustration before moving on. A small habit I had developed in the past few months, letting my troubles only bother me for a minute before pushing it out of my mind and using my brain for something useful.
"What are these?" Aris pointed to my agarose gels. They were making a slight buzzing sound as they move microns per second.
"Gel electrophoresis chambers," I answered.
He huffed, "In average intelligence language, please?"
"DNA results," I stated in the most simple terms. "It uses electricity to separate the genetics. Each line on the gel is a different genetic material. Separate by weight. In short, I can use it to see who is immune or not."
It was strangely refreshing to have someone actually interested in my research. I'd spent so much time talking to myself about the project I thought I might drive anyone else insane. It was the last thing Newt wanted to talk about these days. He made great efforts to get me out of this lab.
"Really?" Sonya seemed equally interested by would not move from her place across the room. I would be flattered if it was anyone but her. Her tone seemed skeptical like the idea of my intelligence was unfathomable.
"Someone swabbed your cheek before coming into camp, right?" I asked both of them.
"A young girl with cold hands," Aris answered.
"Natalie." I laughed, she was one of the immunes that managed to stay off WCKD's radar. She lived in hiding under her mother's protection in some sort of basement safe house. "She delivered those samples to me. I can run up to five strands of DNA at the same time, I put you two in the first batch."
"Usually, you would need a UV light to see the result with a DNA-binding dye, but I copied your results down before dinner." I took a piece of paper off my desk, handing it to Aris.
I used my pinky nail to indicate a small blue band developing on the lower half of the paper. "You see this band here? What's the only show in those with immunity? Congratulations, you're both immune."
"WCKD wouldn't have kept us if we weren't." Sonya was once again unimpressed. I imagine at this point, not even the cure would please her. As if I didn't have the crushing pressure of the entire world, now Sonya would like to remove my head from those very shoulders. "WCKD weeded out all the nonimmunes in our first weeks. We never saw them again."
I ignored her as I showed Aris the results of Thomas, Frypan, and myself for the easiest comparison. We all had the same small line to protect us against the flare. It was hurtful how such a small little change divided the world.
"I don't see one on Newts?" Aris said blankly out of curiosity, getting closer to the paper, searching for a line he would never find.
I bit the side of my cheek. I understood what it meant, I'd run the same test eight times hoping for a different result. I hadn't said it out loud to anyone other than Newt which was followed by my sobs that lasted for hours. I didn't have time for that today.
Aris read my expression well enough. This was the very problem I was trying to fix.
"I'm so sorry, Fi."
"Don't feel sorry for me," I urged, "I'm not the one with a death sentience."
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them. Sonya muttered something angrily under her breath as I turned back to Aris. "I'm so sorry, Aris, for everything. Rachel- I'm so so sorry."
He nodded, never meeting my eyes. I didn't expect a response, there was no proper reply to the death of your girlfriend.
It's okay? No, it's absolutely not okay and Aris has no need to pretend to be any semblance of okay.
Thank you? No one is truly grateful in a time of mourning.
Life's a bitch and we are all going to die one day? Uplifting.
Sonya came over now, finally glancing at the fragments of DNA herself beside Aris. Newt had few options, get to the safe haven where we could escape the flare. Get the flare and within months, weeks, or days, die. Wait around for me to find a cure that may or may not save him. He was too young to die and I was too young to give up on whatever time he had left.
"How can he and I share so many of the same lines and yet he's flinched?" Sonya squinted at the paper. "One small difference is all it takes?"
My brows furrowed, confused more now than any other breakthrough I've had in months. "What?"
"How is that fair?" She asked again, angry about the result instead of understanding what else she implied.
I took the sheet out of her hand. Comparing it to Newt's bands. Sonya's DNA showed five bands, three of them identical in width and distance from the start point as Newt's.
Shucking impossible.
--
He's my personal twist bc I firmly believed we were ROBBED of Sonya and Newt's sibling time in the books and movies.
