Single-Blind - Newt (TMR)

Chapter 57 - Incredibly Improbable

Placing the two pages on top of each other, holding them to the light. The three bands lay perfectly on top of each other. That's three more identical bands than any other kid from the mazes. Contamination must have occurred. An improper test tube cleaning or something.

Not impossible but incredibly improbable.

My results came back contaminated once before. I swabbed my mouth after a night when Newt and I sunk away to look at the stars. The next day, when I swabbed my cheek, there was an arrangement of our DNA in the gel. Who would have known that sperm can stay in your mouth for so long?

I highly doubted that was the case here. Newt would do such a thing to me. The only other explanation is the two shared DNA in means other than contamination.

Natalie and her mother shared, two bands. Which made sense, because Natalie inherited her mother's genetics. She was a collaboration of her mother and father.

I glanced up at Sonya, the girl a few inches taller than me. The similarities grew from there. The blonde of her hair, even though it darkened over the past few months without sunlight. The shape of their nose. They didn't share the color of their eyes but the freckles underneath their eyes were never present. All heritable traits.

"Sonya smile."

"What?" She questioned but the curve of her lip emerged behind the stipulation.

A bright laugh bubbled in my throat. A simple, but only on the left side. Just like my blonde, freckled boyfriend. Her brother- or first cousin.

Aris's eyes bounced between the two of us, "What, Fiona?"

My laughter continued as I sat on the floor, just staring at her. She was likely younger than us. All I could do was stare. I noticed the similarities in their confusion and how one brow tilted more than the other. Once I had seen it, it was impossible to be ignorant of it again.

They had to be siblings. They were too similar in DNA and mannerisms to have lived apart.

She brushed her hair down and wiped her face. Thinking I was giggling at something about her appearance and not her simple existence.

"This shows that you and Newt share more than 50% DNA." I managed, waving the two papers in the air. "I'm going to run the test again. Tonight. The two of you side by side. But I am fairly certain that you are a little sister, Sonya."

"What?!" She repeated the word with a different concern this time.

I got back to my feet, taking Newt's blood out of the temperature control zone we had saved from the WCKD attack. It held a bag or two of the boy's DNA. And a lonely half-full bag of my blood that was used to create Brenda's cure. I saved that blood exactly as it was. It was the unchanging variable and would only be used when I was undoubtedly sure of the technique Mary used and how to replicate it.

Sonya breathed, "How is that possible?"

"I heavily rely on science for my understanding of the world. Around a hundred forty kids went into the maze, statistically, it's likely there were multiple sets of kin. But for two siblings to come out alive? I'd say the odds are-"

"-Finching low." Sonya cursed slang I'd heard from Aris, "Bloody nonexistent low."

"We can abandon all scientific reason and call this what it is." I smiled, seeing her face light up with excitement, fear, and confusion at once. "Luck."

"How do I talk to him? What do I say?" She held Aris by the shoulders.

He chuckled nervously, "I don't know."

She rubbed her temples, "What do you say if you found out you had a long-lost sibling that has been wiped from your memory?"

"Fi... Um, Fiona... did." Aris told Sonya.

I closed my eyes, wishing he hadn't mentioned it. Avoidance had become my friend, if I did not think of my brother and our failures, I could cope slowly. If his smile and his compassion didn't cross my mind, I could pretend I never remembered him at all. Allowing the naivety to swallow me whole.

My heart had no space left for grieving. Gally, Chuck, Winston, and all the other faces stuck to the wall had overflowed me. All while mourning the person I used to be. My past was haunted and there were too many ghosts following me. Time couldn't heal wounds when you're already losing blood from larger, deeper cuts.

"You have a long-lost brother?" Sonya turned to me, for once glancing at me like I might have the right answer.

"Janson killed my twin brother before I could remember him." I pushed the words out, quickly and clearly, fighting the weight on my chest. Long lost, became forever lost and I wasn't even aware.

Sonya's eyes changed, it was small but there. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"We've all lost our families." I tried to move onto a new subject, a brighter note for the future because that was all we have left. "So for the sake of those of us that can't be with our brothers, I can only offer this small piece of advice. Brothers can be the bane of existence while simultaneously being the greatest defender. And you'll never find a soul so intertwined with your own. Whatever time you have with him, don't let a minute go to waste."

She nodded slowly, carefully watching me. She didn't mutter a thank you before going to find my boyfriend. Leaving Aris and me alone for the first time since he got back.

Tears begged to escape my lids, but I locked them down. Aris's hand found my shoulder, a small gesture, but a gladly excepted one. "I know that- Whatever your feeling, it's okay to feel that way."

Guilt because I would never have the opportunity to know my brother because of our mistakes? Jealousy because Sonya had found her brother against all odds? Sadness because my brother is gone? Happiness for the most caring, most deserving person in of my life has a second chance to know his sister? Then back to guilt because I shouldn't feel anything but joy for someone that has loved me through all my faults. I should be ecstatic for him and his sister. No one emotion could fit the sum of my feelings.

"A mess. The only thing I feel is a total mess."

He offered with a soft smile. "I'll be a mess with you then."

I wouldn't wish this feeling on my greatest enemy, but there was a weight off my chest to know that I was not alone.

For the first time since the night of the Right Arm attack, I cried. Like a baby, in fact, curled up in a corner using my sleeve to catch tears and snot.

Aris sat next to me and I leaned into him, deeply. We stayed there until I was sure he felt how much I cared for him and how much his hidden strength stabled me. I wish Minho more than all the stars in the sky but I believe we can still get him out. Aris, on the other hand, wouldn't have lived long enough for me to see them again.

Once again Minho was sacrificing himself to save us. And for that, he deserved every effort to get him out of the city. I decided then, in Aris's embrace that the work for the cure could wait a week more. Minho needs to be rewarded with the same loyalty, no matter the cost. Not even Vince could stop me from leaving this time.

--

My good little fella, Aris. Everyone say, "Bye Aris!"

Peace out, B