The Tributes from the Maze (Newt/OC)

Newt Opened His Eyes

When the fog in his mind cleared and his thoughts sharpened, Newt asked her, "Why should I trust you?"

"Would I practically bring you back from the brink of death if I was just going to harm you again?" She reasoned.

"You might if WICKED still needed me for something." He countered her argument, still suspicious.

"Why would WICKED need you? They left you to die. They only value the immune. You were a control variable for their experiments." She states plainly. "Would I cure you of the flare if you were still required as a control in an experiment?"

Newt mulled it over for a minute, debating whether or not he could believe her. Then the full realisation of what she had said set in.

"Wait, what? You cured me of the flare? Now I know you're lying. That's impossible." He scoffed. "How did you even find me?"

"WICKED doesn't know about the cure. Only the Chancellor and select few high ranking officials in the Right Arm are aware. It would cause mass hysteria and panic if it were to become commonplace knowledge. Our allies in the Right Arm called me and informed me of what had happened. I was able to send people to collect your body. You're lucky Thomas is a lousy shot. The bullet missed your brain entirely. It rebounded off the side of your skull. You passed out from the impact and blood loss."

"Tommy couldn't even kill me without messing everything up," he muttered fondly. "If only high ranking officials know, then why do you?"

"Because I created it." Ariadne started putting vials of blood she had taken from him into a machine that Newt thought looked quite like a casino wheel. Her statement blew his mind. There were so many questions.

"Why haven't you tried to help anyone else? Why just me?" He pressed on, looking for flaws in her story.

"The cure is created from a mix of two things. One is the specific enzymes produced by a rare DNA sequence in immunes. The enzyme breaks down the parasitic bacteria that infect the body and attacks brain cells, which is what creates the symptoms of the Flare virus. Those enzymes can only be extracted through the stem cells in the bone marrow of immunes, which is an extremely painful and long procedure. These stem cells are nurtured and implanted into the marrow of the infected. Once the DNA is planted it will begin to replicate itself, making the once infected immune. The second aspect of the cure is a chemical that stimulates a higher level of brain activity, causing the immune system to be faster and more effective in fighting off the disease. It's not a procedure that can be done for everyone, and immunes would have to dedicate their lives to being harvested. Many people are far past the gone here, the virus is airborne, it would never fully go away. It could mutate and immunity from the original virus might be ineffective. There is a lot that would most likely go wrong. WICKED is so corrupted, there is no turning back for this society. Our best bet for the survival of humanity is to take as many immune people as we can and transport them to a safe continent that hasn't been affected by the virus. There may even be human life elsewhere."

"If it's such a big secret, then why help me?" Newt repeated his inquiry.

"You..." she faltered. "You're special."

He opened his mouth to ask more questions when she attempted to cut him off by holding up a hand. "Please, just one more question." He interjected. "How are we supposed to find another continent?"

"My father began work on the technology to make it all possible." Ariadne conceded. "I found his research and his prototype and completed the project after he went missing. I'm fairly certain you've used it before. It's called a Flat-Trans. My mother and I have been smuggling supplies through for years now, building a society in the safe haven we found on another continent. We weren't supposed to transfer people over for a while, but Janson has developed a more potent mutation of the Flare and is planning to spread it as a population reduction method, leaving only the elite rich class who can afford bliss to survive for a cure. Even he knows saving everyone isn't possible. But he has selfish and corrupted ideas about where to go from here. I worked with Thomas before he was sent into the maze. We're the ones who gave Mary the information she needed to give to the Right Arm and form an alliance."