Y/N's POV:
"I thought you weren't leaving for another three days?!"
I couldn't look at him for some reason; I just kept my eyes forward as I packed my bag.
"I thought I at least had a couple more days?"
Just pack. Don't react. Shirts, socks, bras-
"Y/n!"
I stopped short, a pair of jeans in one hand and a knife in the other. Newt stood behind me, resting against a pole as he shouted at me from across the quarters. He was upset, confused - mostly upset -and also a little bit angry.
What I didn't realise though – which I'm usually very on top of – is how close he had gotten since this conversation had started.
"I don't want you to leave."
I turned slowly, catching his rather saddened eyes as I looked up at him. "It's only for a few days. It's the exact same plan as it always has been. Nothing has changed."
His eyes stayed the exact same amount of sad, making me divert my gaze to the floor.
I had to go – I don't have a choice. Minho needs us, and if I can be any help in getting him back, I'm fucking doing it.
"I thought I had more time." He said quietly, reaching his hands up to find mine and intertwine them.
I broke away, turning back to the suitcase I was only half-done packing. "I'm not dying. I will be back; you know I would never leave."
You have to know I would never leave you, right?
"Then why are you?" He asked desperately, moving forward again to touch my arm. "Stay – if you really don't want to go, no one should be allowed to make you."
I sighed.
"You know it's not that simple, Newt."
He took an even bigger step closer, taking my shoulders in his hands to spin me around.
"You clearly don't want to go, love. And it seems to be no surprise that I don't want you to go either."
I pushed my lips into a thin line. He was right; I don't want to go. But this isn't about me – this isn't even about him. It's about doing what I should have done a long time ago; fought for the right side.
And going on this trip does that.
"Hey, Y/n, you almost done?" Thomas' voice sounded from outside the quarters as he called in, suitcase in hand and a pair of car keys on his belt.
I responded quickly. "Yeah, I'll be right there."
He nodded curtly, before heading back off in the direction of where the truck is parked.
I felt Newt's fingers grip ever so slightly tighter in the fabric of my shirt.
"I have to go."
Newt exhaled thoroughly, before straightening up his posture. "What if you don't come back?"
My heart warmed and I felt like giving the blonde the biggest hug ever. But instead, I settled on something much sweeter.
Standing on the tips of my shoes, I reached up and placed a very slow and soft kiss on his lips, before pulling back and smiling.
"I would have thought by now you would know me well enough to know that I'm not letting some fucker kill me. I'm growing old with you still on my back about safety and making sure I don't do anything stupid, okay?"
The boy smiled widely. "So, we're growing old together, huh?"
He was smirking so much more than I appreciated.
"That's if I haven't killed you first, of course." I retorted coyly. Newt rolled his eyes in response and helped put the remaining clothes items in my bag for the trip.
He didn't say much to protest after that, mostly quiet or a small amount of encouragement here and there.
When we reached the truck, he said goodbye to both Thomas and Vince, and then kissed me delicately on the cheek.
"You better come back to me in one piece."
I took it as a compliment. "No promises."
--
The roads were quiet – no surprises there.
It had been about three hours since I had left the blonde back at camp, his eyes sad and his jaw taut. I'm not sure how it will be when I return - I don't know if he'll be upset or excited that I had actually made it back.
I hope for the latter.
The sun was beginning to dip behind the mountains, and I was really starting to get annoyed with the constant bickering in the front seat.
It seems Newt wasn't the only one distraught about the impromptu leave, as Thomas looked as if he was just about ready to haul himself out of the car. "I forgot my Glock! It's my best weapon, and if we would have left when we had planned, I wouldn't have been in such a rush and forgotten it!"
Vince sighed heavily from the driver's seat, throwing a glance in the rear-view mirror at me that said 'will he ever shut up?'
I don't think he realises he never will.
"Thomas, I don't think I could give less of a fuck about your bloody gun." He ground out, resulting in Tom slouching back in his seat like a child. Vince rolled his eyes.
"Don't think that I'm happy about this – I hate this just as much as you do, but we don't have a choice." The wheels screeched as Vince turned a sharp corner.
He was getting tired and we had been driving for a while now.
"They move out much quicker than we originally thought, so we either meet them now, or we say goodbye to the others forever. Is that what you want?"
Thomas huffed and slouched even lower in his chair. I have never seen him act like this – he's usually completely onboard with plans on rescuing the others, but here he seemed to be so reluctant.
"Is that what you want?" Vince repeated, louder this time.
"No. Obviously it's not."
I pulled my jacket over my eyes to shut out the light – I knew this car ride would feel like an eternity but I didn't think it would happen so early on.
"Good. Now, shut the fuck up and go to sleep. We should be there by sun up."
He didn't have to tell me twice.
--
The camp was much more beautiful than I was expecting.
Flowers caressed the land in such a way that you wouldn't think that it was once a battlefield. That so many lives had been lost on these grounds – bloodshed and tears falling to the floor as bodies of those you once cared for lost the glint in their eyes and the spark in their smile, as the world dims and they are no longer in it.
You wouldn't think children had been tortured here – that innocence lives were stolen away and kept for other people's advantages.
It didn't seem like a place that had even been touched by anger or grief. It seemed – peaceful. Much more so than our own camp, which had a sad aura to it.
Back home had been licked by solitude and sadness that even with the happiest of days, fails to be filled.
I found myself already not wanting to leave.
There were very few people in sight after we got onto the grounds. Guards were stationed at every hidden opening, making sure that no intruders were to get in – and by how thorough and extensive their checks were, I suspect they take no chances in that happening.
I received strange looks as I was being patted down by two guards; they scanned my face and a glint of recognition sounded in their eyes – but not one said a thing, just nodded their head and let us through.
Vince seemed to know where we needed to be, as he ushered us off to a certain spot that he told us we were supposed to be meeting his 'friends'.
"They want us in their council room as soon as possible. These guys aren't messing around, so both of you on your best behaviour."
I scowled and kept on forward, following Vince's rushed footsteps. The man seemed rather anxious – he never actually told us why the trip was abruptly moved forward, just that we needed to leave immediately and to stop asking questions.
Thomas didn't really understand the concept, but I obliged almost instantly. The main reason for that being that I didn't really care. The sooner we arrive, the sooner we get the details of Wicked's whereabouts and information on their hideouts and plans, the sooner I can get back to Newt.
It was annoying to me how I had barely been apart from him for fourteen hours, and I already missed him. I didn't like the idea that one singular person had that amount of control over my emotions and how I was feeling – I don't understand how people can enjoy feeling like that at all.
I pushed the blonde out of my mind and shook my head – now was not the time to be thinking about him.
"We're here."
Thomas and I were both behind Vince as he nodded slowly and advanced forward a step, wracking his knuckles on the steel door.
For a minute, there was no answer, no sounds from inside and no sign of movement anywhere around us. But then, very slowly, the handle came down and the door creaked open.
Stood before us was a man. He looked like he was in his early twenties – rough beard and tired eyes, dark skin with long hair that just touched his shoulders.
The man looked confused for a moment, before something seemed to spark in his mind and then he was opening the door to step out and engulf Vince in a hug.
"Vince! How great it is to see you!"
Vince returned the sentiment and hugged his friend. "Jax! Good to see you're still alive."
Both the men laughed as Vince stepped back and out of the way. Jax's features were rough and jagged, but his eyes were kind and simplistic.
"Jax, these are my friend's Y/n and Thomas."
Jax stood still next to Vince, running his eyes over the both of us. "They've been checked?"
The man seemed rather suspicious, keeping his nose high to examine. His eyes kept darting back over to mine, much more than with Thomas.
"Yes, as have I." Vince replied calmly.
And that seemed to be enough for Jax.
"Excellent, well do come in. We've been waiting for you lot to show up. Y'see, we're leaving much earlier than we thought-"
Thomas interrupted the man. "And why is that, again?"
Jax, who I previously thought didn't seem too intimidating, turned-on his foot to Thomas in a singular second with a knife to his throat the next.
I froze, not entirely sure how to continue. But then I realised that the pistol I had on my hip was already in my hand and pointed at the man with a dagger to my friend's neck.
"Put the fucking knife down."
Jax couldn't seem to hear me, as he kept his eyes on a squirming Thomas. "Did I say you could interrupt me, boy?"
"Y/n, put the gun down-" Vince tried to speak, but failed.
"Did I?!" Jax yelled.
All four of us were yelling at someone else, whether that was out of fear or anger it didn't matter.
Thomas whimpered slightly. "No, I'm- I'm sorry!"
We are literally two steps through the door-
"What is going on out here?" A voice, one of which I've never heard before, sounded from behind me. I turned my head slightly, to see a purple curtain being pulled back a little. And there stood a woman – and she was not what I was expecting.
In a sense, she was utterly breath-taking – and I say this as the second I saw her I couldn't think of a single thing to say. She wasn't like me, or anyone else I've ever seen before.
Her skin – it wasn't like what I've seen before. It was blotched, with both white and brown skin, both beautiful colours on one person. Some parts of her face were pigmented, and then others weren't.
I didn't realise how quiet the room had gotten.
I also decided then and there that I much preferred her skin to anyone else's.
"Jax, what the fuck is going on?"
Other people had begun to emerge from behind the woman, watching us like zoo animals. Vince had stopped spitting at me to lower my gun, and Thomas had stopped whimpering.
Jax slowly let Thomas go, still training his eyes on him like a hawk. He then turned to the woman, with a very large grin.
"Lia! This is Vince, Y/n and Thomas. They will be our guests for the next couple of days."
The woman looked only a couple of years older than me. She was tall, with long black hair she had pulled into a bun, and she wore a very beautiful necklace with blue charms.
She didn't respond, just stood there looking confused.
But the man behind her seemed to have something to say.
"You. I know you." He pointed right at me, and immediately my heart dropped.
"Is that so?" Jax cooed. "Y/n, do you recognise my friend here?"
Shit. The other times people have told me that, it hasn't ended well.
I swallowed hard and shook my head. And then more people were emerging from behind the curtain, right up until it was pulled roughly out of the way. There stood even more people, all men, massively built, and staring angrily at me.
No – not angry – livid.
All looking at me like they wanted to rip me in half with their bare hands. And by the look of them, they probably could.
"Jax." The first man said,
"She killed Magnar."
-
A/N: so many new characters that are so interesting to introduce. how exciting.
next chapter should be up early next week, maybe if you're lucky it'll be up sooner ;)
ty all for 16k <3