[ ELECTRA ]

❧

Through the dizzying commotion of the Council Hall, Frypan was the first to speak, "What's that supposed to mean? How could you have possibly helped create the Maze?"

When the other Keepers heard his question, they tuned in to listen to the conversation.

Thomas shuffled on his feet. "Well... Teresa and I were smart—"

"Teresa worked with them too?" one of the Keepers blurted out, and Thomas sent the boy a glare.

"Just listen to what I have to say, and then you can ask questions." Thomas' tone was harsh, and the Keeper nodded submissively. "Okay. It all might be part of their Variables but she and I have this... gift that made us valuable when creating this place. We... uh— we can speak telepathically."

Someone coughed in the room, but nobody asked any questions. Electra tilted her head at Thomas. She'd known he and Teresa had a telepathic connection, but she hadn't known they'd had their gift before the Maze. It made sense that they had, and she wondered just how long they'd had their connection, and maybe if they'd simply just always had it.

But their telepathy couldn't be natural, could it? If it was, then it was bordering magical power territory, and that simply couldn't be possible. Electra couldn't remember the outside world, but she was sure superpowers couldn't possibly exist. Advanced technology, however, obviously did exist considering the intricate Maze she lived in. Which meant the Creators probably consciously gifted both Thomas and Teresa with their telepathy.

Why them? Why not her? She thought herself to be smarter than them, but she'd been ditched in a Maze while they were able to speak to each other in their minds.

Thomas continued speaking after a drawn-out awkward silence, "But listen to me. They forced us to help. I don't know how or why, but they did. Maybe it was to see if we could gain your trust despite having been a part of them. Maybe we were meant all along to be the ones to reveal how to escape. Whatever the reason, with your Maps we figured out the code and we need to use it now."

Electra wished she was standing at the front of the room so she would've been able to see all of the Keepers' expressions to Thomas's confession. But, none of them outwardly projected anger towards the Greenie, which shocked her.

"I'm sorry, I really am." Thomas began apologizing but Electra groaned before cutting him off.

"Save your apologies till after we escape, Thomas. Just tell us your plan."

A couple of the Keepers looked back at her, and she returned their glances, causing them to quickly turn back around in their chairs. Thomas kept eye contact with her for a few seconds, before she gave him the tiniest nod, urging him to reveal his plan.

Thomas nodded a couple of times. "As I said, I've been getting vague memories in chunks ever since the Changing. They were sort of like puzzle pieces, and I couldn't quite figure out where everything fit.

"I got a memory of a computer station where we need to enter the code we deciphered. The code will open for us to get out of the Maze. And, ever since finding the Griever device, I knew our escape had to be located somewhere near the Cliff, but Electra said the computer station couldn't possibly be in the Cliff hallway, nor could it be anywhere she's ever been before, which is essentially almost the entire Maze."

"Almost? Where hasn't she been?" Minho asked, but Electra was already catching on to what Thomas was suggesting.

"Electra mentioned that we're better off risking our own deaths, and this plan— it's almost suicide. The Grievers will come after us whenever we try to do it. All of them. The final test."

Electra was finally able to remember her conversation with Thomas from the night before, and she flashed him a small smirk.

"I would say our best bet would be to jump off the Cliff and hope we don't catch our deaths."

"Deaths." Thomas trailed off, looking down at his feet in front of him.

"So where is it?" Newt asked impatiently.

"Over the Cliff," Thomas said. "We have to go through the Griever Hole."

Electra's heart skipped a beat, and her entire body surged with excitement. Thomas' plan made sense. The Griever device was their key to jumping down the Cliff and, if his memories were accurate, then there would be a machine down there where they could enter the code they'd deciphered. Electra hoped there wasn't another piece of the puzzle they were missing, but the urge to finally escape clouded any feelings of doubt.

The Keepers burst into an argument once again, and Electra wondered if the chaos was a usual occurrence. Newt finally yelled at them all to shut up and they complied.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with Thomas," Electra said, causing the room to go tense. "I know the Maze and trust me there's literally no other way besides this one."

Frypan scoffed, "And we're supposed to trust you, out of all people?"

"Yeah, if you want to get out of here, then you're supposed to trust me."

Thomas spoke again, and the room turned back to him, "I'm going through the Cliff or I'll die trying to get there. Electra will too, and I bet Minho and Teresa are in as well. If we can fight off the Grievers long enough for someone to punch in the code and shut them down, then we can go through the door they come through. We'll have passed the tests. Then we can face the Creators themselves."

Electra's ears perked at the prospect of meeting the Creators. She'd thought of the possibility for the last three years, and she knew when she finally met them, she would probably either threaten them or outright fight them. She bounced on her feet in anticipation of finally being able to exact some form of revenge on the people that caused her so much torment.

"And you think we can fight off Grievers?" Newt asked. "Even if we don't die, we'll probably all get stung."

"If we're lucky enough that the Grievers devolve during our escape, I can probably hold a few of them off," Electra said.

Newt turned to face her. "That's a big if. And regardless, you could only hold a few of them off. I bet every last one of those bloody monsters will be waiting for us when we get to the Cliff."

"It doesn't do the Creators any good if we all die — this thing is meant to be hard, not impossible," Thomas said. "I'm not sure about them devolving, but as of right now it seems like they're programmed to only kill one of us each day. So somebody can sacrifice themself to save the others while we run to the Hole. I think this might be how it's supposed to happen."

A short keeper, with acne dotting the back of his neck, and presumably his entire face if Electra could see it, let out a loud laugh, "So your suggestion is that we throw some poor kid to the wolves so the rest of us can escape? This is your brilliant suggestion?"

Thomas sent the boy a glare. "Yes, Winston, I'm so glad you're paying attention. And it seems obvious who the poor kid should be?"

Winston scoffed, "Oh yeah? Who?"

"Me." Thomas crossed his arms.

Again, the Gathering erupted into arguments. Newt jumped out of his chair and latched onto Thomas' arm. Electra could barely hear what the leader was saying through the yelling.

"You're leaving. Now."

Newt and Thomas walked closer to where Electra was standing at the back of the room, and this time she could clearly hear Thomas' shocked response.

"Leaving? Why?"

Newt pointed at Electra. "You. You're leaving too."

Newt grabbed onto her arm and pulled both Thomas and Electra out of the Council Hall. Once in the hall, Electra tore herself from Newt's grip before trying to force her way back into the Council Hall.

Newt pushed her back, and she was surprised by the amount of force he used. She tripped backwards, and Thomas rested a hand on her back to keep her from falling.

"Thomas, you've said enough for one meeting," Newt said. "And you, Electra, shouldn't have even been at the Gathering in the first place. We need to talk and decide what to do, without either of you here."

"Don't be an idiot, Newt. If you're making a plan I have to be there. I know the Maze," Electra said, moving away from Thomas and casting Newt an icy glare.

"Yeah, I know. You say that every bloody time someone talks to you." Newt simply sent her a bored expression and crossed his arms in front of himself. "Frankly, Minho probably knows the Maze just as well as you do."

"Newt, I swear if you don't let me back in I'm going to—"

"I don't want to hear it. You're staying out here. You aren't a Keeper."

Electra let out an exasperated laugh, "You might be the leader but you're not the boss of me."

"You gotta believe me, Newt. It's the only way out of here. We can do it, I swear. We're meant to." Thomas broke into the conversation, and Newt's hard glare became the tiniest bit softer when he shifted from Electra to Thomas.

"Yeah, I especially loved the bit where you volunteered to get yourself killed." Newt's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"I'm perfectly willing to do it."

"Oh really? Mr. Noble himself, aren't ya?"

"I have plenty of my own reasons. In some ways, it's my fault we're here in the first place." Thomas' voice shook and Electra furrowed her eyebrows when she turned to look at him. He took in a deep breath to compose himself before speaking. "Anyway, I'm going no matter what, so you better not waste it."

Electra's confusion built when Newt's composure softened even more, and any trace of irritation vanished from his voice. "Tommy, it's not your fault."

Where was this sudden compassion coming from? A few moments ago Newt was ready to chop her head off, and now he looked at Thomas as if the Greenie hadn't just plunged the entire Gathering into madness. The sudden change of emotions gave her whiplash.

Thomas' voice shook even more when he spoke, "I just feel like I need to save everyone. To redeem myself."

His response forcibly made a part of her mind click into place. She turned to Thomas, noticing the way his eyes were watering, and the deep creases in his forehead.

Electra remembered the first time she met Thomas, and how he kept his promise to not tell the other Gladers about her when he had zero obligation to keep a secret for her after the way she treated him. When she finally arrived in the Glade, he'd been the first to run up to her and support her. Then, her thoughts went back to last night, when he defended her in front of another Glader, then went and found her after she walked away from the argument.

He said he felt the need to save everyone? Had he been subtly protecting her this entire time?

Against her better judgment, Electra sighed, gently patting Thomas on the back. "Listen, Thomas. I agree that jumping down the Cliff is our way out, but you don't have to sacrifice yourself. That can't be the way it's supposed to be."

Newt nodded slowly. "I agree. No more of that heroic klunk. If we're gonna do this, we'll take our chances, all of us. You hear me?"

Thomas looked at Electra, surprised, before turning back to Newt. "So you agree with my plan?"

"I do, and I'm about to try and convince those shanks we should go through the Griever Hole."

Electra took a step forward. "I'll help you."

Newt let out a laugh, "Nice try. I'm still not allowing you in."

"C'mon, Newt. They'll agree to Thomas' plan if I'm there. Once I tell them how I can kill Grievers and run on top of the walls they'll either be too scared to reject the idea or will feel safer escaping because I'm there." Electra decided to purposefully leave out the part of the Grievers evolving towards being completely unbeatable, even by her.

"You can run on top of the walls?" Newt asked in a low voice, blinking a few times through his shock.

"Yeah, Minho didn't tell you?" Electra rudely asked, her voice purposefully louder than Newt's almost-whisper.

Newt looked at her for a few moments, contemplating, before sighing, "Look. If you're in there it will cause the other Keepers to be hesitant. You're right, they are afraid of you."

The words stung. She knew the Gladers were afraid of her, and she secretly enjoyed the way they all avoided her gaze and got out of her way whenever she would pass them. But when Newt said the words out loud, it felt like the fear had become real. Of course, it had always been real and she'd always known about it, but now it seemed unignorable, and it painted a vision in her head of her being reduced to nothing more than a Griever.

Were the Gladers as afraid of her as they were the Grievers? Did the amount of fear even matter?

The fear was there. They were afraid.

Newt continued, "But you're also right that if you're there then they're more likely to say yes. I'll use you to try to convince them, but you can't be there when I do."

Electra shook her head, trying to come up with anything that could change Newt's mind. Then, she remembered the conditions of her living in the Glade.

"Thanks, Electra," Newt crudely replied, before unlocking the Slammer door but still keeping it shut. "I'm letting you three out of here, but Electra it's been agreed upon that you'll be under 24/7 supervision from either Minho or myself."

Electra let out a mocking laugh, "That's bullshit."

She still thought the situation was bullshit, but it was also conveniently a perfect loophole.

"What about your entire 24/7 supervision rule, hm?" Electra asked tauntingly and relished in satisfaction when the realization dawned on Newt.

Just as quickly as he realized, however, his look was replaced with annoyance. "Yeah, well I think the entire situation is dire enough at the moment to ditch the bloody conditions, don't you think?"

Before Electra could say anything, Newt turned to Thomas and continued in a softer voice, "Tommy, I'll meet you over at the Box once I finish up in there. And... somehow if I can get them all to agree to this ridiculous plan, then I think we should do it tonight before the Grievers can take anyone else."

Thomas nodded. "Thank you, Newt."

Then, Thomas turned and left the Homestead, closing the front door behind him. Electra moved to follow him, but Newt grabbed onto her arm.

"Nope, you're staying right outside this door. And since we can't directly supervise you right now..." Newt looked around, his eyes landing on a boy who was walking near them and then he called out to him. "Chuck! C'mere would ya?"

Electra turned to see the small preteen boy nervously walk up to them. Chuck. She'd never cared to learn his name before now. Chuck refused to look at her, his eyes concentrated on Newt while he nervously fidgeted with his hands.

"I need you to supervise her. Make sure she doesn't leave this spot. Think you can do that?"

Electra let out a scoff before Chuck could reply, "You're kidding, right? Newt, look at him. As if he could stop me if I tried to leave."

Chuck sheepishly smiled at her, his eyes quickly darting up to her face before looking at the ground.

Newt ignored her. "If you do try to leave then we'll have to put you back into the Slammer. Those were the rules that you agreed to if you remember."

"Actually, I never agreed—"

"Okay, everything sounds good. Chuck, you got this?"

Chuck nodded quickly, and without another word Newt slipped back into the Council Hall, shutting the door behind him.

Electra was left standing in the hallway with an awkward Chuck bouncing at her side. Immediately, she thought about leaving. She could run out the door and meet up with Thomas near the Box, or just run out into the Maze and get a headstart on their escape plan. But she knew Newt was serious about his threat of throwing her in the Slammer.

Even though breaking out of the Slammer would be relatively easy for her, Electra groaned before sitting down beside the closed Council Hall door, bringing her knees up and resting her arms against them.

Chuck still stood where he was as if his feet were glued to the ground. His hands, however, shook as if he was stranded in a blizzard and his eyes shifted around the hall.

His constant movement aggravated her. So, in an attempt to stop his incessant twitching, Electra spoke up, "You're friends with Thomas, aren't you?"

The mention of Thomas seemed to melt some of the nervousness in the boy. Chuck looked down at her, and the smallest smile formed on his lips. "Yeah. We're pretty good friends, actually. Are you friends with him too?"

Electra scrunched her nose. "I don't know if I'd call him a friend, but he's definitely grown on me within the past couple of days. He has a way of forcing you to like him, don't you think?"

Chuck laughed and all the nervousness dripped off of him. He sat down in front of her, crossing his legs and smiling. The boy's smile proved to be contagious, and she caught the smallest of smiles on her own face. It felt odd, being uncharacteristically nice to this boy, especially since she'd never really talked to him before. Chuck was noticeably younger than the rest of the Gladers, and Electra felt a sting of pity for him.

He was too young to be dealing with everything that was going on. He shouldn't have to worry about being trapped in a Maze. He shouldn't have to worry about the possibility of dying. Yet, here he was, in the same boat as the rest of the Gladers, all of which were noticeably older, although nobody knew their exact ages.

So, the pity in Electra's stomach forced her to keep speaking, "So, I know Thomas is always off being the hero, but what's your job around here?"

The smile dropped off Chuck's face, and his face reddened. "Eh. My job definitely isn't as cool as Thomas' or yours."

"Oh trust me. You don't want my job," Electra said and Chuck laughed again.

"Seriously? You're a Griever-fighting badass! Who wouldn't want that job?"

Electra thought about her constant suffering during the past three years, then how Chuck had described her as a Griever-fighting badass. The latter option was easier, so she pushed away the suffering. "Hm. I guess you're right. I am a Griever-fighting badass."

"Don't get full of yourself now." Chuck gently nudged her and she let out a laugh.

The laugh surprised her, but it felt good. She wanted to continue joking, but Chuck's face turned serious as he looked up at her. "You know, you're not as scary as I thought you'd be."

Electra tilted her head, then remembered what Newt had said to her only a few moments ago. He'd made her feel like one of the Grievers as if the fear the Gladers felt for the monsters could easily be replaced with the fear they felt for her. But now, here Chuck was, admitting that he wasn't afraid of her.

Electra couldn't do anything but smile. "Thanks, kid."

The two sat in comfortable silence, but Electra could tell that Chuck had about a million questions about her and her life in the Maze. She knew that the current moment when their escape was imminent, was probably not the right time to bother herself with explaining her life to this boy, so she resolved that she would tell him once they were all safely out of the Maze. There would be plenty of time to tell her depressing stories when they were no longer in such a depressing place.

A while later, the Council Hall opened, and the Keepers all shuffled out of the door, most of them casting a quick glance down at her and Chuck who remained sitting on the