Chapter Text
“Jay, Jo you’re gonna wanna see this.”
The brown haired twins glanced up from their hunched over positions in front of the chemicals that laid about on the table. They shared a look before the younger straightened out and walked to where a radio lay. “What do you got Ev?”
The radio held static for a bit before their friend replied. “It looks like a crank with a knife in his chest… but his heart’s still beatin’.”
The other twin stood up at the words, having been looking to his brother. He hastily walked to his twin and took the radio from him. “What do you mean, ‘still beating’?” He shared a look with his brother and saw Jordan worry his bottom lip.
“I mean what I said Jayden… Just--you two needa get down here now.” Static rained through the connection, followed by a heavy sigh. “I got no idea what to make of this.”
Jayden heaved his own sigh, bringing a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Alright, we’ll be out there in about 20. Any of WCKD around?”
“You know the living ones hightailed it outta here when they got word Janson was full on Gone. They didn’t want to stick around and deal with the rebel’s bullshit,” came the reply. “Think you can make it in 15? I ain’t ever seen shit like this before.”
Rubbing a hand down his face Jayden breathed out, placing the radio back in his brother’s hand. Jordan nodded as Jayden walked away. “We’ll do our best Ev… no promises though.”
“Yeah, yeah… just-- hurry it up.”
Several minutes later, making record time past the insurgent mutts at the city gates, the twins were approaching up stairs on a group of four people all standing in an open area. Behind them was the street that led towards what once was WCKD’s headquarters. And on the ground in front of them was a boy that looked dead.
His body was covered in the same black veins that took over more than half the world, infected with the same disease that steals loved ones away from everyone. That has stolen so many people from their own group, even if it has brought them six more. His hair was matted down terribly, dark fluid over his chin and covering his shirt. The same dark fluid surrounded the knife in his chest and it…looked to be moving?
Jayden pulled gloves from his back pocket and moved between the group, pulling the latex on and crouching down beside the boy. Upon closer look, the black fluid was bubbling around the knife wound, like it was burning. Something tapped his shoulder and he lifted a hand to grip around the small vial that was passed to him by Jordan.
Carefully, Jayden scooped some of the bubbling fluid into the vial, watching the remaining fluid bubble violently, covering the place that was exposed, settling down marginally when it was fully covered once more. Jayden eyed the fluid warily, standing up to look at the group who had been watching him silently.
“I…” he trailed off, glancing away from their eyes. “...I don’t know what to make of this. I’ve never seen any sort of fluid behave this way… and if my assumptions are correct, that black fluid is the Flare virus. I’ve… never seen this before…” He looked back at the still body.
“That caught my attention first too,” the shortest blond said, crouching beside the body. “‘Swat made me come over here in the first place… that and how he still hasn’ been picked up yet. The mutts shoulda found him by now…”
“Mighta thought it wasn’ worth the effort,” the tallest blond grumbled. “Prolly saw he wasn’ one o’ their’s an’ left ‘im ta rot.” He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced around. He settled his hands against the gun hanging over his chest and hefted it up. “Imma make sure we don’ get‘ny… visitors.” He nodded towards the auburn haired twins and they followed behind him, gripping their own weapons.
Jordan hummed in response. “Be careful Raph. You know the mutts don’t take too kindly to us running around. Especially you with your way of speaking.”
“Not my fault the bastards take everythin’ as an insult,” Raphael growled, shuffling his shoulders. The three broad shouldered men each took different places to where obvious entrances to the area was, the places not surrounded completely by rubble from fallen buildings. Jayden shook his head, huffing quietly. He crouched down beside the small blond and reached his hand out to the crank’s neck.
He startled when he felt the pulse.
“It’s amazing how there isn’t any rubble around here…” Jordan began, glancing around the well-maintained area. “There’s hardly any sort of debris in the area.”
“Yeah… ‘stoo ‘spicious,” the blond replied, standing up. “So many collapsin’ buildin’s and not a single chunk a rock in this area… how the hell does that happen?”
The two continued to speak quietly and Jayden ignored them. His gaze rested on the knife in the boys chest. What if… but that was impossible wasn’t it? The Flare is a disease spread to control population when the Solar Flares started wiping out areas and evacuation shelters couldn’t hold anyone else. It wasn’t something that… protected .
Taking a chance, Jayden reached forwards and grabbed the hilt of the knife, yanking it upwards in one smooth motion. Immediately the fluid bubbled vigorously over the wound and steam seemed to rise from it. Jayden watched intently, studying its movements, observing how it bubbled and then slowed, fizzling out, leaving just black fluid in its place.
Two bodies crouched beside him and watched as well, conversation falling silent. Jordan produced a white cloth from his back pocket and stretched forwards, laying it over the black fluid and wiping it away. The fluid came off with no resistance, wiping away cleanly, leaving no residue, as if Jordan had merely wiped water from the boy’s chest.
Suddenly, the boy jerked and gasped loudly, body arching off the concrete and the blond immediately pulled the twins away, his gun rising up to point at the boy’s head. The boy’s body spasmed for a few seconds before relaxing, chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.
“Evan…”
“Ya know we can’t Jayden. Too dangerous. Especially with how the last ones turned out,” the blond hissed. “I know ya want to study the Flare yourself and learn how it evolved from when it was first released, but we can’t be takin’ any more monkeys for ya.”
“They aren’t monkeys Evan!” Jayden growled. “You know they aren’t!”
“Fine then!” Evan shouted back. “ Lab rats ! It’s all the same Jay!”
“But it’s not! If I can figure out how it’s evolved to get past so many serums then I can find a cure! Or at least something that makes people immune until it changes again!”
“This isn’t one o’ your fancy nat’ral diseases!” Evan grabbed Jayden’s shirt and dragged him upwards, away from the crank. “This one’s manmade and everyone that knew how ta fix it is dead!”
“I know what I’m doing Evan!” Jayden gasped. “We don’t have much serum left and we all know that it’s hardly working on you anymore! You won’t last long enough if I can’t study the Flare!”
“ I’ve already accepted my death! ” The scream was loud and echoed. A sharp intake of breath made them pause, Evan glancing to Jordan, who was holding back his tears at the sight. He looked back at Jayden and saw his own tears threatening to escape. Softly, he continued, letting his tight grip go and resting his hand on the brunet’s chest. “I’ve already accepted my death… an’ you should too.”
Gunfire suddenly surrounded them and Evan breathed a curse. It came from the street entrance, where Raphael was quickly running back towards them.
“Gotta go kiddos!” He exclaimed. From the stair entrance, Mason and Jason, the auburn haired twins, came rushing towards them.
“Raph! What did you do?!” Jason exclaimed. The bulky blond gripped onto Evan’s arm and began pulling him away.
“I di’nt do nothing! It was all their shoutin’!” Shouts joined the gunfire and it halted for a second before footsteps came rushing towards them. “C’mon, we gotta go.”
He began pulling on Evan’s arm incessantly and the shorter blond followed him. Jordan and Jason followed behind them but Jayden hesitated. Just as he reached the stairs he turned back to the boy on the ground, watching his chest rise and fall steadily. He bit his lip and glanced to his friends who were making their way back through the city. Growling to himself, Jayden spun on his heel and hurried to the boy, pulling at his body to sit him up.
He wasn’t going to let this chance get away. The Flare was acting differently than anything Jayden has ever seen… he needed to know who this was and why the Flare was… protecting him from death.
The brunet struggled to get the boy sitting up quickly, wanting to lift him onto his back so he could run faster and get away from the rebel cretins. He huffed and pulled the boy’s arms over his shoulders only to gasp when the dead weight was lifted from him. His gaze shot up but he quickly relaxed seeing Mason’s stoic face.
He nodded to Jayden and the brunet grinned, pressing his lips to Mason’s cheek in thanks. The tall auburn haired man grunted and lifted the boy with ease, cradling him against his chest easily. Jayden bent down and lifted the gun that Mason had set down to lift the boy and held it towards the street entrance as shouts got closer and footsteps pounded.
In a flash, Jayden followed after Mason before the rebels could come around the corner and see them, the two disappearing from the city.
When Mason and Jayden entered the spacious room they used as the lab, Evan growled at him loudly. “I told ya not to!”
Jayden exploded right back, arms throwing in the air, Mason dodging around him and setting the boy on an empty table. “I wasn’t going to leave him there Evan! He was breathing! For some reason the Flare wasn’t killing him! It was protecting him from death!”
“That doesn’ mean you fuckin’ need him! Ya got your sample of his virus!”
“I wasn’t going to leave him in the hands of those mutts!”
“So he’s betta as one o’ your lab rats!”
“He’s safer here with us than with them!”
Before Evan could reply, a groan sounded from the boy and Jayden pushed past the blond. He was stopped from completely leaning over the boy by Mason, the taller man shaking his head slightly. Jayden huffed and watched the boy carefully, biting his lips roughly. Raphael, Evan, and Jason all brought their guns up, training them on the boy in case he was still Gone. Jordan migrated to the other side of the table, picking up a syringe with a clear liquid in it.
Another groan came and the boy’s face scrunched up in pain. A thin hand raised to the matted hair and fell against his temple. The boy turned on his side and curled up moaning in pain. Jayden looked up at Mason and pushed down on his arm slightly, the taller man letting him go forwards.
The brunet came up beside the boy, his twin placing a silver light in his hand. Jayden carefully bent towards the boy’s face, reaching his hand into the protection of his face and lifting an eyelid. He shined the light into the boy’s eyes, watching the response he got, seeing the pupils react wildly and dilate. The boy mumbled softly and Jayden backed up, handing the light back to Jordan.
He spoke softly to the boy, voice just over a whisper. “It’s alright, you're okay. Everything is fine.” The boy groaned again and opened his eyes, flinching away, clutching his head.
“I-I don’t--”
“Hush now,” Jayden shushed, letting his hand fall to one of the boy’s hands. He slowly lifted it, trying to calm the boy. “You don’t need to speak, just stay calm. You're okay now.”
Jayden carefully coaxed the boy to lay on his back, his attitude completely different than expected from a supposed crank...especially one at the boy’s stage-- far past the Gone. Jordan joined in calming the boy, carefully extracting blood from him so they could test it. Jayden brushed the boys blond looking hair away from his face, threading his fingers through the strands to untangle it.
The boy blinked several times and seemed more awake and coherent at the twins ministrations. His eyes were flickering all around, and he kept twitching when his sights fell on anyone in the room. Jayden spoke softly, hoping to not startle him. “Can you tell me your name?”
The boy opened his mouth, licking his lips. He stuttered incoherently for a few seconds before speaking one word that was intensely clear to Jayden.
“...Newt.”