i know that
if i die, my
only choice is
still defending
★
you shall go west,
and face the one who has turned,
you shall find what was stolen,
and see it safely returned,
you shall be betrayed by
one who calls you a friend,
and you shall fail to...
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The safe house was quiet except for the soft breathing of those gathered inside. Vicky sat near the worn wooden table, the dim light catching the flicker of pain in her green eyes.
Around her, Vivian, Bea, Nancy, Thèrèse, Harriet, Sonya, and the others waited in a circle.
Vicky swallowed, fingers tightening around the edge of her sleeve. "I'm going to tell you everything," she began softly. "What happened after you left, and why... how I disappeared."
Her voice trembled, but she pushed forward. "It all started at the Last City. The war was raging—chaos everywhere. We were trying to hold the line, protect what little we had left. But it wasn't just WCKD anymore. The fighting came from all sides."
She glanced at Thèrèse, her eyes steady but filled with a storm of memories. "That day, I learnt that... Carter—your father—he shot me."
The words hung heavy in the air.
"I didn't know if I was breathing after that. The city was burning around us, the rubble collapsing. People were screaming, running for their lives. All anyone could see was that I'd been hit. I was left there in the ruins—smoke and fire closing in."
Her voice cracked, but she forced herself to continue. "You thought I was dead. No one stayed to help. You had to leave me."
Vivian's hand covered Vicky's, silent tears shining in her eyes.
"But I wasn't dead."
Vicky's voice grew stronger. "The Iron Lions found me. They risked everything to pull me from the ashes, broken, bleeding, but alive. They saved me when no one else would."
She smiled faintly, remembering the faces of the three who became her family in those dark days. "Matt, Hugo, and Luke—they never gave up on me. They kept me alive. They taught me to fight again, to trust again."
Nancy leaned forward, voice filled with awe. "You found new strength with them."
Vicky nodded. "Yes. But I never stopped looking for you. For Mom. For all of you. Every mission, every risk we took was because I believed there was still hope. I had to find my way back."
Her eyes flickered with memories of dangerous WCKD missions — infiltrating enemy lines, dodging patrols, stealing secrets — all to find clues about the Gladers and her mother.
"I went undercover with Matt, Hugo, and Luke. We moved through WCKD's world like ghosts. I was scared every second, but I pushed through. Because if I didn't... what was the point of surviving at all?"
The room was silent, the weight of her words settling over everyone.
"Some nights, the nightmares come back — fire, ruins, that moment I thought I was going to die alone again. But then I remember your faces, your voices. I remember that I'm not alone anymore."
