Emotionless »« Newt

TWENTY-THREE

Leandra watched with her sinking heart as Newt had fallen, her eyes glued to the spot where his head popped up in the water, aided by the other two as Thomas flipped Janson off. Andi didn't know they'd be able to make it out from such a distance, but Janson's growl and flash of anger told her it was clear as day.

And even though she could feel the boys' faint sadness, Newt's confusion and grief, Janson's fury, a tired smile found its way to her face. Because they were safe for the time being, and she has a job to do.

She whirls around to Janson, arms crossed firmly over her chest. "This is the part you take me to my mother and tell her I betrayed you all, then I laugh in your face when you realise all the other kids have been taken away."

His eyes go wide. "What?"

The door slams open barely a few minutes later, Janson stalking into the room with barely-contained ire, looking around at all the destruction and the doors left wide open. Even an idiot could see they'd escaped, and there was no going back.

He opens the vault, only to reveal the missing serums and all the guards tied up inside, and Leandra lets a proud smirk linger on her lips. One of the awake ones grunt, gesturing to his bound hands, but Janson just points a dangerous finger at him. "Shut up. They're not out yet." He turns around, only to meet Ava's eyes, and Andi knows what she has to do now.

She can sense her mother's regret, but appeasement at them being able to escape, and finally she realises that it doesn't matter. Leandra always wanted a cure. She didn't want more people to die like her father, but now... now there's nothing else. The world is going to shit. Her friends, her family, are all that's left, and they need to make their own way in the world.

"Mom." After Janson's stalked out, Leah quickly grabs her mother's hand and starts tugging her through, running as fast as she can up the stairs while the puzzled Ava follows, knowing there's no point in fighting any longer. Not after all she's done, not after she's pushed her daughter away. But maybe... maybe this thing is too much to ask for. "Mom, I need you to do something for me."

"I won't."

Leandra stops the moment they reach the Medical Wing, and her gaze hardens as she turns to her mother, still rushing around to grab supplies she's grown well-accustomed to by now. "What do you mean, 'I won't'? Newt is dying, and it's because of you! I'm going to save his life, but the only way I can is to do what you did in reverse. I need to remove the enzymes, give them back. He's running out of time."

"I'm not doing it," Ava says simply, keeping her daughter's gaze, but Lee knows the guilt behind it. She knows Ava's going to give in. She knows her mother far too well to be fooled into stopping just before she gets what she needs ever again. "Leandra, I am not losing you, like I lost your father."

"You didn't lose him," Leandra hisses, voice full of hate. "You killed him. You killed him, and you lied to me about it. And you owe this to me, Ava Paige, and so help me, if you don't do this I'll never forgive you. You've put my family into danger too many times, and I won't let it continue. I won't allow your mistakes to risk their lives ever again."

Every word is a direct blow in Ava's chest, and she can't help but wonder where she went wrong. And against everything in her, every instinct screaming for her not to do it, she only tries one more time. She only tries once more, because she knows what she's done to those kids is wrong, what she's done to her daughter is wrong, and she can see it in Leandra's eyes. Clear as day. This could make up for it all.

"Leandra, you don't know what you're doing. You're more important than–"

"You do not get to decide who's more important, Mom!" she shouts, already prepping the sedative before placing it in her mother's hand beside the tray and lying down on the operating table. "Hurry up, we don't have long. We wait much longer and he's going to die, or turn. He's not going to end up like Winston, I won't allow it."