[Minho is a lot of things, but smarter than Newt? Maybe with certain things, but not when it came to dealing with people. Newt was always the one that knew what to say to people to make things seem better, or put them in their place, or whatever they might have needed at the time. Minho could memorize Maze routes and come up with attack plans, but he was an idiot when it came to people. His inspiring speeches were proof enough of that.
When he sees the expanse of pale skin, he frowns and reaches out to brush his fingers over it like maybe he'll uncover the ink that should have been there. It plants a seed of doubt, just a tiny one, but enough to make his stomach clench.]
They took us. [He said it as a fact, because he remembers it and because that has to be something WICKED would do no matter what other memories might be different.] I don't remember what happened between there and here, but it wouldn't be hard for them to change you, right? They gave us these tattoos without us even knowing it or feeling it. They could take them away. They could shuck with your head.
[He's trying to explain it for Newt's benefit as much as his own, because the thought of Newt somehow not being Newt, not being his Newt, was hard to stomach. If he was something sent to hurt them, Minho would find a way to fix him and hurt WICKED a hundred times over. They'd done it with Theresa, but maybe she wasn't enough, maybe breaking Thomas' heart hadn't been the end of it.
All the possibilities are filling up his head, but he focuses back in on Newt when he starts talking about Thomas.] Next time he does, you punch the look right off his ugly face. Even if they did something to you, you're Newt. [An unspoken "I'm not giving up on you" fills his words. Maybe he'd been sent to trip them up, or was somehow different, but he was still Newt and Minho wasn't going to throw that aside for "maybe."]
Thomas... he hasn't known us as long. Sometimes he doesn't get it. [The bond that builds between people forced together in the shittiest of conditions and told to survive together. Thomas called them his friends, but he barely knew them. True, he didn't know anything else, but it wasn't the same. It didn't take as much to make him distrust Newt as it would for Minho. He wasn't about to call Newt a hopeless case until he was holding a knife to his throat.]
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When he sees the expanse of pale skin, he frowns and reaches out to brush his fingers over it like maybe he'll uncover the ink that should have been there. It plants a seed of doubt, just a tiny one, but enough to make his stomach clench.]
They took us. [He said it as a fact, because he remembers it and because that has to be something WICKED would do no matter what other memories might be different.] I don't remember what happened between there and here, but it wouldn't be hard for them to change you, right? They gave us these tattoos without us even knowing it or feeling it. They could take them away. They could shuck with your head.
[He's trying to explain it for Newt's benefit as much as his own, because the thought of Newt somehow not being Newt, not being his Newt, was hard to stomach. If he was something sent to hurt them, Minho would find a way to fix him and hurt WICKED a hundred times over. They'd done it with Theresa, but maybe she wasn't enough, maybe breaking Thomas' heart hadn't been the end of it.
All the possibilities are filling up his head, but he focuses back in on Newt when he starts talking about Thomas.] Next time he does, you punch the look right off his ugly face. Even if they did something to you, you're Newt. [An unspoken "I'm not giving up on you" fills his words. Maybe he'd been sent to trip them up, or was somehow different, but he was still Newt and Minho wasn't going to throw that aside for "maybe."]
Thomas... he hasn't known us as long. Sometimes he doesn't get it. [The bond that builds between people forced together in the shittiest of conditions and told to survive together. Thomas called them his friends, but he barely knew them. True, he didn't know anything else, but it wasn't the same. It didn't take as much to make him distrust Newt as it would for Minho. He wasn't about to call Newt a hopeless case until he was holding a knife to his throat.]