Returning Home

EIGHTEEN - Ma'am

Her screams ended and Theo lifted his head towards the opened door. He expected to see the girl walk in, limping or something, but certainly not dragged. She had her eyes screwed shut, hands clenched with her chest heaving.

He watched frozen as the girl was thrown into her cell next to his before the masked people clicked a button that tinted nearly all of his walls, except for the one separating him from Amelia.

Her breathing was erratic and didn't show any signs of slowing.

Slowly, the brunette pushed herself up and her eyes met Theo's.

"I-I'm guessing you have questions," she said, her voice wavering and tired. She tried to smile but it didn't reach her eyes.

"What happened to you?"

"They've renewed their strategies," Amelia said, her heart slowing as her breathing calmed.

"That doesn't answer the question."

Sighing, Amelia moved towards the nearest wall while still staying in his vision and leaned against it. Her vision was on her hands as she spoke, "I was a puppet to them. They tried getting me under their control again but they now know physical pain won't work anymore."

His mouth parted but Theo didn't dare say anything. His eyes lowered to see her hands shaking slightly and her hair created a curtain between herself and the outside world.

"Their making me watch a happy future, with friends and people that don't exist anymore," her hands formed fists at the thought of the memory of kids and people she barely knew being tarnished by WCKD. "Their making me relive things a different way, torturing my mind in the ways of reality and fiction."

""Daughter?'" Theo asked as the girl remained silent. "Sorry, forget I-"

"I was tool for them," she interrupted, head moving and her eyes meeting his once more. She moved her eyes to something in the corner of her room and he looked around his to find a camera in the corner. "I was taken as a child and when it finally got through their thick skulls that I was still a kid, they made the man overlooking my training and work tell me that they were my family. He wasn't affectionate at all, but rather shaped me into a soulless killer that did as they asked."

"Oh."

***

Theo couldn't take it. The men in masks came in, poked, prodded, and tortured him for brief periods of time. There was no exchange, not a word spoken from anyone.

"Gathering data" Amelia had said. Once, a long time ago. He didn't know how much time had passed exactly, but it had been a while. To the point where he felt himself going mad as the torture went on, from the people in white and helpless in watching Amelia lose herself.

She was losing herself, bit by bit. She took time to recognize him. It took triggers now. He hated the term but it was all that came to mind. Originally it took a few seconds, then minutes, then Liam, dear Liam had brought her back quickly, but now... she didn't know him.

Theo didn't call her name anymore. He had learned that she would go silent after realizing she didn't know her name, defensive in a way. She shut herself down so that he, a mere stranger to her now, wouldn't learn more about her than the fact she didn't know her own name.

He couldn't take it. Not for longer.

"The moon's beautiful," he said to himself, hand clutching his side from where he laid.

"The moon?" Amelia questioned. "How would you know?"

"It always is," there's no response. She didn't know her name but he repeated it as much as he could in his head, swearing to get her to remember one day. "No matter where we are, in which phase it's in, the moon and stars are always above our heads, looked at by people all over the world."

"Sounds poetic."

"A friend would rant about it all the time. He loves the simple things of life, it makes him feel human when he thinks he's a monster."

"He sounds like an angel. A monster would never be so poetic about the moon."

"Try telling him that. I swear, one mistake, one scratch and he calls himself evil incarnate when he's the farthest from it."

A small laugh echoed the cells, repeating herself, "Angel on Earth."

"A puppy, some would say," Theo's soft smile never wavering, no matter how close he was to tears, remembering her claiming that nickname over Liam, every waking moment they were together. "With eyes so blue I don't need the sky anymore."

"And you call him just a friend," she huffs, coughing and shifting out of Theo's line of sight. Her teasing is familiar though, something that warms Theo enough to remind himself that he can't give up. Not yet.

"He's first my friend. The first person I've called a real friend without hesitation."

"Sounds wonderful."

"It is."

***

He cries out in pain, fists shut as he tries to pull away from the taser, wanted them to release his leg, to let him rest, to let him heal.

They prod at the muscle through the open skin, jotting down the reactions they see to the taser before having more electricity pass through him again. But stronger.

He feels his heart nearly go into cardiac arrest. Nearly beat out of rhythm with the new electricity. His supernatural genes kept him from that, but it did not protect him from the prodding they did. It didn't heal him.

It hurt.

Eventually the prodding ended. He didn't feel them stop. Only heard the closing door to the cells.

"You there kid?"

He coughed, pulling himself to a wall to lean himself up and allow himself an easier manner to breathe. The wound healed enough to not bleed profusely but it certainly wasn't looking good, yet.

"I'm here ma'am," he huffed.

"Ma'am?! Do I sound old to you?"

He grinned, the temper and teasing we the greatest ways to pull her back, "Calling me kid sure makes it seem like you are."

A scoff came from her, "And here I was worried for you and this is what I get. Children."

"Not on my that you can't handle what you started."

"Baby."

"Grandmother."

"Infant."

"Brittle bones."

"Fetus."

"Basically dust."

"Sexually acti-"

"GAH NO STOP. DON'T YOU DARE GO THERE."

Two laughs swirled the room. Bonded through trauma yet wholesome in a way. No matter how much he appreciated these moments, he needed to get them out. Amelia could probably manage a way out, but with her state of mind, with common sense existing but no memories to connect it to, she wouldn't know where to go, what to do, or how to continue in life. She'd survive, but never without looking over her shoulder, nor with friends she could trust. He needed to escape with her, and find a way back Beacon Hills. To their family.

If only an escape for two were that easy.