She, who grounded him

Chapter 4 : Dream a little dream of me

A/N : Hi ! So for this chapter the song to listen to is entitled 'Dream a little Dream of me' (by Louis Armstrong), you can check the Spotify playlist so you can find all of the songs that inspired every chapters.

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TW : Abuse

Since Henry arrived at the lab, Brenner hired a teacher to teach them basic things such has mathematics, a little bit of literature, science but especially to teach them to be obedient. Brenner knows that Henry is not as naïve and innocent as Zero because he lived in the outside world, which is why he decided to hire a young lady to teach them as if they were at school. They have class three mornings a week. Henry and Zero are brilliant students and succeed at math, science, and literature. Zero is also very obedient and earns a lot of extra-time in the Rainbow Room, but during this extra-time, she is alone, because Henry is not obedient, he refuses every exercise that aim at "brainwashing" him and gets punishment almost every three days.

Once, Zero saw a bruise on Henry's wrist, she knows what it is, she has been punished once, she remembers it all too well and have many nightmares about that. It was real trauma for her. She looks at Henry's wrist and take it delicately in her hands before using her powers to heal it. She does all that without saying anything, and Henry looks at her in awe.

"How... you... you have healing powers?" he asks.

"Yes, don't you?" She answers.

"No, I don't think so. Thank you so much for healing me though." Henry says, grateful.

"You're welcome, do you want me to heal any other wound?"

Henry wants you to heal other wounds, but he does not want her to wear herself out by healing him, so he shakes his head no.

"I'm sorry Papa does that to you" she says apologetically.

"Don't worry for me Zero, I'll live" Henry answer, detached.

Brenner takes Zero and Henry for today's "practice of their powers."

The two of them greet him, and stand aligned in front of him, listening to his instructions.

"Today you're going to confront your powers, do you see the circle drawn on the ground? The first of you out of the circle loses, good luck."

"I don't want to use my powers on One... I could hurt him" Zero interjects.

"You will do has you've been told Zero, put your friendship towards him aside. If you don't do as you've been told you'll be punished, if I see you hold back your powers, you'll be punished."

Henry interjects "I won't do it either."

Brenner looks at the two kids, angry "You will do as you're being told end of the story. I want each of you in a circle." His tone is strict and angry.

Zero is so afraid that she obeys but Henry does not move.

Brenner approaches him, a shock collar in hand. "You're going to your circle or you're going to regret it."

At the sight of the shock collar, Henry agrees, remembering the multiple punishments he already received, but also because he saw Zero's pleading eyes, begging for him to obey, to not get punished in front of her, to not get punished at all.

Surprisingly, Henry can hear Zero's thoughts without even trying to. He can hear her thinking : I don't want to hurt him, I can't, I know that if I obey he'll get hurt, Henry struggles so much using his powers when he is not overwhelmed by his emotions... Henry succeed in sending his thoughts to Zero, with, surprisingly, not so much effort : Do it, I'll pretend to resist, you can't hurt me more than they'll hurt me if none of us make a move, don't be scared to hurt me, do it please.

When Henry's thoughts arrive in her mind, Zero is surprised, she usually cannot send her thoughts to someone nor reading someone else's thoughts and Henry cannot send his thoughts, it is not one of his powers. He can make you see things from the past, but he cannot make you hear something he thinks about. She thinks as hard as she can, imagining she send it to Henry: Henry, no, I can't.

Please. He sends to her, and she can hear it as loud as a pleading scream, so she does it. She uses her powers and sends Henry flying across the room, not being able to control her strength. Then, she runs to his limp body and start crying.

"Henry, please wake up, please I'm so sorry" she says in between sobs while Brenner is clapping at what she just did.

"Why are you even clapping, I hurt him" she snaps.

"You did very well at the exercise Zero, he should have resisted, and he'll be punished for not obeying my orders."

"No please no, he's already been punished by what I did to him, please don't hurt him" she says while crying, the light start flickering at her extreme panic, fear, and anger. Brenner injects her something and carries her to her room.

While she is passed out, Zero dreams of Henry. She is with him, in a field, it is night, and the stars are shining above them. She can feel the night breeze on her skin. They can also hear birds singing. She looks at her surrounding and wonder how her mind could have conjured something so beautiful and realistic while she has never been in the outside world.

"I'm the one controlling the dream" Henry finally said.

"Wh- How?" Zero asks.

"To be honest I don't know, but around you my powers work differently, usually I can go in people's dream and interact with them, but I cannot create the set up."

"Are you okay Henry?" Zero asks, panicked.

"I'll live, don't worry for me Zero, please." He answers.

"How long can you stay?" she asks.

"I don't know" he answers.

"Can you come back tonight? I don't know for how long I've been sleeping but I already miss you, Henry."

"I'll try to come back tonight, I promise" he says.

Zero gets up and helps Henry up before hugging him, she hold him tight, like if she let go of him he would disappear, Henry enjoys the moment before starting to fade in Zero's arm, their surroundings are fading too and he can hear her cries muffled by his come back to reality.

Henry wakes up with the shock collar around his neck and an acute pain in his entire body, he has just been shocked, he knows it. After what felt like hours of being shocked, Henry is brought back to the infirmary. He lays down, closes his eyes, and try to create a dream for him and Zero, but he is too weak he can't use his powers at all, not even for her. He does not know how to tell her that he is alive.

Meanwhile, Zero is drawing in the Rainbow Room, she is drawing the landscape from her dream, she plans to give it to Henry, she misses him and can't wait to go to bed so she can be with him again, even if it's through a dream. The young girl who is an orderly leads Zero to her bedroom and notices that Zero is feeling blue, so she asks.

"Why are you so sad Zero?"

"I'm worried about Henry..." the little girl confesses.

"I'm sure he is fine" says the young orderly with a reassuring tone. She then opens Zero's bedroom door, leads her to her bed. This orderly got attached to Zero, so every night. She tucks her in every before caressing her cheek. Then, she always leaves whispering a soft "Goodnight" before closing Zero's door.

"Nigthie night Henry" she whispers. It is the same thing they tell each other every single night while heading out of the Rainbow room. Zero is really hoping that she will dream of him again.