She, who grounded him

Chapter 6: Eve of destruction

A/N : Hi ! This is time for a little 6 month time jump ! We're now in June 1960 and things are starting to go south ! For this chapter the song to listen to is entitled 'Eve of destruction' (by Barry McGuire), you can check the Spotify playlist so you can find all of the songs that inspired every chapters.

TW : Abuse

6 months later, July 1st, 1960,

During the last months, Zero and Henry even grew closer, and discovered that they can communicate through their mind, without speaking out loud, and that is what they do most of the time. They are now 11 years old and 13 years old. The new orderly, Mark, seems to hate the kids, especially Henry, they both get more punishment with him than with Brenner or Samantha. Especially Henry, every time Mark is here, Henry gets punished. And when Zero is punished, he is forced to watch her suffer which is even worse for him than being tortured himself. He would go through that pain a hundred times rather than knowing that she suffers. Every time Henry is punished Zero heals him as much as she can, but she always ends up exhausted.

Today, Henry got punished, the guards went really hard on him, Zero begged Brenner to go to the infirmary and see him and Brenner ended up reluctantly accepting. Zero sits next to Henry's bed, she then looks at Samantha, and tell her "Please don't tell anyone what I'm about to do". Samantha nods, knowing what Zero is about to do, after all she is here, nothing can go wrong right? Besides, she trusts Zero.

Zero lifts Henry's hospital gown, she gasps at the damages on his small body, he is all bruised and cut, and Zero can feel that he has broken bones. This will take her much energy, but she does not care, she needs to help him heal faster, she needs to heal him before he wakes up. She lifts his hospital gown and start healing his broken ribs and bruises, she does so until she passes out from exhaustion. Samantha picks up Zero's small body while Henry wakes up, he looks at Zero in shock and then look at Samantha who carries Zero's limp body to a bed in the infirmary, the nurse rushes to Zero and take care of her.

Meanwhile Henry asks Samantha "What's happening?"

"She tried to heal you, but she might have used too much of her powers because she ended up passing out" Samantha explains.

"Will she be fine?" Henry asks with worry in his voice.

"I don't know Henry... But she will survive" Samantha answers.

"It's my fault" Henry mutters.

"Don't blame yourself, she chose to heal you, it was her choice. It's not your fault." Samantha says with a gentle voice.

Zero wakes up two days later, as soon as the nurse comes to check her vitals she asks, "How is Henry?"

"He got out yesterday, he fully recovered, thanks to you" she answers before adding "You on the other hand shouldn't have used so much power, you exhausted yourself, if you didn't pass out you would have died."

"I don't care, as long as Henry is fine, I don't care" Zero answers blankly.

"You have to think about yourself too Zero, Henry would have recovered even without your intervention. Maybe not that quickly but he would have."

Meanwhile, Henry was coming into the infirmary to ask his painkillers to the nurse when he heard the conversation between Zero and the nurse. He didn't want to eavesdrop, but as soon as he heard Zero's voice he felt relieved. But he was also angry at her wanting to put him first, he would rather die than live without her, even if it's selfish. The nurse gets out of Zero's corner and goes to Henry.

"What can I do for you?" she asks.

"I came for my painkillers" Henry answers.

She gives the pills to Henry with a glass of water, and he swallows them before asking "Can I see her please."

The nurse looks at him apologetically "You'll have to ask Papa; I can't take such a big decision."

"Please" Henry pleads "I need to thank her."

She sighs, defeated "You have two minutes."

"Thank you so much" Henry answers, rushing towards Zero's corner.

"Henry, what are you doing here?" Zero asks.

"Anya, you shouldn't have done this, I can't lose you, you've risked your life!" Henry says, slightly angry. Zero jumped at Henry's tone.

"I couldn't stand to see you hurt Henry, I needed to do something" she says "Plus you shouldn't be here, you know, if Marks or Papa find you, you'll get punish again."

"I really think something is off with Mark, can't you feel the fear I'm feeling?" Henry says.

"Henry..." she sighs "We've already talked about that."

"How don't you believe me? How don't you believe that something's gonna happen?"

Marks enter the corner, furious, he grabs Henry by the arm and do not care about Zero's pleading teary eyes and cries.

Marks brings Henry to the punishment room and straps him on a chair, before shocking him multiple times, but there is not enough electricity for him to pass out. Mark has a mischievous grin plastered on his face during the whole punishment and then says, "If I see you or your little friend talk about me like you did back there, the punishment will be way worse".

Henry wonders if Brenner knows how much Mark is punishing him, but he can't tell him without risking his life but also Zero's, so he's been saying nothing for the past 6 months. Mark leads Henry back to the Rainbow Room, Henry struggles a bit to walk but manages to go to the Rainbow Room anyway. He decided to sit at the drawing table and continue to draw his escaping map, he needs to get out of here with Zero before things go south, this Mark is really shady and has a grudge against Henry. No matter what Henry does he gets punishment, even when he did something that Brenner would not punish him for. His only moments of respite are when it is Samantha's shift. Thank God she is the one watching the Rainbow Room now. She has always been kind to him and never got him punished. He regrets when it was only her even though he is not really fond of her, because after all she allows what Brenner does to them. Henry once used his powers against Mark, it was 3 days ago, when he got shocked until he passed out, he does not even remember how he got in the infirmary. Mark is probably not the one who brought him to the infirmary because Henry remembers him threatening to kill him. Well, he was more saying something in the lines that one day he'll succeed in killing him. This aroused Henry's curiosity, why does he want to destroy him as he put it. What did Henry do? Yes, Henry was not obedient but even Brenner does not want to kill him, he thought he could never be killed in the lab because he is valuable. Zero and him are the only two kids Brenner can experiment on, so why would an orderly, working for Brenner, would want to kill him?