Returning Home

TWENTY TWO - no way

"Wait," Liam raises a hand to get Theo's attention – unnecessary, but the boy isn't ashamed. "How does that work?"

"I didn't have time to ask them," Theo says, irritation seeping into his words. "But I could hear into the room at some point then I couldn't. Any other questions?" The other boys raise their hands, but Theo ignores all of them. "Anyways, she was losing herself and I was losing blood. I heard the usual crew leave so we got out after I don't know how long."

"How?" Liam asks as Mason quietly notes...

"You skipped the her losing herself again."

He goes ignored.

"I broke through the door," Theo says, glaring at the boys. "After tying my leg up, I got her out. She took out the guards and we found out there were more bases. We stole a car, I finally started healing, and we started hitting them, cutting loose the other kidnapees. There were some from the trials and some freshly captured omegas. Kids and adults, restrained from the shit they learned messing with me, some... didn't make it."

"Time out," Liam interrupts again. "How did you not kill the adult innocents?"

Theo groans, "We'd cut the sleeves, switching the length and arm so it was never the same at each base."

"Huh, that's actually smart."

Corey stares innocently as Theo sends him a glare.

"From finding innocent supernatural and previously kidnapped people, then what'd you do?" Mason urges Theo on the trail he'd left off on.

"Exactly like we planned," Theo picks up. "We raided the compounds, released the innocents, and sent the adults away. We looked into their systems for our next targets, working through the states."

"But what happened to you leg?" Corey interrupts. "You said you felt it start healing when you go out, but you never said if it fully healed from whatever they did or... I don't know. Chimera healing is weird but you..."

"No, you're right. It didn't heal correctly," Theo shakes his head, ignoring the wide eyes on him. "It ached but it was manageable. Twitched sometimes too from all the unwanted electricity."

"Electricity?" Liam asks but Theo stares with a neutral expression, keeping his heart rate steady and pheromones under control. He'd learned back with the Dread Doctors how to, and after his time doing it all over again, it was as easy as breathing. "Fine, then how is It now?"

"It's mostly healed. Just phantom pain for the most part," he answers, leaving out the triggers that came from the torture. The hesitance, the flashbacks that he's ignored successfully. "Anyways, it was easy from there. We traveled together, raided places, and sent people on their way. We got to the last base and took out the head man, burning the whole building to the ground and deleting all of their data. Nothing's left of WCKD now."

It's silent as the boys digest the information.

"Now what the fuck happened to you?" Theo turns, glaring at Amelia who'd woken during the retelling and was sitting up. The other boys hadn't noticed, still adjusting to them being back but Theo was tuned to her breathing as she was to his posture, both on the lookout for any trouble they may find or what the other senses.

"I don't know what you're on," she says, raising her hands in surrender, ignoring the boys' panic. "I thought you knew about the trials."

"Yeah, and you got out of them in love with Thomas," Theo says, ignoring how the boys' heads are swiveling back and forth.

"A2 is a traitor," Amelia bites back, hands clenching and catching Theo's attention. "He's not a friend and I owe innocent people some vengeance."