July 30th, 2002

9:06 am

It wasn't until what felt like days later that Thomas was pulled out of the back of that van. He knew he spent the night in there due to the lack of light coming from the window, but he didn't have the slightest idea where they were. He figured they spent the night in some sort of garage because they had stopped moving at some point and stayed there for a while. He might have fallen asleep but Thomas wasn't even sure. His body ached and his stomach growled. He wasn't even scared when the men grabbed his arms and threw him out of the van. He hit the ground with a thud, but refused to make a noise, he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of knowing that they hurt him.

"Up," the taller guy demanded as he practically spat at Thomas.

Thomas took a calming breath before standing up and stretching out his exhausted muscles. He ached a bit from whatever that wrist band did to him, but he could have been worse.

"What do you even want with me?" Thomas asked as he stood up taller. He probably looked pathetic, but it made him feel bigger.

"We," the guy started as he motioned in between himself and his smaller friend, "don't want anything with you."

"Well then who does?!" Thomas asked, feeling himself get frustrated.

"Mommy!" Little Thomas suddenly perked up as he grabbed Thomas' pant leg. "Mommy wants you!"

Thomas was about to respond when the pain flared through his body and he dropped the the floor screaming. The thing on his wrist was going crazy and his body felt like there was a knife inside ripping him open bit by bit.

"Stop! Stop!" Thomas screamed as his body went stiff and his vision started to spot black. "Stop! It hurts!"

Thomas' throat felt raw and he felt hot tears rolling down his face. He'd never felt pain like this before, he wanted Newt, all he wanted was for Newt to hold his hand and kiss his cheeks.

Suddenly, it stopped. Thomas couldn't move, his chest was heaving up and down and he was shaking. He could feel the ghost pain all over his body like it was a scarred living memory.

"Well shit, I didn't even turn it on," he heard one of the men say.

Through Thomas' spotting vision he saw the other guy shrug. "He probably tried to use his fuckin mutation."

Thomas' head felt heavy as it dropped dead and rolled slightly.

"I don't wanna carry him."

He heard a loud sigh.

"Fine, I got him."

Thomas was lifted off the ground then, he recoiled at the touch, the panic still spiking across his skin. His head was spinning due to the pain.

"I don't wanna..." Thomas mumbled as he lazily tried to move his arm.

"Settle down little fucker, we'll get you to where you need to be."

"Wanna be with Newt," Thomas mumbled as his head rolled back. His stomach felt sick, if they kept swinging him like that he was going to throw up.

"The fuck is a Newt?" one of the guys laughed.

"Please tell him," Thomas slurred as his vision went more black. "Tell him where I am."

"You're not dying you dramatic bitch," the guard snorted as he hoisted Thomas up more.

The last thing that Thomas heard was their horrifying, matching laughs before he blacked out.

11:23am

"Minho," Newt groaned as he sat up. His body was aching for some reason and his throat felt like it was ripped raw. "Minho!" Newt gasped as he shook his hands which were bound tightly with rope. Minho was passed out on the floor next to Kis whose hands were also bound. If Newt wasn't slightly terrified he'd laugh at the fact that it looked like the ending of a horrible porno.

"Minho!" Newt shouted as he kicked at the korean boy. "Wake the fuck up!"

Minho got up with a start, immediately raising his fists. "What's wrong?"

Newt rolled his eyes. "Settle down tough guy, why am I bloody tied up?"

Minho slightly smirked. "Because that's what I'm into."

"Minho!"

The buff boy rolled his eyes. "Okay it's because you and blonde satan freaked the fuck out last night, I couldn't get you off the bus without that. You hit me a lot." Minho paused as he pulled his shirt up to show the bruises on his chest. "You and blonde bitch."

"Why didn't you just go all stone?"

Minho rolled his eyes. "Because I didn't want to hurt you dumbass."

"Can you untie me now please? I feel like shit."

Minho nodded and crawled over to Newt to gently start untying the restraints. "This is worse than we thought."

"What do you mean?"

Minho looked at him with a careful expression. "Thomas really fucked up Newt, like more than usual."

Newt felt his stomach drop. "Is this my fault?" he asked softly.

"What?"

"Maybe I didn't listen to him or..."

Minho cut him off by shaking his head. "Come on Newt, you know you're good to him."

Newt watched the ropes drop to the floor, he sighed slightly as he rubbed his sore wrists. "Did we go about this wrong?"

"Meaning?"

"Should we have brought more backup?"

Minho shrugged. "Honestly? Probably, but there's nothing we can do now, we're miles away from Westchester."

Newt breathed out his nose and let himself fall back onto the ground. "Why couldn't I have fallen for a calm boring boy?"

Minho snorted out a laugh. "When have you ever been into boring?"

Newt laughed softly. "You're right...bloody Tommy with his stupid pretty eyes and fuckin death wish."

"Why the fuck are there ropes on me?!"

Minho rolled his eyes. "And satan awakens."
Kis scowled as she pulled at the restraints. "I want these off now."

"Awe come on," Minho dramatically winked at her, "I like you this way."

If looks could kill, Minho would have been ten feet under.

"Okay, okay." Minho put his hands up in fake surrender as he scooted over and untied the ropes.

"Where's El?" Kis asked immediately as she started standing up. "We need to find her now."

"Woah woah settle down," Newt said slowly as he started standing up. "What's going on?"

Minho bit his lip as he looked between the two of them. "Do you two not remember anything from last night?"

"I don't remember anything," Newt stated. "Why? Did something happen?"

"It's El," Kis said immediately. "She doesn't have much time."

Realization hit Newt as his face fell. "Fuck, you sensed it?"

Kis nodded as she clenched and unclenched her fists. "We need to get to her, help her, something. They-they're doing..." she trailed off as her face paled.

"What's wrong?"

"We just have to fucking go!" Kis snapped as she grabbed the little stuff she had. "Now!"

Newt nodded at Minho who picked up his stuff. "Okay, let's go."

"Lead the way death girl," Minho said as he lightly squeezed her arm.

Kis ignored him, leaving the hotel room with a stone cold expression.

"It's bad?" Newt mouthed to Minho.

Minho nodded slowly as they followed the blonde girl. "Very bad."

10:58 pm

When Thomas woke up his chest hurt and his body ached. He slowly moved into a sitting position and looked around. He flinched when he saw a man standing behind him, a gun clutched in his hands.

The man blinked slowly at Thomas before sighing. "He's awake."

"He's awake!" a voice called from the corner.
Thomas jumped when he saw little Thomas running at him and falling into his lap.

"What are you doing here?" Thomas asked as he adjusted the little boy.

"Mommy is here!" Little Thomas cheered as he squished Thomas' cheeks in his hands. "You get to see her."

Thomas felt his blood run cold, he looked back at the man then back at his lap which was now empty.

What the actual fuck was going on?

He looked around the room he was in, it looked like some sort of dark office. There was a huge desk, two doors and papers littered on the floor. Thomas was about to try and stand up when the door swung open.

Thomas' blood ran cold when a brunette haired woman walked through it. Her hair was tied back tight and she had on black pants with a grey button down shirt. She sat down in the chair behind the desk, looking uninterested as she straightened up the papers.

Thomas felt his heart rate pick up and his hands start to sweat. It felt like he was frozen in fear.

The woman finally stopped straightening the desk and looked down at Thomas with a soft smile.

"Hello Thomas, it's been awhile hasn't it?"

Thomas' heart was in his throat, he opened and closed his mouth like a fish. This is who he came for, this is who he came to see and for some reason it just didn't feel right.

"Hi mom," Thomas choked out.

The woman let out a soft laugh. "Mom? Really?"

Thomas stared at her blankly.

"Can you talk?" She asked as she leaned over more to look at him more clearly. "You don't have to be afraid of me Thomas."

Thomas was quiet for a moment, his eyes burned and his hands were shaking. "Y-you abandoned me."

His mom's expression faltered slightly. "Now abandoned is a strong word isn't it?"

Thomas pushed himself up so he was standing. The guard gripped the gun tighter but Thomas just rolled his eyes. "No, it's not! You abandoned me! You and Dad! I lived in the streets I-I-I couldn't sleep for weeks! I-I was scared and alone and a kid!" Thomas yelled as he felt the heat rise to his face.

"A kid? That's your defense?" His mother's bored expression just pissed Thomas off even more.

"Yes! I was a kid! I needed my mom!" Hot tears were pricking at Thomas' eyes, the emotions running through him were unfamiliar to him.

Mrs.Edison raised her eyebrow. "But you didn't need me. Look at you now, you're one of the most powerful mutants we've ever tracked."

Thomas scoffed loudly, a stray tear rushing down his cheek. "I needed someone to love me."

"Like Teresa did?"

Thomas froze. "Excuse me?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Smart girl really, but stupid when it came to you."

"She didn't love me."

"Oh and your invisible boyfriend does? How would you know anything about love Thomas?"

"I don't know anything about it!" Thomas snapped. "I wouldn't know because I didn't have parents to teach me!"

Suddenly her expression darkened. "You don't have parents anymore, your father is dead because of you."

"He was always dead to me," Thomas spat.

"Now's a perfect time to teach you about love," Thomas' mother growled as she stood up and slammed her hands on the table. "You took away the only person I loved."

"You used to love me," Thomas said softly. "You used to, dad said so."

"What are you talking about?"

"When I saw him, he told me. You used to love me, you wouldn't let him kill me all those years ago."

Thomas' mother took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, massaging the bridge of her nose. "And look and what that has resulted in?"

"I was your son," Thomas said softly as he wiped hard at his cheeks.

"Is that what you came all the way here for?" She asked as she stared intently at Thomas. "You're here to yell at me for how 'unfair' your life is?"

"N-no!" Thomas protested instantly.

"Then why are you here Thomas, you thought we were going to put on sweatpants, watch a movie and be a happy fucking family? If that's really where your mind is at then you certainly are not my son because no child of mine would be that completely and utterly stupid."

"I needed to know," Thomas admitted softly. "I needed to know why you kept me alive all those years. I needed to know why you didn't just let me die."

The woman let out a long sigh and pulled at her hair. "Your father and I started working for WICKED before you were born. When you first started showing your powers I knew that we couldn't keep you. We had two clear options, kill you or turn you over to WICKED where you'd become one of the test subjects. At first, I agreed with your father, we had to kill you, but that night you got into my head. Somehow you went into my dream and you were a baby again and you said mom for the first time..." Thomas mom's voice cracked causing her to quickly cough to cover it up. "You said mom for the first time and I knew I couldn't let anything happen to you. I begged your father that night, I begged him to let you go because we made you, you came out of how much I loved your father. We ended up just leaving, telling WICKED that we lost you or something along those lines. I didn't think much of it, I thought you'd grow up fine, I never could have predicted how strong your powers were going to become. I never could have predicted that you were going to be our downfall."

Thomas stayed staring at his hands. "How many people did I kill?"

"Three thousand five hundred fifty eight."

"Why did you do it? Why did you attack the school? We weren't hurting you! We weren't doing anything! I was fucking happy!"

"Who taught you to be so dramatic? It's life Thomas, I do what's right despite your petty emotions. Your father believed that too, he died for what he believed in."

Thomas let out a defeated breath.

"That's not all," his mom said sternly. "That's not the whole reason why you came here."

Thomas bit his lip. "I thought you might have still loved me. I thought you might have still considered me as your son."

"Oh Thomas." She shook her head. "So optimistic."

Thomas felt his stomach clench. Shit, he was in trouble now.

"B-but...little Thomas said..."

The woman snorted out a hard laugh. "I'd almost forgotten about him. That's a good trick isn't it? I can put things in your head that aren't really there. It worked pretty well, especially because we can track your location while you're using your power so he worked out in our favour."

"H-how did you...?" Thomas felt dumbfounded. Of course it was WICKED conjuring up the hallucination of his younger self. He should have known better.

"We have some pretty impressive tech Thomas." The chilling smile his mother gave made him instantly uneasy. "And now that you've walked straight into our hands, you'll get to see some of it in the morning!"

"Wait wha-I-hey!" Thomas shouted as a guard slammed a bag over his head.

"Take him to the cells with the other one. And hey," Thomas' mom started. "I still want the invisible one."

"Don't touch him!" Thomas screamed as his feet left the ground and he blindly thrashed. "Don't you dare fucking touch him!"

Thomas screams echoed long after he was dragged out the door and it slammed closed behind him.

September 13th 1996

"Looks like you aren't alone anymore kid," a voice sounded as the cell door swung open.

Rose flinched from her spot on the floor as another body was thrown into the cell with her.

"Now I got two fuckin freaks to watch over." The guard spat as he locked the cell.

When he was gone Rose carefully looked at the body on the ground. She could tell it was a girl even through the muddy tangled mop of hair covering her face.

The girl slowly sat up, groaning as she did like she was in serious pain.

"Careful," Rose said softly. Her voice came out slightly scratchy which she cursed herself for.

The girl quickly turned to look at her, almost like she didn't realize how close she was.

"You look like shit." Was the first thing the girl said as she pushed the mop of hair away from her face and looked at the smaller girl.

Rose narrowed her eyes. "Well so do you."

"Where are we?" the girl asked as she pulled her knees to her chest.

"WICKED I guess."

"Do they hurt you?"

Rose nodded as she looked more closely at the fading bruises lining the pale girl's skin. "Who hurt you?"

"None of your business," the girl snapped as she practically glared at Rose.

Rose frowned slightly, "You should be nice to me, we've going to be spending all of our time together."

The blonde girl didn't say anything but Rose could tell she was shaking. The brunette girl reached out her hand and lightly squeezed her arm. "It'll be okay."

"How long have you been here?" She asked softly, her voice cracking.

"A few months I think, I kinda lost count."

"Months?!"

Rose nodded as she left her hand on the other girl's arm.

"I'm going to get out though, I've been planning."

The girl was quiet for a moment. "Are you a, you know, are you a mutant too?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm here."

"What can you do?" she asked softly.

"I'm not too sure yet, I know I can create fire though, I've done it before." The other girl smiled softly which for some reason made Rose's heart jump. "How about you?"

She shrugged. "Not really sure either, some weird shit with my head I guess."

Rose laughed which just made the girl smile wider.

"You're not so bad," she said which Rose assumed was her way of saying she liked her.

"You're not so bad either."

"What's your name?"

"Rose. You?"

"I'm Addison, but most people call me Addi."