Josh and Tyler sat across from Ashley and Dad on the dinner table, unsure how to proceed with the conversation. None of them spoke a word.

Ryan and Hayley were in the kitchen making small talk with Abigail and Jordan, which was the only sound in the creaky old house that had once been Josh's childhood home. Now, it was a symbol of his life before he met Tyler, before he became an involuntary science experiment.

Before he became a monster hunting monsters.

They'd just finished retelling the past six years of their lives, with Ryan and Hayley feeding them details that not even they knew. Despite how ridiculous their lives were, they had proof. Tyler showed them his robot arm, Josh showed them the shock scars he had from the torture, and Ryan showed them the burned skin around his eyes.

His father and oldest sister had gone so pale that they matched the white walls. Nobody dared to breathe, much less talk. Josh couldn't tell if they believed him or not. It wouldn't surprise him if they didn't.

Dad's face kept flashing between trying to maintain a stern composure and absolute shock. Ashley's was deadset on baffled disbelief.

"So..." Dad picked up his beer and setting it down almost immediately. His hand was shaking and had been since Josh showed him his scar from where Gerard stabbed him in the chest with the poisoned sword that nearly killed him and Tyler. Josh wondered if he was scared of the story, or scared of him. "This is your... boyfriend."

He said it with a flat tone and avoiding eye contact. After a beat, Tyler laughed out loud. The sudden sound made everybody jump in their seats. Ashley moved Dad's beer bottle just slightly to the left, only enough for Josh to notice in a passing glance.

"Are you- after that whole story, that's what you got out of it?" Josh scowled. "That your son has a boyfriend? Not- not the psycho cult leader maybe coming to kill every single one of you. Not the years of trauma. The fact that I'm in a relationship is the center of your focus."

"Of course that's not all I'm concerned about. It's just- I'm worried about how this choice could've affected your later decisions. Unhealthy lifestyles-"

"Unhealthy lifestyles lead to unhappy decisions, which lead to death," Josh recited easily with a roll of his eyes, seeing his father pale further. "Jesus, Dad. That's a real pathetic excuse you're still keeping up with to stay homophobic. I can't believe I used to be scared of you."

He shot a dangerous glare at Tyler, who looked inappropriately amused. Tyler just sent him an innocent look and nudged his glass of water to the right as he reached under the table. Josh's phone buzzed immediately after.

looks like im not the only one from a cultish background.

Josh scowled but couldn't stop a small snort from escaping as he typed back a reply.

shut up.

"Forget the boyfriend shtick. Your story is crazy and delusional. What the hell are you really doing here?" Ashley demanded, her arms crossed over her chest. She reached over and turned Tyler's glass to the left. Tyler smirked.

"Two reasons, at minimum. One, we were making sure you hadn't been slaughtered brutally and unceremoniously," Tyler answered for Josh, nudging the glass again. "You see, that dangerous man we're going to stop is ruthless and may try to hurt you guys in order to get to Josh. He was concerned for your wellbeing, and here we are."

Despite the progress he'd made emotionally, Tyler still could be cold when he needed to be. He smiled his famous crocodile smile, one that made Ashley and even Dad look away.

Ashley recovered quickly, raising her head defiantly and narrowing her eyes suspiciously. She turned the glass. "So, you four psychos are what's left of some secret government organization that hires superheroes-"

"We prefer the term enhanced individuals," Tyler interrupted, still grinning. He moved Josh's glass and his own at the same time.

"-And you're now being chased by the cult leader who tortured you, made you an enhanced individual, and whose brother you killed." Again, she moved both glasses to their previous positions.

"Basically," Josh said, raising an eyebrow at Tyler, who shrugged back. "Look, I know it sounds crazy, but you know I wouldn't have come back home if it wasn't life or death."

Dad shook off Tyler's cold glare and curled his upper lip back. "Prove it, then."

Tyler returned the gesture. "Was the robot arm and scars not enough proof for you, sir?"

"Show me how strong you are," he said. "Give us something more than a couple scars and what could be just an advanced prosthetic. I mean, this sounds like something out of a Sherlock novel."

"Yeah! If you're so smart, boyfriend, why don't you prove it?" Ashley cocked an eyebrow.

Another flash of his crocodile smile. Tyler leaned forward across the table, lacing his fingers together. "Now, this is going to be fun."

"Tyler-" Josh warned.

"The pictures in your house tell me a story. A tragic story about loss and evil."

"Pictures?" Ashley asked. She reached to fix Tyler's glass again but stopped herself for a moment, looking embarrassed. She turned it anyways.

"Yes, yes, the pictures. There isn't any of the full family, only before the diagnosis of your mother's nearly crippling OCD and after her death. There are several pictures of you kids alone, but none of just Josh. Judging by the unfaded spaces on the wall, I can only assume that if there were any of him, they were taken down after your mother's death, when Josh was kicked out."

"Here we go," Hayley sighed from the kitchen, shaking her head.

"Then there's an imbalance between how much your youngest son is in these photographs versus the other children you have. Obviously you're not afraid to show a little favoritism between the four, obviously loving your son more than the others. This was a family of six, a young and happily married couple with four children. From oldest to youngest, they were eighteen, fourteen, ten, and three when you kicked out the oldest. Boringly average. Disgusting, if you ask me."

"What the hell is he doing?" Ryan asked through Josh's earpiece.

Josh shook his head, mumbling back, "They told him to prove how smart he was. He doesn't know my life story. Let him have his fun."

"Even at the expense of your own privacy?"

"At this point, we don't have a right to privacy."

"But that's also what makes your family dynamic so interesting to me," Tyler was saying, gesturing wildly. "Just how horrifyingly normal you were. Not are. You're a regular family one day, then a nuclear one the next. I mean, I'm not one to talk, but there's a difference between a strict parent and an authoritarian ruler. Tell me, William, what was the stressor that turned you into an anal retentive alcoholic who hated your kids?"

Ashley was watching with a blanket of shock over her face. She knew the story as well as Josh did.

"Was it the first time your wife stopped taking her medication years after being diagnosed and quit going to behavioral therapy to cope with her obsessional behavior, which were being passed on to your oldest daughter? Or was it your oldest coming out as a sinful homosexual? Or maybe, maybe it was the affair you were having with a secretary- no, no, too easy- sorry, with a past client. Ooh, scandalous, Mr. Dun. Was that on the BAR Exam?"

Josh watched as his father became further and further enraged. "Tyler, drop it."

"Your youngest daughter and oldest son were both born with a heart defect that gave them ten years to live, possibly genetic, your oldest daughter was starting to take after your loving wife whom you despised for an illness she couldn't control. And your very oldest turned out to be gay. In fact, that middle child was probably the only good thing that came out of your failed marriage. Basketball scholarship, successful law firm, blossoming family with an adorable grandchild for you to spoil. The only good apple is the spoiled bunch. That's why you prefer him, yes? Because he became a lawyer just like his daddy and not an artist like your other son."

"You prefer him?" Ashley gasped.

"When your wife died, you should've been grieving her. You knew you needed to be sad over her death because she was your wife and you were supposed to love her, but you didn't, so you weren't. In fact, you were relieved, judging by the wedding ring missing from your necklace that holds your alumni ring."

"You're insane," Dad spat.

"The second you had a chance, you kicked out your faggot of a son, leaving him be homeless until he was forced to join the military to survive. Where do you think cults look when they have an interest in aggressive, isolated, and talented individuals who are pliable to influence and commands and have no familial connections? The mother fucking army."

Tyler's hands had clenched into fists, and his whole body was shaking. Josh put a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down. "Don't look at me like I'm the problem. I know what I am and what I used to be. The question is, do you?"

"You disgusting, pathetic, queer-" Dad started to say, but Tyler was already halfway over the table.

Josh yanked Tyler back before he had the chance to pounce. "Give me a minute," he said to Dad and Ashley in a harsh enough tone to keep them back. "I'll talk to him."