The walk back to the cabin was absolutely dreadful for both of the siblings, one had been filled with jealousy, anger, and betrayal while the other was filled with disappointment, sadness, and in a way contentment. El had a tight grip around her brother's hand as they walked and she could notice when he was mad, despite him not saying a word.

She just knew.

"Are you okay?" El asked, gaining his attention.

He shook his head. No word was uttered.

El frowned, "What happened?"

Vee felt his chest tighten and his stomach sink. The thought of it just made him physically sick & hurt. "Saw Lucas with other girl. They were laughing, playing...he was happy."

El's eyes widened sharply.

"He forgot all about me," Vee added, a crack appeared in his voice. Hurt was heard also but he had no control over either of those pitches. "He's happy with...her."

"Not me," Vee shook his head. "He forgot me. He does not like me. He-"

"No, no," El stopped Vee in his tracks. She grabbed his face out of instinct to look her in the ways, she hadn't cared if tears got on her hands. "He did not...forget you. You are too special to forget,"

"And if he did....he's an mouth breather." El added with a sharp look. "They are both mouthbreathers. Okay?"

Vee nodded, "Yes." He felt a bit better but more embarrassed about it-but still, he'd felt better. Though the overwhelming thoughts of Lucas never left.

El gave him a slight smile and let go of his face, but not before wiping his tears for him. And they reattached their hands before walking off into the where they first started to see the cabin.

The overwhelming feeling of El's disappointment & confusion made Vee start to question of El was alright herself. What happened with Mike? His eyes turned into slits as he stared at the girl but he instead preferred the girl tell him than seeing himself.

"Did you see Mike?" Vee asked.

El flinched a bit at the question, "Yes." She sounded a bit sad.

Vee frowned as he felt her sadness like his own. "What happened? He did-"

"Saw him with boy. They argued about..." She couldn't find the words. "Stupid. Stupid things?"

"About not knowing him? It was weird." El began to finish. "But...he seemed angry."

"And I wish I could take away. All his anger."

"Help him." She added. "But I can't,"

Vee pursed his lips at that. He realized that he could've did that, he could take all Mike's anger away. All it would've took was a simple touch or push into his mind-but that force that was him. Probably would've changed Mike forever.

And that force wasn't what El was referring too.

El sniffled, "So I watch. Far away." She rubbed her tears away and this time it was Vee's turn to hug her.

Vee gave the girl a tight squeeze around her shoulders-almost suffocating her from how strong it was. But eventually she leaned into it. Feeling all the warmth of his love and comfort.

"I understand," Vee commented under his breath. He understood her much too well.

They understood each other much to well for two completely different personalities.

Vee wondered if they hadn't been in the lab together, would they know each other? Would they have ever met? Would they feel their own connection the way they do? He wondered that all the time-because sometimes he felt that fate had brought the two together by chance only.

Because sometimes he felt like he didn't belong here.

He felt that a lot more than he'd like to admit. But he never told anyone, he'd only worry someone. Specifically El, and he didn't like worrying though he knew she wouldn't care.

As they separated bodies and their hands connected back together-they began to walk. The wonder of if they were normal never left his mind. But he knew, deep down, that if they were never broken children, if their skin wasn't treated like dirtied rag that could be reused and thrown away, if they were treated correctly with loving families. They'd never know each other existed.

And he wondered that until he heard a tap from a familiar porch.

At first, they had began to think they were in the clear. Hopper never came home early so assuming that: he wouldn't be home until 9.

Yet, they'd been wrong.

Once they gotten closer to see they realized the lights had been on, meaning he was there before them, and once they got into eyesight of whoever was sitting on the porch. They realized it was Hopper. Waiting for the both of them to come back home. Or rather waiting for them to come back and be scolded for their misbehavior.

Vee felt his heart pick up a bit and he wiped away his last tear, not noticing El's hardness in her face, before stomping into the place they called home.

"Friends don't lie, isn't that your bullshit saying?" Hopper started, but Vee hadn't listen to his sharp words. He could feel the anger radiate off of him and it nearly made the boy's teeth grit.

El tried closing the door behind them but Hopper was quick to slam it right back open. "Hey, hey! Hey! Don't walk away from me!"

Both of them turned to the man with a glare itches across their faces. Vee seemed to be the most angry: but because of Lucas, or that he was trapped in here, or that the man constantly lied-no. It was because of the rage he held inside him. He just began to all build up, boiling over, before finally, exploding into wretched flames.

"Where'd you two go on your little field trip?" Hopper asked, leaning against El's dresser, much calmer it seemed-but he obviously was very angered still. Vee could feel it, he always would.

"Nowhere," Vee attempted to lie, his eyes went to the floor. His eyelashes hitting his lower eye ever so often.

Hopper laughed, not out of happiness but from the audacity. "Right, so you didn't go see Lucas?"

Vee froze in his tracks, finally facing the man. Guilt was all over his face, he had no idea why he tried to lie. But he attempted, or rather it just spilled out his mouth.

"Or Mike?" Hopper asked.

El now looked the man in the eye, "He didn't see me."

"Lucas did not see me either." Vee made clear. "Nothing to worry about. You are overreacting."

Hopper eyes turned crazy, his anger now turning his face into something red. Like a giant tomato. Vee could feel this anger from him and the wave of it threatened to knock him over. All that frustration, irritation, and rage would consume the boy and fuel his even more.

"Yeah, well, that mother and daughter did. And they called the cops." Hopper reminded. "Now, did anyone else see you?"

The latter didn't answer. "Anyone! Anyone at all! Come on, I need you guys to think!"

"Nobody saw us!" El exclaimed at him, finding herself getting angry.

Hopper scoffed, "You two put us in danger, you realize that right?"

It was Vee's turn to scoff, "What danger?! There is no danger. There hasn't been for 327 days!"

"You promise! We go. But we never leave! Nothing ever happens!" El yelled at him as a follow up.

"There is a danger! And they have been looking for you two since you both came up missing! I've done everything in my power to prevent that from happening, and all I get is disrespect?" Hopper argued with a look of confusion but anger. The reply wouldn't stop Vee-he would've kept going if he had not spiked again.

"Yeah, and nothing happens so you two can be safe!" The man slammed his fist on the dresser belonging to El, scaring the girl to jump. But Vee didn't flinch.

"I protect and I feed and I teach! And all I ask of you is three simple rules. Follow three simple rules, but you know what?" Hopper leaned down to face El and Vee. "You can't even do that!"

Vee stepped back as he yelled, not wanting to harm the man like his thoughts kept telling him. Rage fired against the boy's ribcage: he wasn't alright. He tried his absolute hardest to not swing his fist and pierce the man in the face. It took everything in him not to.

Hopper walked out abruptly, going god knows where in the house. El kicked at the dresser out of anger and started to pace due to her frustration. Vee watched her with a bit of curiosity, he'd never seen her angry before. Her anger started to seep into him only fueling the fire that was raging inside him.

"You're both grounded!"

Vee raised a brow at that word. What did that mean?

"That means no eggos or Hersheys," Hopper could be heard taking items out from the fridge and throwing them into the trash can. "And no tv, for a week."

That caused El's face to darken and fall.

Hopper made his way to the tv and as soon as he tried to pull it up-he couldn't. He tried again but realized it hadn't budged, turning around to see El focusing her energy on keeping the tv stable on the floor. "Alright, knock it off,"

El shook her head, blood trailing down her nose. Vee clenching her hand.

Hopper tried to pick it up again, it hadn't worked. "Okay, two weeks." He tried again but the girl still didn't let go, Vee knew that the tv was everything to them. They couldn't contact the outside world or people without it. Taking away that tv was much like taking away their freedom from them which they barely had.

"Let go!" Hopper attempted to pick it up again. She shook her head. "A month."

"No." El seethed. Vee stood on her side confidently, glaring down at the man.

"Well, congratulations you two, you both graduated from no tv for a month to no tv at all." Hopper unplugged the television with his last words seeing both of the children's faces fall.

"No!" El yelled out running towards the tv. Vee was right behind her in a panic and scrambling to plug it back in. His eyes were watering heavily, his chest falling up and down against his ribcage. His eyes turned that bright like green, but they weren't threatening this time. No, no, no, no, no....he was disappointed to find that the tv couldn't be fixed. Only ripped wires came from off the plug.

"You two have to understand that there are consequences to your actions."

Vee felt the rage inside him get fueled more by each word the man spoke. "You are shit! A fat shit!" His finger pointed at the man, in a threatening manner.

"You are like papa!" El shouted.

Hopper ran his hands through his hair, frustrated, "Really? I'm a fat shit and like that psychotic son of bitch?"

Vee looked at the man with glossy lime green eyes and a glare. But behind that glare was a weeping child, someone who's tears were threatening to fall. But they haven't yet. This feeling the boy felt was a rage like no other-because it wasn't. It causes such a saddening sensation that could be described as a despair but also it built up rage. And resentment. And anger.

"Wow, all right, you guys wanna go back to the lab? Cause one phone call I can make that happen." Hopper threatened. "Oh, and they'd give me a reward too."

Vee's eyebrows furrowed, "Reward?"

Hopper chuckled just frustrated and fed up, "Yeah, a reward. They've been wanting you've back for a while. Probably be better off with the reward than you. Don't you think?"

Vee's tears finally fell and rolled down his tears. Why would he say that? Why would he....why? And it seemed like for the first time, Vee was speechless. His mouth was dry. His teeth chattered against one another, he found his lip trembling.

El noticed and her face darkened, "I hate you! Shut up! Shut up!"

"Oh, really cause I'm not so crazy about you either." Hopper replied. "You wanna know why? Cause you're both some brats."

Hopper grabbed the dictionary from the couch, "Look it up. B-R-A-T, bra-" he threw it at the kids not thinking of if it hit one of them.

El held her hand out causing the dictionary to close mid air. Vee's eyes glowed bright now and his face was turned into a terrifying glare. The book turned into bright pink flames and so did his hair-the ginger was beginning to turn a bright pink.

El threw it back at the man as his hand got burned, he yelped but shooed it to the ground. He looked at the two supernatural kids with a shocked expression, "Hey! What the hell is wrong with you-"

"Shut up!" Vee screamed, with a high feminine pitch. Something a banshee could hold.

As he screamed a part of the wall turned into bright pink flames, raging through the cabin quickly. El combined his move and moved the couch into the man's leg making him fall over. "Hey!" He grunted but neither of them listened as he fell over his trapped knee in pain.

El and Vee stormed away, a bookcase falling down with a flick of her hand and more of the roof caught on fire with a nod of his.

Hopper began to yell again but neither had listened because as El went inside her room with a telekinetic slam. Vee had stormed out the front door and slammed it with fiery pink flames, the same ones that were raging inside the cabin. Though, they hadn't spread they just burned through the dry wood causing a plank to fall.

Hopper's yelling ceased to exist as Vee locked the door and turned the thob into something molten hot.

The boy stormed through the woods with his hair and eyes glowing with rage. His hot pink hair attracted flames itself and his green eyes held a terrifying despair inside of them. His skin wasn't that caramel anymore; it was dark orange. He looked like an abomination as he trailed through the night. Like something out of this world completely.

His footsteps left a burnt mark on the forest floor after each step.

𓄇

He stopped at a Great Oak.

His hands and arms trembled violently, so violently that he began to think that this overstimulating wouldn't end. These conflicting emotions; this rage inside him. It wouldn't stop.

He eyed the tree, and as he stared, he was reminded of everything wrong.

The first time they tainted him.

The second,

The third,

The fourth, furthermore.

Six getting shot.

Him getting found with Marcy and Seven. He doesn't know what happened.

The first test, and the first shot in his vein. They'd never stop.

The first beating they gave him: they said he deserved it.

The day him and El released the monster. Why would he do that....it was always his fault.

Ron sacrificing himself.

The day he couldn't save Barb....if only he was stronger. If he was stronger most things wouldn't happen.

The day he left his friends.

The day he left Lucas.

The day he burnt the pretty girl.

The day he burnt Hopper.

He's done so much wrong, so much damage. His tears fell faster and before he knew it. He let out a terrible wail from his throat: something bloodcurdling.

The entire tree began to emerge in flames, those pink flames started from the roots of it trailing their way to the body. A gush of wind swept from behind him as if it were apart of him. It spread the fire, making it stronger. Another scream left his throat, this time rushing the flames to go higher and flow through the forest like no other, another gush of wind flew behind him. Leaves and branches burning with the wind.

He looked at the sight before him letting out a sob, and as he looked up he held even more rage.

And as he began to release another sob; a high pitched shriek left his throat inside. With this one his vocal cords shook.

The wind blew with him spreading the fire faster and developing it to become stronger as it traveled through the forest. You could feel the rage surging from the flames; almost as if you could taste all the suffering he released.

By the end of it he stared up what he had done, then at his fingers. At his skin. He hadn't felt any regret, he only felt the...release.

The pain, the suffering. That was only what he felt.

All this rage, every single fragment of it just began to get released with that one foul scream.

𓄇

There was little moments where Twelve could forget who he was and where he was.

With Ron there was many things he could forget, he could get lost in the world they created through the years they'd been incarcerated within these haunting walls, tainted with the loud footsteps that held such malicious action but with something firm. A certain stillness that hung around the air usually was cut when Ron's voice was heard.

It was something about his voice, his tone and what Twelve imagined him to be, that gave the young boy a comfort he'd never felt before.

"You've never had chocolate before?" Ron's loud voice echoed, bouncing on the ruined airways of the vents, but it held such a gentle tone that couldn't feel anything but comfort to Twelve. "Not even a Hershey? Or an Almond Joy?"

Twelve shrugged as if Ron could see him. But somehow, the older man laughed as if he could.

"Lil' Menace, when we get out of here-which we will, I'm gonna get you every chocolate bar in the world. Don't you even worry about it."

Twelve laughed but as he laughed the words-when we get out of where-those words felt like pity lie they used to comfort one another of an end they longed for but would never come.

The test subject, who cannot remember a time he wasn't here, probably the most pessimistic soul ever to exist but also the most determined. But despite all of that; he has this sense that tells him that they'll be getting out no time soon-or rather Ron won't. He can just feel in the air that this optimistic outlook on their situation is just a lie that he tells himself is something that will manifest into something that holds a certain degree of pain, a certain degree of relief that will only develop into an illusion that will first ravage your mind into a deep madness. A madness that could only happen when a man's heart is poured into something that he cannot possibly overcome no matter how hard he tries.

Ron's mind will soon become this very madness, Twelve can feel very thought in his mind and parts of his emotions though he doesn't read them, and that's what the boy fears.

He doesn't want that to happen.

"Do not lie," Twelve says with much annoyance. "Soon is....not soon."

Ron just smacks his teeth. "Don't say that."

"Soon is near. And I'd never lie to you-we're getting out of this terrible mess, together. And we're gonna use mind shit to get whatever we want, shit maybe even raid Walmart's bitch ass since they wanna accuse me of stealing a fuckin' nutty bar. Who the fuck even eats those?" Ron made clear. "Stop thinkin' the worst of everything little one, it makes me depressed."

"Sorry. It's ....hab-it." Twelve copied from when his mentor said that he had a smoking habit. Though he doesn't know what smoking even is honestly.

"Just like a habit of you using you lashing out and making them guards hurt themselves right?"

Twelve's figure suddenly slouched, he began to let go a loud sigh.

"They deserve it." Twelve speaks with much more of a monotone hatred.

"They-"

"But sometimes you've gotta walk away, kid. You gotta let stuff go-you can't let your anger control you-"

"No. I control it. I-"

"No, little one, you don't. It actually controls you."

Twelve bites his lips at that. He couldn't argue with the truth; no matter how much his gifts have given him the ability to control emotions, they've always mysteriously controlled him in a way. It's like he can't escape this limbo of emotional instability he's in, no matter how hard he tries. He can't.

"I'm gonna tell you something and you promise to listen and learn, okay?"

Twelve nods. "Okay."

"Emotions are...well fucked up. They are something we've all got and we can't do anything to stop them from happening-it's a basic human condition. But with conditions, we can control them. We can fix them. You can't let yourself lash out at these guards and be where I'm at because you can't control yourself or your emotions. Sometimes you have to let things go. You have to be tough-but that doesn't mean hide your emotions. You have to deal with them. You have a right to be angry, hell, I'm angry for you. But you cannot let yourself get to a point where you cannot control yourself. You have to accept your emotions, you have to be at peace within yourself. Hell, start writing down whatever makes you mad not hurting them."

"You have to learn peace, Lil' Menace."

"It'll get you a long way."

"Is there peace in me?" Twelve asks, curious.

"That's peace inside everyone, you're just a lil' angry one. A hard egg to crack."

Ron laughs heartily, and Twelve now wonders with large gleaming eyes;

Is there a peaceful organ inside of him?

𓄇

The door never creaked when he opened it.

But for an odd reason it seemed that it had now, loud enough to be heard through the small cabin but as he winced, glancing around, nobody came to investigate. It was almost as if the home that had been lively long ago was dead.

He attempts to close the door back as quickly but quietly as he could only to hear another creak. He tries to go slower but more noise happen to make themselves present. Why does it do this now? He could only wonder why it does this now but he doesn't know why, he could think that the world was against him this one time.

Trailing through the cabin, the darkness of it was almost impossible to walk through but he found his way; eyeing the burnt marks all over the roof he caused.

Even if it was pitch black, he could make them out faintly. Some of the wood still burning.

But as he walked through the hallway, he noticed something under the chair that Hopper always sat in as the couch had moved it in an awkward position. He tilted his head, and then he nodded his head upwards, creating a heatwave, as the trapdoor opened.

He then crawls inside, his bright eyes lighting the way for him.

The only thing he finds as interesting is HNL.

He makes it to his and El's room, turning the knob to find it locked. Before he could even think of anything it unlocked much faster than he expected.

He hurriedly pulled it open and closed it, hoping not too much noise was caused by it, eyeing his sister on her bed. She sobbed quietly in her pillow as she laid sideways with her body curled up, and her nose bleeding.

Vee noticed the broken glass on the floor, and was lucky to have shoes on.

Then he noticed the windows, the glass, his sister crying and suddenly his eyes rolled back and everything that happened flashed in his eyes-it was so quick but he understood every part and detail. His nose bled as the vision left.

He frowned at her thoughts, her emotions, the vision of what happened-she was at her lowest. They were both at their lowest point, which felt like square one.

Back in the Lab.

He felt tears began to come, and he did what came natural;

he laid with her.

They snuggled against each other, his face in her shoulder, tears pouring out their eyes like a sea but they even if they weren't at their lowest. Even if Vee was becoming something he didn't know how to control. Even if there wasn't that peace he longed for inside of him-he found it in someone else. It was El. And they had each other.

They would always have each other.

But in the morning, he would be gone to find his family.