Beacon Hills ♚ TMR x TW

6; well deserved

During the car ride to the plane, Thomas called Scott and let him know what was happening. They spoke for a while, Scott doing most of the talking, until he had to return to school. They wished each other good luck then hung up.

It was a fairly quiet ride, Lydia explaining she had already talked to her mom when she had gone home. Her mom hadn't been excited but Lydia insisted and the woman gave in, letting her go.

They boarded the plane an hour after driving, settling into the first class seats with content sighs.

"Thank god they got us first class," Lydia laughed, dreading the long hours they'd have to spend on the plane.

Thomas agreed with a smile, not wanting to talk more than needed with his sore throat, before making himself comfortable in the seat. He looked out the window, watching the ground as the plane took off. Everything was happening so fast, he didn't even have time to process the whole situation. He wondered what happened that caused Booth to sound so frantic on the phone. And why he was so desperate to have Thomas there as fast as possible.

"Are you okay?" Lydia asked in a soft voice, laying the palm of her hand on his arm. She watched him, waiting patiently for him to talk until her eyes drifted down to his neck. Her eyes scanned the swollen skin, hand marks now becoming bruised on the delicate area. "Woah, what happened?" Her voice became stern as she reached for his chin and tilted his head up. Thomas said nothing as she examined the marks around his neck. "Oh my god. Are those hand marks?"

"A nurse came after you left. Injected me with something... Succinylcholine is my guess. She tried to choke me to death. She had a gun also... I should've went for the syringe but I managed to take out the gun before she injected me with the drug. The officer my dad sent stopped her." He didn't have to explain what Succinylcholine was, as Lydia most likely knew exactly what it was. It was the drug that immobilized him enough for the woman to get her hands on him. The drug is labeled as fast acting and only lasts for at least 10 minutes, so he made an educated guess. "As Void, I killed her brother." He finished, voice quiet as shame overtook him.

"Thomas..." Lydia wanted to go back and strangle the woman herself. "I'm sorry." She let her hand drop onto her lap as she shook her head.

"It's fine. I get why she tried, and I don't blame her at all." He couldn't bring himself to look at Lydia as he spoke. "I let the nogitsune in. Purposefully? No. But it still happened. It may not have been me pulling the strings but I still helped plan every thing without realizing it and killed all those people- Allison included. And when WCKED took me, I helped them with the maze and creating those- those killing machines. Ben and all the others that died in that maze- their deaths are on me as well. I deserve everything bad that happens to me, for all of that."

Lydia was quiet for a moment, thinking. "But you don't deserve any of it. Everything that's happened to you has been way too much and way out of your control. You got kidnapped, your brain screwed with, hurt by the same people's hands and placed in that same maze where you also had to fight to survive. So, that's enough. You have more than made up for it by all of that, not to mention; getting those kids out of that maze. And us. You saved all of us, Thomas."

He let her words sink in. Thomas knew she was right, but still felt guilt for every person he killed as Void and every person he couldn't save from WCKED. In his eyes, until they were caught, he deserved everything bad that happened to him.

The pair didn't talk much the rest of the plane ride. Thomas finally caught up on sleep that he was severely lacking from all the book reading he had just spent hours doing. Lydia napped off and on, deciding to watch a movie out of boredom.