Disclaimer: Refer to first chapter.

Can ya guess? Canon compliant but not canon.

Holy klumk! I just realized Gally's shucking younger then Thomas! He's supposed to be fifteen when Thomas arrives, but I've made him seventeen. Whoops.

I am so shucking sorry that this chapter is so late. It's no excuse, but I came down with the flu Sunday afternoon and simply couldn't write.

In many long years at the WICKED Headquarters, twelve-year-old Aris Jones had never met anyone but the scientists. There was Director Paige, Assistant Director Janson, Doctor Martins and Doctor Trainee Solodko who actually had names that Aris knew. There would always be the faceless, nameless doctors around, though they did not matter. Director Paige because she was the Director and had welcomed him to the WICKED Headquarters seven years previously. AD Janson quite simply because he came to Aris' room around once a month with some format of test which Aris always aced. Doctor Martins had been the first doctor Aris had met, the one who had sedated him before a surgical procedure that had placed implants into his brain. DT Solodko was simply Aris' only friend, and atop that his caretaker who woke him at six each morning and brought him food for each meal. Only knowing five names- including his own -had long since begun to wear down on Aris. He did not like having such a lonely life, but now that he was finally meeting someone, Aris was terrified.

It was rather strange to be scared, but Aris truly was. The boy he was probably supposed to be speaking with was a small, fluffy haired boy with large, owlish hazel eyes that stared at Aris as though boring into Aris' soul in the strangest of fashion. Sighing, Aris avoided the tiny boy's gaze. His eyes were gentle enough, face innocent yet filled with curiosity, as though studying Aris. He looked sweet and innocent, though that didn't stop the train of fear that plunged to Aris' heart. It was odd that Aris was scared of such a small, sweet-looking boy who couldn't have been more than nine, yet he was.

"Hi," the boy mumbled absently, not looking at Aris, rather scanning the room. "My name's Thomas." The boy, Thomas, spoke with a neutral American accent that was quiet and calm. Each word he spoke was very soft, though perfectly enunciated as though he were older than he seemed. Thomas looked at Aris then, eyes wide and innocent, a shy curiosity burning a soft fire. Aris softened, slightly, still unsure of what to do since he was confronted by something entirely foreign and terrifying to him.

Finally, a few minutes later, Aris replied, voice as tiny as the flame a match lit. "Aris," he whispered, voice faint as the soft wisp of wind that occasionally hushed through the corridors of the WICKED Headquarters in the midst of a cool day. It was always soothing to feel the soft gusts of wind against his face after a long lesson or session of running. It eased his worries, the worries that every child in the WICKED Headquarters had; that they simply were not good enough and never would be.

Thomas flashed Aris a bright grin, two front teeth showing missing gaps in his smile, though all as white as that fluffy substance Aris had seen in pictures, snow. "Nice to meet you Aris," he stated politely, reaching a hand across the table which the older boy hesitantly took, still scared, shaking it slightly before retreating his hand back to his lap, where it belonged. After a moment of silence that would have been considered awkward for anyone with social graces, so anyone but Aris basically, the boy coughed slightly, speaking again. "How old are you? You look older than me, though only by a few years."

Aris studied him hesitantly for a long moment. "Twelve." He sent an unspoken message with his pale green eyes.

"I'm nine. I've lived here for four years, since I was five. Does that mean that you've been here for seven years?"

Quickly growing overwhelmed by the boy's boldness, he raised a hand to his forehead, pushing back a lock of his sandy brown hair before resting his hand lightly on his temple. He glanced away from the boy again, scanning the walls for any reason to avoid speaking to Thomas, yet finding none. "Eight," he stated finally.

From the corner of his pale green eyes Aris saw the other boy tilt his head to the side slightly, face growing curious. "So you were four when you came? And twelve now? So when the Killzone Experiment begins you'll be sixteen? And you'll go up at nineteen? Wow, won't you be a lot older than most of them?"

Aris' hand trembled against his temple. He'd never been asked so many questions before, let alone at such a fast pace or on a topic as ludicrous as age. Slowly, he nodded, not replying verbally and still scanning the walls for any excuse not to speak to the boy. There was none.

Seconds dribbled by, quickly followed by minutes according to Aris' watch. The soft ticking sound of two identical watches on the exact same time, not off my a millisecond, filled the small room. Thomas seemed to be waiting for Aris to ask a question his large hazel eyes boring into Aris like a drill into stone, hard and unyielding. With each second that dribbled by, each minute counted, Aris grew edgier and edgier, a itch sitting at the small of his back. He reached back to scratch in in annoyance, disliking the irritation it caused him. A deep, droning ache had settled on his skull, penetrating deeper than a normal headache did and refusing to yield. Aris winced slightly at the feeling. It was not that Aris was unaccustomed to such things, rather that he disliked them greatly. That was not the first time Aris had been subject to pounding headaches, rather the umpteenth time- and Aris hoped the last. Each time he hoped the deep-seated ache would be the last, though it never seemed to be. A voice drew him back to reality.

"Are you alright, Aris?"

Of course, Aris nodded in response to Thomas' question. Of course he was alright, he was always alright and nothing would change that, not the Flare or the Trials or anything at all. No matter what, Aris would always be alright. "Of course," he stated simply. Yet deep, deep down, Aris knew that he was simply lying.

I really hope you enjoyed this and all of that stuff! It's great to be writing after spending almost a entire week sitting around do absolutely nothing! I'm actually quite surprised by this, but Pinkfan-gurl suggested Minho and Teresa, so I'll do that next. There's one I am really looking forward to, I'm sure you can guess it, and it's between two of the three main characters...