Although having come out of his shell a fair bit and the eyebrow-raising trouble he had gotten into over the past week, Theodore still wasn't quite used to the attentive nature of his (extended) family; including his robotic A'Vera who must've been the one to move him into this dark, pointed room and tuck him in because he couldn't remember moving here of his own accord. In fact, the last thing he did remember was settling down on the living room couch with a new plate of cookies and one of Don Ben's tattered books.

But as daylight dripped into evening, he found himself enveloped in the thick folds of the blanket tucked under his chin, the cramped mattress that had no give and the springs that poked uncomfortably into his back. Blinking languidly up at the bevelled foam acousticals that seemed to bare down on him with a leering intensity. Theodore didn't think he was that tired, but apparently that rushed flight back to the Umbrella Academy plus the rather hefty blood donation, atop of everything else that had happened earlier that week turned out to be more than his body could bare. Theodore's sleep addled mind couldn't register much, but what it did tell him was that the room was silent, almost unnaturally so.

Flexing rainbow sock-clad toes beneath the blanket, Theodore stretched all the way out on the camp bed as his bones cracked and a belated yawn escaped from his lips. Collapsing bonelessly against the camp bed with too heavy limbs and a contented purr, his heavy lids kept threatening to pull him back under into the welcoming arms of sleep; despite the ridiculously long nap he had just taken. Maybe it was like that thing when you slept too hard and were still—or even more—tired than before?

Either way, he found himself curling back up under the warmth of the blanket and pulled up the hood of his hoodie to prevent any further heat from escaping as he dipped back under despite the fact that he had no idea where he had ended up. Tired as he was, he just assumed that it was one of the many strange rooms in the manor and he couldn't find it in himself to get up and check right at that very moment. With the vague—but still ignorable notion that he had to pee—Theodore drifted back off to sleep, wrapped up nice and warm in the strangely quiet room.

When Theodore next awoke he was sat curled up in the centre floor of the dark, soundless room and the camp bed had been tossed aside & bent in half like some abandoned can in the gutter. His thoughts and fears whirled around inside his mind, pounding & banging against the side of his skull as he clutched his knees to his chest and stared resolutely out of the small slit of a window on the door. There was only one light in the room, coming from an old lantern that hung from the pinnacle of the ceiling far above his head. Not that it mattered considering the lumen-lit gaze that resolutely stared outwards with a sense of betrayal for being unjustly locked up in this prison and prickled with unshed angry tears.

Theodore had tried numerous times to break the door down since he had awoken for the second time in this dark room—hence the dented bed off to the side and the numerous tallies burnt into the side of the wall—but it wouldn't budge. He was stuck, alone and in the dark with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company. He had no clue where he was, only that he wasn't moving or collared. Which was a fact that comforted him only a little because that meant that it was unlikely that he had been taken captive by the LANE Keepers; for they would never have let a LANE go free like that.

His quiet cries eventually tapered off into muffled whimpers when he noted how his reflection seemed to morph into that of his old imaginary friend, the stubby three-eyed, bat-winged frog by the name of Mr Pennycrumb (named for the pug in the old cognac advert). "They're afraid of you" Mr Pennycrumb smirked, "Afraid of your power"

"…Of…of me?" Theodore sniffled, lumen-lit eyes blinking rapidly in the dark.

"That's why you're down here, isn't it?" He tilted his head in question, "Because they're AFRAID of YOU"

"But—but I didn't do anything!"

"…You blew up a school building and KILLED a WHOLE lot of people"

"…It was an accident! I didn't mean to!" Theodore's arm burned at the reminder.

"Meant to or not, their blood is on YOUR hands!" Mr Pennycrumb heaved a tired sigh, shoulders slumping over as he shoved his hands into his pockets "…But that's not the point"

"What is the point?" Theodore replied, brows furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You know, you've ALWAYS known" He tilted his chin up in defiance as his triad of eyes remind locked on the huddled boy before him, "Your ven & dons, they're JUST LIKE the Keepers; afraid of your powers—of YOU—and driven to keep you down. A muted voice, a prisoner, NEVER normal, NEVER safe. It will NEVER end, not until we ACT!"

"But—but they're our family!" Theodore stammered. "They're all I have!"

"They fear you now. They're gonna keep you locked in here FOREVER! Just like the Keepers, just like they did to your vera—"

"—N-no!"

"Can you IMAGINE what that is like? Staring at these grey walls HOUR after HOUR? DAY after DAY? YEAR after YEAR? Stuck in here until they FORGET you too? Do you WANT to live this that for the REST OF YOUR LIFE?"

"No, no, no!" Theodore shook his head furiously as his tears fell freely. "I don't wanna die in here! I don't wanna die!"

"Then DO something about it! EMBRACE who you are"

"I—I can't—!"

"—Who you've been ALL along. Let GO, Theodore! No fear! Break YOURSELF free!"

Theodore ducked his head into his knees as he sucked in a shuddering and wet breath, one that settled his shoulders into a determined line. With socks that slouched around his ankles & sleeves that flopped over his hands, he listened closely to the only sounds that he could hear—his thundering heartbeat & his laboured breath—the only sounds that were always within him and filled him up like the world's worst soundtrack. White noise bubbled in his ears and the bed behind him began to rattle & shake with the force of his building Legacies; but it still wasn't enough. He needed the door to move in the same way; he needed the door to blow itself off of itself hinges.

As if on cue, like a deeply ingrained comfort, a series of low rumbling purrs began to build in his chest and reverberated throughout him like a motor. The familiar noise comforted him; it warmed him up in the quiet dark room and he was reminded of the feline-filled room of his babysitter's apartment and halcyon days where he would bask in the sun with his feline friends, at the feet of his vera & Mrs K. Dropping lower & lower with every octave, the low rumbling purrs built a gentle but steady hum that filled the air as his power grew. Pounding in his ears and swirling in the air around him, it didn't take long for the amplified sound to rip itself free from his tiny huddled form and raced for anything in the surrounding vicinity.

KERRRASSH!

This time his attack seemed to be enough to topple the door from its hinges as the entire wall fell to the floor with a loud crash that echoed throughout the manor. Clambering to his feet, Theodore finally stepped from his temporary prison with eye blazing blue and with every blundering, powerful step he took up out of the bowels of the house, the building shook around him. Panicked though he was as he collapsed into the elevator at the end of the hall, he could not deny the power emanating from him as pieces of the house swirled about him like he was the eye of the storm.

The Umbrella Academy shook as he surged from the basement level, unknowingly bringing the storm with him. Destruction followed Theodore as he raced down the hallways, rebounding off of the walls as he tried to find the door that would lead to his escape. Cracks splintered along the walls where he had bounced off of the brick, splinters exploded from the steps that he bounded up and pieces of furniture exploded as he scrambled over chairs & skirted around console tables. Absolute destruction followed the boy up into the main levels of the house as he blundered up the stairs with tears staining his cheeks and panic coloured his breathing as laboured pants.

But it wasn't until he reached the living room that everything really went to hell in a hand basket. Theodore felt his heart jump up into his throat, choking the breath from him as his stomach dropped all the way down to his feet like a leadened balloon. Swarms of blue flooded the manor, firearms cocked and faceless mask gleaming with a sort of danger that rattled the boy to his bones. Keepers in the Umbrella Academy, Keepers in the house, Keepers staring him in the face. Not safe. Gotta get out. Gotta run. Run! Run! RUN! RUN!

He had no clue as to how they were there, where they had come from or who had tipped them off to his hiding place but he suddenly found himself hoping for one of his extended family members-slash-former-prison-guards to come waltzing in & save him (Where was everyone!? Had THEY been the ones to call these MONSTERS in?). But it was not to be; instead Theodore's panicked heartbeat roared ferociously in his ears as he paled considerably, his mouth ran dry with a cotton-leadened tongue, the world around him turned muffled and his limbs suddenly felt far too heavy for his own body.

He watched through a belated view as the LANE Keepers before him grumbled into their walkie talkie as one of them demanded that he surrender (from what he could ascertain through the muffles & thanks to the sharp gestures and the cocking of firearms trained on him). In this state, Theodore couldn't process much without wading through a thick layer of molasses that seemed to blanket his brain but even then, a deep instinctual feeling was just screaming at him to get out. It was only thanks to this and the sound of the zapping of the stun rods that pierced through the thick layer like a gunshot in his ears that he found himself scrambling over himself to swiftly backtrack into the safety of the manor's bowels, his legs moving of their own accord before his mind could even comprehend.

With eyes blown wide, Theodore scrambled backwards across the living room floor and tried to make his escape back the way he had come. Unfortunately, he had barely made it to the stuffed bison mounted on the wall (the one with one of Don Diego's knives embedded in its forehead like a poor imitation of a unicorn) when he was tackled to the ground by the closest Keeper—the leader—and tasered with the stun rod, that had been shoved into the curve of his spine as he thudded helplessly against the floor where his breath quickly escaped him. Twitching violently in the Keeper's hold, it was all Theodore could do not to bring the house down around them; but even that was a losing battle.

"…And where do you think you're going?" Keeper drawled with a smirk clearly coloured their tone as they repeatedly kicked the fallen Garde boy at their feet and then proceeded to stab him again with the taser.

ZZZT!

"Aaarrrgggh!" Theodore screeched out in pain, tears leaking from his eyes as he writhed on the floor and around him, the house shook with the force of his screams.

"Tell me, how'd you last this long, huh?" Keeper bent close to whisper in his ear; his hot breath tickling at the boy's nape with an uncomfortable intimation as they snapped the shock collar around his jugular with unbridled glee. "Who's helping you?"

"Nngh!" Theodore grunted as he squirmed to & fro, trying his best to break free but he only got so far as to amplify the sound of his own blinding heartbeat with enough force to send the surrounding Keepers flying. It wasn't enough to free him, but it was enough to let the boy crawl a little further from their grasp (which was hard with the whole house shaking around them).

"Tch! LANEs…!" Keeper scoffed (they were about the only one still conscious) as they clambered to their feet and made to languidly chase after Theodore. In his current state, Theodore wasn't going far and they both knew it.

"Ah…!" Theodore gasped as he used his far too heavy limbs to (uselessly) pull himself across the floor, absently wondering why he couldn't just get to his feet and run away or blast these monsters back off of their feet like he had done with Saint Gregory's.

"Kinda hard to move with a thousand voltes of electricity passing through your brain, huh?" Keeper smirked, standing over the boy as they raised the stun rod over their head and stabbed it down hard against the boy's back once more despite the shock collar's function for controlling them like that instead. It seemed that the Keeper had a bit of a vendetta out against Theodore and it briefly crossed the boy's mind that perhaps they had known someone at Saint Gregory's. These LANEs weren't human and should never be treated as such, no matter what the lily-livered government tried to say.

ZZZT!

"Aaarrrgggh!" Theodore writhed on the floor in agony as electricity coursed through his veins and the scent of burning flesh—his own burning flesh—filtered up into his nostrils. Off to the side, one of the marble pillars crumbled to dust as the chandelier over their heads swung dangerously in a wind that was not there.

"Tch!" Growing exasperated, Keeper rolled the boy over onto his back when he didn't answer their question and grabbing him by the lapels, brought the LANE boy up to meet them. "Who's protecting you? Give me an answer so that I can go home"

"Mmm~mm!" Theodore whimpered pathetically as he was shaken by the lapels.

"…I hate LANEs" Keeper scowled before tossing Theodore across the room where he toppled over the back of the couch and landed squarely atop the coffee table (the same one that he had landed on earlier in the week during the first invasion of the academy), where he lay wheezing for breath.

By this point almost all of the fight had drained from Theodore, sucked away thanks to the pain coursing through him and he was only really moving thanks to (survival) instincts that acted to preserve his life. Move. With immense effort, the tween boy was able to roll himself from the coffee table (once the gasping breaths had returned to light pants) and bellyflopped onto the floor in an effort to escape once more. But again, he wasn't able to make it far enough without the head Keeper interfering. No, this time it was thanks to an electrical wire that surged forward and entangled itself around Theodore's limbs that kept him from running away.

ZZZT!

"You think you could go on like this forever?" Keeper sneered as they stabbed one end of the electrical wire into the ground, preventing Theodore from going any further. "Living like this with no consequences? Hm? There are always consequences!"

"Nngh!" Theodore grunted in pain as he dug deep and tried to fly off only to find himself even more entangled in the electrical wires that ruthlessly tasered him. The ground roiled beneath him and his stomach turned in kind, making it hard to tell what was up & what was down; all that he knew was that he wanted it to stop. He wanted everything to stop; the swirling colours, the pounding noises and the zapping tasers. Just stop.

"Where're you going, huh?" Keeper smirked, "I gotcha now!"

ZZZT!

"So, I'm gonna ask you one more time" Keeper snarled as he poised to strike the final blow, doing his best to stay upright as the world beneath him shook. "Who's protecting you, you pathetic waste of space?"

"Aaaaaarrrrgggh!" Theodore howled again in pain, mindless to the destruction that his Legacies were causing around him. It was unlike any pain that he had ever felt before and he wanted nothing more for it to stop, so he screamed for the one person he knew to always have a weapon on them at all (obscene) times. "ZVEE!"

The gut-wrenching cry that ripped itself free from his lips without any restraint was painful & it was amplified by his Legacies that exploded from him. Painted white just like his vera, Theodore exploded into a ball of burning lumen and roaring sound that destroyed all in its path. Where he had once been the eye of the storm, untouched by its destruction, he was now the very storm itself. In the chaos of it all he never noticed the extra eyes watching them or the familiar warmth so unlike his own that enveloped him and all around him, the Umbrella Academy began to fall.