Chapter Text
When Tyler woke up, he immediately smelled the familiar odour of the bunker. He sat up and he felt the familiar chains as well; he looked down at his feet and hands to confirm that he was, in fact, chained to the bed, like all those days ago when he woke to find his mother’s face next to his own - it felt like a lifetime. He almost thought for a second that all that was just a dream, and he had really only just woken up, but he was soon grounded in reality.
He noticed Isaac instead of his mother, and he wasn’t up and about, making breakfast and trying to pretend to live a normal life; he was passed out on a chair, sleeping with his arms on the table and his head on his arms. Tyler felt a pang of a feeling that was somewhere on the lines of anger, fear and a defensiveness. He wasn’t sure if he was safe in one room with Isaac, but he knew on the other hand that if he doesn’t wake the man, he’ll just prolong the inevitable. So he decided that if he must die or face anything worse than that, he’ll hit it head on:
“Hey!,” he called out. Isaac stirred and he lifted his head. When he locked eyes with Tyler, the sleep left his eyes and he hopped to his feet.
“You’re awake,” he said.
“Yes, I noticed,” Tyler replied. “Now what the hell is this?,” he demanded and he made the chain ring.
“I needed to restrain you,” Isaac said in a flat tone.
“Let me go now then.”
“I still need to restrain you,” was the simple answer. Tyler flexed his muscles against the hold but achieved nothing.
“Where’s mom?,” he asked.
“Not yet.” The unbothered responses were a stark contrast to how Isaac was slowly approaching him, moving almost softly, and how his eyes were piercing into the other man.
“Where is she?,” Tyler asked, angrier this time.
“You wanna know so much,” Isaac tilted his head to the side, still coming closer, “she’s dead.”
Tyler’s heart skipped a beat.
“Wha– n– she can’t be,” he muttered.
“She was thrown out a window by the explosion,” Isaac said, his voice unbearably smooth for what he was saying, and now he was within arm’s reach so Tyler didn’t think twice. He reached his arm as much as the chains would let him and he struck Isaac. The man stumbled and fell backwards onto the floor, holding his face with his hand.
“It worked,” he mumbled from behind his fingers. Tyler could see a streak of blood dripping from his lips.
“What worked?,” he asked, raising his voice just enough to be intimidating.
“My machine,” Isaac almost laughed, “my machine worked! Oh, Francoise would be so, so happy!” He stood up, a little unsteady on his feet, still touching his face, his manner changing in the matter of seconds. He was smearing the blood on his chin with his hand until he wiped it all away with the dirty sleeve of the trench coat he was still wearing. “I got the hyde out of you,” he added when he saw Tyler’s quizzical face.
Tyler’s heart skipped another beat. He didn’t remember a thing that happened up in the Iago tower after he– after he was swung in the air by Isaac.
“What happened?,” he demanded again. Isaac brought a chair closer to the bed, careful this time to stay outside of hitting range.
“My machine worked,” he repeated. “It got rid of your hyde, but it blew up afterwards. I think it didn’t kill the Addams boy either. But the explosion sent Francoise–” His voice broke here, but he cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “So, it killed your mother. I got you from the debris and brought you back here before the Addams army realised what happened. Unfortunately,” he lifted his right hand, which was missing from wrist down, “they took something with them.” Tyler ignored the last part.
“So she’s really dead this time?,” he asked, a thin sense of threat in still his voice.
“Yes,” Isaac nodded his head, “she is. But you’re not and that’s what matters,” he said dismissively and pushed himself up from the chair and stretched his limbs.
“Am I– you said you got the hyde out of me,” Tyler said. Isaac nodded again. “I specifically asked you not to do it. I told you it’s a gift to me.”
“Yes, you did, and yes, you did, but no, you’re wrong,” Isaac said. “The hyde is like a chronic disease. It feeds on your body. For a time it gives you strength, but the body can only take so much.”
“I didn’t want you to get rid of my hyde!”
“I don’t care!” Isaac lost his cool for a split second and no more, and he was as soon back to his calm and reserved form. “It was your mother’s wish that I do this.”
“I don’t care what she wanted with me, from me or for me, I– that thing was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Tyler said and tried to pull against the chains, but Isaac was right. The hyde was gone and he couldn’t free himself.
Isaac shrugged and took a few steps to pull the chair back to the table and sit down next to it.
“You have to understand something,” he said and set his elbow on the table. Tyler raised an eyebrow and laid back in the bed - turning his torso with the chains holding his hands was uncomfortable and painful. “I only took you because I promised Francoise that I’ll look after you. I don’t wanna be here any more than you do.”
“Then let me go,” Tyler said.
“I can’t.”
A few moments of silence passed. Tyler thought of the few days he got to spend with his mother; he only knew her very superficially and in a very specific state of life and mind, after over a decade of torture. And now, even more distantly, there was this man, his uncle, who was probably younger than him, and even if he himself had led a normal life, he would have never met or known him. Maybe his mother wouldn’t have even mentioned him. And now he was indefinitely stuck with him. He gave Isaac a good, long look, scanning every inch of him; he didn’t look like a corpse anymore and he didn’t move like one either. He still held his right arm close to his chest, protectively, and he still wore those torn clothes that made him look homeless, but other than that, he seemed normal in body. Tyler couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything similar between the two of them.
Eventually he came to the conclusion that whether they were to get along fine or not, they would have to endure each other’s company for quite some time and he’d be better off if he just accepted it.
“Will you keep me chained then?,” he asked.
“Will you hit me again?,” was the reply.
“Not without a good reason.”
“Good enough.” Isaac flicked his hand and the shackles fell off Tyler’s hands and feet. He rolled his wrists and ankles, and stood from the bed to stretch a little. “I was thinking that we could grab something to eat, you must be hungry too,” Isaac mused, suddenly very casually, as if he hadn’t just freed his nephew from chains that he put him into. It put Tyler on the edge for a different reason though.
“You– you want me to kill a person for you?,” he asked with a frown.
“I was thinking a sandwich but if you wanna go with homicide, I’m not stopping you,” Isaac said, throwing his hands up in a surrendering motion.
“Ah, okay,” Tyler nodded. “There might be something around here,” he pointed around the place. Isaac looked around and opened a few cabinets; crickets might have been chirping in them, it was so empty. Nothing but the little breakfast Francoise had baked a few days before, but he figured neither of them had the stomach for that.
“We might have to check the house,” he mumbled, then he turned to Tyler. “Not to be invasive, but would you mind taking off your shirt so I can take a look at you?,” he asked.
Tyler stopped what he was doing - looking for his shoes that were unceremoniously kicked under the bed - and looked at Isaac and blinked a few times, frowning.
“How is that not invasive?,” he asked. Isaac rolled his eyes and smiled at him very cynically.
“I wanna look at you from a medical perspective,” he explained, gesturing with his arms as he did. “How the hyde’s removal affected you.”
“I’d rather you not.”
“I’m your age.”
“Not technically.”
“I’m literally family.”
“Don’t care.”
“It’s just waist up!”
“Nope.”
“You’re no fun,” Isaac gave up and opened a cupboard again. “Then you’re gonna have to report yourself,” he said and closed it. “There might be complications.”
“I’ve had enough people prodding me like some dissected frog,” Tyler said with an annoyed tone and sat down on one of the chairs.
“Fine, fine, I yield,” Isaac said, taking on once again that defensive pose. “We really will have to look in the house, or we’re gonna have to leave.”
Tyler got up from the chair, and the two of them opened the door. They went up the little flight of stairs then into the house. It was a gut-wrenching sight but Tyler just swallowed and clenched his jaw. Isaac was almost enjoying it though, probably finding himself at home with the dead surroundings. Okay, that was mean, Tyler thought and shook his head. The door was left hanging open; nobody bothered tidying up after his father’s body was removed. He walked straight into the house and stopped by the armchair. He saw a spot of blood: this is where he died.
“Was there even anyone at the funeral?,” he wondered aloud, making Isaac snap his head toward him.
“Why does it bother you?,” he asked. “I thought you hated him.”
“Time adorns people, you know,” Tyler said. “Or memories.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Isaac shook his head and began opening drawers one after the other. “I doubt any of the people I knew are any better now, and I don’t think of them more fondly either,” he said as he reached the bottom of the chest of drawers. “There’s nothing here.”
“Do you mind?,” Tyler firmly pushed the drawer close, barely giving time for Isaac to pull away his hand. “This is my stuff, my dead father’s stuff. Stop rummaging through it like some thrift shop,” he reprimanded. Isaac shrugged and took a step back. “Look in the kitchen if you’re still thinking of food,” he told him.
Fair enough, he was hungry too. It’s been an entire day since he last ate. But he was standing in his childhood home, the room where his father died, all vandalised by people who hate him and torn apart by time. He was more nauseous than hungry at the moment.
“I can’t take this,” he said to himself, dropping down onto the armchair. “I can’t take any more of this guy,” he mumbled as he rubbed his face with his palms. Isaac walked out of the kitchen just that moment, eating something, as if life wanted to reinforce the point Tyler had just made. He looked at him, sighed and buried his face in his hands again.
“We gotta leave,” Isaac said and tapped his shoulder. “This’ll be the first place people look for you. These goddam things!” He swatted a flying insect with his hand. “They keep following me and for the life of me I can’t get rid of them.”
“Wash your clothes for once,” Tyler said and stood up to get farther from Isaac.
Isaac grabbed his arm firmly, but Tyler, almost instinctively grabbed him by the front of his trench coat, spun him around and shoved him into a wall so hard he almost knocked the air out of Isaac’s lungs. For a moment, Isaac could only stare in shock; he had only just realised how much stronger Tyler is physically.
“Don’t touch me,” Tyler said, not as menacingly as he probably intended, then he let go and walked out of the house. Isaac took a few deep breaths and ran his hand through his hair.