Apologies for a later update than planned, had lost the will to write for a few days and that was coupled with a couple of minor health issues, but all those are under the bridge now so anyhoops on we go!I also did a thing and after spending £60 on a photo to meet Tom and Emmy, I've definitely not spent an additional £70 to buy an individual photo with each on the day absolutely not. Why can't the others do cons here? I mean, I'd be surprised if Ellen or Aidan did, or did cons anywhere tbh, but Justin and Robert and maybe David I could see doing them sometime.
Vanya ran through the streets, not knowing where her feet were taking her, just determined to get away, as far away as she could from the cabin. All she could see was Allison, determined to use her powers on her, Allison on the floor, blood gushing as she choked on it, clutching at her throat, and Leonard pulling her through the door, yelling at her to leave.
As she ran she thought she could hear voices calling her, but she kept running, determined to do her utmost to get away from whoever was chasing her. Was it Allison? Leonard? Her father? Luther? She couldn't tell, but she wanted to be far away from whoever it was hunting her down.
'You're ordinary, Vanya. Ordinary.'
'I heard a rumour that you thought you were just ordinary.'
'You need powers to go on a mission, Number Seven.'
"SHUT UP!" Vanya roared at the voices in her head, hearing a street light nearby exploding, sparks flying as the metal frame curved forwards and crashed into the street, making passing bytstanders recoil and run in terror at the noise and the destruction of the street lamp.
Vanya turned and kept running as fast and as far as she could away from the Academy, away from whoever was chasing her, until she found herself lost and alone.
"Hello?" Vanya called out, seeing herself on an empty street with no-one in sight. "Hello?"
/
"What do you mean, you lost her?" Five asked, feeling utter despair at the depths of idiocy his siblings could reach.
"I went after her, I saw how dealing with Dad upset her, I wanted to talk to her, see if we could move past all of this, let her know I'd never do anything like that to her ever again, but before I could do anything she was gone, I tried catching her up but she was too fast." Allison told him sadly. She wanted to put this all behind her with Vanya, before they came back, they'd started getting a bit better together. She thought they were getting closer, before the cabin, and she had hoped they could repair that again even afterwards.
"Why didn't you keep looking for her?" Five demanded.
"I didn't know where to look, it's why I came back for you all, so we could look together." Allison protested.
"It was the best call." Luther told her gently, as Five glared. Allison was right, of course, but he wouldn't admit that right now.
"Look, we need to find Vanya and fast." Klaus said. "Where would she go?"
"I don't know." Diego said. "Does anyone know if there is anywhere she'd like to go when she was younger, or where she'd go after she moved out?"
"I can only think of the theatre, where she trained and played." Allison said.
"Why don't you and Luther check the theatre, Five can hop around other places, me and Klaus will look around the nearby area, and Diego, you stay here, just in case she comes back?" Ben suggested.
"Why do I have to stay back?" Diego challenged him, eyeing Ben up.
"Well, why don't you go with Klaus and I'll stay back?" Ben offered.
"It doesn't really matter, either way." Five shook his head. "Why don't you both stay here and I'll take Klaus with me?"
"Why me?" Klaus asked.
"Because, you idiot, you're the one who needs to apologise to Vanya the most, and unless she's at the theatre, I'm more likely to find her before she comes back here than anyone else is."
"Fine." Klaus huffed. "I'll go with you, Five. Let's go bring V back."
"What about the cabin? Maybe she'd go back to the scene of the crime as it were." Diego suggested.
"I'll check there first, if she's not there, I'll head around to places I know she frequented in the future, see if she's there. If she's not, then we'll just keep looking."
"What do we do when we find her?" Luther asked, backing up as the rest focused on him. "I'm just saying, if she's, you know, like she was in the future, what do we do?"
"She won't be like that." Allison said as Luther stared her down.
"I'm serious, Allison. What if she's let go?"
"If she's like that, leave her to me." Five said. "I'll jump her away somewhere for her to calm down."
"We can't just leave it to you though, Five." Diego said.
"I'm the only one who might be able to calm her down if she's like that. Allison, Klaus and Luther will all probably make it worse. Diego, you or Ben might help but it'd be easier with just me and her jumping."
"You don't know that.." Klaus said. "I can apologise to her, help her see she's not alone in all of this."
"Look, Klaus, I don't want any of you getting hurt or hurting her more. If Vanya's alright, as I assume she will be, then fine, speak to her, but if she's letting her powers control her in her anger again, just let me help her." Five told him. "I'll be more of a help to her than you guys will be and you know it, just trust me with this, alright? It'll be fine."
The others nodded along, Five did have a point, before heading their seperate ways. Five and Klaus jumped for Harold's cabin, Allison and Luther headed to the Icarus theatre whilst Ben and Diego decided to split, both heading a few blocks out to look for her before heading back to the Academy to wait, to see if she returned.
/
Cha-Cha drove onto the road and saw a lone figure up ahead, sitting on the sidewalk and crying into their arms. Pulling up alongside them, Cha-Cha rolled down her window and looked the young girl over.
"Hello sweetie, what's your name?" Cha-Cha asked her.
"I'm V-Vanya." The young woman sniffled as internally Cha-Cha smirked. Mark made.
"What's the matter, Vanya?" Cha-Cha asked her, faking concern whilst internally cheering. "Do you need to call somebody?"
"I'll be fine." Vanya said, smiling slightly at the kindness of this stranger. "Thank you for the offer."
"Well how about this." Cha-Cha said. "I'll wait with you for a bit, maybe give you somebody to talk too?"
Vanya frowned as she looked down at her arms again.
"I'm not worth talking too." Vanya thought to herself.
"I'm sure that's not true at all, I'll be glad to listen to you." Cha-Cha said, Vanya looking in shock. Had she said that aloud?
"Really?" Vanya asked, voice filling with hope.
"Gladly." Cha-Cha smiled, turning off the engine and climbing out of the car. "Are you sure you don't want me to call anybody for you?"
"No thank you." Vanya smiled at her. Maybe it'd be good to talk to somebody other than her siblings about a few of her problems, she'd have to dress them up so she didn't seem insane to the person.
"Well what's bothering you sweetie?" Cha-Cha asked as she sat next to Vanya, smiling at her.
At first Cha-Cha had hoped to just grab Vanya and see what she could do to set the young girl off, if the Handler said this girl would cause the apocalypse, well she'd do her best to make sure it happened, but now she had another idea. If she befriended Vanya, got the girl to trust her, well if she prodded Vanya to distance herself from her family, got inside her head, it'd be much easier to guide her to do what she wanted with less risk to herself. She didn't fancy Vanya deciding to just get rid of her with her powers and not bother with the apocalypse.
"It's my family." Vanya told her. She didn't know why but she felt she could trust this woman, at least to hear out her problems for a short while.
"What's the matter with them, sweetie?" Cha-Cha asked.
"They belittle me, they blame me for things, they don't take my feelings into account at all, they attack me as I'm an easy target and the worst part is I know I deserve it all." Vanya sobbed. "I do hurt people, I do things that make others upset and angry, and I don't know how to be better."
"I'm sure that's not the case at all, darling." Cha-Cha soothed her, gently lying a hand on Vanya's shoulder, who flinched at the touch. "I'm sure they're sorry for whatever they've done and are looking for you right now."
"Do you think so? They hate me." Vanya cried.
"I know they don't." Cha-Cha promised her, pulling Vanya closer and hugging her, Vanya crying on her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around Cha-Cha as well. "Do you want me to give you a lift back home? I'm sure they're going out of their mind worrying for you."
"Can you?" Vanya sniffled. She still wasn't one hundred percent about this woman, but with her emotions, she knew she could handle herself, and the woman seemed to want to do right by her, it'd be nice to vent her feelings, rather than channeling them out with her powers. Perhaps this woman could be of help to her, if she made sure to keep herself calm enough to not let her powers loose.
"Sure, Vanya. I'm Charlotte, by the way." Cha-Cha introduced herself. "So, where do you want me to take you?"
"Do you know the Umbrella Academy?" Vanya asked her.
"Where those super kids live?" Charlotte asked. "You want dropping around there?"
"Yes please." Vanya said, trying to smile a little.
"Sure, it's only about ten minutes drive down the road, I'll get you there." Cha-Cha told her. "Hop in."
/
"Do you think Vanya's gone to the theatre?" Luther asked Allison as they approached the outside of the Icarus.
"Probably not, but we need to find her and help her." Allison told him.
"Allison, talk to me." Luther told her. "I know you've been distracted, you've not been yourself for the past few weeks, ever since we came back. Talk to me."
"What is there to talk about, Luther? We had to come back here, fix everything but I lost everything."
"You mean Claire." Luther realised, feeling bad that he hadn't given it much thought before now.
"What do you expect me to feel like, Luther? Sure, I'm glad we stopped the end of everything and we have a chance to make sure it never happens, but I lost my daughter and I don't know how or if I'll ever get her back."
"What can I do to help?" Luther asked her, feeling more powerless than ever before.
"I don't know, Luther. I just want my baby girl in my arms."
"We could ask Five, see if he knows anything we could do?" Luther suggested.
"We're in a different timeline now, aren't we?" Allison asked. "She won't exist if he jumped to the future to find her and we can't get back to the timeline where she exists."
"It won't hurt to ask him though." Luther said. "If there's any chance we can reunite you with Claire, make sure you can raise her, then we'll take it. You won't lose out if I can make sure of it, Allison." Luther promised her.
"I know, if there's a chance, I know you guys would move Heaven and Earth to make sure I got to hold my little girl again, I just don't want to get my hopes up only for them to be dashed." Allison told him.
"It won't hurt to ask, and if we can, we'll bring Claire back to you, Allison." Luther promised her. "I swear, if it can be done, it will be."
"Thank you." Allison simply said, hugging him tightly, Luther instictively moving his arms around her and hugging her back, feeling warm and content in her touch.
/
"What are we looking for, Five?" Klaus asked as the two of them looked through the cabin, rifling through cabinets and opening doors for any sign of Vanya being here.
"I don't know. Harold's grandmother still lives here so we need to go at the first sign of her, but I'm thinking there's no chance she's here really, Klaus. We should probably go check somewhere closer to the Academy."
"Right.." Klaus said. "So, why did you bring me, Five?"
"I explained my reasoning back there." Five said simply.
"Bullshit. I know there's another reason, you don't usually lay your cards on the table outright. If there's anything we all know about you, it's that." Klaus told him.
"You know what, you're right, Klaus. I did bring you for a reason." Five told him, turning to face him. "It's because you're an idiot. What, you weren't getting enough attention so you had to attack Vanya? Because she's the only one who might let you walk all over her? We came for you, as soon as we knew. We weren't going to let anything happen to you and we should have dealt with dad by stopping him from doing any extra training ever again, why did you need to lash out at her? Vanya wanted to comfort you, you moron." Five snarled at him, working himself up more and more as he raged at Klaus, who shrunk at his tone and backed into the corner.
"I'm sorry, ok?" Klaus asked, still horrified about what he had done. "I didn't mean to do it, I was angry and she was just there. I regretted it immediately, I wanted nothing more than to tell her I was being an idiot and I'd love to talk to her but she was gone before I could speak. I was stupid and I'm sorry, Five, alright? When we find her, I don't care, I'm hugging her." Klaus told him, tears in his eyes as he spoke, hating himself more as he thought more about what he'd done.
Five eyed him up for a moment, before nodding and hugging Klaus.
"Good." Five told him. "Now let's go find her and bring her home." He said, jumping with Klaus back towards the Academy.
/
"So what do we do now?" Diego asked Ben as the two of them met back up at the Academy. No sign of Vanya on any of the nearby blocks and nobody they'd asked seemed to have seen her. They did find some destroyed street lamps, so knew she had likely been in the area, but attempts to find her had turned up nothing.
"We wait for the rest of them to come back, hopefully with Vanya." Ben said. "We can't head off in case she comes back."
"I know, I just hate feeling useless, just sitting here." Diego said. "I could be doing something, anything to help find Vanya and instead I'm sat here, on house sitting duty if anything."
"It'll be fine, Diego." Ben said. "They'll find her."
"Master Diego, Master Ben, may I speak to you?" A voice said from the doorway, looking over they saw Pogo standing in the doorway, head bowed and looking apologetic.
"What do you want, Pogo?" Diego spat, standing and pulling a knife from his harness, Pogo paling as he watched this.
'Have I really fallen so far in the children's estimation? I only told their father to help them.'
"I wanted to apologise, what I did was wrong, I only sought to help you children, to allow you to have somebody else to go to for guidance. I know I betrayed your trust and I will regret that to my dying day, but I only want to help you." Pogo assured them.
"You only want to help us, Pogo?" Ben asked him incredulously. "How does telling dad about us, having Klaus locked up in that place, and having dad threaten us help us in any way, you stupid monkey?" Ben asked him, the chimp flinching at his tone and words.
"I didn't know, Master Ben. I know your father is a difficult man, but I hoped he'd speak to you all in a loving manner, help you with your issues and move on together. I didn't expect him to be on the offensive against all of you children. I know I did wrong by you and I understand if you children don't trust me now, but believe me, I only have your best interests at heart. My door will always be open, for all seven of you, should you wish to talk." Pogo said sadly, turning and heading out of the door again.
"I don't know." Diego frowned, as both him and Ben wrestled with themselves. They'd had their trust broken by Pogo, but they still remembered their childhood the first time around, where Pogo was a benevolent uncle compared to their father and could do no wrong in their eyes.
"I want to give him a chance, I really do, but I don't know if we can ever trust him again." Ben said and Diego nodded.
"Yeah I get that. I think we should ask the others what they want to do about Pogo first before we decide on anything." Diego told him.
"It'll have to wait for a bit, Vanya comes first and she's probably still very angry with him." Ben said. "Once she decides to forgive him, we'll talk about it."
/
"Just around here is fine, thank you Charlotte." Vanya grinned at the kind woman as they pulled up alongside the Academy.
"Hopefully we'll meet again sometime, sweetheart." Cha-Cha smiled as Vanya hopped out of the car and closed the door behind her, Cha-Cha rolling down the window to speak to her. "I'm sure your siblings are waiting already to apologise to you, just remember what we talked about."
"I will." Vanya smiled at her. "You're right, I am loved really, thank you so much Charlotte."
"Well if we ever do meet again, I'm always available for a chat if you need it." Cha-Cha said, waving as Vanya walked off, rolling up the window again and driving away, Cha-Cha smiled to herself.
'Before long, you'll be trusting me far beyond any of your siblings, Vanya Hargreeves, and then the apocalypse will happen.'
Cha-Cha drove on for a few more minutes before pulling up into her motel, and heading up the stairs, entering her room, she closed the door before a cough surprised her. Turning around, she saw Hazel walking out of the bathroom, gun in hand.
"Hello Cha-Cha. We need to talk."
/
"Have you found her?" Allison asked as Luther and her met up with Klaus and Five outside the Academy.
"Not a sign of her, I take you haven't either?" Klaus asked.
"Not a trace. Maybe she's inside the academy?" Luther hoped as they headed into the house together, hearing laughter coming from the main room, the quartet headed there, to find Diego, Ben and Vanya sat on the sofa laughing at a joke one of them had just said.
"You really called him a stupid monkey?" Vanya asked Ben who nodded.
"I regretted it, I did, but honestly, he deserved it." Ben smiled as Vanya and Diego laughed again, seeing the others, Ben and Diego smiled at them, Vanya turning to them, she hesitated for a moment before smiling herself.
"Hey guys." Vanya said. "Look I'm -"
Was all she got out before she found herself trapped between Klaus and Allison, both of them wrapping against her as hard as they could.
"I'm so sorry, Vanya." Klaus sobbed into her hair as he pressed against her, Vanya awkwardly trying to pat him.
"It's alright, I'm sorry too, for running off like that." Vanya told him.
"I'm also sorry, I forgot, with my powers and everything, and I wish I could have done more to help you, god I'm sorry I forgot, Vanya, about the cabin and everything." Allison babbled. "Forgive me?"
"I couldn't stay angry with you if I tried, Allison. I've hurt you too much to ever deserve your forgiveness, you deserve mine." Vanya told her as Allison choked back a cry as well.
"How about we just never hold anything from the past against each other?"
"Deal." Vanya smiled.
"So where did you go?" Luther asked her.
"I don't know, I just ran, then I was found by this lovely woman named Charlotte who I spoke to for a while, she made me see that maybe I'd overreacted to everything and that you guys really did love me, and she gave me a ride back."
"What did she look like?" Five asked, suspicious that some random woman had come across Vanya and calmed her down. What if she was working for the Temps Commission? But if she was, why calm Vanya down? Maybe because it was too early in the timeline? Five had a million questions and no answers, just the way he hated it.
"Short woman, black hair and eyes, brown skinned, I did see in the back seat of her car there was a mask, I think, but I didn't see it clearly enough to tell you what it was." Vanya said, Five's skin paling with every word she spoke. Without warning, Five jumped away to his room and left the others behind.
"They've found me." Five whispered to himself as he poured over his notes, looking for something, anything that would have given him away. "How did the Temps Commission find me so fast?"
/
The young man ran from the house, the sight and smell of his father's blood choking his senses, as he ran and ran and ran, never looking back, if he stopped he'd be caught, they wouldn't care that his father had been abusive, he still killed him and he'd still be looking at prison for it. He wasn't going to prison, not if he could help it.
Harold Jenkins was determined. He'd get away, lie low and once he was certain the coast was clear, he'd head back to the city. His father had died because of his abuse, but there was someone else who had ruined Harold's young life, someone else he needed to see punished for his words and actions.
Reginald Hargreeves was a dead man walking.