The trip to the Cooper's farm was filled with much the same tension that had been present during the last time the Hargreeves had taken an impromptu road trip. Of course, this time they weren't rushing to find Auntie Allison out in the mysterious cabin of one Harold Jenkins. Nor had they had they known of Mama's dormant powers or her homicidal boyfriend; or even the subsequent death of planet Earth, itself. Still, there was some of that tension here, most of it circling around Uncle Five whose leg continued to jiggle up and down as they went. Occasionally Uncle Luther would shift around in the trunk causing the ass of the car to scrape further along the road, making it hard for Mama to drive. Thankfully they had made it out to the backroads by then, allowing them to breathe a little and appear less like the clown car they were pretending to be.

At some point Uncle Klaus had plucked a cracked book on self-enlightenment from the depths of his coat and was doing his best to read it even through all the rocking motions and sudden jerks of the car; whilst Auntie peppered Mama with questions about the Coopers. If Theodore hadn't known any better, he would've thought that they were going to tea with Coopers—to meet the other family, so to speak—with the way the questions were going. Things like: how'd you meet? What're they like? He almost expected for the 60s housewife to be standing on her doorstep with child and scones in hand with the way the conversation was going. But that didn't help the little seed of bitterness that curled up in his gut.

Theodore had spent almost five years on his own in Dallas. Five years without his family—Garde or otherwise—only to find out that his mother had been playing house with the Coopers for weeks like nothing was amiss. Of course, there was the whole amnesia-thing, but that was still partially his fault and it only served to twist the metaphorical knife deeper as he resolutely stared out of the window, watching the rows upon rows of crops saw by. Tucking himself further into the upturned collar of his peacoat, Theodore physically shrunk away from those thoughts as his sour expression mirrored back at him in the passenger's window and they swung around another dirt corner, sending gravel flying and pecking at the windows.

Soon enough the station wagon pulled into the Cooper's drive—the snow-covered, wintry drive—which was easily blanketed by the roaring tornado which had erupted from the frosty barn like a warning. "Holy hell…" Auntie Allison breathed as she leant forward and Mama brought the car to park not far from the entrance of the barn. It's not like Theodore could blame her; much like the rest of his family (save for Mama who appeared rather grim) he was gaping open-mouthed at the spectacle before him like it was something out of the movies.

"Well, if the Mogs didn't think he was Garde before…" Loren trailed off, equally as gobsmacked.

…They do now. Theodore ended as he climbed from the car, doing his best to hide behind the wide-lens sunglasses and peacoat collar even with the wind wildly buffering at them and the sizzling energy crackled through the air like lightning.

"You think whatever's going on inside is causing the cold front?" Uncle Diego asked as they all exited from the station wagon like clowns from a car.

"Well, the correlation is high" Uncle Five replied as a blonde gun-wielding woman suddenly burst from the side of the barn like someone possessed.

"Cissy! Cissy!" Mama cried, throwing her hands up in surrender as she quickly placed herself between the woman and her family.

"Get back!" Cissy warned, cocking the gun. Not that it would do much against the Hargreeves, but having a gun pointed in your face is never fun. "All of you! Just get the hell back!"

"Cissy! Hey! Hey! What's wrong?"

"…Carl"

"What did he do to you?"

"H—he's…he's dead" Cissy breathed shakily, physically tossing the words from her mouth as sweaty hands twisted around the barrel of the rifle still pointed at the Hargreeves.

"Carl? Wasn't that the dorvik your mother was going on about?" Loren mused curiously.

I…think so? Theodore bit his lip in thought, as the name rang some sort of bell. Whatever it was, he wasn't quite sure whether to feel upset about the news or not. Not appeared to be the prevailing answer.

"Harlan tossed him aside like a rag doll" Cissy continued, "Same way you sent those policemen flyin' What did you do to him?"

"No—" Mama shook her head in disbelief.

"—What the hell did you do to my son?!"

There was a beat of silence as all present seemed to hold their breaths. Mama appeared to be trying to sort through all the information that had just been flung at them. Theodore shifted in place, clenching and unclenching the hands he had hidden inside the long sleeves of his coat; whether in an effort to wave off the sudden cold or the thick tension, he wasn't quite sure. But sure enough, he didn't have to wait long as Uncle Diego broke through impatiently. "We don't have time for this" He sighed, beginning to make his way over to the barn. He barely got two paces closer before the rifle was pointed at him.

"Where d you think you're going?" Cissy demanded, eyes narrowed and white knuckles clenching around the firearm.

"To help your son" Uncle Diego tried to placate, hand coming up like he was trying to tame a wild animal.

"Look, Cissy, I found my family" Mama interjected, moving in front of her siblings once more as the attention was drawn back to her. Theodore may have been wary of the gun-wielding woman, but some part of him recognised that she wouldn't shoot Mama, if only because the whole time they had been talking the rifle had never once been pointed at the small brunette. "These are my brothers, sister and son"

"…Ma'am" Uncle Luther waved shyly.

"Were you lyin' to me the whole time?" Cissy despaired as she lowered the gun.

"Of course not" Mama replied sincerely as she crept slowly closer. "Look, I didn't know who I was. But I do now and we're not the monster that they say we are. We did not kill the president. We are not terrorists, we're not here to hurt anyone"

"Then…who are you?" Cissy eyed them warily, still not quite trusting the Hargreeves. "If you're not a Cuban exile, a Mafia fighter, a Negro radicalist, a cult leader, a KGB agent and two kids, then who the hell are you?"

"The only ones who can help Harlan"

"Helpers don't usually hide themselves" Cissy then turned her eyes over to Theodore who had was the only one who had remained closer to the car than the others. "

Theodore spared a glance with Mama, silently questioning if he should reveal himself to the blonde in front of them. Even when his mother nodded her assent, he felt like his heart had jumped into his throat and he tried his hardest not to let his hands shake as he moved forward. Mogadorians he could handle, Grandfather's tests he could handle even his family's questioning stares, but to reveal what he had spent so long hiding? Sure, he may not have cared for his state of dress (or lack thereof) but that didn't mean the Garde enjoyed being the center of attention. Much the opposite, in fact.

"Because" Theodore replied quietly as he shuffled over to stand next to his mother, carefully placing the sunglasses atop his head and pulling the collar down to lie flat enough to present the glittering loralite scales which peppered his cold skin."This tends to freak people out"

"Dear God…" Cissy breathed as her hold on the loosened even further and her eyes roved over the blue scales which moved which each breath the boy took. Theodore shifted under her gaze, refusing to look her in the eyes, even though he could feel her burning ones on him.

"Please let us help him" Mama implored once more. "Please let me help Harlan"

Cissy eventually buckled beneath the multiple eyes, need to protect her son and the want to give him the help he so seriously needed. Standing in the doorway of the snowy barn, Theodore watched with wide eyes as the others pushed their way inside, doing their best to stay upright despite the immense amount of power the boy was emitting. "Harlan?" Mama called up to the boy suspended in midair. "Harlan, it's Vanya!"

"Ah!" Harlan gasped, the noise only just barely heard above the roar of power.

"Look Harlan, I know you're really scared but I can help you. I need you to listen to me, okay? Can you do that?"

"Ngh!"

"Careful—!" Uncle Five warned as Mama's eyes ignited in white and she pushed her way through the wall of power separating them from Harlan.

Theodore wasn't sure how long they'd been standing in the barn just watching his mother try to calm the boy down when a small whirring pop caught his attention, pulling him from the doorway of the barn and around the other side. Fearing that the Mogadorians had found them already—how could they not with the spectacle on display for them?—he made his way passed sleet-covered hay bales and icy tires with snow crunching underfoot until two women became clear on the horizon. The scent of vanilla and tobacco pulled at his senses and some hazy drunken memory came to mind that featured both women, himself and Uncle Five in the old warehouse off of Maine street where the homeless ventured during the winter.

"Er…Uncle?" Theodore called over his shoulder as his gaze remained on the two women, head cocked to the side in curiosity.

"Why yes, my littlest Teddy bear?" Uncle Klaus sang, having been the one to answer his generic query. Theodore scrunched up his nose at the childish nickname.

"There's someone here…"

"Guys…?" Uncle Klaus turned to his siblings, calling them over as Theodore crept closer, ever curious about the pair.

"What?" Uncle Diego snapped, a little irritatedly at his brother's interruption (not that Uncle Diego was doing much to begin with). But that still didn't stop them all from crowding around the window "Ah shit"

"What? Who're they?" Uncle Klaus pursued.

"One's the Handler, the other's Diego's girlfriend" Uncle Five explained.

"Lila" Uncle Diego corrected as the conversation floated over the quiet fields and Theodore crept closer to the pair. "That's my ex-girlfriend"

"What?" Uncle Klaus sounded scandalised that he hadn't heard that little tidbit earlier.

"Y'know what? Doesn't matter" Uncle Luther dismissed, "They both look angry"

"Yeah" Auntie Allison agreed, "Our brother has that affect on people"

"What's Teddy doing?" Uncle Klaus' question was the last that Theodore heard as he finally rounded on the two women.

The scent of vanilla and tobacco, he soon found, came from the elder woman Uncle Five had labelled as the Handler. Dressed in a black trench coat that appeared almost reptilian-like in its adorning scales, red ascot & matching boots, matching Garde pendants and a spider fascinator that all together gave off the air of a predator as well as a well to-do woman. Next to her, the younger woman whom he could only assume was Lila was simply garbed in a black leather jacket and figure-fitting jeans. But even as this all ran through his head, Theodore was far more focused on the rather familiar pair of Garde pendants hung around her neck like trophies.

"Beautiful aren't they?" The Handler purred as Theodore quietly bent forward to pick up the jewellery, running his thumb over the worn and blood-stained grooves ingrained there. Even through all of the muck, Theodore was able to discern the House symbol and Loric name written beneath. It made his pulse quicken, his heart drop: he was holding Kiran & Yugi's pendants. Pendants, mind you, that the Loric Garde refused to remove as their last sole trace of their homeland. It was the one thing that the Mogadorians couldn't take from them—the one thing that was solely theirs. And this—this woman was wearing them like war trophies.

"You have no right—" Theodore snarled, teeth bared as his hand began to burn from the heat in which the pendant emitted. There was a reason why the Mogadorians—or anyone for that matter—couldn't remove the pendants from them; it quite literally pained them to do so. He'd never known the pendants to react to a non-Garde's will however.

"—Oh honey, I have every right" The Handler purred, running a single manicured nail down his cheek as Theodore was forced to let the pendant go. "Just as every employer takes care of their employees"

"Em—employer? No—no, they wouldn't—the Mogs—"

"Ah yes, the Mogadorians, they have been rather annoying to outmanoeuvre, but who doesn't love a challenge?"

"Not that that did 'em any good!" Lila laughed patronisingly, catching Theodore's attention. "All that training and they were still taken out by a stray bullet. Which is weird considering what you can do"

"But remember dear" The Handler piper up, "Not all Garde are the same. Young Theodore here, is just one of the few Students that can heal exponentially well; so unlike Agents Kiran and Yugi. It's pity really, after I went through all that trouble of razing that place"

"You—you were—?"

"—All thanks to that little tidbit you so generously provided earlier. And my! Look at you now! All grown up!"

"You—!" Theodore growled low in his throat, rumbling through him as his scales flared in warning and he moved to lunge with claws outstretched.

Numb, though he may have been at the sudden reveal of Kiran & Yugi's employment under the Handler, he was just as equally enraged about her blasé attitude towards their culture. However, before he could even get that far both Uncles Diego and Five appeared at his side, hands wrapping around his forearms and manhandled him back into place as they physically took over the situation with a look that promised they'd bee talking about this later.

Theodore stumbled over his own feet as he retreated within himself, sending a final glare towards Lila who was smirking like the cat that caught the canary. So many thoughts whirled around inside his head, making it hard for him to see straight. The Handler had been there? During our escape from School? From the Ragnor-Ra Mogs? From the Headmaster? From all of it? She had been their saviour? How twisted was that? To know that the Temps Commission had had their hands in the pie far longer than he had ever expected.

"I just love that smell of fresh country air, don't you darling?" The Handler chuckled in greeting as the two men pulled up on either side of their numb nephew.

"Makes me want to vomit" Lila replied dryly, snakelike eyes snapping briefly towards Uncle Diego before narrowing in on Uncle Five.

Theodore, whose head remained bowed and despondent gaze was glued to the shiny red boots in front of him. He heard more than saw what was going on around him like he was listening from underwater. The hands on his arms remained there as if to keep him upright or to drag him away at a moment's notice, he wasn't sure.

"What do you want?" Uncle Five demanded, shoulders tense as he shared a glance with Uncle Diego over Theodore's bowed head.

"To watch you suffer"

"What about me?" Uncle Diego queried.

"You're not even worth my wrath"

"Easy" The Handler warned, cutting off the impending squabble before it could begin. "We're here on official business"

"And what business is that?" Uncle Five pursued. The Handler's lips pursed into a not-quite smile that looked like she'd smelt something rancid.

"As the Head of the Commission, I've decided to eliminate the criminals responsible for the assassination of the former Board of Directors"

"Yeah right" Uncle Diego chuckled, "We didn't kill the Board"

"Uh, actually Diego…" Uncle Five shifted nervously as Theodore's head rose at the admission, pulled out of his numb state with a bout of curiosity. It was one of the few moments when Uncle Five actually acted like the thirteen years old that he appeared to be. "That's not entirely accurate"

"You didn't tell them" The Handler purred, to which Uncle Five just shrugged sheepishly. "Oh, Five"

"Five, what the hell did you do?" Uncle Diego muttered.

"What I had to, to get my family home. Until somebody reneged on our deal"

"Somebody wouldn't have reneged if somebody could've met a simple deadline. Alas—"

"—You set me up to fail!"

"You set yourself up to fail, friend, you and your family. Kinda the running theme of your little life, isn't it?"

"Dude!" Uncle Diego leant around Theodore to snap at Uncle Five, "I can't believe you killed the Board of the Directors! You have no idea how messed up the Commission is right now!"

"Messed up?" The Handler interjected. "Who's saying that?"

"Everybody! Christ! Even the janitors think it's going to shit!" Uncle Diego laughed darkly as something beyond the women caught Theodore's attention.

Far off in the treeline that bordered the property something glinted in the daylight, something that pulled at his primordial instincts and chilled him to his core. It was a feeling that he'd come to associate with being hunted. It was the feeling of prey realising that they were no longer safe—that the predator had found them and there was no way out. Theodore may have fought against the Mogadorians and their chimaera time and time again, but that didn't mean he knew what he was doing nor that he was unafraid of what he faced each time they appeared. Blue eyes narrowed as he peered around the Handler & Lila, trying his best not to let his heart jump out of his throat where it had currently lodged itself.

"…Don't play dumb you prepubescent piece of shit!" Lila snarked, pulling Theodore back to the conversation at hand, briefly catching the curious gaze of the Handler before it morphed into something a little more exasperated.

"Enough" The Handler cut in, placing her large briefcase on the grass at their feet. "The point is, all of you are going to die today. Hm?"

"Oh, well, I don't like your chances" Uncle Diego sassed, making Theodore internally wince at the jinx he was sure his uncle was about to place on them. "Eight of us, two of you"

"Y'know, you're right" The Handler purred with a snap of her fingers. "Let's change that"