Having come from her morning orchestral rehearsals, Vanya had not expected to be confronted in the theatre's bathroom by her sister, something which induced both an epic shouting match and scared off wayward patrons in that area before she was (more or less) dragged back to the Umbrella Academy because of a supposedly important matter regarding Mom. Yet, there she was, sitting in the living room as Luther & Allison rolled out an old AV television (the one that Father used to use during their lessons), so that they could watch a stack of VHS tapes regarding the old man's death. According to the pair (more so Luther, than Allison), it was clearly obvious that Mom had killed Father, but Vanya wasn't seeing it.

Luther had argued that because he & Allison had confronted Mom about the night of Father's death and how she had reacted so strangely, was cause for concern. If you followed his line of thinking, then Mom's odd reaction was because she was clearly guilty over the fact that she had killed their father. Which was ridiculous. Didn't Luther remember about all of Mom's protocols? Y'know, the ones that said she wasn't permitted to kill? That she was built to care. Apparently not; because Lore-forbid if her brother's shiny rose-tinted view of their father was so much as cracked..

"…Yeah, we talked to Mom" Luther nodded enthusiastically as he retold their morning discovery like it was the next biggest news since the splitting of the atom. "And she was really off, right Allison?"

"Well…" Allison shifted nervously under her brother's expectant gaze.

"Allison…!" Luther turned to his sister with a look of utter betrayal upon his face, "Look, I don't like this any more than you do—"

"—Yeah right!" Diego scoffed under his breath with a roll of his eyes.

"—But she's hiding something!"

"Hiding?" Allison scoffed, "To me she just sounded confused"

"C'me on, Allison! You saw the tape! Grace knew what she was doing—!"

"—Grace?" Klaus quirked a brow in question, "This morning she was 'Mom"

"She's a machine—"

"—Who read to us" Allison interjected, "And cleaned up after us and put us to bed! And then we left her here, alone, in this house for 13 years! I mean, no wonder she lost her mind! To be away from your kids…?"

"…Allison…"

"…What—" Vanya swallowed thickly as she spoke up, interrupting whatever puppy-love spat was going on between the two "—What's this about a tape?"

The tape in question, turned out to be a short three minute clip that showed their father in bed on the night of his death. About halfway into the video, Mom appeared with a cup of tea of which she gave to him as per usual, and then a few seconds later their father was twitching & seizing in bed before falling flat. Something, that sickened Vanya to watch (how could Luther watch this thing more than once? How could he watch their father—however cruel—die over & over again? She was just glad that there was no sound) and which, admittedly, didn't look very good. But it still didn't cement the fact that Mom had actually killed Father, no matter what Luther said.

"See?" Luther puffed up his chest in vindication, now that he had shown his siblings the proof he had discovered. Proof that their father was murdered and did not simply die of old age. "She did something to him!"

"I mean" Vanya swallowed thickly, her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she readjusted her grip on the strap of her violin case, as his gaze quickly swung to face her. "D'you really think that Mom would hurt Father?"

"You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya—"

"Neither have you, Luther!"

"—Maybe you don't know Grace anymore"

"Fine, but if he was poisoned" Diego defended his youngest sister, "Then it would've shown up in the coroner's report"

"Well, I don't need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes!" Luther retorted, already firing himself up to go a round or two with his brother. Vanya tiredly sighed as she ran an exasperated hand over her face. She wished that Five, her childhood confidant, was there; but apparently he had more important things to deal with. Something regarding a one-eyed child? That is, if Klaus was to be believed.

"Maybe all that low gravity in space messed with your vision" Diego sneered as he rewound the footage for the umpteenth time. "Look closer. Dad has his monocle, Mom stands up and the monocle's gone"

"Oh yeah~!" Klaus chuckled as he snacked on a bag of chips that he had stolen from the convenience store across the road from Meritech Industries. He'd already offered her a bag of mysteriously worm gummy worms which she'd declined; who knows where they had been!

"She wasn't poisoning him" Diego continued, spinning on his heel as all of the fight left Luther's tense figure. "She was…taking it. To clean it"

"Then, where is it?" Luther pursued, unable to let this go. All this time, he had told them that there was no way that their father had just up and died. Especially now that he knew him to be one of those long-lived creatures who had invaded some years back, wroughting both salvation and destruction upon the people of Earth. "Because I've searched the entire house, including all of her things and she doesn't have it"

"…That's because I took it from her" Diego admitted after a breath. "After the funeral"

"…You've had the monocle this whole time?" Allison jumped to her feet, pushing herself off of the pillar where she had been leaning against since she had betrayed Luther's trust."What the hell, Diego?!"

"Give it to me!" Luther demanded, using his 'Leader' voice which thundered through the room. Although, in a strange twist of fate, it sounded almost petulantly whiny and childish as he demanded their father's most sacred possession to be handed over.

"I threw it away" Diego refuted, stubbornly staring down his older brother and silently daring him to make another move against him.

"You what?"

"Look" Diego scoffed as he rose to meet Number One head on, "I knew that if you found it on Mom, you'd lose your shit, just like you're doing right now!"

"Diego, you son of a bitch—!"

"—Hey, hey! No, calm down! Both of you!" Vanya quickly jumped between her two squabbling brothers, before she could think twice about it. It took some effort (and some courtesy on their part) for her to seperate the two without having to delve into the use of her powers, or to raise her voice. "Look, I know that Father wasn't exactly an open book. But I do remember one thing that he said: Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker, but…also as a protector"

"What does that mean?" Allison puzzled around the rim of her glass (it seemed that none of them could survive a Hargreeves family meeting without booze in hand, these days).

"It means that she was programmed to intervene if someone's life was in jeopardy. Usually, that meant you, the Umbrella Academy"

"Usually?"

"The only time I can think of when Father amended those protocols was when Teddy was born, but even then, it was to include him within those safety parameters" Vanya continued reasonably and logically. "In 30-odd years, Mom has never once shown any sign of aggression towards us or Father, so why would she start now?"

"Exactly!" Diego agreed excitedly, pointing to his sister in triumphant agreement.

"Well, if her hardware is degrading, then…" Luther's tongue darted out to wet dry lips, "We need to turn her off—"

"—Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait—!" Diego immediately jumped to his feet, an expression of clear outrage spread across his face. "She's not a vacuum cleaner that you can just throw in a closet! She feels things! I've seen it!"

"She just stood there, Diego!" Luther retorted, just as enraged, "And watched our father die!"

"…I'm with Luther" Allison piped up as she fiddled with her glass. It was almost as if she was ashamed to admit saying so. Because she could barely look her other siblings in the eye when she did (Vanya in particular, but that was more so because of the earlier death threat than her shame).

"Surprise, surprise—!" Diego sassed, turning to his younger sister.

"—Shut up!"

"Vanya?" Both of her elder brothers turned expectantly to the violinist, each silently begging for her to agree with them.

"I—I don't—" Vanya stammered, feeling the pressure of so many eyes suddenly on her without warning. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two, before settling on her adulthood confidant, Diego, who seemed to gleam with happiness knowing that she had chosen him.

"Yeah" Luther scoffed when it was clear that she wasn't going to agree with him, "She shouldn't get a vote"

"You do understand what you're wanting us to do, right Luther?" Vanya drew herself up to her full height, feeling both affronted and offended that her brother could dismiss her so easily after vying for her attention only when he needed it.

"Here we go…" Diego grinned like the cat who got the cream as he watched his youngest sibling turn on his eldest.

"What—?" Luther puzzled, brows furrowed in confusion and looking slightly taken aback by her sudden courage. Even Number One was unused to Vanya's change in demeanour, something which was clear in his expression and body language.

"You're asking us to decide whether or not we should kill our own mother" Vanya barrelled on, bolstered by both Diego at her back and the traces of adrenaline still pumping in her veins from her previous spat with Allison. "Father is gone and now you want to get rid of Mom too? Do you want to orphan us again, so badly?"

"Wait—"

"Is that what you want, Number One? Because that's what you're asking us to do"

"I—I'm not saying we kill her!" Luther eventually spat out, "I'm just saying we need to turn her off!"

"Which for her means death! How can you not understand that?!"

"What about you, stoner boy?" Diego turned to Klaus who looked to be doing his best attempt at falling asleep whilst he leant up against the opposing pillar to Allison. "What do you got?"

"Oh so, what?" Klaus spat irritably, "Now you need my help? Oh, 'Get out of the van, Klaus!' and 'Welcome back to the van, Klaus—!"

"What van?" Allison asked, sharing in the same confusion as her sister.

"Look, what's it gonna be, Klaus?" Luther added on, intent on getting the votes he needed to switch their mother off. He was nothing, if not (outwardly) democratic (and inwardly tyrannical).

"…I'm with Diego & Vanny, because screw you!" Klaus snarled, "And if Ben were here, he'd agree with me"

("No" Ben shook his head, watching the scene play out from the chaise. "I don't").

"Tss!" Klaus spared an angry catlike hiss towards his ghostly brother which was thankfully ignored by the rest of his siblings; something that was simply brushed off as his usual strange behaviour.

"So, that's what? Three to two?" Diego purred, smirking at his brother as he fiddled with his daggers in an attempt to both calm himself and seem threatening.

"Wait" Allison paused as if a thought had just occurred to her, "The vote's not final yet—"

"What?"

"—Five's not here" Allison drew herself up. Now that she had something (stronger than herself) to cling to, it was easier to look her siblings in the eye. "The whole family has to vote. We owe each other that much"

"Right…!" Luther acquiesced with a nod (He was always stronger with Allison at his side). "But, Mom—"

"—No" Vanya cut him off again as this time she agreed with Allison. Something which clearly surprised those around them; especially considering their not-so-gentile reunion some days prior, "We should wait"

"Right…"

With family meeting seemingly over, they all began to trickle out of the living room and off into different parts of the manor, with most (like Allison) who left out of the front door or some (like Klaus) who promised to return at a later date. Heaving a heavy sigh, Vanya shouldered her violin case further up her shoulder and made to follow after her siblings when she caught sight of Mom standing in the doorway.

Oh. She blinked dumbly at the matronly figure who stood in an almost demure doll-like fashion, just watching them from the shadows. On the outside, looking in, just Vanya used to do.

"Mom…" Diego gasped upon spotting the same woman in the corner. Quietly—softly—her elder brother shuffled over to their mother with the safe whisper-soft touch that he'd always had around the woman. (Number Two would forever be a momma's boy). "Hey, how long have you been here?"

"…You all seem upset" Mom replied, coming out of her glassy-eyed trance with a gentile smile. "I'll make cookies!"

"…Do you ever wonder" Vanya murmured as the siblings watched their mother flounce off towards the kitchen.

"Hm?" Diego hummed.

"All those moments with Mom, the things she said…Like was it her, or was it really Father?"

"What're you talking about?" Just as Luther was possessive of their father, Diego was just as possessive of their mother.

"Well" Vanya swallowed as she shoved her hands into her pockets, "He built her and he programmed her to be a mother—to be our mother—sometimes when I look at her, I just…sometimes I see him, instead"

"Maybe that was true at first" Diego nodded, "But she evolved"

"Well, how d'you know that?"

"Because Dad only loved himself" Diego smirked in reply before he followed their mother further into the manor.

"Yeah" Vanya sighed to herself as she was once again, left alone. "Tavans are good at that, at that damn self-love"