SLAM!

"…Piece of shit—!" Before Luther and Five could continued, the bedroom door suddenly slammer open and banged up against the inner wall, making them jump (except for Theodore whom simply mumbled irritably and rolled over). Diego stormed inside with a hellish wrath written on his features and furious tears that gathered in his eyes. "Do you have any idea of what you just did!?" Diego demanded as he charged straight for Five.

"Mmphf!" Luther grunted slightly as he jumped to his feet and quickly intercepted his angry brother, trapping his arms by his sides as he lifted Diego clear off of the ground.

"Nn! Nope! Lemme—!" Diego struggled uselessly like a fish out of water in Luther's strong grip as Five let some of the stress fall from his shoulders. "Get your ape hands offa me!"

"I can do this as long as it takes for you to calm down" Luther warned him.

"…Tch!" Diego eventually fell limp, well aware that Luther could and would keep him there if need be. "Fine"

"Now" Luther easily set Diego back on his feet but remained stationed between the bed and his brother just in case he decided to charge again. "Wanna tell us what the hell you're talking about?"

"Our brother's been pretty busy since he got back" Diego hissed, narrowed eyes trained on the time traveller as if worried that his close proximity to Theodore was going to bring him harm. "He was in the middle of the shoot-out at Griddy's and then at Gimble Brothers' after the guys in masks attacked the academy, looking for him! He's the reason that those LANE Keepers are still hanging around Vanya's place! You put them in danger! It's your fault that Vanya's still missing—!"

"—Whoa! Wait!" Five jerked upright at the accusations, "The earlier stuff is none of your concern, but what's this about Vanya?"

"Thanks to your little stunt earlier" Diego sneered, worry clearly etched into his face. "There are LANE Keepers still circling their place! Which means they can't go back there, you little shit!"

"What do you mean she can't go back there?" Luther puzzled, "It's not like she's done anything wrong, right?"

"…You're an idiot" Diego deadpanned.

"What…?" Luther puzzled, affronted by the reply.

"See, whilst you were skipping the light fantastic up in space, we've had to deal with shit like those psychopathic Keepers who're shipping off kids left, right and center!"

"But—but what's this gotta do with Vanya?"

"She's a Garde, you idiot! And an adult one at that! They don't take adults!"

"What are you saying…?"

"Seriously? Are you really that thick? They kill them, you dumbass!" Diego hissed as he drew himself up to his fullest height and watched both of his brothers grow pale. "And now that she's missing you better hope that we find her before they do or its her blood on your hands!"

"I—I don't even know what the hell you're talking about, Diego!" Five snapped in retort, though it was clear that he was worried; particularly as one of his hands had gravitated towards Theodore's crown as if to make sure that he was really there; as if to make sure that their only connection to their sister wasn't going to just disappear.

"Yeah, well, thanks to your shit, I now have to deal with these mysteriously masked gunmen and find Vanya!"

Luther swallowed thickly—audibly—as he turned to Five who remained frozen on the bed; his expression had fallen into something a little more remorseful and a little closer in resemblance to an open expression he had worn as a child. "Who—who are they Five? These masked gunmen?"

"…They work for my former employer" Five swallowed thickly as if admitting so would bring about the aforementioned death raining down upon them right then and there. "A woman called the Handler. She sent them here to stop me and then as soon as anyone else got in the way…well, fair game"

"And now, they're my fair game!" Diego hissed, tempted to launch himself at his brother again and wring his neck. "They killed my friend and I'm gonna see to it that they pay!"

"That would be a mistake, Diego" Five warned him as he watched his brother spin on his heel and stomp off towards the door. "They've killed people far more dangerous than you!"

"Yeah, we'll see about that!" Diego called over his shoulder as he stepped over the wayward shoes & other crap strewn about the floor, still fighting the tears in his eyes. He didn't particularly want to leave Theodore alone with them, but he was afraid of what he might do if he stayed.

SLAM!

However just as he was about to reach for the doorknob, the door violently swung shut and closed on Number Two, making him (and the others) startle in surprise. "What the hell?!" Diego spun to face Luther and Five (who remained on the other side of the room; one pushed up against the headboard and the other standing in between the bed & the door) after uselessly rattling the doorknob in an attempt to open it. "What was that for?!"

"No one touched the door, Diego!" Five snarked.

"Yeah right!" Diego scoffed as he stomped back over to the other two who still congregated by the bed.

"It wasn't us! Honest!" Luther raised his hands in surrender.

"Oh? So expect to believe that it was Teddy? Who is asleep?"

"Ney…doro…!" Theodore suddenly whimpered as if on cue, making all three uncles snap around. (The language wasn't one that Luther recognised, although the tone of it sounded almost like French). "Vera…where…? Vera…"

Shit. Diego inwardly swore. Vanya had told him of the nightmares about Theodore's father, the ones that caused his powers to go haywire in his fear and made the boy relive his last traumatic day with the man.

"Theodore?" Five asked softly as they watched tears trickle down freckled cheeks and white-knuckled fists that clenched into the fabric of the duvet covering him as he curled up tightly. The way his face contorted into expressions of pain and fear pulled at Five's heartstrings and he wanted nothing more than to end his suffering, but he didn't know how. What happened next however, none of them were expecting. As more mumbled gibberish fell from Theodore's lips, random objects—including Theodore himself—around the room began to float; some even spinning on an invisible axis as an incredible buzzing of white noise filled the room.

"What the hell—!" Five cursed as he found himself suddenly yanked upwards and out of bed. As Theodore's mumbles and the buzzing of his Legacy picked up in fervour (although they were still hard to understand), more things took to the air, until all three of the elder Hargreeves men were hoisted skywards.

"Dammit!" Diego cursed as he found himself suddenly having to dodge a waywardly spinning shoe that joined him his upwards trajectory. He was thankful that they were inside because he was sure if they weren't there would have been awful consequences.

"I think he's having a nightmare—!" Luther called out as he bobbed towards one of the shaking ceiling lights.

"Yeah! No shit!" Diego fired back as he was suddenly pushed across the room like a pop rocket. As for Five, the time traveller tried to Blink closer to their nephew's writhing form just above the bed, but each time that he made it close enough, he was just pushed aside by some unseen force.

"So wake him up!" Luther sassed.

"What do you think I've been trying to do?!" Five snarked as he was sent flying once more—this time gripping tight to Dolores.

"Noooo…" Theodore whined pitifully as he tossed and turned in the air, entangling himself further into the sheets that he had taken with him. Granted he wasn't that far off of the bed (in comparison to the others) but it was still enough that the tail end of the sheet barely brushed against the mattress as he twisted about. "Doro…!"

"Uh…" Luther blinked dumbfoundedly at Theodore as he was flipped upside down and yanked towards the door by his coattails. "Is he supposed to be glowing?"

"Uh, crap!" Diego cursed as Theodore's veins started to fluctuate and glow an eery blue. Typically when that began to happen, some sort of destruction followed and with the way he was going? Diego suspected that that something might end up being them.

"Why is he glowing?!" Vanya never said he glowed!" Five grunted in pain as he banged into the ceiling and dropped Dolores to the floor with an audible thump.

"Yeah, well, she also didn't mention the nightmares of the gibberish!" Luther fired back.

"Well, then what did she say?" Five sniped as he gave up on getting to Theodore and just wedged himself in the corner of the ceiling.

"Nothing, she was rather tight-lipped about the whole thing" Luther replied from the other end of the room, "Diego, you know the kid, what're his powers?!"

"Why would I tell you?" Diego snarked, "So you can go running off to the Keepers—?"

"—No, I wouldn't!"

"Yes, you would! Just like Dad!"

"Hey idiots! Focus!" Five interrupted before the two could rip each other's throats out, "Floating blue nephew—! How do we wake him up?"

In the end, it appeared they didn't need to intervene as Theodore suddenly jolted into consciousness with a wheezing gasp as he fell back into bed. A lot of things happened at once; with Theodore no longer (un)consciously using his Legacies, the items and people in the air suddenly slammed back to the earth s gravity took hold once more. Luther hit the ground hard, landing on his back with a wheeze and knocking his hard head against the floorboards as soon as gravity returned to normal. Used to the moon's gravity as he was, Number One was the first to recover as he spared a quick glance to both Diego (who was cursing up a storm from where he had awkwardly landed atop a pile of dumbbells) and Five (who was trying to disentangle himself from the tripod in the corner). Both seemed to be okay, so he moved on to inspect their nephew who now sat hunched over on the bed and hugging his knees as his shoulders shook with quiet sobs. Whatever he had been dreaming about seemed to have really scared him.

"Theo…?" Luther asked, his voice unnaturally soft as Diego and Five joined their brother at the bedside. "Are—are you alright?"

"Mmm…" Theodore whimpered quietly, but did not reply as his shoulders continued to shake with silent sobs.

"Nice going, Number One" Five snarked as Luther's giant hands hovered over the form of his upset nephew, unsure whether or not he should touch him or not; afraid that doing so would awaken whatever power had emerged earlier. "You just made it worse!"

"Why you little—!" Luther turned on his little brother who was all barbed words and glancing stares.

"—Knock it off, you two" Diego sharply scolded them as he knelt by the edge of the bed. It was odd to hear Number Two so serious or even taking charge like this. Usually, he couldn't wait to jump on the bandwagon and tear Luther down another peg, but right now, he was far more occupied with their nephew who had retreated beneath the safety of the blankets.

"He started it…" Five grumbled under his breath, sounding very much like the thirteen year old he appeared to be.

"Well, I'm ending it" Diego replied. "And back up, stop crowding him"

That seemed to take all of the wind out of his brothers' sails as the two deflated somewhat, both so unused to seeing Diego like that; like a parent (but they still didn't back up, instead they seemed to move closer). At the same time, Theodore curled in on himself beneath the blankets, twisting further in on himself as he held tight to the blankets covering him. In the meantime, Luther righted the chair he had been sitting on previously, as Diego fled to the confines of the kitchen in search of a glass of water whilst Five returned to perch on the end of the bed, mindful of Theodore's feet.

Eventually Diego returned with a glass of water in hand, although he seemed almost at a loss for what to do since Theodore was still buried under the covers. So, setting it down on the nearby dresser, he gently shook his shoulder to rouse the boy from the safety of his blankets. Five felt like he shouldn't be watching this; like it was something far too intimate to be seen by other eyes, this slice of domestic life.

The three elder Hargreeves remained in silent vigil until Theodore peered out from beneath the covers with tear-covered freckles and misty eyes that seemed to stare right into their souls. A few brown curls clung to his sweaty face and he wore an expression of untold vulnerability that almost seemed to haunt them. Luther's heart cried out for his nephew Luther's heart cried out for his nephew, because in that moment when he looked at them like his world was made of glass; he looked so much like Ben did after a mission that it physically hurt. The sharp intake of breath from both Diego and the way Five's hand that gripped tightly to the sheets beneath him, told Luther that they agreed.

Gripping tight the blankets covering him, Theodore slowly retreated back into the folds of the bed, hoping that he could succumb to sleep (without the addition of the nightmares) again and let it swallow him up instead of the embarrassment he was currently in. At the very least, if he pretended to do so, the older Hargreeves would leave him alone. He wasn't sure how long he stayed that way, only that eventually someone stomped heavily towards the door and back down the stairs as the mumble of gentle voices washed over him. It was all very soothing and as the weight on the end of the bed snuggled closer, he found himself falling back into the arms of sleep.