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Chapter 3

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By the time Libby woke back up, no one was left in the house. Well, no one she would willingly talk to, anyway. After the emo comment from Luther, she refused to acknowledge the giant beast of a man.

Her footsteps echoed through the expansive hallways as she exited her room. It never used to be this quiet when they were younger, not even at night.

"Mum?" Libby called when she found her robot mother charging in front of a set of paintings that probably cost more than the bounty hanging over her own head.

"One moment, dear," Grace's smile never faded. A tired sigh ghosted Libby's lips. Why was she so exhausted?

In fact, she couldn't remember the last ten minutes of consciousness she had before blacking out. There was Klaus, freaking out with a fire extinguisher while some blue matter fucked with her powers. She took some prescription headache pills and made a coffee until everyone came back inside and —

Five.

Five was back!

How could she forget one of her favourite siblings returning? She nearly facepalmed before collecting herself again and making her way towards the doors. Where would Five even go? There weren't a lot of places of value outside of the mansion.

A vision of thirteen-year-old Five and herself sitting at a table in Griddy's Diner popped into her mind. They would go there and have hot chocolates while Libby read over Five's time travel notes or when they just wanted to get away. Sometimes Klaus would tag along, but he never understood the science bit.

"Leaving so soon?"

"Pogo, I'm not up for one of your disciplinary talks, right now. I have to find Five," Libby frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. The monkey stared at her for a moment, disappointment written all over his face.

"You've become cold and uncaring. Try and let a little bit of the old Libitina shine through," the monkey butler softened his gaze a bit. Libby would normally have brushed off his comment but for reasons unbeknownst to her, a remorseful feeling swelled within her.

"I'll try…" she pursed her lips into a fine line then walked out the door.

The walk to Griddy's felt like an eternity. It was so dark outside and anyone who knew Libby — the true Libby — would know she hated the dark.

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"D – Dad, please!" a much younger Libitina whimpered as she was thrown into a small chamber in the ground. To anyone other than Sir Reginald Hargreeves, it looked like a child in a coffin.

"Find a way out using the darkness. You must get over this foolish apprehension, Number Eight," the old bag looked down upon his screaming daughter.

"I don't like it, daddy, please! Don't make me!" the blonde's hair stuck to her face thanks to the perspirant fear that practically dripped from her face.

With nothing more than a glance, Reginald shut the metal door.

It was silent for hours. Libitina's screaming couldn't be heard through the thick tomb she was stuck inside of for four days.

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The neon pink doughnut on the sign of Griddy's was a welcome sight. Libby couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that it hadn't changed a bit.

Through the window, she watched Five sip his beverage of choice and make small talk with the man next to him. Not only did the older gent look absolutely stunned by whatever Five was saying, but he didn't stay around for long after hearing it.

"Freaky kid…" the trucker grumbled as he left the diner. Libby's amused scoff caught his attention.

"As much as I love him, I have to agree," her lips twisted into a satisfied smile. The look the man gave her was so entertaining that she had to use her hand to stifle her laughter before entering the diner. Five didn't bother to turn towards her.

"The doughnuts always tasted better when we knew we weren't allowed to eat them." The raven-haired woman took a seat next to her brother. He tapped his foot against his chair impatiently.

"You're becoming predictable, ya'know? It was obvious I was the first person you'd look for when you woke up," he shook his head with a slight smile.

Libby elbowed him playfully, "And you've become pessimistic, old man." The two shared a laugh for a minute, until the silence between them grew awkward. They both hoped the other would speak first, but Libby was the one to cave in.

"Alright, start talking. I want to know why you're acting so weird. It's like you've seen something you don't think we can understand," she rested her chin on her palm and propped her elbow up on the counter to mimic Five's nonchalant demeanour. The brunette beside her furrowed his brows gently.

"What if I told you everyone and everything you've ever cared about was going to die…?"

Libby withheld her urge to sigh, "It's the circle of life, Five."

"In eight days."

She stopped. Her dark eyes locked onto those of Five and never looked away. A tightness surfaced in her chest at the realisation of how old he looked. Sure, he was stuck in the body of his thirteen-year-old self, but his eyes — the windows to his soul — revealed a hardened man. Five wasn't the same and she knew it.

"You're not joking, are you?" her bottom lip quivered a bit. She quickly bit it to keep back whatever emotions dared to peek through.

"Don't believe me," Five forced himself to face forward again, using his coffee as a distraction. His straight black coffee. "No one else in this nightmare of a family does."

"Five…" Libby's expression softened into a caring gaze, "You're the smartest person I know. If you say that everyone is going to die in eight days, then I believe you." She could feel Five tense a bit when she pulled one of his hands away from his cup and held it in her own.

Her hands were calloused from God-knows how many jobs, but the touch was enough to ignite a warmth inside both siblings. Their relationship wasn't like how Allison and Luther felt for one another (the rest of them seemed to understand that loving your sibling in that way is a bit weird), but she still cared about her brother. Hell, he was gone for years, so it still felt weird to be able to hold his hand.

"I saw our brothers and sisters buried under the rubble, impaled, lying in pools of their own blood..." Five paused to take a shaky breath. Libby squeezed his hand and furrowed her brows.

"You don't have to go into detail if you don't want," she assured him. Five simply closed his eyes.

"You were torn apart."

"Oh," Libby's grip loosed a bit in pure shock. Her throat suddenly felt incredibly dry. "That's...uh…"

"I don't know how, but the end of the world is coming," Five spoke in a hushed voice. He turned to his sister once again and looked her dead in the eyes with the most serious expression she had ever seen on the boy's face.

Libby didn't have people too close to her. The family once meant everything, but after so long that value felt lost. Now, however, her time-travelling brother was asking her to save the world. Who was she to say no? She had nothing to lose except herself apparently.

"I'll help in any way I can," the raven-haired woman nodded sharply. As if on cue, four men in all black with military-grade auto rifles entered the quaint diner.

"I may be taking you up on that offer sooner than you think," Five took a sip of his coffee. "Thought I had more time before they caught me." Libby's confused look when unnoticed. The uneasy feeling in her gut was definitely warranted.

"Let's all be professional about this, yeah? On your feet and come with us. They want to talk," one of the men ordered.

"I've got nothing to say," Five answered bitterly.

"It doesn't have to go this way. You think I want to shoot a kid? Go home with that on my conscience?" the bald man adjusted his grip on his gun. Libby sighed and hopped off her stool. She had been in her fair share of dangerous situations but there was a certain order to things.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about that...You won't be going home," Five threatened in the form of a quip.

She walked over to the old-fashioned jukebox in the corner of Griddy's and popped in a dollar. The guns were trained on her brother but the armed men watched her with equally wary eyes.

"Something upbeat...fast-paced maybe?" she mumbled to herself while flipping through songs.

Her eyes landed on one that made her lips curve into a smile. Istanbul (not Constantinople) by Might be Giants. She pressed play and all hell broke loose.

Five teleported out of his seat, knife in hand, and reappeared behind the bald man. The armed gent yelped as he was thrown over the counter by a thirteen-year-old boy.

"Hey, assholes!" he taunted while laying across one of the tables on the left side of the establishment. The gunshots tore through the pictures of doughnuts hung up on the wall and the leather of the booths.

"You really think they'd figure out this whole teleportation thing by now," Libby closed her eyes as Five stood next to her. He hummed amusedly and shrugged before disappearing again. The men turned towards her, guns raised.

On instinct, one man let loose a few rounds in the woman's direction, earning a frown from her. She snapped her eyes open, one completely black and the other solid white. Without warning, she ducked down into her own shadow, disappearing in the darkness.

Libby was the last to gain full control of her powers. It was difficult for her younger self to understand, despite being one of the smarter Hargreeves siblings. Her abilities allow her to manipulate both light and darkness. She can take the light from lightbulbs or other things that glow and use it for distraction or (with a bit more focus) make her own light and become a glorified torch.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's the darkness. Young Libitina would refuse to control the shadows for the longest time until her father started throwing her in the godforsaken box. Unlike the light, she can only manipulate the dark: slipping into the shadows, using one's silhouette to decommission them, etc.

This was why she was once known as Number Eight; The Twilight.

"She's not on our list," one of the men snapped. The shooter lowered his weapon and frowned. They jumped slightly when Five knocked on the front door, suddenly standing outside Griddy's. The attackers shot out the glass door, only to find they had missed again.

Libby's shadow slithered along the floor without detection. The small pocket of shade that she was allowed into was like an extra storage slot in a video game. In fact, her broken ashtray from her little accident with Klaus was still floating around in there. While she moved around the floor, the assailants fell silent in anticipation for Five or her next move.

Istanbul was Constantinople.

Now it's Istanbul not Constantinople.

Been a long time gone, Constantinople.

Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night.

Creeping up behind one of the armed soldiers, Libby popped her hand out of her shadow and grabbed his ankle. When he fell to the ground, she pulled his arm into her shadow then popped out of the void, effectively slicing his arm off.

Every gal in Constantinople lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople.

So, if you've a date in Constantinople, she'll be waiting in Istanbul.

"Oh, that's new!" she couldn't help but laugh to herself. Her moment of surprise was ruined by another round of bullets being shot in her direction. She snapped the neck of the man whose arm she just stole then hopped into his shadow.

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.

Why they changed it, I can't say!

People just liked it better that way.

Libby hummed along to the song as Five popped into existence in front of a man and stabbed him in the side with a butter knife. He then teleported behind another soldier, slipped his tie over his neck, and strangled him over the edge of a table. Sensing the approaching danger, he shoved a fork into the groin of the man next to him.

So take me back to Constantinople.

No, you can't go back to Constantinople.

Been a long time gone, Constantinople.

Why did Constantinople get the works?

That's nobody's business but the Turks!

Libby jumped out of the void and stood back to back with Five, wielding a shark of broken glass from her shattered ashtray. The man still reeling from his forked privates was swiftly taken out by Libby with a quick slice of the throat while she used a dropped gun to shoot the man that almost lit up Five.

"Thanks," her brother nodded, somewhat breathless. She shrugged.

"Don't mention it." A playful smile crept up on her face.

She left Five to take care of the other offenders while she spun around to face the staggering man with a butter knife in his side. She stepped towards the man and put her hand in his face then willed it to glow brightly. Despite being blinded, he managed to pull the utensil out of his torso. Out of pure luck, he hit his target.

"Fuck!" Libby cursed, glaring down at the knife. She ground her teeth and used her uninjured leg to sweep the man's feet. He hit the ground with a hard thud then was killed by the same knife he used to stab the woman.

Noticing the lack of gunfire, Libby turned to see Five taking his tie back from one of the dead soldiers and fixing it onto himself. His eyes lingered on the shallow wound in her leg.

"I figured you'd be more careful," he quipped. Libby snorted in amusement then wrapped her arm around his neck.

"And I figured you'd be taller than me by now," she returned his jab with one of her own as she settled down at the bar again. Five grabbed a first aid kit from the backroom then sat down next to her. "So, who were these guys and how did they know where to find you?"

"Some people you don't want to get involved with," he frowned while looting an army knife off one of the dead bodies. Libby rolled her eyes that were still shifting back to normal.

"Five, I have an amputated arm in my dimensional pocket. I think I'm involved," she snapped. Five's lips pursed into a fine line as he created an incision in his arm. His sister fought the urge to shout at him as he began to dig around under his flesh. Ew.

Deciding to focus on her own health for a moment, the raven-haired woman propped her leg up on the stool next to her. She taped some cotton balls to the wound then slapped on as many colourful band-aids as she could. Her jeans were already ripped so the slice in her trousers fit in her with her whole "edgy assassin" vibe.

"I've been meaning to ask you...what's the deal with that mark on your neck?" Five's strained voice asked. She glanced over at him through the corner of her eyes and found he had pulled some sort of chip out of his arm.

A tracker? What have you gotten yourself into, dear brother?

"It's my ID badge in a way…" Her hand absentmindedly grazed over the branding on her neck; a crescent moon. When Five gave her a "go on" look, she swallowed her pride and continued.

"After I left the Umbrella Academy, I took up some odd jobs: getting groceries for lazy bums, helping old folks, walking dogs, easy things, you know?" she chuckled to herself and shook her head, "I was young and stupid. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I left my life as the Twilight behind just to walk right back into it."

"A contract killer?" Five guessed while tossing the chip onto the floor. When Libby finished patching her own wound, she turned to him and yanked his arm towards her.

"A lady I worked for figured out who I was and offered me a lot of money to get rid of her cheating husband. I needed the money. I didn't have a choice," her downcast eyes focused on his cut.

As she patched him up, the duo stayed quiet. It wasn't an awkward silence, just a serene calm after a violent storm. Eventually, their wounds were all bandaged and the question arises...

"So, what now?"