"Where's the cash, Dad?"
"Klaus?" Allison panted eagerly as she sprinted into Reginald's study, Luther right behind her. The name Klaus rolled sweetly off her tongue. Somehow, it completely suited the eccentric Number Four.
Reginald's leather chair jolted backwards, pushed by some unseen force. A lanky man with mussed hair popped into sight from behind the mahogany desk, arms full of various expensive items. "Oh, Luther, hi," he said guiltily. "I was just, uh…"
Luther casually waved aside the weak explanation. "Never mind that." His eyes glinted bright with anticipation, excited for Klaus to catch on.
The other man's posture loosened. "Cool, cool…" His eyes finally landed on Allison. "This must be that new wife of yours, yeah? Wow, you must have a type, buddy, she really looks like—" His jaw dropped. "Number Three?"
"Yeah, hi," Allison confirmed through a sob.
"Oh my God!" Knick-knacks and papers went flying everywhere as Klaus threw his hands into the air and sprinted over to embrace his long-lost sister. He smelled very strongly of marijuana, but Allison decided not to comment on that.
Luther was quick to get in on the hug, too. There were tears on everyone's part.
"I knew you weren't dead," Klaus said softly, a minute or two later.
Luther's brow furrowed with confusion. "How?"
Klaus's face darkened, but he said nothing.
"...Because he couldn't conjure me," Allison guessed.
"Yeah, unlike…" Klaus's voice trailed off.
A wave of sadness washed over Allison. "Unlike Ben?" The one sibling she'd never get to reunite with.
Klaus nodded somberly in confirmation before glancing over somewhere behind Allison, at something she couldn't see. "He, uh, says hi, he's glad you're okay, he wants to know where you've—"
"Can you really conjure Ben?" Luther broke in skeptically.
Allison frowned, not liking Luther's tone. "Well, that's his thing, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but, well, look at him."
Klaus gave Luther puppy-dog eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"
On second thought, Allison could see that Luther had made a valid point; Her rumors were never all that powerful whenever she drank, and Klaus was obviously hitting the happy juice, amongst other substances. Could he really conjure the dead in such a state? But still— "That's a bit cold, Luther."
Luther extracted himself from the group hug, noticeably reddening. "Sorry," he said, more to Allison than to Klaus.
"Whatever," Klaus said easily. It wasn't anything he hadn't heard before, probably. He turned to Allison. "So— Yes, Ben, I was just gonna ask her— Uh, care to fill us in on where you've been all these years?"
"It's a long story…" Allison's voice trailed off as she heard footsteps out in the hall. She craned her neck to see someone new enter the room. Never had a man wielding at least 30 knives ever brought such joy to Allison before.
"Two!" she exclaimed. "Uh— Diego, I mean."
Diego squinted at her. "Who—?" But then he registered her face. "Three."
Number Two had never been terribly affectionate, especially not toward Number Three, but when Allison rushed to embrace Diego now, he didn't recoil. He maybe even hugged her back.
A fresh round of explanations ensued; Allison gave Klaus and Diego the run-down on the Commission, and described how she had crossed paths with Five, who was now missing in action.
"Maybe he's still at the Commission," Klaus suggested.
"I hope not." Allison bit her lip. If Five had gotten stuck there, he'd surely come face-to-face with the Handler, who was not someone to be trifled with. Even if Lila had joined forces with Five as promised, the odds were bad, as the rest of the Commission definitely would have backed the Handler.
Diego cracked his knuckles by way of getting everyone's attention. "Sorry, but how are we supposed to believe everything you've just told us?"
Allison felt like Diego had sucker-punched her, but the hurt was quickly replaced by panic. She needed her brothers, and if she couldn't get them to believe her...
"It's Three," Luther said, scowling at Diego. Their testosterone-driven childhood animosity toward one another had aged right along with them, evidently. Luther shook his head, catching his mistake. "...Allison, I mean."
"Case in point," Diego said seriously. "She literally has the power of persuasion. That's what she does."
"But why make all that up?" Klaus asked.
It took a moment before Allison realized that Klaus wasn't posing a rhetorical question; He actually wanted an answer from Allison. She closed her eyes for a moment, searching for the right words. "My loyalty is with my family and only my family. It always has been."
Luther gave a pompous nod, clearly in agreement with this line of thought, but Diego still looked skeptical.
"Even when I was wrapped up in one of my own Rumors, it never sat well with me that I had left you guys behind," Allison pleaded. "Just know that it wasn't my choice. So, why make all this up? I didn't. It's true that I don't have a tangible way to prove myself right now..." Unless Five shows up.
Diego made a noncommittal hmph sound.
Allison nearly gave up on the king of cynics, but suddenly thought of a way to appeal to him. Enticingly, she added, "If it turns out that I'm lying, you can always just kill me…"
Diego's eyes took on a glint, and he nodded curtly. His hand drifted to his holster, and Allison could tell that he'd already decided what knife he'd murder her with once she betrayed them, as he obviously believed she would.
Allison was almost sorry that she'd be disappointing him in that regard, and barely managed to suppress the smile that was tugging on her lips. She had him.That makes everyone… "Oh, shit, where's Seven?" she realized.
"Hell if I know," Diego muttered darkly.
"We don't… talk to her much," Luther gently explained to Allison.
"What? Why not?" Allison demanded.
Klaus, who had apparently lit a cigarette at some point during Allison's speech, ripped it from his mouth now and said, "Uh, I know where Vanny is."
Allison blinked. "Her name is Vanny?"
"Vanya," Klaus clarified. "She's out with her girlfriend right now."
Everyone else in the room did a double-take before simultaneously repeating, "Girlfriend?"
"Yep. Her name's Campbell. She's a real hottie. They've been going out for, like, nine months now." Klaus squinted at Luther, then Diego. "You two haven't talked to her at all this year, or what?"
"More like since she wrote that goddamn book," Diego grumbled.
"What book?" Allison asked.
Luther winced. This was a sore topic, evidently. "Vanya, uh, published an autobiography five years ago..."
"Her book completely slandered all of us," Diego said bitterly. "She put out every private detail of our childhoods for the world to see."
Huh. Another pivotal detail that Allison had missed. She wondered what Vanya had written about her.
"It would have been wise if she'd consulted us first," Klaus admitted. "But now, she feels bad."
"Too little too late," Diego scoffed.
"If Vanya's really sorry, she should apologize, herself," Luther agreed.
But Allison merely smiled. Petty family drama outweighed no family at all. Nevertheless, she decided that she would resolve this conflict.
Allison would need the full force of the Academy for what she needed to accomplish…