The twins reflect on a certain eye and try to get some answers. Vanya has her doubts, Klaus wants his money, and Luther is just worried. But as much as Quinn wants to be able to focus on the crisis at hand, it turns out that waking up from a 16 year coma is harder than she expected.

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own the Umbrella Academy

Chapter title is from Le Petit Prince

WARNINGS: angsty apocalypse flashbacks (the same scenes as in canon but with more depiction of Five's emotions in that time), canon-typical violence, and Quinn does have a dissociative episode of sorts. Please read with care, and of course if there are any other warnings that you think I should add, let me know!

Hear No Evil

The Land Of Tears

It started out like any other morning. All of us sitting around the table, listening to one of dad's stupid vinyls. Except for Quinn - she had private training the night before and Grace told us to let her sleep - but we all noticed the empty chair next to Five. Maybe… maybe that's why he was so aggravated , he was always restless - aggressive, even - without her. They were two halves of a whole, in every way, and I know that everyone else could feel it too. Something was wrong with Quinn that day, something to do with her new training, and it had left everyone on edge. But none of us ever expected that he would leave. Not as long as he had Quinn. Apparently we were wrong. -Vanya Hargreeves, Extra-Ordinary: My Life As Number Seven

—

"Well, after I left the table, I went back to Quinn's room. She had… dad had started her new 'training' program," Five explained, remembering how he'd been up all night hearing his sister's screams; how he'd tried to comfort her, even though she was trapped halfway across town; how they'd discovered that Quinn could do more than just hear him, she could talk to him. "We fought about it, but I made the jump. And it worked. I kept making bigger jumps, until…"

Absently, Quinn reached out to grab his hand, holding it as he took a steadying breath.

"I saw the mansion. Or, what was left of it. It was mostly rubble and flame. Everything was rubble and flame."

"Quinn?" Five yelled, looking around the ashes for his sister. "Quinn! Quinn, where are you? Vanya? Ben? Dad? Anyone?"

He scrambled over a pile of rubble, screaming for his family. But the only answer was stillness, silence. He tried to lift the bricks, digging desperately for any sign of his family, but moving them felt impossible and his arms shook from the strain.

He tried to jump back, to return to his sister in their proper time. But he couldn't. And that's when he ran. Headlong into the burning building, he found himself over turning every rock as he looked for her. And, he found her.

She looked exactly the same as he'd last seen her, only her uniform had been traded for a hospital gown. But her dark hair still fell straight down her back with her bangs always slightly too long. It was then that he noticed what she was lying on. It wasn't the ground, like he'd expected. No, it was a chest. And, judging by the tattoo on his - oddly hairy - arm, it had to be one of their siblings. Only, unlike Quinn, he had aged.

He looked more closely at the arm wrapped protectively around Quinn, clearly trying to shield her from the destruction. Luther, then. Somehow Five couldn't find it in himself to be surprised; even with his dying breath, Luther was still trying to protect her.

"Quinn?" He screamed again. And again, and again. As if somehow he could just scream loud enough, as if somehow she would hear him, and come back to him.

"Finn?" he heard softly, in the back of his mind. "Finn, what's going on?"

"And that's when we realized that we could still talk," he explained, voice thick with unshed tears. "After that… I survived on scraps, canned food, cockroaches -"

Quinn was quick to tune him out after that. She knew what had happened, she'd been with him every step of the way and she wasn't keen on remembering what her brother, her best friend, her other half, went through.

She forced herself to stay tuned out, mentally running through as many of Luther's songs as she could remember, until the story drew to an end.

"Five, I—"

"You think he's crazy," Quinn interrupted quietly, the first words she'd spoken since Five had started his story.

"I don't think he's crazy, it's just—"

"You think that time travel messed with his head and that reading his mind made me go crazy too."

"It's just a lot to take in," Vanya said.

Of course it was a lot to take in, it was still a lot for Quinn to take in. So she shrugged, leaving Five to argue with her while she tried to push the memories of those earliest days out of her head.

She sat on the couch, staring blankly ahead while Five and Vanya continued to argue. She didn't move — she wasn't sure if she'd even blinked — until Vanya was giving them a handful of blankets.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, "I only have one couch and the chair…"

"It's fine," Quinn promised with a soft smile, taking the blankets from her.

Vanya nodded awkwardly. "Well, goodnight."

"Night, Vanya," Five said, equally awkward.

"Night Vanya," Quinn echoed, standing up to hug her sister. "Love you."

"Love you too, Quinn," she said quietly, before retreating into her bedroom.

Quinn waited while Five took the pillows off the back of the couch to make more space. Once he was laying down on his side, Quinn grabbed one of the blankets and curled up in the space in front of him. Five pulled the blanket up over their shoulders, wrapping an arm around her. And, with a quiet exchange of "I love yous", both twins fell asleep peacefully for the first time in sixteen or forty-five years.

—

She woke up early to the sound of Five's racing mind, and she couldn't help but smile. Five was back and she was awake, and they finally had the chance to save the world — or at least to save their siblings.

She sat up carefully, not wanting to wake Vanya, and Five sat up beside her. She watched as he pulled an eye — The Eye — out of his pocket, resting her chin on his shoulder as they both looked at it.

"Time to go?" she asked.

"No time like the present," he agreed with a wry grin.

Quinn wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could while he did the same to her.

"We'll save them," he promised, and Quinn nodded.

"We'll save them," she agreed.

They both took a minute to make themselves look presentable — sleeping in their uniforms didn't really help with their unassuming personas — before grabbing hands so that Five could jump them to Meritech Prosthetics.

They landed in a — thankfully empty — bathroom, and, as Quinn followed her brother into the lobby, she wondered how he'd known where to go. She couldn't remember him ever going to Meritech in the apocalypse — and wouldn't it have been in ruins anyways? — but he wore his usual confidence as he led her down the hallways. Knowing him as well as she did, she knew that it may have been sheer dumb luck, that the confidence may have just been a front, but she wasn't going to ask. Five has spent the past forty years planning for when he would finally be able to go back and stop the apocalypse; she wouldn't challenge his plan over something as simple as a building map.

She following him quietly, smiling politely at everyone they passed, and didn't let go of Five's hand the entire time. They navigated through the internal maze that was Meritech before they finally made it to the lobby.

She heard the thoughts of a man who approached, squeezing Five's hand to let him know that it was an employee. He squeezed back, and the two directed their gazes towards the corner of the room, so that he would have to approach them first.

"Uh, can I help you?"

They turned around in sync. Quinn plastered on her sweetest smile, forcing herself to drop her brother's hand so that he could pull out the eye as he approached the man.

"I need to know who this belongs to," he said.

"Where did you get that?"

"What does it matter?"

They had prepared for this moment, and at Five's cue, Quinn moved forward to join them.

Hold it together, she reminded herself. The fate of the world depends on it. She was almost — almost — grateful for Reginald's endless training. Years of enforced muscle memory were the only reason she could play her part; the only reason she knew how to push past her own limits and force herself to be who Five needed her to be.

"I found it," she lied, eyes wide and lip wobbling. "It was in the playground. It… Someone must have lost it."

"My sister insists on returning it herself," Five added, wrapping an arm around her with a smile that was only mostly fake.

"What a thoughtful girl," the receptionist chimed in, and Quinn didn't even have to fake her blush.

"Yeah," Five agreed fondly, before shifting his attention back to the two employees. "So look up the name for me, will ya?"

"I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential," the man told him. "That means I can't tell you—"

"I know what it means," Five interrupted, stepping forward to put himself between Quinn and the man.

"But, I'll tell you what I can do. I will take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner. I'm sure he or she will be very grateful, so if I can just—"

Shit. Quinn could see the tension rising in Five's neck, and pulled on his sleeve urgently, hoping that she looked close enough to tears for her plan to work.

"But Finn," she whimpered once he'd turned around, seeing the briefest flicker of amusement in his eyes before falling back into his role

"I know, Quinnie," he assured her, for the sake of their spectators.

He turned back to face the two employees, falling back into their usual routine with ease. Normally she would hate to have to manipulate people, but her family was at stake, and if a simple round of truths and lies could help her save them then she would do it without hesitation.

It had been a game that the eight children had started years ago, a way to make Quinn less afraid of her powers. They would say all sorts of things, leaving it to Quinn to determine if they were true or false. Over the years, the twins had turned it into a useful trick for getting information too, and even a way to make their own lies more believable.

She looked over towards the employees with wide, wet eyes, playing up her role as the sweet, innocent little girl to Five's audacious brat.

"Yeah, you're not touching this eye," he told them, opening the round with a truth — a solid foundation to build on. "My sister is really determined to give it back herself." Followed by a lie. "She's had some bad experiences with the medical world—" Another truth. "—and it's important to her that she sees it returned for herself." And close with a lie.

Quinn had to force herself not to smile at the familiar scene, concentrating on continuing to look as heartbroken as possible.

"Now you listen here, young man—"

Young man. Quinn bit back a grimace. Calling Five "young man" had never ended well for anyone, and she wasn't the least bit surprised when he grabbed the man by his jacket, pulling him down to glare at him.

"No, you listen to me, asshole."

Quinn heard the secretary gasp as Five continued to talk, but she tuned him out with ease as she focused in on the man's thoughts. He was afraid. Not ideal, but frightened people were usually cooperative. Except for—

"Call security!"

Except for that.

"Finn," she whined — she wouldn't drop her act until they were safely away from the spectators. "It's no big deal, let's just go."

Five sighed loudly, taking her hand before storming out of the office so dramatically that even Klaus would have been proud. As soon as they were in the empty stairwell he was tightening his hold on her and jumping them back to the Academy.

—

Quinn blinked, taking in the change of scenery before laying down on Five's bed.

She could hear the chaos of his mind, almost painful in its intensity. Even if she couldn't read his mind she would have understood; he felt like he failed. He had exactly one clue as to how to stop the apocalypse and save them all, and it had gone nowhere. But his distress rattled around her brain like a chainsaw, and it was too much to handle.

White. Everything was white. Thoughts — hers, Five's, maybe her other siblings', she couldn't tell — flooded her mind, screaming for attention like forks being scraped across Reginald's best china. It was too much. It was all too much, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't drown any of it out.

—

Some time — a minute or an hour, she didn't know — later, she felt Five's hands touching hers, gently pulling them away from her ears. Huh. She hadn't noticed that she'd covered them in the first place. He nudged her legs carefully, prompting her to unfold from the ball she hadn't known she was in. Five worked slowly, treating her like precious glass as he moved her into a more comfortable position. He unlaced her black leather oxfords, placing them by the door next to his own, then he carefully removed her blazer, draping it carefully over his chair before leaving his own next to it.

A moment later he was climbing into bed, lifting her carefully so that he could reposition her with his head in his lap. He pulled the worn duvet up over her shoulders and, with his fingers carding through her hair mindlessly, Quinn fell into a restless sleep.

—

A loud crash shattered what little sleep she was getting, and she was forced back into the waking world. Squinting eyes fought against bright sunlight, scanning the room for the source of the crash until she saw Klaus fall out of Five's dresser. She blinked slowly, forcing herself to wake up as her brothers faught. She could have listened — maybe she should have listened — but instead she closed her eyes and listened, lingering in the back of Five's mind as she put the pieces together.

They were messy pieces, a jagged and incomplete sort of jigsaw puzzle, but from what she understood, it sounded like his new plan was to bring Klaus to Meritech Prosthetics to pose as his dad. She wasn't really sure how that was going to help, but Klaus' affinity for improvisation had come in handy before.

"Wait," she said quietly, as a new thought crossed her twin's mind.

Both of her brothers startled, turning to look at her. Klaus looked unconcerned, though he always did, but the way her twin shifted his weight told her everything she needed to know.

"You're not leaving me," she told him firmly.

"Quinn—"

"No. Last time you left me, you ended up in the apocalypse and I spent sixteen — forty — years in a coma. You're not leaving me, not again."

Klaus looked at her, eyes wide and head tilted. His gaze kept shifting to the corner of the room, and Quinn instinctively turned to look. She couldn't see him, but she hoped it was Ben, and she smiled softly.

"I know," Klaus was hissing. "Shit just got real."

"Are you—"

"Hey," Quinn snapped, cutting off her twin. "He's talking to a ghost, you're talking to me. You don't get to leave me again, Finn."

Five winced, looking down guiltily.

"I didn't mean to—"

"I know you didn't."

Quinn deflated, all fight rushing out of her at the look on Five's face.

"I know you didn't," she repeated, scooting over to leave space for Five to sit beside her.

He took the invitation, sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed. Quinn slid over to fill the space between them, leaning her arm against his.

"I don't blame you. I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I just got scared so I said the only thing I could think of to get you to stay, but it was mean and I shouldn't have said it. I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, Quinn," he said, just as quiet. "I shouldn't have tried to sneak off, but I need to do this."

"Then I'm coming with you," she told him firmly.

"Quinn—"

"I'm coming with you."

"The more the merrier!"

Both of them startled when they heard Klaus, having forgotten that they weren't alone in the room; that they weren't alone in the world.

Maybe Five hadn't been physically alone with the Commission, but it had been just as lonely as the apocalypse. He had been surrounded by people, but he had no one. He had had Delores and Quinn to talk to, just like he'd had in the apocalypse, but surrounded by people that he couldn't trust, he'd had to shut himself off more than ever.

And with Luther on the moon, Quinn had been more alone in the past four years than she'd ever been before — not counting painful nights of training. Even frozen, she'd constantly been surrounded by activity; by siblings who couldn't bear to lose another sibling. But one by one they had left, until Quinn had nothing but the quiet beep of machinery and her twin brother in her head for company.

"Now that was just touching!" Klaus drawled, snapping Quinn out of her thoughts. "Really, I'm all choked up."

"Shut up," Five hissed, unable to hide the flush rising in his cheeks.

"Aww, don't be embarrassed," Klaus continued. "It's relieving to know that you still have feelings."

"So," Quinn interrupted, before a fight could start. "Where are we going?"

Five raised an eyebrow at her. "You already know where we're going and what the plan is," he said.

"Well yeah, but it's polite to ask."

"Right," he agreed with a wry chuckle. "Well, we're going back to Meritech, but this time with Klaus as our dad."

"And we think that'll make a difference?" she asked.

"Ouch!" Klaus interrupted. "You wound me, Quinnie-The-Pooh! I happen to be very good at getting information from people."

Quinn nodded wordlessly. The plan was rushed and underdeveloped, and she was sure that Five already knew it. But, she would still go.

"But just so we're clear on the finer details," Klaus continued, "I just gotta go into this place and pretend to be your dear old dad, correct?"

"Yeah, something like that," Five agreed.

"What's our cover story?"

"What are you talking about?" Quinn asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she stood up.

"I mean, was I really young when I had you?" he asked, while Quinn fixed her tie. "Like, sixteen? Young and terribly misguided?"

"Sure," Five agreed dryly, and despite having her back to him, Quinn could practically feel his eye roll.

"Your mother, that slut," Klaus continued, as if Five had never spoken. "Whoever she was. We met at... the disco. Okay? Remember that."

Quinn caught Five's eye, biting her lip to hold back her laughter as she grabbed her blazer.

Klaus snapped his fingers and she jumped.

"Oh my god," he went on, "the sex was amazing."

"What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain," Five retorted.

"Don't make me put you in time-out!"

"Kinky," Quinn deadpanned, unable to hold back a laugh at the way Klaus' jaw dropped.

"Quinn!" he breathed, eyes wide. "You're not supposed to know what kinky means! What happened to my sweet innocent little sister?"

Five let out a laugh of his own, quickly masking it with his usual indifference.

"She had to hear all of your thoughts for years," Quinn told him.

"All of my thoughts?" She nodded. "Even—"

"Even the crush you had on Diego until you found out what incest was," she said. "I didn't need to hear… any of that."

"Oh my god, oh my god. I destroyed your innocence. I'm the video that killed the radio star," Klaus muttered. "I can't believe that I'm the one who—"

"Anyways," Five interrupted, "I'll drive. Let's go."

—

Quinn followed her brothers down the hallway, silent as she moved. She felt almost like she was floating, like she didn't quite fit into her body anymore and had to hover just outside of it instead.

She didn't quite fit. It wasn't just a feeling, she realized suddenly, the thought making her breath catch in her throat. She missed a step, catching herself against the wall to avoid falling all the way down the stairs. It wasn't just a feeling, not really. She was thirteen, and it was her body, but it also wasn't.

She was thirteen but she wasn't; she had spent too many years in a coma, in the apocalypse, to really be thirteen, but she hadn't grown up either. She wasn't thirteen, but she wasn't not thirteen, and she had lived through the apocalypse without ever growing up.

It was her body, but it didn't belong to her. Maybe it never had, but it definitely didn't anymore. She could use it now, she could see and she could feel and she could move, but she didn't know how. Not anymore, not after so long.

She was something. Or maybe she was nothing. Is that what it felt like, to be a ghost? She wondered if Ben would understand how it felt; to be without being.

—

She couldn't remember the trip to Maritech, not really. She remembered that she had been in the backseat. She remembered that Five and Klaus had fought over who would drive — Five being physically thirteen and Klaus having lost his license. She remembered the giddy relief that came from watching the mansion fade from view. But she didn't remember who had driven, in the end. She didn't remember any of the streets or buildings that they passed. She didn't even remember entering the building.

—

"And what about my consent?" Quinn heard Klaus ask.

It felt distant, like she was underwater. Like she was back in the mansion, unconscious and strapped to a bed. Like she was something Separate. Like she wasn't quite there.

She felt a flare of phantom pain, gasping softly. She looked at Five. Everything else was still foggy, but Five was there. There and real and solid, just like he always was, with a swollen lip and a look of smug indignation.

"Name, now," Klaus demanded.

"You're crazy. I can't—"

"And just look at my little girl's cheek!"

What little girl, Quinn wondered. There were only four of them there. Was Klaus looking at a ghost? Was he—

SMACK.

Quinn flinched when Klaus' hand collided with her cheek, tears welling up despite her best efforts to hold them back.

Her hand flew up to cradle her aching cheek, and between the rapidly fading fog, the sharp sting radiating across her face, and the flash of white-hot rage and concern emanating from her twin, she knew that it would be hopeless to keep trying to follow the conversation.

—

They were… They were outside, sitting on the steps outside of Meritech.

When had they left? Had they found the eye? Quinn rubbed the palms of her hands across her eyes — wincing when the pressure hit her bruised cheek — and took a deep breath.

The air was fresh, crisp. Nothing like the air in the mansion, nothing like the phantom air of the apocalypse. It was real, and she was there.

"What happened?" she asked quietly.

"Five won't give me my twenty dollars."

"You hit Quinn!" Five reminded him, jumping to his feet to pace.

Oh, right. That was why her cheek was throbbing.

"Well, he looked it up for us!"

"And it was totally useless!" Five spat.

"Wait… what was useless?" Quinn asked, feeling almost dizzy from following their fight.

"The eye," Five growled.

Quinn felt herself flinch, and she could see the steadying breath that Five forced through his lungs before sitting back down beside her.

He wrapped an arm around her, letting her lean against his shoulder.

"The eye hasn't been made yet," he explained patiently, a far cry from the aggression he'd directed at Klaus. "In the next seven days, someone is going to lose an eye and cause the apocalypse, and I'm out of leads."

Quinn let out a shaky breath, letting Klaus and Five's continued argument wash over her.

Seven days.

The world was going to end in seven days.

And their only lead wasn't even a lead, not anymore.

They were all going to die, and there was nothing she could do. She hadn't been able to protect Five. She hadn't been able to protect Ben. And she couldn't protect the others. She couldn't do anything; couldn't save anyone.

She didn't react as Five took her hand, didn't so much as blink when he jumped them back to the mansion. She barely even managed to object to Five leaving her, though his promise that he was only going to pick up Delores was a much needed reassurance. She only had seven days left with him, she couldn't lose what little time they still had.

—

She was shaking. She didn't know when she had started shaking; before or after Klaus had hit her? Before or after she had found out that she wouldn't be able to save her siblings after all?

She didn't know, but she was shaking as she made her way into the mansion. Not home, never home. The mansion. A prison. Her own personal hell. Never home.

Still feeling like Reginald — like someone — was holding her head underwater, Quinn took a deep breath. She could no longer hold back the tears that had been threatening to spill over, and it was instinct more than anything that brought her to Luther's door. She knocked before gently nudging the door open.

Luther had had his back to the door, but he turned around as soon as it opened. When he saw Quinn standing there, eyes red and still trembling, he was quick to make his way over to her. He crouched down, hesitating for but a moment before pulling her close.

The slight jerk of his arms was all the invitation that Quinn needed, and before she could think about it, she was clinging desperately to him, and as his arms wrapped around her, she felt a sense of safety that only her big brother could provide.

He was talking. She knew that he was talking. She could hear… she could hear something, and she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he spoke, but she couldn't hear him. It was like she was drowning; like more and more water was separating her from the rest of the world.

He was looking at her, brow furrowed, before turning away. He didn't let go of her for even a second, but Quinn couldn't help the involuntary whimper that escaped her nonetheless.

Moments later he was lifting her up, even more effortlessly than he ever had when they were children, and carrying her out of the room. Her eyes fell shut as she curled up against his chest, but she wasn't the slightest bit surprised when he pushed open a window and brought her out onto the roof.

He sat down first, before helping her settle into a comfortable position on his lap. She blinked groggily when he revealed a hairbrush, warmth blooming in her chest as she realized that he must remember their childhood as well as she did.

She had lost count of how many nights they had spent just like this, with Quinn curled up against her big brother, listening intently as he told her about every constellation that he knew, barely flinching as he brushed her hair for her. He was the only one who had ever been allowed to, and even after — even when she wasn't awake he had never stopped; not until he got sent to the moon.

She didn't know what she would do come morning. She still didn't know how to save anyone, or even how to breathe without feeling like she would fall apart, but Luther had always protected her, taken care of her, and there was nowhere safer to put herself back together than in her big brother's comforting hold.

She still felt like she was drowning; like there was an infinite barrier keeping her under. But safe on the roof, Luther's voice a familiar soundtrack as his hands carefully worked through the knots in her hair, Quinn felt like maybe, just maybe, she could find her way back to the surface.

—

First of all, thank you guys so so so much for all of the love and support that you've given me, Quinn, and this fic! I know it's taken a while for me to actually update it, but I really do think about Quinn and HNE every single day, so it's amazing to know that you guys love her as much as I do! Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to vote/kudos/favourite this fic or to leave me a comment, it means the world to me! I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter (despite the ridiculous wait), and please let me know what you think! As always, if you'd like to see more Quinn content, visit me on tumblr randomestfandoms-ocs!