Thank you guys for hanging in with me through this crazy story, it might be one of the most out there things I've ever written. And a special thanks to people who know me from my other works and are used to my very fluffy and PG story lines. And I hope you guys continue to enjoy this story as much as I do!
Date unknown, the Commission, Doomsday Ward
Wake up, eat, train, eat, experiment, eat, injections, sleep. It was the routine Martha had lived for just about 10 years. She'd learned to take one day at a time. Thinking about how long she'd been under the control of the commission and wondering how much longer she would be stuck in the same position was a guaranteed way to drive herself mad. So she learned how to cope. How to find joy in the little things.
A keyboard stood against the wall on the other side of her padded room and it was her best friend. Perfecting a chord, having a good dream, getting a good meal. These simple things kept her going. Without them she wouldn't have been able to survive. Which simply wasn't an option. After what her partner had told her not long before they were separated she knew she had to eventually find a way to get out.
But it was hard to remain so positive during the experiments. Or what she called psychological torture.
They wanted her completely under their thumb, willing to do anything they commanded. Including killing their loved ones. According to them it was important to get used to seeing gruesome things. Since the commission was timeless they had insanely advanced technology, including a chip that when inserted into the human body could induce involuntary hallucinations.
It was because of this chip that Martha stood in the middle of her room surrounded by the dead bodies of everyone she'd been close to. The first time she'd seen them she screamed until she passed out from lack of oxygen. Now, 10 years later, she felt hallow as she dragged them all into a pile by the door. She had to look at them, touch then, move them, interact with them somehow for them to disappear. And though she knew they weren't really there her back still hurt from carrying their dead weight.
Because such things were so typical to her it was easy to forget how totally and completely fucked up it was. To her it just seemed inconvenient when she was trying to read a book and everyone she cared about came in and died right in front of her.
She always saved her friends from her school days for last since they were smaller and by then her body was begging her to stop. Martha draped her once best friend Annabelle onto the top of the pile before backing up until she reached her bed and collapsed onto it. She rubbed her eyes with her knuckles despite the blood on her hands, knowing it would disappear once they shut the chip of.
Martha hummed to herself as she stared up at the ceiling, counting the passing minutes and praying it would be over for the night soon. It took a little longer than usual, about 10 minutes, before she heard the creak of her room open. When Martha picked her head up all the bodies were gone and Evelyn stood in their place. Though her expression was forever frozen in a look of mild displeasure she somehow seemed happy. She shut the door behind her and sat down on the stool in front of the keyboard.
"You're getting better." She commented as she crossed her legs over one another.
Martha sat fully up and leaned against the padded wall. "I am?" she asked. She didn't feel like she'd been getting better.
But Evelyn nodded her head. "You're becoming less reactive, more efficient. That's good."
"Exactly what I wished for." She said sarcastically.
Evelyn didn't like when Martha gave her attitude, which was almost exclusively how she communicated those days. She headed back to the door but hesitated before reaching for the handle. "I know we had a rough start, Martha, but I have a lot of faith in you. The others underestimate you. But I think, if you really worked for it, you would could surpass them all. Keep that in mind."
In a matter of seconds she was left alone in her room. Martha wondered if she should be honored or flattered. But instead she wanted to laugh. For the first time in a long time she had real hope that she would be able to join her partner once more and stop the apocalypse.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
Diego and Klaus sat at the kitchen table, both mentally reliving what had happened in the bathroom not tool long ago. The apartment was silent for the first time since they'd moved in, the only exception being muffled voices behind the door of Martha and Five's room. They were all anxiously awaiting the two to emerge and explain what had just happened.
Out of the two brothers in the kitchen Klaus was the first to break the silence by letting out a long sigh. "You know, she said she wasn't on drugs, but now I'm not so sure."
Diego shook his head. "I don't know what to think." He admitted. "I mean… should we be worried? About her, like, mental stability?"
Klaus shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not." He said. "Maybe she's just as crazy as I am."
Though normally Klaus' dark sense of humor in inappropriate times would have annoyed him Diego was, for once, thankful for it. They were all under an incredible amount of pressure the past two weeks. Leave it to Klaus to crack a joke after what they had just seen.
"You think Five knows she's crazy?" Diego asked, turning to look at him.
Klaus pondered his question for a moment before actually answering. "I don't think so. The look on his face when he came in, he was just as surprised as we were." He crossed his legs. "I have a feeling your theory about her story being BS is wrong."
"Maybe." Diego admitted quietly, not one to easily own up to being wrong.
But after that how could he deny that the girl had been through something? And what she had said? You're not real. That was some crazy shit. Diego doubted that she had been such a basket case when she and Five worked together, he wasn't the type of person to put up with stuff like that from someone he didn't know.
"Or maybe," Klaus mused, his tone suddenly less serious than it had previously been, "your little hissy fit before broke her psyche and now she's a total basket case."
"You're hilarious." Diego said sarcastically. "I highly doubt that, if everything she said is true, that a little cut would make her go nuts."
Klaus held his hands up. "You never know."
"You're an idiot."
They both fell silent again, Diego silently second guessing himself. Something he didn't do often. Was he being too hard on her after all? Was it harsh of him to question her legitimacy so much? It was obvious some of what she said was true. Her and Five clearly knew each other, and her combat skills matched his pretty well. Was it wrong of him to trust his suspicion and history of dealing with criminals more than his own brothers' word? He hadn't thought so.
"Wonder what they're talking about." Klaus said, voicing the thought on both their minds.
Only they weren't talking.
Martha lay flat on her stomach with her face in a pillow, too embarrassed to look at Five as she calmed herself down. Almost 10 minutes later her body had stopped shaking with tears but she'd yet to pick her head up. Five struggled to wait patiently for her to relax while he sat leaned against the headboard behind him. Though remaining silent was not one of his strong suits he managed to bite his tongue, reminding himself that he needed to wait until she was ready to speak and that she needed to take her time to reach that point. While he waited for her to speak he ran his fingers through her hair, another tactic he had borrowed from her.
He felt her head turn to face him and when he looked down at her her face was still red and splotchy. Five tucked her hair behind her ear to see her better despite the fact that she clearly didn't want him to.
"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" Martha asked, her voice fearful at what his answer might be.
"I've known you were crazy since I saw you use the strap of your purse to strangle someone."
"That wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for."
"I know it wasn't." Five said. "Are you gonna tell me what just happened?"
"No."
"Martha."
She groaned as she sat upright, crossing both her legs and her arms. "Obviously when they told me what they wanted to train me for I didn't want to. They knew they had to find a way to get me to submit to them. They put some kind of implant in me when I was sleeping that control what I see. Basically involuntary hallucinations."
His stomach rolled over in disgust. "What kind of things did you see?"
"People dying. They told me I had to get used to the sight, especially people I cared about." Martha laughed and shook her head. "I've seen you die a thousand times. I got used to it, which is really sick, but every time I would be alone in my room and I knew it wasn't real. Now I'm here with you, and you came into the bathroom and died and I really thought it was real. Plus, they haven't had to use the implant for a long time so I kind of forgot about it."
"So then why did they use it now?"
"They must know I'm here." She said, "Especially considering what they made me see."
The two partners fell silent as the reality of what she said properly sunk in. It was inevitable that the commission would find out that she was with them in London. But Five thought they had a bit more time, something he'd made the mistake of thinking before. Suddenly her urgency to get everything done had rubbed off on him and he was antsy to get back to work.
But not until she was okay.
"Is it possible that it also has some kind of tracking feature?"
She shrugged. "It's possible, they definitely have the technology for it, but I don't think they really needed it. Up until now they've known where I've been every minute of every day." Martha explained. "My guess is they added me to the watchlist you guys are on. It was pretty obvious that if I was leaving I was leaving to find you."
"They knew you wanted to help us?" Five asked her.
Martha let out a sigh. "I did my best to put on an act to convince them I was on their side. And I know that it worked at least for a period of time. But I also knew that as soon as I left they would realize it was all an act. I wouldn't have any other reason to go."
Five wasn't sure what to say for a moment. Martha had been back in his life for a short 3 days and he was terrified that she had only reentered just to be ripped away from him again. Could the universe really be that cruel?
Of course it could. He knew better than anyone.
"So what are you going to do?" he finally built up the courage to ask.
She looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
He shrugged his thin shoulders. God he hated this body. "We have to think of something for you to say if you go back. And a way to communicate. You can still work from the inside we just have to figure out all the logistics."
She blinked. "What?"
"Are you going back?"
Martha turned her body to face him and wrapped her hands securely around his. When his gaze met hers the intensity in her brown eyes momentarily startled him. "Five, listen to me." She said carefully, "I'm not leaving. I'm staying here with all of you. Over my dead body they'll separate us again."
He couldn't help but smile.
"Besides" she continued, "there's a much easier solution. Well, not easy, but simple."
"Which would be?"
"You won't like it."
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
The Umbrella Academy all stood in the kitchen, watching anxiously as Five stood over Martha with the sharpest knife they could find. They were shocked when she told them about the implant put into her by the commission and horrified when she explained it had to be taken out of her. Rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, a needle and thread, and anything else they needed was spread out on the kitchen table with room for Martha to rest her head on. Diego sat against the wall on the other side of the room, his disgust of medical procedures having to do with blood keeping him from getting too close. Klaus on the other hand, who was used to blood and needles, sat adjacent to Martha waiting to help.
Five stared down at the knife, struggling to build up the courage to make the incision, while Martha's leg bounced with anticipation. He couldn't count the number of times he'd stitched her up on two hands. But being the one to cut her open in the first place? It made his stomach churn. He tried to remind himself why he had to do it. But that didn't make it much easier.
"Five-" she began.
He shook his head to stop her from saying more. "I can do it." He said, "I just need a second."
"It's already been 5 minutes." Klaus pointed out, "How many more seconds do you need?"
Five glared at him.
"If you can't do it I can." Vanya offered, mostly indifferent. She also had her fair share of experiences of stitching up her siblings after particularly brutal training sessions with their father.
"I said I can do it and I will." He insisted.
Five moved to stand behind Martha, who flipped her hair over and rested her head on the table. On the back of her neck, just before the base of her hairline, was a thin incision scar. Allison and Vanya each grabbed hold of Martha's hands for her to squeeze when Five sucked in a breath and lowered the knife.
Blood pooled out of the cut when he opened it and his stomach rolled over. Five grabbed the plyers off the table and pushed them in, being as gentle as he possibly could since the implant was attached to her spinal cord. Martha gripped Allison and Vanya's hands so tightly her quickly knuckles turned white and he could hear pained groans that she struggled to keep from turning into screams. There was a small thud behind him that Five assumed was Diego passing out.
The plyers were big and chunky for such a small opening but Five didn't want to make it any wider and risk it taking longer to heal. Still, the small opening made it longer to get it done.
"Hurry up." She said through gritted teeth.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Five," Martha warned, "I don't need a fucking attitude right now."
"I'm sorry. I'm stressed."
The plyers bumped against something that felt different from what he'd been feeling so far. He managed to get them secured around something square sticking out from her cervical and sucked in a deep breath. "I think I got it." He told her. "It's on really tight so it's gonna hurt, okay?"
"Okay." she whimpered. The sound of her sounding so pained made the two girls hold onto her tighter.
Klaus prepared the needle and thread to hand to him as Five prepared himself, both physically and mentally, to pull the implant out. What if it wasn't actually the implant he was feeling? What if he pulled out a part of her spine and she was unable to walk ever again? He knew she had scoliosis, what did that mean for this? His knowledge of human anatomy wasn't far above average but he suddenly wished he's spread out his studying a bit more.
He gripped the plyers with both hands and, with one hard yank, pulled the implant out.
A string of shouts and curses came out of her mouth as Martha's body began to quiver in pain. He didn't even bother looking at what he'd taken out before he threw the plyers down on the table and snatched the needle from his brother. Five could hear himself whispering apologizes but he didn't remember making the choice to say them. He worked as fast as he possibly could to stitch up the wound but it was much deeper than the one from Diego earlier. Allison and Vanya rubbed the back of her hands while Klaus and Luther told her how great she was doing. Who knew his siblings could be so caring?
As soon as he cut the thread short he dropped down onto his knees next to her and moved her hair away so he could see her. Tears were streaming down her face and made him wish he could take away her pain, even if it meant taking it on himself. He lost his fingers in her hair and brushed his thumb across her temple, for once not caring that his family was around to see him in such a way. Even when they were young he was always the stoic one. Emotions never got the best of him, and he certainly never let them bring his guard down. Vanya was the only one who'd seen even a fraction of his softer side. Suddenly they all had a front row seat to see and all he cared about was that Martha was okay.
"I'm sorry." He said, his voice tight. Seeing Martha cry had the same kind of affect that a wailing child or scared puppy did. "I'm sorry Martha."
With her head still resting on the table she turned to look at him. "Don't be sorry." She said, offering him the best attempt at a smile she could manage. "I know it was hard."
She slipped one of her hands free and picked up the plyers, still holding onto the implant. They all leaned in to look at it, excluding an unconscious Diego. It was a small square chip, barely over a centimeter tall, with frayed wires sticking out the bottom. It was entirely unremarkable other than its microscopic size and yet its ability was out of this world. Five took it from the plyers grip, hands still coated in Martha's blood, and held it close to his face. It seemed tastelessly humorous that such a small, insignificant looking thing could have brought upon such torture.
Before anyone could say much he got to his feet and stalked over to the other side of the room. He placed the implant on the counter before grabbing a can of coffee grinds. He held it over his head before bringing it down and smashing the implant until it was sufficiently damaged.
"I told you it didn't have a tracking device in it." Martha said once he was done.
"Can't be too careful when we don't know for sure." He replied. And though this was true it wasn't why he'd destroyed it. It certainly wasn't why he'd done so with such force.
After cleaning up as much blood as they could Allison and Vanya went to help her change out of her second pair of bloodstained clothes. Five stood outside the door the whole time, listening to ever whimper and sound of struggle and resisting the urge to go inside. He and Martha's relationship was intimate but not quite in that way.
It felt like an hour before Allison opened the door so Five could enter. He rushed inside only to find Vanya trying to persuade Martha to lay down and rest. She looked exhausted and was clearly in pain, yet she protested as Vanya tried to lead her over to the bed.
"There's too much to do." She said to her. "There's no time."
"Martha-" Five began, his tone sharp and already annoyed at her stubbornness.
But Vanya stepped in before he could continue. "Why don't we keep training while you stay here and rest? You told us what we needed to work on and we'll all observe each other. We'll get it done but you need to rest."
She seemed to try to think of an argument to combat her reasoning but was unable to. Martha nodded her head and allowed Vanya to lead her over to the bed. Five had to keep a hand on the back of her head to keep her neck as still as possible and she lay down on her back. He pulled the blanket up to her chest, making sure to keep her arms untucked in the way she liked, and sat down next to her once she was settled in.
"I'll stay with you." Five said. "Make sure you're okay, get whatever you need."
"No." she said, shaking her head the fraction she was able to before wincing. "There's work to be done, and I know you're the only one that will be as much of a drill sergeant as I am."
Normally he would have laughed but the weakness in her voice prevented him from appreciating her humor. "But-"
"No buts." She said, cutting him off. "This is more important."
Despite how much he wanted to argue he knew she was right. Martha's health and safety was an integral part of the things he cared about. But so was stopping the apocalypse. There would be no Martha to worry about if the world ended. No more opportunity to be there when she needed him. And as much as he wanted to be there to make sure she was okay Five knew she was. Martha had faced so much worse in the time that he'd known her, and couldn't even imagine what she'd faced when they'd been apart.
Five nodded and gave her hand a light squeeze before standing up. When he turned away he found himself facing Vanya who offered him a small smile.
"I'll stay here with her." she assured him, "Make sure everything's okay for you."
It was likely obvious to everyone around that Vanya was his favorite of his siblings, despite the fact that he wished he didn't have a favorite sibling. But wishing for a different family circumstance was futile and so he allowed himself to just be glad Vanya was there. Had anyone else offered to stay with Martha they would have undoubtedly made some kind of comment or remark. But not Vanya. He knew she was thinking it, but at least she had the decency to keep it to herself.
"Thanks." He said simply before leaving the room and heading out to the living room.
Once he was gone Vanya closed the door over for the most part and turned back to Martha, who now let a pained expression take over her face. "Can you take something for the pain?" she asked.
"Probably not." Martha replied simply.
"Well you need to do something." Vanya urged her, "You're in pain, you can't just stay like this. I can run out and get you something stronger."
Martha's hand secures over Vanya's before she can make to leave. "No." she said, almost pleaded. "I'll be fine. And I can change my mind later. Stay here for now."
Vanya simply nodded and brought both her legs up onto the bed, sitting facing her. For a few passing minutes they were both silent, listening to the voices coming from the other room. From the sound of it Klaus was facing off against Five and getting his ass kicked. A faint smile crossed on Martha's face when there was a thud followed by Klaus groaning.
"I know what you're thinking." Martha said, wincing as he moved as much as she could to face Vanya. "When I said I didn't want you to do training you thought I didn't think you were valuable enough. Right?"
Vanya simply shrugged her shoulders, not wanting to confirm her suspicions out loud.
"Well that's not what I think. It's the opposite of what I think." Martha assured her. "I think you could easily overpower all of them combined if you gained control over your abilities. Hell, you almost did it already in the same day you discovered you have abilities."
"Maybe."
"Definitely." She corrected her. "I know I'm right about this. I'm right about a lot of things, ask your brother." She leaned her head back onto the pillow. "I didn't want to train with you today because I'm going to dedicate an entire day to focusing on you. It'll take some practice but you'll get there."
"But what if I don't?" Vanya asked, voicing her concerns for the first time since she'd been told she was the apocalypse. "What if I can't take control and I just make everything worse?"
"That won't happen. I promise you, Vanya." Martha became suddenly serious. "You will gain control, and I'm going to help you through it. We all will."
"How do you know?"
"I've never been so sure of anything in my life." she let out a short sigh and closed her eyes. "I didn't escape the commission just for us to fail. It simply isn't an option."
Vanya was beginning to get a better idea of how Martha was able to put up with Five all by herself for so long.