Date unknown, the commission, gymnasium
Five didn't need to train. He had been in combat since his early teens. Though there were admittedly some similarities. Going after bank robbers was different from being a hitman. Still, he knew what he was doing, he didn't need training.
But the commission had insisted he needed to learn their way of fighting. It was about stealth and being effective. Which wasn't exactly his strong suit. Five managed to swallow his pride and not put up a fight as he joined the rest of newly hired hitmen into a large gym.
The first thing he noticed was the variations of age and style in the others already inside. There were 40 year old men in bellbottoms and 25 year old women in 18th century dresses. It was certainly a strange group.
The second thing he noticed was the weapons. Guns lining the walls, an overflowing box of grenades, a row of knives sitting on a table. The Hargreaves mansion had been anything but a safe space for a typical child to grow up but the gym of the commission was something else entirely.
2 rows of fold up chairs sat facing each other on opposite sides of the room. Five chose the closest empty seat he could find, one that happened to be next to a girl that looked straight out of a magazine from the 60s. A mustard colored top with a peter pan collar was tucked into a black skirt and she had a matching yellow headband behind short bangs. As he approached her he noticed she couldn't be a day over 18 and seemed like she didn't belong. She was picking nervously at her cuticles when he sat down and his appearance caught her attention.
"Is this your first day of training?" she asked him. Her brown eyes were too big and excited for where they were.
Five nodded his head. "Yours too?"
"No, I started about a week ago. This seat's been empty the whole time." She rested her hands in her lap. "What department did you transfer from?"
"None."
The girl blinked at him a few times. "You mean they hired you for this straight away?"
"Is that uncommon?"
She nodded. "Haven't heard of it more than a few times the entire time I've been with the commission."
Entire time? She spoke as if it had been a while. Given her appearance she couldn't have been working there for more than a few months. "Which would be how long exactly?"
"115 years."
Oh.
"But you're…"
"Young?" Five silently nodded in response. "They hired me to work in reception when I was 17 and I haven't aged since. I have scoliosis, and it's not too bad now, but if I get much older it will cause a lot of problems for me. I suppose the lifelong acne is a small sacrifice."
She talked too much. Though what she said was interesting he found himself too annoyed with her to be engaged in the conversation. Her presence was bright, like a 15 watt stadium light. Too much and too early in the morning. They were there to be trained on how to expertly kill people. Why was she in such a good mood? It was almost morbid how happy she was surrounded by so many weapons.
She reminded him of a girl that used to live down the street from him growing up. Her name had been Laurette and they had the same happy-go-lucky attitude that Five had never possessed. They even looked somewhat alike. Blonde hair, tanned skin, brown eyes. Though Laurette was taller than the girl sitting beside Five. Though he'd never once admitted it to a single soul Laurette had been the first, and only, living girl he'd ever had a crush on. Comparing the girl beside him to her made his face feel warm.
The girl held her hand out for him to shake. "My name's Martha, by the way."
Five stared at her offer before reluctantly taking her hand. "Five."
She frowned at him. "That's not a real name."
"It is in my house."
"Well I won't call you by a number."
"Call me by it or call me nothing at all."
Martha didn't seem sure how to respond so she turned forward again and continued the extraction of a hangnail she'd been working on when he came over. Five sat next to her and wondered if someone had made some kind of mistake sending her there. When their instructor called her up to face off against much taller and larger man in an 80s punk rock outfit and she had his arm pinned against his back within 5 minutes Five no longer wondered.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
Martha sat on the couch next to Allison, the front door of the apartment open behind them. Allison looked between Five, standing in the doorway looking ready to argue, and Martha, her nose buried in a magazine and doing her best to ignore him. She had been working one on one with Vanya the past three days and kicking everyone out of the apartment to do so. Though she was tight lipped she seemed satisfied with the progress they'd made since that morning she'd asked Allison if they could work one on one after lunch.
"Don't you think-" Five began.
"No." Martha said cutting him off. "You'll just distract me."
"Has it ever crossed your mind that I might help you?"
She set the magazine down in her lap and turned to face him. "Now more than ever we can't have people around who don't have a way with words. Unless that's suddenly changed you'll have to come back later."
Five opened his mouth, ready to continue the debate before promptly shutting it when he possibly realized she had a point. Not only was he not delicate with words but he had a short temper. As if to prove this he left with a short huff and closed the door with a loud thud behind him.
Allison looked over at Martha with a small crease in her brow. Though it was obvious that the two time travelers were close it was also clear that they sometimes argued like an old married couple. "Don't you worry that he'll be mad at you?"
Martha shrugged her shoulders, leaning back on the couch again. "He's always mad about something." She said. "But it never really lasts. He'll be fine when he comes back and we'll have the same argument tomorrow."
She shook her head. "I really don't think I understand you two."
"We're used to it." Martha said, turning on the couch to face her. Her demeanor immediately changed and suddenly she was all business. "I couldn't help but notice I haven't seen you use your powers once since I got here."
Allison shifted uncomfortably on the couch. "Yeah, I don't really… do that anymore."
"Why not?"
She shook her head. "It's not worth it. I've hurt too many people with my powers. I've given up on that, so I hate to say it but your kind of wasting your time."
"I don't think I'm wasting my time."
If Martha was as difficult to argue with as Five as Allison was in for a challenge. "I'm sorry, but I made up my mind a long time ago. I'm done with using my powers."
She nodded a few times. "Okay. Well why don't you tell me what made you so against it so I can understand better."
It wasn't something she liked talking about, and she could count the number of people she had told on one hand, but for some reason she felt like she could trust Martha. Though she was stubborn and sometimes testy when it came to training she didn't seem judgmental. She didn't care how young her partner had become, she didn't mind that one of her current roommates was off drugs for less than a week when she moved in, and she ignored the family dynamic around her for the most part. Also considering that she said she'd been trained to match Vanya and Allison she assumed Martha had a similar sort of ability.
Allison let out a sigh before she began speaking. "Well I stopped using them a lot once I got married and started doing well in my career. Only every once in a while, when I felt like I had to. There was one night where I was alone with my daughter and she had strep throat for the first time. She wouldn't stop crying, for hours, and I just wanted her to go to sleep. I didn't hear my husband come home because she was crying and he… saw me use my powers on her."
"We were already having problems in our marriage but we were trying to work through them. But when he saw me my life just fell apart. He filed for divorce, and right now he's trying to get custody of her. He wants me to only be able to see her on supervised visits." She managed to swallow back tears and looked down at the ground. "So it just doesn't feel worth it to me anymore. One little thing, that seemed so simple and easy, ruined my life. So just train me on combat because I won't use my powers."
Martha let Allison's story sink in. When she was in business and training mode she was an entirely different person. When they were eating meals or taking breaks she was a bubbly and high spirited young woman. But when she flipped the switch it made it easier to see the pain and trained killer within her. She bit on her fingernails, which Allison could tell was a bad habit of hers by the length of her nails, and it was almost as if the shadows under her eyes began to grow darker.
"The problem with an ability like yours is that you need to be able to word things very carefully or else you can get in trouble." Martha eventually said. "And I completely understand why you don't want to use them. I don't like using my mind altering abilities either."
She rested her elbows on her knees and leaned towards Allison. "The problem is that what's holding you back is your morals. You're a good person, Allison. But we're fighting against people who aren't good. The hardest part isn't being stealthy or planning everything down to the T. The problem is that you have to learn how to accept going into it that you're going to do things that you don't want to do."
Allison shook her head. "You're wasting your breath, Martha. I won't do it."
Martha seemed to ignore what she said since she continued as if Allison interrupted. "I hate using that part of my ability. But when I escaped the commission I had to use them in order to get a briefcase. Up until then I hadn't used my ability in a long time, can't say exactly how long since time is relative and hard to keep track of in a cell, but I knew I had to do it in order to find you guys and stop the apocalypse."
Allison knew she had a point, and knew that Martha was educated enough on the topic to know exactly what she was talking about. But she was determined to stay set in her ways. There were other ways she could help, right? And since Martha had a similar sort of ability didn't that mean they didn't need Allison's.
She seemed to see that Allison had yet to budge and she let out a sigh. "Think about it this way; what if the only way to stop the apocalypse was for you to use your powers would you do it?"
"Well of course I would." Allison answered. "But I don't see how that would happen."
"It might not directly." Martha admitted. "But it's all about chain of events. We need everything we can get right now. And I might be overstepping my boundary here, but I have a feeling it's more than just what happened with your daughter that makes you reluctant."
"You're overstepping a little."
"But I'm overstepping because I'm right, aren't I?"
Allison blinked a few times. She was torn between her past use of her powers being too powerful to talk about and trusting and wanting to help Martha and her family in stopping the apocalypse. She was also beginning to wonder if she was beginning to get a taste of what Vanya had felt her whole life. If her abilities were the only way she could help then she was completely useless.
Martha took her silence as a 'yes'. "What else happened that makes you so against your powers?"
She swallowed hard and looked down at the hardwood floor. "Some of my success in my career, and my marriage, may have something to do with it."
She nodded a few times. "Ah, I see." Martha said, crossing her legs and turning to fully face Allison on the couch. "Well, how much of your career is due to your abilities?"
"Pretty much my entire start." Allison admitted.
"Well your career wouldn't have continued if you weren't talented, you do realize that right?" Martha asked her.
She'd never really thought about it that way. She'd been too ashamed of herself to reflect on it that much. And she supposed Martha had a point. Allison was a good actress and she knew it, but it was common knowledge that making a start in the career path was difficult.
"And your husband, how long were you married to him?"
"Twelve years."
Martha nodded her head. "You may have gotten married to him because of your abilities, but you didn't stay married to him because of them. All power has limits. I can't imagine yours last forever. By the time it wore off he was probably genuinely in love with you. And if he wasn't? It doesn't matter much now, does it?"
"I suppose not." Allison admitted.
She squinted at her. "I get the feeling that there might be something else."
"It's something I don't want to talk about."
"I think you do."
Martha was right. Ever since she and Vanya discovered what their father had made her do she had been mortified with herself. It was a memory that made her entire body tense with pain every time it entered her mind, but she knew she'd have to talk about it eventually. Maybe Martha was the person to tell. It was clear she had her own share of demons and had done some things she too wasn't proud of.
"Five probably told you our dad was pretty shitty to us growing up." Allison began.
"He mentioned it." She said with a small smile.
"Well, when we discovered Vanya's powers, I remembered something from our childhood. I was so little I don't think I would have remembered it if Vanya's powers hadn't been discovered. But…" Allison swallowed hard, "our father made me use my powers to tell her she was ordinary, that she was nothing special. And that's what she thought of herself for her entire life. So clearly my power doesn't have a time limit."
"I think it does." Martha said sadly, "And by the time it wore off there were lots of other reasons for her to feel that way besides what you told her." she leaned forward and put her hand on Allison's shoulder. "But you know that wasn't your fault, right? You were a child following your parents rule. Which, considering who your father was, is completely understandable."
Allison shook her head. "I just feel like I ruined her life."
"That was your father's doing, Allison." Martha said. "He was the one who told you to do it. His parenting had its effects on all of you. That was what it did to Vanya."
"I just can't even imagine how I would start using my powers again." Allison confessed. "It's been so long."
"Do it to me first." Martha said. "I'm a willing participant. I give you full permission to use your abilities on me. And start off small. Something inconsequential."
She wanted to protest but felt as if she couldn't. Everything Martha had said had gotten into her head. Were her morals really more important than the survival of the human race and Earth itself? It seemed kind of selfish when she thought about it that way.
"Okay." Allison finally said, taking a deep breath and building up the courage. "I heard a rumor… that you think Five is cute when he's younger."
Martha blinked at her a few times before a smile spread on her face. "Interesting. Your abilities have no power when what you're saying is already true."
"So what I said is true?"
"Try something else." She deflected.
"I heard a rumor that you're too hungry to wait for lunch."
After a moment Martha placed her hand on her stomach and swung her feet off the couch. "Good job." She said, getting to her feet. "We'll have to continue in the kitchen."
Allison got up and followed Martha into the kitchen, sitting down at the counter while she watched her dig through the refrigerator for something to eat. She pulled out a half finished container of white rice from the take out they had the night before and sat on the counter next to the sink. It was moments like those, her eating leftovers on the counter in the sweatpants she slept in, that it was easy to forget that she wasn't just a regular 17 year old girl.
"I'm sorry that you have to go so out of your comfort zone, but it's something we're all going to have to do." Martha said to her in between bites. "I couldn't care less if you never use your abilities again once our work is done. But for now we all need to accept that we have to compromise our morals."
"Don't you and Five ever get tired?" Allison asked her. "All you two think about is the apocalypse."
"It's not all I think about." Martha said simply.
"It's all you seem to talk about. Especially him."
She looked down at the container of her rice, suddenly looking a little sad. "When you only have a handful of things to motivate you for decades it kind of becomes the only thing you care about. I'm thankful that I had more to focus on other than the apocalypse, other goals. I'm not sure the same can be said for Five."
"Because you knew he was alive and he didn't?"
She shrugged. "Perhaps. If he did know he would have just been distracted. It's for the better he didn't know."
"I don't think he'd agree with that."
A small smile spread on her face. "No, I don't think he would either." She took another bite of rice. "I don't understand everyone's fascination with us, care to enlighten me?"
Allison sighed and leaned her elbows on top of the counter. "I don't think it's you as much as it is him." She said. "He's always been kind of a jerk, we're used to that. But we also know that he has a soft spot for us. He just doesn't show it. What's different about you is that he's very open about having a soft spot for you. It's strange to see."
"You guys didn't grow up the way most people do." Martha said. "Not that I did either, but still. Every one of you had people who taught you how to have as normal of a life as possible, and someone to care about you as someone more than the Umbrella Academy." She shook her head and dipped her spoon back in the rice. "Even before I knew how he grew up I knew something was wrong. I mean, who the hell calls themselves by a number their whole life?"
Allison laughed. "When our mom gave us all names he called it a façade. Said there was no point, that we were all just guinea pigs and she was trying to make us forget that."
Martha shook her head. "Sounds like something he'd say." She agreed. "I think I was more stubborn than he was used to people being. He knew I was going to be nice to him so he shut me out and tried to scare me off. But the jokes on him because it only made me nicer."
"He must have been really mean if he put an effort into being a jerk."
She smirked. "He was a bit cruel. But that was a long time ago. And it was good for me too. I needed a reminder that not everyone is going to like me, which I needed going into the business I was going into. I was too bright eyed and optimistic."
Allison laughed. "You sound like his worst nightmare."
"I think that's what he thought I was at first."
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
Hours later Allison lingered in the kitchen after she went to put her now empty plate in the sink. Her siblings and Martha were all in the living room with the television on and she could faintly hear chatter and laughter from where she stood. Try as she might to get her mind to focus on anything other than what she'd talked about earlier her subconscious seemed determined. Flashes of memory, Claire, Patrick, Vanya, made her cringe at herself and her own actions. She looked over at the briefcase sitting on the table across the room, tools set around it, and wished she could use it to go back in time and prevent herself from doing at least one of the things she regretted.
She heard Luther's heavy footsteps coming down the hallway before he appeared in the doorway and she quickly made herself look busy rinsing off her plate. She pretended to be surprised when he appeared in the doorway and flashed him a smile that felt forced. "Hey."
"Hey." He said, coming over to her. "You okay?"
Allison shrugged her shoulders. "I guess I just have a lot on my mind. We all do."
"That's true." Luther agreed. "How did it go today? Everything alright?"
Though he tried to hide it Allison could tell Luther was still a little suspicious of their guest. Not that she blamed him. After being alone on the moon for years and his only human contact after returning being his family it made sense for him to be wary of outsiders. "It went well." Allison said to him. "She's tough, but she obviously knows what she's doing."
"What did she say when you told her you didn't want to use your powers."
She let out a short sigh. "The same kind of thing she's been saying. We have to put aside our morals to save the commission, at least for a little while. She has a point."
"Does she?" Luther asked. "If we put aside our morals how are we any better than them?"
"Putting aside your morals isn't the same as forgetting them."
He hesitated. It was clear he didn't want to argue, and she didn't either. "I just think that ignoring your morals to defeat an enemy is treading into dangerous territory."
"I agree, Luther." Allison said, nodding her head. "But we're not fighting run of the mill criminals anymore. This is a timeless organization with futuristic technology. We need to use everything we have." She wanted to add that it was easy for him to say since he didn't have to compromise his morals to help but chose to keep her mouth shut.
Luther thought about what she said for a moment, letting her words sink in. She could tell he knew she was right, he just didn't like it. He ended up simply shaking his head and coming over to lean on the counter next to her. "Do you ever wish some of the other kids born like us would step up to the plate and do some of the work for us?"
Allison smiled. "Yeah, I used to." She admitted. "Until Martha told us what some of the others are doing right now."
He nodded, understanding exactly what she meant. "Don't you ever worry that she was trained to fight against us for 60 years? I mean, that mentality doesn't just go away does it?"
She thought for a moment. "I did when she first got here. But I have a feeling that she was kind of undercover the whole time. She wouldn't try so hard to prepare us to face them if she was secretly on their side."
"I guess so."
Both unsure what else to say they stayed silent and listened to the sound of the rest of the group laughing at a joke made on the television.