Seventeen hours and thirty minutes before Sententia.

Vanya woke up slowly and stretched. As she did so she noticed that the room had stopped spinning. Smiling to herself she got off of her childhood bed. Well, childhood wasn't exactly the right word for it. More like most-of-her-life bed. She hadn't used it since she was in her late teens. Even so her legs had hung over the edge slightly. She had grown. Carefully she got off.

Stretching once more she walked to the window. A few beams of sunlight were creeping in slowly. Once again she was at the Academy and once more crazy shit was happening. It was the end of the world, again. When she was ten and she was told that she'd gotten scared and cried. Once she hid in her closet. When she had reached thirteen she just sort of shrugged and got on with what she was doing. So what if there was the possibility that the world was ending? Her siblings would just do what they did best and leave her alone when it was done

So that's what she did now, getting on with things. Outside she could hear birds singing. Things couldn't be so bad. Just like another day had dawned .It would be just like before. Everyone would panic for a few hours and then it would turn out that the world could be saved by the gentle application of Rousseau and the harsh application of Freddy Kruger.

Even so she knew that it would be different this time. She wasn't thirteen anymore. After she'd left the Academy she'd lived a normal life. Vanya actually had friends who didn't know that she was even related in any way shape or form with the Umbrella Academy. She'd gone to college and graduated with a degree in fine arts.

After that she'd lived her life. There had been jobs that she'd held down, admittedly only for a handful of years at a time. Vanya had even had a few boyfriends. Well, they had only been for a couple of months and nothing serious. Even more embarrassing to admit they'd all been blonde, had a tendency to forget to shave, and all of them possessed short tempers.

She smiled wryly as she thought about that. Even though they'd been together for a few months she hadn't told Kraken about that yet. All it could do was make it sound like there was something wrong with her. In any case, she had never felt 100% normal even in situations as normal as buying a newspaper or walking along the streets. Perhaps that's why she had bought the mace in the first place.

So in the end her lack of normality had brought her right back to the Academy. This wasn't a one way ticket though. It was two way and as soon as this was all over she'd be going home. So what if her new home wasn't exactly normal? At least that would admit to the fact that she wasn't normal. There was no way out of what she had been raised as. Yet if she couldn't find normality, then perhaps she could at least find happiness.

And she had found happiness with a rather unlikely figure. Happiness was happiness though and she welcomed it. Hell, that didn't mean that her relationship was perfect. Nothing was. She accepted that and enjoyed what she had though. For the first time in her life she was in a stable relationship where the person loved her and wanted to make sure she was happy. For the first time in her life she wanted the same thing for someone else.

Her eyes blurred as she realized that she wasn't quite awake yet. Honestly it wasn't much of a surprise. She'd been going from being awake to being asleep the night before. Usually she was a sound sleeper and was unaccustomed to such things. Scratching the back of her head she started to walk to the adjoining bathroom. A shower would wake her up.

She shivered as her bare foot stepped on the cold tile floor. Flipping on the switch she grabbed a towel. For a second she saw a dark figure out of the corner of the eye. The next thing she knew it felt like someone had stabbed her with an ice-cold needle in the neck. She gasped in surprise and pain. Then dark spots started to dance in front of her eyes and the tile floor rushed up to meet her.

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"Well," said Georgiana as she placed the syringe back inside her briefcase, "That's that done."

She frowned as she looked at the unconscious girl. In all honesty Georgiana had no idea why Hargreeves had wanted the girl injected with that stuff. It had been hard enough to find her brachiocephalic vein in the first place, let alone the place where it flowed into the heart. No matter. Shrugging she stepped over her and out the door. She'd have to go out the same way she came in; through the window.

Hargeeves's will was now completed down to the last clause. He'd been terribly specific though and Georgiana found it irksome to have to do all of that. She'd even had to memorize the explanation he'd told her to give. It was thorough for them. Still, she had been his 'solicitor' and had followed his instructions to the letter. Most of it she had understood. The injection thing was odd though. He'd written something about livening up the game.

She'd wanted to do it the night before in the hope to get it all over with. Events though had seemed determined to foil her with giving the girl head trauma. Then no matter how long she waited outside the window people kept coming in. The Hargreeves might not seem like a functional family but she figured that they'd object to her sticking a needle into their sister's neck. Finally she had gotten her chance.

Georgiana lifted up the window. Soon spectators would be arriving and she'd have her hands full with air traffic control. Inferior species tended to panic when they saw the saucers. Lenore had probably been right. Just enslave them all. That was all that they were good for, the stupid creatures.

Things were just going to get busier from here. Being a viceroy in the greatest game ever played was both an honor and a hassle. She put her foot in the sill. Turning her head she gave one last glance at the girl on the floor. When she'd checked the board five minutes ago it still said that the Sentinels were winning.

During her life Georgiana had known both Lenore and Hargreeves. They were cunning, sadistic, and coldly calculating. All in all they were a credit to their species. Many of her colleagues had urged her to bet on one of them. At first she hadn't wanted to. She rarely bet on anything. In the end though she had acquiesced out of the urge to just shut them up.

It wasn't too late to change her bet until an hour before the game started. Even so she wanted to keep her money on the one she knew was the most ruthless, cruel, and dedicated to winning. She had bet on the one who would sacrifice anything and everything for the prize. In other words, her money was on Hargreeves.