"…You're using her as a distraction, aren't you?" Diego tossed the question towards Luther as the Hargreeves brothers stood and reluctantly watched their sister disappear into the burning warehouse.

"It's our best chance to incapacitate them" Luther replied, not even apologetic about using his sister as bait. He knew that she could handle herself, even without her powers.

"Oh…!" Klaus nodded in realisation almost looking at his brother with new eyes, impressed that he could come up with something so coldhearted as that; especially when it involved his beloved Allison.

"She'll thank us later" Luther shrugged as the three brothers all shuffled over to the door, picking their way through the flames as they covered their mouths and tried not to get burnt.

"So" Klaus chirped, bringing up the rear, "What's the plan?"

"Uh, the plan is that you wait out the front" Luther replied, turning awkwardly to his younger brother and shoving him gently back towards the entrance to the terminal.

("Of course!" Ben sighed, rolling his eyes at the stereotypical response from their leader of a brother).

"…What?" Klaus stumbled as a look of rejection flickered briefly across his face, hurt that Luther didn't want his help or didn't think that he could help beyond his usual capabilities of 'lookout' The terminal was on fire, what was there to lookout for?

"Yeah" Luther quickly nodded as Diego hopped over a burning pile of ash, "You're the lookout"

"The lookout?!" Klaus needed to help; this wasn't just their typical Umbrella Academy mission where they would save the day and go & get ice cream afterwards. This was a family event that needed to be resolved with the entire family there. Still, that didn't mean he particularly wanted to go in there after them because he had an inkling as to what lay beyond, or at the very least, he knew for certain who one of those people were who lay beyond those burning walls.

"Stay. Here" Not that Luther seemed to care about that. The only thing that was important right now was the mission. Mission first, feelings later. That was Luther's motto, just as it had been when they were kids.

"…Fine!" Klaus huffed as he spun on his heel stomped back the way they had come, searching for a good 'lookout' position as far from the flames as he could get whilst still being within a sprinting distance. There was a stack of crumbling bricks off to the side that the fire had yet to reach, which would make a good vantage point. "Lookout, my ass!"

Allison wasn't quite sure what she expected to find when she pushed her way into the burning warehouse, but what she did find was nothing short of mind bending. The first time she had seen her sister up on stage was when she had gone to the Icarus Theatre and watched her come alive during an orchestral practise earlier in the week. At the time she had thought Vanya an otherworldly messenger who had come to deliver them a message of both salvation & destruction. At the time Allison had seen how her younger sister had easily destroyed every barrier she had ever built around herself, tearing them down with every note plucked and every tune sung. She had seemed so alive then.

Now though? Now, it was a different story. Now she was cold & still, with a body that refused to dance and a song that refused to play. Instead of the lively song Vanya had played that day, Theodore—still garbed in the party hat & vest—now wept a tune of mournful cries as pulsating waves of light emanated from him in waves, singing in tune with his broken heart. He was hunched over his mother's unmoving body, practically pressed against the curve of her figure as he lay his head against her heart. Small arms held her close, rocking to & fro as he openly wept and begged for her to wake up; to come back to him. His prayers went unanswered.

"Vanya…!" Allison mouthed mournfully, wide eyes quickly beading with tears for the sister she had regretfully never gotten to know. Shuffling forward a pace or two, Allison made to approach the pair (absently noting the other indiscernible body off to the side which she rightly assumed to be the infamous Harold Jenkins. Selfishly, she held no grief nor pity for his clearly painful passing).

CLUNK!

Shit! Allison silently cursed as her toe bumped up against a wayward lump of metal & ash, stubbing her toe through her shoes as she was pinned in place only mere metres away from the pair, stuck still thanks to sniffled, his voice raspy from so much use as his head snapped up and over towards the sudden noise. His gaze jumped quickly from the item she had kicked across the floor and back to her with that unwavering gaze that seemed to pierce her soul.

His eyes was rimmed red and the veins around each socket were the most pronounced she had ever seen on anyone ever. They almost seemed alien in the way that they bulged & pulsed beneath the skin, glowing with that eery blue aura which always seemed to paint her two Loric relatives. Faintly freckled cheeks were stained with tears that never seemed to stop and a brief flash of relief flickered through his one-eyed gaze at the sight of his aunt alive, conscious and standing before him. But that relief was quickly replaced by a deep & haunting grief that had etched itself into his young features as Theodore clung to his mother like a lifeline.

'THEODORE?' Allison shakily turned her notepad around to show her nephew what she was trying to say. 'IS SHE OKAY?'

"Sh—she—she—she won't w-wake up!" Theodore wailed, choking a little on his words as he did so.

Not Vanya…! Please! Not her little sister! Allison's heart sank and her legs buckled beneath her as her world turned grey. Little Vanya 'Number Seven' Hargreeves was dead (in her heart she knew it to be true, but that didn't make the fact any less terrifying).

And then, as she was trying to suck in lungfuls of air (a task which seemed far harder than it had been a moment ago), her idiot brothers resurfaced.

Charging into the warehouse, the two eldest Hargreeves brothers bolstered their way through the room and (barely missing a step) headed straight for where Theodore & Vanya lay waiting. Allison barely had time to throw up a hand in protest, a silent 'NO!' on her lips before she suddenly found herself being shoved backwards thanks to the force of their nephew's screech. This time when the light danced across the warehouse floor, it (mercifully) did not burn all that it touched, only serving to push the oncoming threat as far back as Theodore could allow before he hunkered back down over his mother. Only this time instead of trying to rouse her, he appeared to be trying to shelter her from them.

The Hargreeves siblings landed with an almighty crash as they collapsed backwards onto the pile of barely singed trash at the back of the warehouse. A collection of misshapen crates & bent-out-shape cardboard boxes caught Luther & Diego whilst Allison, who had thankfully landed on a pile of old sleeping bags not too far away, dragged herself along the floor in an effort to avoid the high-flying waves of light which continued to singe the walls. Her brothers were only just getting their collective breaths back when she settled herself behind a nearby structural beam (one of the few that was still full intact) with an irritated huff.

"Well" Diego swallowed as he hauled himself off of the splintered boxes, shuffled around to the backside of their 'shelter' and tried to comprehend the fact that they'd just found their youngest sister, dead in the arms of her son. "There's no getting through to him now"

"Yeah…" Luther breathed in agreement, trying his best not to look at his sister's corpse as a cocktail of feelings swelled up inside him. The most prominent were guilt for not finding her sooner and grief at knowing that she was, in fact, deceased.

"Tss!" Allison hissed, wincing slightly at the pull of her vocal cords as she chucked her notebook at Luther's head in irritation.

"No, we're fine, thanks for asking!" Luther sassed as he peered over at her.

"Tch" Allison rolled her eyes in response, couldn't they have waited two more minutes?! She nearly had them!

"Look" Luther reasoned, "I almost lost you once, all right? I wasn't about to lose you again!"

"Well, so much for the element of surprise!" Diego huffed, "What else ya got, big guy?"

"Tch-tch-tch-tch-tch!" Allison clicked her tongue in succession in order to gain her brothers' attentions. When she had, she quickly mimed crying & slapped her crossed hands onto her shoulders as if dead, hoping that at least one of them would be able to understand what she was trying to say.

"No shit, Allison!" Diego snarked as he took it the wrong way, "Tell us something we don't already know!"

"She's talking about Vanya & Theodore" Luther translated as he picked up on what she was trying to say, "If we seperate the two, we might have a chance"

"But they weren't together back at the academy and look how well that turned out!" Diego retorted as they peered around the edges of their respective shelters to find Theodore still occupied with his mother. "What makes you think that this is gonna work?"

"We'll just have to wait & see" Luther replied.

"Well, that's comforting!"

RATTA~TAT~TAT! RATTA~TAT~TAT! RATTA~TAT~TAT!

Like roaches, more LANE Keepers emerged from the woodwork, called to the terminal by the powerful light show. These faceless Keepers were like clones of the first, only those had been garbed in blue and these were just voids of black. Advancing on their meagre hiding places, the Keepers fired every which way, uncaring of who they hit and who went down, so long as they got their targets. Allison thought that the black suits just meant that they were of a higher calibre than the ones at the Superstar Bowling Alley. At least, that's what Allison assumed them to be, but going by Diego's ashen expression that was likely not the case.

"Jesus! Now what?!" Diego cursed as he flattened himself against the crates and the floor in an effort not to get shot. "And what the hell happened to Klaus?! I thought he was supposed to be on lookout!"

"Yeah? Are you surprised?" Luther shot back from where he had wedged himself into a corner.

WHOOSH!

"…There y'all are!" Five declared as he Blinked into the warehouse, a slight tinge of relief colouring his tone as he berated them. "What's with all the lollygagging? Aren't y'all s'posed to be going to the theatre—?"

"—FIVE! GET DOWN!" Luther ordered as the rain of bullets instantly turned on him and Allison dragged him down into her lap to shield him from any further harm. "Where the hell have you been?! I thought you bailed on us!" The 'again' went unsaid.

"I, uh, had an errand to run" Five excused, only half-lying as he tried to resituate himself in his sister's tight grip and looking rather discombobulated at being shoved into her lap like the child he appeared to be.

"This?" Diego murmured as he propped himself up onto his elbows and peered around his hiding spot to get a better view of their assailants. He didn't like what he saw. "Not good"

"You know these guys?!" Luther exclaimed as he turned on his brother with brows climbing towards the heavens.

"Yeah, I do" Diego nodded, answering shortly.

"Care to share with the class, Diego?" Five huffed when it became clear that he wasn't going to explain further unless prompted.

"They're Echo Initiative: Mogadorian Augments from the Shadow Government" Diego replied, explaining further.

"So?" Again, Five persisted.

"Well, we're all screwed" Diego chirped.

"Great…!" Luther sarcastically huffed as the assailants—the Echoes—began to stride across the warehouse with weapons locked on them.

Diego was the first to act, palming a couple of knives that only really seemed to serve to piss them off as they wedged themselves in little unseen crevices of their void black armour. Five moved next Blinking across the room to—quite literally—turn the gunfire back on themselves as he reappeared on the back of one and, using his body's torque, swung them back around to face their allies. Felled by their own weapons, Five perked up slightly at the sight of these new & strange firearms and wasted no time in picking one up for himself as he Blinked back over to his brothers, to set up a sniper's nest in the collection of busted crates.

"Ugh! Five!" Luther grunted as a pair of bowling shoes suddenly reappeared, standing on their shoulders—one on Luther & one on Diego.

"Stay still, you big ape!" Five retorted as he set the firearm down and with a manic grin on his lips, began to return the fire given to them. Although Five may have never enjoyed killing for the Commission, he couldn't deny the feeling of power that came with handling a big gun such as this.

And then, under the hail of red & lead bullets, their last long-lost brother reappeared. Charging into the warehouse, oblivious of the goings on, the necromancer bellowed loud & clear which turned a good portion of the firepower onto him as well. "GUYS! IT'S CHA-CHA! IT'S CHA-CHA! SHE—!"

"KLAUS!" Luther called, "GET DOWN!"

"Scheisse!"