Notes: As the title says, we finally get to see the missing sibling today!
Short notes this time, week was kinda busy and tiring. On a good note, I'm half done with the last chapter!
Vanya
Vanya was sitting on the entrance stairs of a modest suburban house watching a boy around 10 years old playing on the ground, she couldn't remember anything but her name since the car accident, but she had a feeling she had never felt as peaceful and happy as she did right now. Sure, she was sad nobody had responded to the newspaper ad the family she was staying with had posted inquiring about her family or friends, did that mean she was alone in the world? Or even worse, that nobody wanted her? Maybe she'd never know, but if she was honest, she was starting to think it didn't matter, this kind family had welcomed her into their home and she already loved this kid more than she could say.
Thunder rumbled in the distance right before she spotted three blond, stout men walking to the house. She had never seen them before, but judging by their looks, they didn't seem to be door to door salesmen.
"Harlan?" Vanya called to the boy trying to remain calm.
"Mm," the boy mumbled engrossed in his game.
"Harlan, you should get inside the house, wait for me there, okay?" Vanya commanded standing up and walking to him.
The boy lifted his head and noticed the three men walking towards them with harsh expressions. He stood up and ran to Vanya shaking his head and grabbing her shirt.
"No Harlan, you need to get inside," the woman whispered trying not to lose her cool so she wouldn't make things worse. Harlan hadn't been diagnosed, but Vanya was pretty sure he was autistic, so any screaming or loud noise could trigger a meltdown.
The men soon got close enough for Vanya to hear the one in the middle mutter, "Få henne."
The youngest one pointed a gun at her as they kept walking until they were just a few feet away.
"Oh my God, please Harlan, you have to get inside the house now," stammered Vanya going livid, what did these people even want?
"Vanya do you guys want a glass of—" a blond woman opened the door with a pitcher of lemonade before noticing the men and the gun.
"Sissy, take Harlan and get inside, quick!" Vanya directed without taking her eyes off the men.
Sissy gave two steps towards the boy before the tallest man pointed a gun at her, "rör dig inte!"
She couldn't understand the words, but it was easy to tell he was ordering her not to move, so she lifted her hands.
"Who are you? What do you want with my family!?" Sissy asked with a trembling voice.
"We just want the wuman," answered the one in the middle pointing at Vanya. The three looked like brothers and he seemed to be the one in charge.
"Why? Did I do something to you? I-I'm sorry, I don't remember anything!" cried out Vanya, "Please tell me what's going on, I'm sure we can talk this through."
"Vi gör bara vårt jobb," mumbled the one pointing the gun at her.
Vanya tried to push Harland behind her, but the boy clang to her waist in a tight grip.
"Få bort barnet," ordered the leader pointing at the kid.
The taller man put away his gun and walked to them, Vanya tried to back down, "Wait please, leave them out of this!" she pleaded fearfully. She had no idea who she had been in the past, maybe she had been a bad person, maybe she deserved this.
The man pulled Harlan away from Vanya lifting him from the torso with one arm, child kicking and whaling in the process.
"No! Please don't hurt him, he can't help himself!" Vanya begged with raised hands.
The door swung open revealing a middle-aged man carrying a rifle, "What In the world is happening here!?"
"Carl, they came after Vanya," explained Sissy nervously.
The man took in the scene without lowering the rifle, "Told you she'd bring us trouble!" He muttered.
"Carl! How can you say that?" Sissy looked at Vanya in dismay.
"Take her if you want, just leave us alone!" Carl lifted the rifle in a gesture of peace. "We're just a normal American family that got tangled with her. Who's she? Is she a Russian spy?" He turned to Sissy, "told you she had a weird name."
The leader spoke, "we get her, then we leave," he nodded at the younger one.
The younger sibling aimed at Vanya ready to shoot.
"No, don't hurt her!" Screamed Sissy with misty eyes as her husband pulled her closer to him.
As Vanya closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable, a voice very close behind her echoed, "I heard a rumor that you shot your nearest brother on the foot."
As soon as Vanya heard the first four words, she brought her hand to her forehead, feeling a sharp pain as she remembered hearing that same voice saying something else, "I heard a rumor you think you're just ordinary."
The man's eyes turned white and then he shot his older brother on the foot making everybody jump. As a cue, Harlan took the chance to bite the taller man's hand forcing him to let go.
"Harlan, run to the barn!" exclaimed Sissy snatching the rifle from her husband and running after her child while pointing the weapon at the men.
Whilst Vanya was still trying to get a grip, the noise from the gunshot ringing in her ears getting stronger with each passing second, the taller man took his gun out in anger and pointed it at mother and child.
"N-No, don't hurt them!" Vanya cried instinctively lifting her hands, producing a pale blue cone of energy that hit the three brothers, knocking them out instantly.
Vanya looked at her hands in fearful astonishment and then at Sissy, the blond woman reflecting horror in her eyes, probably thinking she was some kind of monster, What if I am?
"I…I…," she had no idea what to say.
Carl ran past her and grabbing Sissy's arm he pulled her away, "come, we have to get away from here!"
Sissy's and Harlan's expressions were fearful and a little conflicted as they followed Carl. Vanya wanted to stop them from leaving her there, alone, but then she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Vanya, are you okay?" the same voice she had heard before called her name, it sounded so familiar, and with it, a mixture of confusing emotions followed, anger, fear, anxiety.
Vanya turned, instinctively recoiling away from the offending hand.
"Vanya, it's okay, we came here to take you home," a lanky tall man assured her with a soothing voice.
"Who are you people!? What did you do!? How did I do that!?" Vanya looked frantically between the five people in front of her and the people leaving her behind, the same people she had considered a family since she had lost her memory.
A very tall and muscular man lifted his hands, "we all have powers, you do as well, remember?"
"We're your family," said the owner of the cursed voice extending a hand to her.
The small woman felt a sharp pain in her forehead again, now visual memories started to flow in her mind. Of the woman trying to use her brainwashing powers against her, feeling angry and then scared; of her, trapped in a small reinforced room, crying, afraid, angry and these people just watching her. Like a dangerous monster.
"Vanya, listen, you've got to trust us," said a man with dark long hair and a beard.
"What is she doing here" "You don't belong here," she heard an echo of his voice in her mind as the sound of the wind started to get clearer and louder around her and her eyes began to turn white.
"Oh shit, this is bad, isn't it?" A woman wearing a beanie and her face covered with a neckerchief, murmured.
"Vanya, you need to calm down!" The muscular guy pressed anxiously.
Then she saw a concert hall, she was in the middle, holding a violin and dressed in pure white; these people trying to attack her.
"Vanya?" Allison reached out only to have her hand slapped away.
"Don't touch me!"
"Maybe we should have planned this better after hearing about her amnesia," muttered Diego frowning at his siblings.
"Hey, it's okay, you're safe now," said Klaus.
"Safe? You people are afraid of me, aren't you!?"
"Wha- no! I mean, your powers are a bit scary but—"
"Luther!" Muttered Allison.
"I'm starting to remember now, you say we are family, but you tried to brainwash me and trap me in a reinforced room!" Vanya's eyes began shinning brighter and a small glow began to emerge from her chest.
"No, I was just trying to stop you from doing something you'd regret," explained Allison, "you just don't remember everything yet!"
"And confining you was a mistake, I was just—!" tried Luther before Vanya cut him short.
"It's too late for that," she snarled, feet lifting from the ground.
While the Hargreeves' tried to calm their sister down, the leader of the swede siblings opened his eyes, still dizzy by the blow. He searched for his two brothers without moving, both of them were unconscious, one of them bleeding from the skull. He carefully crawled behind a tractor and pressed a button on his watch.
In a matter of seconds, a zapping noise was followed by two men in suits appearing in a blue flash. Everyone turned to look at them in shock, everyone except Vanya, she seemed to be going into a trance similar to the one she had gone into in the concert hall. Then another agent appeared, and then three more, then another two, then one more, quickly filling the farm's terrain.
"Shit… this is bad. Mother must have anticipated things could go wrong if your sister remembered she had powers," muttered Lila nervously looking as the farm steadily filling with patches of black and white.
"Are you kidding me? How did they know? How many of them are coming?" Grumbled Diego.
"For how it looks like, it could be the entire Commission."
Allison looked around nervously and then turned her gaze back to her sister, "Vanya, please listen to me, we were just trying to help you, we're family!"
"That's a lie, you never considered me part of your little family of 'gifted' kids!"
"No, that's not true Vanya, we didn't know you had powers and we didn't know any better, we were just foolish kids!"
"Yeah, maybe things would have been different if I had known I had powers too, but who's to blame for that?" Vanya started to levitate higher, white eyes shining brighter, light on her chest growing and a soft high-pitched tone resonating around her.
"Oh God, guys!?" Allison breathed.
The siblings looked between the Commission and Vanya; things were looking grimmer by the second.
A woman Lila had seen a few times licking her mother's heels stood in front of the Commission's army, she raised a megaphone to her mouth and called, "The head of the Commission has decided to eliminate the criminals responsible for bringing an apocalypse to this timeline." Her voice resonated, "groups A to U, focus on the floating woman, she's the biggest threat, the rest of the teams, get the other siblings!"
At her command, everybody started mobilizing, most of the agents shooting at Vanya as soon as they got in shooting range, but she effortlessly materialized a field of energy that disintegrated the bullets as soon as they touched it.
The teams that were left rushed to the front to get the rest of the Hargreeves, all of them looking somehow different from the others; either with atypical white weapons or nothing at all.
"Oh great, we get to fight the snowflakes," moaned Lila as they appeared into view.
"The what?" Luther frowned at her.
"Brace yourselves, this is going to be a pain in the butt!"
Two men with tonfas ran from different sides towards Diego, "Shit, we don't have time for this, we need to help Vanya!" He exclaimed muffled by the shooting.
"I think we have more pressing matters right now!" Cried Lila barely dodging a woman carrying bladed nunchakus.
"I can help her! Klaus, let's go," announced Ben running to Vanya.
"R-right!" said Klaus following Ben and lifting his hands to materialize him, the Horror already coming out of him, ghostly tentacles bulldozing on a group of unaware Commission agents.
Lila tried to assess the situation as she defended herself from the crazy woman that was attacking her, nunchakus were dangerous on their own, who would even think of adding blades to them?
She looked at Luther, the three men she had seen guarding the door to the Infinite Switchboard were overpowering him, barely giving him time to breath.
Then she looked to the other side, Allison had turned away from Vanya just in time to stop a high kick from a tall woman with her forearm, just as her twin sent her to the ground with a hook kick to the head. If she remembered right, these women practiced sambo.
Lila ducked just in time to avoid one of the blades, "Okay, this isn't looking good for us!"
"You think!?" Diego panted grabbing a broomstick to try and fend off with only one good hand and his legs.
Lila's attacker smiled wickedly as she performed a highspeed figure eight with her nunchakus for intimidation, and it was working until she came to an abrupt stop, one of her weapons flying past Lila, narrowly missing her. Then the woman fell to the ground spasming, revealing Dot in the midst of the chaos, looking completely out of place, holding a stun gun in both hands.
"Dot!" Lila exclaimed lowering the neckerchief covering her nose and mouth, worry showing in her face as she ran to the woman. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"
"I had a hunch you'd be here..." Dot crouched, afraid of the gunshots and general chaos surrounding them. "The resistance is too small to help you escape but I needed to come and tell you… Five, he…"
Lila had a sinking feeling, "What happened, is he…!?"
"Not yet, but when the Handler left the torture room, I heard her speaking with Dr. Smith, she told him to prepare Five for the… you know."
"Shit, shit," Lila muttered, she picked up the nunchaku that had dropped near the stunned woman and alerted Diego before throwing it his way, "Diego, catch!"
Diego caught up fast and smiled immediately accelerating the speed of the spinning nunchaku and using it as a brush cutter blade to slice the neck of one of his attackers.
"Thanks!" He grinned back at her.
Lila responded with a grim look, "Diego, we need to leave NOW!"
"What?" Asked Diego among the chaos.
Lila nodded at Dot and getting closer to Diego she hissed, "If we're going to save Five, we need to go now!" She threw a side kick to Diego's assailant to keep him busy while Diego controlled the nunchaku.
"What!? We are kinda busy right now. Weren't we supposed to get Vanya so she'd help us with Five?" Diego directed the flying nunchaku to one of the men Luther had just punched away, blades digging into his back.
Luther avoided a jab from one of the other men and putting all his strength into his fist, he sent him flying to the third one, "Thanks!" He shouted to his brother noticing the woman out of place standing near him and Lila and their anxious expressions. "What's going on? Everything okay?"
"The Handler's going to kill him if we don't go right now," whispered Lila with urgency to Diego while dodging an attack.
"S-Shit!" breathed Diego as he sent a series of attacks with the broomstick to his enemy before noticing an agent pointing a bazooka at Klaus, that guy had to be one of the snowflakes; he took one of his blades with the left hand and threw it directly at the man's skull. He was trying to save his blades for when they went for Five, but this situation had gotten worse than they had expected and they needed to hurry.
As Diego got distracted with Klaus, the man hit Lila on the side making her fall in pain, but she took the chance to grab his partner's tonfas, "okay, time's up, rules change," she smirked.
She stood up and started throwing strikes with her right arm, forcing him to back down as Diego joined her with the broomstick in a double assault. The man countered hitting Diego's leg with the stick and tried to go for Lila next, but taking the opening, she managed to deviate his attack with her right weapon and immediately threw the shaft of the left one to his neck rendering him unconscious.
"You know how to use those things too!?"
"I'm a fast learner," Lila winked making Diego feel smitten all over again. "So, are we doing this or what!?" She brought him back to reality.
"Right!" he exclaimed. "Can you guys manage here!?" Diego yelled at Luther, "we need to leave now," he covertly showed five fingers.
Thankfully, Luther understood the message, he looked around, he was almost done with the attackers thanks to Diego's aid and Allison was holding on, but then he looked at Klaus' pained expression for the effort of keeping Ben and other ghosts materialized, and then at Vanya, the light in her chest growing brighter and larger and the high-pitched tone getting louder. Things were less than ideal, but he only needed to look at Diego's expression to understand the seriousness of the situation.
"Yes, go, bring him back to us," he affirmed apprehensively.
Diego and Lila nodded and without losing a beat ran to the house behind Dot.
Notes: Next chapter, Diego and Lila go back to the Commission, let's hope they get there in time!
As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting!