Notes: Hey everyone! Are you ready to see the siblings again? I bet Lila is not as thrilled, but what can we do? :P

Number Eight

Lila couldn't remember running so fast in all her life, was her mother – the Handler – just bluffing or had she really sent the Swedes to get Five's sister by now? Would she send someone else to get Diego at the same time?

She saw a little man with glasses walking back to the Commission with Dot, thank God they always had their coffee break at the exact same time.

"Herb, catch!" She exclaimed throwing the decoder to him, "You should pay a visit to the director's office when mom's not around," she winked without stopping.

She had heard a few rumors that there was a group within the Commission trying to resist the Handler's coup since she had become the new director, and since Herb had never been a fan of her style and had been her actual supervisor when she had been demoted, she had no doubt the little man had something to do with it.

Herb frowned at the object on his hand before realizing its implication, "wha- wait, Lila! Are you sure?" He exclaimed probably referring to more than one matter.

"Yes, there's a reason she doesn't want anyone there!" she ran backwards to look at them for a minute while putting her index finger in her lips, "just be careful!" She finished with a wide smile plastered on her face, not because the current situation warranted it, not because she wasn't feeling broken by the truth or upset about leaving Five behind, but because after so long, this felt damn right. Now that she wasn't looking at the world through the Handler's lenses, things suddenly seemed clearer, it felt like she finally knew who were the people she was meant to trust.

"O-okay, thank you. We've got you," assured Dot.

The first time Dot had called the Handler away from the torture room had been a mere twist of fate, but since she had noticed Lila was talking with Five, she had tried to keep the Handler as busy as possible with even the smallest of things, after all, those who worked at Headquarters had watched Lila grow up since the Handler had brought her to the Commission as nothing more than a whimpering little girl; and although Five had always been reserved, arrogant and hardly spent time at HQ, he had always been kind with them, not mentioning he was a living legend for every oppressed worker in the Commission after going against the Handler in more than one occasion. Yes, the hard reality was undeniable, things had looked pretty grim for Five since the Handler had captured him, but Dot had thought maybe Lila could make things a little more bearable for him and perhaps he could be the key to freeing Lila from her mother's shadow.

Lila turned back with a last nod and sprinted away with briefcase in hand. Dot smiled affectionately, happy to see that her hunch had been right.

As Lila went over the information she had, she remembered Diego telling everyone that they should move to the hideout near the beauty parlor, which back then had sounded like a decent plan, but right now sounded like the worst possible idea; she couldn't stop cursing herself for not suggesting a different idea, of course that building was part of the Commission's hiding quarters and probably the worst place to stay right now, so she wasted no time and appeared a few feet from the building.

She stopped in front of the door catching her breath, there would be no coming back after this, she'd never step back again in the Commission and none of them would see Five again. She bent putting her hands on her knees and closed her eyes exhaling, she still couldn't believe how dead serious Five had always been about this, till the end he had struggled to find a way to save his family and had even offered her a free ticket to run away with them. He hadn't begged to be saved once, on the contrary, he had gone as far as to stop her from doing anything rash to help him.

The door opened and there was Diego looking at her with big puppy eyes.

"Lila!" he exclaimed immediately throwing his arms around her shoulders to pull her into a hug, "are you okay? Where have you been? I was worried s-sick!"

Lila felt her stomach flip, she couldn't believe how much she had missed his stupid caring face. Damn you Five, I don't know if I can do this, she thought feeling tears prickling at her eyes.

"Diego, there's something I need to tell you… all of you," she muttered still wrapped in Diego's arms. She knew the Commission agents would still be watching, so she needed to be careful.

"Are you okay? Did anybody hurt you?"

"I-I'm fine, okay? Let's just get inside."

Diego took her right hand to guide her in and noticed a piece of cloth badly wrapped around a wound in her forearm, "what the hell happened to your arm!?"

"It's nothing, it's okay now," assured Lila.

He sighed and pulled her inside, "listen, you need to stay with us for now, the guys that caught my brother are no joke, what if they target you for being associated with me? ...Besides, you still looked upset when you left, I know we were busy thinking about ways to find my brother, but we could have talked things through, I know all this must sound pretty crazy to you" he gave her a side glance.

Lila felt a mixture of immense fondness for the idiot and incalculable remorse for the brother she had left behind. She was brought back to the las time she has seen Diego; he thought she had been upset by the revelations of his family and their powers, but she had only been worried about Five's recent wound; so many things had happened since then, maybe if she had used the Switchboard to look at what had actually happened with her birthparents instead of looking at the new apocalypse, things wouldn't have gotten so precarious for Five, maybe they would have had more time to plan, perhaps he could have escaped instead of being doomed to dying alone as the Handler's lab rat. She wanted to break down and tell Diego everything, no matter the consequences, but they couldn't afford to waste time, she couldn't risk Vanya or any of them getting killed because they could not trust her after revealing her connection with the Handler and the Commission, after revealing her part in their brother's downfall. No, she'd go with Five's suggestion for now; she had promised herself that she'd save all his siblings, that was the least she owed to him.

"Oh hey, welcome back to the madhouse, I thought we had scared you away!" Klaus greeted her with a cheerful smile making the rest turn their gazes at her.

"Hey," Lila breathed shakily trying to push away the thought of Five at the Handler's mercy.

"Hey, is that what I think it is?" Luther pointed at Lila's briefcase.

"Wh-what's the meaning of this!?" Allison turned to Diego pointing at the offending item in Lila's hand.

"Wha- Lila? Care to explain?" queried Diego with a small frown, he was such an open book, despite the briefcase, he refused to jump to any conclusion. He was so easy to love, so trusty, she wondered if she really deserved what Five had offered.

"Listen… there's something I have to tell you all…," she stopped, studying all their expectant faces, as a realization came to her, she couldn't lie to these people, she didn't want to lie to them, at least not to Diego; if she really had a chance to start over with them, if Five had given her this chance, at least she owed them this much, so she braced herself and spoke out, "I… I work for the Commission, I'm an agent like your brother used to be."

"WHAT!?" Roared Allison standing up followed by Luther.

"Wait Allison, let's hear her out, she came to us, let's listen to what she has to say at least!" exclaimed Diego interposing himself between her and his siblings, not without giving her a deeply shocked and hurt look.

"So, as I was saying, I'm an agent… more accurately, I was an agent for the Commission, I escaped a few minutes ago."

"So, were you some kind of prisoner like Five then?" asked Luther confused.

"No, not really, the Handler… well, she's my mother and—"

"Your mother!? Really Diego?" Bellowed Allison incredulous.

"Told you she was fishy," scorned Ben to Klaus.

"She has kids!? You're the Handler's kid? …Oh…OH, so that's why you know how to fight like that!" mumbled Diego as the realizations kept stacking up. "Wait, how was I supposed to guess that, Allison?" he stammered.

"She adopted me, just like you all were adopted," interrupted Lila, "in fact… there's something Five mentioned… were you all born in October 1st 1989?

For a moment everyone looked at each other bewildered.

"What are you saying… y-you have powers too?" Asked Diego.

Lila nodded.

"Prove it then," demanded Allison crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Well… for starters," one of your brothers died, right? I think you're not aware for some reason that he followed you to the sixties?" Lila pointed her hands at Ben, manifesting him for a second.

"WHAT!?" Everybody turned their eyes at Ben and then at Klaus accusingly.

"Well… I… I was going to tell you, okay, but then things kept happening and then it had been too long and I didn't know how to bring it up anymore," mumbled Klaus gesturing dramatically.

"That's not true and you know it, you just didn't want to acknowledge my presence for some narcissistic reason of yours," Ben reproached him.

"You're unbelievable, Klaus," muttered Diego, looking at the place Ben had been just a minute ago, wishing Lila had kept him with them for a little longer.

"So you can see death people like Klaus?" frowned Luther.

Lila rolled her eyes with a smirk, "here, hand me one of your knives," she said reaching a hand to Diego.

"What, why?"

"Just do it."

"Fine, but you better not hurt anyone," he warned handing her the knife.

"No problem," smiled Lila as she threw a knife directly at a wide-eyed Klaus before bending its trajectory to the wall, "you all would be dead by now if I wanted to hurt you."

"What in the actual hell!?" Cursed Diego.

"I can do everything you people do, just better," she smiled cheekily.

"So there are more people like us…," mumbled Klaus studying Diego's knife.

"Yes… looks like it… anyway, that's why the Handler adopted me. Turns out she sent Five to kill my birthparents when I was a kid by faking an order from higher command."

"That's so wild," fathomed Klaus rubbing his forehead, "we had it bad with good old Reggie, now imagine being the Handler's kid."

"So I'm guessing you just found out she was the culprit," supposed Diego.

"Yeah… it's complicated to explain it all, but turns out she's a lying psycho."

"No kidding she's a psycho, whatever gave you the clue?" Snorted Luther.

"I mean, we could have told you that since day one," chimed Klaus, "just saying."

"Yes, I'm an idiot, but—"

"No hold on, wait a minute, that means you knew all along that the Handler had our brother and, more importantly, you have a very good reason to hate him. Why should we trust you? For all we know you were helping her all along and this could be a trap," Allison narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Yes… I knew she had him and I was keeping watch on Diego as other Commission agents are stalking each one of you right now, but I didn't know he had killed my parents until very recently too." Lila was starting to wonder if this had been a terrible idea, "I I don't want to lie to you, okay? I did want to see him dead when my mo- the Handler told me he had killed my parents," Allison puffed unimpressed, "but then I found out the whole truth and realized he had just been another pawn in her game, just like me."

"How are we even supposed to trust anything she says?" Maintained Allison to her siblings.

"Listen, the little jerk can be a pain in the ass, but he grew on me, okay? There's no time for this right now, you've got to hear me out!"

"Right, if you're telling us all this, it means you want to help, right? Can you help us get to Five?" Asked Luther, always earnest and optimistic.

"I…" a knot in her throat choked her voice, eyes prickling with unshed tears, "I can't," she muttered.

"What, why not?" Asked Diego with a sinking feeling.

"You guys brought the apocalypse with you to the sixties; your sister Vanya is the key again and the Handler is planning to kill her as we speak. And Five… he helped me find out the truth and distracted her so I could escape unnoticed but, he knew he was…," she tried to think of a way to soften reality, "too weak to escape, he asked me to help you guys save your sister and escape back to 2019. He was pretty sure everything would be fixed like that."

"The apocalypse, how did that even happen?" Questioned Luther perplexed.

Allison lifted a hand to silence him, so angry she couldn't even look at Lila, "so you're saying you basically just left Five to die alone with that woman after he helped you out?"

"I I didn't want to, but he knew this was the best chance to save you all… he begged me," added Lila with misty eyes surprising Diego.

"Who cares if he begged you, he's insane, you should have tried to help him out!" alleged Luther.

"Okay wait, hold it right there, do you think this was easy for me!?" Lila felt a sudden flare of anger, "yeah, I should have realized a lot of things sooner, I should have realized that my mother was a monster faster and I should have trusted Five, but what's your excuse?"

Everybody went silent.

"You're all so full of yourselves blaming me for this. Did you really believe he'd prefer to be a hitman instead of being with his family after spending more than 40 years trying to find his way back to you people?" she pointed at Luther, "and you, didn't you want to hurt him just a couple of days ago? You should have seen how upset he was after breaking your fingers" she pointed Diego, "weren't you two so angry at him you couldn't even notice he was acting weird?"

Diego and Luther interchanged glances filled with guilt, she had a point, they hadn't considered Five's situation until a few days ago.

"And you two are no better," she pointed at Allison and Klaus, "you needed to see him risking his life for you to actually worry and look for him, and from what I could gather from your ghost brother here, it seems like you didn't even want to check on him when you saw him," she finished throwing daggers at Klaus with her eyes. "You were all so oblivious to his humanity, that none of you considered the strain he had been through by time-traveling you all, maybe if any of you had kept looking for him instead of whining and blaming him for bringing you to the sixties, the Handler would have never captured him! You should have seen how worried he was for you all, how broken he looked when he realized you all had moved on and made new lives instead of looking for each other. You have no idea of everything he's endured just to keep you all safe, how could you doubt him? I mean, don't get me wrong, he can be a jerk, but jerk or not, I've never seen anyone more devoted to their stupid dysfunctional family…" she lowered her eyes to the ground, "We're all to blame here, okay? …but this was his decision in the end and he entrusted me to help you guys save your sister and escape back to 2019."

The silence was louder than a raging storm, everybody taking in Lila's words, how could they have treated Five like that?

It had been so easy to look past all the sacrifices he had made to blame him for everything that was wrong, after all, he had skipped on the golden years of the academy, right?

It was so simple to throw everything at him, he could take it all and more, he always had since they were kids, in the end he had always managed to keep Reginald's focus mostly on himself.

And it was too easy to assume he was unbreakable, he had always put up a front to keep everyone at bay, but they were supposed to know better than that, he had always needed them as much as they needed him, maybe more.

All of a sudden, Klaus broke the silence, "...so what, are we supposed to start listening to him now?"

"Hell no," spat Diego.

"So, we all agree on this, right?" Surveyed Luther interchanging glances with everybody as Lila just watched in confusion.

"Ben says 'yes'," murmured Klaus somberly.

"Of course, there's no way in hell we're leaving him in the hands of that disgusting woman," nodded Allison.

"Oh… OH, thank God!" Lila breathed out with surprised relief when she realized what they were talking about. These people were crazy thinking they could still save Five, but if she was honest, now she wanted nothing more than to believe they were right, she wasn't really ready to give up on him either. "Honestly, I don't think I would have been able to live with myself knowing I owed that much to the puny little turd!"

Allison smiled at her remark, finally relaxing. That was definitely some common ground. "It's settled then, we're getting Vanya and then we'll rescue Five."

"Yeah, and someone remind me to yell at the idiot to stop pulling that self-sacrificing heroic shit he tends to pull," Diego muttered still surprised that it had taken them this long to realize Five was in trouble.

"Yeah," chuckled Klaus, "it's weird, isn't it? Fivey might be a genius and most likely the most dangerous of us, but sometimes he reaaally needs to be rescued from himself." Then he turned his gaze to Lila and smiled, "By the way, welcome to the family!"

Notes: I was going to end with something like, "Oh by the way, you should know your sister has amnesia," but since the chapter was called Number Eight, I wanted to finish it on a sweet note like that, guess we can all just imagine Lila told them about that later, right? :P

Thank you so much for reading and for all your lovely comments, you guys rock!