Lila brought them back to the breaker room that they originally returned to. Both of them coughing a little as there was some residue smoke in the room. But the one part that Cielo forgot about was the effect blinking had on her. Same as all those incidents of Five blinking her, she fell over from an unbearable pain. Curling up into a ball to hold her head in fetal position. Groaning loudly over Lila's concerned questioning.
"Woah woah. What's wrong? Come on Cielo. Snap out of it. What did I do?" Lila said while holding back her panic.
"I'm fine..." She said between gags.
"You look anything but fine."
She groaned again. "... A minute."
The room was silent as she tried to calm down. Silent meaning that she was biting down on the inside of her cheeks to hold back the screams trying to escape her mouth.
Lila thought about getting Five to help her handle this. She didn't think of herself much as a caretaker. It was his power that did this. He could take responsibility for causing all of this. They wouldn't have jumped if his family weren't being an issue. That all being known, she wondered why Cielo said everything she did. She didn't even look at Five when challenging all of them. Lying here on the floor in pain was essentially her consequence for going against the norm. Lila couldn't get Five knowing she had reason for taking the risky route.
All Lila did was sit next to her friend in pain. She had to trust her. Including her decision to go against the Umbrella academy.
After what felt like forever, Cielo started to feel the headache settling down. It wasn't their powers that did this to her. When the three of them jumped using it she was fine. It could have been due to the help of the briefcase but she knew that wasn't what was happening. She felt pain because it was space that she was travelling through. Space was against her moving through their powers. Her other-self's memories were the ones giving her the headache. Telling her that it wasn't safe to be messing with space when all of time was in her head.
"Sorry about that Copycat... I'm okay now... Fuck, I forgot I couldn't blink." She shallowed the saliva that tasted of blood. If she was careful with how she spoke, hopefully her friend wouldn't notice the bleeding inside her cheek.
"Does that happen with Five too?" She helped her sit up.
"Yeah. Completely forgot about it. Ugh I feel like throwing up. Please no more for me." She rubbed her face groggily. The pain had settled for the most part but her mind still felt a bit foggy.
"Want a throw up bucket?"
"No thank you. Hand me the briefcases?"
Lila nodded, giving her the two that were used to travel to and from the Commission. "Oh but there is technically one more here. You probably won't be able to use it though."
Cielo raised her head to look where her friend was pointing. Her eyes landing on a third briefcase that was hooked up to the hotel's electrical system. She didn't get a chance earlier but their set up made her really understand that them actually reaching the Commission to be a miracle. Best way to get her throbbing mind back on track was to show her the stupidity of the former Commission members.
"Did you guys try to hotwire this?! It's not a fucking 1900s family van!" She sprung up, disconnecting all the wires. Practically hugging the badly burnt briefcase like it was a living thing that got caught in this mess as Lila helped her friend steady herself standing.
"I would like to blame that on Five." Cielo raised an eyebrow. "Okay I knew it had a 99% chance that it wouldn't work."
"I can't believe you two used to be our best operatives." Cielo rolled her eyes as she sat next to her personal briefcase. Moving it, she could already hear the inner parts moving around. Not supposed to happen. Three briefcases yet none of them were properly working. One she could tell from the outer appearance alone. None of them were going to be an easy fix. Opening all three, all the inner mechanisms were fried. Not even trying to jump start itself.
"How do they look?"
"Bad. When the waves started we lost all communication with agents on field. Briefcases stopped working then. I can't imagine the ones you two had lasted. Now that you two cooked these from the inside, I don't know if I could do anything with this."
"Well if anyone can, it's going to be you."
"Thanks Copycat. And um thanks for getting me out of that situation just now. I'm really glad that Spaceboy is kind of a pacifist. Can't really take a punch from him."
"You know your brat wouldn't have let that happen. Or me for that matter." She hoisted herself up onto a rickety old table.
"Speaking of brats, you want to explain your spawn?" They had a lot to talk about since they last saw each other.
"Don't call Stan a brat. Despite his shortcomings, his mom raised him well. She was a great person in general."
"I'm guessing you're not speaking in third person. Please tell me you didn't kidnap a kid."
"No he came with me willingly while his mom was on vacation. I asked him because I wanted to test if Diego would be a good dad." Cielo looked at her friend rubbing her stomach in a circular motion.
"Copycat- you- are you-"
"3 months. It's his." Lila braced herself for all the questions and warnings of caution. What she was doing wasn't sane. Taking a kid into a completely different era for the sake of testing a mentally unstable man to be a parent wasn't normal.
Originally this wasn't something she wanted to do. Finding out she was pregnant was a nightmare. She was a fugitive with no connection to the real world. Her only skills were in lying, stealing, and killing. She saw how those ended up reflecting in a kid through a first person perspective. No one deserves to go through what she went through.
It was after Lila got to know Stanley that she started to see the possibility of actually raising the baby in her stomach. His rough upbringing didn't make a bad human. He loved his real mom even if she made her mistakes. The fear that came with her having the child was still very much present but the thought of having a family, one from her own choice, made Lila come here. She found Diego to see if what they had was real.
"You would be a great mom." Lila's eyes widened hearing how casually, yet genuinely, Cielo said it. She didn't have to think about the statement. She knew that Lila would raise it with all the love she could. With Diego by her side, they would have many many problems, but they would be loving, caring parents. They didn't need to see the future to ensure that.
"You say that until you're babysitting every other day."
"And I will take them in with open arms. A child between you and Kraken is going to be an adventure itself. Think it'll have powers? Yours are quite useful."
Lila chuckled, swinging her legs. "Who knows. We'll have to wait another 6 months."
Neither of them mentioned the high chance of not even having 6 days.
"That means I have to work extra hard to get that fake spawn back to his time period. Berlin 1989. Strange. That means that he, minus Five, would have been older than all of us. Don't tell him that. Last thing we need is another old man constantly reminding us of his age."
"I love it when you complain about that little shithead." She laughed causing her to lose focus for a moment, shocking her fingers from the briefcase's wires. She only bit her lip and held back swearing. It was her fault for not being more careful. This was sensitive work. She couldn't be messing around her friend if she wanted to succeed.
"Five... Five is too caught up in the apocalypse. He risks too much for a gain that is too great for how short he looks ahead."
"You sure we're talking about the same person and not his family? They are willing to dooming 7 billion people over 1 old man. Talk about risk with little gain." As much as Lila trusted the former co-chairperson's opinion, the decision to save Harlan seems illogical in every angle.
"It's not 7 billion people they should be worried about. It's the remaining 10 Hargreeves and you that are in danger. If there is something I learned from watching you October 1 children is that family is a heavy word."
"What? Shouldn't having a family be more advantageous? One that they grew up with and would risk everything to save them too."
"They are also the reason why they got roped into this mess. They always call for family when they need each other. Any other time they fight as if it's a free for all."
"Is it really that bad?" Compared to Lila's family situation, and her current forming family on the rise, what the academies had was paradise. They were able to expand their powers and became famous as superheroes. She was the fugitive that had her parents murdered. She looked at the academies as if they had everything they needed to succeed.
"It has its up and down that makes it hard for them to see eye to eye. I don't want them to hate one another. Not when they had their own form of love for so long."
The news plastered them like the perfect team. Viktor's book made them look nothing more than fellow prisoners with their lives at constant stake. Cielo's own personal experiences made her realize that they were just people that didn't know how to show their love. They were raised to take care of others at the sake of themselves. But with the neglect of oneselves, they unknowingly became selfish, self-confident, unable to open up until someone broke that barrier.
Unfortunately, fortunately, that person was always an outsider to the family. In that case, they betrayed their family. If one could actually call them that in the long run.
Cielo could see why each of them were fighting. Harlan wasn't solely Sissy's kid. He was someone that Viktor had personally known. A kid that he spent days and nights with to the fullest. During that time, his main concern wasn't in his powers, returning to 2019, or his family. In 1963 Viktor was someone that no one could recognize. He was happy there. To let that die because those that oppressed him for so long said so?
"I'm not afraid to challenge his brothers who don't understand what exactly it means to argue with him. The longer the argument went on, the less of a chance they could fix their relationship. I just... intervened a little. It may be a tiny divergent to the whole conversation but it will make a difference. I ensure you of that."
Lila never saw that a look of weakness on Cielo before. No that wasn't entirely true. Once. For a second. When they were talking about the Hargreeves brothers being lost in time. The former co-chairperson was always strong. Being in charge of managing Time wasn't easy. There was always an image she had to uphold. If at any moment she let her guard down, anyone could have taken her out. She didn't have powers like Lila or experience like Five. She was just a woman with locked away memories weighing her down.
However, just like before, Cielo shook off her discontent emotions. Time was not meant to change. It was a neutral force that she had to speak for. No matter what she wanted, she had to let everything take it's course. Where many in Commission hated her for her decisions, she had to have confidence in them or she would die.
"You know, we're not at Commission anymore. You don't have to play the bad guy role."
"Is that your goal?" The two turned to Five finally making his appearance. Cielo didn't greet him as she continued her work.
From her peripheral vision she could see him silently asking for Lila to leave. At first she didn't seem like leaving the two of them alone. She doubted that the boy would do something to her but they were both stubborn and vulnerable right now. Leaving them be could result in them hurting each other more.
Normally Cielo would have let them at it because she expected it of the two. However, this time she was trying to deal with delicate work. Having them slowly raising their whispered threats was more annoying than if they were punching it out.
"You guys can't go two seconds without fighting, can you?"
"Maybe if he wasn't so stuck up we could get along."
"Yeah well I don't really like fraternizing with people that have been consistently after my life and my family's."
"You want to talk about family murder?" Lila started to take it personal at this point.
"Okay that's enough of you two. If you're going to fight, then don't do it when I'm around. Copycat, why don't you check on your somewhat boyfriend that was going to help cover up his brother's murder caused by your spawn? I think you might get the answer you were searching for."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. We'll be fine." There was some hesitancy but Cielo only continued her work. She already shut herself off. Lila's words wouldn't reach her. At the same time, she knew that Five's would. That was the effect he had on her friend.
"If you say so." Respecting her wishes, Lila hopped off her seating point. Brushing past Five, she leaned down enough to be next to his ear. "Do anything to her and I'll break every bone in your body."
"Noted." He returned the threat with his usual tight lipped smile. She scoffed at him, purposefully pushed his shoulder and left. Five closing the door behind him. Alone once again. Though the few minutes they've been apart had put a bit of strain given her comment on his family's action.
"You know Kraken said the exact same thing to me once for you. They really are the perfect pair. I wonder if we ever did something like that."
"So is it your goal? Making yourself the bad guy?" He repeated.
"I'd rather be the bad guy than have one of them be. Especially not Violinist." She said without any hesitation.
"You might want to run that plan through Viktor. He just told us that he won't hand over Harlan. Why did you put that idea into his mind?"
"I didn't put the idea in his head. I merely acted as the devil's advocate. Everything I said, I meant. His death means nothing. Only giving your family a false sense of security at the sake of your brother."
"Why do you value Viktor so much?" She set her tools down. Turning only her head to meet his eyes.
"Because I want him to be happy. I want you all to be happy. Because you all deserve so much after all that you've suffered. I'll play the bad guy role as I always have."
She was adamant on her decision. And he knew her well enough to know that what she said wasn't of malice. It was to protect everyone in mind. Particularly him. She did so much to protect him, this wasn't going to be any different. No matter the barrier she put up, he knew that it was only a front. Acting like an outsider so that Viktor, who was always in that position, wouldn't have to be alone. She was doing it all to help his family. Not herself.
He slowly kneeled down to close the briefcases. She dropped her head as if the sound of them closing made her lose the image she had built up at Commission. All she wanted was for Five to hear her out. It may not match up with what he wanted but she knew what she was talking about.
"I'm not experiencing a moral dilemma here. What do you think being co-chairperson meant? My position had no choice but to put my personal desire aside to save everything."
"But you weren't dealing with the apocalypse. You were cleaning up what the Handler messed up and establishing a new board. You had the ISB, briefcases, Herb, thousands of workers, every skill Carmichael had and more. We don't have that here."
"Excuse me?"
She was offended by his words. He didn't know what she went through. The work that he left behind for her to deal with after 1963. She signed off on a piece of paper to kill people as if that's all those people were worth. Watched hours upon hours of people living completely normal lives in ignorant bliss. She saw her past life before meeting Five. Her family, friends, the 2019 she knew was abandoned for his version.
"Commission was equally in shambles after what your family did in 1963. We lost 58 percent of our agents, the board of 12 members that studied timelines for centuries, 89 percent of briefcases and because of Mister fish head's death only I could access 95 percent of private files that would have been lost otherwise. That's not to count losing the Swedish Triplets, Copycat, yourself, and, though Handlebar was insane, she was good at her job. Add on the butterfly effect all of you had on the timeline, it took every Commission member working overtime to find a starting point to fix everything."
It didn't matter that she had resources to fix things. Her needs came second to Time's. Even further down when it came to fixing the Umbrella Academy's issues. He had no idea what she went through to fix the problems they started.
"As the person that set a record by ordering 105 kill orders in less than single month of my swear in, I choose to save the Bargain point even with the Sparrow alliance on the line. It is not because of anything personal. That is my final decision. Whether you guys choose to follow that is up to you all."
This was the first time he saw the Commission side of her. Unlike Lila who she put up barriers for the other girl's sake, Five was always her safe place. He knew her before all this mess. They never had titles between them. Never Number Five of the Umbrella Academy or Co-chairperson of the Commission. Only the strange kid from the street and the one that gave him an umbrella.
When they met she was so full of life. Whatever she went through at Commission drained her. It hurt to think that this was the fate that she had lined up. She wasn't raised nor trained the way he was. The more she dealt with internal madness that was Time and Space, the more he could see her falling without a chance of getting back up.
"You can't keep going like this, it's not healthy."
She scoffed. "Says the man who's addicted to saving the world. Since when did exhaustion stop you? Why can't I do the same?"
"Because I'm not going to allow you to wreck yourself the same way I did. I made the decision to ignore you once before. I won't do that again." Her lip quivered as if she was holding herself back from crying.
"But you will. I know you will. And you have no idea of the unbearable tragedy of getting what you want that is awaiting you all."
He heard it briefly when she was arguing with Luther but he didn't realize the weight behind her words until now. "You want me to stop trying to save the world."
Her gaze went towards her watch. "I don't want you to save me."
All the arguments he came up with to counter her logic crumbled. It was supposed to be simple. He would come here, talk it out and they would agree on a solution. Yet she so easy to say she had no desire to save herself. What was he supposed to say to her eyes with no light?
"I wasn't meant to survive the apocalypse. The only reason why I did was a mix of luck and Old man Five's work. I'm a time anomaly. An extremely dangerous one in theory but even the Kugelblitz was a theory up until today. You want to save the world? The world wants to kill me." She picked up her tools once more.
"And you're just going to accept that?"
"Well I'm trying to fix these briefcases. What else can I possibly do? I don't have powers like you or your siblings. I'm not a genius like your adoptive dad. I'm a member of a fallen organization that you hated with all your heart not a few hours ago for you. I'm the bad guy. Accept that."
"But now we know you quite literally have all the universe's secrets in you. If we can somehow tap into that we can find-"
"Don't you think I want to?!" She forced herself to take a deep breath. "Since we met, I've been fighting to save something. The Earth, Time, you, your family, my family, Commission, something! I so foolishly thought that I could change fate. And when I thought that I figured out a solution to a several centuries old problem your Kugelblitz comes along and takes out everything, solidifying everything I was taught to respect!"
He recoiled at her suddenly releasing her built up frustration at him. She was breaking. Even he wanted to stop fighting against their fate. They were both tired but he didn't stop. She was trying to help in her own way but it wasn't enough.
"Be it the memories that were forced into my head or my own will, I don't care. Killing a random man when the human population is less than a hundred is nothing! The universe is cruel. You should know that. We do not need to be adding to that. I will not contribute to that based on someone else I've never met before telling me to. I'll be the bad guy if that means you, Violinist, any of them don't have to be. The answer you desire does not exist. All you can do is find the next best alternative. This is the route that I've chosen to follow."
Commission protocol. The final phrase she spoke was one he heard often. It was Commission protocol to not fight against what Time wanted. Direct answers never exist, be grateful that you have an alternative that can work. He wasn't grateful. The more he fought, the more he was going to lose. That was the standard that came with time travel.
He didn't know how to respond to how defeated she looked. It was always her that brought comfort between the two of them. She was the one that looked to the brighter side of things. Yet when she told him that the world was trying to kill her, she spoke like it was nothing important. She was willing to sacrifice herself if it meant that Viktor and Harlan were safe.
He can see why she wanted to save Harlan. Her logic was sound in trusting someone that killed for them rather than the Sparrows that demanded murder to get on their good side. All of it showed that yes she was right. But to hell with logic. It was Commission logic that wanted the apocalypse in the first place. Harlan wasn't family. Cielo had to see...
She wasn't family. As much as she had been with them through all the mess, she wasn't family. She didn't even have powers like Harlan or Lila and if she couldn't fully access her memories, there was no difference between her and everyone else on this dying planet. They were normal and subjected to be erased at any moment. It wasn't that she trying to sacrifice herself. She was just making the most of her time left that the others couldn't. Her death was insignificant.
"You're scared."
"Let me answer that statement with a question. What is your anchor?" An anchor was a pseudo treatment that Commission had used to ground their agents. The idea was that the thought of something or someone would keep their members from loosing their minds from the all the travelling done. More times than not, the idea failed in the long run. The longer that people spent in their industry made them every case closer to losing their minds. An anchor could only last so long before agents realized that what rooted them was long gone.
"You already know it's my siblings."
"You said earlier that the Bargain point was insignificant. Why? He killed 2 Sparrows and is the main deciding factor of if the families unite. That's insignificant to you? You've tried so hard to keep your family happy yet you're willing to sacrifice the person that Violinist cares about. You're contradicting yourself and you don't even realize it. That's what I'm scared for."
"For myself or for you?"
"You Five! What happens when our anchors disappear? You go insane. You start to question whether or not all their effort was really worth anything. I'm not scared of the Kugelblitz, your siblings, Sparrows, or of the fate that I've been barely avoiding for years. I lost the one thing that kept me rooted. My anchor had done nothing wrong and still he died because of this. I'm scared that someone else has to face this pain and confusion! Yet all of you are so focused on murdering a man that killed to protect you all?! You can't be serious!"
She wasn't crying. The tears were on the brink of falling out but it never started. They just sat there as a show of what she was trying so hard to control. She was already at rock bottom. Dragging others down wasn't the answer.
They sat in silence. She had said everything she had to. What happens next was up to Five. Making a decision to save the world used to be easy. Prioritize his family. That was the only thing that he cared about. Then came along the woman silently awaiting his answer. He didn't want to go against her knowing her record of being correct. He just couldn't side with her giving up.
"State a condition." He put his hand over the marking on her briefcase. "I know that your logic is perfect but if that logic kills all that I hold dear then I'll have to go against you again. State a condition so that I know that you'll still be by my side when it comes to the point that we have to be on opposite sides again."
He couldn't come to a conclusion on his own. He needed her help. Right or wrong, she was a catalyst for the next step. That's the only thing he had confidence in. Same when they first decided to get along, there had to be some rules set to follow to give them both comfort. Thinking a bit more about it, Time probably loved its rules.
Sucking in a deep breath, she quickly wiped the tears away so that they wouldn't fall. Finally, he was starting to understand what she was telling him. She couldn't be passing that up by appearing weak. By stating a condition, it was a start to get him to understand what the Kugelblitz was and how they could solve it. They needed to work together even if their goals were opposite.
The briefcases laid all around her. Her mind was still going through every possible way to fix them. There was something she could feel telling her that this was not going to work. Where she wanted to stop, he had to continue. They were once again on opposite sides despite wanting the same thing. They both knew this but they were still so close. Right beside each other despite everything that should say that they shouldn't allow it.
"My condition is simple. Don't blindly hate your siblings. Be it Umbrella, Sparrow or Copycat. All those that were born of unusual means, those that suffered from a fate forced upon them, do not hate them for trying to protect what form of normalcy they cling onto."
"I can't control whether or not I hate them. Lila is very much pushing that boundary if it wasn't for Diego."
"I said don't blindly hate. I can't control your feelings yes but as the eldest I expect you to be a bit more mature." Her shoulders lowered themselves. "Hear each of them out. Listen to them. Their choices may be crazy or illogical in your head but to them it's not. Your anchors are what keep you sane, don't look at them as an image. See them each as individuals. That's my only condition."
While the condition wasn't anything inherently hard, he had his concerns. Rather than a rule that he had to strictly follow, this sounded more like a request. And rather than trying to force him to hear out more of her side to save Harlan, she wanted him to listen to someone else. Whether it be Viktor that votes to keep Harlan or Luther to sacrifice him, she wanted them both to be heard. It would be contradictory. He already knew what each of them wanted and who they were.
Ultimately as well both sides didn't have the expertise that Cielo did. Listening to them would be near pointless. It would bring arguments, frustration, it would only cause more fighting amongst them. His siblings may love each other in their strange own ways, but they weren't very open minded people. Hearing each of the idiotic ideas instead of Cielo's was not necessary.
In the end this was the condition that she needed to stay with him. As strange as it was, it was no different than her original condition of helping him with nothing more than a promise to use manners. In more ways than one, this was very her like that it wasn't too unheard of that he couldn't fully understand the goal.
"I accept."
She removed his hand from her briefcase. Holding back a wince that reminded her of the electrical shock she got earlier, she shook his hand. "Then it's going to be an absolute pleasure working with you once more, Five."
