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“Be reasonable, Five”
It was at times like this when Five regretted training Vanya. Most of the time, he was proud of her for how far she’d come. When they first went back in time, Vanya had been less than eager to trust him or any of their siblings or any person for that matter. Not that he blamed her with an asshole manipulating her into going off her meds, accidentally killing and seriously injuring a group of thugs and unintentionally causing the end of the world. It didn’t help that most of their siblings (including Five himself) had attempted to kill her in order to save the world.
Looking back, Five had to admit the end of the world as they knew it was more of a collective endeavor rather than simply being just Vanya’s doing. Vanya’s powers may have caused the moon to explode and crash land on earth. But hindsight did tell him the apocalypse could have been prevented in several ways without having to kill Vanya.
Reginald Hargreeves could have been less of a horrible parent and actually put in more effort in training her rather than making her believe she was a worthless nobody all her life. Pogo could have told the truth at any time. And if Pogo had been so afraid of Reginald, he could have revealed everything from the time the old man succeeded in offing himself.
Klaus could have decided not to carelessly throw the old man’s notes for Harold Jenkins to find and later use on Vanya. Diego could have been less of a jerk instead of making Vanya feel like shit and drive her into Harold Jenkins’ slimy arms. Allison could have decided to let Vanya cool off instead of trying to use her Rumor. And Luther could have just talked Vanya into the anechoic chamber instead of forcing her into it by choking her and letting her wake up inside it.
Five could have decided to swallow his pride and stayed at that breakfast table instead of running off and getting himself stuck in the apocalypse. He could have made more of an effort to find out what exactly happened to Vanya when he only found four siblings in the rubble of his childhood home. He could have chosen to stay in her apartment and possibly prevented her from being more susceptible of Harold Jenkins’ dubious charms (one look at the asshole’s photograph was all it took for Five to label him a creep) instead of chasing a lead he thought would have helped him stop the apocalypse. Yes, hindsight was indeed twenty-twenty. And knowing what he knew now told him how life loved its little ironies.
He was sure there were so many other things that could have been done to have prevented the end of the world the first- no, it was the second (from Five’s perspective) time around.
But what was done was done. And normally, there was nothing anyone could do to change that. Not unless one had the power to jump through time and space.
So when they managed to jump back eight days before the apocalypse with their consciousness finding themselves in their bodies at the exact time all living siblings were huddled in the kitchen and watching Five fix himself a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, the feeling of relief and shock permeated the room.
It was a good thing Vanya’s body (as of eight days prior to the end of the world) was still under the influence of Dad’s medication. Because while Vanya’s face registered confusion (perhaps bordering on agitation), there were no sharp utensils suddenly floating around.
That didn’t mean they could let their guard down when dealing with a close to distraught Vanya.
Five and Allison did their best to convince her that they meant no harm. That they want to help. In the end, Five had to jump behind her and brandish a knife. But instead of using it to slit Vanya’s throat from ear to ear (as she might have expected), he placed it at the palm of her hand.
The part of Five that survived a post-apocalyptic wasteland was sounding alarm bells in his head, telling him how incredibly foolish it was to give Vanya a weapon she didn’t know how to use. Five may be counting on his ability to jump out of the way, but with having just used his powers to send seven people (six living and one dead) back in time, he was at his limits. Not to mention that Vanya could just as easily hurt herself with the thing.
But thankfully, his leap of faith succeeded in gaining her tentative trust.
And so Vanya’s training began. They had to gradually wean her off her medication, much to Pogo’s objections. But after seeing what happened to the earth after following Reginald and Pogo’s way, none of the siblings were willing to give Pogo’s excuses another listening ear.
But for everyone’s safety, the siblings had to move Vanya to a more secluded location, away from other people who might end up being collateral damage in their quest to help Vanya gain control of her powers.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they went as far north as Alaska and as far south as Antarctica to ensure they had enough privacy to conduct their training in peace. Harold Jenkins attempted to train Vanya by solely focusing on having her powers manifest and leaving Vanya to try her hand at controlling it.
Obviously, Harold Jenkins was an idiot.
A power as great as Vanya’s needed a lot of physical, mental and emotional preparation. While she can harness a lot of energy, Vanya needed to be fit to be able to utilize its full force without accidentally causing harm. And she needed to quiet her mind from all the anxiety and doubt that plagued her.
The first few weeks had Vanya waking up screaming from her nightmares. She knew she was directly responsible for ending the lives of billions of people.
At the same time, there was no way she could simply stop the weight of her powers by relying on her medication. The Commission would always be there to try to ensure an apocalypse happens. And Vanya had to be prepared to go on without her pills if she wanted to live and not cause the destruction of a whole planet.
Five was honestly impressed with her dedication. But again with hindsight, he should have known Vanya would approach training the same way as practicing her violin. More than anyone, Vanya knew that the only way to succeed was to keep trying. Even when the initial attempts could only be described as disastrous.
And now here she was, holding a building back from collapsing all around them, while Five ran out of energy to use his powers to take them away. He was also losing blood. And his vision had started to blur. Five’s body may have grown to match his siblings’ age, but it wasn’t any help in this situation.
Vanya didn’t have full control of her powers yet. Over the course of their training, they found out that Vanya had little trouble packing force into her blasts. Her problem was being able to fine tune her attacks so that a blast directed at an escape vehicle (for example) wouldn’t end up destroying the whole highway.
It required more effort on Vanya’s part to contain the force of her powers rather than the other way around. So it wasn’t surprising to see her struggling to keep the building from crushing them when she would need little effort in having various sections fly to different parts of the city. This was, of course, out of the question as it could possibly harm and kill innocent bystanders.
Five knew all that. He also knew that Vanya’s suggested plan of escape was valid. Still, he had his pride. The apocalypse may have steeled his pragmatism. But he retained enough of his pride.
“No! I’d rather die”
The glint of anger on Vanya’s face should have been enough to make him back down. All it did was make him notice how beautiful she looked even as she seemed ready to skewer him with a pole. The blood loss must be getting to him for him to get distracted like that. Admiring Vanya’s features should have been reserved only for times when she wasn’t looking. And her full attention was on him right now.
Five had to stand up and walk off the blood loss. That sounded about right.
Unfortunately, he found that his legs weren’t cooperating.
“Five, if you won’t let me carry you piggyback style, I’ll carry you bridal-style!”
It was then that Five found himself with only two options.
So he chose. And the police were greeted with the sight of a grown man riding piggyback on a petite dark-haired woman as the building behind them collapsed.
Five would have flushed if he wasn’t losing a lot of blood.
The only thing that soothed his embarrassment was Vanya holding his hand the whole ride to the hospital and the soft feel of her lips on his cheek right before he passed out.