Chapter Text
Five must have accidentally spatial jumped to the wrong place. He meant to go to the living room, where the aura is warm and somewhat inviting, so that he could relax now that the apocalypse was over. Instead, a numb atmosphere circulates through the hallway and a moldy stinge lies dense.
Five shivers with dread at the realization as he sees that the door is slightly ajar. A stream of light lures him into the room, telling him that something isn’t quite right. The unfamiliarity of where he is behind the foyer makes him want to jump back, but he doesn’t.
The first thing Five sees when he walks through the doorway is a huge metal cage. Inside, enclosed is his sister. She looks like she had been pounding at the window for hours, screaming soundlessly. Once she realizes that he is there, he sees her mouth his name, her eyes wells of tears.
Five freezes in place as a million questions surface in his mind. How did she get here? A sound guess would’ve been Harold Jenkins, but if so, where is he now? He was used to knowing everything and being several steps ahead of everyone else. Unfortunately, the past week had felt like he was being forced to jump out of a car being driven at 90 miles per hour into an eternal void.
He jumps inside the cage where metal spikes greet him, teeth bearing in a wicked smile.
“Five? Thank god,” Vanya says tearfully. She grabs his shoulder tensely, her breathing rapid, face scared and full of fear.
“I’m going to get you out of here, ok?” he says, materializing out of the cell with her.
“I thought I was going to be there forever,” Vanya stammers, gesturing behind her.
“How did you get here?” he asks.
Vanya sits down on the steps woefully and he takes a seat on the floor. A pause stills in the air. She looks at him with a trace of distress, then purses her lips and says, “Luther... he locked me up here.”
Five furrows his eyebrows. Luther. But for what reason? Surely locking someone up, locking their sister up in a cage was not the right way to handle a problem, if there even was one. Confusion and rage all mixes together inside him.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers, meeting her eyes. “But why would he do that?”
Vanya clenches her jaw before she said, “Allison and I… we got into a fight. We were both yelling… and not really listening to each other, and I…
“Go on,” Five says calmly.
“My powers got out of hand and I… I hurt her but I didn’t mean to, it was an accident, I swear. I found out about them only a few days ago, and… as it turns out, I’ve had them all my life.”
“Powers?” Five asks. For all Five knows, she’s ordinary, She doesn’t have powers like the rest of them. She never had to train, never had to withstand the abuse that Reginald had put the rest of them through. Of course, Vanya’s situation was much different from Five’s and his other siblings. She had to deal with constant neglect, people telling her that she would never be part of the Academy because they all knew that she didn’t belong there- even she knew that. And only now she figures out that she could have been part of this the entire time?
Five only had to suffer through the polar opposite side of the spectrum- knowing that he could be better than what his father said that he was, overexerting his powers past the line, until the point of brink of death.
But everything that Reginald Hargreeves had made them suffer through had been far too much for any of them to endure.
“How did you not know about them until now?” Five asks quizzically. She seems to have regained a bit of confidence judging by her facial expression, so he feels it is appropriate to ask.
At that, he saw a glimpse of rage spill over in her eyes. “Leonard Pea- Harold Jenkins threw away my meds that kept me powerless in the first few days that we got to know each other, since he had kept the secret from me that I had powers all along. He manipulated me. And from there on, well… everything that I was capable of started to unravel.”
Harold Jenkins, the convicted murderer. Vanya looks lost for words, red circles around the rim of her eyes. She sets her hands down on her lap.
“I- I murdered him.” She continues. “I know that I’m the one who slit our sister’s throat. But please, I’m begging you, don’t make me go back.”
“I won’t. I promise,” Five assures firmly.
“And… I do believe you.” Vanya’s face tilts upwards slightly in response.
“You do?”
Five gives her a nod. “Because you’re my best friend, and I trust you,” he adds simply.
Because things would be different now. Now, they had each other, instead of having his only option be to run away from all his childhood trauma. To be hanging onto the string between life and death itself, grasping onto the better half, the half filled with life. Five wanted to get all of his siblings out of the hellhole that they all struggled to call home and bring them into the future where they could start fresh. Anew. He had already failed them once, now he will not fail them again, ever. He can't risk doing that again, not on his life.
“Dad used to leave me here for hours when I was a kid. And… I was so afraid that would happen again. Except this time, I wouldn’t ever leave,” she scoffs. “It’s just weird how he couldn’t handle the possibility that I wouldn’t be able to control myself. I guess, in a way, he was right.”
“No, Vanya, you will find your way out of this. Your power may seem dangerous now, but with practice, you will learn to control them. Because this time, we don’t have an asshole of a father traumatizing us. We have all seven of us, and if we survived all of the missions that we went on as kids, I’m pretty sure we can teach our sister how to regulate what she’s truly capable of,” Five explains, facing toward her.
Vanya gives him a small smile and a nod. “Yeah, I guess, you’re right.”
They silently agree to find the others, heading to Allison’s room first. Vanya hesitates for a moment, saying, “is this really a good idea?”
Five pauses. “If what your saying about how it was an accident is true, then yes.” Vanya gives a small nod, before knocking at her door. Allison opens it, her face turning into a smile. She pulls Vanya into a hug, while Five stands there, waiting. Allison gives Five a smile too, this one happy and affable.
He peers into the room and sees Luther. He’s just sitting there, in a chair until he sees Vanya and then stands up abruptly.
“What th- what the hell is she doing here?”
Allison and Five’s faces are strewn with disappointment.
“Five?” Luther asks, confrontationally, as Five and the others step into the room.
“I got her out of the cage you put her in,” Five responds. “So that we can teach her how to use her powers, and not lock her away like Dad did,” he says sternly.
“Without telling us? She’s outrageously dangerous, Five! She could’ve killed you, don’t you see that? She could’ve killed all of us!”
Five scoffs. He really had no idea, did he?
The room starts to tremble, and the chandeliers on the ceiling shake. “My ability is tied to my emotions,” states Vanya loudly, as she steps further into the room. “If I were in that room for long enough, that’s when I could’ve killed all of you,” she says.
“She needs our help, our trust,” Five says quietly. “And apparently, you can’t seem to realize that,” he adds, looking him directly in the eye.
Luther stares off into the distance, looking defeated. “As long as you know what you’re doing,” he concludes. “But we need to take care of this now. I’ll go find Klaus and Diego, and we’re having a family meeting in the living room.”
Although Five hates family meetings, he thinks this situation calls for one. At that, Luther heads out of the room angrily to find the rest of his brothers, leaving Five with Vanya and Allison.
“Could… could I have a few minutes to talk to Allison before?” Vanya asks him. He nods, as he goes outside to the corridor.
There was still something missing- since Vanya’s powers were a newfound discovery, then maybe, maybe-
No, no it can’t be true, it shouldn’t be. Five knows what caused him to get stuck in the apocalypse, it was his powers, the overexcitement to get out, get out of the wretched house and to explore all of the unknowns, the wonders of time travel. He was too ignorant, too naive, too scrappy to understand exactly what was at stake.
And the result would have been similar in Vanya’s case. If her powers got too out of hand, then- then, it could lead to the destruction of everything.
Putting Vanya back in the cage wouldn’t do anyone any good in the long run, Five knew that for sure at the very least. All the bottled up emotional trauma would spill over eventually, resulting in the apocalypse. He loves his sister, he really does, but if they’re going to do anything important, then all of his siblings have to help her, not just him. Five knew that he couldn’t work alone in this situation. He had done everything by himself for the majority of his life, and he was just so tired of it. Before, he knew it was for the best. In the apocalypse he had no choice but to be alone. Delores helped him, but after a while, she stopped talking as much from time to time.
The house goes quiet, and he can feel the spray of ash sticking to his blazer. There’s fire, the rubble is smoldering, debris dancing in a tornado around him.
It all gurgles into Five’s mind unsteadily, and it’s too much, too acrimonious for a boy to handle.
He spatial jumps to his room in one swift movement, stumbling and grabbing a pen and paper, then back to the corridor outside Allison’s room. In the meantime while he’s waiting, he might as well confirm that Vanya would have caused the apocalypse.
His equations are always a way to keep his mind focused on pure logic- it always has been, especially back in the apocalypse.
He’s made subtle progress, though sufficient enough for the few minutes that he had, and it’s broken by the shadow of Vanya and Allison.
Allison gives him a reassuring smile that seems to say, “we’re ready,” as Luther returns with Diego and Klaus.
_____
“Alright, so let’s get this over with,” Luther says exhaustedly. “Look, I know locking Vanya up wasn’t the best idea, and I know I might’ve messed up-“
“Might’ve?” Vanya’s voice breaks through the room. “I needed your support, but you chose to ignore that,” she spits out. “You’re just like Dad,” Vanya continues.
The rest of the conversation blurs out of Five’s focus. Sitting on the edge of the stool at the bar is an uncomfortable spot to say the least, but every second is precious. He scribbles down the last of the numbers of the equation he’s working on, and pauses.
His brows furrow with concern. If his equations are correct, then his guess is correct- Vanya causes the apocalypse. He had to double check, triple check, maybe. The recent discovery of her powers had been a definite factor, and then that would make the probability one-hundred percent.
The chandelier starts to shake, and mementos on the coffee table topple off. Ironic, seeing that the house never had a single drop of coffee, ever.
“Look, we need to teach her how to use her powers, to learn how to control them, otherwise the end of life on Earth will occur,” Five states louder than he expects. Looks of confusion are plastered onto his siblings faces.
“What?” Klaus asks. “You’re saying that Vanya’s the one that causes all of this to happen?”
Five’s patience is wearing thin. “She’s the strongest out of all of us. And if my equations are correct, it only makes sense. But together, we can fix her.” This was telekinesis they were dealing with, something that would have eventually lead to the apocalypse.
“You see, Luther?” Diego says bitterly.
“And who’s a better teacher than a band of dysfunctional superheroes?” Klaus adds sarcastically.
“When can we start?” Vanya asks.
“As soon as we can,” Five says bluntly.
Tense silence sinks in the air for a moment, before a murmur of agreement comes about.