His Only Hope

The Blame Game

Once you had both finished your eggs, you stood up quickly, making Sloane flinch. You tilted your head at her. Was she still scared of you? Did she really think you would try to hurt her? "Family meeting, with both families," you said, and she nodded, rising to her feet as well.

What did that even consist of anymore - both families.

Your Reginald was dead. Your Ben was dead. Luther seemed to have switched sides. And Allison... something was not right with her. You didn't even know who she was anymore. 

That left you, Klaus, Diego, Viktor, and Five. You felt an odd, reminiscent ache in your chest - you missed your siblings. Especially Ben.

"I know where Luther is," Sloane said, drawing you out of your reverie. You glanced over at his uneaten plate of eggs and nodded. 

"Lead the way."

You found him in the hallway talking to Allison in low tones, his large shoulders tense. Shoulders that were clearly visible under... the Sparrow Academy uniform. You shouldn't have felt so betrayed. What did it matter?

"Luther," Sloane called, and he spun away from Allison, who was sitting on the stairs with a cigarette.

She smoked? Shit... you had a lot to learn.

Luther walked over, and you left Sloane to talk to him, instead heading over to Allison. "Ben's calling a family meeting," you told her, and her eyes slowly made their way to your face. "Both families."

She just looked at you for a heated second, smoke trailing from between her lips. Then she stood up, dropping her cigarette at your feet and stalking past Luther and Sloane. "I'm in," she muttered before disappearing around the corner.

Your hands clenched into fists, and for a moment you felt your power flash at your fingertips without even being called upon, just like it used to.

You stepped on the butt of the cigarette so that it didn't catch the damn house on fire before walking away as well. Luther looked like he was going to say something, but you didn't want to hear his pitying words. Not when he wasn't even an Umbrella anymore. "I'll get the others," you muttered.

...

Thirty minutes later, you were in one of the many extravagant hallways of Hotel Obsidion. You hadn't found any of your siblings in the other rooms, so you decided to try to weird suite you'd seen Stan hanging around lately. The door was already slightly open, so you walked in, glancing around at the highly decorated room.

"We're not just gonna waltz back in there just because you say so," Lila was saying to Five. You smiled - it was good to see her again, even if she had brought you some pretty shitty news that you were trying really hard to forget about. And she was holding a cup of... was that a slushee?

"Well, good, because you're coming with me," you said, and Diego and Lila spun around as Five fixed you with a searching stare.

"This should be interesting," he said with a small smile. "Where to?"

"Well, yeah, I'm fine, how are you?" you asked sarcastically, placing your hand on your hip. "Oh, yeah, I was worried about you too."

Five simply scoffed, looking away. "You think I didn't check on you? You were out like a light. You were drooling as well, if I remember correctly."

You wiped the corner of your mouth impulsively, face flushing. "Okay, creep. Sparrow Academy. Ben wants us to work together now. That is, if we can all manage to put our petty bullshit aside." You glared at Diego pointedly. 

"Yeah? Or what?" he tested, clearly unable to back down from a fight.

"Or Stanley won't be the last of us to disappear," Lila said quietly, and you turned to face her, shocked.