Empathy [Ben Hargreeves]

Number 1 to Number 8

☆☆☆

About four years on Earth passed for the adopted children of Sir Reginald Hargreeves before they finally gained identities beyond their numbers.

Because of a kind lady named Grace Hargreeves, Number One became Luther. Number Two became Diego while Number Three became Allison. Number Four became Klaus, Number Six became Ben, and Number Seven became Vanya. Number Eight reclaimed her birth name: Eloise. Grace was the reason that the highly-trained minions could call each other family.

Grace hadn't always around to cook, clean, and care for the children. Sir Hargreeves built her in 1994 after one too many accidents with the fragile human nannies. When Grace came into the family as Mom, she took it upon her robot self to help the children pick names. Five was adamant about keeping his number name.

For a creation of artificial intelligence, Mom was capable of love -- rarely the children doubted it, but Eloise felt comforted knowing that the emotion often radiated from the robotic woman they called "Mom."

The adopted Hargreeves brothers and sisters were an odd bunch. Not only were they all born on the first of October in 1989, but they started to show signs of being gifted from an early age.

At three years old, Luther's power was first discovered when he threw a temper tantrum and furniture went flying from his tiny angry hands. The siblings assumed that Luther coming into his Hulk-smash powers before the others was the reason that he was Sir Hargreeves' favorite -- his Number One.

Ever since she was a tiny baby abandoned on the front porch of the Umbrella Academy, Eloise was attuned to the emotions around her, but it didn't become apparent to Sir Hargreeves until he started her tests when she was almost four. Any time a sibling was in pain, Eloise would cry. She'd laugh when they laughed and threw a temper tantrum if she felt someone else's anger. Her eyes would reflect the emotions in colors that she had to learn to distinguish. Her power of empathy was easier to identify than her sister's special ability.

There was a lot of fine-tuning of voice tests conducted with Allison to perfect her reality manipulation. By the time that she was eight, "I heard a rumor" could preface any statement that couldn't be resisted by even the strongest of minds. The young girl hated when Sir Hargreeves forced her to use her persuasive power on her siblings. She was too young to understand the repercussions of her mind-altering ability.

The discovery of Five's time travelling ability happened when he was five years old -- the child sneezed and poof, he was gone in a blast of blue static. He was found in the park hours later by a search team. Subsequently, nanny number five was fired as excuses of any kind were not tolerated in any form by Sir Hargreeves.

Diego always had an infinity for throwing things. On more than one occasion, nanny number two would nearly lose an eye or a couple fingers when the child would happily play with anything remotely sharp that he could get his sticky fingers on. From wooden blocks to silverware, all objects could be made into a fast-flying projectile. His laugh would light up the room as he caused trouble. The adults never laughed with him, but Eloise did.

When he was only six, Ben's ability manifested so powerfully and painfully that his small body almost didn't make it the first time that tentacles pushed out of his chest. Monsters constantly clawed at his insides in an attempt to be freed. Every breath from then on would be a struggle to keep the monsters locked inside another dimension from under his skin. More often than not, Elle would have trouble breathing when she was around him.

At only four years old, Vanya was declared ordinary. Sir Hargreeves gave her medicine to help with the depression that came with being excluded from the team. The others were not allowed to distract themselves with Number Seven; she was ostracized, and Elle felt her pain and loneliness like her own.

Klaus was haunted by his first ghost days before his fifth birthday. He thought that his nightmares were coming to life. When one lost soul became ten, then thirty, he would scream and cry until Elle learned to pull his pain and fear into herself. Not pleased with his inability to control the spirits, Sir Hargreeves locked the young boy in a dark tomb for hours when he was thirteen. Diego and Elle teamed up to sneak into the mausoleum and let him out, which was not without consequence.

That was the first time Elle realized that things weren't quite right in the Hargreeves household. Mom was a robot and their butler, Pogo, was an intelligent chimpanzee. But what made everything clear was the realization that Sir Hargreeves was a cruel man with an even harsher agenda.

When Ben was killed in a tragic miscalculation, it was the last straw for Eloise. In 2007, she ran away from the Academy to start a new life on her own at seventeen.