Nexilis ° f. hargreeves

five

The girl nodded, though she didn't feel hungry, she ate a little of everything and downed the water. While she ate, she let her powers loose to explore the house. Her brows furrowed as she found that she was no longer alone in the house with its original three occupants. Instead, there were five new people in the Hargreeves residence, their emotions all over the spectrum.

"There's someone in the house," Minerva said, voice better now that she had something to drink.

"Yes, your siblings are home for the funeral," Grace said, not turning from the bookshelf where she was putting the books into boxes that had her name written messily on them.

Minerva tensed. In the years she was stuck here, she'd never heard them come and visit her. She'd only felt them leave slowly over the years until she was stuck with the strangers outside the city to keep her mind busy.

And a funeral? Her heart sunk at the thought of one of her siblings dying despite her distain for them at the moment.

Sensing her confusion, Grace turned with her usual robotic smile. "Your father passed away a few days ago just after he gave you the cure for Dr. Koch's serum."

"Cure? Why would I—" she cut herself off when her mother handed her a mirror that was resting on the dresser. Her breath caught her throat as she touched her face in disbelief, watching her twin in the glass copy her actions.

She was still sixteen.

It dawned on her then: the serum worked, it had kept her young. But then why was she still in that coma? She didn't understand. Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the noise around her and her breathing picked up.

Her bastard father was dead, her fickle siblings were back, she was twenty-eight stuck in her sixteen year old body.

A cold hand landed on her cheek and she looked up, eyes wide, at her mother whose face was the epitome of calm and love. With her lasting concentration given to her by Grace, Minerva reached out and focused on one of her sibling's emotions. She didn't know who it was but they were the most positive in the household. Within a few seconds, she was calm, having channeled the better emotions into her own.

"Better?" Grace asked, picking up the shattered mirror that Minerva had dropped in her shock.

"Yes, sorry..." The blonde waved off the apology.

After Grace picked everything up or set it to the side to be cleaned later, she turned to smile at Minerva who was still processing everything. She'd already flipped the switch on her powers, numbing them for the moment. Something else she'd learned in her time under.

Grace then helped Minerva and her sore body change into her dreaded Umbrella Academy uniform seeing as it was the only thing that would fit her.

The girl rolled her shoulders to ease the pain of so much movement as her mother finished off braiding her hair.

"All done!" Grace cheered, a beaming smile on her face. "Let's get you to your siblings. I'm sure they'd love to see you alive and well after so long."

Minerva hesitated. Her siblings hadn't bothered to see her, why should she care to see them? But her heart tugged at the thought of seeing anyone who wasn't her mother or father for the first time in so many years and being anywhere other than this house. She missed them with all her heart despite being abandoned by them over and over again.