(Chapter 11|Leave)
"YOU WANT TO WALK AWAY FROM THIS?"
☂️
Katherine, Diego and Meredith arrived downstairs, where Allison had been tending to Vanya's wounds after the encounter.
"Who were those people?" Vanya asked as she pressed a cloth to her bleeding head.
"I don't know. But we are lucky to be alive. You sure you're okay?" Allison asked, taking a seat next to Vanya.
"Yeah, thanks to Katherine." Vanya nodded, smiling at the speedster who looked up in surprise as her, Diego and Meredith walked by.
"You would've done the same for me." Katherine smiled.
"Diego?" Allison questioned, noticing his shaky breathing.
"What are you still doing here?" Diego asked, getting rather angry as Katherine placed her hand on his shoulder making him take a deep, calming breath.
"I'm just trying to help."
"No, you could've been killed." He shouted taking a step towards Vanya. "Or gotten any of us killed. Especially Katherine, who was preoccupied, saving your ass. She is a liability."
Katherine stood in silence, Meredith placed a comforting hand on her arm causing Kat to turn and smile at her.
"Allison?" Vanya questioned.
"I think what he's trying to say is that this kind of stuff is dangerous." Allison began.
"And we don't want you to get hurt." Katherine finished making Allison nod her head in agreement.
"You're just..."Allison started.
"Not like you." Vanya sighed, waiting for a reply to which there was none, she got up from her seat in a frustrated state.
"No, that's not what I...Vanya wait."
"Let her go. It's for the best." Diego said from his place on the other side of the room, making Katherine look over and shake her head.
"Excluding our sister isn't what's best for this family."
"You know what I mean, Kat. Vanya leaving means she'll be safer than she is with us." Diego walked over to Katherine and grabbed her hands, taking them in his.
"I guess you're right."
———
*flashback*
Young Katherine Hargreeves had finally had enough, she didn't want to live this life anymore. The superhero life was never what she wanted much like many of her siblings, she wanted out and she would do almost anything to have her freedom.
After a stressful day of training with her father, Katherine had decided she would do it, escape, break free, leave this prison she was forced to call home. She had packed a bag and collected enough money over the years that she would successfully be able to survive alone.
Although, leaving the ones she loved behind would be the difficult part. She zipped her suitcase closed and pulled it off the bed and onto the floor, turning on her heel to find someone she didn't want to leave behind.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm leaving, Diego, I can't take this shit anymore. It's too much." Katherine's voice cracked as she wiped stray tears from her cheeks.
Diego looked shocked to say the least and more dumbfounded that she was going to leave without him.
"You want to walk away from this? Fine. But don't expect me to come chasing after you." He blinked back the tears that were starting to form in his eyes.
"Diego. Don't." Katherine said, walking towards him and went to grab his hand to which he pulled away leaving a hurt look on the girl's face.
"No. I thought we had something special, Katherine. Apparently, you don't feel the same. So leave for all I care and don't come back." He spat.
Diego left Katherine alone in her bedroom, her legs gave way and collapsed on the floor. A river of tears began to flow from her eyes, she lent her head on the side of the bed and sobbed into the sheets, her cries could be heard all around the house.
Diego felt a tight pain in his chest at the sound but before anyone could check if she was okay, she had picked up her suitcase and left the house from her bedroom window and she never looked back.
And suddenly Katherine Hargreeves was the first member of the Umbrella Academy to break free of their father's grasp.
———
The trio of Katherine, Meredith and Diego has left the academy feeling cautious of their surroundings, knowing that Ivanov could be anywhere.
They jumped into Diego's car, Diego still in quite a state of frustration due to the recent events.
"Where to?" Diego asked.
"Well the logical thing to do would be to find him before he finds us so, what've you got Mer?" Katherine turned to her friend in the back seat.
"I don't know. Didn't you say Diego has a cop friend? Why not ask her?" Meredith suggested looking up from her phone.
Katherine sent a look to Diego who sighed and started the engine, before the group drove off towards Patch's house.
———
Arriving at Patch's, the trio exited the vehicle and knocked on the door, Meredith spent her time sitting on the porch step and admiring the house whilst Kat and Diego waited by the door.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" Patch rolled her eyes as she glanced at the pair.
"Three." Meredith shouted from her seat on the step.
"Sorry. Three. Now explain."
"You haven't had any reports of an aggressive Russian man, about 6'2, have you?" Katherine asked, a pleading look on her face.
Patch raised an eyebrow before looking from Katherine to Diego and then answering.
"Coincidentally, a guy with that description was just spotted downtown and he was asking for you actually, well, more like screaming. I was just about to check it out." Patch said.
"Shit." Katherine muttered before running over to Meredith and pulling her to the end of the garden and the best friends began to talk intently.
Diego sighed before lying down on the steps, where Meredith has previously been sat. Patch noticed the boy's behaviour and took a seat next to him.
"Who'd you piss off this time?"
"I gave it as good as I got."
"You didn't answer my question" Patch said.
"How's all that paperwork coming along?" Diego asked looking towards the girls at the end of the garden.
"Its a real page-turner. I've got two guys in children's masks, rare bullet casings, a random fingerprint from a 1930's cold case and I just learned that the tow truck driver from the doughnut shop didn't have any family."
"The boy." Diego started.
"Not his apparently. Kid's our only possible witness and he's a complete mystery. Okay, what's going on?" She finally asked.
"Nothing, it's just, uh, my mom. She died last night." He said solemnly.
"Shit. Diego, I'm so sorry. I remember how close you were. Is Katherine okay?"
"Katherine's fine, taking it better then me, anyway. It's just...I don't know how to..." Diego tried to explain.
"Is that what this is about? Tell me what's going on. Who did this?"
"Lets just say we didn't get a good look at their faces." Diego said, threateningly.
"You went after the guys in masks, didn't you?"
"I didn't go after them. And one's a woman...by the way, so stop being so sexist."
"I specifically told you not to follow them." Patch started as Katherine looked over to the two ex-lovers, who where deep in conversation and felt a twinge of jealousy burn inside of her.
"No, they came to my house, looking for my brother. They tried to kill my family." Diego began to get angry again, making Meredith and Katherine exchange a glance and make their way back over to the car to wait for Diego.
"Why?"
"I don't know. He's been missing since yesterday. I need to find him. As well as that Russian bastard whose trying to kill Kat."
"Diego, you need to let me handle this. You're not equipped.."Patch was cut off.
"Oh, you always loved telling me what I can and can't do. No wonder we didn't last." He spoke blankly.
"Maybe that's why you and Katherine are so good together. Because she lets you do all this shit." Patch smirked, slightly.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Diego looked over to the car to see Katherine leaning against it, waiting for him.
"Don't kid yourself, Diego, I know you. You're still in love with her, you don't have to be a genius to see the way you look at her." She smiled rubbing his shoulder before getting up from the step and walking off.
Diego looked up and towards the car and saw Katherine smiling at him from afar and even after what they went through, the sight of her smiling still warmed his heart and made him blush slightly.
He got up and walked towards his car, unlocking it as the girls got in.
"What do we do now?" Diego asked Katherine
"Now, its time for a good, old-fashioned game of manhunt."
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