Capítulo VII- Reunión Familiar
Vydia didn't completely wake up until Diego and Luther left. She was disappointed in herself for not noticing Lila was gone right away, especially when she was always attached to Diego's side like Vydia and Five were always attached by the hip. Someone always had to ask where she or he was when they weren't together.
"Hey, Elliot," Vydia called his name. The rasp in her voice was still there. He poked his head out of the kitchen. "Did Five or Diego ever tell you where Lila went?"
"Uh," he stood underneath the doorway, "I think Five said something along the lines of she can't be trusted." She nodded. Lila must've done something besides the fact she left Vydia lying on the ground to follow Five. "So, who exactly is coming over?"
"The whole Hargreeves family, sorta. Just three more of Five's siblings."
"So there's six of them?"
Vydia stopped folding the blanket in her hands. "Yes, but no. There were seven of them, one is dead."
"Oh," he mumbled. "Uh- how are you feeling?" Elliot questioned, awkwardly not knowing what to do with his hands.
Vydia picked up the pile of blankets, "I don't know. My bionics haven't returned yet, they probably will later."
"How did you become powerless?"
Vydia knew the number of questions Elliot asked was in the hundreds, he was like a curious little kid discovering a new topic. Which to his defense he hadn't seen anything as abnormal as the Hargreeves family. He's only heard about the conspiracies he has hung on his board.
She answered, "It's a bionic destabilizer, it shuts down my system and it's one of the worst pains I've felt in my life."
"Oh, I'm sorry about that." Vydia shrugged and her stomach growled. Elliot heard the noise and asked, "Are you hungry? Cause I could make something to eat. What should I make?"
Vydia smiled at the kind gesture. "I don't know, whatever you'd like."
"How about a salad?"
"What type?"
"Ambrosia, you've ever tried it?"
"No, but it wouldn't hurt to try it."
"Perfect. I'll get on that."
"Okay, I'll finish cleaning up while you make the food," Vydia piled the one blanket left on the other couch onto the pile she held. "Oh, and Elliot." He turned around to face her again. "Thank you for letting us stay here after we barged in and tied you up, sorry about that."
He merely smiled, waving it off, "It's okay. This is what I've been working on since you all arrived here." He mumbled to himself, "I can't believe these conspiracies are real."
Vydia smiled and proceeded to the closet to store away the blankets. She cleaned the messy living room and left out the information they had to show Allison, Klaus, Luther, and Vanya. As the ambrosia cooled in the fridge, Elliot cleaned up the kitchen.
Vydia hopped into the shower to wash off the jitters from yesterday. After that refreshing shower, she can confirm she felt better. However, her muscles ached and her bionics hadn't returned. Elliot was kind enough to make her a hot tea for her throat.
Diego, Luther, and Vanya were the first to show. Surprising Vydia, they brought her mattress. Her grin widened ear to ear as she thanked them. Diego and Elliot sat on different sofas. Luther, Vanya, and Vydia shared a couch. Five bowls laid on the coffee table. They listened to Elliot's story about the ambrosia he made.
"Y'all know, Jell-O used to be a delicacy. You know, in order to make it, a whole mess of hooves. you know, horses, cows, pigs,it doesn't matter. But not everybody has a mess of hooves just lying around. It wasn't until uh, a couple of sassy New Yorkers figured out how to dry it out so the rest of us could have a chance to have this delicious ambrosia."
Diego glimpsed up from his knives on his lap to Elliot, "If we have, some will you shut up?" Vydia shot a glare at Diego.
Elliot shrugged, "Maybe." He grasped the spoon and dug it into the ambrosia. He dumped three scoops in one cup. The sound it made in the quiet space caused Vydia to softly giggle, she didn't know why. It was probably the awkward explanation Elliot gave.
Luther's face scrunched up as Elliot served the salad. "How you feeling?" Luther peered over Vydia asking Vanya.
Slanted on the couch, Vanya had her hand on her stomach. She quietly answered, "Pretty shitty, to be honest."
Diego flipped his knife in the air gawking at Vanya, "Where would you say you are on a scale from one to ending all the life on this planet?"
"Really?" Vanya lifted her head off the couch.
Vydia rolled her eyes at Diego. "Thank you, Elliot," she picked up the salad and scooped it into her mouth. It had a funny texture. It also tasted better than she thought. Vydia hadn't had much to eat this morning, she took another bite of the salad.
"Diego, put the knife away, you idiot," Luther leaned forward. "She's fine."
He continued to flip the knife in his hand, "The last time I saw this one, she had me suspended in midair, sucking the life out of me with energy tentacles." He pointed his knife at her while looking at Luther, "I think I'm allowed a little time to process."
Vydia scoffed, "Let me help you. She had all of us midair with an energy tentacle. She also was very pissed off."
Elliot piped up, "I would love to see an energy tentacle." Luther gave Elliot a confused glance as Vydia shook her head.
Vanya slanted forward, apologizing, "I don't remember what I did, but I'm sorry. If- if that means anything."
Diego held the knife in his hand, "It does. Just going through a lot right now." He played with the knife in his hands, "There's this girl that I like-"
"Lila," Vydia coughed.
Diego glared at her, "I thought she liked me but turns out that she's-" a bell and a laugh interrupted him.
"Oh, thank god," Luther rose from his spot.
Vydia sent Diego a sympathetic look. "Sorry," she mouthed. She trekked to the railing over the empty floor. Allison and Klaus stumbled into the shop. Besides their new change of attire that suited the 1960's their hairstyles changed as well. Allison had shorter black hair with bangs and Klaus's curls grew to his shoulders.
Allison shouted, "Hello?"
"Le petit mort, le petit mort," Klaus spoke in french. Vydia met eyes with Five, a tint of annoyance coated his face.
"What? You don't speak french."
"It's, 'the little death.'" Klause and Allison giggled. "Oh, wow. Look at all this old stuff." Klaus glanced up at his family on the balcony, "Oh, wow. I know this is impossible, but did we all get sexier?"
The Hargreeves looked at one another. Klaus sent a wave to Diego and Vydia who stood next to each other, she returned the gesture. Allison didn't remove her gaze off of her sister on the balcony, "Vanya."
Vanya bounced herself off the railing, "I can't believe I have a sister."
Vydia's hand glid along the railing as she rushed down the stairs. A massive grin slapped across her face meeting everyone downstairs. She shifted her weight to her heels in excitement. Klaus opened his arms and embraced Five and Vydia, "Ah, my favorite old couple."
Vydia giggled, "Hi, Klaus." Five groaned shoving them away. Vydia rolled her eyes and wrapped an arm around Five's waist.
Klaus turned to Diego and he supported his brother by grabbing his neck, "Oh, You are so drunk."
"Yeah. No... just a little... just a few," Klaus faced Allison and Vanya hugging, "Oh, that's so sweet." He sauntered to them joining their hug.
Vydia could hear the smile in Vanya's voice, "Hi."
"Hi, Vanny," Klaus kissed the top of her head.
"Klaus, is Ben here?" Five inquired.
"Oh, uh, no. No, unfortunately, ghosts can't time travel."
"All right, then," Five dropped his hands out of his pockets. "Let's get down to business," Five clasped Vydia's hand, dragging her up the stairs.
"Hi, Allison," Vydia waved as Five hauled her upstairs.
"Hi, Vydia," Allison waved, smiling.
Vydia detached herself from Five. As the family settled in the living room, Vydia scooted her mattress next to Five. She took her ambrosia and plopped back down.
"All right. First off, I wanna say I'm sorry," Five apologized to his family. "I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole going back in time and getting stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."
"Oh my god, again?" Klaus glanced at his family, no one shared the same shocked expression as he did. "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the- Oh my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five!"
Vydia swallowed the ambrosia in her mouth. "I'm sorry. Cult?"
"Yeah, I told them we had until 2019."
"We have until Monday. We have six days," Five deadpanned unfazed hearing the news of Klaus's cult.
"Is it Vanya?" Klaus slurped his beverage.
Vydia choked on her food. Allison and Vydia scolded, "Klaus."
"What?" he wined. "It's usually Vanya."
Vydia narrowed her eyes at him, "It only happened once and it wasn't entirely her fault."
Vanya rolled her eyes at Klaus, dismissing his comment. "Do you have any leads, Five?"
Diego grabbed the file off the chair and gave it to Five. "Yeah, we have one," Five passed the file to Allison. In it contained the picture of Reginald Hargreeves.
Allison flipped it open, "Holy shit. Is that dad?"
"Yeah. That's him standing on the grassy knoll," Diego confirmed.
"Diego, Vydia, and I have been trying to talk to dad about what exactly this means. So far, nothing," Five conversed.
Diego objected, "Not nothing. He's planning to kill Kennedy."
"Maybe, but we don't know who or what causes doomsday in motion. Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent."
Vydia set her salad next to her, "Whatever it is, we need to change it back to how it used to be to make sure the timeline stays intact."
"Yeah, but how if we don't know what's broken," Allison pointed out.
Diego scowled, "Come on, do the math. We know dad's having shady meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president. So, I think we all know what we have to do."
At the same time, Diego stated, "Kill dad." and Five stated, "Find dad." Vydia's shoulder slumped looking at them, picking up her salad. Five turned his head to Diego. Allison scoffed and took a swig out of the alcoholic bottle.
"None of us are supposed to be here, right?" Vanya suggested, "I mean, what if it's us. Has anyone done anything to screw up the timeline?"
Vydia pressed her lips together. She set the bowl on the table done with the ambrosia. The Hargreeves siblings didn't say a word, the only thing heard was Allison pouring her drink into a cup.
Luther was the first to speak, pointing his finger, "Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald."
Diego pointed his finger and shot back, "And you're working for Jack Ruby."
"Allison has been very involved in local politics," Klaus slurred, slouching on the sofa.
"Okay," Allison gestured to him with her drink in her hand, "You started a cult." Klaus responded by meowing and clawing at Allison- Vydia followed his line of vision and it seemed like Klaus meant the gesture for someone else behind Allison. Vydia's eyebrows furrowed.
"I'm- I'm just a- a nanny on a farm," Vanya slightly rose her hands in defense. "I don't have anything to do with all of that."
Allison's shoulders lifted, "Well, maybe you do, we just don't know it yet."
Diego whistled cutting everyone off. The bickering came to a stop and they adjusted their gaze on him. "Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new livesis connected to Kennedy. That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is... doing something weird and pervybut probably related. See, clearly, we were all sent back herefor one special reason, saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
Vydia laughed, "What? That's absolutely absurd." The overlapping of the Hargreeves siblings washed over the silence in the room. Vydia turned to her left taking note Five hasn't said anything. By now he would have told them to shut up. She touched his fingers, snapping him out of his trance.
"Guys, you all die," Five croaked. "I was there. I saw it and I wanna forget it but I can't. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it. You all die in a war that never happened until we brought it here."
The unsteady tone in his voice struck Vydia at the pit of her stomach. It was the same tone he used when he first told her what happened and it still gave her the same feeling. She wanted to get up and hug him, but not now. She knew how difficult it was for him to show vulnerability in front of his family. Vydia gently grabbed one of his hands to bring some ease.
"Hazel gave his life to save us. So, you need to shut up and just listen to me. I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there is a reason for everything. But dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."
"Okay," Luther sighed, jumping off his seat, "I'm out."
His vulnerable state gone, Five sternly said, "Did you even hear me, Luther?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I did. I heard a 58-year-old-man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up." Luther shuffled to the stairs ignoring his siblings and Vydia's protest.
Diego trailed behind him, "Hey."
"Save it, Diego," Luther grumbled.
Five spun around and spatial jumped. Vydia held in her wince as she stood up. Five demanded, "No one leaves until we figure this out."
Vydia staggered to the railing, her legs fell asleep from sitting on the mattress. She witnessed Luther throw Five off the railing. "Hey, what the hell, Curious George! That's my husband you just threw!"
"Yeah, I'm sure he's fine," Luther didn't look back at her.
Vydia gripped the railing, "You're lucky he jumped away and I'm injured. You know, you're getting on my nerves today!" He left the building ignoring her threats with Diego behind him.