Lila, Elaina and Tony stood in the destroyed living room of Sissy's shattered house, peering towards the new huge opening Luther's body created when Lila flung him like a rag doll.
"Luther!" they heard Allison shout from the other side. "Luther!"
"I'll get this one, too," announced Lila as she started heading towards the opening.
"You can't hog them all, Lila!" called out Tony, making Lila simply flip him the middle finger.
Elaina's hands moved from Tony's arm to down to his hand. Tony looked at her, unused to the affectionate touches from the girl, but nonetheless enjoying it as he smiled down at her, squeezing her hand. Tony's eyes drifted from her intensely infatuated gaze to their hands, bringing his opposing hand on top of hers, pushing up the sleeve of her jacket slightly to reveal the reflective shimmer of Elaina's star bracelet.
Tony stared at the mocking chain and frowned deeply, his fingers quickly unlocking from her hand, jumping to the bracelet's hook.
Elaina's eyes widened as she yanked her wrist back, almost instinctively as she brought it up to her chest, cradling it with her opposing hand. "Don't," she said instantly.
The teen solely looked at her, a knowing yet curious looked crossing his face as he pulled his hands back slightly. "What's wrong, Els?"
The girl looked at Tony, her hand still cradling her wrist as she responded. "I-I just want to keep it on. Why are you trying to take it off?"
"Why do you want to keep it on?" he redirected to her.
Elaina shrugged as she looked down at it. "It feels wrong taking it off... Wait, didn't you give it to me?"
Without skipping a beat, Tony nodded. "I did, and that's why I want to take it off of you," he said, his hands cautiously reaching back to Elaina's wrist as she hesitantly allowed him to begin to take it off. "I never realized how tacky it was, you deserve better than this," he said as the clamp of the bracelet unhooked and he removed the chain from her. "I'll get you a better one," with that, he tossed the bracelet to the brick pile, watching as she stared at it, clearly conflicted. "Maybe one with diamonds, what do you say?"
"I mean, if you say so," she responded, absent mindlessly rubbing the spot the bracelet sat on before.
Tony eyed Elaina, his pupil enlarging slightly as he felt around in her head, confirming his suspicions to his mother about the kiss. It really was starting to wear off and he could feel her subconscious will banging on the metaphorical door that Tony placed in her mind, trying to break through to take back the reins. The fact that she could subconsciously remember the significance of the bracelet was just the tip of the iceberg and Tony knew it.
The brown-haired teen gave her his best smile, throwing an arm over her shoulder. "Let's check up on Lila," he said, guiding Elaina towards the opening.
The pair made it in time to see Luther still passed out on the floor as Lila and Allison punched and kicked each other. Allison managed to kick Lila in the stomach and twisted her arm around where she got Lila in a chokehold.
"I heard a rumor..." she started off.
"Why is she wearing a cape and gloves?" snickered Elaina as she took in Allison's outfit.
Allison paused for a second, her brows narrowing a bit in confusion at Elaina's question and her friendliness with the teen boy from the opposing team, his arm comfortably resting on her shoulders.
Lila took the opening with a smile as she finished Allison's sentence. "...you stopped breathing."
Allison's eyes momentarily turned white as the rumor reversed itself and affected her instead of Lila. Allison began to gasp for air as her lungs screamed for oxygen. Lila started to chuckle as she looked at the woman struggling to breathe as she looked over to Tony and Elaina. Tony gave his sister a proud smile as Elaina watched Allison in amusement, the corner of her lip turning upward in a crooked smile as she leaned closer to Tony.
It wasn't until Allison brought her hands up and started grabbing her throat that it triggered something within Elaina.
Luther gained consciousness just in time to see the rumor and jumped to his feet. "No! Allison!"
"Allison, no!" screeched Elaina as the blood started to freely flow from Allison's throat. "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God," she kept repeating as she felt Allison's weight drop into her.
Elaina could hear the scene in her head as she watched Luther fall to the ground with the wheezing Allison. Flashes of a cabin, heavy wind, a violin bow and blood played in her mind.
"No! No!" shouted Luther, his eyes frantically looking around for someone to help as he desperately held onto the woman. "You gotta fight it. Allison, fight it," he kept chanting to Allison as he looked her in the eyes before looking over to Elaina, seeing her expression slowly transform from amusement to unclear concern. "Elaina, help! She's not breathing!"
Elaina felt the tears rush down her face. She sobbed as she tried to keep her small bloody hands over Allison's wound.
"Allison..." she mumbled, taking a tentative step forward before a sharp pain invaded her mind, making her bend down and grab her head.
Tony only looked down at her, his eyes fully black, as he made sure to put an end to the memory. Tony's power worked almost like a parasite invading a host, once his lips made contact with his victim (depending on the kiss) he could temporarily enslave them or simply 'persuade' the way they think, being able to only skim through their minds while they were in his trance and only being able to see what they're thinking at the moment, not anything farther. It was a power similar to Allison's, except the boy didn't have to be around for it to work and it only worked on those who've been at least pecked by the teen's lips.
Tony's black eyes turned to his sister, where they shared an anxious knowing look among themselves.
"What are you waiting for?" stated Lila as she motioned over to Elaina. "Fix her!"
Tony nodded. "Right," he said, grabbing Elaina by the arm to stand her up straight, a hand going under her chin to make her look him in the eyes. "Shhhh... it's okay, estrellita," he said soothingly as she continued to groan. "You're going to be okay," Tony reassured as Elaina's pupils started to grow.
Out of the brick pile, Five crawled his way out. His mind still hazy as to what happened, because the last thing he remembered seeing was Elaina, and her eyes... they seemed almost black. The boy shook his head as he was about to stand when something reflective caught his attention. Five reached out his hand, his brows furrowed, as he picked up the golden bracelet that sat discarded on a lone brick.
He lifted it up, automatically recognizing it's dainty star design. "Elaina?" he questioned, looking around as he stumbly came to a stand, placing the bracelet in his pocket.
When Five lifted his head, the sight he witnessed damn near took the breath from his lungs as he stumbled backward against the stray bricks. Elaina -- his Elaina -- was with her hand on Tony's bicep as the teen held her by the back of the neck, his lips on hers. Five felt his heart rate speed up, his hands balling into fists as he shook with fury.
Tony pulled away slowly from Elaina, his face still remained centimeters from hers as her eyes stayed shut. "Better?" he whispered.
"Mhmm," responded Elaina in a daze, her eyes, now black again, fluttered slightly open as she stared at Tony, attempting to lean in again, to which Tony stopped.
"Whoa there, we got things to do," he stated, his hand on her arms as she pouted. "We can continue later,"
"'Kay," she pouted, making Tony chuckle.
He felt the chilly air suddenly get colder as he looked back over to the living room, specifically the brick pile, where he caught the murderous look on Five's face. The teen relished in the look as he shot the boy a smirk.
"I think it's time we move on from here," stated Tony, his eyes focused on Five.
"Why?" she questioned, following the teen's line of sight to Five. "Oh, he's up," disappointedly stated Elaina. "Should we kill him?"
Five could hear Elaina and he felt his chest tighten at her words. It wasn't until he took a step forward that he got a proper look at the girl, confirming what he saw earlier as he stared at her eyes, and instead of seeing the warm brown eyes he knew, what stared back at him were cold black ones.
This wasn't his Elaina.
"What did you do to her?" growled Five, his jaw clenching and unclenching itself.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Starboy," taunted Tony, Five noticing Tony's eyes matched Elaina's. "Adios," saluted the teen as he held onto the girl, black smoke circled them as it poured out from Tony's sleeve.
"Elaina!" cried out Five, as he spatial jumped to them, only by the time he made it to where they were, he was too late. Elaina and Tony disappeared in Tony's black smoke cloud, just a trail of it slipping through Five's fingers. "Son of a bitch," swore the boy as he looked around to where they could've vanished to. Five's eyes then landed on Lila as she continued to entertainingly watch on as Luther urged Allison to breathe. "You looking for me?" Five called out, deciding if he couldn't get his hands on the kid, he could at least kill his sister and see if that'll draw him out.
Lila's face instantly changed at the sight of Five, going from a smile to a grimace. "You little turd,"
"Let's dance," he said as they both spatially jumped deeper within the house.
~.~
Luther was able to blow just enough air into Allison's mouth to help her breathe on her own, breaking her out of Lila's rumor. It wasn't long after until they heard Diego calling out to them, his foot still trapped under the tractor, wanting someone to get him out from under it. Vanya, Klaus, Allison, and Luther all ran to Diego's aid.
"What took you so long?" accused Diego as he looked around at his siblings.
"Well, we're here now. Do you wanna stop complaining?" said an irked Luther.
"Or we could just leave you here," suggested Klaus.
"What he said," agreed Allison, shoveling snow away from Diego's leg.
"Does everything in this family have to be a discussion?" questioned the impatient Vanya as she bounced on the heels of her foot.
Luther lifted up the tractor as Allison quickly helped Diego get his foot out.
"Are you out?" grunted Luther.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Diego, making Luther ease the machine back down. "Team Zero! Unstoppable!" cheered the man as he tried to high five Luther, but the ape-man instead went in with a fist to pound Diego's.
They both pulled away awkwardly.
Allison shook her head at them. "Okay, has anyone seen Five?"
"I don't know, he's around somewhere," responded Luther before he looked over to Diego. "By the way, your ex-girlfriend can blink like Five,"
"Yeah, that bitch just rumored me so I couldn't breathe," added Allison.
"Let's not forget she also mirrored Elaina's force field and destroyed, like, half the farm with a shock wave," chimed in Klaus with an eye roll. "So unoriginal,"
"Speaking of Elaina," intervened Luther with a wary expression. "Something's wrong with her,"
Diego narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, 'something's wrong with her'?"
"It's like she's under some sort of mind control," explained Luther as he looked between everyone. "Her eyes were black and she was saying crazy things about them being her family and not us, that-that she didn't even know me. I'm pretty sure the brother was behind it."
"Mind control?" asked Klaus, his eyes wide.
"Yeah," nodded Luther.
"Luther's right. Before Diego's ex rumored me, I saw Elaina," recalled Allison grimly. "Black eyes and very close to that guy,"
"Close how?" questioned Diego suspiciously.
"Like, he had his arm around her and she looked... happy, but like a cynical happy."
"Elaina?" asked Diego in disbelief. "In-Love-With-Five Elaina?"
"I'll put it this way," said Luther. "A chimney fell on top of Five and she didn't give a damn. Said she loved this guy instead,"
There was a stunned silence that spread throughout the group.
"Oh, we're screwed," declared Klaus after a moment.
"How does this happen?" asked Vanya.
"Allison?" questioned Diego as he turned to his sister.
"What?" she responded.
"You're the only other one with mind control abilities here, so, tell us how it works!" exclaimed Diego.
Allison scoffed. "First off, just cause we have similar powers doesn't mean they're the same. Secondly, I was unable to determine the nature of his abilities due to my gasping for air!"
"You know, I don't think he was even in the room when she became like this," thought back Luther. "She was regular ol' Elaina, and then she wasn't,"
"So he can literally control her mind. I mean, he can tell her what to do without being there," put together Allison. "See, even I can't do that,"
"If they can do everything we can and can't, they might as well just be one of us," stated Vanya thoughtlessly.
At first, everyone gave a chuckle until they actually stood around and thought about it, realizing how possible the chances could be.
~.~
The black smoke spiraled in the air before settling in the middle of a snowy field near the barn as the bodies of Elaina and Tony materialized.
Tony looked down at Elaina, bringing a hand up to her cheek. "I'll be in the barn. I think I'm going to give Lila some back up with this one,"
Elaina leaned her cheek against his hand. "Back up for some kid? She can handle it. Look," she motioned her head to the other side of the barn where the remainder of the Hargreeves loitered around. "We'll have so much fun taking them out. We can meet up with Lila afterward,"
"Don't be deceived, Els. He's the greatest assassin the Commission's ever seen," stated Tony in a light yet serious tone. "Plus, it's personal for her. I gotta be there,"
Elaina took a deep before begrudgingly nodding. "Fine, look out for her. I'll make it quick with them and catch up. I wouldn't want to miss all the fun,"
"That's my girl," complimented the teen as he brought his hand down. Elaina smiled, Tony returned a small one at her as she started heading towards her forgotten siblings. "Els," he called out to her, making her stop and turn to face him. "I'm... I'm sorry..."
Elaina's forehead creased as she tilted her head. "What for?"
Tony opened his mouth, and then shut it, shaking his head. "Nothing, I-I'm just sorry that I'm letting you deal with this on your own,"
Elaina scoffed, waving her wrist at him. "Their toughest guy is an idiot, I think I got this," was all she said before turning back around, disappearing into thin air as her shoe tracks led to the other side of the barn.
~.~
"No," Luther was the first to speak. "No, there's no way. It can't be,"
"It's a reasonable conclusion," said Allison as she looked around to her brothers and sister.
"Eh, but there were only eight of us," calmly stated Klaus.
"Maybe we need to consider that there's more of us out there," concluded Vanya, as Diego looked on with a mildly terrified expression.
"Are we surprised?" asked Allison. "I mean, Dad never told us the whole truth about anything,"
"But they're not our biological siblings right?" questioned a nervous Diego, earning a look from everyone. "What, I'm asking for a reason," he snapped.
Suddenly Diego's head snapped aggressively to the right as a loud smacking sound echoed. Everyone else looked at him with a mixture of confusion and concern. Diego grabbed the side of his face with wide eyes as he looked around frantically.
"What the hell was that?" asked Allison with an anxious expression.
Klaus slowly inched closer to the tractor. "You don't think--"
"Shhh!" hushed Diego as everyone remained silent, the only sound was the faint wind.
The feet were suddenly kicked out from under Vanya as she fell to the floor with a hard thud. A purple blast hit Luther in the chest, sending him flying backward.
Klaus looked down at the snow as he ducked underneath the tractor, seeing small footprints appear close to the attacks. "Guys! It's Elaina!" shouted Klaus as Diego looked down at him. "Look!" he pointed.
The snow tracks were going towards Allison next until they stopped, slowly turning and taking a side step towards Klaus as Elaina appeared before him. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," she clicked her tongue as she shook her head, her cold black eyes taunting him. "You shouldn't have done that," Elaina gave Klaus a smile that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Klaus winced as he tried crawling backward. "Laney..." he whined.
As she took a step forward, Diego launched forward, a roundhouse kicked towards Elaina's face as she brought her arms up in an X, blocking the kick in time as Diego threw a fist at her next, which she dodged with seconds to spare. Elaina spun and tried to knock the feet from under him, but Diego jumped, blocking a sideswipe to the right.
"Come on, Elaina! Snap out of it!" he yelled in frustration as he continued to swing and block.
"What's wrong? Struggling to keep up?" she mocked the man, flipping into a backflip, her feet connecting with his chin as he stumbled back. Elaina quickly landed on her feet and roundhouse kicked him in the face, just like he planned to do to her. "Too bad," she panted as she watched him fall face-first into the snow.
Allison then came in with a jab, barely missing Elaina chin as the girl arched her back backward. "Elaina, please!" begged Allison as she swung again. "We don't want to hurt you,"
"That's funny," said Elaina as she caught one of Allison's punches and leaned closely into the woman. "Cause I'm not worried about that at all," she said, swinging Allison over her shoulder, flipping with her, as she landed on top of the woman. Elaina's fists connected with Allison's jaw repeatedly.
After the third strike she landed on Allison's face, Luther came back and grabbed Elaina, lifting her off of her sister as she kicked her legs violently. The girl was angered at the fact that she let her guard down and didn't feel the behemoth behind her.
"Get off of me, you overgrown lemur!" she shouted as she kept slamming her head hard against Luther's chest, making the man grunt in pain as he struggled to hold on to her. "Get off!"
"Guys, a little help here," he groaned as Elaina feverishly continued to flail against him.
Klaus crawled out from under the tractor and helped Allison up as Diego and Vanya pulled themselves up, each rubbing either the back or side of their heads. They all gather around Luther, trying to figure out the best place to help hold her down.
Klaus slowly reached out to Elaina, the girl caught sight of it and snapped her head towards her brother. "Don't you dare try and touch me, twiggy!" she screamed at him, her black eyes reflecting her fury. "It'll be the last time you touch anything!" making Klaus recoil back.
"Elaina, that's enough!" snapped Diego, his lip split from her perfectly landed kick.
"Christ, it's like she's possessed," muttered Allison.
"And who the hell do you think you are?" she snapped back at Diego. "Cause to me, you look like a GI Joe-reject," Elaina stopped flailing for a moment as she scanned the people in front of her. "All of you are so dead. Just wait till I get out of here," she chuckled as she saw the looks on their faces. "And there's not a damn thing you can do about it. You'll have to kill me first,"
"Why?" asked Vanya. "Why are you doing this?"
Elaina pouted her lips. "Because I want to protect my family. And you're in the way of that,"
"We are your family!" shouted Diego. "Damnit, Elaina, snap out of it!"
"No you're not!" she screamed back, making Luther tighten his grip on her when she tried to launch at Diego. "Stop saying that!"
And then there was a loud smack that rang out, shocking the Hargreeves as Klaus stood in front of the Dark Elaina, his hand in the air as her head twisted in the opposite way as a result of the backhand he administered to her.
"No, Elaina, you stop!" exclaimed Klaus as he stared at her. "I know you better than the lot of them, and you would never do this. You love us too much and we love you too!" he said, slowly lowering his hand. "You're our shield, you've always protected us. I know it's the codename the old man gave you, but it's always been true about you," Klaus continued as Elaina kept her head to the side, not yet fixing it from the position it landed in. "You've always been strong, Elaina, I know because I've never been the strong one. It's always been you, and I'll be damn if some attractive teenager says otherwise," he said softly, taking a deep breath as he grabbed her face, turning it to see her unreadable expression. "I'll always be right here for you, Laney. Please come back to us,"
Elaina stared at Klaus with a blank expression, her eyes like black voids as she remained silent, processing his words. Her breathing increased as she gritted her teeth and brought all her weight down on Luther's foot, catching the ape-man off guard as he instinctively released the girl with a yelp.
Elaina spun around, making sure to keep her front to the group before her as she held her hands out defensively, purple energy circling them as she shifted her gaze between them frantically. It wasn't until her eyes landed on Klaus that she grunted, grabbing her head as the familiar sharp pain invaded her head again.
"Just do what I do, and just don't think about it." Klaus's voice rang in Elaina's head.
"Life's an uncaring bitch, sometimes she throws shit at you that you think you can't handle, and you know what? You prove that bitch wrong!" exclaimed Klaus, causing Elaina to grunt at him. "Listen," he softened his voice. "I know this is tough for you, but you've always been strong. You can handle this, and..." he grabbed her face so she would look at him. "I'll be right next to you if you can't."
"...right next to you..." she muttered confusedly, as another surge rushed through her head.
"What's going on?" asked a worried Allison.
Luther faintly shook his head. "I don't know,"
Elaina looked over at Luther, her eyes squinted as another memory entered her mind. Visions of her and the big man in some sort of basement, a sleeping figure in a bed as she caressed them. Then if shifted to a collapsing building, blood dripping from her nose, and the helpless feeling of struggling.
"You really do care for him, don't you?" asked Luther from behind her.
She hummed and slowly looked back at her brother. "I do."
. . . .
"Come on, we're not leaving you behind in here, let it go!" he exclaimed, seeing small pieces of ceiling begin to fall around them.
"But the academy..." she whimpered. "Pogo..."
"Elaina, now!" she shouted as he grabbed the girl under her knees and picked her up.
Elaina gripped her head tighter, her eyes widening once she saw the Hargreeves cautiously approach her. "Stay away from me!" she screamed, her purple force field spreading in front of her, making them oblige, as a small drizzle of blood started to trail from her nose. "What is this?" she groaned to herself as she stumbled a bit as she held her head.
Elaina brought her head up and looked over to the apprehensive Vanya, her hands up vigilantly. When Elaina saw her, she could hear a sad violin playing in her head and pale white eyes staring back at her.
"Don't be a stranger," said Elaina as she hugged Vanya.
Vanya returned it. "I'll try not to," as she got in and looked at Elaina through the window as the taxi drove off.
. . . .
Still in a trance, Elaina slid her hand in Allison's as they got further down the aisle of the concert hall towards Vanya as she continued to play her solo. Vanya looked away from her music sheet and gazed towards the crowd, her white eyes landed on her sisters. Hand in hand, they looked up at her with sad, proud smiles, love still shining in their eyes for her
And then there was Diego. Besides Klaus, he was the only other one that showed true fear, not for himself, but for the girl. He couldn't help it. He kept his eyes trained on the girl as she looked at him with that pained expression.
Elaina jumped up and threw her door open to see Diego fighting one of the masked people that shot at her and Five at the Gimbel Brothers.
"It's them," she whispered, her eyes wide.
"Cha-Cha, shoot him," ordered the one in the blue mask as Diego tried to headbutt him and failed since the mask was reinforced.
The pink masked one, now known as Cha-Cha, came in with the machine gun in her hands. "Get out of the way, dumbass," she said as she aimed to fire.
"Like hell you are," shouted Elaina as she ran in and with a push of her hand, she threw the two back with her force field. "Diego, let's go," she grabbed her brother's wrist and ran in the opposite direction of them while the shooters got back to their feet.
. . . .
"Elaina, I saw something in the Infinite Switchboard... About the day we were born..."
Elaina's mind was becoming flooded with memories, memories she didn't remember, or at least not how she was seeing them. It was like a tampered film reel that had images of The Handler, Lila and Tony photoshopped into them, but the scenes and voices in her head didn't seem tampered. In fact, they felt like the real thing, and that was what was setting Elaina's mind on fire.
'We're stronger than those three are...' she could hear her own voice echo in her mind. 'Stronger than they could ever be. The love for your family is stronger than them...' her voice spoke loudly over the overlapping memories fighting for their spotlight in her mind's eye. 'Our name is Elaina Hargreeves. We are Number Eight of the Umbrella Academy, and our job is to love and protect these assholes.'
The light purple energy of her force field spread, a bubble shielded her from the rest of her siblings as it started expanding the more her head rang. Her black eyes were squeezed shut until they shot open, were very faintly her irises shined with a dull purple tinge.
'Now do your job, bitch,'
"Shut up!" Elaina screamed, her force field exploding and throwing everyone back a few feet as Elaina held on to the tractor as she found her balance. She looked over to the side and saw the barn. "Tony..." she muttered disorientingly as she shifted into invisibility, desperately trudging through the snow towards the barn.
She needed answers.
She needed the truth.
~.~
CHAPTER 25 IS OUT!
ONE MORE TO GOOOOOOO~!
This was such a hard chapter to put together, I hope it transitioned as well as I pictured it in my head (even though I kinda planned this differently, but the chapter wrote itself🤷♀️)
Shout out to the lil Out of Sight throwbacks lol
Please let me know if it gets confusing or if there's any question you may have!
Until the last one :)