CHAPTER THIRTY
food for worms

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IN AN INSTANT, a thousand enemies appeared, materializing with a whoosh and a flash of blue light. All of them were dressed in immaculate suits, carrying briefcases in one hand and rifles in the other. A good chunk of them also wore masks—kiddish cartoon masks, like the ones Hazel and Cha-Cha (pink dog, blue bear) had worn when they'd shot Nadine in the shoulder. There were so many of them. Every time Nadine thought they'd finished appearing, another bunch flickered into view. In just ten seconds, what had previously been an unfair fight for The Handler—seven against two—had become even more unfair. Unfortunately, this time it was the Umbrella Academy that was outnumbered.

Nadine's breath hitched in her throat, and she raised her hands, terror pulsing through her. No. It was supposed to be over. She'd... she'd saved the world, which meant that she should've been safe. When she'd agreed to come with Vanya to help Harlan, she hadn't, not even in her wildest speculations, expected she'd ever be dragged into such danger again. And yet, here she was, in potentially the riskiest scenario she'd managed to find herself in.

And Molly...

Molly was going to be so upset.

A chorus of firearms cocked, preparing themselves to pump the Umbrella Academy full of bullets. Five let out a shaky exhale. For once, even he was flustered.

"So what do we do now?" Diego asked. His voice was calm, but Nadine could tell that he, too, was panicked. This was... this was hopeless. Thousands and thousands of guns were pointed at their faces—there was no way they'd ever manage to get out of this unscathed.

When Nadine closed her eyes, a tear slid down her cheek. Ever since Hazel and Cha-Cha had first attacked her, she'd been afraid that this would be how she'd die. And now, it seemed she'd survived the end of the world only to be ended in the worst way possible.

"Well, we got two choices: fight and die now or run and die later," said Five, comforting as always. "Either way, we're food for worms."

"Preference?"

"Wouldn't mind a few more minutes breathing air through the old windbags."

"All right," The Handler interrupted, checking her watch. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"

She pulled out a red handkerchief. That one square of red fabric was all that stood between life and death. When it hit the ground, Nadine would die. Five would die. Diego would die. The others—Vanya, Klaus, Allison and Luther—would die later.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. I will end you, she vowed, glaring into The Handler's eyes. If I die here, I won't let you go. I will follow you to the ends of the fucking Earth if it means that I get to see the look on your face when your life comes to an end.

Then: "Run!" Five yelled. With her entire body rigid in anger and debilitating terror, Nadine turned, sprinting down the field. The war cry that rang out like a sickening choir a few moments later signalled that the handkerchief had fallen. Nadine braced herself.

The first shots rang out, rocketing at her heels. And Nadine screamed, picking up the pace, because, oh, God, she didn't want to die like this. She didn't want to die like this!

That was when it happened. A surge of energy, starting from her forehead and spreading down the length of her body. Her mind delved into a hundred, a thousand others, until she could see herself in third person, running erratically as bullets exploded at her heels. Then, the image rippled, like a stone had been skipped over a calm pond.

And Nadine Vidal disappeared, melting into her surroundings.

Invisibility. She'd thought she might be able to do it as a defence mechanism, but she'd never actually managed to fully test it out. But in the panic of nearing her death, she'd finally managed it—complete invisibility, locked in just enough minds that the rapid gunfire targeted at her ceased dramatically. Of course, she couldn't do it to everyone—and indeed, a few bullets still chased her—but the overall reduction in the gunfire was dramatic.

She just had to keep going.

Unfortunately, Five and Diego didn't have Nadine's fortune. Hypothetically, Nadine could make them invisible, too, but she wasn't quite there yet. Even if she was, though, she didn't think she'd have the energy for it now, not when she was attempting to keep herself out of view of a thousand minds. They lagged behind, gasping, exhausted but unwilling to stop moving. For to do so would mean their deaths.

"We're not going to make it!" Diego shouted. In all honesty, Nadine was surprised he hadn't been hit yet. She opened her mouth to speak, but she was putting so much effort into both running and maintaining her illusion that all that came out of her mouth was a choked gasp.

Five sprung forward and seized both Nadine and Diego's shoulders. "What are you doing?" Diego asked.

Five didn't answer verbally. Instead, he teleported, dragging them with him. It wasn't like time travel. There was no sensation of being between something. Instead, Nadine was on the field, and then she was on the snowy patch of grass.

"Five, I think I'm gonna puke," Diego groaned, clutching his stomach. Given the bile building in Nadine's throat, she probably would, too. Not just because of the whole 'jumping through time' thing, but because a whole lot of distance had just been spread between her and her attackers. Immediately, she let the illusion go from their minds, coming into view again just as the trio sought sanctuary (and not her kind) behind a stagnant tractor.

As bullets pinged against the metal, Nadine put a hand over her mouth, desperately attempting to keep the vomit in. She'd ended the illusion, but, like what had happened back in the car, she was still feeling its effects. Which was just fucking perfect when she was being shot at by thousands of assassins.

"Well, blink into the house, man!" Diego shouted to Five. The bullets continued to hit the tractor, almost mimicking the soothing sounds of rain in their consistency.

"I agree," gasped Nadine, her stomach roiling. "We're not going to make it much longer out in the open."

Five nodded, and then took Diego by the knee and Nadine by the shoulder. The crunch of footsteps drew nearer to them, signalling the assassins' imminent arrival. Nadine kept her eyes locked on Five, trying not to scrunch her face as pain exploded in her head. His hands flickered once with blue light, then twice.

Then they fizzled out, a snuffed candle flame.

"What?" Diego threw up his hands.

"Shit, I'm out of fuel," Five cursed. "I'm too tired."

Diego looked to the side, then back at Nadine and Five. "Both of you, go!" he shouted. "I'll... I'll cover for you."

Immediately after finishing, he scrambled out from behind the tractor, putting himself directly in the line of fire. Nadine, sensing that her friend was about to sacrifice himself for them, lunged forward to pull him back. "Diego, don't!" she screamed. "Diego!"

"Go!" Diego demanded.

Five grabbed Nadine's sleeve and tugged her to her feet. "Come on!"

Nadine turned back to look at Diego, feeling the blood run from her face. Five continued to pull her along, forcing her to run, but if Diego was going to die, he at least deserved Nadine to remember his sacrifice. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood at the bullets zinged towards him. In seconds, he would be a heap on the ground.

Or... maybe not. Right before Diego became a human target, he threw out his hands. All of the bullets froze in midair, trapped by an invisible force. Diego trembled, but managed to hold it. Nadine's jaw dropped open.

Okay. So, Diego could control bullets. That was... good to know.

Diego's cover managed to keep Nadine and Five alive long enough for them to clamber onto the porch of Sissy's house. Nadine attempted to form another illusion to help Diego out, but, like Five, she was completely out of energy. Her head clanged with pain, a hammer hit against a gong, at the mere attempt.

So, she had no choice but to follow Five inside the farmhouse when he threw open the door. With nothing else to do, she flung herself onto the ground, covering her head as bullets continued to assail the house. Lightbulbs burst, sending sparks into the air, and windows shattered. Bits of broken glass rained down on Nadine, puncturing her skin. With blood running from her arms, she pressed her hands over her ears, keeping her eyes firmly shut. When would this end?

As she cowered there, waiting for the moment one of those bullets found its mark, she found, ironically, that the source of her old trauma—Hazel and Cha-Cha's attack on her, fourteen years ago—was nothing compared to this. She'd finally gotten over what had happened to her in that alleyway, just in time for a new scarring to take its place.

Then, abruptly, it all stopped. The gunfire, the assassin's war cries... all of it. Nadine opened her eyes, heart roaring in her ears, and—rather foolishly—crawled over to the broken window. It was from this vantage point that she spotted Vanya hovering above the ground, blue glowing at her chest. Every single Commission assassin was crumpled, puppets with their strings cut. They were all dead.

Well, all of them, except two. A pale blue bubble of energy had formed around two figures, figures that Nadine recognized even from a distance. The Handler and Lila. Both of them had survived... but how?

Nadine's question was answered in moments. As she (and Five, who'd joined her at the window) watched, the bubble of energy burst, and a similar light appeared on Lila's chest. Impossibly, Lila rose, too.

"What the—" Nadine stumbled back. Power continued to build around Lila, so much that Nadine tried to drop down to the floor.

Unfortunately, Lila's power went off before she could.

A wave of energy hurtled towards her in an instant, rattling the house at its seams. Five, who was more agile than her, had already made it to the ground, but Nadine, still on her feet, was blown backwards. She was blown backwards, hurtling towards the back room of the house. There was an audible thud as she hit the floor again, landing on her left side. Pain lanced up her already aching back and ribs.

With another supernova still blowing a hole in her mind, and a newfound surge of agony rattling through her body, it was only natural that the world began to bleed away from Nadine Vidal. This time, however, it only lasted a moment.

When she was conscious again, though, she couldn't exactly muster up the energy to move. Dimly, she heard Five talking to Luther—who'd been launched straight through the roof when Lila had gone off—but was unable to process their actual conversation. Her ears were ringing, her entire body was in pain, and although her migraine had improved, spikes of pain still shot up her forehead.

Molly... Nadine's hands fumbled for the cellphone in her pocket. Halfway there, she realized that she couldn't use it to call Molly (pull it together, Nadine, this is the '60s). She still took it out, however, for a reminder of her father, only to find the black screen spiderwebbed with cracks.

No... Nadine couldn't help the devastation that flooded through her. Stupid as it was, this cellphone had helped connect her to her father. Just tracing the screen reminded her of him, even if she could never actually hear his voice through it ever again. And now... now it was cracked. Broken.

She would've continued to lie there, half in shock, staring at the cracked screen, if not for the sudden crash that sounded from the other room. When Five yelled, Nadine was knocked back into her senses. She sat up slowly, waiting for the dizziness to subside. The world was shaking underneath her.

"Five?" she tried to call out. Her voice was hoarse, scratchy. She'd been screaming. She hadn't even realized she'd been screaming.

Lila's voice filled the other room, and Nadine tried harder to get herself up. When her double vision coalesced back into one, she looked to her arms. Both of them had pieces of glass sticking out of them.

Come on, come on. Nadine really needed to go help Luther, who sounded as if he was now fighting Lila, but she had to get this glass out of her arm first. With gritted teeth, she went for all of the pieces she could see, pinching at her arm until the skin there turned red. Blood ran down her arms, and she finally gripped the wall, forcing herself to her feet. Her knees buckled, but she paid it no mind. She needed to get to Five and Luther. She needed to get to Lila, who'd obviously been playing her from the start.

Lila, who was The Handler's daughter.

By the time she was standing, Luther had been thrown through the wall. A triumphant Lila stood in the ruin of what had been Sissy's kitchen.

Nadine balled her hands into fists. "Hey," she spat. Lila turned around, and her face darkened with anger. "Over here, ton pompe à chiasse."

Lila let out a chuckle, her eyes still narrow. "That's a new one," she remarked. "Nice to see you again, Nadine."

"I'd say the same, but then I'd be lying," Nadine spat, raising her fists. It probably wasn't a good idea to launch herself into a fight right after being launched across the room, but she'd never been the smartest of people. Her body pulsed with vengeance, and if she couldn't hand it to The Handler, her daughter was the next best person for the job.

"Aw, I'm hurt," said Lila casually, dodging a punch Nadine aimed at her face. "I thought we were friends."

"I thought so, too," Nadine growled, parrying the hit Lila attempted to slam her with and aiming a kick at the woman's ribs. "I stood up for you! I thought you were a good part of our team. But it turns out that you're—" she cut herself off, focusing on sending her elbow into Lila's nose. Lila managed to evade it and nail a hit into Nadine's jaw. It wasn't hard, but it sent another surge of pain through her.

Nadine growled and kicked up her knee. It sank into Lila's belly. As the woman doubled over, she finished, "—one of them."

"If you feel betrayed," snarled Lila, a little breathlessly, "try being me when I found out that you'd gone to the Umbrella Academy." Her foot locked around Nadine's ankle, bringing her off-balance. Nadine managed to catch herself and spring back to her feet (which was quite impressive, considering her entire body felt as if it'd been rolled over by that tractor outside). Lila dodged another of Nadine's hits and continued, "You were supposed to be my family! My sister! Instead, you chose them, even though they're nothing more than—"

Nadine latched onto Lila's wrist and flipped her over her shoulder. Lila landed hard on the living room floor, and quickly rolled out of the way of Nadine's incoming boot. 'You're actually decent," she remarked, standing up again. She struck out; Nadine dodged. Nadine aimed a kick; Lila seized her leg and slammed Nadine into the wall. Nadine pushed herself forward and slammed her forehead into the side of Lila's face. As Lila raised a hand to her cheek, she grinned. "I wasn't sure, after your performance at the Consulate. But I suppose you had your little girlfriend to worry about."

"Molly's not here right now," Nadine spat, dodging another blow. "So, there isn't—"

Her words were cut off as her vision abruptly blackened out. In an instant, everything disappeared, replaced by pure, unyielding, black. She couldn't see Lila, though she could hear her laughing. It was like—it was like...

A fist collided with her stomach, sending her stumbling back. She still couldn't see, and so she managed to back into a couch. Wheezing, trying to regain the breath Lila stole from her, she struck out, but her fist met nothing but empty air. She couldn't see. Why couldn't she see?

"I've been looking forward to trying this on for size," said Lila, shoving her to the ground. Nadine flailed, shaking her head from side to side, but the darkness had no end. She couldn't see. "I admit, I thought illusions were fairly useless at first. Then I found out what you did to Hazel and Cha-Cha, and, well—" a boot pressed onto Nadine's neck, effectively keeping her pinned to the ground. "Perhaps there is some merit to it after all."

Illusions. Somehow, Lila was able to create illusions, as well. She'd done what Nadine did to others—blocked out their vision entirely, replacing their sight with nothing but black. How didn't matter right now. What did matter was that she'd reminded Nadine of what she could do, too.

She splayed out her fingers, delving into Lila's mind. Her own screamed at her, but she held on, turning around and doing the exact same thing back to Lila—clouding her vision over with nothingness.

The pressure on her neck loosened, and her surroundings began to flicker back into view. Still, it wasn't perfect. It was like standing in a dark room, forcing yourself to detect the shapes in front of you.

It was enough, though. Nadine threw the boot off her neck and gasped, running forward and ramming her shoulder into Lila's chest. The two of them, both blind, went sprawling onto the floor. Nadine stood up, baring her teeth.

"Nice one," Lila remarked. "I suppose you did what was fair."

Nadine followed the sound of her voice, growling like a feral animal. But this was exactly what Lila had wanted. A hand grasped at her collar, and, before Nadine had time to process anything, she was ejected unceremoniously from the house, tossed through the same wall Luther had been thrown out of.

She rolled once, twice, three times on the snow, and when she'd finally stopped, she could fully see again. A few feet away from her was Allison, tending to a groaning Luther. Her eyes widened when she noticed Nadine.

"Nadine!" she cried. "You all right?"

Nadine was decidedly not all right. "I'll survive," she managed, heaving in a breath. She trained her eyes back on the house, but Lila didn't emerge. It seemed she'd had enough of Nadine.

As the blood from her arms stained the snow red, Nadine stood up again. "I'm going to find Vanya," she said. "She may have gotten hurt, and I—I need to help her."

"Nadine, you're hurt!" Allison protested, but Nadine was already running, albeit a lot slower than she would've liked.

She sprinted across the snow, heading towards the barn—the last place she'd seen Vanya. Her chest constricted as she thought back to the explosion. The farmhouse had protected her from the brunt of it, but if she was out in the open, in the air, like Vanya had been...

The blood on her arms had clotted now. Her back was still sore, though, and so was her ribs and neck. Her head was buzzing frantically, exhausted by the overuse of her illusions, and she took a second to wonder if Lila felt it, too. Maybe not the complete strain of it, but at least a bit...

Her thoughts were cut off when she caught sight of a figure lying in the snow. Brown hair, black jacket... Nadine sped up. Shit.

It was Vanya.

"Vanya!" Nadine knelt beside her friend and shook her shoulders. Vanya was on her back, limbs splayed out. Her eyes were closed. "Vanya!"

She was breathing, at least, and her heart seemed to be going at a steady pace. Nadine could see no visible injuries on her, but it was obvious what had happened: Lila had indeed blown her out of the sky. "Vanya. Vanya. Come on, wake up."

Vanya's eyes fluttered open, and she blinked blearily. "Nadine...?" she murmured, raising one hand to rub at her eyes.

Tears slid down Nadine's cheeks. They weren't tears of sadness, though; they were of relief. "Vanya," she breathed, gently easing her into a sitting position. "You're all right."

Vanya took in Nadine: her bruising jaw, her face streaked with grime, and the blood on her arms. Her eyes widened. "Nadine," she caught Nadine's wrist and held it up to inspect it. "You're—you're hurt."

"Not so bad," said Nadine. "Can you—can you stand?"

"Nadine. What happened?"

Nadine winced. "Lila."

"Who's Lila?"

"Diego's ex," Nadine said. It was the best answer she had. "Come on, come on. We have to—we have to find the others. I think they're in trouble."

That was when, like clockwork, Diego's voice suddenly cut through the freezing air. "Help! Vanya! Nadine! Help!"

Without Nadine's assistance, Vanya got to her feet. With a grim set of her jaw, she took Nadine's hand. "Come on."

Electricity raced up Nadine's nerves.

It didn't take too long to find Diego—he was still at the tractor. However, it seemed Lila's explosion had caused her to tip onto its side, trapping one of his legs beneath its bulky weight. He'd obviously struggled, but it hadn't been enough.

As Vanya and Nadine arrived, so did Klaus, Luther, and Allison, all of them battered. Fortunately, they were all in one piece, and that was really all Nadine could ask for, at the moment.

"Hey!" Diego called. "What took you so long?"

"Well, we're here now," snapped Luther. "Do you want to stop complaining?" His face was covered in soot, but he was, fortunately, on his feet again.

"Or, if you prefer, we could just leave you here," Klaus added.

"Yeah, what he said," Allison agreed, crouching down beside her brother. Nadine joined her.

"Does everything in this family have to be a discussion?" Vanya griped.

With a pained grunt, the group—though the majority of the effort came from Luther—lifted up the tractor, freeing Diego's leg. Nadine gritted her teeth, her muscles trembling from the effort. As soon as Diego confirmed he was out, she let the tractor fall, relieved.

Diego launched to his feet, pumping his fist. "Team Zero! Unstoppable!"

He extended his hand, and Luther gave him a high-five.

"Okay, has anyone seen Five?" Allison asked, glancing around the area.

"I don't know, he's around here somewhere," said Luther.

"Last time I saw him, he was in the farmhouse," said Nadine. "Then the explosion hit and I lost sight of him."

"We'll find him," said Luther, then turned to Diego. "By the way, your ex-girlfriend can blink like Five."

"Yeah, that bitch just rumored me so I couldn't breathe," Allison added.

"She used my own brand of illusions to blind me," Nadine said, crossing her arms. She really needed to get them patched up. A new surge of fresh blood was beginning to leak through her fingers.

"And destroyed, like, half the farm with a shock wave," finished Klaus. "So unoriginal."

"If she can do everything we can do, then she might as well just be one of us," Vanya pointed out. Her tone was light, joking, and Luther chuckled for a minute before his smile dropped. Nadine stared around at the faces of the other members of the Umbrella Academy, not understanding their silence. It was obvious, wasn't it? Lila was one of them. She'd proven that as soon as she'd copied Vanya's powers.

Still, Luther sounded disbelieving. "No. No, there's no way. It can't be."

"It's a reasonable conclusion," Allison pointed out.

"Eh, but there were only seven of us," said Klaus, then stopped. His gaze slid to Nadine, and the other members of the Umbrella Academy quickly followed. Soon, they were all staring at her, eyes widening. Nadine shoved her hands into her pockets. "Or... there was supposed to be."

"Maybe we need to consider that there's more of us out there," said Vanya. "I mean, Dad never told us about Nadine, and she came knocking on our door anyway. I thought she might've been a fluke, but..."

"There's definitely more," said Nadine. "Did you think there wasn't? Look, if I'm here, then there are others that weren't adopted, either. Others ol' Reggie couldn't get his hands on. Since I first got on the internet, I've been trying to track them down, but every single person I've contacted who was also born on October 1st, 1989 either doesn't have abilities or just lied about them."

"Shit," said Klaus. "You know, that's a good point, Chosen One. I never even paid attention to the fact that if you're superpowered, then there must be others out there..."

"Are we surprised?" Allison asked. "I mean, Dad never told us the whole truth about anything."

"Okay, so, if she can mirror our powers," Luther began, "that means anything we throw at her, she can match, right?"

"Yeah, but she can only mirror one of our powers at a time," said Klaus.

"You sure about that?" Allison asked.

Nadine rolled her shoulders back, gritting her teeth. Lila may have—albeit barely—bested her in one-on-one combat, but with every member of the Umbrella Academy working together to stop her, she'd be toast, even with her ability to duplicate their powers. And with her jaw stinging, her arms stained with blood, and the faces of her friends—family—battered, she was seething for revenge. Lila would not get away with what she'd done.

She'd make sure of it.

She looked around at the circle, at those she was now connected to, and said, "Why don't we find out?"

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HAVEN: just so you know, nadine's fight with lila was written to "gimme! gimme! gimme! (a man after midnight)" by abba, and should be read as such. i love writing action scenes to upbeat music, lmao.

also i don't know if i like this chapter, but... i hope you do?? it was at least fun to write.

thanks for reading!! <333