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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙ. ʙ. ᴇꜰꜰᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ғʟᴀᴍᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ
ʙᴜʀɴs ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀɴᴅʟᴇ ꒱　


❝ WE DON'T TRADE LIVES. ❞

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For what felt like the hundredth time that week Alexa flopped backwards onto her bed as she sighed in exhaustion. As relieved as she was that the apocalypse was over it still felt like there were a million things to do. And besides, being around estranged family with a tight, now-nonexistent deadline was extremely stressful. Five had disappeared somewhere, which was fine. She knew he liked his freedom and respected that but now she was left with no guidance of what to do next.

It seemed like she only closed her eyes for a few seconds when she heard something that sounded suspiciously like an earthquake. While Alexa had never actually experienced one, she could guess the effects it would have on a building. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes to better focus on what was happening. Debris fell from the corners of her room while the building shook as if it were a tree in the breeze. Frowning in confusion, Alexa stood and headed to the doorway of her room and looked down the hall both ways.

Her siblings and Pogo were clustered together near Allison's room so she headed toward the group. "What's going on, guys?"

Luther glanced at her. "Vanya," was all he said for explanation.

She opened her mouth to ask more questions but Pogo cut across her, "we need to get to safety outside the Academy."

As the building shook around them, Alexa's heart sped up. "We need to stay together," she insisted. "I can get us out of here but not in separate groups."

"We have to split up," Luther countered. "Allison's going to be slower and we still have to get mom!"

Alexa hesitated as she looked between her brothers. "Go with them," Luther demanded. "I can get Allison out."

Trusting that he would do as he said, she nodded and rushed after Diego and Klaus. As they rounded the second floor, Alexa began scanning the area for any sign of their mother. Chunks of the ceiling were falling around them, creating dust that made it hard to see very well.

"Where is she?" Diego cried.

The three of them ran through the hallway as they called her name desperately. Suddenly, a large piece of ceiling fell on top of Klaus, causing him to stumble and fall. Diego leapt forward to help him but got hit in the process.

"No!" Alexa cried and she slid towards her brothers. Her senses tingled and immediately, her eyes flicked upwards to see that a large piece of ceiling was cracking above their heads.

Before she could think, her hands flashed out and a blue light shone a few feet above the men on the floor as the chunk came crashing down. Alexa, focused on keeping her shield intact despite the force of collision, didn't see the ghost of her brother pull Diego to safety but somehow, they were out. She let her shield drop and the chunk crash down as the two men stared at the spot where they'd been. "Holy shit."

"We have to get out of here!" she called loudly over the falling house.

Neither of them argued as Klaus helped Diego to his feet. Together, under the protective dome of blue light to ward off falling rubble, the three of them made for the door. By some miracle, they made it out in one piece although others weren't so lucky. Alexa watched numbly as the falling house took Grace with it while her brothers called frantically to the robotic woman.

It looked like the apocalypse was still on, after all.

☂☂☂

They regrouped at the bowling alley. The crashing of pins and the cramped plastic chairs did not make it an ideal place to come up with a plan to save the world but they had to work with what they could.

"Look, I hate to be the one to say this," Luther started, "but everyone needs to be prepared."

"For what?" Diego demanded.

"To do whatever it takes to stop Vanya."

Allison hit him with her notepad and Alexa voiced what her sister couldn't say, "what?"

He sighed. "We may not have a choice."

"Bullshit," Diego called. "There's always options."

"Yeah, like what?" Five asked.

"I don't know," Diego admitted.

"Look, whatever we decide, we need to find Vanya and fast, okay? She could be anywhere."

"Or. . . here," Klaus put in as he showed them the ad in the magazine. "Look at this."

"That's right. Her concert is tonight."

Before any of them could continue, a woman's voice interrupted them: "hello. I hate to intrude but my manager says if you're not going to bowl, you gotta leave."

Said manager slammed bowling shoes down onto the table angrily. Alexa scoffed. If they knew what was at stake, that their stupid little bowling alley wasn't going to exist in a few hours if they couldn't plan, then she was pretty sure the workers wouldn't bother them. As it was, though, they would only look crazy and get thrown out if they tried to argue their case.

"Whose turn is it?" Diego asked.

Luther, with his short patience, did them all a favor and sent one of the balls flying into another lane, striking out with hardly any effort. Allison drew his attention back by tapping on her notepad which read: she's our sister.

"We're the only ones capable of stopping this," Luther told her. "We have a responsibility to Dad."

Alexa and Diego spoke at the same time: "to Dad?" She couldn't believe her ears; Luther was making this about him and their Dad again. As her brother continued to argue, she rolled her eyes and took a seat.

She was prepared to sit this one out until Five put in, "I'm with Luther on this one."

Alexa turned to him. "What? You're-you're agreeing with him?" she asked in disbelief.

"We can't give her a chance to fight back," he argued. "There are billions of lives at stake and we're trying to save just one."

"We don't have to trade lives," she shot back. "We can protect everyone and our sister."

"Hey, you know guys," Klaus cut in. "Maybe I could help."

"Now is not the time."

"No, let him finish," Diego said. At the others' disbelief, he added, "he saved my life today."

"Is that true?" Luther asked.

"Yeah, yeah I did. . . take credit for it. In fact, the real hero here was Ben."

Alexa stared at her brother with wide eyes. He couldn't think this was a joke, could he? The thought of facing Ben, seeing him again, sent her heart pounding.

"Today. . . listen— today he punched me in the face and earlier at the house, he was the one who saved Diego's life, not me."

"You are unbelievable, Klaus," Luther said, exasperated.

"You want proof, is that it?" their brother asked. "Alright. I'll give you proof. C'mon baby, showtime. Catch!" He threw a bowling ball high in the air.

Alexa didn't know what she'd been expecting but as the ball (predictably) hit the ground, she realized she'd been holding her breath. She forced herself to release it as Luther said, "is there any way to silence that voice in your head that screams out to be the center of attention?"

"You know, I liked you a lot better before you got laid," Klaus commented before he realized his mistake. "Which was a complete. . . it wasn't his fault, all right? 'Cause he was ridiculously high, right? And-and this girl, she thought he was a furry. . ."

"Stop," Luther hissed at him, probably completely embarrassed.

Alexa couldn't help but smirk at the thought of Luther getting laid. Crap, she suddenly realized with a start, that means I'm— Luther beat me? It wasn't a competition but the fact that she was probably the only one left— besides Five, but he was a special case— that hadn't. . .

She shook off her wandering thoughts as her attention was drawn back to the group when another person interrupted them. "Excuse me," the woman said. Her arm was around the boy next to her. "It's my son Kenny's birthday today and, uh, wouldn't your son be happier playing with kids his own age? Assuming it's okay with your two dads and aunt."

The blonde woman held back a laugh as she watched her brother's faces turn confused. Five leaned towards them. "I would rather chew off my own foot."

The woman's face became very disturbed and she and her son hurried away. Alexa felt slightly bad for the kid; his birthday was on the last day of the world if they failed to stop Vanya. She startled slightly to see that there were even less family members around her now. Glancing around, she saw Five bending over one of the bowling returns. Leaving her brothers to argue over their perceived relationship, she joined the boy at the machine.

"What's that?" she asked as she watched the beeping light in his hand.

"Nothing," Five answered. He dropped it on the floor and stomped on it.

Alexa narrowed her eyes at the boy. "You can lie to the others but you can't lie to me, Five."

He sighed, not wanting to fight with her on this. "The Handler wants to see me."

Alexa stared at him. "What, now?"

His gaze flicked up to her face. "Yeah. Tell the others, would you?"

He turned to go but she reached out a hand and grasped his wrist before he could disappear. "Five, wait." She could see his jaw clench in frustration. "I'm not going to stop you if that's what you're thinking," she started, watching as his suddenly tense form relaxed, "but promise me you'll be careful, okay?" She glanced at their two remaining brothers. "I'm not sure how long everyone can stick together."

Five turned to face the blonde-haired woman fully and he saw that she did look genuinely worried about his safety. He sighed; of course she was— he shouldn't have doubted her. He gave a little nod.

 "I'll try," he said, as it was the best he could do. "I'll be back as soon as I can." His eyes met hers. "I'm leaving you in charge, Lexa." He hesitated a moment. Depending on how well things with The Handler went, this could be the last time. . . no, Five thought to himself sternly. It won't be. He shook his head and raised it again. "I trust you," he said simply before he took his hand out of hers and disappeared in a flash of blue. 

☂☂☂

"Alright, where's Five?" Luther asked as he rejoined the group.

"He left."

"Oh, for the love of. . . where'd he go?"

"He didn't tell us," Diego answered irritably.

"Well, we're not waiting around for him. The concert starts in thirty minutes. Wait a second, where's Alexa?" Luther said, finally noting their missing sister.

"Here I am," she answered. There was a crumpled paper towel in her hands. "Are we finally ready to get our acts together?" Her siblings stared at her. "What?" she asked. "We're wasting time." When no one spoke, she continued: "right, then. Five put me in charge—"

"What— no, I'm Number One, Alexa—" Luther started.

The blonde woman rolled her eyes and moved in front of her large brother to look directly into his eyes. "I'm the captain now," she said seriously.

"Alright," Diego said, going along with it. "What's the plan?"

Alexa turned away from Luther and gave the dark-haired man a grateful look. "Well, we know Vanya's at the theater—" she started.

"Wait, wait, wait— are we seriously following her?" Luther asked.

Diego shrugged. "She saved my life as well and she's not the crapshoot Klaus is—"

"Hey!" said man protested. "For your—"

"STOP!" Alexa shouted over the noise. "We're either following me or dying and we've already done the second option. Luther's going to leave us scrambling. I know where Five is. I've got a plan, guys, and it isn't 'attack.'" She put air quotes around the last word. Her siblings fell silent— either from surprise or acceptance, she wasn't sure— but it allowed her to continue: "all right. We know Vanya's at the Icarus Theater so step one is to go there—"

"That's not a plan," Luther interrupted.

"It's barely even twelve percent of one," Klaus agreed.

She glared at them. "I'm not finished yet. Step one: we go to the Icarus Theater. Step two: we assess the situation. We don't know how powerful Vanya is, we don't know the layout of the theater, so we basically have no useful information. Once we know what the situation is—"

Before she could finish, though, the back of her neck prickled. She abruptly stopped talking. It only took a minute to realize what the problem was. "Duck!" she screeched and dove behind one of the ball racks.

Diego fell next to her and Alexa hoped the rest of her siblings had followed her orders. Together, they both peered over the surface of the rack and watched as fully-clothed, red-goggled shooters sprayed bullets over them.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Diego shouted above the noise.

"Maybe they're here for Kenny's birthday!" Klaus answered back loudly.

Alexa snorted and, without bothering to raise her voice, said quietly to Diego. "These guys work for The Commission. The backstory isn't important right now but they're trying to stop us from stopping the apocalypse."

She didn't have to explain how she knew and she didn't think she could, but from what she'd heard of the organization and seen from Hazel and Cha-Cha, she wasn't surprised.

"Right," Diego said without hesitation as he pulled one of his knives from his belt. "So we kill them, then."

They had to get out of here and fast. As her siblings tried to fight them off, Alexa ducked back under the cover of the ball station while her mind frantically tried to come up with an escape route. The doors were blocked, so that was useless— only she could get past the gunmen without getting killed. She couldn't spacial jump like Five and he was gone, so they couldn't do that. She squeezed her eyes shut; the constant noise of bullets was incredibly distracting. Think, think, think, she chanted desperately.

The only thing they had access to was— of course, she thought, the idea lighting up in her mind. Catching Diego's attention, she smirked. "I think it was your turn to go next, wasn't it?" she asked as she gestured to the lanes.

Recognition dawned on his face and he exclaimed, "brilliant!" Then he called to their other siblings: "the lanes!"

"Let's go!" Luther agreed.

Alexa waited a heartbeat for her siblings to have a head start before she followed them. Bullets sprayed around her heels as she threw up a shield behind them that stretched through the five lanes they occupied, slowing the attack so they could run to safety.

Even as they slid through the end of the lane, Alexa knew that they weren't out of the woods yet; there was still shit to go down.