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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘ. ᴘᴀɴ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ᴅᴇғʏɪɴɢ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ &
ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ғᴜɴ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ᴛᴏ ᴅᴏ ᴏɴ ᴀ
sᴀᴛᴜʀᴅᴀʏ꒱


❝ WHY IS LEXI. . . GLOWING? ❞

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Reginald pulled over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. After he parked the car, they stood next to the drainage ditch as he gave them a briefing that was unpleasantly similar to what their training had entailed. "Near-immortality is an unbelievable gift. Yet, you come back to life at unpredictable intervals outside of your control with reflexes of a wet noodle, thoroughly unable to defend yourself or your team. Somehow, you've turned an asset into your liability."

"Yeah, well, not that I care about your opinion but if I were to improve myself, how would I do it?"

"First, let's sharpen your reflexes. Practice makes perfect. Stand there." He pointed to a spot across the road. "When you're fast enough to catch this ball, you will have succeeded."

"Why not? Okay." As Klaus went over to the other side, Alexa made to follow him.

The older man put a hand on her arm. "Not you."

The blonde jerked her arm away from him and took a few steps back. Wariness was clear in her eyes as she watched her brother begin to cross the road. Her skin prickled as the hairs on her arms stood up. Her brother— oblivious to the danger that he was walking into— continued to speak: "but just so you know, I have the hand-eye coordination of a drunk kitten."

Reginald threw the ball before he finished talking and Klaus made to dart after it. The toy bounced several times on the asphalt until he caught it. "See? Ha ha!"

Almost as soon as he lifted the ball up in triumph, Alexa's blue shield shimmered into existence behind him. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut as she concentrated on keeping the wall intact despite the pain that split across her mind. She let out a whimper of discomfort and, at the same time, her shield disappeared just as a bus came barreling down the road. It hit Klaus mercilessly as it went by without a pause.

She opened her eyes to see her brother lying in the road, motionless. The girl knew that he wasn't dead— he'd already come back to prove it— but the sight of his limp form didn't stop the tears from welling in her eyes. As she struggled to get them under control, Alexa came to the realization that this was going to be a very long day.

Reginald, on the other hand, remained completely unflappable. He took out a pocket watch to start the timer. "Klaus Hargreeves. Reanimation training. Trial commencing 1:15p.m.." Then, he turned to the blonde. "Now, let's get started on you as we wait for him to come back. When you tried to use your shield this time, what happened?"

"A headache," she answered— then she cringed. Speaking the weakness out loud somehow made it seem even more pathetic.

As expected, he was entirely unimpressed. "That's all? Why on earth would that stop you from using your powers?"

She tugged on her blonde hair as she thought. "I can't concentrate with it. It's like. . . the connection is severed because of the pain."

"Interesting. What do you mean by 'connection?'"

"Well, whenever I share my powers with someone— but especially my siblings— their cells or-or some kind of frequency shifts into place to match mine. I can feel them— mostly just where they are, not what they're doing— however faintly whenever they have some of my power. I think that part— the desire to protect them— comes from my heart." She put a hand on the left side of her chest. "It might sound cheesy but I think that's how it works, why I can separate my powers. My shields, on the other hand— the physical manifestation— come from my mind, as you said. I think the connection between my heart and my mind has been severed, making my power weaker overall."

After she finished her explanation, Alexa took a chance and looked up to study the man's face. She'd never told anyone the theories that she had about her powers; Five would just mock her for being so emotional about it and the original-Reginald wouldn't have given her the time of day. She was relieved that this Reginald seemed to be mulling over her words thoughtfully. "I believe that your theory may have some merit. Perhaps our first course of action is for you to meditate."

"Meditate?" Alexa repeated incredulously.

"Do you have an issue with that?"

"I. . . guess not. Sure, I can totally sit still and not do anything for hours. I'm great at that."

Her father clapped his hands. "Wonderful! Why don't you go sit over in that field and get started?"

"That was sarcasm."

"Oh, I know. I'm being completely serious." He pointed in the indicated direction sternly.

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

At first, Alexa was certain that her father's idea wouldn't work. She took a seat in the field far enough away from the road where she could hear the engines passing by but not see the cars. She sat cross-legged in the grass and closed her eyes as she attempted to. . . do something; she wasn't even sure what to expect. All she knew was that her mind kept straying to how the grass itched at her bare legs, the wind brushed against her skin and how her hair tickled her face.

Her eyes squeezed tightly shut in an effort to dull the distraction but that hardly helped— her thoughts then strayed to Five, to Klaus and to the rest of her siblings. It didn't help that she hardly trusted Reginald and closing her eyes made her distinctly uncomfortable. She shifted on the hard ground and fought the urge to let out a frustrated groan.

The girl's sarcastic comment was true: sitting still had never been her strong suit. It had been one of the main reasons why she'd hated school, with its long, tedious hours of lecture and staying in one place to do work. There were only two ways that she could ever be encouraged to sit still: the first was if she was watching Five work out equations and the second if it was imperative for the protection of her family. It was this latter reason that she focused on.

Alexa did her best to block out the physical interferences of her environment and instead made an effort to focus inward. Even if her thoughts continued to spiral, they were focused on her siblings— a decent starting point for meditation.

Luther— as always— was the first in line. They hadn't ever really been close. They'd had a healthy amount of respect for each other and worked together as first and last in the Academy— at least until Ben's death. He'd been the first one to believe Reginald's influence that it was her fault (not that she blamed him; it was true, after all, no matter what anyone else said.) But since their father's death, their relationship had slowly begun to repair itself.

She thought about Diego and how she'd unnecessarily faulted him for almost hurting Five in a situation that couldn't have been helped. None of them had had a choice back then and if that training session had ended in disaster, it would've been on her, anyway— too slow to react, too slow to protect. (Like always.) She'd never been happier that they'd mended their bond to be closer than ever before.

Her relationship with Allison hadn't changed (and as Five had observed, it had actually gotten worse), but that didn't stop her from caring about her sister. Alexa still wanted her to be happy and was worried about how she was currently acting. She didn't know if her powers could help her sister at all but she hoped that they could, somehow.

Klaus always meant well even if his ideas were half-baked— such as taking her to see their father today. She'd been less than pleased (nearly distraught) to find out that this was who he'd meant, but she couldn't bring herself to be mad at him. She knew that he'd had her best interests at heart, which was saying more than some of her siblings. Besides, he'd always been there when no one else had been: with Five's disappearance and Ben's death, even if she hadn't accepted his help then.

And then Five— oh, Five— the man she loved. Just thinking his name made her heart skip a beat in her chest. He was brilliant and sharp and she'd happily sing his praises if it wouldn't have made his ego so inflated. Even though she knew that she shouldn't have favorites, Alexa also knew that if she had to pick one member of her family to save, it would always, always be him. The thought of failing him (like she had with Ben) made her want to try ten times harder so that it would never happen.

Ben, her sixth sibling, the one she'd failed. (Failed, failed, failed. . .) She didn't deserve his forgiveness nor his lack of blame for her part in his death. He'd been the good sibling— the best of them. Just like with Klaus, he'd been there for her the day Five left and all the long months after. In a way, he'd helped to fill the hole that the time-traveler had left and how did she repay him? By letting him die. (Die, die, die. . .)

Then Viktor, who had grown so much since their Academy days. He'd embraced who he really was, had accepted his powers and was now trying to save the world with them, just like their missions should've always been. Alexa hadn't always been the best sister to him as she'd been as easily convinced as their other siblings to ignore him because of his 'ordinariness.' She'd made a promise to him in '63 that she would be a better sister and she fully intended on fulfilling it.

Alexa herself came last in line. As the one born with invulnerability, she'd never given much thought when it came to protecting herself. Her siblings had always taken precedence, even at the risk of her own life. But now, with her powers screwed up, she did have to consider herself. Had she ever understood them in the first place? Was that why she'd been ranked last? Was Reginald right in that she could do more than what she already knew?

The questions continued to swirl in her mind in a cacophony of queries. In an effort to quiet them, Alexa ran. Deep in her mind, she ran and ran and ran to get away from the doubts that whirled around like a hurricane. Darkness surrounded her as she fled and the mental image of her feet pounding against the crowded space formed in her mind's eye. Ahead, the inky blackness began to lift as light filtered in.

She continued to run towards it as her breath rasped in her chest. She was so focused on her destination that she didn't notice her path begin to narrow; it shrank from the large expanse to nothing more then a sharp precipice. By the time that her eyes did fall to the route in front of her, it was already to late: her breath caught in her throat at the same time her foot tripped on the edge. Unable to catch herself, her body gave way to gravity and she fell towards the brilliant, blue light.

She fell down. . .

and down. . .

and down. . .

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

It was now later in the afternoon and Klaus had managed to get his time-alive and time-dead intervals to a much smaller number, around seven minutes. When he'd first returned, he'd noticed the absence of his sister and had asked Reginald about it. His father had pointed vaguely out into the field and explained that she was meditating. The answer made him chuckle because everyone knew that Lexi was terrible at sitting still— and then he got hit by a car.

He'd done his best to check in on her every few times he was revived since he knew that she didn't even want to be here in the first place. This time when he came back, something was distinctly different. The long-haired man stood from the road and shaded his hand over his eyes as he looked across the short-cropped grass.

"Uh, dad. . .?"

"Yes?" Reginald replied evenly. He didn't bother to look up from where he was writing the results of the most recent trial in his notebook.

". . . Why is Lexi. . . glowing?"

At this, the older man finally looked up to follow the direction of Klaus' gaze. He snapped his notebook shut and stood from the bench, clapping his hand together as he did so. "By Jove, I do believe she's done it!"

Klaus frowned with confusion. "Done. . . what?"

"Come with me, boy," he said, ignoring the question. They started off across the field towards the eighth Hargreeves. "When your sister was explaining how her powers have been muddled with, I hypothesized that this was not because of an outside cause as she claimed, but rather an inward problem that was in her hands to fix. I sent her inside of her own mind to determine the exact root of the issue."

The second Hargreeves jogged slightly to catch up with his father's purposeful strides. "Wait, wait, wait. You sent Lexi on a quest of self-discovery? That's it?"

"Essentially, yes. She has been lost in her own powers which is one of the reasons why she cannot age, as she has described. She needs to find herself again in order to return stronger than before."

They were close enough to the girl now to see that she was more than just glowing, as Klaus had said. An intense aura of blue outlined her figure and gave her skin a discolored hue. Her eyes were closed and Klaus wasn't even sure if his sister was breathing, she looked so still. It was almost disconcerting compared to how much she moved on a daily basis.

Reginald leaned down to speak her name: "Alexandra!" Nothing happened, so he tried again. "Alexandra!" Still nothing.

Klaus hovered behind the older man worriedly— both for his sister and himself. Don't let her get hurt was what Five had threatened. If Lexi was stuck in whatever mind-prison she was in now. . . Five would kill him for sure. (Not that that would do much— seeing as he could conquer death— but he knew that his brother would kill him over and over again.) He wrung his hands together nervously as the older man changed tactics.

This time, their father spoke directly in her ear in a loud, sharp voice that was reminiscent of their Academy days: "Number Eight!"

Alexa's eyes snapped open.

"Oh, thank the little girl on a bike," Klaus breathed out.

The blonde's eyes were still the same, intense blue that the aura had been, but she wasn't glowing anymore. It was rather disorienting to wake up to a man who was a carbon copy of your father after he'd been dead for years; Alexa wasn't sure where she was or what timeline she was in for several long seconds.

"How do you feel, girl?" Reginald asked eagerly and without letting her recover— typical.

She blinked several times as she tried to get her bearings. With a dry mouth, she answered: "it. . . kind of feels like. . . I'm-I'm waking up from a. . . really long nap." She let out a lengthy exhale before her gaze flicked to her brother. "How long has it been?"

"Several hours, for sure," he replied immediately. "Are you okay, Lexi?"

"I. . . think so," she said slowly. She stretched out her arms and grunted slightly from the effort of doing so.

Their father watched her critically. "Do you feel different? Improved? No change?"

She shook her head. "I don't know right now. I think I'd have to exercise my power first."

An excited, telltale gleam entered the older man's expression.

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

It was full-dark by the time they pulled up to the graveyard. Reginald parked neatly next to the curb and climbed out of the car. Klaus sighed. "Come on. I thought we were gonna go home."

He came over to the side of the car that the siblings were sitting on. "You both have gifts. One of you refuses to fully use yours while the other must test your new limits."

Alexa eyed the shadowed cemetery warily. "I don't know if my power works on ghosts."

"If you don't know then why shouldn't you find out?" Reginald replied promptly. He addressed her brother: "tell me: why do you of all people fear the dead?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because some asshole in the real world locked me in a box of ghosts when I was a kid!"

"Exactly. We can't change the past but we can confront it." The older man opened Klaus' door. "Here, your gift became your nightmare. A man is not a man— or a woman is not a woman— unless they slay the demons of their youth."

Reluctantly, the two siblings got out of the safety of the car. Klaus scoffed. "Oh yeah. Good one, Obi-Wang, but my demons are literal."

Unless they slay the demons of their youth. Alexa's mind— as it always did— went back to Ben. Was that the true moment her powers had failed her? Where her desire to learn about them had ceased? Because if she couldn't protect her siblings with the gifts that she did have, then what was the point of discovering more? And then when her age regressed in the 2019 apocalypse— she'd almost failed her siblings then; they almost hadn't escaped. Her powers had been virtually useless and Five had saved the day. Was it because by then, she'd had so much doubt in herself that the Sparrow's Number Eight could so easily destroy her shield, but had it only made her preexisting problem visible rather than new?

Reginald remained unphased by the man's sarcasm. "All the more reason to face them." He put his arm around the second Hargreeves. "You lost something vital here. It's time you take it back— both of you."

The girl took a deep breath and held out her hand. "Ready, Klausy? Let's do this together."

Her brother's expression softened as he met her gaze. He put his hand in hers with an uncertain nod. "Together, then."

She let the long-haired man lead the way with tentative, cautious steps. Klaus crept into the forest of gravestones in a half-bent position that gave away how terrified he was. Even his sister's hand in his wasn't helping all that much, though it did a little. Alexa, on her part, wasn't intimidated by the eerie setting; instead, she was more concerned that her shield wouldn't work. To take her mind off of her doubts, she murmured: "do you hear anything?"

Her brother jumped and she squeezed his hand apologetically. In an equally quiet voice, he answered: "yeah. The whispers have already started."

It was a little strange that he could hear things that she couldn't; the only thing that made noise in the graveyard was the sound of their feet and the wind in the trees. The graves themselves were silent for her and the night remained still and black. Alexa wondered what it must be like for Klaus, facing his worst fear. She squeezed his hand again, this time for reassurance. Their feet came to an abrupt halt.

"Why did we stop?" she mumbled.

"I-I don't know if I can do this. Lexi, you know how much of a coward I am—"

The girl turned to face her brother, though she couldn't see him very well in the dark. "Klausy," she began softly. "You can do this. I know you can. You've helped to save the world twice already. You survived Vietnam. You've survived living with dad in our original timeline. You're stronger than you think."

He shook his head. "I'm not like you or Diego or Five. I don't have anything that drives me and I don't enjoy this. I. . ." He trailed off to look at her helplessly.

"You're right," she admitted after a moment. "Protecting you guys does drive me. But what I want more than just you guys being safe is seeing everyone succeed. Would you really be happy with yourself if we turned around and you never conquered this part of your past?"

Klaus' lips twisted into a wry smile. "Happy with myself?" he repeated. "What a concept. Lexi, I haven't felt like that since I was a kid."

"Well, maybe now is the time to do something about it," Alexa suggested gently. "Then you'll have a memory to look back on the next time something hard comes along."

He took a deep breath and met her gaze— or tried to, since he couldn't really tell where her eyes were. "So you really think I can do this?"

She gave him a firm nod. "Absolutely. But you need to think that you can do this."

"Okay. Okay, okay." Klaus shook out his hands and reached into his pocket to pull out a lighter. "Here we go— on the count of three. One. . . two. . . three!"

A small, golden flame flickered to life in the middle of the darkness. There was no change on Alexa's side except that she could now see her brother's face. As he turned his head to face the cemetery, his expression became one of abject terror. He let out a frightened scream, ripped his hand out of hers and took off running.

"Klaus!" she called after him, to no avail. "Klaus!"

With a sigh, she raced after him. He took a winding path through the headstones with no purpose except to escape. His longer legs carried him farther and faster than her shorter ones could. Alexa began to see that there was no way that she'd be able to catch up to him. Her feet came to a halt and she rubbed her hands together. "Okay, it's showtime. C'mon, shield!"

She flashed her hands out in her brother's direction. Nothing. The blonde let out a groan of frustration. "Really? Now nothing happens? Let's try this again."

Still nothing.

A bright beam of light shone through the graveyard and Alexa saw Reginald pull her brother aside. After they exchanged a few words, Klaus stood again. Her attempts to stop him from running fell by the wayside as she watched him step into the light with bated breath. Their father switched the light off and for a moment she couldn't see anything, but in the next. . . her eyes widened as her mouth dropped open.

Klaus began to shimmer with a blue light, even paler than her own power. It started in his hands before it covered the entire upper half of his body to burst out through his chest. The ghosts were briefly illuminated as his arms stretched wide and she could see all of them disintegrate into his beam of light. Once his power faded, she ran through the graveyard to throw her arms around her brother.

"Well, aren't you a miracle?" Reginald wondered aloud.

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎
[ THE SPARROW ACADEMY ]

The celebration of their success at saving the world raged on inside but Deianira abandoned the party to sit on the deck. While she was happy that they stopped the Kugelblitz, she couldn't celebrate it. How could she when their siblings were still dead? When the world was falling to pieces right in front of them? Some heroes they made.

Quiet footsteps sounded behind her before Sloane's voice registered in her ears: "are you avoiding me?"

The brunette sighed and turned away from the burning city. As she swung her legs around to face her girlfriend, she shook her head. "Never, Sloany. I just. . . I can't party right now."

"I understand," she replied softly. The blonde reached out to grasp both of her hands in hers. "I miss them too, you know."

Deianira offered her a weak smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah, I know. It's just. . . we've already lost so much. Who's to say that everything will be here tomorrow? I've been thinking and. . . I need some sort of certainty in my life. Both of us do, I think."

Sloane gave her a curious look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's not exactly the best timing but if we're gonna die tomorrow, I wanna make sure that. . . we're together when it happens, not separated like Jayme and Alphonso are from us." The Romani woman took a deep breath and reached into the pocket of her jeans. As she went down on one knee, her girlfriend's eyes widened. Deianira looked up to meet her gaze. "Sloane Hargreeves, almost fourteen years ago, I asked you to be my girlfriend. Today, I want to ask: will you marry me?"

The blonde's face creased into one of barely contained tears of happiness. Her lips pressed together in an effort to keep her emotions in check as she looked down at Deianira with an expression full of love. Unable to speak, she nodded in response. For the first time since their siblings' deaths, a genuine smile appeared on the brunette's face. She carefully picked up Sloane's hand to slide the ring onto her finger.

As she stood, she explained its presence: "I. . . um, well you know how much I like to plan things. I've. . . actually been thinking about marrying you for awhile now. I was gonna do it once we somehow escaped the Academy but with how everything is going. . . I don't know if that's gonna happen."

Her girlfriend wrapped her arms around her and she melted against Sloane's hold. She loved how the other woman felt against her and the warmth that came from their closeness; it was something that she marveled at every time they hugged. She closed her eyes as Sloane's comforting scent wove around her, blocking out the burning fires of the city.

"So. . ." the blonde murmured in her ear. "How long have you been carrying that around?"

Deianira couldn't help the grin that lifted her lips. "Three years, six months, thirteen days and seven hours."