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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘ. ᴘᴀɴ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ sɪʙʟɪɴɢ ʀɪᴠᴀʟʀʏ
ᴀᴛ ɪᴛs ʙᴇsᴛ ꒱


❝ I CAN TAKE YOU TO
THE MOON & BACK [ . . . ] ❞

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"This place is incredible!" Luther exclaimed as he and Sloane ran on the treadmills. The state-of-the-art facility was bright and modern unlike the rest of the house. Even though he'd had breakfast there earlier, he had been too preoccupied about being a captive to notice it. Now, he took in the widescreen TVs and large, crystal-clear windows that overlooked the street.

Sloane was more obviously out-of-breath than he was as she ran next to him. "We had the old lounge taken out and had this put in."

"You know, I thought the home theater and Zen garden were impressive but this is just next level!" Luther slowed his machine to a stop and stepped off. "I always wanted The Umbrella Academy to be like this. You guys actually do stuff together!"

The fifth Sparrow followed suit to take a breather. Together, they walked over to the refreshment table. "You don't?"

He picked up a glass and filled it with water. "Uh. . . nah, not really. So, our brother died when we were kids. Number Six— our Ben."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah. And after that, nobody really gave a shit. Everyone had their own agenda and it's like pulling teeth to get anybody to actually care. Well, except for our Number Eight— Alexa. I think it's because she still feels guilty about what happened to him— Ben, I mean. She's always willing to come back and protect us if we need it."

They sat at the nearby stools as Sloane gave him a smile. "That's kind of the opposite of our Eight. I know Nira will be there for us if we need her but she's more self-serving then self-sacrificing. That's why she and our Ben get along so well."

Luther nodded. "Alexa was pretty close to Ben, too, but for different reasons. She's the only one of us who still cares but her tie is to us— her siblings. Even I didn't bother after a while. You know, about the training, the missions, about being Number One," he finished with a scoff.

"You're not what I was expecting," the blonde woman offered.

"I'm not?"

"No. Even if you don't care about being a leader I can see how well you know your family. You do love your siblings."

His expression softened, pleased that she was able to tell. Even if the actual words 'I love you' were never spoken in the Hargreeves home, it was still felt (however occasionally.) Sloane leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "I've always wanted to escape this place."

Luther gave her a concerned look. "Why would you want to escape?"

She inclined her head slightly. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Fair point."

"This house, it's all I've ever known my entire life. And I know that there are better places out there in the world and one day, I want to see them all. Nira's helped some with my wanderlust. She's wonderful, really. She can use her illusions to create scenes of the places that I want to go. She's the only person I'd take with me when I get out of here."

The larger man wasn't convinced of the eighth Sparrow's 'wonderfulness.' She seemed pretty intense and domineering— much like this version of Ben. He wondered how someone as sweet as Sloane could speak so highly of her, but then he remembered his own siblings; Alexa would probably say the same of Five. After a moment of hesitation— where he decided not to say anything negative about Deianira— he said, "you know, uh. . . I spent a little time on the moon."

Sloane's eyes widened with awe and she let out a disbelieving laugh. "What? That is so cool!"

He stared at her in shock. "You think so?"

"Yeah! The moon?"

"My God. No one ever thinks that's cool."

"Yes! I've never thought to have Nira replicate that! I'll ask her to the when we have free time." At the mention of her girlfriend, Sloane's laughter faded. She looked up at the security camera that hung from the ceiling. Its watchful lens turned towards them. She let out a slight cough and pulled away. "So, tell me a little bit more about that family of yours before they decide to come and rescue you. Where are you guys staying, anyway?"

Luther didn't even think as he answered: "oh, just some dumpy hotel downtown." As her question sank in, his expression fell. "You're trying to trap me."

"No, no, no!"

"No, of course. Luther, you're so stupid!" he mocked himself. "Oh, wow. You really think the moon is cool? Duh!"

He ignored her protests and kept mumbling to himself until the form of a dark-haired woman materialized out of thin air. The pair looked up at her sudden, slightly hazy appearance— Deianira hadn't bothered to make a fully thought-out illusion just for their captive. "Ben would like a word," she reported in a monotone voice. Even in a noncorporeal form, her death glare made Luther shift uncomfortably in his seat. "Go get cleaned up." She became noticeably more friendly as she addressed the blonde: "see you downstairs, Sloany."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

Deianira didn't bother to hide her sulky attitude after Luther left. She heaved loud sighs through dinner, much to her siblings' annoyance. Even a sharp request from Fei to shut up didn't keep her from continuing her complaining. As they broke for the evening, she barely spared her siblings a glance as she trudged to her room. Sloane caught up with her on the stairs and reached for her hand to intertwine their fingers together. "Nira, what's wrong?"

"I hate him," she stated simply.

"Him? Who's. . . You mean Luther?"

She sent the blonde an irritated look. "He doesn't deserve to have a name. He's a stupid oaf that should've fallen out a window as a baby."

Her girlfriend was surprised by her behavior; while the brunette had often taken out her feelings on their siblings, Sloane was usually exempt from her wrath. Being on the receiving end of Deianira's sharp words and annoyed huffs was unusual for her. Then, it clicked. "Oh. You're jealous," she realized softly. She gently squeezed the curly-haired woman's hand. "You don't have anything to worry about, Nira. I love you. I don't feel anything for Luther except for friendship and platonic admiration."

While she was slightly appeased, Deianira wasn't ready to give up on her envy just yet. She scoffed. "What's there to admire about him? His incredibly low IQ?"

"No," Sloane scolded her lightly. "He's been to the moon, Nira. That's incredible."

"I can take you to the moon and back given enough time in bed," the brunette stated cockily. "What's so impressive about living there?"

The blonde was hardly phased by her girlfriend's blunt statements; instead, she stopped outside her door and turned to the woman. She placed her hand on the doorknob as her lips quirked up in a challenging smile. "Why don't you prove it to me?"

Deianira raised an almost amused eyebrow. "Sure, as long as you can make our little moon scene realistic. Did you know that the moon's gravity was one-point-six-two meters per second per second?"

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

The next morning, the eighth Hargreeves was remarkably chipper, especially compared to her sulky, jealous behavior from the night before. All of her siblings knew exactly what the reason was for this and her bright smiles were greeted by disgusted grimaces. Thankfully, she didn't spend much time around them and quickly left to mess around with her powers in her room. It was early afternoon when she received a visit from her brother.

"Look, I know you don't care about your superhero duties all that much but I thought I'd make a proposition," he began once she'd let him in.

Deianira lay back down on her bed and resumed her careless tossing of her scarlet orb. "Give it your best shot, then. I'm sure the judges on Shark Tank will be very impressed."

He let out a sigh and prayed for patience. While they were arguably the closest out of the rest of their siblings, they could very easily get on each other's nerves. But, this scheme of his would benefit both of them (him the most, of course) and she was a vital part of it. "Fine. It's like this: we've been getting tons of missing person complaints in a three-block radius. With Marcus MIA, this could be our chance to act."

"Act? Sounds like too much work. Why don't we let Fei and the others take care of it?"

"It's time to close ranks, Deianira. We don't have a leader right now and we can't be a team without one. I've been Number Two for ages. You've been Eight for even longer. Haven't you ever wanted to move up the ladder?"

She shrugged and tossed her sphere a little higher. "Not really. A higher position just means participating more. And I can't lose anything from last place. If Marcus does return, would you let me keep the second spot?" After a moment of silence, she finished: "yeah. I didn't think so."

"Don't you want to know what they're up to?" Ben asked, going in for the kill.

"Who?" Deianira wondered, though her tone was completely flat and uninterested; if he hadn't been so intent on winning her over, he would've noticed that he'd lost her already.

"The Umbrella Academy. Use your head, Number Eight."

The red ball of light disappeared before the brunette sat up to pin him with an unimpressed look. "Ben-er-ino, if you're coming to ask for my help, try not insulting me first. Do you really think they're put together enough to grab that many people off the streets?"

He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second before he dropped his hand. "I've told you not to call me that. And don't underestimate our enemies, Deianira. They could be more wily than they let on."

She scoffed. "The only wily they are is taking a while-y to disappear with the rest of the population. They're all idiots, you know. We beat their asses. If they cause trouble we can just do it again, even down a member."

"See, this is why you've been stuck in eighth place. You're not imaginative enough. We need to act."

"Sure, Number One," she taunted him. "Just like your acting cost you your leadership spot?"

Ben turned away from his sister. His jaw worked as he tried to reign in the anger that sparked within him. "Say that again," he threatened her slowly.

Unphased, the woman shrugged. "Since you asked so nicely. You being our leader didn't turn out so well, did it?"

She was barely given any warning as the man's tentacles shot out from his stomach and writhed towards her at a furious speed. Deianira's bored expression didn't change; she merely lifted her hand and batted the air in front of her. The action caused her red energy to wrap around the tentacles and pull them in different directions away from her. Ben glared furiously at her in response but eventually retracted his powers.

Before she could give him a condescending remark, Grace appeared in the doorway. "Excuse me, children. I've come to collect Deianira's laundry. Fei was complaining about its smell."

The brunette huffed. "It's not that bad!"

Grace ignored the comment and pushed past her into her room. Ben resumed their conversation as if they hadn't been interrupted: "you know I respect Marcus."

"Of course," she drawled.

"I would do anything to protect him."

"As would I."

"But you know we're the smartest and most powerful of the group. It's time for us to be numbers one and two. We have to make our move now before any of our siblings do."

Deianira raised a neatly sculpted eyebrow. "I would argue that Sloane is smarter than both of us, actually. And I told you before that I'm not willing to have something that I can lose."

Ben smirked as she unintentionally brought him to his last— and most important— counterargument. "If you moved up, you'd rank above Sloane. It would be easier for you to protect her in our upcoming battles. Don't think of our moving day as something for yourself, but something you can do to prove your love for her."

As much as she hated to admit it, he'd gotten her there. Sloane was her weakness— everyone at the Academy knew it— and sometimes they used that to their advantage. If she was Number Two, it would be one step away from being Number One: a spot that would grant her the power to set Sloane free. "Fine. How do we handle the Umbrella situation?"

"If they bring Marcus back, so be it." He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice. "If they don't. . . then we have some decisions to make."

Finished with her task, Grace turned to them with her arms full of laundry. "Marcus isn't coming back. God took him."

The brunette jumped. "Jesus! I forgot you were even here."

"God?" Ben repeated, ignoring his sister's outburst.

"Yes. God is in the basement and he called Marcus home." Their caretaker left them after that to dispose of Deianira's laundry.

Deianira gave her a bemused look. "You know, I always thought that robots would be Atheists."

"Focus, Deia. If we play this right the Sparrow Academy is all ours."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

Ben and Deianira met the two Hargreeves in the courtyard of the Academy. Their liaisons were the little one with the big powers and Drama Queen, who seemed to lean even more into her alias.

"You're one short," her brother began.

"Where's the rest of your pathetic family?" the brunette added.

Drama Queen gave her a condescending glance that matched her tone: "aww. Is that the best you can do?"

Deianira folded her arms across her chest to send her an indifferent look in return. "Aww," she started, mockingly. "Is your drama going to have an intermission soon? I need to pee."

The brunette pulled her lips into a pout. "Well, then you should've gone before our little meeting, Scarlett Bitch."

Ben chuckled at Drama Queen's insult, which earned him an irritated glare from his sister. He cleared his throat. "Whatever. Where the fuck is Marcus?"

She was less than impressed by Drama Queen's behavior. The Hargreeves woman turned away from the group as if she were better than everyone, which Deianira knew wasn't the truth. Luckily, it was her companion that spoke next with halting words: "Marcus is, uh. . . Marcus, uh. . . Marcus is—"

"Safe," the other Hargreeves cut in. "For now. But that'll change real quick if you don't do exactly as we say."

Deianira scoffed. "You're bluffing."

Drama Queen met her eyes evenly with obvious hatred in them. "Do you really want to try that theory?"

"Oh, it's not a theory, darling. You lot are so uncoordinated that it would take you a month to figure out how to toast a slice of bread. There's no way that you have our brother."

"Look," the smaller one said. "It doesn't matter whether we have him or not— I mean, it does, but there are bigger things at stake here. We want to make things right with you—"

"By kidnapping our brother?" Ben demanded furiously. Clearly, he and Deianira weren't on the same page— the first blow to what was supposed to be a united front.

"No, that's—"

"Yes," Drama Queen interrupted her sibling again.

He hesitated for a moment before he continued: "the world is in trouble and we need to work together. My brother could explain it all a lot better than me but. . . it's a time-travelling problem. We caused a paradox and that paradox is swallowing things. Lots of cows and a dog. A few lobsters. . . but also people. Look, I know it sounds like—"

The brunette eyed the pair, unconvinced. "Why should we help you with a problem that you caused? It's not our fault that your decisions screwed up the timeline."

Drama Queen looked over her shoulder with a patronizing smile. "Just. . . give us the briefcase and we'll give you Marcus."

"How can we give each other things that we don't have?" Deianira wondered condescendingly.

The other Hargreeves turned around fully to face them. "We left the briefcase in your house."

Ben cut in before his sister could speak: "deal. The briefcase for our brother."

"Great. Hotel Obsidian. Four o'clock sharp." She put her sunglasses on as if she were Arnold Schwarzenegger from The Terminator. "Or we'll send him back in pieces."