His Only Hope

Heavens to Betsy

You walked out into the hallway together, Viktor linking his arm with yours. You leaned your head against his shoulder when you met up with Allison outside your room, still wary of her.

"Allison," you said nervously. She tipped her head at you, her eyebrows raised.

"Eight."

"Hey, um, the guys are downstairs," Viktor said anxiously, glancing between you and your sister twitchily. "We should probably tell them what's going on with the Sparrows. They're coming here at four to give us the briefcase," he explained to you, and you glanced over at him, surprised.

"How'd you convince them?"

Viktor glanced at Allison, his gaze hardening.

"They think we have Marcus."

"Oh," you said quietly. No doubt that had been Allison, manipulating the Sparrows in order to get what she wanted. By no means were they perfect, but they were probably worried about their brother.

You knew what that felt like.

When you made it to the lobby, Luther and Diego were sitting at a table, pointing at the three of you and muttering to each other. You automatically shrank back slightly, wondering if Diego had told Luther about your moment of weakness with Oliver.

"Hey," Viktor said as you all sat down at their table, where they had apparently been playing scrabble.

"So," Luther said, slapping his thighs. "What's the plan?"

"The Sparrows are meeting here at four to trade us the briefcase for Marcus," Allison said.

"What, you said we have Mar- you know what, whatever. What are we gonna do when they show up and Marcus isn't here?" Luther asked.

"Just follow our lead," Allison said brightly, glancing over at you and Viktor.

"Nice try," Diego said, smiling and shaking his head. "We don't take orders from you."

"Uh-uh," Luther added helpfully as you rolled your eyes.

You all stared each other down for a moment before Luther hastily stood up, rocking the table.

"Shit, they're early."

You walked to the front to face them as they came through the revolving doors, sinister smirks on most of their faces. You couldn't help but notice that Oliver was avoiding your gaze, his jaw tense.

Diego spun a knife around his fingers as he stepped in front of you protectively, but you stepped around him and let electricity spark to life on your hands, ignoring the painful shock it sent into your raw palms. You stood between Allison and Diego, confident in both of their abilities.

There was a dramatic pause, and then cameras began snapping behind you. You glanced back, frowning, before remembering that the Sparrows were pretty much celebrities.

So different from our family, you couldn't help but think. Everyone left the house and split up after Five disappeared and I fell into the coma. And after Ben...

You tried to avoid the thought of your big, empty house, alone with you laying in the dusty bed year after year.

Your siblings had left, leaving you in the hands of a robot, a chimp, and your abusive father.

You'd never thought about it that way before.

"Well, thanks for coming," Viktor said after an awkward moment.

"Oh, yeah, super glad to be here," the girl with dark brown hair said.

"Where are the rest of you?" Ben demanded, and you snorted.