Invisible String | Five Hargreeves

𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

Fei barges into your room slamming the door open, interrupting your slumber. "What the fuck?" you mumble still half asleep. "Ben is calling for a family meeting." she says with her usual her monotone. "Ughh i'll be down in a minute." You cover yourself back up with the sheets. "Ben and I caught Luther in her bedroom." This makes you throw off your covers, immediately knowing what she was talking about. "Seriously?!" you ask her. Your eyes brightened in excitement. She nods smiling. "Ha no way! I'll be down asap!" You laugh and hop out of bed. Fei laughs closing the door leaving you to get ready.

You make your way downstairs hiding around the corner from the hall. Ben glares at you before he head to the living room. "Give us a minute." He tells Sloane. "You. Be nice." You hear her tell him as her footsteps approach you. She sees you and you signal her to shush and join you.

"Listen, I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to creep into your house. Don't blame Sloane-" Luther begs. "What's your game?" Asks Ben interrupting Luther. "Big fan of Yahtzee." he says. You snort Sloane cups your mouth shut.

"You know, old Ben would have laughed at that joke." Luther says.  "Okay, Gigantor, out with it. What's with your family's weird brother Ben fetish?" Ben asks. "He... you... were the best of us, and you died too soon. The Jennifer incident-" "The what?" "It doesn't matter. Just know that we were never the same without you. So, I'll take every second of whatever version of you we've got." "I'm not him, you moron." "Yes, I know. He cared about people. He was selfless and... and kind-" "Don't forget funny." They chuckle. Needless to say this was going a completely different way than you thought it would.

"You know, maybe... maybe there's a little bit of him inside of you." "Nope. Not at all." "Well, genetically you are the same person, just raised in a different environment." "Oh, here we go. The old nature versus nurture argument." "Deny it, but he's in there... somewhere." "Okay. I've already had one big dumb brother telling me what to do. I don't need another. But the team might. Grace!" Ben snaps his fingers and you watch as the robot walks in holding a box.

"Mom? Are you all right?" asks Luther noticing her eye. Of course. Why do you ask?" "Open it." says Ben. A crow caws as Fei walks up to the doorway. You rush to her side wanting to see what's in the box. It was the sparrow uniform. No way.

"I can't take this." Says Luther looking down at the uniform. "Oh my God. Are you serious?" Sloane was now besides Luther staring at Ben in disbelief. "I'd rather have him with us than against us. Aren't you gonna try it on? You're about Marcus's size." Ben says. "Hey. What's wrong?" Sloane notices Luther is unsure. "I'm honored. Really, I am. I just... I'm still an Umbrella." "Are you?" Sloane asks him. "You can stay as long as you like." Ben says walking away leaving the couple. "What the hell was that?" Fei confronts him as he walks past you two. "Wouldn't you like to know." He says walking away. Fei looks at you all you do is shrug.

***

The day came and went and overall it was pretty uneventful after Luther's weird 'initiation.' Realistically speaking you knew that Ben had another plan in mind. The guy was too determined to be number one growing up, there was no way he'd simply hand it over that easily. Let alone to the 'enemy.' Speaking of which, it made you wonder what Five was doing. If the world was really ending, did you really want to end on bad terms with him, like you did Marcus and Alphonso.

You sat on your bed looking through an old magazine you had found. Someone barges into your room interrupting your thoughts. It was Ben. "Can I help you? you ask raising your brow questioningly.
"They're handing him over." is all he said, but you automatically knew what she meant. You we're in disbelief. "They're on their way. Get downstairs now."

You make your way downstairs meeting with your siblings, Luther was there too wearing Marcus' uniform. It gave you such a bad taste but you knew you couldn't argue with Ben.