Regarding Vanya

Part Five: Five

Five had survived the apocalypse. He'd cut a tracking device out of his arm and survived a bullet wound in this week alone. Hell, he'd had his sister's powers suck the energy out of him to near death. Yet despite all his past trauma, a rock managed to knock him unconscious. Damn thing. Stirring only from his brother's shouting, he opened his eyes and squinted up at his face. The first thing he noticed was the extreme anger on it. Must be Diego. He assumed that his brother was yelling about something trivial, as usual, and allowed his mind to wander off to thoughts of coffee and Delores. Only one sentence brought his attention back.

"And Vanya's gone!"

He bolted upward. "Shit!" Turning in a full circle, he surveyed the forest before teleporting to it's perimeters. It took a good ten minutes, but his efforts brought no result. Returning to his original spot, he had to steady himself, still dizzy from the hit. Maybe he had a concussion. It didn't matter though, this was his fault. For the supposedly intelligent one in the group (and he still was, by the way) he'd made the stupid mistake of teleporting way too near to Vanya during her training. He supposed that he had been caught up in aiding her, but in reality, he knew that it had just been his own recklessness.

"Well, where did you go?" Klaus approached him a bit cautiously, probably put off by the somewhat feral look on Five's face. He hadn't seen Klaus before teleporting off, but he appeared to be okay, his only sign of falling being a slight tear in his pants, which was high fashion by Klaus standards.

"I was at the borders." Diego listened in on their conversation, his face in the same concentration it used to convey before missions as he memorized their plans of attack. "Vanya must have gone North. There's lakes on the other sides and she's not around them."

"What does that matter?" Diego snapped at him, glancing to the North as though it were tempting him. "You saying she's allergic to water?"

Five rolled his eyes. "I'm saying she can't swim! You know, for someone who hates her book so much you don't seem to know much about it. There's a whole chapter about the things she missed out on!"

Diego opened his mouth for a moment before giving up. "Whatever." He turned and marched straight into the woods, his slight limp ruining his soldier-like posture. Klaus ambled after him, calling for Vanya with his hands cupped, an attempt to broadcast his shrill warble even louder. Five followed, teleporting slightly ahead of the pair every few steps and annoying the crap out of Diego.

"Will you stop that?" He snapped on the sixth teleportation, trying- and failing- to intimidate Five by twirling a knife in his fingers. "You can walk you know."

Five sneered back, already fueled by the rage of his own failure. "Yeah, unlike you!" He gestured to his brother's limp. "Even Vanya would be able to get away with you going one mile a year!"

Diego snorted, unable to create a comeback. He turned towards Klaus for support, but the paler brother was off in his own world now, talking to thin air which Five supposed was Ben.

"No, I know that we can find her! Trust me, once she's back I'll show her our favorite shoplifting trick. It'll be some nifty sibling bonding!"

Oh poor Ben. Five always valued his and Vanya's input much more than the others and their unintelligible gibberish. He could remember discussing equations and books with him, only for Ben to now suffer the torment of only holding discourse with Klaus of all people. Five shuddered at the thought. About an hour later (it could have been forty five minutes without Diego) they reached the road. A quick glance down either lane gave way to the situation at hand.

"I can't believe Vanya of all people would hitchhike!" Klaus grasped at his chest for added emotion. "It's just so... rebellious."

"Yeah, well would you have thought she'd try to end the world?" Diego kept trying to spot her, refusing to give up the search. "It's not like we're still under the same roof."

Five stepped away from both of them, preparing to jump to another location, any really, before Diego grabbed his shoulder.

"It's better if we stick together."

"Is that so?" Five broke away from his grip. "Tell me, what did you say to her to make her leave in the first place?"

Klaus oohed in the background as Diego's face slowly flushed. "Excuse me?"

"Sorry, but to me, at least, you probably chased her away with your... amiable personality."

Diego threw a knife, which whizzed ever so slightly past Five's forehead, grazing the edge of his ear and drawing blood, which dropped onto his uniform's collar. Klaus reacted quicker than either of them, pulling Diego back with his paper thin arms.

"Don't you say that-" Diego struggled to overpower Klaus. "Don't you-"

It took Klaus' soothing whisper to calm down his brother, leaving them only in a quiet stalemate. They were stuck, no leads on their sister and nowhere to start. It brought back a now sickening memory to Five, the first time Vanya had been missing. He'd said that her disappearance hadn't mattered and it was Diego of all people to tell him off. Somehow this made him even more upset.

"Let's get back to Allison," Diego suggested, "she and Vanya had a girl thing going on before."

"Hey!"

"Besides you Klaus."

Klaus grunted indignantly under his breath. Unbeknownst to Five, this voyage had been an emotional hell for him, especially due to Ben's guilting monologue.

"She could be anywhere! Lost! Cold! Scared or dead! You should have helped her in that vault! Or looked for her earlier! I swear to God if I were alive Klaus..."

"Oh but you're not are you ghostboy?"

Yeah, Ben had quite a lot to say, a bit too much for Klaus' taste. Of course he wanted to find his dear sister, but unfortunately, they'd never been too close and he didn't know where to start. Maybe gray button ups would summon her... if she were dead.

Five gestured towards the others, reminding them consistently of the time being wasted. For all his energy, Klaus was fairly certain coffee was the last thing the boy needed. Reaching over to grab the others' hands, they linked and teleported to the motel.