Empathy [Ben Hargreeves]

Episode Nine. Part IV.

"Changes"

Vanya Hargreeves woke up in a panic as she found herself enclosed by dark padded walls. She started banging against the shatterproof glass of the vault door.

Diego, Klaus, and Eloise stood in the cold basement with matching looks of horror on their faces at what Luther had done without anyone's consent.

"You locked up our sister because you think she has powers," Diego said through clenched teeth.

"No, I know she does," Luther insisted. "Pogo told me. He's always known, and so did Dad."

"Why would they hide this from us?" Diego asked. He glanced around the dreary concrete hallway of the hidden basement level. "I mean, am I the only one that didn't know this place existed?"

A throat cleared uncomfortably. "...I did," Elle said softly. Three pairs of eyes focused on the blonde woman.

"What, why?" Klaus questioned in a small, confused voice.

Elle's bottom lip wobbled. "After Ben..." She faltered, throat dry, and couldn't force the words out. "Then I attacked you, Klaus--" Elle shot her best friend an apologetic look. "--and tried to... kill myself, so the Warden brought me down here, locked me up in a sort of solitary confinement." She twisted her hands around each other.

"We thought you ran away when you disappeared," Diego said, crossing his arms against the muscle shirt stretched across his toned chest. His stance seemed cold and defensive, but his eyes were lit with barely veiled distress for his sister that splattered his aura in sapphire blue hues. "That's what Dad told us, anyways. What did he do to you?" he demanded.

"I didn't leave until a week or so later when I broke out of the room that I'd been locked in. The Warden..." Elle exhaled. "Well, for one, he found out about me and Ben. When I acted out after his death, I guess he saw it as an excuse to discipline me." A part of her felt that she should finally tell her family the whole truth, but she knew that she had said enough. "I don't want to talk about this right now."

"We need to discuss this," Diego said sternly. "We all need to be done with the secrets between us."

"Sure," Elle lied, "but not right now. We need to worry about Vanya."

The distraught Hargreeves woman was screaming apologies from the other side of the soundproof door. Elle couldn't feel or see her sister's emotions because the room somehow dulled the strength of special abilities, but she intuitively sensed that there was pain and fear coming from Vanya by the look in her wide brown eyes. She had felt the same when she had been forced into a vault all alone with her thoughts and memories.

Klaus took Elle's hand in his. "I'm so sorry, darling." He shook his head as if that would untangle the web of truths and lies. "Dad hid so much from us."

"He hid what he did to Elle because he knew that we would retaliate. He did this because he was afraid of her." Luther gestured towards Vanya.