Regarding Vanya

Compromise and Consult

Five was a being of logic. His powers, objectives, and life centered around mathematics, motives, and the end goals he wished to achieve. He almost always succeeded. In a way, he really could have become the Handler himself, that is if it wasn't for his one distinguishing attribute (which he viewed as a weakness): he was attached to his siblings. Looking back, this was probably the reason his earlier predictions of the apocalypse failed. He couldn't see Vanya as a problem since, in his eyes, she could never be one. Even now, as she had proven the destructive nature of her powers, he felt blinded by memories of quiet number seven. Hearing her ramble on about the need for her demise, he understood and appreciated her logic, but couldn't bring himself to recognize it. Glancing around the group, he noticed tension, as well as visible pain on his siblings' faces. It was up to him to be the collected one. Again. He leaned back a bit in his seat and shook his head slightly. "We can't do that, Vanya."

She snorted. "Sure you can, you have to save the world, Five." She was obviously trying to bait him. He decided that two could play at that game.

"Ah, but even if I did, you'd still be untrained here in the 60s, posing a threat to this timeline. We have to keep up with the training we started."

"But-"

Five choruses of "No" echoed the room. Allison waved her notepad with the same phrase rapidly in the air.

"You need to listen, it's not enough time!" Time was quite a sore spot for Vanya, especially since a week was about all it had took for Leonard (no, Harold! she reminded herself) to make her into a bomb. No, not just a bomb, a murderer who had nearly killed her own siblings. She didn't understand why they wanted her to stick around, especially her most logical brother. "Plus, I don't feel comfortable with training, I could just hurt one of you again." She gestured towards Diego's leg, causing him to move it from view and grunt before muttering about how tough he was.

"Can you speak at all?" Luther tried to put a little distance between him and Allison and the rest of the group subtlety before leaning over her. "Maybe we could sway her with your... you know... rumor thing?"

Vanya wasn't having that. "I can hear you," her eyes flickered white for a second before reverting to her normal brown, "if you try to rumor me I'll..." she glanced around the room for ways to bullshit about her powers. Landing on Ben, she came up with a decent bluff, "I'll make you all do the Beetlejuice dance." Vanya shifted into a somewhat defensive stance, her size ruining the affect of intimidation, "You'll be singing Day-O till next Tuesday!"

Diego wasn't in the mood. "Can she do that?" He grazed his knives tenderly as he leaned in towards Five.

"No." His brother breathed back before pausing. He'd witnessed some of her training, sure, but until he had one of Reggie's notebooks or at least some more data, he couldn't make accurate inferences. "I don't know."

Five stood up, pacing a few feet before delivering his ultimatum. "Give us four days, Vanya. If we can train you to have some control will you come back with us?" He wasn't going to leave her, of course, but this would buy some cooperation from her for the time being.

Vanya nodded. "Fine, let's try that." Vanya knew she wasn't going back, but she could at least keep the peace until they left. "Four days."  She felt a chill at her back. Turning, she saw the blue form of Ben, who had his hand on her shoulder. She took it in hers and held it as they shared a sad, knowing smile at one another. "I will try, guys."

Klaus was tired. Hearing Vanya offer herself up for the world, the only thing he could think of was having two of his siblings dog him for eternity. Christ. Summoning Ben was hard, especially given how often he'd been doing it. The sweat beads trickling down his forehead went unnoticed as he sat in the corner, contemplating what each turn in the conversation could mean going forward. He really hoped Vanya could do the Beetlejuice thingy (he'd snorted at the mere notion of Diego and Luther SINGING before the thought of Five made him break into quiet hysterics) but was a bit more concerned about how she and Five were reacting. He'd never thought of her as calculated, but she seemed to have built an argument on par with their more argumentative runt of a brother. Though they were both terrible liars, to him at least. The compromise was bullshit. He sighed, willing himself to keep Ben present as he draped his ghostly arms around Vanya. It was taking everything out of him, he was barely even present, but he knew Vanya must have been struggling too. At least he could make her happy. Trying to change the subject, he prodded. "Well, what about Hazel? Are we just gonna let him stay and impact the timeline with his advanced vegan donuts?"

"I can't stop him."

Luther's eyebrows rose, "Why?"

"More interference with him increases the likelihood of the commission coming for us in this time frame." This wasn't very important to Five, Hazel was only really useful as a drinking buddy now. "Can we get training now?" It was imperative that Vanya gained more confidence in her powers as soon as possible. Trying to save the world in eight days failed, saving his sister in four could be even harder.

Vanya still felt like shit. Her legs wobbled under the table at the idea of moving again. Thankfully, it kept her powers more docile, but she had nothing left in the tank. She didn't realize, while nodding, that one of her brothers was attentive to her condition. "Sur-"

Klaus rejoined the group, uncharacteristically loud but with average enthusiasm. "Brunch first! Family bonding day!" While no one else seemed too thrilled, Vanya shot him a thankful wink.

Five sighed, "Fine, brunch first." He looked at Allison, "You're paying and-" nodding to Diego, "you're getting me my adult beverage."