Vanya, Klaus, & Diego (& Ben)

Confidence .

(A/N): I'm just now realizing Vanya wouldn't have had her violin when they left, so in order for her to now have one I'm going to say that one of the odd jobs Diego had to do was helping an old couple clean out their garage and they had a nicely taken care of violin in its case on a high shelf. He asked if he could have it for his sister who plays and they allowed him to take it as his payment.

• 🖤 • 🎻 • 🖤 •

~ Ben P.O.V. ~

  I was on my way to the kitchen when I looked out the window and saw Vanya practicing her violin. The vegetation around her shook lightly and there was a troubled expression on her face. She jumped when a branch came down beside her and immediately stopped playing. I would have marked it off as her being spooked by the branch, had she not looked down-right horrified.

  Not scared, horrified. Horrified at what she had done. What her powers had done... It was an expression I knew well.

  I walk to the closed screen door beyond the normal open front door and call out "Hey Vanya!". She whirls to face me, her tension lessoning a bit when she realized it was only me.

  "Why don't you take a break and c'mere." More a command than a suggestion.

  She seemed to hesitate for a moment before setting her instrument down and sitting besides me on the wooden porch steps.

  "I can see you're still bothered by your powers." She flinched and I knew I had hit the nail right on it's head.

  "Look..." I started, "you get the same expression I did everytime I needed to use the Horror on a mission or in training. The terror of what you can do- of what you had done... That's not going to go away by trying to forget what happened.

  "You're never going to be fully in control if you let the fear and the memories control you... The only way to be in control is to accept that it's a part of you, and not something separate.

  "What Hargreaves did to you, trying to separate you from your power, was wrong and should never have happened, but the only way to reverse the damage is up to you.

  "You need to forgive yourself and accept that these powers aren't going away- that they don't need to go away... Stop judging your powers with thoughts of them being 'good' or 'bad', but rather as just being."

  With that, I squeeze her hand that I had grabbed sometime during my little speach, smiled empathetically, and left her to think about what I'd said.

~ Vanya P.O.V. ~

  I continue to sit on the steps long after Ben went inside, contemplating what he told me.

  After about 15 minutes, I slowly get up, brush myself off, and place my violin in position.

  Don't let the fear control you.

  Stop thinking of it as something bad or separate from me.

  Accept that this is me, that this power is my own.

  Don't let the memories taint what could be.

  The tune that made it's way through the forest was calm and peaceful, very unlike the professional concert prices that usually filled the tense air. It was familiar but not in a way that you've heard it before, more like a a memory of a place you once knew, like safety, like a real home.