You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 2

Chapter 37: Mirror Image

            Laying there, sprawled out in the snow, I began to regret opting to come out here without putting a shirt on first. I had no way of knowing we'd be walking straight into the aftermath of a sudden weather event, but even for the November winds and nights it wasn't the wisest option; the coat did absolutely nothing.

Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose, which would have helped me with the situation I currently found myself in.

I couldn't begin to fathom what would have tipped me off Lila had some sort of abilities. She'd never once slipped up and let any sign show, even when she was fighting. Back at the consulate, she relied purely on her strength and the abilities the Commission had taught her, despite the fact she could have easily wiped out all three of those men in one go. Not to mention, I couldn't put together some scenario where she had powers. As far as any of us had known, we were the only eight people in the world with any sort of powers. We'd been born with them, whether we liked it or not; so how in the hell did Lila just redirect what Vanya shot her way?

Before I could dwell on it any further, there was another loud crash behind me, and when I whipped around, I found another large hole in Sissy's home, with Luther coughing and gasping among the wreckage and rubble. On instinct, Allison rushed to his side, crouching down next to him and attempting to help him up. I felt that inexplicable rage building back up in me as Lila appeared in the hole, indicating to me she'd made that herself. How she'd done that without breaking down the entire house, I had no idea, but there wasn't enough time to dwell on it.

I was about to run over there myself, when I heard a pained groan behind me. Panicked, I turned and looked down, eyes widening as I spotted Diego's leg crushed underneath the tractor we'd used as a defense just moments ago. He cried out as he strained himself, attempting to somehow wiggle out from beneath the piece of equipment that held a vice grip on him. There was no way I'd be able to get him out from under there myself, and it looked like the rest of my siblings were down. Still...

"Allison, help!" I cried out desperately. "Luther! Vanya, help!"

Thankfully, those of my siblings who were willing and able rushed to my side, offering their help. Luther could lift this thing on his own no problem, so I made my way around and positioned myself to grab onto Diego, so we could just slide him out from beneath.

"What took you so long?" Diego snapped as we fell into our positions.

"Well, we're here now," Luther shot back. "Do you wanna stop complaining?"

"Or we could just leave you here," Klaus suggested, trying to catch his breath.

"What he said," Allison gasped out.

"Does everything in this family have to be a discussion?" Vanya sighed, glancing at all of us. Clearly, she was still trying to get a few pieces of her memory back, otherwise she'd remember being a part of some of these conversations.

Somehow, even when we attempted to coordinate with a countdown, it was all disjointed and I'd managed to fall into a daze for a moment, only snapping back to it as Luther lifted up the tractor and everyone began to shout. Startled, I reached down and grabbed each of Diego's hands, yanking violently and managing to get him out from under there. Luckily, he got up to his feet just a second later, meaning somehow, it hadn't been broken, despite the impact.

"Team Zero!" he cheered. "Unstoppable."

I cringed with secondhand embarrassment as Luther's fist made impact with Diego's open palm. They both blinked at each other, shaking their hands like that would somehow dispel the awkwardness smothering everyone within range.

Wanting to do anything but look at this scene, I averted my gaze from my two brothers in front of me, which tipped me off that a certain member of our family still wasn't here. Everyone else had gathered around, but that didn't make a complete set of us. Frantically, I whipped around and tried to cover all angles, but no matter where I looked, I couldn't spot him.

"Okay, has anyone seen Five?" I tried to keep my tone calm, but a little voice crack slipped through.

"I don't know," Luther shrugged, acting as though this was casual, "he's around here somewhere." I shook my head, running words through my heads to keep myself from losing my mind. "By the way, your ex-girlfriend can blink like Five."

I shot my head back up, staring at Luther incredulously. How... how was that possible? How could any person have two completely different sets of abilities?

"Yeah, that bitch just rumored me so I couldn't breathe," Allison added, still slightly winded.

"And destroyed, like, half the farm with a shockwave. So unoriginal." Klaus waved his hand, like this was all so blasé.

"If she can do everything we can, she might as well be one of us."

At first, everyone laughed at Vanya's suggestion, including Vanya herself, brushing it off. Nothing matched up in the description, so how would that be possible? Every one of us had a distinct set of abilities, and anything that came along with the ones we'd familiarized ourselves with were at least related in some way. Lila's were a completely haphazard set—

I paused in the middle of my train of thought. Lila's abilities all directly matched something we had, meaning they maybe weren't natural to her. Instead, she was like a mirror, creating a perfect replica of our powers.

Well, shit.

"No." Luther was the first of us to speak, the realization clearly buried in him as well. "No, there's no way. It can't be."

"It's a reasonable conclusion," Allison contradicted.

"Eh, but there were only eight of us," Klaus shrugged, still in his own denial.

"Maybe we need to consider that there's more," Vanya reasoned.

"Are we surprised?" Allison scoffed. "Dad never told us the whole truth about anything."

Once the statement left my sister's lips, everyone turned their attention to me, waiting for some sort of response. I stared right back at them with wide eyes, shrugging my shoulders a bit too aggressively.

"What?" Something resembling a smirk crossed Allison's features, which soon spread to Klaus.

"You're two-for-two now, Mina," Allison giggled, getting a kick out of all of this.

Upon registering her words, my eyelids narrowed, and I lunged out to shove her, before reaching out to smack Klaus on the back of his head. Despite all that, they laughed to each other, acting as though not a thing in the world could deter their teasing. Left with no other options, I rolled my eyes at them and turned away, focusing back on trying to find the last missing member of our family, leaving Diego and Luther lost and confused—that wasn't exactly something new for them.

"Okay, so, if she can mirror our powers, that means anything we throw at her, she can match, right?" Luther asked, trying to steer people back to a conversation she understood.

"Yeah, but she can only mirror one of our powers at a time." Klaus spoke with such assertion and certainty, but we hadn't seen anything to completely confirm that fact.

"You sure about that?"

Before he could answer me, there was a crash and a loud 'clang' inside the barn, immediately causing me to jump up and scramble over there.