Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Reginald Hargreeves was a great father and an extraordinary businessman, he picked me and my siblings from broken homes and taught us everything we know. It was heartbreaking to see him in his final days, so very different from the strong man we always knew him as. But all good things must end. Reginald Hargreeves... Rest in peace."

Five didn't expect to find out about the death of his father from a Twitter post. He raked his fingers through his hair, pulling on it slightly. A heavy breath escaped his nostrils as he looked at the nightlife below him from his penthouse windows.
The old bastard is really gone.

Emotions became overwhelming as Five's mind kept wondering. A sense of melancholy mixed with a faint sense of determination took over him as he sat down on the couch, letting his head fall backward. God, or whatever higher power there is out there, has given him the opportunity he waited for all those years away from home. An opportunity to find out what happened to her, his sweet and delicate Vanya.

After an exhausting night of restless sleep, Five finally got into his car, then started driving from New York back to his roots in that mansion he grew to hate. A feeling of doubt made him grip the steering wheel tightly, repeatedly tapping it with his fingers. It has been 15 years since he last stepped foot in that house, 15 years in which he lost all connections with his siblings and made no effort of ever renewing them.

He will be like a drop of oil in water- floating above them all, too aware that he will never manage to fit in. By this point, he wondered if it's even possible.

The sun was shining bright and nearly blinded him as he made the final turn towards the gate of the mansion. He was lucky to have brought his sunglasses since he was not at all expecting the swarm of reporters waiting right in front of the gate.

"It's a funeral, for Christ's sake..." Five found himself mumbling as all the reporters turned to look at him at once, the emptiness in their eyes temporarily filled with excitement and determination.
"Mr. Hargreeves!"

They all yelled in unison, surrounding his car as if they were all zombies in a movie, hungry for his take on it all.
Five should have known this would happen. The death of a multi-millionaire, the grieving family going back to their childhood home, and the one who turned on his late father for an unknown reason, at least for the rest of the world, anyway.

He could feel himself panicking before the gate opened, and with an impatient sigh, he nearly floored the gas penal, letting out a loud screech before speeding up, scaring the annoying reporters away as he drove ahead.
He always avoided talking about Reginald to the press and he sure as hell won't stop now.

Finally arriving at the front of the mansion, Five felt hesitation creeping in. As he leaned his head back to the seat, his hand moved towards his suit jacket's pocket and then took out a flask, the same one that almost burned through his pocket with its mere presence around him. He itched for it the whole drive, his courage juice. How will he meet the family he first handedly betrayed after 15 years without loosening up a bit first?

His nimble fingers quickly opened the cap, and the flask was already over his lips. He took one swing, then another, then a smaller one just to make sure. He didn't quite know if the whiskey would help his beating heart or not, but he sure did hope so.
After letting out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, he finally stepped out of the car.

Walking towards the wooden front doors, Five could feel his legs shaking slightly, and slapped one of his thighs so it would stop, but it only made it worse. Cursing under his breath, he knocked on the door. He wasn't quite sure about who would open, not quite sure who's still around.

The sound of heels walking towards the door made him feel strange. He's not foreign to the sound, every woman in his workspace must wear them according to the dress code, but that specific sound almost felt... Nostalgic.
The door slowly opened, revealing the cause to the nostalgic feeling that came washing over him like a wave.

Her blue eyes shined bright from the beaming sun, her eyebrows were joined in utter surprise as her mouth fell slightly opened at the sight of him.
Oh, how he missed that.

"Hello, Grace."
She let out a sigh of relief before coming in for a crushing hug, one which Five gladly accepted. He might've been mad at Reginald when he left, but he always had a warm spot for the others. If it wasn't for Reginald and his secrets, this whole thing wouldn't have happened.

She broke the hug and looked at him with a sad smile as if acknowledging without using any words the fact that his father had to die for him to come back and see them. "How are you these days, Five?" She asked him, her voice as pleasant as always. He took his time to look at her better. Her face and body remained nearly the same, except for a few small wrinkles forming on her face, showing the passage of time. She wore a black dress, one that seems like it came straight out of the 1950s, forever her signature style.

"Doing alright. Business is good." He replied with a small smile, simply happy to be in her presence again.
"Let's get inside. Everybody arrived sometime last night." She said as she stepped back inside, and Five followed right behind her. He only took one step in, but he already had to stop in his tracks and look around.

The house looked nothing like it used to.

The warm, brown wood that decorated the front entrance, along with the red walls, were replaced with white walls and Birchwoods. The floors were changed from their normal black and white squares to white marble. The old, black chandelier hanging from the ceiling was changed to one littered with diamonds, glowing in a colder white light instead of the warm yellow.

The new interior did not help his feeling of alienation in the slightest, feeling even more like a stranger to the house than he already felt.
"C'mon, they're in the dining hall," Grace said as she pulled him out of the state of shock he was in. His heartbeat sped up as he followed her. She arrived at the entrance before him, and so he thankfully took advantage of the situation and stayed out of sight. Just a few moments before all hell breaks loose, that's all he wanted.

"Who was it?" A woman's voice asked, unmistakably Allison's. Grace didn't reply, only looked towards him with a nod directed towards the dining hall, signaling him to come closer. He shook his head, mentally lecturing himself. True, he pretty much lost all contact he had with them, but they weren't the reason he left- Reginald was.

He walked towards the entrance, then looked at the people he hasn't seen since 15 years ago.
Luther and Allison were sitting next to each other, with Klaus and Ben sitting on the couch in front of them as Diego stood behind the armchair between the couches. They all looked at him with shock, taken aback by the sight of him. Frankly, he would look at himself just the same way.

The first one to speak was Luther.

"What is he doing here?" He was talking to Grace yet he kept looking straight at Five, the venom in his voice only made it worse. The rest kept looking at him in shock, but he could see it was also something else as he looked at Diego as his eyes rolled back or at Ben that had his eyebrows slightly turned toward, as if he had really missed him.

Grace didn't answer yet, probably because she's just as confused as the rest of them, so with a sigh, Five took the initiative.

"Hello Luther, working out I see..." He said in his old manner of cockiness. He didn't want to give them another reason to be angry, but he just couldn't help it. Luther quickly got up from his seat then marched towards him, and unlike the others that seemed worried, Five was a little better with hiding his own, still keeping that grin on his face.

"Dad has nothing to give you, he took your name out of the will the moment you left."
Five scoffed at that.
How could he forget, it's all about money in this family.
"You think I care about his money? I've worked my ass off and made my own fortune, I don't need his." Five said, the slightest smirk gone from his face.

"So then what are you doing here?" Allison asked as she rose from the couch she was sitting on, always the most loyal to Luther. Five knew they would like an explanation, but how can he find the words to explain when he has no idea. Looking deeper into his mind, Five tried his luck.

"I came because... Because I missed you guys. All of you. In the last 15 years, I was so preoccupied with making a name for myself that I didn't mind that I didn't keep in touch with all of you, but I've grown since then. Now that I got what I wanted I have nothing to distract me from what happened."

"Well maybe you deserve it," Luther said with a smirk, amusement completely gone from his tone, almost as if he wanted Five to suffer- frankly that doesn't surprise Five in the slightest. "If that's what it took for you to see what a piece of shit you were to dad-"

Five couldn't help but scoff yet again.

"I was a piece of shit- to dad?! I-" Five couldn't even speak. He held himself back from punching Luther right across the face with a couple of deep breaths. Lashing out at him when all he wants is to make amends with them would not be a great idea. He knew they won't understand the real reason to him leaving, they won't see it beyond their corrupted mindsets.

"I never wanted to get away from all of you, I just couldn't stand being around dad anymore or work for him...I couldn't even bear to look at him..." Five stared into space with a glowering expression on his face, missing to notice the confused looks of the others that still couldn't find the reasoning in his words.

"Wait, so you can't stand the man but you came to commemorate him at his funeral? Where's the logic in that." Diego asked after being quiet this entire time.
Five could tell that's bullshit.
They all had a reason to hate dad- whether it's the way he talked down to Diego when he stuttered or the way he never forgave Klaus for coming out publicly- they were almost as bad as him, only they didn't have the guts to leave.

"Well, Diego...the logic is that in his funeral, he can no longer piss me off." Five said with a smug look as he walked towards the bar, the peeved looks on the other's faces followed him as he went.
They watched as he put three ice cubes in a glass then poured whiskey inside. He turned around to face them with a smirk on his face then raised his glass to the air.

"Here's to new beginnings." He said with a smirk before Downing the glass in one go.

Looking back up at the others, he earned back eye rolls and facepalms, even a flashing of teeth from Luther.
But despite all of that...he was still happy.

About half an hour later, Five found himself looking through the big window just above the first staircase. The scenery of the white sand and the blue sea, mixed with the green cliffs surrounding it has always made Five anxious. This is his first time being so close to the ocean since the last time he was here, and despite his old man being gone- he's still hating this.

He watched his siblings as they walked down the path leading to the beach. They discussed the matter beforehand and concluded that this would be a nice way to do it, yet Five couldn't help but scoff for the 100the time since he got here at the thought that he has never seen his father near the ocean. The only attachment he has to it is the fact that he arrived at the states by ship but apart from that, he knew to keep his distance.

As he started losing his interest in the funeral happening on the beach, Five's eyes wandered towards another staircase, the one that leads to their old bedrooms.
He took the staircase, feeling somewhat anxious. Once he finally got there he stood still, feeling a wave of nostalgia going through him.

Memories from his past came rushing back.

How they liked to jump on their squeaky beds, how playing hide and seek in a house as big as this was always an adventure, how they all got drunk for the first time in Klaus's room and got caught by Grace that told them it's going to be "their little secret"...thinking back on the last memory, it was one of the last memories he had with her before she went missing.

He stood in the middle of the floor, where everything looked just like downstairs- unfamiliar. The shape remained the same, he could still tell which room belonged to each of them with his eyes closed, but it looked nothing like it used to, too modern for his taste.

It made him even more anxious when he peeked inside their rooms: modern beds, modern flooring, and walls, furniture that's probably from IKEA with weird names... They were beautiful yet empty, vacant of memories.

He walked towards his room, opening the squeaky door slowly to reveal nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
No modern beds, no IKEA furniture- but also nothing from when he used to live here.

He scoffed in disbelief, shaking his head as he walked further into his room. Yet he knew he couldn't expect anything else from Reginald "sweep it under the rug" Hargreeves. He never could face anything straight ahead, always chose to let others go through it for him.
That coward.

Standing in his room, it felt like what he would imagine a phantom pain would feel like. Everything was gone, yet he could still sense everything that was here before as if it's still here- the same number of steps he has to walk from where he's standing to where his bed was is like second nature to him, and when looking at the walls, white square shapes remind him of the photos he used to look at and the posters he had.

A sudden feeling of sadness came to him once again. No matter what Five did, the old man had no right taking away his memories, his childhood. Five made a 180 and stormed out, feeling nearly suffocated just by being inside the room. He closed the door with a bang, letting out a huff. He looked at the ground and rubbed his face, a lousy attempt to shake away the awful feeling he felt, and once he looked up he found himself right in front of the smallest room of them all- Vanya's.

He hasn't visited this room since she went missing, he couldn't even if he wanted to after Reginald made sure no one would be able to.
He tried to open the door, yet he couldn't. The door was locked as if fate was telling him that now was not the time to reminisce about her, but a small shelf with a flower pot on top of it caught his attention. Hesitantly, he lifted the pot, revealing a small silver key.

"Gotcha." He whispered as he took it, then used it on the lock. Once he heard a soft click, he gave the door a little push.

Her room was the smallest, yet had the biggest windows out of all of them. Five looked down at his shoes, shining bright with the light beam that took over the entire room. Looking up, his breath got caught in his throat.

Everything was the same.

Same bed, same closet, same brown violin... Nothing has been moved or altered.
It was like out of this room time kept going normally but inside... It simply stopped. He walked towards the small bed and sat down, making the springs come to life with a squeak. Looking outside the window, a small smile made it's way to his face. She always had the best view-she could see the sea perfectly from here, her favorite thing ever, even if she's never been down to the beach.

The sun was starting to blind him, so he moved his eyes sideways, landing on the end table next to the bed. He was suddenly reminded of the many times that he entered her room right when she closed the end table's drawer, looking fairly suspicious.

He lifted an eyebrow as he opened the drawer, finding a pile of scribbled papers, a couple of pencils, and most importantly of all-a small brown notebook.

Five picked it up and gave it a closer look. Just like everything in this room, a thin layer of dust came off on his fingertips as he touched it. The cover was made of brown leather, and when looking at the papers, it was clear that the diary was old from the yellow-ish color of the pages.

A bad feeling came over him. Is he really thinking about going through Vanya's secret diary?
With a sigh of despair, his hand went limp. He shouldn't. It's wrong.

But it's right here, on plain sight. Looking down at the diary that's still in his hand, Five knew he would hate himself for going through her personal belongings, but he would hate himself more if he won't.

Reluctantly, Five opened the diary on the first page.

The handwriting is messy, and the date written at the top of the page helped him understand why. Vanya was 8 years old when she started writing in this diary.
Remembering everything that she went through at that age, Five started reading the first page with a frown on his face.

August 8th, 1997

Dear diary, the pain in my legs never goes away.

Chapter Text

The strong wind came rushing through the open window of the dining room, making five's hand shiver. He read through a couple of pages on her diary before he was called by Grace to come down for dinner.

It felt strange to be called by Grace, feeling like he was suddenly a teenager again.

When he finally entered the dining room, the others were already seated around the table. He sat down quickly, just as Grace came in with their food for the evening. The group was quiet as Grace brought in more and more bowls of food.

"Grace, come sit down with us, we can get the food ourselves!" Diego shouted her way, reminding Five of how he was when they were young, always so caring of her.

"It's alright Diego, I already ate." She replied shortly before disappearing into the hallway where she remained for the rest of the evening.
Among the noise of cutlery screeching and food being chewed, Luther could be heard complaining about current problems in their company. Five paid no mind as he kept reading through Vanya's diary quickly.

Despite his many memories of seeing her with her diary, she didn't write as much as he would like. From what he managed to gather in the short time that had passed since he found it, she mostly talked about her aching body, and about feeling alone.
She did mention a certain place she didn't want to go to, one that she was probably so scared of that she didn't even dare to write it down in her private diary.

August 23rd, 1997

Dear diary, today was so much fun! I begged Grace to let me play with the others in the garden and she agreed, so we all played hide and seek. The boys were friendly, not like they usually are, and Allison pushed me on purpose when I spoke to Luther once. I cried, but Five was by my side.

There were only a few times when Vanya was allowed out of the house, even to the gardens. The others barely hung out with her as a result. Lifting his eyes from the page, he looked at the other just as a question came up to his mind.

"Do you guys ever think of Vanya?" He asked suddenly, cutting off Luther mid-sentence. The group, that just a few moments ago was discussing loudly about their company, seemed to lose their ability to speak at once.

"Seriously? She has been missing for 15 years and she didn't cross your mind at all?" He asked in disbelief, getting shrugs from the others in return.
"We weren't very close, Five," Allison replied, making Klaus nod.

"So?" Five asked, starting to feel annoyed, "she lived under the same roof as you, didn't she?"
"Even that is debatable..." Diego chimed in, stuffing a scoop of mashed potatoes into his mouth. Five stared daggers at the group in front of him, nearly breaking the fork that's in his hand. They're treating her like she was nothing.
Like it was her fault.

"She was sick!" Five raised his voice, causing the others to jump in their seats. They looked at him with their brows frowned, probably wondering why he brought her up only for him to be upset about it. "Yeah, she was sick. She wasn't around very much, Five. Kind of hard to connect to someone like that." Luther replied as if it was no big deal, and the others nodded their heads in agreement once again.

"...you guys are awful." Five said in disappointment as he reached that conclusion. The look of accusation they all had on their face as they looked back at him showed how much they couldn't see it, how they dismissed Vanya as the weird, sick sister their whole lives, and still do it even when they've all grown up.

Ben, who seemed uncomfortable the entire meal, finally chose to speak up.
"Look, Five, i-it's not like that-"
"Yeah right not like that," he said in bitter amusement as he threw his fork on his barely touched plate, making a loud screech echo in the dining room. "She was your sister!"

"But she was more than that to you, wasn't she?"
Klaus, that this entire time his behind of Diego's broad shoulders, leaned in so he could look at Five, meeting his confused and daring glare.
"...what are you talking about?"

He let out a laugh, letting his head fall backward in delight. "Are you seriously asking me that? You were always the closest one to her, always the one that worried about her when she was away for yet another trip to the hospital."

"Well, what about it? That's just me being a good brother, unlike all of you." He pointed out, making Allison scrunch her nose. "...yeah, that's not it. Well, not just that. It was kind of like... She put you under some spell. You weren't yourself when she wasn't around." She said sincerely, this time without the defensive tone she replied with at first.

Five kept quiet. He didn't know what to say.

Put him under a spell? He couldn't even begin to describe how ludicrous it sounded, but then again... He has not been himself since the last time they saw each other, since she went missing.

A few moments of silence later, the conversation was once again company-related. Five kept silent for the rest of the meal, going through the page he just read once again.
He was always by her side, wasn't he? He only wished he would find her soon so he could be by her side again.

Night came by, and they all retired to their rooms. "Five," he heard Grace calling him just before he went up the stairs, "I have organized Vanya's room for you, since..." She didn't manage to finish her sentence, but that wasn't necessary. He already knew what she meant.
"I know Grace. Goodnight." He replied shortly, a sad smile formed on his lips. Grace's expression mirrored his own, just as he turned around and walked up the stairs.

He entered Vanya's room, its only source of light is the moon as it shined on the waters of the sea. Such a pretty sight and all of it was hers to look at.
Sitting on the squeaky bed, Five resumed reading Vanya's diary.

August 26th, 1997

Dear diary, I don't know what time it is, but it's night-time. I just woke up from the strangest dream. I was on the beach, the same one from my window, and a big wave came and swallowed me whole. I was scared, but I didn't scream. I thought I won't be able to breathe, but I did. Now I'm awake, and I don't know how to go back to sleep.
All I want to do is swim.

With a sigh, Five closed the diary and put it on the bedside table. He looked at the ceiling as his arm came upwards for his head to rest on, thinking deeply.
Vanya always had a thing for the ocean, that's why it was so strange for her to stay at home most of the time if there's a shore right outside of her house. He could count on one hand the times she has been to the ocean.

"Good night, Allison." He could hear Luther call from his room, and despite not being tired, Five knew fully well that he had to retire for the night. He assured himself he would check the surroundings tomorrow as he got rid of his clothes and kept on only his underwear, then got under the covers while closing his eyes.

The next day, Five couldn't tell how out of touch he was with his father's company until the official funeral started.
Masses of businessmen and their wives, all dressed in black and sad facial expressions, if you could even call them "sad", More like "determined to close another deal".

He stood idly in the corner of the dining room, looking at his siblings as they all did exactly what he anticipated they would do. He watched Luther's pained face and Allison's supportive one as he spoke to Richard Pearson, a rising star who's looking for investors to help him bring to life his latest invention. Five only knows this since he met Richard just last week in his office. It felt strange to him how an eager man just as Richard didn't immediately jump on his generous offer, but now he knows why.
It's all just business.

Looking towards the bar, Five could see Klaus was chatting with what seemed like two rich Instagram influencers who probably had nothing to do with Reginald and just showed to so they could have the privilege of saying "we were in Reginald Hargreeves' funeral, so we must be important." Well, they're not the only ones looking for that kind of attention from the world, along with them goes half of the people who showed up. It almost made him feel pity for the old man, having no friends to pay respect at his funeral without having egotistic intentions.
But he deserved it.

Had he paid more time to connect with people on a personal level and not act like everyone he knew was either a business partner or a competition, some people would actually feel sad that he died.

Ben and Diego, who were always the loners of the groups that preferred to be left alone, stood side by side by near the furthest wall from the entrance, sipping on a glass of red wine they held elegantly in their hands.

It was strange to see Ben wearing a suit. He might not have spent any time with him in the past 15 years, but he still knows how to recognize the look on his face when he feels uncomfortable, like he would much prefer to go to the mansion's library and read a book, to wear his signature hoodie again and go back to a time where everything was simpler before they all became businessmen and almost literally sold their souls to the corporation.

Five contemplated on whether he should go to them, spark a conversation so they won't have to speak to people who feel like they must be polite, and tell lies about how Reginald was a great friend and how he will be missed before jumping immediately to talk about deals and contracts.
He really wanted to, but when he started walking and left his safe corner in the room, his legs didn't lead him towards Ben and Diego but instead right outside of the dining hall, and they didn't stop until he reached the back door leading to the back yard.

He opened the door and stepped outside, the salty air hit his nose right as he did so. He suddenly realized why he hasn't been to the ocean all this time.

It wasn't just the smell of the ocean. It was the smell of his childhood.

Memories from the past came rushing like a hurricane, and a sense of melancholy felt like a rock was forming in his chest, but he still kept going. He walked towards the long staircase that leads down to the beach, then walked down, looking towards the big blue ocean in front of him.

Five took the last steps and has finally reached the beach, his Christian Louboutin black leather shoes sinking into the warm sand and filling his shoes with each step he took, ultimately making him take them off and hold them in his hand.

The sight in front of him was both familiar and foreign. It was the same beach, same ocean, the same sound of the seagulls as they flew by, but the feeling was different.

For the first time in his life, he was on this beach alone.

"Excuse me?" A woman's voice was heard among the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. Five turned his head towards the noise, seeing a woman walking towards him. Well, at least he's not alone anymore.
"Hi, I'm Edora Patch from the Hampton police department-"
"Edora?" Five looked closely at the woman in front of him, suddenly remembering who she is. He could see the confusion on her face fading away once she realized who he was.
"Five? Oh my god! How long has it been?"

"Very long," he replied with a small smile. "What are you doing here, came to see Diego?" He asked as he pointed back at the mansion, at which she looked briefly before looking down the sand.
"We...don't talk anymore. Not after what happened with his dad."

Five frowned at that. Around the time Vanya went missing, Diego started dating Edora. They met after Diego saw a man trying to rob her in the middle of the street and tried to stop him, only to discover that Edora kicked his ass to the curve and never needed any rescue. Five remembered clearly the smile Diego had on his face when he told them how much he liked her for it.

Back in their teenage years the two of them were the best example of true love the others have ever seen, so to hear that the old man had something to do with them separating made Five hate him even more.

"Why, what happened?" Five asked curiously. "Well... I always wanted to be a cop, and Diego is such a good person that he was willing to help everyone in every situation, even if it meant risking his life. I told him he would be an amazing cop because of that, and he seemed to be liking the idea of becoming a cop, but when he told his dad that he would be going to become a cop, he lost his shit and threatened to take him out of the will. I hoped Diego would pick me, pick what would truly make him happy, much more than being a minion for his father would, but he chose his father, and our paths separated."

Five didn't quite know what to say. Reginald had his way of getting people to do what he wanted. He wanted all of his kids to manage his company, so it didn't surprise Five that Reginald threatened Diego. What frightened him more was why he didn't just leave. Something must have kept him around, something Edora doesn't know about.

But one question floated in his mind.

"Wait, so if you're not here for Diego, what are you doing here?"

"Well," she started to say as she took out a folded paper from her pocket. "I wanted to ask you if you know about any of these boys but now that I know it's you I doubt it, you haven't been here a while." Five looked at the folded paper in his hand.

10 different boys, looking like they're in their teens, all looking similar with their brown hair and brown eyes, alongside a toothy grin in every photo. "...what happened to them?" He asked, even though he wasn't so sure he wanted to find out, but Edora replied.

"They drowned, Right here on the beach."
Five frowned once again. "How come this hasn't been discussed anywhere? Not the news, not the newspapers."

"I don't know," she replied with a sigh, "this whole case is unlike any other I've ever seen. These boys drowned but there were no signs of bruises on them, so they weren't drowned by use of force. Anyone that I've questioned about these boys said that there's no connection between them at all. They didn't know each other enough to meet, so I ruled out the possibility of them being a part of a cult where they drown themselves or something like that." She stopped talking after she caught the horrified look on Five's face at the mention of a cult.

"Anyway, too many pieces of the puzzle are missing, and just as I was about to solve the case with my partner, the police chief ordered us to close the case. My partner told me to let it go but I can't. Something is not right here. At all."

The two went silent as they looked at the pictures, A strange chill went through Five's spine. He remembered the late nights he would sneak out with the others for a short swim when he was a teen, how he screamed under the water to let out his frustration, the salty water coating the inside of his mouth yet not making him bug an inch. These teens were just like him, probably went for a nightly swim, not knowing it'll be the last one they'll ever do.

"...You know what's even more insane?" She said it quickly and quietly, as of she's not sure she should say it. Five turned to look at her, like the cat who's ready to be killed by curiosity.

"I only managed to get an autopsy for three of them, and even though they had no connections with each other before their deaths, they did share one thing in common."
"What is it?"
"They all had insane levels of oxytocin in their blood. It's the same hormone that increase its levels during orgasms and childbirths."
"So...they had an orgasm just before drowning?"
Edora looked at the sand intensely, as if she was trying to see what's buried underneath, but then she shook her head to say no.

"I thought it was a possibility too but... The levels they had were just too high, It was even more than during childbirth. I thought they might have taken drugs but their blood doesn't show traces of any known drugs and I just-" she couldn't even finish her sentence, trying to find the right words and ultimately choosing to give up and heave out a heavy sigh instead.

Five put his hand on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. "Don't worry Dora, you got this." The two shared a smile at the mention of the old nickname they all had for her at the time.

"You should come by today. They're not going to stay for long after the funeral is over." Edora bit her lip as she looked at the house worriedly.
"I'll think about it." She said as she grabbed the paper from his hand and then took out a pen. "This is my number," she handed the paper back once she was done writing, "please give me a call if you know anything. I know you won't stay for long either but..."
"I know, I will."
He replied with a sad smile.

"Take care, Edora." He said as he turned back and started walking towards the stairs leading to the mansion.
"Oh and Five!" She called one last time, making him turn around again.
"For now, please don't tell anyone I ever told you this." The look on her face was a mixture of uncertainty and perhaps even fear, making him nod his head with a straight face before resuming his walk towards the stairs.

Even after he came back to the dining room, surrounded by people who can't tell how itchy his feet are from the sand, he couldn't shake away what Edora told him. insane levels of oxytocin in their blood. He felt a strange feeling of deja vu as if he has been in their situation, only he didn't drown.

His mind, against his will, recalled back to times in his life when he was truly happy, but it wasn't just happiness, it was pure euphoria. He hadn't felt this euphoria ever since he left this life behind. It was even before that, right about when... She left.
A strange chill went down his spine, urging him to leave his safe corner in favor of a drink. After pouring more whiskey than he should have into a glass, he spun around to discover no other than Edora, standing at the entrance as if this mansion hasn't been her second home for some time in her life.

She surveyed the room, probably in search of Diego, but when her eyes landed on Five, he smiled back and raised his glass, making her smile back. Only a moment after, she finally saw him, and despite not seeing Diego since they were teens, Five could still tell how Diego's behavior now after noticing her mirrored his behavior when they were together, simply by the way he rose from his lean on the wall and walked towards her, not caring who he might trample on his way.

Five couldn't help but smile as he looked at these two reunited love birds, but a sense of dread urged him to down all that was in his glass in one go, not even wincing once he was done.
This sense of dread wasn't strange to him, it's the same one he has been carrying in his heart ever since he left. It wasn't just dread, it was a sense of hope, that was immediately crushed by the harsh reality, which was much worse.

Five could only hope Vanya would enter into his life the same way Edora just entered Diego's, but deep down he also knew the chances were slim.
The only question left for him to answer was, would he rather sink into the depths of his hope, or swim to the surface and meet the harsh reality he oo afraid to face?

Five didn't have an answer to that just yet, all he knew was that the depths haven't been bad to him so far.
He was willing to sink a bit more.

Chapter Text

The sound of talking and bickering pierced through the closed door of Vanya's room and straight into Five's ears, awakening him from his sleep. Memories from long ago are crawling their ways back to his mind in the form of dreams, but they disappear the moment they arrive, making it harder to awake into a world where they are gone.

He laid there in her bed, fully awake. He didn't need to look at a clock to know it was around 7 am when the sun wasn't at its brightest and the beach was empty with barely any people. He was supposed to be out of bed by now, wearing his best suit with his suitcase packed and sealed. Today is their final morning in this house before they have to get back to their lives, away from home.

The bickering from outside trailed off as the others went further away from the bedrooms area, signaling him that they are probably headed towards the dining room for a final breakfast. He should be down there as well, taking part in a conversation about something he doesn't care about over eggs and bacon, but that's only if he could master the will to take himself out of bed.

Leaving now? He couldn't possibly do that. It's the closest he has ever been to discover what happened to Vanya, and he knows he won't be able to find another chance to come back to the mansion with his demanding job. It was now or never, but he also knew that it's the same case with the others as well.
Who knows when they'll be able to talk to each other again, let alone meet each other like this?

With that thought in mind, he rolled to his side until his feet touched the ground, then threw on some comfortable clothes and made his way to the dining room.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Said Allison when he stepped in. The difference between his attire and the others didn't go unnoticed by them as they looked at him in confusion, especially with their suitcases standing near the entrance of the room.

"Morning." He replied as he sat down at his usual seat.

"Don't you have a rival company to run? How come you're not dressed?" Luther asked with audible sarcasm in his tone, yet Five only shrugs his shoulders as he took a bite of his eggs, then tried not to grimace as the eggs have gotten cold.
Well, he wasn't that hungry anyway.

"Well, you know, while you guys probably come here every other holiday to celebrate with dad, I haven't been in this house for 15 years. I have a lot of catching up to do." He replied, and the others seemed to have nothing else to say about the subject. They ate mostly in silence, now and then talking once again about the business they left behind, automatically leaving Five out of the conversation.

It was in moments like these when Vanya's absence hit him the hardest, and all he could do was eat cold eggs and bacon unwillingly just so he will have something to do with his mouth.

They all finished their breakfast and immediately got up from the table towards their suitcases as if they have no time to waste. Five walked with them to the front door, knowing fully well that's probably what's expected of him to do.

"Aren't Grace and Pogo coming to say goodbye?" He asked as he hugged whoever was closest to him. It wasn't the best of hugs, but he couldn't expect them to open up to him so soon.
"They already said their goodbyes at breakfast before you came," Ben replied just as Five hugged Allison, but when they broke the hug, she didn't let him pass to the next one.

"We should arrange another meeting. I don't want us to see each other only at weddings and funerals." Five let out a dry chuckle at that, before putting his hand on her shoulder and giving it a little squeeze.
"You bet. We'll talk about it the moment I have time off of work."

Allison smiled back, seeming pleased, before letting go of his hand so he could go and greet the last two remainings. He gave Ben a strong pat on the back, one that he slightly flinched from, and when he moved on to hug Diego, it was a short one, but not until Diego broke the hug so he could take something from his back pocket.

Five looked at Diego's hand in bewilderment when he noticed he handed out a folded paper.

"What is this?", Diego smiled lightly.
"I wanted to thank you for what you did with Edora."
Five looked away as he rubbed the back of his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Diego let out a chuckle.
"Yeah, right. Just read the damn note." Five chuckled in return.

"You do know technology has advanced since we were kids, right?" He said with a smile, to which Diego replied with a shrug.
"For old time's sake." Five's smile grew bigger when he took the note out of his hand, then watched as they got out of the mansion one by one with their suitcases in toe.

He remained at the entrance, waving his hand in goodbye, not coming back inside until the last car drove off into the distance.
He sighed with his feelings unclear as he closed the door behind him, then walked towards the bar with Diego's note in hand.
He sat down right before pouring a finger of scotch into a glass. Nothing like a bit of courage juice to start the day, he has been telling himself that every day for a while now.

He opened the note while taking a small sip from his glass.

Five,
The day after you left the house was agony. None of us knows what happened between you and dad in his office that night, but we were too afraid to ask. He was grumpy and snapped at anyone who did the smallest thing. The following week we felt like we had to walk on eggshells around him and I couldn't help but think about you all this time. What were you doing? Where were you staying? All I could do was hope you were ok, and when we discovered you were the founder and CEO of your company, I couldn't help but feel proud... Even though I wanted to drag you through the mud and end your business.

Five couldn't help but chuckle at that. He missed this sibling dynamic so much since he left.

You asked if we ever think about Vanya. As much as it's strange for me to admit it, I do, Not as much as you do, of course. I used to get sad on a very specific date every year, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago when we visited dad that I suddenly remembered what this date was- Vanya's disappearance on October 8, one week after our birthday. We weren't close, not in the slightest, but I can't say we didn't have moments of happiness together, all of us. She was still a part of our family, no matter how much Reginald tried to make us forget.

Five held onto his glass tighter, not caring that it might break in his palm. If Diego truly felt this way, why couldn't he say it? Why did he care so much about what the others were thinking? If Five didn't know any better, he would've thought they were all like Diego- missing her in secret, even after their father has left this mortal coil.

I wish I could have done for you what you have done for me with Edora. I wish I could find her and reunite the both of you, just like you wished for-

"Five?" Grace nearly made him jump out of his seat. He was so deep in reading the note that he couldn't even hear her heels as she walked towards the dining room. He spun around to greet her.

"Morning Grace."
"You're still here," she said with her usual smile, yet the slight Arch of her eyebrows as she eyed the glass of scotch didn't go unnoticed by Five, but then again, the only person who ever got used to the sight was his secretary, Dolores. "I thought you were leaving today, like the others?"
Her tone sounded almost... Hopeful, for some strange reason, as if she wanted him to leave.

Five simply shrugged. "Well, I haven't been home in a very Long time, I felt...how do you call it...homesick?" He said with a small smile.
"Of course...you can stay for as long as you want." Despite her demeanor, her tone revealed her uncertainty.

A part of him wanted to comment, to ask how would his presence ever bother them in a house that's even bigger than his penthouse back in New York, but instead he smiled and nodded, looking back down at the note so he could go back to the moment he stopped at.

Where was it again? Oh right.

-since the beginning. It's too late for me and Edora to have the future we always dreamed of, but I still hope Vanya would pop up one day and the two of you could hit it off.
And yes, it was obvious.

I hope we will all meet one day, now that we don't have dad's watching eye on us at all times.
You're still a part of us.

Five sniffed as he wiped a tear that managed to escape down his cheek. It's been a while since he read something that made him this emotional, ever since...

Suddenly an idea popped into his mind. He downed the last of the remaining scotch before he ran towards the stairs. He skipped every other step as he quickly made his way to Vanya's room. Once he got there, he fell to his knees in front of her closet, opening the drawers in front of him frantically until a brown shoebox came to view under a bunch of drawings she drew when she was young.

"Gotcha."

He took out the box with a mischievous smirk, and as he opened the box, his pupils grew wide with anticipation.
Just like that, what he hoped for was right in front of him.
Notes upon notes that he and Vanya had exchanged over the years, each one is like a time capsule of a different moment in their lives... He missed this so much.

The notes were usually sentences written on single pieces of paper, so he didn't even bother to piece the notes together to recreate their conversations.
Instead, he just picked a random note from the top of the pile.

I don't want to talk about it.

Five knew from the sentence alone who this note was written by, not even by the purple ink and neat handwriting. Five wished he could say he knew her well, but that would be a lie. There was so much about her that he couldn't ask about, couldn't figure out. Even if he wanted to know something, he never pressured her into telling him. He knew she would tell him when the time comes.

Now he wonders if it'll ever happen.

A memory comes crawling from the back of his mind, of the room Vanya hated the most: the basement. He wanted to ask her so many times but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Her life was hard anyways, without him burdening her with his questions. The one time that he did ask her about it he was met with the same reply:

I don't want to talk about it.

Ever since he gave up on asking. The times when she wasn't at the hospital or somewhere else in the house, locked away from the others, were the best moments of her life. Of their lives. They did whatever they could do inside the mansion to pass the time, to forget about her hardships, and just be kids again.

The longer he stared at the note the sadder he became, so he dropped it in favor of another.

please? Just for me? I like it when you sing.

He remembered this talk like it happened yesterday, with him begging her to sing while she refuses. I'll play for you, if you want, she would say, but even with the way she improved over the years, he still wanted to hear her voice. It was like a gift from heaven to him, to her, to everyone.

His eyes closed at the memory of her singing Christmas carols on Christmas eve to all of them, being supported by Grace since she had many episodes where her legs hurt so bad she couldn't stand, let alone walk. But even then, she had the most beautiful and clear voice he had ever heard.

More than he liked listening to her, he liked the smile she had on her face. She was no longer the outcast, no longer the one who won't get the joke because she wasn't there to get it, now she was the center of attention, the talented one with the voice of an angel.

But then one day it changed.

She started having nose bleeds whenever she sang anything, alongside headaches and in one particular day even throwing up. She made him promise he won't tell the old man, the fear in her voice striking a certain fear of his own deep inside him, but he didn't need to say anything after one fateful Christmas when they were 10, and her nose started bleeding again, followed by a headache that nearly made har faint right in front of them.

"I was such a selfish prick..." He said in a hushed tone, face-palming himself at his childish stupidity. It was such an obvious connection to make, something about her singing made her physically sick and he ignored it in favor of his wishes.

After that, they rushed her to the hospital again. Even though it only lasted a few days, it felt like at least a month without her, not knowing what's happening to her. When she finally came back, she entered her room only to see a brand new white violin, sitting on her bed, just waiting for her to play it.

She felt so grateful like she could erase years of mistreatment right off from her mind, but that present came with a price. She was no longer allowed to sing. Ever.

Five used to get upset at first, asking her "why would you even listen to him? He's not nice to you,Vanya". Each time he begged her to sing for him, the same battle would go on in her mind, but she never did get over this internal fear, so she kept playing the violin until he gave up asking altogether. In a sense, playing the violin is just like singing, but with an instrument and not the vocal cords.

Present Five couldn't help but chuckle at past Five's logic.

He looked at a few more notes:I missed you, they're ignoring me, I can't tonight, another exams session, with Each one unlocking hidden parts of Five's memories. By this point it's hard not to ask the important questions. Vanya was sick, but why? Why did she spend so many days locked inside the basement?

He didn't know the answer to either of them, but what he did know, was that now he has a place to start.

He will find out what's inside the basement.

Chapter Text

Five wasn't sure of anything these days, but one thing he was certain of was that his eagerness might just destroy him.

It pained him to think of how he was so close to the answer he was seeking yet so far with barely any direction as to where he should be looking.

That night he dreamed of the basement door, but It wasn't a new occurrence to him.

He was standing in the middle of a dark corridor, the dark oak door at the end. The sound of howling and screeching was always the thing that prompted him to go forward. With the help of a single lit candle, he walked forward down the destined path. His heart rate rose as the sounds grew louder, now becoming more coherent to him. These sounds were the same as the ones he heard some nights echoing through the walls of the mansion and piercing through the silence. It sounded like a woman crying, but it was never just a woman. It was Vanya.

"...please...I can't..." He could hear her cry despite the distance, and at that moment he always started running. "Vanya!" He shouted, twisting the door handle to no avail, muttering curses under his breath.

"Five!" She shouted back, and when twisting the door handle didn't work he shoved his shoulder against it, putting his entire body weight up for the task.
The shouting became persistent, egging him on to push it even harder. It was after a particularly hard shove that the door burst open with a bang and he was startled awake.

His yelp matched the one of Grace as she took a quick step back. "Five! I'm so sorry, I've never seen you asleep so deeply..." She said in an apologetic tone, as he heaved out a sigh, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes.

"It's alright Grace, sorry for startling you...what is it?"

"Oh, umm, breakfast is ready if you want you can...come down and join us." She said warily with her brows furrowed as if awaiting an outburst to come out of him any moment. "Y-yeah, sure thing, I'll be down in a minute." She nodded in reply before leaving him to get ready.

As he thought of his dream once again, he couldn't help but compare it to a saying he heard once. When you die in a dream you immediately wake up because the brain doesn't know what happens after you die. It's the same with the basement's door, he has no idea what's behind the door, therefore his mind has no choice but wake him up.

Maybe in some fucked up sense that's the only thing that he'll behind that door: death.

At breakfast, he made his best efforts to go along with Grace and Pogo's small talk, even with his mind drowning in thoughts. They made their best effort to avoid discussing anything that might be related to his company, which he greatly appreciated. Grace, however, did find it fitting to bring up what happened only half an hour ago.

"...Do you dream about her often?" She asked right after swallowing a sip of orange juice. Five looked at her, nearly choking on his piece of toast before swallowing it down.

"Dream? O-of who?"

"Vanya. You were saying her name in your sleep, couldn't hear me calling your name over the sound of your voice." She said with a chuckle, failing to notice his clenched jaw. Did he say her name? God, this dream was driving him insane.

He shrugged lightly before taking another bite of his pancakes. He couldn't answer with his mouth being full. They all left it at that, going back to eating in silence when Five finally decided to speak. "I need the keys to the old man's office."

The pair stopped their actions abruptly, switching worried glances at each other.
"Relax," he said as he rolled his eyes, "if I wanted to steal company secrets I would have done it much sooner. I'm just curious, haven't been there in quite some time, you know." He explained, watching as their looks morphed into relieved ones.

He could tell they haven't dismissed the idea entirely from their minds, but he supposed they'll just have to trust him on this one.
Grace shuffled through the many keys of her keychain in search of the one for Reginald's office. Five stood there patiently with his hands crossed over his chest, trying not to eye the oldest key that could only fit one door in this entire mansion, one he was almost too eager to open.

The door to Reginald's office was no different than any other door in this mansion, except for a golden plack with his initials engraved in cursive writing plastered over it. As fancy as expected from the legal guardian of a CEO who owns such a big and successful company... And maybe his own company as well.

As Five opened the door, it creaked in an all too familiar way. Memories from his childhood of standing in this office just to be lectured for his behavior by his old man have taught him to hate this office and associate it with a gut-wrenching feeling that came as a result of anger and guilt. As time passed and he grew to fear his dad less and less, the only emotion that remained was anger.

Five wasn't so surprised to discover it hasn't changed one bit. He was, after all, a man of tradition. The old-fashioned design gave him an eerie feeling, with Reginald being dead, the room looked like it was taken out from the haunted mansion ride on Disney.

He walked further into the office, his finger tracing the frame of a chair his old man had near his desk and collecting a thin layer of dust. By first inspection, it might seem as if the office has been cleaned after his death, but the dusty chair shows something else entirely. It has his old man's fingerprints all over it, always the control freak who needs to have everything organized.

At that moment Five wanted nothing more than to ruin it all, just to spite his dad even after his death, so the first thing he did was sit down in his chair. He sighed deeply as he made himself comfortable, leaning back as far as he could with his arms folded under his head. Looking around the room, he could almost see his old self looking back at him from across the desk with a look that begs for forgiveness.

Weak. That's what he was back then. A pawn in his dad's game called their lives. He played them all like a fiddle.

Five was lucky enough to leave before he got entangled in the family business. He always felt that way, but he felt so even more now that he has finally met with his siblings.
"At least Vanya got her escape..."

The thought of her came to him out of nowhere, yet it was true. After she disappeared he found himself feeling relieved at the fact that she'd no longer have to suffer Reginald's antics. How he'd probably make her work for the company like the others when it's clear to see that her musical talent would only go to waste.
Wherever she was, he could only hope that she was living good, that she was living the life she could never afford under their old man's watchful eye.

Oh right, He came here for a reason.

He got up quickly, almost falling over the carpet in the process before he moved to stand in the middle of the room again, looking for a starting point, anything that might help him in his plan. He turned around slowly to his right, facing a wall with two large windows that view the ocean, and between them is one single picture frame.

You'd think it's perhaps a self-portrait or a photo of his successors, but instead, it's a foreign phrase, one that Five is very familiar with.

"Öga for öga... Huh..."

Out of all of the things Five expected to see in his dad's office, he did not expect to see that.

It was nearly two years ago when the "Swedes", a trio of Swedish investors with a net worth of at least 2.4 billion dollars, has come out publicly about making a deal with Reginald's company to invest in their new product and market it all over Sweden along with other Scandinavian countries. But it was no surprise to anyone that knew who Reginald was when he turned this opportunity down.

It was after the process was already set in motion that he decided to call it off, and right before the "Swedes" did the least European thing they could have done, they did the most European thing by giving him this framed Sweden phrase.

It means "eye for an eye" in Swedish, they told Five when they met up with him a few weeks later. Five didn't have to be genius to know that they came to meet him just to spite Reginald and his company. Their offer was the same as the one they gave Reginald, only the product would be different. In the battle between Five's ego and his hatred of his father, he chose to accept.

The shares he got from the deal weren't as high as he would've hoped, but the thought of Reginald's face when the moment they both signed the contract was broadcasted on live television made it all worth it.
It only made it more laughable to see the most passive-aggressive "fuck you" ever given to be plastered on the wall of his office. Was he that stupid to not know what it means or-

At that moment Five got an amazing idea. He fished his phone out of his back pocket and dialed the number, waiting a couple of rings before it was finally picked up.
"Hello?"

"Hello Edora, it's Five. Are you free to meet today in an hour? I have something to discuss with you about your case."

"Y-yes, of course! Text me the time and place and I'll be there!" She replied, sounding thrilled on the other line.

"Great, I'll see you in a bit."

--

Five was just saying thank you to the waitress who handed him his black coffee before the door opened and Edora walked in, searching him with her eyes. Once she found him she smiled at him and slid onto the couch on the other side of the booth.

"You could have picked any place you ever wanted and you chose Griddy's?" She commented as she looked around, the pink walls and decoration were not a thing she would ever link to someone like Five.

"Well you're a cop, thought you might appropriate it." He replied playfully, hiding his smirk behind his coffee mug as he took a sip and trying not to spit it out at the daggers her eyes shot his way.
Five called the waitress again, ordering another cup of black coffee for Edora. "The trurh is, I miss it here. My siblings and I would come by here all the time and I wanted to see if the magic this place had still holds up to what it felt like when we were kids."

"So...does it?" She asked with a small smile of endearment.

The corner of Five's mouth curled upward before he sighed. "I'm not the same young boy I was...haven't been him for a very long time..."

The coffee came by pretty quickly interrupting their small talk. Noq thay they were both sitting quietly, Edora was getting impatient.

"Now that we got the cliche stereotypes out of our system, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Do you remember my sister, Vanya?" He asked with his eyes casting downwards towards the reflection of his face on the murky surface of his coffee.

"Yes, of course, I do. It was so sudden..." She replied weakly as she notices the shift in his behavior.

"Well I didn't come back here just for my dad's funeral, I came back to find out what happened to her."

He turned to look up at Edora, who seem to be biting her lip in uncertainty.
"Five I don't know if you should be doing that. Looking into these cases, especially when they hit too close to home can only cause more harm than good. Trust me, you don't want to find out what happened, you'll only end up disappointed."

"'Dora, I know there's something off about this whole thing and I need to know what it is. If I find out she died then at least I'll know for sure that she can't come back, but how can a sickly girl like Vanya just disappear?" Edora went silent, knowing that he was right.

"You think I'll end up disappointed? I'm already disappointed. I'm disappointed and I'm angry and I want nothing more than to put this matter to rest. If I could just prove that my dad is somehow connected to all of this-"

"Wait, your dad?"

"Yes, my dad. All of us couldn't even fathom how she just vanished into thin air, but he was always so calm and collected, so annoyed with my question when all I wanted to know was where she could possibly be. He knew something and he took it to the grave with him, but I want to find out what it is."

"So...what do you need me for?" She asked before taking another sip from her coffee that have already started getting colder.

"I think we could be of great help to each other. You with your connections as a cop and me with my resources as a businessman. We could go to great lengths together."

Edora could practically hear the businessman's voice he has probably used on other businessmen when he had to close a deal, and even though it was obvious, she found herself giving in.

"I'm listening... What'd you have in mind?"

Five couldn't help but let out a victorious grin before laying out his offer.
"You have a case you want to solve but don't have the ability to do so without the support of your chief. I'm offering you all of my resources to use as you please to solve it."

"Huh, okay, and what do you want in return?"

"Your help in solving my case. An investigation was opened shortly after Vanya had disappeared, but was discontinued for whatever reason. I need you to figure out why."

"Really? That's all I have to do?" She asked in disbelief. It hardly seemed fair of him to help her with an entire investigation while she only has to pull out a case file and look for something that'll take her a minute to find.
"For now, yes. It will help me tremendously."

"Well, you got it, boss! Pleasure doing business with you!" She smiled brightly as she Shook his hand over this win-win situation.
--

The key to Reginald's office was still with Five when he came back from Griddy's, which was a great opportunity to look for more stuff that might be related to Vanya's disappearance. He was just about to look in one of the bookshelves when his phone turned on with an incoming text message.

Looking at the notification, he could see it was from Edora:

You're not going to believe this.

The case wasn't just discontinued, it was closed by the request of no other than Reginald Hargreeves.

You were right, something is off about this.

Five didn't know what he wanted to do first. He wanted to throw his phone against the wall and watch it shatter, he wanted to sit down before his knees betray him and he'll fall.

Edora's words echoed in his mind. Was he ready to face the truth he might find? Was he ready to face the reality of her death if she were to be found dead?

He looked at the picture frame in front of him one more time and he knew his answer right away.
Yes, he was ready.

Chapter Text

"Have a good evening everyone." Five said before he finished the last Zoom meeting of the day. He closed off his laptop and then walked toward the drinking cabinet located in the corner of the room.
It has become a daily routine of his, to spoil himself with a glass of whiskey after working so hard all day.

As he gulped down half of the glass, he looked around his new office with a sense of purpose.

After Eudora's discovery regarding Vanya's case, Five has decided to commit himself fully to his and Edora's investigation. He rented an office located above a laundromat and just like that he has his place. A private area where he could resume his work and investigate away from the prying eyes of Grace and Pogo.

The office was mostly empty, containing only a desk, his laptop, a drinking cabinet that he insisted on having, and a bulletin board in front of his desk.

A knock on the door brought Five back to focus, making him put down his glass and walk towards the door.

"Hi, that's a nice office you got here," Eudora commented as she stepped inside, the cynical tone of her voice making Five chuckle.

She looked around some more, taking in the vast emptiness of the room.
"You should add some plants, it'll give some life to this place." Eudora teased before turning to look at him with the slightest hint of a smile. Five picked up the glass and brought it close to his lips.
"That's alright, I'm not planning on staying for long."

Eudora nodded before she turned to the wall behind her, squinting her eyes at the bulletin board, which had pictures of Vanya from various stages of her life.

"So...what do we have so far?"

Eudora asked as she stood alongside Five in front of the board, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back on the desk.

"Alright," Five started, taking a sip from his glass of whiskey, "Vanya Hargreeves, the adopted daughter of Reginald Hargreeves. She's 33 years old, assuming she's still alive, and she disappeared on the night of October 2, right after her 18 birthday. The case of her disappearance was closed by the request of Reginald himself, the reason is unknown."

Eudora sighed, letting the cogs in her brain turn. "How was she on the day of her birthday?" She asked, and Five bitterly smiled in reply.

"She was sick, like every other day. She was pale, with short hair and tired eyes. It was the first time she has shown her face that week, most of the time she was either in her room or in the basement."

Five couldn't get that image out of his head. She, sitting in front of a light blue frosted birthday cake, exhaustion visible in her eyes. She couldn't make a move without wincing, and like everybody else at that celebration, she seemed like she would rather be anywhere else.

"I remember now, how Diego talked about her sometimes. Like he was sure she was faking it all." Eudora added, and Five nodded in reply. He could also not forget how hypocritical they all were, concerned about her to her face but talking shit behind her back.

It's almost like Five was the only one who could notice she was in pain.

"Wait, how long has she been like that?"
Five shrugged before replying, "She had better and worse days, but ever since we were little."
Eudora focused on the board in front of them once again, nodding along as an idea was formed in her mind.

"We should look for her medical records, see what she was diagnosed with exactly."
Five turned to look at her.

"You think it has something to do with her disappearance?"
"It could, don't you find it odd how a sick girl like her could just disappear? If what you're saying is true, she could barely stand, let alone walk."

After considering it all once more, she was not wrong. Even if she was kidnapped from their house, navigating your way through that mansion, especially with a sick girl in hand, would not be an easy thing to do.

"You're right. She was always hospitalized at 'East Hampton Healthcare Center', we should probably start there."

Not wasting any time, the pair grabbed their belongings and were out of Five's new rented office and on their way to the hospital.

It took them only a couple of minutes before they arrived, and Five knew he made the right decision when Eudora took out her badge from the back pocket of her black jeans.

"Hello, how can I help you?" A nurse greeted as she typed away on her computer, not even moving her gaze in their direction.

"Hello, I am Eudora Patch, EHPD."

At the mention of her station, the nurse turned around sharply to look at Eudora's badge, before turning her gaze toward them.
"Yes, how can I help you?"

"We're investigating a missing person case, we need to look at the woman's medical records, her name is Vanya Hargreeves."
The nurse's eyes went wide before she typed some more on her computer.

"Follow me."

The nurse got up from her desk, looking at the two before swiftly turning ahead as if she was too afraid to ask anything else.

"...I haven't heard that name in a long time," she started saying cautiously as they went down a flight of stairs, leading to a dark hallway.
"Hasn't it been like 10 years?"

"15." Five corrected, trying to ignore the curious eyes of the elderly nurse next to him. From the corner of his eye, he could see the moment she realized who was this strangely familiar man walking next to her.

"Wait, are you-"
"Five Hargreeves, yes."
"I hope you do understand that due to his involvement with the case, this has to stay confidential," Eudora stated just as they reached a sage green metal door.

"Of course officer." Debbie was quick to reply before swiping the ID card she had hanging around her neck across the card reader on the wall.

Debbie opened the door, making shelves upon shelves of carton boxes come into view.

"The files are sorted by the first letter of the last name, A starts over there-"
"Thank you, Debbie, we'll take it from here." Five said abruptly, causing Debbie to freeze in place for a moment before letting out a polite smile.

"Alright, I'll be outside if you need me." She replied before walking away, leaving them alone.

The pair went on their search right away, which proved to be a fairly difficult task. The room was stifling with no windows in sight, meaning there was no way to get some fresh air or even a better lighting source than the dim lightbulbs scattered all over the room.

Despite the difficulty they moved to where the sequence was supposed to begin, mumbling to themselves as they searched the shelves with the letter H on them. When they finally found them they went down, opening the carton boxes one by one to find the last name Hargreeves.

"There, found it!" Eudora exclaimed as she pulled a file from one of the boxes. With the name Hargreeves being uncommon it didn't take her too long to find it.

Five dropped whichever box he was holding before moving to stand next to Eudora, who opened the file with an eagerness that matched that of a child right before ripping apart its birthday present.

Eudora opened the file, skimming through reports of tests she had gone through over the years. The pages went on and on, the medical exams seeming almost non-related to one another as if the doctors were shooting at the dark, desperate to find anything at all.

"This is unbelievable. She went through a sleep lab, hearing test...eye test, ultrasound... an MRI, they even checked her for allergies-"

"And look at that, 'patient feels numbness in her legs, can't move her legs for short periods.' What the fuck?" Five chimed in, leaning in closer to read through the pages that Eudora stayed on longer.

"There's chest pains..." Eudora read out before she turned to the next page, where a photo was clipped to the page, making the pair fall silent.

The photo was of a huge, red and yellow bruise located on her upper right backside underneath her shoulder blade. It almost seemed like she scratched the area frantically.

Their eyes met in disbelief before turning to look at the bruise once again. Five gulped as he felt his heart clenching in sorrow.

So much suffering that he didn't know about. The question is, did Vanya know?

***

The ride back to Five's office was mostly quiet, with Eudora throwing in a speculation every other moment and receiving no reply from a deep-in-thought Five.

"She had a wheelchair." Five let out suddenly, interrupting Eudora mid-sentence.

"W-what?"

"She had a wheelchair, not all the time but she had to use one every once in a while. She could be normal for one moment, and then she would collapse and Grace would bring in the wheelchair. It was sad when it happened but I didn't pay it no mind...now all I think about is how could she only lose feeling in her legs for one moment and be walking again the next week or so? And also," Five paused mid-sentence, feeling as if he's a volcano that's moments from erupting, and a deep breath would be the only thing to calm him down.

Eudora turned to look at him sympathetically right after parking the car, neither of them making a move to get out.

"Every time this would happen, she would disappear. I never saw an ambulance take her away, nor did I see her anywhere around the house."
Eudora nodded along, agreeing with his words.

"You know, it did seem odd to me how even with all of the tests she had to go through, there weren't any records of long-term hospitalizations. It's almost like they didn't want her to stay."

Five could tell the change in Eudora's voice as she said the last sentence as if her theories would offend Five in any way, which she didn't plan to do. Five in return didn't hold back the smile that slowly spread across his face, feeling glad that she was almost confirming where his mind was going with this.

"Why are you smiling?" Eudora asked, relieved to see a change in his expression.

"I haven't told any of my siblings this, but every time she disappeared like that, while they were sleeping soundly in their beds I couldn't sleep, I was too busy worrying about her. So some nights I would wander around the mansion, telling myself that I just wanted a glass of water from the kitchen, when what I wanted was to keep myself occupied..."

Five paused, almost as if he was unsure about how to keep going, but a nod from Eudora encouraged him to keep talking.

"Now, i-it might have been the fact that I was young, it might have been the fact that our mansion looked like a 'haunted house attraction' at night, but when I finally got to the bottom floor, I heard all of these noises coming from the basement, almost like someone was screaming."

"You think it was Vanya?" Eudora asked, not accusing him of thinking so, but rather intrigued by the thought.

Five knew she spent so much time down there, but now that it could be related to her illnesses, he found himself feeling sick to the stomach.

"I wish it wasn't, if she was that sick as the tests showed, she needed medical help, not to be held down there like an animal."

The pair fell silent, each in their mind.

"Five, how much do you remember from your childhood?" Eudora asked, making Five heave out an exhausted sigh.

He thought, or more so hoped, that memories from his past would appear when he'll go to see the house he hasn't been in since he was 18, and even though he started remembering more, it was far from being enough.

It took him the entire ride back to the office to remember anything related to the tests she had to take.

"I guess I just repressed so much of my family and of this house when I left that I didn't bother with remembering anything. It's like, Vanya was the only thing keeping me there, and when she was gone I had no reason to stay."

He leaned his head back, closing his eyes to the orange street lights lighting the parking lot. Eudora slid her hand until she met his, giving it a little squeeze of encouragement.

"Five look, I bet it's tougher than you thought it would be, but the way I see it we have a few ways to move forward from here."

Five turned to look at her with one eye open, intrigued by what she had to say.

"First of all, we have to unlock more of your memories. You were the closest to Vanya out of everyone, if anyone would know anything unusual it would be you."

"I guess you're right about that... And the second?"

"We have clear evidence of child neglect. Denying medical treatment from a minor is a crime that can lead to serving time and big fines, and I'm sure your family won't want anything to harm their precious company."

Five turned fully in his seat, looking at her with pure amazement.

"...Eudora Patch... You're a fucking genius."
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." She said dismissively despite feeling super proud of herself.

"Now we just have to get you a good hypnotist and we're golden," Eudora added as she exited the car.

"Yeah, we should... Wait what?"

Chapter Text

After a long day of work and research with Five, Eudora was finally ready to go to sleep.

She laid in bed, her body cozy under the covers and her eyes feeling heavy, but despite feeling tired, she couldn't fall asleep.

She resisted the urge to look at her phone with every fiber in her being, knowing fully well that looking at the time would do the exact opposite of helping her fall asleep sooner.

"Damnit." She muttered under her breath as she did exactly what she shouldn't have done. The time showed 01:30 AM, which was less than ideal since she has work in the morning, but also quite ironic, with work being the cause of her insomnia in the first place.

Each cop has at least one case that is bound to haunt them, either by never solving it or failing to do their job properly.

Eudora couldn't stop thinking about the case she was working on and couldn't ignore the gut feeling she had about it. With every person who tells her to forget about it, she finds herself feeling even more eager to look deeper into it.

Knowing she won't be able to go back to sleep anytime soon, Eudora got up from her bed and walked straight to her dining room table. The case was already opened on the table, almost as if it was waiting for her arrival.

She sat down and closed her eyes while taking a deep breath. This routine has been going around for a while now; her insomnia always leads her back to look at the file until the late hours of the night, her eyes barely blinking as she skimms through the pages.

There are 10 pages in total, each containing descriptions of the crime scenes and other findings. Some have more written in them than others, so usually, she just reads their files over and over again, hoping for a new piece of information to reveal itself.

"10 bodies, all males, each had dark brown hair and brown eyes...abnormal levels of oxytocin in their bloodstream." She repeated the things she knew like a mantra, hoping it would jog her trained mind to find the missing pieces of the puzzle.

She stared at the files, her eyes going over the pages while not registering a single word. She looked at these files so much that she felt like she could recite them from memory, which only made the reading feel redundant.

Sighing deeply, she let her head fall heavy into her hands. By this point, she reached only one conclusion:

"I need a drink."

---------

"Sorry I missed your call, an important meeting came up at work."

"No worries, how are your colleagues taking your absence?"

"Well, it's not like they have a say in the matter, I try to keep up with my meetings regularly and be attentive to their thoughts and opinions."

Eudora hummed in agreement as she opened the fourth box she pulled out from the evidence room.
This one is from the drowning case of Calvin Davis, one of the boys they were lucky enough to do an autopsy on.

"You're right about that. Are you looking for a good hypnotist, like we said?" She asked as she pulled out a black backpack, feeling somewhat heavy despite not being so full.

"I haven't got around to do it yet. Remind me why we need this again?" Five replied, sounding skeptical.

"Five, I've seen it happen many times before, sometimes people don't just forget things from their past. They outright repress them. We obviously can't go by your memories alone, but if we go in deeper, we might notice anything... suspicious."

"What? What is it?" Five asked after noticing the sudden pause she did at the end.

While Eudora was explaining herself, she looked through the content of the backpack, noticing all of the fishing equipment inside of the main compartment. That made perfect sense, considering the fact that the boat he had rented had a fishing hook in it along with a metal box full of baits.

She paid no mind to the big bag of umfinished chips also located in the main compartment. After all, it isn't odd to want to bring snacks to a late night fishing venture.

Moving onward, Eudora opened the front pocket, expecting to find normal front pocket items, but then she noticed something quite unexpected.

Two bags of peanut M&M, along with a receipt for the same bags and the bag of chips she found earlier.

"That's odd," Eudora remarked as she read through the entire receipt, noticing the date was the day before he was found dead, and the time was 10:37 PM.

"Calvin had two bags of peanut M&M in his bag, but I remember reading in his medical file that he was allergic to peanuts. Imagine being allergic to something but still buying two bags of it."

"Maybe that was what killed him? It'd make sense that an allergic reaction would cause him to fall off the boat, wouldn't it?" Five reasoned, receiving an immediate no from Eudora, who was still deep in thought.

"It would, but both bags haven't been opened and his autopsy report showed no signs of an allergic reaction prior to his death," she sighed deeply before returning the receipt to the front pocket of the back pack.

"It must have been for someone else. There's no other reason why he would have it in there. Unless..."

Eudora could practically feel the heat emitting from the lightbulb that went on inside her head after a detail that she had initially overlooked but came back to her like a boomerang.

"Five, I gotta go." She rushed to say as she shoved the backpack into its box.

"Wait, Eudora-"

"I'll explain everything later, but I think Calvin wasn't alone on that boat." She said before hanging up.

----

Eudora waited patiently in front of a big mansion door after ringing the bell. After a minute or so, the door opened, revealing a middle-aged woman in maids clothing.

"Hello ma'am, I'm Detective Patch. Are Mr. And Mrs. Davis around?" Eudora asked as she revealed her badge. The woman seemed somewhat worried before flashing a smile.

"Of course, I'll get them. C-come in." The maid sounded skeptical but opened the door non the less.

The big entrance was illuminated by a big crystal chandelier adored with gold, sunrays of the setting sun setting colorful lights over the walls.

She looked around some more, taking in the extravagant decor that managed to insult her bank account in 5 different languages while still being inanimate.

It wasn't the first time she went inside a mansion like this one, especially with being a cop in the Hamptons, but everytime she does she can't help but feel threatened by the power these people possess just from...having money.

"Detective Patch," a deep voice pulls Eudora out of her trance, casting her look to her right to see who she recognized as Mr. Davis.

"Didn't expect to see you here, I thought the police closed the case." Eudora couldn't help but notice the slimy look on his face.

maybe it was a force of habit from being the CEO of a large investment bank in New York, but the toothy grin he flashed her way was quite off putting, especially with the subject matter being his dead son.

"We have more findings worth checking out, I thought I might stop by." She replied kindly, nodding to a confused Mrs. Davis, who made her way to stand near her husband.

"Oh, I-I'm so glad," Mrs. Davis said with a smile, turning to look at her husband with a hopeful smile.

"I didn't think otherwise Mrs. Davis. Is your son around? I'd like to ask him some questions about Calvin."

That simple question managed to wipe the hopefullness straight out of their faces.

"Michael? What do you want to ask him?" Mrs. Davis asked in a tone that Eudora could only describe as defensive, all while maintaining a neat smile across her face.

"Oh you know, brothers usually have a special bond, Michael might know things that neither of us have ever known," she kept searching for their faces, and maybe it was her years of experience as a detective or their poker faces are just that bad, but she could practically hear the sirens going off in their heads.

"Detective Patch, now is not a good time, Michael is- Michael is-"
"Grieving the death of his older brother, the last thing he needs is to be reminded of that."

The pair were fumbling for excuses, and Eudora could feel herself running out of patience. She stopped for a moment to look back and forth between them, droplets of sweat forming on their foreheads. Eudora let out a disapproving sigh.

"Mr. And Mrs. Davis, i'm starting to think you don't want this case to be solved at all. Don't you want to know what happened to Calvin?"

Eudora could sense the pair's annoyance all the way from where she was standing, like electric currents slicing through the air. Mr. Davis stepped forward, getting closer to her with each step, yet Eudora didn't dare to move a single inch back, keeping her stance.

"How dare you? You come to my house and accuse me of abandoning my son's case? Accusing my wife of abandoning her own son? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

His hot breath was fanning her face, she might have even felt a drop of spit falling on her cheek, but she didn't buy his offended act even for a second.

"A grieving parent won't pay off to a key witness for his silence."

And there it was. The widening of the eyes, the clenching of the jaw. It took everything in her not to smirk right at him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

This time Eudora was less successful in holding back her scoff.

"Really? You don't?" She asked as she unlocked her phones, her fingers tapping away on the screen until she turned it towards an angry Mr. Davis.

"Because Harold from 'Beyond The Sea boat rental' does."

Mr. Davis started at the screen for no longer than a second before his eyes turned away towards Eudora. He knew he had no way of explaining the presence of him and his wife at the boat rental place, but he couldn't bring himself to give up his stance just yet.

"Please, detective Patch, you have to understand-"
"Bribing a witness is a stage 4 felony punishable for up to 6 years in prison. I'd hate to think about Michael being away from his parents for so long."

Her tone was informative, not condescending or cocky in the slightest. The facts were enough to taunt the parents into submission.

Mrs. Davis sighed, the thought of being away from her son, and worse, behind bars, was too much to bare.

"Detective Patch, we don't know what happened that night. All that Michael told us was...weird, to say the least."

"I'll be the judge of that Ma'am. Is he in his room?"

Mrs. Davis nodded and pointed at the top of the stairs, all while Mr. Davis stared at the floor, preferring to shoot daggers at something that can't arrest him.

Eudora wasted no time and climbed up the stairs, the sound of Mrs. Davis's heels clacking right behind her.

The door to Michael's room was undeniably his, adored with blue, green, and brown stickers of various boyish interests, such as trucks and dinosaurs. The stickers were all over the lower part of the door, which was way higher than the kid could ever grow to be at his young age of 5.

The door was slightly opened, yet nothing worth of value could be seen from the start of the corridor leading to his room. When they finally arrived, Mrs. Davis didn't even bother to knock before opening the door completely.

Michael sat at the furthest part of his bedroom, playing with his toys in complete silence. Around him were pieces of candy, the source being an open bag of peanut M&M. This immediately set off the alarms in Eudora's head.

"Sorry," Mrs. Davis said with a light chuckle as she noticed the mess of chocolate covered peanuts all over the white and blue carpet, "He's practically addicted to them."

Eudora felt a massive wave of deja vu crashing her way, recalling to the day she came to interview Calvin's parents after his body was discovered, and noticing Michael standing at the top of the stairs, a bag of peanut M&M in hand.
"He's practically addicted to them." She remarked to her all the way back then, forgetting now that she had already said that.

Mrs. Davis passed by Eudora, who was still thinking about the M&M and kneeled in front of him, making him lift his head from his toys.

"Michael sweetie, a very nice woman is here to speak to you about Calvin." Mrs. Davis said, and surprisingly enough, she said the exact thing in sign language.

That's a detail Eudora has managed to forget about. Michael was deaf.

Michael turned around to see Eudora smiling and waving at him before stepping closer and kneeling alongside Mrs. Davis.

"Hi Michael, I just want to ask you a few questions, is that okay?"

Seeming confused, Michael looked at his mother for some translation, making him turn to her and nod absent mindedly after receiving one. Eudora smiled wider before sitting down in front of him

"Great. Question number 1."
----

"He said what?" Five asked in bewilderment, handing Eudora her first drink of the night.

After questioning Michael, Eudora made her way over to Five's office. She needed to consult with another person to make sure she hadn't gone completely insane. The first spot she came to was the floor, right at the front of the couch.

Eudora sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose, gladly receiving the drink into her hand.

"Trust me, I'm just as confused as you are." She sighed deeply, taking a big gulp.

"You have to run it by me again, I'm not sure I heard you correctly."
"Ohh no, you heard it just fine."

Five fell comfortably on the couch in the corner of his office, all while not spilling any drop from his own drink. The pair remained silent for a while, still trying to comprehend the conversation Eudora had with Michael.

"But... how would that make any sense?"
Five asked, the bewilderment in his tone making Eudora even more frustrated than she already was.
Five could be confused. It's her case, after all, but why can't she solve this? Why is this all so confusing?

"I honestly don't know anymore. By this point, I'm starting to believe that even this is possible."

Eudora took another sip of her drink while taking out a folded piece of paper and handing it over to Five.

Five took a sip of his own before unfolding the paper.

"It's the drawing Michael drew," she added after seeing his furrowed brows, "when he realized i can't understand sign language. "

The drawing was a simple one. A brown half circle for the boat, a wavy blue line representing the ocean with bright red, yellow, and orange fishes scattered underneath it. Two stick figures in dark blue, one smaller than the other, the bigger one holding a fishing rod.

And a third one, right underneath the boat.

The third one had long, dark hair, two small circles around the body, and the arms of the figure, assuming it was little Michael's best attempt at drawing breasts.

"'Dora, it's definitely peculiar, but what if it's... just a drawing? A way for a 5 year old child to cope with the tragic death of his older brother?" Five tried to reason, and Eudora knew he was probably right. It was silly of her to assume the testimony of a 5 year old would be even remotely helpful.

"He said that Calvin jumped. Just like that. He tried to grab him to gain his attention, but he didn't listen. He blames the woman for that." Eudora grabbed the drawing from Five and looked at it once again, as if staring at it would give her the answer she's looking for.

"His mom thinks he's making it all up because he did it, but I know it's not true," Eudora continued after a moment of silence,"there's no way he would've been able to drown a developing teenager with his small body, and there were no signs of struggle, not on Calvin's body and not on Michael."

They fell silent again as they tried to make sense of it all. Eudora hated to admit it, but Calvin jumping in the water would fit the absence of signs indicating struggle, but why would he even do that to begin with? Especially in front of his younger brother, out during night-time in the ocean?

Eudora let her head drop backward onto Five's abdomen with a groan.

"I need another drink."

Chapter Text

After living by the ocean his whole life, Five had grown used to the waves crashing on the shore, like white noise in the background at all times.

It was the absence of the noise that alerted Five awake.

Looking around, he saw that Vanya's room was just as he left it. The moonlight still reflected on the soft ocean waves through the windows, making him question the lack of said sound even more.

Come to think of it, he couldn't hear anything.

Five knew right away something was off, even though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He decided to get out of bed, hoping a little walk downstairs would set his hearing straight.

Everything was still quiet as Five descended the stairs. Until it wasn't.

A strange noise that sounded like banging on a door echoed downstairs faintly.

The noise got louder and louder, making itself clear the further he went down. He froze in place momentarily when he heard screams, not just any screams.

Those were human screams.

At first, they were just another noise overlaying the loud banging, but when he finally reached the bottom floor, he could make out some words being said.

The scream made him cover his ears with a groan. He looked everywhere for the source of the noises surrounding him from every corner when his eyes landed on the door to his right. The door leads to the basement. He had to open it, he thought at that moment as he ran towards the door, trying to open it.

The basement door rattled against its hinges as the doorknob twisted, yet to no avail, as the door wouldn't budge. Five's heart sank as he could make out the screams loud and clear. They were screaming for him. She was screaming for him.

"Help me! Five! Someone, please help me! FIVE!"

"Five!"

A different voice snapped him back to reality. Instinctively, his eyes turned to Eudora's. She looked concerned, but Five didn't feel like talking at the moment.

"Are you sure you're okay? Do you want to go back inside and talk with Dr. Stone-"

"I'm FINE." Five snapped, turning to look at the grey clouds forming in the sky. Eudora sighed before she twisted the key in its slot to start the car.

The drive back to Five's office was agonizingly quiet; Eudora still felt nervous even after turning on the radio, filling the silence with a recently released pop song she'd never heard of.

She wanted to give him the space he needed, even when her curiosity was urging her to bombard him with all of the questions she had, which were more than she had before they came to see Dr. Stone for Five's first hypnosis session, that's for sure.

Five was far from being "fine" like he said he was. His facial expression alone during the whole session told a different story. That's without getting into what he said, mumbling about screams and a basement. She wished they could talk to Dr. Stone to figure things out, but Five grabbed his coat and stormed out right when the hypnosis session ended.

When they finally reached his office, Five wasted no time pouring himself a drink, which would've been normal if not for the urgency in his movements.

"Five, if we're doing this, you must be honest with me. You have to tell me what you saw."

Five waited a moment before downing the entire glass in one go, slamming the glass down on his desk the second he was done. He walked over to the window, watching the sun peeking under the dark clouds.

"When I was a kid, I wasn't afraid of anything. Seeing Vanya scared all the time about everything somehow made me fearless. Maybe I thought that she wouldn't be so fearful of anything if she saw I wasn't scared. But there was one thing I was scared of..."

"The basement."

Five turned around to face her. The same sadness he had on his face during the hypnosis was on his face now.

"Even though the mansion looked old and scary, I grew used to it with time. The basement was the one place I wasn't allowed to go to—none of us were. Sometimes, at night, I could hear screams. I thought at first that they were just noises, that this house was so old that it must be the pipes in the walls or creatures crawling in dark corners, but then I decided to follow the sound."

"What did you hear?" Eudora asked. Five couldn't look her in the eyes as he replied.

"The sounds weren't in my imagination. It wasn't the pipes or the house. I was sure that I heard screams when I heard it. I lived my entire childhood thinking the basement was haunted."

Eudora nodded, trying to connect this information with anything she already knew, but she couldn't find any information to connect it to.

"What does the basement have to do with Vanya?" Eudora asked, watching Five's expression slowly transition to anger.

"It didn't take me long to recognize her voice. Even when she screamed, she sounded beautiful."

Eudora's eyes winded at the thought of what he might be saying.

"Five... did they-"

"Every time I dared to ask, they would deny it, but I'm positive they locked her in that basement."

Eudora looked at him in shock before flopping down onto the couch.

"Eudora, I need you to help me with this. You have to get a search warrant."

Eudora was still somewhere else, still trying to wrap her mind around the idea of Reginald locking a sick girl in a basement.

"Dora, please!" Five begged, getting down on his knees to look into her watery eyes.

"I know they're hiding something in there. I can feel it."

Eudora could only nod as she swiftly wiped her tears, regaining composure once again. Saying nothing, she got up and left, shutting the door softly behind her.

Five let himself sit on the floor, leaning against the couch for support.

He finally has a lead. He just needs to follow it.

--

"Hey, Grace." Five greeted before grabbing an apple from the fruit basket on the kitchen counter. Grace smiled kindly as she washed the remaining dishes from preparing dinner.

"Five, haven't seen you in a while," Grace greeted back, flashing a kind smile his way before turning her eyes back to the sink.

"Say, you wouldn't have the key to the basement by any chance, would you?"

Five stifled a smirk when he noticed the smallest pauses in Grace's movements.

"I do. Why are you asking?"

"No reason in particular, I just realized that now that..." the old man is dead he wanted to say, but instead opted for a more gentle approach. "Now that father is gone, I can finally go in there. Y'know, I finally can, after years of not being allowed to go there. Curiosity killed the cat and all that."

Grace tried to hide her expression behind her wavy blonde hair before raising her gaze towards him again with a big smile plastered on her face, one that didn't reach her eyes.

"This basement is the most dirty and empty room in this house. There's nothing to see there besides dust and spiders everywhere."

"I think I'm willing to take my chances. Spiders don't scare me," Five said with a proud smile, knowing full well that she knew it as much as he did.

Grace sighed as she put the last of the dishes over the dishes rack before wiping her hands over her apron.

"Not tonight, Five. The basement hasn't been cleaned in ages, and the last thing I want is for you to contract something from God knows what's down there."

"But-"

"There's meatloaf and green beans in the fridge. You can have some. Have a good night."

Grace left no room for debate as she hung the apron on the hook near the door and left, leaving a very frustrated Five behind.

--

"What do you mean you can't?"

Five raised his eyes from his laptop, looking at Eudora, standing before him with her coat still on and her bag hanging from her shoulder. The golden afternoon sun lit her figure in bright straps emitting through the blinds on the window. Five hadn't even noticed the passing of time.

"Five, I got direct orders from my deputy. I can't search anything related to the Hargreeves, including the Hargreeves manor."

"Eudora, my father is dead; who would give a fuck if we're asking for a search warrant now?"

Eudora rubbed the back of her head as she heaved out a sigh.

"I don't know who gives a fuck, but somebody does, and they have enough influence to scare off my boss."

Five closed his laptop, feeling his jaw clenching.

"Well, I assume it's your job to figure out who this person is, 'Dora. Isn't that what you were trained for? Isn't that why we have our deal?"

He intertwined his arms across his chest, staring daggers into her eyes, who seemed almost helpless.

"Five, about that, I think...I think we should call it off." She said, looking towards the wall behind him.

"What do you mean to call it off? Eudora, we both need each other. You want to solve that case just as much as I want to find Vanya-"

"I know Five, but where has that led us? If my boss starts suspecting I'm still going after that case, I could lose my job. And you," she paused, looking around at his small office, "you are the CEO of a company, and instead of being where you should be, you spend your time in this little office, drinking and theorizing about something that could potentially be-"

Eudora paused in time, sighing into her palm as she realized she had gone too far.

Five started at her, slowly getting up from his desk to go around it, towering over her frame as he stopped to stand right in front of her.

"Could be what? Tell me, could be what?"

"Five I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything-"

"Pointless? A waste of time? Is that what you meant?"

Eudora couldn't look at him then, and Five could only interpret her silence as a "yes".

"I can see how much you care about those poor teenage boys of yours if you fold under the tiniest of pressures. Unlike you, I can't forget about Vanya; I owe her that, at least."

Five was about to walk over to pour himself yet another drink, pushing back the tiny voice in his head, more specifically Eudora's voice repeating the same thing she said mere moments ago when her hand reached forward to grab him.

"Five," she started, doubt-ridden in her voice, "had it not crossed your kind at least once that Vanya might be..."

She didn't have to complete her sentence. Five knew exactly what she meant. He froze in place as he felt his blood boiling.

"She's not."

"How do you know? Five, she was sick most of her life; even if you do find out what happened to her, how can you be so sure she's still alive?"

A moment of silence passed. Five turned his head to the side, not ready to look at her just yet.

"I can't."

Five pulled himself out of Eudora's grip, walking straight towards the crystal bottle that had been calling his name in the past 5 minutes of talking to Eudora.

"I don't want you to get hurt, Five."

The pity in her voice made him grip the bottle tighter as he poured the amber-colored liquid into a glass.

He doesn't need her pity. He needs answers.

"I was hurt the day I lost Vanya. Now go, I need to be alone."

"Five-"

"I said go!"

He still hasn't turned around to her, too afraid that looking at her would make his anger turn into rage, that he would say things he doesn't mean just to make her suffer. Instead, he just listened to her hesitant footsteps, making her way toward the door and then shutting it after her.

He had it. He was so close to having the answers he was looking for, and now, after moving forward two steps, life keeps knocking him back 10 steps.

He downed the glass in one sip, enjoying the brief feeling of the whiskey as it burned his throat. But the sensation was gone in a flash, and Five was sure that one glass wasn't enough.

He needed more. Way more.

Chapter Text

After living by the ocean his whole life, Five had grown used to the waves crashing on the shore, like white noise in the background at all times.

It was the absence of the noise that alerted Five awake.

Looking around, he saw that Vanya's room was just as he left it. The moonlight still reflected on the soft ocean waves through the windows, making him question the lack of said sound even more.

Come to think of it, he couldn't hear anything.

Five knew right away something was off, even though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He decided to get out of bed, hoping a little walk downstairs would set his hearing straight.

Everything was still quiet as Five descended the stairs. Until it wasn't.

A strange noise that sounded like banging on a door echoed downstairs faintly.

The noise got louder and louder, making itself clear the further he went down. He froze in place momentarily when he heard screams, not just any screams.

Those were human screams.

At first, they were just another noise overlaying the loud banging, but when he finally reached the bottom floor, he could make out some words being said.

The scream made him cover his ears with a groan. He looked everywhere for the source of the noises surrounding him from every corner when his eyes landed on the door to his right. The door leads to the basement. He had to open it, he thought at that moment as he ran towards the door, trying to open it.

The basement door rattled against its hinges as the doorknob twisted, yet to no avail, as the door wouldn't budge. Five's heart sank as he could make out the screams loud and clear. They were screaming for him. She was screaming for him.

"Help me! Five! Someone, please help me! FIVE!"

"Five!"

A different voice snapped him back to reality. Instinctively, his eyes turned to Eudora's. She looked concerned, but Five didn't feel like talking at the moment.

"Are you sure you're okay? Do you want to go back inside and talk with Dr. Stone-"

"I'm FINE." Five snapped, turning to look at the grey clouds forming in the sky. Eudora sighed before she twisted the key in its slot to start the car.

The drive back to Five's office was agonizingly quiet; Eudora still felt nervous even after turning on the radio, filling the silence with a recently released pop song she'd never heard of.

She wanted to give him the space he needed, even when her curiosity was urging her to bombard him with all of the questions she had, which were more than she had before they came to see Dr. Stone for Five's first hypnosis session, that's for sure.

Five was far from being "fine" like he said he was. His facial expression alone during the whole session told a different story. That's without getting into what he said, mumbling about screams and a basement. She wished they could talk to Dr. Stone to figure things out, but Five grabbed his coat and stormed out right when the hypnosis session ended.

When they finally reached his office, Five wasted no time pouring himself a drink, which would've been normal if not for the urgency in his movements.

"Five, if we're doing this, you must be honest with me. You have to tell me what you saw."

Five waited a moment before downing the entire glass in one go, slamming the glass down on his desk the second he was done. He walked over to the window, watching the sun peeking under the dark clouds.

"When I was a kid, I wasn't afraid of anything. Seeing Vanya scared all the time about everything somehow made me fearless. Maybe I thought that she wouldn't be so fearful of anything if she saw I wasn't scared. But there was one thing I was scared of..."

"The basement."

Five turned around to face her. The same sadness he had on his face during the hypnosis was on his face now.

"Even though the mansion looked old and scary, I grew used to it with time. The basement was the one place I wasn't allowed to go to—none of us were. Sometimes, at night, I could hear screams. I thought at first that they were just noises, that this house was so old that it must be the pipes in the walls or creatures crawling in dark corners, but then I decided to follow the sound."

"What did you hear?" Eudora asked. Five couldn't look her in the eyes as he replied.

"The sounds weren't in my imagination. It wasn't the pipes or the house. I was sure that I heard screams when I heard it. I lived my entire childhood thinking the basement was haunted."

Eudora nodded, trying to connect this information with anything she already knew, but she couldn't find any information to connect it to.

"What does the basement have to do with Vanya?" Eudora asked, watching Five's expression slowly transition to anger.

"It didn't take me long to recognize her voice. Even when she screamed, she sounded beautiful."

Eudora's eyes winded at the thought of what he might be saying.

"Five... did they-"

"Every time I dared to ask, they would deny it, but I'm positive they locked her in that basement."

Eudora looked at him in shock before flopping down onto the couch.

"Eudora, I need you to help me with this. You have to get a search warrant."

Eudora was still somewhere else, still trying to wrap her mind around the idea of Reginald locking a sick girl in a basement.

"Dora, please!" Five begged, getting down on his knees to look into her watery eyes.

"I know they're hiding something in there. I can feel it."

Eudora could only nod as she swiftly wiped her tears, regaining composure once again. Saying nothing, she got up and left, shutting the door softly behind her.

Five let himself sit on the floor, leaning against the couch for support.

He finally has a lead. He just needs to follow it.

--

"Hey, Grace." Five greeted before grabbing an apple from the fruit basket on the kitchen counter. Grace smiled kindly as she washed the remaining dishes from preparing dinner.

"Five, haven't seen you in a while," Grace greeted back, flashing a kind smile his way before turning her eyes back to the sink.

"Say, you wouldn't have the key to the basement by any chance, would you?"

Five stifled a smirk when he noticed the smallest pauses in Grace's movements.

"I do. Why are you asking?"

"No reason in particular, I just realized that now that..." the old man is dead he wanted to say, but instead opted for a more gentle approach. "Now that father is gone, I can finally go in there. Y'know, I finally can, after years of not being allowed to go there. Curiosity killed the cat and all that."

Grace tried to hide her expression behind her wavy blonde hair before raising her gaze towards him again with a big smile plastered on her face, one that didn't reach her eyes.

"This basement is the most dirty and empty room in this house. There's nothing to see there besides dust and spiders everywhere."

"I think I'm willing to take my chances. Spiders don't scare me," Five said with a proud smile, knowing full well that she knew it as much as he did.

Grace sighed as she put the last of the dishes over the dishes rack before wiping her hands over her apron.

"Not tonight, Five. The basement hasn't been cleaned in ages, and the last thing I want is for you to contract something from God knows what's down there."

"But-"

"There's meatloaf and green beans in the fridge. You can have some. Have a good night."

Grace left no room for debate as she hung the apron on the hook near the door and left, leaving a very frustrated Five behind.

--

"What do you mean you can't?"

Five raised his eyes from his laptop, looking at Eudora, standing before him with her coat still on and her bag hanging from her shoulder. The golden afternoon sun lit her figure in bright straps emitting through the blinds on the window. Five hadn't even noticed the passing of time.

"Five, I got direct orders from my deputy. I can't search anything related to the Hargreeves, including the Hargreeves manor."

"Eudora, my father is dead; who would give a fuck if we're asking for a search warrant now?"

Eudora rubbed the back of her head as she heaved out a sigh.

"I don't know who gives a fuck, but somebody does, and they have enough influence to scare off my boss."

Five closed his laptop, feeling his jaw clenching.

"Well, I assume it's your job to figure out who this person is, 'Dora. Isn't that what you were trained for? Isn't that why we have our deal?"

He intertwined his arms across his chest, staring daggers into her eyes, who seemed almost helpless.

"Five, about that, I think...I think we should call it off." She said, looking towards the wall behind him.

"What do you mean to call it off? Eudora, we both need each other. You want to solve that case just as much as I want to find Vanya-"

"I know Five, but where has that led us? If my boss starts suspecting I'm still going after that case, I could lose my job. And you," she paused, looking around at his small office, "you are the CEO of a company, and instead of being where you should be, you spend your time in this little office, drinking and theorizing about something that could potentially be-"

Eudora paused in time, sighing into her palm as she realized she had gone too far.

Five started at her, slowly getting up from his desk to go around it, towering over her frame as he stopped to stand right in front of her.

"Could be what? Tell me, could be what?"

"Five I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything-"

"Pointless? A waste of time? Is that what you meant?"

Eudora couldn't look at him then, and Five could only interpret her silence as a "yes".

"I can see how much you care about those poor teenage boys of yours if you fold under the tiniest of pressures. Unlike you, I can't forget about Vanya; I owe her that, at least."

Five was about to walk over to pour himself yet another drink, pushing back the tiny voice in his head, more specifically Eudora's voice repeating the same thing she said mere moments ago when her hand reached forward to grab him.

"Five," she started, doubt-ridden in her voice, "had it not crossed your mind at least once that Vanya might be..."

She didn't have to complete her sentence. Five knew exactly what she meant. He froze in place as he felt his blood boiling.

"She's not."

"How do you know? Five, she was sick most of her life; even if you do find out what happened to her, how can you be so sure she's still alive?"

A moment of silence passed. Five turned his head to the side, not ready to look at her just yet.

"I can't."

Five pulled himself out of Eudora's grip, walking straight towards the crystal bottle that had been calling his name in the past 5 minutes of talking to Eudora.

"I don't want you to get hurt, Five."

The pity in her voice made him grip the bottle tighter as he poured the amber-colored liquid into a glass.

He doesn't need her pity. He needs answers.

"I was hurt the day I lost Vanya. Now go, I need to be alone."

"Five-"

"I said go!"

He still hasn't turned around to her, too afraid that looking at her would make his anger turn into rage, that he would say things he doesn't mean just to make her suffer. Instead, he just listened to her hesitant footsteps, making her way toward the door and then shutting it after her.

He had it. He was so close to having the answers he was looking for, and now, after moving forward two steps, life keeps knocking him back 10 steps.

He downed the glass in one sip, enjoying the brief feeling of the whiskey as it burned his throat. But the sensation was gone in a flash, and Five was sure that one glass wasn't enough.

He needed more. Way more.

Chapter Text

Five had no recollection of how he got home that night, how he managed to drive in the dark, crooked roads leading to the mansion while being drunk out of his mind.

He leaned against the railing of the stairs leading to the front door, struggling to twist the handle and open the door. It took a few tries before the door creaked open, Five almost tripping over once he lost the only thing that kept him upright.

He crept inside, almost like he was a teenager again, sneaking back home after another late night out.

The house was dark, and it took him a while to get used to the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, he missed the vase standing on a pedestal next to him, knocking it over with his broad shoulder.
He tried and failed to grab it mid-air, and it fell to the floor with a loud bang.

Five froze in place, waiting for something else to happen, for someone to lecture him about breaking things around the house, but when nothing happened, he burst into a drunken laugh, like a misbehaving kid who got off scot-free.

He kept walking slowly, putting one foot after the other as he stepped over the broken vase shards littering the floor.

He aimed to go for the stairs, but when he remembered how many flights of stairs he'd have to climb, he settled for sitting at the bottom of the stairs and leaning his spinning head on the railing.

He closed his eyes, hoping it would help with his dizziness, but when that didn't help, he opened his eyes back, looking right at the basement door.

All of a sudden, he felt immense rage.

Everything was rushing back to him.
The argument he had with Eudora that he was trying so hard to forget, Grace's and Pogo's blind devotion to his dead father, the whole world seemed to be holding him back from finding the truth.

Well, he's had enough. He will take whatever he wants. Even by force.

He leaned onto the railing as he pulled himself back up, stumbling towards the door as he grabbed the "Venus de Milo" statue off its pedestal. It was small enough to be lifted with one hand, but it took all of his concentration to focus on what he wanted to use it against.

"Five, stop!"

Grace shouted from the top of the stairs, staring at him in horror as she stepped down the stairs towards him, Pogo followed suit.

Five turned to look at them, reminding them of his old, proud self whenever he did anything wrong just out of spite.

"Grace, Pogo, good to see you on this fine evening!" He exclaimed drunkenly as he used the statue in his hand as a cane to lean on while he bowed to them, almost rolling forward.

"Five, please give me the statue. You're drunk as a skunk." While Grace showed concern for him, Pogo felt nothing but annoyance. The sternness in his voice did nothing to deter Five from what he was doing.

If anything, it made him laugh.

"You can have the statue if I can have the key. Fairtrade, isn't it?" Five looked straight at Grace as if identifying the weakest link was his specialty. Grace shook her head apologetically, knowing fully well she couldn't do it.

"I told you, Five, there's nothing to see there -"

Without warning, Five turned around, and with the statue in his hand, he hit the doorknob, breaking it clean off. Grace screamed at him to stop as Five dropped the statue to the floor, breaking it.

Pogo tried to pull him back from the door, but even drunk Five was stronger than him, and with a shove, Pogo fell to the ground with a thud.

It took a couple of tries of Five slamming his body against the door for it to swing open, the lock completely broken.
He wasted no time climbing down the stairs, and Grace abandoned her spot next to Pogo to run after him.

"Five wait!" She called after him, and he did wait, right in the middle of the room.
She didn't need to look at his face to know that he was shocked by the sight in front of him.

A single bed with restraints on each corner for the arms and the legs was lying on one side of the room, while a moldy, off-white bathtub was on the other side.

Five could feel bile rising in his throat, but he suppressed it with a choked sob. His knees buckled under the weight of his wild imagination, his drunken mind making him unfocused as he couldn't possibly imagine what to think of first.

They did lock her in the basement, but why like this? How could they do this to her?

"You monsters... she was just a kid!"

His sobs came out uncontrollably, pulling on his hair as he looked back and forth between the bed and the bath. Both seem like they haven't been used in years, but they were used once nonetheless.

Grace walked towards him slowly, wiping tears of her own as she knelt behind him.

"You were never supposed to see it. I'm so sorry, Five..." Grace had nothing else to say as she hugged him close, and even as he wanted nothing more than to punish her and Pogo for hiding this from him for so long, he leaned into her embrace, letting out all of the pent-up frustration he held in all of those years.

They were there for God knows how long, Grace hugging him tight as he let everything out until all that was heard was his uneven breathing and his sniffing.

"Come, it's time you would know the truth," Grace whispered in his ear before releasing her embrace. It took him another Glace at the horror in front of him to rise back to his feet.

Five couldn't tell if the splitting headache he felt was because of his drinking or because of the crying, but he pushed himself to climb up the stairs regardless.

Back on the entrance floor, Pogo raised his fallen gaze to meet Five's puffy and red eyes, and even without hearing what Grace had whispered in his ear, he knew what had to be done.

"Grace, would you be so kind as to go get Five a glass of water?" Pogo asked of her gently, Grace nodded before giving Five a squeeze on his upper arm and leaving for the kitchen.

The pair stood in place, staring at each other. Pogo's furrowed brows signaled to Five his pity and sorrow, while Five was too stunned to let out any emotion.

"Let's talk someplace quiet," Pogo suggested, motioning for Reginald's office.
Five followed behind him without adding a single word.

--

After Five had his second glass of water, all signs of his drunken self, apart from his headache, had faded away. Grace left the pair be, and Five waited for Pogo to speak. Pogo remained quiet as the wheels in his head turned, trying to work up the words to say. After all, he never thought he would face a moment like this.

Eventually, Pogo finally broke the silence.

"You know Five, your father conducted extraordinary tests on you and your siblings before he brought you all to the family. He wanted to make sure he was taking the best of the best."

Pogo spoke of Reginald fondly, chuckling at the memory of them all as babies in his lab, showcasing signs of brilliance at such a young age. Five tried and failed to mask his disgust at the thought of them being no more than lab rats for his dad.

"He didn't bother searching for your biological parents because he knew he could give all of you a better life than what you were destined to have. And so it was for all of your early childhood, all of the toys you could ever want, all of you together with Reginald, Grace, and I, we all had such a blast...until you all reached the age of 4."

Pogo looked to the side, catching a glimpse of the moonlight through the window. Five tilted his head in confusion but waited for Pogo to go on.

"Reginald was busy with guests and asked Grace to take you all to the beach. I had to stay in and help, even though I knew Grace would have a hard time handling all of you at the same time and at such a young age. It turned out that my hunch was true..."

"I think I remember... something happened to her." Five spoke for the first time since he returned from the basement, and Pogo nodded in response.

"Grace was about to gather all of you to return home, but Vanya was missing. You all called out to her, but she was nowhere to be found until someone screamed and pulled Vanya out of the water, unconscious and her lungs full of water."

Five remembers the night she was in the hospital, how even though he didn't understand the gratification of her staying there, he still missed her dearly, worried that she'd not be coming back.

"After she woke up, we all felt relieved, but what happened to her wasn't short of a miracle. She didn't just drown. She swam 82 feet underwater, with no diving equipment whatsoever. Even though a 4-year-old couldn't pull that kind of thing off, when she woke up, she was... happy. High even. All she talked about was wanting to go back to the sea."

Five couldn't remember that part. It is an insane thing for a 4-year-old to do. Why hasn't she or anyone mentioned it before?

"So that's what made her sick?" Five asked, earning a contemplating expression from Pogo.

"Well...yes, but not right away. After a while, we noticed a strange behavior from Vanya. She would get rashes all over her body and have allergies, with nothing in particular triggering them. We took her to every expert doctor under the sun, but no one could say what was causing her to have those rashes... until one doctor suggested this might be genetic."

Five's eyes widened. Maybe that's why she never got any better, because how in the world would they find Vanya's biological parents?

"I know what you're thinking," Pogo said with a slight grin, "but don't forget who your father was; he could turn every no into a yes. So he hired a PI to search for her parents. The PI did his extraordinary work and wound up in a godforsaken village in rural Russia."

Vanya was Russian? Five couldn't help but scoff in amazement at things he didn't know about her.

"The PI spoke to the villagers and asked about Vanya's biological parents. Let's just say that he wasn't expecting these reactions."

"W-what do you mean? What reactions?"
Five asked, feeling perplexed. Pogo sighed before replying.

"Vanya's mother had this certain... aura around her. She had the men of the village wrapped around her finger, and all of their wives were extremely jealous. Vanya herself was a result of an affair with a married man. The women of the village had enough dignity to wait for her to give birth to Vanya before they stabbed her to death."

Five was horrified to hear Vanya's fate, destined to be an orphan from the moment she was born. Somehow, Five knew it wasn't the end of it.

"The strangest part of it all was the word the women used to describe her-Rusalka, the Russian mythology version for a siren."

Five was more confused than ever.

"Well, it was probably a metaphor, right? It must have been."

"We thought so as well; it seemed like the most plausible reason; it took us years to understand the true meaning behind it. With Vanya's parents both dead, we had nothing to go off of to rule Vanya's illness as genetic, so the PI returned with no definitive answers, and we were back to square one."

"True meaning? What do you mean?"

"Years went by with Vanya's symptoms only getting worse; she couldn't sing without fainting, and she'd get asthma attacks frequently. We would rush her to the hospital each time, but even though the doctors kept her for a while to get a better idea of what she might have, they'd release her and say they didn't know the cause."

Five stayed silent for a moment, taking everything in. Then he remembered what he saw just an hour ago.

"So the doctors didn't help, that's when you decided to torture Vanya in the basement?"
He didn't even attempt to hide the venom in his voice and watched as Pogo flinched in his seat.

"...Five, i-it wasn't like that -"

"What were you doing to her?! Was dad - did he -"

He couldn't even finish his sentence at the thought of Reginald hurting Vanya, of any of them hurting her.

"Reginald did no such thing! He was desperate to find a cure or even just the cause of her suffering. He was so desperate that he started looking deeper into the Rusalka mythology, and the more he looked into it... the more it made sense."

Five found himself scoffing, his head falling back in disbelief before he raised it back up, his usual smirk plastered all over his face.

"Oh, that makes perfect sense, and Klause is a leprechaun, and Luther is King Kong, right?" He said before dropping the smirk with an eye roll. By this point, the horrible things that came to his mind when he saw the bed in the basement were more believable than this.

"Doubt all you want, Five; Grace and I were doubtful too until we saw Reginald putting her head underwater in the bathtub when she had another asthma attack. Five she... she started breathing again. And it worked time after time. She would scream in pain because her feet felt like she was stabbed with needles, and she'd scratch her rash so hard that she'd harm herself. That's what the restraints were for."

Five hated to admit that it made somewhat of a sense to him. The screams he would hear from the basement late at night, the bathtub and the bed present next to each other for easy access. She would feel slightly better when she was outside with them, only for her to feel worse all of a sudden and be absent the next day. No one could make her pain go away completely. She was a lost cause.

"Pogo, is she...is she dead?"

Five asked, already expecting the answer to be positive.
Strangely enough, Pogo shook his head no.

"Five, you have to understand, Vanya's disappearance wasn't anybody's fault. It had to be done."

"Where is she then? If she's not dead, where is she? I need to know Pogo, please." Five pleaded, his body leaning forward as he looked Pogo dead in the eyes, his eyes glistening with tears.

"I know you think your dad didn't care for you kids or Vanya, but everything she had to endure all these years, the nights in the basement with opium paste on her legs to ease the pain in her feet or the nights in the hospital, it was all to keep her here, on land. But he was wrong, he realized that. He had to let her go."

Five shuddered at the thought. He didn't know what "letting her go" meant, but the fact she suffered all these years with none of them knowing why was heartbreaking. He should have been there for her, even more than he already tried to be.

It wasn't enough.

"On the night you all turned 18, Reginald took Vanya for a walk to the beach, and he told her everything about her. He told her he couldn't keep her away from where she belonged for much longer. He said that she wasn't even confused. If anything, she was...relieved. She lived all of her life craving the ocean, not knowing why."

"What did he do then?" Five asked, slightly afraid of Pogo's answer.

"He told her to go. He knew he only made her suffer by keeping her for so long, but they both knew what had to be done. So she started walking into the ocean. She went deeper and deeper. Every once in a while, she turned back to Reginald, but he only nodded for her to keep going. Soon enough, she was out of sight. She was gone."

Five could hear his heartbeat thumping in his ears as he let all of the information he was told sink in.
She was still alive. In the ocean.
His mind started to race, and somehow, one specific piece of information jumped into view.

"So Dad requested for the case to be closed -"

"Because he knew she was alive, yes."

Five paused for another second as he started connecting the dots.

"And the other case? Of the drowned boys? How is that connected to dad?"
He knew it was a shot in the dark, but Pogo was Reginald's confidant. If anyone knew, it would be him.

"I think you already know the answer yourself, Five," Pogo replied, and Five thought for a moment before reaching a devastating conclusion.

"It was her, wasn't it? She drowned them?" He hoped Pogo would scoff and say no, laugh at him for even suggesting such of thing, but it was Pogo's lack of response that made him sigh into his hands.

"You have to understand, Five. It's in her nature. She has no control over it. If anyone knew that she was the cause, she would either be jailed or experimented on. Reginald had to take the police off her back. He did that until the day he died."

"And now you're here to resume the job." Five said, defeated, as he remembered how he blamed Eudora for not trying hard enough.

"I want to see her. How can I see her?" Five asked eagerly as he rose from his seat and walked towards the window, looking at the waves and the moon lighting them with a soft glow.

"Just show yourself to her."

Five turned his head to the side, scoffing at how easy it sounded. "Show himself to her," as if she would even be interested in seeing him after so long.

"It doesn't happen often, but on some days, she resurfaces. Think about the boys she drowned, Reginald knew immediately who they looked like. Call on to her, and she will come."

Five knew deep down he had nothing left to lose.

Chapter Text

"Just show yourself to her."

Five has never felt more stupid than he did at the moment, alone on a boat far out at sea, far enough that his massive childhood home seems like a dollhouse.

He had never been much of a swimmer, let alone a diver, but he would have chosen drowning a hundred times over rather than allowing anyone else to see him in such a broken state. Still hungover from his excessive drinking, his face was swollen from crying more than he ever had in his entire life.

The sun was starting to rise, and there were barely any boats or people around, so Five took it as the perfect time to act out his poorly thought-out plan.

One by one, he swung his legs over the edge of the boat, taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes, preparing for what he was about to do.

Though each muscle in his body screamed with regret, Five steeled himself, pinching his nose before dropping off the ledge, letting the water engulf him whole.

The coldness of the water surrounding him made him shoot his eyes open, and his body shivered. He forced himself to swim deeper.
Looking down, he realized he was nowhere near the bottom, and as he looked above him, he hoped it wouldn't take him long to resurface.

Still feeling nervous, he urged himself to look forward into the blue void.
With the remaining air he had left in his lungs, he opened his mouth and screamed.

"Vanya!!!"

Bubbles clouded his vision as the last of his breath escaped him. It was the loudest he had ever screamed, yet to his ears, it was nothing more than a muffled whisper.

He paused, feeling his chest tightening with lack of oxygen, but still not making any move to swim up for air.
He looked around him, and nothing appeared; it was just him and the blue void, staring at each other.

Reluctantly, five kicked his feet as he pushed the water down, feeling the tightness in his chest getting insufferable.
He kept kicking and pushing until he finally broke the surface, taking in a big breath as he clung to the ledge of the boat.

He knew he was exhausted; the night he went through was far from relaxing, and he didn't get any sleep, but as he held the boat tightly, he could feel his strength leaving him little by little.

He raised himself over the edge with any strength he had left, falling into the boat straight on his back. All he could do was mutter an "ow" as he watched the sky getting brighter by the second, unlike his hope to see Vanya again, which was slowly leaving his body.

Knowing that falling asleep on the boat wouldn't be a wise choice, Five grabbed the ledge and lifted himself before grabbing the boat's oars and returning to the shore.

When he felt the boat scraping the sand at the bottom, Five leaped from his seat to the shallow water of the shore, dragging the boat until it was no longer touching the water.
That must have taken all of his energy since the only thing he could do next was collapse on the wet sand next to the boat.

The mere thought of walking back to the mansion and taking three flights of stairs to get to his room made him want to fall asleep then and there. Still, even more than his exhaustion, the thought of Pogo's and Grace's pitiful faces when they see him wet and covered in sand with no Vanya by his side, made him want to be buried alive on this very beach.

All he did was shut his eyes and breathe in the salty air; he just needed rest.

"Wake up, sleepy head."

A soft voice spoke to him from above. He was so tired that he could only rule that voice as his sanity. The voice must have left him and talked to him as if it were a separate entity.

He clenched his brows together, eyes tightly shut, fully aware of how harsh the light must have grown since he returned to shore — and how it'll only make his headache throb stronger.

It wasn't until he could feel the brush of hair against his chest and a soft, wet hand against his cheek that he slowly opened his eyes, taking in the sight of the woman he had been waiting for all these years.

She knelt beside him, her hair longer than he remembered. Her face was as beautiful as it always had been, but now it carried a glow of health that had never been there before.

She looked...happy.

Five jolted awake, sitting up so fast that he could barely address the sharp pain he felt in his head.

"Vanya... am I dreaming? Is it you?" he whispered in disbelief, his eyes darting back and forth between her deep brown orbs.

His hands cupped her slim face, and he could feel her leaning into his touch.

"It's me, Five...I never left."

He drew her into him, his towering frame enveloping her completely.

"I thought I'd never see you again." Five whispered into her hair, with one hand cradling her head while the other roamed to her lower back.
When he felt nothing but bare skin, he realized she was nude.

He broke the hug to look at her again.

"You must be freezing. Let's go inside," he said before getting up and walking towards the boat, where a towel was lying on one of the seats.

He offered the towel to Vanya, kneeling on the sand. When she got up and took the towel from his hands, he could finally see all of her, just as he had always dreamed of.

He turned around and tried not to stare as she wrapped herself in the towel. When he stopped hearing the ruffling of the towel, he turned around again, and right when he thought seeing her covered would calm his fast-beating heart, he was sorely mistaken.

The walk back to the house was quiet, except for the sound of crashing waves and seagulls. Five was still way taller than Vanya, but he could see her looking at him with her small signature smile.

They walked in through the back door. Five was still at a loss for words about her being back here with him, right where she belonged.

"Dad? Grace? Pogo? We're home!" she announced happily, looking around for anyone who might show up to greet them. Five had to stop himself from wincing when she called out to Reginald.

"Vanya? My goodness, how are you?" Grace asked cheerfully as she rushed down the stairs, pulling Vanya in for a tight hug.

"I'm doing great. How are you all doing? Where's Dad?" Vanya asked again, looking around and hoping to find him.
Five and Grace shared a worried look before averting their gazes back to her.

"Come with me, Vanya, I've made you your favorite breakfast, and you must be hungry," Grace said with a smile, hoping Vanya could be persuaded. Vanya smiled widely before grabbing the hand Grace offered and walking with her towards the kitchen.

Pogo walked in a moment later, his hands intertwined across his chest.

"I see you did as I said, I told you she'll come for you," Pogo remarked, a smile slowly creeping on his face.
"She doesn't know the old man is dead. How am I supposed to tell her?"
That's the only thing Five could think about; to see the happiness on her face was the best thing he could have ever hoped for, and now it'll vanish as soon as it appears.

"It'll be hard for her, but she knew he was going to die. She was here the day he passed, and they had a long talk; she went back to the sea mere hours before it happened." Pogo stated, making Five turn to him.

"Don't worry about her, she'll be okay," Pogo said before patting Five on the back and walking back towards Reginald's office.

Five walked with heavy steps toward the kitchen, where Grace replaced an empty plate of smeared syrup with a new plate stacked with pancakes. Five had to rub his eyes to see if he wasn't imagining the sight before him.

"She's always this hungry when she comes back," Grace says happily as she and Five stare at the petite woman before them. She is trying to fit a massive piece of pancake in her mouth but fails.

"Does she know about Dad?" Five asked quietly, hoping she hadn't heard him beyond her chewing and hums of pleasure.

"She took it better than expected, probably because she has you now."
Grace replied with a sly smile before grabbing Vanya's cleared plate.

"Did you enjoy the pancakes?" Grace asked, laughing when Vanya nodded eagerly with a stuffed mouth.

"That's great, sweetie. How about you go switch to something more comfortable?" Grace suggested, making Vanya realize she was still wearing nothing but a towel.

"I probably should. Thank you, Grace!" Vanya thanked her as she got up from her seat. She left the kitchen, took Five's hand, and led them towards her old room.

The moment they arrived, Five flung himself onto the bed, the mattress making his body bounce up and down as he landed face down. Vanya giggled and opened her closet, releasing a comforting smell of fresh laundry and the subtle, familiar fragrance of her.

"How long have you been staying here?" Vanya asked, breaking the comfortable silence that filled the room. Five had almost fallen asleep but forced himself to sit back up.
It took him time to reply, especially when out of nowhere, Vanya removed the towel from her body and tossed it to the side, reminding him she was still naked.

He resisted the urge to gulp, contemplating between looking away and staring at her figure. She was more tan than he remembered, with freckles adorning her back as if the entire galaxy had decided to take a break and rest on it.

It almost felt... forbidden. To look at her this way.

He was immediately reminded of their stolen glances across the dining table.
The late nights he lost sleep over worrying about her well-being.
The years of guilt and regret he felt for leaving his family behind, then anger, because no one else was feeling that guilt but him.

No one loved her like he did.

He realized he still hadn't answered her question, letting out a cough to hide his sudden gasp for air, also realizing he hadn't been taking a proper breath since his eyes caught the constellations on her back.

"Since Dad's funeral."

He could see Vanya nodding curtly before slipping into a white nightgown and turning around to face him.

"Have the others been here as well?" she asked warily, and Five could tell just from her tone that she meant their siblings. He could sense how nervous she got just thinking about them, so he stretched his hand towards her, urging her to get closer.

"They were here, but only for a few days." Five murmured, his voice steady with promise as he caught her gently by the hips, guiding her to stand between the space his parted thighs had made for her.

Even with him sitting on the bed and her standing up, she was only a head taller than he, and Five had to stop himself from scoffing at the thought that even after all of this time, some things never change.

Her hands instinctively sought him out, one caressing his cheek while the other was slipping through his hair.

"Good, they can't know I'm here."

"Don’t worry," he whispered, his fingers brushing the hem of her nightgown before trailing upward along her thigh with a touch as light as breath, "this will be our little secret."

A whimper barely escaped her mouth before Five pulled Vanya in and captured her lips with a long awaited kiss.

They breathed each other in as if grasping for air, their tongues battling for dominance as Vanya got on top of him, straddling his lap.
It didn't take long for Five's hunger to grow, his hands roaming for any piece of flesh he could put his hands on while his lips trailed from hers down her cheek and jawline, all the way down to the neck.

Vanya failed to contain the groan she let out at the feeling of his lips on her, her hands grabbing his thigh for support as her back arched.

"Five...don't stop..."

She let out, barely whispering. Five had nothing to do but comply, his palms grabbing her by the waist and pulling her closer than they ever thought could be possible.

"I want you, Vanya." Five rasped, his hands inching deeper under her nightgown. He longed to feel more of her. If only the stupid nightgown weren't in his way.

"I'm yours, Five. I was always yours."

It was at that moment that Five was tipped over the edge. In one swift motion, her nightgown is off her body. She could barely register how he pulled her closer to him before flipping her over, making her lie under him.

"Just as I was always yours." He whispered back, taking her in for another long kiss.