AS THE LONG, BLUE CAR RODE UP TO THE BARN, SOMETHING WAS WRONG. The surroundings around them changed from leafy green grass and hot temperatures to a snowflake dropping to the windshield and a blizzard forming above the barn. This brought confusion to the seven in the car.

Why the hell was happening?

What could've caused this all?

Who could've caused it all, if that's even possible?

"Um, Vanya," called out Elliana as she began to shiver from the temperatures that were coming in through her open window. "Does this happen often: meaning the snow coming out of nowhere and the vortex from the barn?"

Vanya peered over the wheel as she pulled into the long driveway that met to the house. "No, it doesn't."

As the car came to a stop, everyone began to get out. Elliana leaped out and held the door open for Five who had then closed it on his way out, watching as she slowly took off her bag and threw it through the opened car window.

"You think whatever's going on inside is causing the cold front?" questioned Diego

"Well, the correlation is high," figured Five.

Suddenly, the door to the barn was harshly kicked open and a blond, curly-haired woman came forward with a gun. As she was furious with the weapon in her hands, she had a faded face of fear.

"Sissy! Sissy!" Vanya went forward, but the woman came close with the gun.

"Get back!" She forced and cocked the gun. "All of you, just get the hell back!" She held the gun up to all of them.

"Sissy!" She tried to calm her down. "Hey! Hey! What's wrong?"

Sissy panted. "Carl . . . "

"What did he do to you?" Vanya gave a confused face.

She breathed shakily. "He's . . . He's dead." Silence ran among them. "Harlan tossed him aside like a rag doll, same way you sent those policemen flyin'. What did you do to him?" She became defensive.

"No—" Vanya tried.

"What the hell did you do to my son?" Sissy held up the gun to Vanya's head. 

"Don't have time for this." Diego began to walk up but was stopped by Sissy.

"Where you think you're going?" She switched her angle and held the gun up to his head now. 

"To help your son."

"Look, Sissy, I found my family." Vanya brought the attention back to her. "These are my brothers and my sister—" she paused before looking back at Elliana. She gave her a small smile before continuing on. "My brothers and my sisters."

Elliana's heart melted.

"Ma'am," spoke Luther as he looked towards her, giving a small wave.

"Were you lyin' to me the whole time?"

Vanya shook her head. "Of course not. Look, I didn't know who I was. But I do now. And we are not the monsters that they say we are. We did not kill the president.  We are not terrorists. We're not here to hurt anyone."

"Then . . . Who are you?"

"The only one who can help Harlan." Sissy gave a stern look before allowing them into the barn. Once they entered, they were all faced with Harlan who was levitating in the air, enclosed by a vibrate light blue force field that wooshed loudly.

"Harlan?" called out Vanya. "Harlan, it's Vanya!" The boy gasped as if he were being choked. "Look, Harlan, I know you're really scared, but I can help you. I need you to listen to me, okay? Can you do that?" Vanya reasoned with him. She gave a helpful look to the others as she prepped herself.

"Careful," spoke Five, and Vanya's eyes turned white as she entered the vortex.

As they were all distracted, a faint sound of energy whooshed nearby which surprisingly caught Klaus's attention.

"Harlan?" Vanya spoke as she was in the vortex. "I don't know if you can hear me—" she continued.

As she did so, Klaus moved towards the side of the barn to an opening where he saw two figures standing in the snow. "Uh . . . guys?" he called them over.

They all looked over and Elliana sighed as she handed Cutie to Sissy. "Watch her for a minute, will ya?" Sissy didn't have time to respond before the girl jogged over to the others.

"What?" Diego spoke as he looked out the opening. "Ah, shit."

"What, who are they?" Klaus asked, confused; as well as Elliana.

"One's the Handler, the other's Diego's girlfriend." Five sighed.

"Lila. That's my ex-girlfriend," included Diego.

"What?" questioned Elliana. "Someone dated you?" Allison quickly covered her mouth before anything else could get out.

"You know what? Doesn't matter. They both look angry," Five added

"Yeah. Our brother has that effect on people," said Allison as she took her hand off of Elliana's mouth.

"I'm gonna go find out what they want. You guys stay with Vanya and the kid." Five gave orders as he began to make his way to the front of the barn.

"I'm coming with you, too. Come on." Diego tagged along.

"What should we do?" Klaus asked as he looked at the remaining people that stood with him.

"Observe from afar," answered Elliana with a nod. "Come on y'all." She motioned as she turned around and headed to where the two just left. On her way, she plucked Cutie from Sissy's arms. "Thank you for watching her. You're such a sweetheart," she thanked and made a quick detour to the house, dropping the rabbit off in the first closed doored room she saw, which was Harlan's, and plopped her in the closet. "Don't open the door for anyone except for me. Got it?"

Cutie looked at her with the big, beady eyes she always gave and Elliana took this as a sign as she understood.

As Elliana left the room, Mace appeared in the closet with Cutie. "I'll just take that as a sign to watch you."

"What do you think they're talking about?" Allison spoke to the now three who stood beside her as Elliana took a few breaths from running up to them.

"I don't know," answered Klaus and Elliana.

"Which one's the girlfriend?" Luther broke the moment of silence.

They all watched as if the four were conversing over a deal of some sort. Suddenly, the woman with a funky hat lifted up her hand and snapped with which then hundreds—maybe thousands of people with blue suits and guns appeared behind her.

"Oh, my God." Klaus stole the words out of everyone's mouths.

"Don't worry, guys. We've got your back," shouted Elliana. "From right here," she said under her breath and she pointed to the spot she stood in, yards away from Diego and Five.

The four watched for a few more minutes before the older woman reached into her sleeve and pulled out a red cloth. "What does that mean?" asked Elliana.

"It means we gotta go," Allison spoke up and she began to get a move on. As she didn't see the others moving she began to shout, "Go! Go!" which got them all to start running.

From behind them, multiple battle cries rained out and the sound of gunshots started to resonate. The bullets impacted things and ricocheted off others, but they were all still scared.

"Get down!" yelled Allison as the four of them reached a barrel of hay.

"Whoa!" Luther jumped down and grunted heavily from the impact.

Elliana hid her face in Allison's chest as she covered her ears tightly. She was scared for her life and was afraid for the others' lives as well.

"It's okay, it's okay. It's going to be over soon," whispered Allison as Luther covered Klaus and herself.

As it felt like forever when the bullets ran by, a loud high-pitched tone spread out through the farm and the attention landed on Vanya. She floated in the air as a light blue glow shined from her chest. With a powerful grunt, a large blue surge of energy shot out of her and went across the farm, killing all of the people with guns that tried to harm everyone.

With that, everyone took in breaths.

"It's over," gasped Allison as she looked before her.

From afar, the Handler and Lila were covered by a force field bubble. As it vanished away like water, the older woman looked toward the girl.

"How are they doing that?" Luther asked as the force field was down.

"Your turn, dear," The Handler spoke to Lila.

Like a double, Lila began to float in the air. Her eyes turned white and a blue glow came from her heart.  A high-pitched tone resonated and the wind whistled loudly as she went higher and higher.

"That's not normal," said Elliana. "Not normal at all."

Lila let out a loud grunt as her power exited her body and the force carried throughout the farm, sending Vanya, Diego, Luther Klaus, Allison, and Elliana backward into different directions and places.

Elliana screamed loudly as she was pushed forcefully back into the air and felt the hard impact of the side of the house when she finally was out of the air and landed on the ground. She rolled a good three times before stopping on her stomach. Shards of glass were surrounding her and she could feel a cool liquid fall from her forehead.

She had a hard time catching her breath, as the wind was knocked the hell out of her. She stayed on her stomach as her ears started to ring and her vision became blurry. She pushed her arms in front of her and force herself up. She could hear someone talking, then a loud noise from above her but her head hurt too much to look over.

"—iana! A— yo— ok—y?" Someone spoke, but her hearing was still botched. Her vision cleared up a bit and she finally made out the figure in front of her to be Five. "Elli—a? Ca— —u he— m—?" He grabbed her arms and helped her up fully.

"I can't hear you," Elliana yelled, though she thought she said it normally, and Five winced a bit.

"You're yelling!" He yelled back.

Elliana scrunched her eyebrows. "What?" she yelled like a grandmother.

Five shook his head. "You know what? Nevermind. At least you okay." He began to wipe the glass off of her and check for injuries. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Elliana watched his mouth move and made out the words easily. "Yes. I'm fine. I'll just be sore tomorrow." She held up a thumbs up and the boy chuckled.

A loud noise caught both of their attention when Luther fell from the ceiling. He ground loudly and Five made his way to him. "Luther, you all right?"

He gasped. "Oh, I think I swallowed my tongue."

Five huffed. "Luther, if you swallowed your tongue, you wouldn't be talking, you big moron." He held out a hand. "Come on, on your feet."

Luther groaned as he got to his feet. "Hey, what the hell happened? What was that?"

"She must've redirected Vanya's energy wave," answered Five.

"Yeah, I know, but how?"

"Luther, are you okay?" Elliana moved forward and asked and rubbed her right ear, trying to get rid of the ringing.

"I'm fine. Just confused."

A few moments of silence ran by until the girl spoke. "What?"

Luther jumped a bit. "What's up with her?" He turned to his brother.

"Can't hear a thing." Five heard rumbling and looked up to see the bricks moving, about to collapse. "Luther, watch out!" he pushed his brother out of the way and took his spot, getting crushed by the bricks.

"Five!" Luther and Elliana shouted as they began to dig for him.

"Five!" Luther shouted once more before hearing a sigh ad a chuckle from across the room. He turned around to see Lila coming toward him.

Elliana, noticing him move, turned around and saw the woman as well. She got a feeling of remembrance. Had she met her before? "Have we met?" she yelled, forgetting that she was yelling.

"Elliana, go. I'll take care of this," Luther looked and spoke to her.

She answered with the same response as the others. "What?" she gave a blank stare. "You know what, whatever. I'm checking on my rabbit. Good luck." She then turned her heal and made her way to Harlan's room.

Once she made it inside, she headed to the closet and opened the door to see Cutie under a pair of pants. She picked up the animal, checking for any injuries before petting her. By this time, her ears had begun to lose some signs of ringing, but to be fair, it now was very faint.

A loud noise caught her attention. She placed her rabbit on the bed before leaving the room and entering back into the living room to see a huge hole in the wall and Luther was now gone.

"Luther! Luther!" She heard Allison panic. As she took care of him, Elliana began to search under the bricks to find Five.

She heard Five groan and took this as a sign that he was alright. "Five, hold on!" She moved more bricks out of the way until she saw a dark blue color from below and pulled in it. The boy followed suit and grabbed onto her arm and helped himself out. "You okay?" She brought him to a stand as he was fully out.

"You saved me." He was in shock.

"Yeah. Don't cream your pants." She rolled her eyes. "It was the right thing to do." She nodded.

"Thanks."

"Anytime." He began to move over to the new opening in the wall.

"You looking for me?" He spoke to Lila.

"You little turd," she gasped.

"Let's dance," he declared. They both spacial jumped away.

Elliana went near the door and saw a non-moving figure laying in the snow. "Vanya!" She figured it out. She ran over to her and began to shake her shoulder. "Vanya, wake up! Wake up!" She checked the woman's pulse and felt it was still there and let out a sigh.

As Vanya then let out a sharp gasp, Elliana helped her to her feet. "Oh, god."

"Are you okay?" The young girl wiped the snow off of Vanya's back.

"I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Help!" They heard Diego yell.

"Come on," spoke Elliana as they started to move towards Diego.

"Vanya! Help!" He became impatient. "Come on, man!"

"Hey!" yelled Klaus as he was tired of his brother complaining.

"What took you so long?"

"Well, we're here now. Do you wanna stop complaining?" Luther took a few breaths.

"Or we could just leave you here." Klaus gave an idea.

"What he said," agreed Allison.

"I agree." Elliana quirked her head.

"Does everything in this family have to be a discussion?" Vanya asked.

Luther strained as he lifted up the tractor that was on top of Diego's leg.

"Go, go, go, go!" rushed Allison.

"Are you out?"

"Yeah!" Diego called out and Luther placed the tractor down, grunting.

"Team Zero! Unstoppable," cheered Diego as he stood up. "All right." He exhaled.

"Uh . . . Okay, has anyone seen Five?" Allison asked.

"Oh, he's gone." Elliana shrugged.

"I don't know, he's around somewhere. By the way, your ex-girlfriend can blink like Five," Luther commented.

"Yeah, that bitch just rumored me so I couldn't breathe." Allison gave an angry look.

"And destroyed, like, half the farm with a shock wave. So unoriginal," Klaus mocked.

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

Luther chuckles as Klaus says, "Yeah."

"No." The bigger one denies. "No, there's no way. It can't be."

"It's a reasonable conclusion."

"Eh, but there were only seven of us," Luther summed up.

"Well, I mean—I was born years after you all and I have powers." Elliana came to a conclusion.

Vanya took that into consideration. "Maybe we need to consider that there's more."

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

"But she's not our biological sister . . . right?" Diego asked.

Everyone gave him a stare.

"Are you dumb? Really? Are y— Are you dumb? How could she be your bio— You know what? Whatever." Elliana shook her head.

"Okay, so, if she can mirror our powers, that means anything we throw at her, she can match, right?" Allison guessed.

"Yeah, but she can only mirror one of our powers at a time," Klaus spoke holding up a finger.

"You sure about that?" Allison quirked an eyebrow.

•••••

"She never cared about your parents. She was looking for you." Five was hesitant with Lila as he watched the small knife that she held in her hand.

She then whispers, "Why?"

" 'Cause you're one of us," Diego stated as he and the rest of them entered the barn. "The Handler stole you, Lila. Just like our asshole father took all of us."

"No. It's not the same thing," she denied.

"You're right." Diego nodded. "Because he didn't have our parents murdered." Lila seemed to not understand. "Listen to me, Lila. You were born October 1, 1989, the same day as all of us." He moved forward and pointed to the five original umbrellas.

"Stay back!" Lila nugded her weapon forward.

"Hey! Hey, stop! Wait. Wait. Hey!" Diego shouted. "Lila? Lila, stop."

"I trusted you." Lila displayed tears in her eyes. "I got you a job, I even introduced you to my mother, and then you took off on me."

"Because I needed to save the world!" Digeo harshly cut her off. "She's using you, Lila. The Handler."

"You're wrong. She raised me. She loves me."

"Yeah, you know what?" Luther stated. "Love shouldn't have to hurt this much."

Lila visibly gagged and both Allison and Elliana rolled their eyes.

"All right, I tried," Luther gives up.

"He's right. We have to kill her." Five moved forward.

"Hey! Five! Five, stop." Diego put a hand out. "I got it. Hey, Lila. Truth? She's dangerous. And you're scared of what she'll do with all that new power. That's why you dragged me to the Commission. Because I know what it's like to love dangerous people. Difference is . . . they love me back."

"Shut up," Lila hissed.

"The only thing she loves is power. Now, the minute she can't use you, she will turn on you, and deep down, I know you know that."

Lila shook her head. "You don't know me, Diego."

"Don't I?" He quirked an eyebrow. "I know that we can be your family . . . if you just let us."

As she took a look around to all of them, she sniffled. Maybe she could have the family she always dreamed of. They were at the tip of her fingers—right before her. All of this could come to an end. A happy end.

. . . but not everything ends happily.

Gunfire shot out throughout the barn. The Handler stood at the barn opening with a gun, shooting everyone—but Lila—thrice in the stomach, sending them to the ground. Elliana gasped as she hit the floor, hissing from there appalling pain that came from her lower half. Her eyesight became foggy, and her breathing slowed down. All she saw left was Lila talking to the Handler when everything went black.

She opened her eyes to her surroundings being all white.

She looked around and noticed she was in a different outfit. Her blue jeans were changed to white pants that matched with the new white top that replaced her sweater. The girls hair was now back to her curly, natural style.

"Hello?" she yelled out to the abyss. "Diego! Five! Allison!" she turned around again, and again, and again—moving in circles. As she finally stopped, she heard giggling and turned around to see a short figure. "Hello?" Elliana moved closer to the person. "Excuse me?" she tapped their shoulder.

The figure turned around to be a young boy. His curls were identical to hers and he had big brown eyes. His brown skin was clear as day and he was in all white. He gave a bright smile his eyes became as big as saucers. "You're here!" he moved forward and instantly put his arms around the girls waist. "What took you so long?" his voice sounded bit high-pitched as he looked up at her.

"Do I know you?" Elliana looked to him.

"Yeah. It's me." he smiled. "Arden! You little brother."

Her face fell.

"Arden?" He nodded with a big smile. "Arden!" she went to her knees and