Violet cloaked herself immediately, not even needing the look sent her way by Five.
The three of them span and began running as fast as they could push their legs to move as the commission workers fired at the drop of the handkerchief. Bullets soared around them ruthlessly, whizzing past their heads and sending snow and ice flying up around their feet and across their path.
Nausia wracked her as a couple of bullets passed right through her body while she sprinted, trying to catch up to Five and Diego - both who's legs were significantly longer than hers. She swallowed back the sickness and forced herself to carry on.
They closed the distance on the tractor, the only thing in the field that they could shield themselves behind, but all her eyes were focussed on was the boys backs. She was trying to push the daunting thought away of what she would do if one of the bullets struck them.
In a moment like this she wished she could share her cloaking ability with them.
The trio practically dived down behind the giant tractor wheel, Five quickly drawing his legs in before he was struck, their backs against the wheel. Violet skidded to a crouch in front of the two, more careless about hiding her whole body behind it as she didnt really have the need.
"Can you get us to the house?" Diego breathed, resting his head back and taking deep, shuddering breaths.
A blue glow surrounded Five's clenched fists, but it dissipated and he wearily met Violet's eyes. "Shit. I'm too tired." He exhaled heavily, heart racing.
Diego warily glanced back, psyching himself up for something. "You guys go," he got to his feet, still in a crouch. "I'll take care of them."
They both stared at him like he was crazy. He sure sounded it.
"What-"
"-go!" He yelled, jumping out from the cover of the tractor and holding his hands out.
They both took off towards the house without further question, Five not looking back. But Violet was faltering as she couldnt help but look back, afdaid she would see her brothers body hitting the floor, only to see Diego holding back hundreds of waves of bullets using his powers. They slowed before stopping and she hadn't even realised she'd slowed down in her awe like staring until Five's frantic voice yelled at her from up ahead.
"Vi, come on!"
She span and sprinted, almost tripping over her own feet a couple of times, her lungs burning.
Five yanked the glass door open and held it for her but she just ran straight through it. She uncloaked herself and he dragged her down by the arm under the table, their knees grazing against the floorboards. He wrapped his arms around her immediately, shielding her underneath him as he squeezed his eyes shut and tucked her against his chest protectively.
Violet closed her eyes tightly, covering her ears and ducking her head down, flinching against him as glass shards flew around them and the windows burst inwards. Furniture shattered, light fixtures fell and clashed to the ground. The sound was deafening.
It carried on for what felt like hours but was only a few more seconds before stopping all of a sudden.
Her ears rang and gently, her hands were prised from the sides of her head.
She exhaled shakily before they both climbed out from under the table. When she was able to see everything else, she noted it was one of the only things left standing or in one piece.
"Are you okay?" Five asked softly, eyes shooting to her, worriedly searching her face.
She tried to grasp her hands in front of her to stop herself from shaking, but he saw it and she swallowed. She nodded despite it all.
She didn't even notice she had glass stuck in her hair until he tentatively reached up towards her face to pick a few out. She stayed still and let him.
When he finished she gently brushed some from his shoulder.
He flashed her a quick smile.
Finally, in this quiet moment, they could take a breath after the chaos. Or so they thought.
As they both turned towards the shattered windows, they were drawn to the glowing white figure floating high up in the sky.
Both of them got close to the windows until they realised it was Vanya. And opposite, Lila flew up to match her in the sky, a glowing white orb forming at her chest.
She stared up in silent wonder, her heart beginning to hammer at what was to come. The two teenagers blanched, begginging to back away slowly.
"Shit-" Five grabbed her hand but this time, she pushed him down under the table and put herself between him and the blast, clutching him against her tightly as they squeezed their eyes shut again huddled close to the floor.
The blast from outside sent shockwaves through the earth and the entire house shook, bricks crumbling and dust falling around them and making her flinch.
Luckily it wasn't as bad as the cascade of bullets tearing through the walls and she shakily let go of Five in the following silence, him looking at her with a dazed look in his eye, their noses almost touching at the close proximity. She scanned his face this time, noting bits of dust in his hair that fell across his forehead messily.
They both climbed out again, him extending a hand to help her to a stand before she let out an alarmed squeak as something or someone crashed through the roof just a few feet away.
Their body slammed into the ground, wood crashing down around them.
They span and saw Luther groaning in pain on his back. "I think I swallowed my tongue."
Five approached him covered in rubble and dust. He rolled his eyes. "Luther, if you swallowed your tongue, you wouldn't be talking, you big moron."
He grabbed onto Luthers arm to help pull him up.
"What happened?" He rasped, steadying himself.
Five shook his head. "She must have redirected Vanya's energy wave," he glanced back at the door cautiously.
"Yeah, but how?"
Five looked up, hearing something out of sight above and quickly shoved Luther away, shouting, "look out!"
Violet heard the bricks crumbling before she saw it and her body moved without her even knowing what she was doing. She darted to grab Five by the fabric of his blazer and yanked him out of the way with not enough time.
He fell, bricks slamming against his back and legs and she fell back with him, a scared yell catching in her throat. She heard the thud as his head smacked off of the floor.
His lower body and back was weighed down by bricks and bits of wood, and the only consolation she got as she raced to his side to try and move the heavy debris off of him, heart hammering, was that she had pulled him out of the way of his head getting caved in by bricks.
Violet's hands moved quickly and shakily, frantic to shift the weight off of him, not caring for the cuts and scrapes that it caused.
Luther rushed to help her and moved most of it for her, allowing her to prise the back of his blue blazer showing beneath the rubble and dust and use her entire body weight to try and drag him free.
He managed to move the bricks from weighing his legs down and Violet pulled him out the rest of the way, setting him down carefully with shaking hands.
A whooshing sound behind them made Luther get up and stand protectively between them and Lila who had blinked in the room. His large frame blocked them from view of her.
"What are you?" Luther asked roughly.
"Someone who wants to kill your brother," she responded easily.
Violet pulled Five's head into her lap, putting her hand on the side of his face and brushing her fingers over the bloody scrapes and the blood at the side of his temple. The wounds receeded into nothing, bruises fading, and she let out a wavering exhale as she saw his eyelids flutter.
"Well, that's understandable. Diego is-"
"-yeah, I was talking about him."
Violet froze, meeting Lila's eyes across the room. She protectively put her arm across Five in her lap, holding him. She was not going to let her hurt him.
She didn't hear what Luther said, too caught up in the staring contest, when he swung on Lila and they began to fight.
Violet looked down at the boy in her lap who didn't stir. Blood trickled from a cut concealed in his eyebrow by his eye and she shakily wiped it away, watching the wound close back up. All that was left on his face was the blood that she was trying to wipe away, but she had no sleeves to do so. She rubbed her red fingers on her thigh, swallowing thickly.
Lila matched Luthers moves and actually began hurting him, then grabbed his fist mid swing and threw him out the front of the house, destroying what was left of the shattered doors.
Violet let out a shaky breath and carefully shifted the boy onto the floor, pushing herself to a stand and watching Lila cautiously, fingers tingling at her sides.
The woman turned to her and eyed the unconcilus boy behind her. "Move." She demanded.
Violet would not.
She shook her head slowly.
"You're protecting a murderer," she spat. "He's a heartless, calloused psychopath. Do you not realise that?"
The scar in her palm burnt at her words but she would not move. And yes, she did know. She knew what he could be, but she also knew what he was.
And how could Five be heartless when he wore it on his sleeve everytime she looked at him? Lila had no idea. She was blinded by lies, by rage.
Lila was impatient.
"I'm done being nice," she said coldly, beginning to cross the room. "Till death do you part, right?"
Violet disappeared before the woman reached her, turning invisible.
Lila paused, staring at where she had been a second ago, calculating. She span cautiously in a slow circle, listening out for any movements while on the defensive.
Violet snuck towards the kitchen and slid a knife from the knocked over rack, keeping it low behind the counter so she wouldn't see it floating towards her.
Lila had been nice to her before, but to get to Five, she would have to go through Violet. And Violet wasn't as forgiving as most people would think.
Lila eventually took the chance, hearing nothing, and went to face Five still lying unconcious with murderous intent.
The second she had her back to Violet, she stabbed the blade down through her left shoulder.
The woman screamed and tore herself away, stumbling against the wall. Her eyes dark. "You fucking bitch!" She ripped the blade from her back, throwing it across the room in outrage.
Violet showed herself, eyes locked with hers.
She needed Five to wake up. But in order to speed up the process she had to get to him.
The jaded woman met her eyes across the room, furious, but the blood stopped seeping from the wound and she straightened after a quick inhale. The pain in her eyes disappeared. She looked comfortable again.
Shit.
She could mimick all of her powers. Meaning she had just healed the wound she created.
Lila rolled her aching shoulder, angling her neck to the side, sighing. "That wasn't very nice of you. And here i thought you were sweet."
Lila turned herself invisible and Violet mirrored her, doing the same, inching closer to Five quickly, her heart hammering. The urge to keep him safe taking over. She kept her back to him, eyes sweeping the room, watching closely for any slight movements and listening for any sounds.
But Lila was good.
She practically held her breath in the tense silence.
She crouched beside Five, her back to him, reaching down to place a hand on his shoulder to wake up up when she felt something bump into her shoulder.
She span when an invisible hand latched around her wrist and they both turned visible at the contact. Lila grinned down at her wickedly. "Found you." She said sweetly.
Violet eyed the hand on her wrist, skin crawling, about to cloak herself in a panic when something stirred in her gut.
She knew, then, in an instant; Something was very, very wrong.
A striking sharp pain twisted at her insides, scraping at the inner parts of her skull like claws fighting to break through the bone. Her mouth dropped open in a silent, breathless cry, her body shuddering as the air left her lungs.
Lila let her go and stepped back as Violets knees hit the floor.
Her nerves were on fire.
A whimper broke free as she gasped between the agony slowly tearing through her body and the panic gripping her in a chokehold. Her chest rattled as it kept getting worse and worse. She frantically put a hand to the back of her neck, her head, not knowing what was happening to her but nothing was making it go away. The agony twisted at her nerves and made her vision blur, tears beginning to streak down her face as she fought to keep her cries at bay.
Five was pulled from unconsciousness at the sound of Violet's agonised screams.