Chapter Text
It had been a long time since any of them had seen sunlight. Since they had seen anything other than steel cages and dark cinder block walls. Since they had smelled anything other than damp rot and mold, or heard anything besides the drip of water and the voices of strange men and each others’ screams. They had been caught unawares. They had always lived under their father’s protection, even after they had all moved away. They had forgotten that there were others in the world like Reginald Hargreeves. Forgotten that he wasn’t the only man in the world who prioritized science and knowledge above human lives. They had been careless.
Vanya had been taken first. She was the most dangerous, and least in control of her powers, and the one most often on her own. Best to catch her alone and eliminate the threat, remove her from the equation before she even had the chance to fight back.
They had shot at her from a distance. No fight, no fear, no powers, just a tranq dart and a getaway car. She didn’t even get the chance to scream.
When Vanya next woke up, she saw the steel bars and smelled the rot, but she heard nothing. A call left her lips, but never returned. She screamed until her throat strained with the effort, she banged her fists against her cage, she sat silently and begged to hear something, anything, even her own heart, but there was nothing. The two metal lines beneath her ears made sure of that.
The next one to disappear was Klaus. He was in an alleyway, not looking for drugs, just wandering. Even though Hargreeves was long gone, Klaus still hated spending time in that house. All it took to catch him off guard was a hand on his shoulder and a needle through his neck. No clear range for a gun also meant plenty of cover for a footman. A touch, a misdirection, and attack, all to fast to comprehend, and then the world was swimming around him.
Klaus never really woke up. He could feel the ridged ground beneath him and saw little more than a faint grey haze before his eyes. He certainly didn’t hear Vanya desperately calling his name through the bars. Klaus knew something was wrong, that this wasn’t where he had been, that something had happened, but his thoughts moved slowly, disjointed, like flies in syrup, and he couldn’t muster the energy to pull them all together.
They took Diego after that. A night of vigilante justice gone wrong. A simple home invasion turned trap, too many enemies, not enough knives, no way out, not enough space, too many fists in the air- and then a bat to the skull. The ground rushed up to meet Diego and his eyes fluttered closed, black boots stomping across his vision.
When he awoke, he saw the dim, flickering yellow light, crossed through with thick beams. A rough mattress rested underneath him, and a headboard dug into his scalp. With a surge of alarm, Diego shot upright, but pitched unsteadily to his side, falling to the ground when he was unable to catch his balance. Diego stared down at his arms, bound to his chest in white cloth. A straitjacket. He thrashed and writhed, but the fabric and its knots were too strong, too tight, to budge even an inch, and Diego was left gasping in panic on the floor of his cell.
The rest of them were all taken at once. Luther, Allison, and Five were at the mansion. The one place they all thought they could be safe. They’d each noticed at least one of their siblings was missing. Luther called a family meeting when he couldn’t locate Diego. They were only just beginning to get suspicious when gas started leaking through the vents. Air caught in their throats, squeezing them closed, hissing, wheezing coughs forcing their ways past their lips. Five fell first. Tough he was the oldest, his body was still small, and it couldn’t take much of the poison clogging his lungs. Allison was trying to drag his limp body from the room when her legs gave out beneath her and blackness began to blur everything in her sight. Luther was trying to cover up the vents, trying to give the others a fighting chance of getting out, but even with his natural power and Pogo’s DNA trapped in his cells, Luther was weakened. To weak to fight of the black-masked, hard-booted men as they forced their way into the Hargreeves’ living room. Too weak to fight the needle as it was shoved into his neck. Too weak to keep his eyes open as he was dragged through the door.
Allison woke up with a wide band around her mouth and an unyielding strap beneath her chin, clamping it shut. Hardened leather and steel fastenings bit into her face and dug into the back of her skull. It was impossible to even move air past her lips, much less open her mouth enough to do so. She wanted to scream but nothing came out.
She scrabbled desperately at the gag, but it was securely bound, locked in place, impossible to remove on her own. It was suffocating. Tears slid down Allison’s face, catching in the gag and chafing against her cheeks.
Luther woke up in a whirl, panic gripping his heart, shooting to his feet before he could even process his surroundings. He saw bars, rows and rows of them, trapping him in place. He saw his siblings trapped beside him, and his vision went red. Luther rushed at his cage, no thought in his mind beyond ripping it to pieces and getting his family out. As his hands met the metal, however, a blinding shock went through his body, muscles tightening to rigidity, eyes rolling back in his head as he collapsed to the ground, writhing.
Five’s coming around was slower than the rest. When his mind finally began its return to consciousness, a headache pulsed behind his eyes and nausea rolled in his stomach. Any drug that could knock Luther on his ass would be hell for Five’s prepubescent body. A groan fell from his mouth as he tried to roll over. When he was finally able to open his eyes, a silver glint caught in his vision. A cuff around his wrist, unattached to anything else, an identical one on his other arm. A small sliver of faint blue light held steady on each one.
Finally catching sight of his surroundings, Five struggled up onto his forearms, tired eyes sweeping over Allison’s red eyes, and Luther and Klaus collapsed in their cells. Five’s face set in determination. Despite his exhaustion, he gathered his strength to jump, to get his family out of there, get them help. But as he focused his power, the Hargreeves house clear as day in his mind, a horrible, wrenching pain fell upon his hands. He felt as if he was being ripped apart from the inside out, and a ragged cry dragged itself from his throat. When the pain finally subsided, Five was still in his cell, too weak to even think about trying again.
They were trapped. All of them intimately and horrifically known, perfectly contained, and utterly vulnerable.