Chapter 3
They stumbled out onto an overcast street.
Vanya looked around, squinting slightly as she registered the rain pouring down around her. They were outside a tall wire fence, with old brick buildings clustered in the field.
"This isn't home," Vanya murmured.
"Astounding observation, Number Seven. Truly amazing observational skills."
Vanya glared at him and was about to snap back when a light came on from somewhere in the compound.
A man walked up the fence from a small metal, box like structure.
"Are you the new recruits?" he asked, his rough voice revealing his age. "I thought you guys were being redirected to Bletchley Park."
Five and Vanya glanced at each other, Vanya quickly ripping off the boa and shoving it into Five's pack.
"They said they could spare us for here," Vanya called out, still squinting into the lights.
"Well," the man said. "They must have decided you two were smart enough for Renfield."
His silhouette disappeared back into the box, and the floodlights turned off before the gate was opening with a rattling creak.
"Only the cream of the crop get sent this way," the man said as he emerged from the box, the light on the outside illuminating him enough for them to see his old, stooped frame.
The man looked them up and down. "I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures."
He started walking away, gesturing for them to follow.
"My name is Dale Wetherton, I'm the groundskeeper at this compound, but I've had to pick up the night shift since Dick went and got pneumonia."
He lead them towards a three story building, the evenly placed windows sought of reminding Vanya of the Academy.
"All of our staff are housed in the same building. We expect you to refrain from any inappropriate activities or to at least be discreet about it if you do decide to enter a sexual relationship with another recruit. Although, I believe you two already have that covered."
Both Five and Vanya jumped to correct that.
"No, we're siblings!" Five assured him.
All Vanya could muster was a disgusted, "Ew!"
Mr Wetherton shook his head, giving a laugh. "No offence intended, I just wanted to see the dynamic between you two."
Five and Vanya glanced at each other again as they entered the building, climbing all the way to the top floor.
"Be at the mess hall by 7:45AM, sharp. Daily assignments and rosters are handed out over breakfast. Do as your told. Keep your head down. Don't go blabbing to anyone. When you go down to the town, tell them we're just researchers, a communications and armour design centre."
He handed them two pads as they stopped in front of the two rooms.
"We of course don't expect you to have any papers with you. Whatever records there were of you would have been burnt before you arrived. As of right now, you don't exist. You will, of course, be properly re-established in society after the war is over. Fill out these forms and turn them in at breakfast. You'll be evaluated tomorrow and then we'll decide where to put you - comms interception, design or experimentation."
He turned to leave before glancing back at them. "Oh, and there is one more tenant on your floor at the moment. He's at the other end. Don't bother him."
With that, he was walking off, back down the staircase.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Five asked.
"Yeah, you took us to World War Two instead of two thousand and two. How the hell did that happen?"
"I don't know. I sensed a time anomaly here. A big one. The only thing that could have interrupted reality like that would be someone messing with time. Excuse me if I thought that the first one I would find was the only recorded instance of time travel without a machine that we know of!"
"So you're saying that someone here is messing with time?"
Five nodded. "And we've just been handed the perfect opportunity to find out who and how."
Vanya hesitated before she answered. "Alright. I guess it's better than where we were. But still work on the equations. I've never heard about this place before so it might get bombed at some point."
Five shrugged. "I mean, we probably never heard about this place because it’s a shady secret government facility. I mean, it seems even more locked down than Bletchley Park and that shit didn’t get uncovered until after the war. Don't worry, the reason we haven't heard about it is because it won't get bombed. Maybe."
Vanya snorted and leaned in to get a hug from her brother. "I love you."
"I love you too. Have fun sleeping in an actual bed for once."
"I know. It's going to be weird."
A beat of silence. "Well, good night I guess."
"Good night."
Vanya closed the door being her, setting down her violin and looking around the bare room. It wasn't much, but it was more than she'd had in almost a decade.
Despite the luxury, Vanya had troubles sleeping. She'd gotten used to listening to Five's breathing, the warmth of his body against her back as she fell asleep.
They'd never done anything sexual. Vanya didn't know about Five, but she suspected he might not have the same urges that many other men did, or if he did, they weren't as strong. A book Vanya had read in one of the many libraries they had come across called it asexuality.
Vanya herself was uncertain if she had experienced attraction to the same degree others did. There had been times when Vanya relieved her urges in the privacy of an abandoned building, when Five was distracted with his equations, but they had never been triggered by any image of an attractive man.
They had slept beside each other every night for the past nine years. Even when they were fighting.
Still, neither of them entered the other's room. They couldn't afford to get caught. Not when they had already announced they were siblings. The last thing they needed were rumours like that floating around.
The next morning, Five looked better than he usually did. Both of them had gotten up early to shower, washing years of grime off them and finally being able to clean up properly. Five had shaved, and styled his hair, whilst Vanya had actually brushed her own and pinned it back in a bun.
"V," she greeted with a nod as he slid into the seat across from her.
"V," grunted in response setting his tray down and digging in.
The woman beside Vanya who had introduced herself as Annalise, and apparently flitted between buildings, helping where she was needed with maths and other logical problems turned to them.
"Where do you think you guys will end up?"
Vanya shrugged, suppressing a moan as she savoured the taste of eggs and toast. Oh god it was so good.
"I don't know."
"Yeah," Five added on. "Our skills are pretty eclectic."
"Eclectic? Is that code for bad?" the red-headed man sitting next to Five asked.
Vanya frowned. "No. Five's a wiz at maths and science. A real genius."
"And Vanya's great at languages, and decoding patterns."
"Alright. Alright," the guy said, holding up his hands. "It was just a friendly jab."
"I'm Carson," he introduced his Scottish accent coming out thick. "I'm think you can guess where I'm from, even though we're not allowed to say."
"We can properly introduce ourselves when we win the war, or when we're being invaded. For now, we work," Annalise stated firmly.
Carson raised his glass of water to her. "Aye, we do."
They were ushered them over to Dr Glover, the head of the compound, who greeted them tersely before sending them off to a day of testing. They got a half hour break at lunch, where they ate a sandwich on a bench together, before they had another few hours of testing, covering languages, maths, science, basic logic, and pattern recognition.
Vanya didn't like it, and she could tell that Five didn't either. It stung too much like they're days at the Academy, even though it wasn't a competition.
Both of them were buzzing with anxious energy at breakfast the next morning. Annalise and Carson sat next to them again, both noticing their discomfort.
"It's alright, lads," Carson assured them. "You've already got in."
"Yeah. They won't kick you out now, not after you've found out about all this stuff," Annalise added.
Dr Glover walked up to them, clipboard in hand.
"Ah, yes. The siblings," he said, glancing down. "Very impressive forms, with test results to back them up I see."
"Miss Hargreeves," he said turning to her. "It seems you'll be mostly in the communications department. Your language comprehension and auditory reception and analysis were exemplary. You'll be spending the morning in foreign translation, then you'll go with Miss Green after lunch and head to Management."
"Mister Hargreeves, please report to Block C, you'll be in design and experimentation."
When Dr Glover had walked away, Carson turned to Five, whilst Annalise grabbed Vanya's arm.
"It looks like you'll be with me!" Annalise exclaimed, squeezing and causing something funny to flutter in Vanya's chest.
"And you're in the really interesting place," Carson informed Five. "I've been there in a few times to do maintenance and let me tell, they've got some serious stuff going on in there."
Five looked immediately intrigued, whilst Vanya beamed. This was definitely an improvement from a few days ago.
The morning wasn't too exciting, with Vanya slogging away at translating Russian and German transmissions that mostly ended up being trivial, and half of them not even to do with politics or military.
The afternoon, however, changed things up to say the least. Annalise picked her up at lunch time, sharing the time with her like Five had done the day before, before taking her to a large, Victorian-style house.
"This is where the magic happens," Annalise announced, opening the door and revealing a rather ordinary hallway.
"Okay…" Vanya said.
Annalise let out a laugh. "Come on."
She lead Vanya through the maze-like house, stopping outside a door and plugging in a code into a thick panel, which instead of opening the door, only slid away to reveal a lock. Annalise then withdrew a black key from a chain around her neck, using that to open the door to reveal a winding staircase that lead downwards.
At the bottom, there was another code, but this time with no second lock and then Vanya was entering a, surprisingly spacious, bunker-like room, where four other people - three men and two women - were sitting. They all gave half-hearted greetings before turning back to their work.
"This is the code making and breaking lounge."
"I thought Block A and Bletchley were on code-breaking?"
"Yeah, with machines. The higher ups think it isn't going fast enough so have tasked some of us to see if we can try and break it ourselves. They also want us to continuously generate codes to communicate research and invention progress, we'll put the answer on one frequency and the actual message on another that is randomly generated between us and the facility in London every day."
She handed Vanya a set of headphones and a few pieces of paper with a transcript.
"Get to work."
It was difficult, but Vanya enjoyed the way the puzzles pushed her mind. A few years prior, Five had gotten bored and had only communicated to her by code if it wasn't essential, gradually increasing the difficulty until Vanya started giving him codes back, and they got sick of not actually talking. She hadn't realised that she'd missed that sought of academic stimulation.
Though, her mood did plummet when Five didn't join her at dinner. She bowed out of the socialisation that apparently usually happened in the hall over whatever desert that the kitchen had scrounged out and spent the evening playing her violin as quietly as possible, glad that she was on a separate floor to most others.
Five entered her room a few hours later, dodging the shoe and pillow that Vanya flicked his way with her powers.
"Where were you?" she snapped.
"I found it!" Five said instead of properly answering. "I know where the time anomaly is happening."
Vanya relaxed, putting her violin back in its case as she sat on her bed and gave him her full attention.
Five waited for her to get comfortable before grinning.
"There's a scientist in Block C - Dr Henderson, who is actually the other tenant on our floor - who is making a time machine. And he's actually making headway."
Vanya's eyes widened, and Five's grin got wider.
"The man is so paranoid that other time travellers from the future are gonna stop him before he's finished that he made a machine that created an interruption in the time-space continuum that will make it super hard for anyone with a time machine to latch onto this time period."
He paused and Vanya made him wait for a few seconds before she asked the question she knew he wanted her to. (She had found, that unlike when they were young, and Five got frustrated by every little aspect of his explanations that she didn't pick up, her brother had become reliant on her asking questions or picking holes in his theories, even if her observations were often less nuanced or only scratching the surface of his thought process.)
"So how'd you get us here?" she asked in an almost deadpan voice.
Five's lips twitched, like he didn't know whether to smile or frown, before he went on. "Because my powers don't work like a machine. They're more fluid, just as sense-based as they are mathematical."
"Like my powers."
Five nodded. "The instinctual, fluidic aspect of my powers give me a versatility that machines do not have."
"But they also mean you lack the precision they do."
Five grimaced but gave another nod to concede her point.
"I think I can learn a lot from him. I might even be able to hammer the equations out sooner whilst I'm working with him."
Vanya frowned, recognise the statement for what it truly was, a question. Would she be okay with staying here for some time instead of going back to her siblings?
She thought about what she'd done that day, feeling actually useful for the first time in her life, and about Annalise, who had seemed genuinely interested in getting to know her in a way that no one but Five had done before.
Vanya shrugged. "I'd be okay with staying here. It's a hell of a lot better than 2019."
Five let a smile slip onto his face as he leaned forward to hug his sister, before he started gushing about the technology he'd just seen.
----
They ended up staying there longer than they'd expected, with Five trying to figure out if he could jump them to a specific date that they'd both agreed on.
He would disappear for most of each day, and come to dinner with a shit-eating grin on his face, high on the rush of creative genius he had been surrounded with, sometimes Dr Henderson even joined him, shaky and paranoid, but obviously proud of Five in a fatherly way Reginald never managed to exude.
Vanya, herself wasn't doing too badly.
About two weeks into their stay, Carson and Annalise caught her playing the violin when they went to return a pencil to her after dinner.
The next night, Vanya was cajoled into performing at dinner, which was a much more informal affair than breakfast. It was so well-received that she became an at least twice-weekly feature, and was also asked to play whenever someone wanted to get a gathering of the staff together.
Vanya and Five went out with the crew every Saturday night, sticking close with Annalise, who Vanya now spent almost every day with, and Carson, who was more and more often being called into Cell Block C to oversee any mechanical issues. They would visit the bars or diners in the small town near the compound, being greeted enthusiastically by the vendors who were happy for their business.
It was about three months into their stay when everything went wrong.
Annalise and Vanya were sitting in one of the darker booths of the bar that was mostly shielded from view. Out on the makeshift dancefloor, Carson was dancing with the woman who ran the grocer whilst Five was destroying some of the more arrogant weapons designers in some math challenge.
Vanya and Annalise were coming down off the high of a new discovery. Dr Glover had given them both warm congratulations on the new music-based code system they had designed that would help to completely hide their information from the enemy.
Vanya laughed as Annalise wiped off yet another bit of chocolate from her nose from the ice cream Sunday they'd both been sharing leaning into her friend as they squished together on the same seat, despite being the only ones in the booth.
"You know, I'm really glad you came here. I can't imagine this place without you," Annalise told Vanya, looking at her through her eye lashes.
"Me too," Vanya murmured, not moving away from Annalise. "I've really enjoyed working with you."
"It's more than that. I've loved getting to know you," Annalise insisted, her voice barely above a whisper.
Something in Vanya's heart swelled and suddenly she was leaning forward, her lips pressing against Annalise's in her first kiss ever.
A few seconds later, Vanya jerked away, her cheeks draining of colour as she realised what she'd done.
"I-I'm so sorry."
Annalise brushed a hand over Vanya's cheeks. "Don't be, my Composer."
And then she was leaning forward again, kissing Vanya more passionately than before, with Vanya responding in kind.
There were a lot of first times in the next few weeks. First date, first time sneaking out, first time having sex. Annalise explored every part of Vanya that had never come to light before and they fell hopelessly for each other.
Eventually, Vanya stopped asking Five about where he was at with his equations, scared that he would say that he had finally figured it out.
Another four months passed by, Vanya and Five steadily spreading more roots as they got more and more tied to the little world of the Renfield Research Compound. Annalise had walked Vanya all the way to her room on the top floor, pressing a brief kiss to her lips as Vanya went to pick up her violin before going to lunch with Five.
"See you later, honey. Make sure you aren't late. You know how grumpy Dr Henderson gets."
Vanya grinned. "We won't be."
They were.
They couldn't help it. They had so much less time together now, that when they did get time alone, the siblings liked to stretch it out as long as possible. Vanya and Five still completed their mandatory weapons and fitness practice together, but other than that, they only saw each other twice a day, which was a great deviation from literally constantly being each other for nine years.
There were exactly five minutes late as Five plugged in his code to the main entrance of Block C, Vanya following him as her and Annalise were scheduled to help analyse some of the data from one of Henderson's inventions that gathered data from the time continuum whilst also working on encoding a report Five had written up about their findings and progress.
They knew something was wrong as soon as they entered the building. The lights were flickering. Dr Henderson never let them do that. As soon as something happened, Dr Henderson was calling tech support to have his electricity fixed or the lights replaced.
Five and Vanya shared a worried look and Five immediately moved to a wooden panel in the wall, smashing through it and grabbing the rifle hidden behind, whilst tossing the pistol to Vanya.
They expertly loaded their weapons, creeping forward as one until they turned down the hall leading up to the labs.
There were three men in the hallway, facing the door to the lab. They were each wearing body armour and carrying weapons that wouldn't be invented for at least another ten years.
Out of the corner of her eye, Vanya saw Five press his lips together, obviously trying to think of a way around them without having to fire, and she rolled her eyes, splaying her hand out in front of her and causing each of them to crash into the walls with dull thuds, before they fell to the ground, unconscious.
Five looked at her, alarmed.
"Soundproofed, remember? They shouldn't have heard it."
Five frowned, obviously wanting to argue, but knowing they didn’t have time. He grabbed Vanya's hand, closing his eyes and teleporting them into a corner of a room, behind a tall machine.
"You shouldn't have been able to get it done so quick, old man," a voice was saying.
Vanya peered around the corner, seeing a man standing over Dr Henderson, who was bleeding profusely and three other agents looking in, one holding a briefcase that Vanya had only ever seen once before.
Before Vanya could decide what to do, then man was speaking again.
"It's lucky we managed to break through your little barrier before blondie over there could send your research over. We wouldn't want this little secret getting out."
"P-please," a very familiar voice sobbed and Vanya's head turned to see Annalise lying on the floor just in time to see the bullet rip through her chest.
A scream tore its way out of Vanya's throat, and then the man standing over Dr Henderson, the one who had fired the gun, was being torn apart, Vanya's powers latching onto the shot still ringing through the air and streaking towards the focus of her anger.
The remaining agents jumped as their colleague's body essentially exploded.
One of them took a step forward, only to be flung back and impaled on one of the broken bits of metal from the wrecked machinery, and another having a piece of wreckage through his chest.
The last disappeared in a flash of light, but Vanya didn't pay much attention to that. She ran out from behind her cover, stumbling towards her lover and falling to her knees beside Annalise's body.
She put her hands on the wound, trying desperately to stem the blood flow.
"Anna," she sobbed. "Anna please. Wake up. You're fine. You'll be okay. We'll get you help."
Annalise sucked in a shuddering breath, her hazy gaze locking on Vanya. He brought a shaking hand to Vanya's cheek, smearing it with blood.
"It's alright, Vanya," Annalise whispered. "I know I'm not going to make it."
Vanya sobbed harder. "No. Don't say that. You're going to be okay."
"Shhhh. It’s okay." Annalise took another shaky breath, grimacing as she lifted her other hand and took her necklace off. She was sweating by the end of it as she pressed the chain with the key and a little pie pendant that Vanya had gotten for her into Vanya's hands. "Take this."
Vanya clenched her fist around the fine silver chain and Annalise' hand. "Please don't leave me."
Annalise smiled. "You know I love you, right?"
Vanya hesitated for only a moment. They had never said the words before, but they had both known it. She'd thought they'd have more time.
"I love you too. More than anything."
Annalise's eyes cut over to Five, who was standing over the man who had taken shrapnel to the stomach.
"You don't mean that."
Annalise's grip on Vanya's cheek and hand momentarily tightened. "I want you to be happy, you hear me? Stay strong."
Vanya nodded, tears streaming down her face.
"Kiss me one more time, my Composer?"
Vanya leant down.
She felt the moment Annalise's life left her, her grip loosening and her lips going stiff. Vanya pulled away, unable to suppress her sobs and pained moans.
Vaguely, she registered Five across the room, his boot on the man's wound.
"Who are you?" he asked fiercely.
The man let out a wet bark of laughter. "You’re the Hargreeves. You're not meant to be here."
"Who do you work for?"
Another pained laugh. "The T-Temps Commission are coming for you. You can't stop us."
The man dissolved into manic laughs that turned into coughs and Five pushed away from him, kicking him before he knelt beside Dr Henderson, who was slowly bleeding out.
"You have to go, my boy. Now."
"We can help you," Five told him.
"No. Carson managed to escape. People will be here soon. And they will return. They took the machine and destroyed my research. I won't be able to rebuild it."
"Don't say that. Of course you can. We were so close."
The man shook his head. "No. And I don't want you here for when they get back. Go. Return to your timeline."
"How did you-?"
The man gave a pained chuckle. "Of course I knew. You're not as good an actor as you believe. Neither of you."
Five stayed silent.
"Go," the man ordered, his voice firmer now, more urgent. "Now. You don’t have much time."
Five hesitated, before he nodded, scooping up Vanya's violin before he strode over to her.
"V?" he asked gently. "We have to go."
Vanya, who was staring hollowly at Annalise's body, nodded.
Five squeezed her shoulder, and then they were in their rooms. Vanya swallowed, shaking her head, before mechanically getting to work, stripping her bloody clothing off herself and packing her things, making sure Reginald's notebook, and the journal they kept to mark the days, were firmly in the compartment that Five built into her violin case.
Five reappeared in her room five minutes later, his own backpack clutched in his hand, and wearing the trench coat that they'd both worn all those months ago, green boa clutched in his hand for good luck.
"Will it work?" Vanya asked, clutching the still bloodied necklace, which she'd clasped around her neck.
Five frowned. "I'm not sure. I haven't had time to check the maths. But we don't have time."
Vanya nodded. She hadn't expected any different. She stepped closer to him, hooking her arms around his neck as Five wrapped them both in the feather boa.
And then they were gone.