knife_bender | Hotel Obsidian | The next morning (Reply)

Annie was still in kind of a mood -- she had what was probably the biggest news of her life, and she couldn't tell Diego he was going to be a father because he was too busy dealing with already being a father to a twelve year-old who was abjectly terrible at practicing martial arts.

(Annie kind of wanted to help him, but that was...you know, all really complicated.)

So, since she couldn't -- or wouldn't, yet -- share her news, and she was feeling pretty stymied for it, she had sought out Luther to help with a creative project. That kind of thing always made her feel better.

"What about songs about like...going high, defying gravity, 'you make me feel like I can fly,'" Annie suggested, surveying the music Luther had stacked before them to create this mixtape for Sloane. A time-honored way of declaring one's affection. Annie heartily approved.

Mostly. She was going to gently move the Lionel Ritchie out of the reach of Luther's giant hands, at least.

Luther	"Yes, love it," Luther said approvingly, jotting that down in his little notebook. "Kind of cheesy but, like, the good kind of cheesy." He pulled his earphones down when he saw Diego walking around with a box. "What's with the bottles?"
Diego	"Making Molotov cocktails." As one does when preparing for war. "What's with the music?"
Annie	"Nothing," Annie told him, both feeling kind of like sassing Diego at the moment and like protecting Luther, because oh boy, she did not think that making a romantic mixtape for Luther's new Sparrow friend was going to skate by without some kind of commentary. "Just...listening to some tunes." Casually. With her brother-in-law who was for some reason really feeling Eric Clapton.
Diego	Diego sat his box aside and moved closer, looking at the tapes on the counter. "Phil Collins. Neil Diamond." He caught a glance of Luther's notebook. "Are you making a mixtape?"
Luther	"Shouldn't you be watching your kid?" Luther snapped, which was followed by a wince. "Sorry, Annie..."
Annie	"Fair question," Annie agreed, pointedly looking through cassettes as though they were really interesting. (She had already gone through all of these already.) "I thought you were busy, Diego." Definitely too busy to make a little time for your wife to talk to you privately, that was for sure. (Annie was also completely getting in her own way, there, but she was moody and this was where she was going to lay blame, anyway.)
Diego	"Pfft, I got this parenting thing down," Diego said, not realizing that was not the right thing to say. "The trick is you give them a little trust, and everything falls into place." Someone bring this up, oh, an hour from now. "What we need to be focusing on is the Sparrow attack. Let's talk offense."
Luther	Luther slipped one of his headphones on so he could get back to his important business. "Viktor and Allison handled it."
Annie	"I guess they're coming here," Annie added, offering out a Celine Dion cassette to Luther with raised eyebrows. This was a very male-vocalist-heavy playlist, and if she couldn't beat his bad taste, she figured she might as well join it. "The Sparrows are, I mean." No comment on Diego's parenting skills. That was an incredibly sore spot, and it actually kind of hurt to hear him say that.
Diego	"For what? Tea?" Diego asked. "Now's the time to show them who's boss. Busting heads, like the old days---Lionel Ritchie? Jesus, Luther, are you serious?"
Luther	"Lionel Ritchie's still cool," Luther said, looking to Annie for affirmation. Tell him he was still cool, Annie.
Annie	"I tried," Annie told Diego, and that expression was the closest she'd come to a smile in his presence since she and Luther had gotten back. "Look, leave him alone. Luther made a lady friend, okay?" It was incredibly obvious to Annie, so she didn't see the point in not sharing that. The part she was going to keep a little more under wraps, on Luther's behalf, was who this lady friend happened to be. What her last name was. Whether Diego had, technically, already met her during a giant fight. That kind of thing.
Diego	"Oh?" Now this was actually way more interesting than making Molotov cocktails. "When did you have time to meet someone? We've been here two days and the only time you've been away is--is this mixtape for the enemy?"
Luther	Luther sat up a little straighter because now he had to defend his lady. "Hey, Sloane is not the enemy! They are not the enemy. This is just one big misunderstanding." One that involved a very painful fight and light kidnapping, yes, but a misunderstanding nevertheless. "And if our family could just behave themselves for once, then we could all work together," he continued. "And then Sloane and I can fall in love, get married, buy a dog, grow old on a porch..." You know, like you and Annie were going to. Once you stopped fighting.
Annie	"And I think someone in this family deserves to be fucking happy right now," Annie contributed, on the off chance that Diego had somehow not noticed that she was not that person, right now. "And Sloane's legitimately kind of great, you don't even know." Seriously. She was so nice that Annie half-wondered if Reginald had adopted her much later in life than the others, or something.
Diego	"Were the both of you brainwashed or something?" Seemed to be the only explanation. Still, if his brother was hooking up he wanted the deets in the least graphic way as possible. "Is Sloane the gravity one?" he asked. Then, seeing the blush creep on Luther's face, "Oh shit, you guys had gravity sex."
Annie	"Diego, that's none of our business," Annie chided, giving Luther a reassuring little pat. Any other day, and that would have been a honey rather than his name, but you know. And besides -- what happened to, 'We try to pretend we don't have sex,' when it came to his siblings???
Diego	Okay, okay, but this was gravity sex. "Luther, I'm your brother. We've got no secrets," Diego said. "Do you want me to go first about superpower sex? Because when Annie--"
Annie	And that was Annie scooting her chair back so hard it made a very loud scraping sound against the floor, and all but throwing the cassette she was holding down on the table. "If you finish that sentence, I'm leaving this hotel," she told Diego. This was kind of a straw/camel's back situation, with what he was about to say. Annie was already embarrassed and self-conscious about the eye thing on a normal day!
Diego	"All right, you're right, I'm sorry," Diego said, lifting up his hands. "Bad attempt to bond. I'm sorry."
Annie	"Read the room," Annie muttered, blowing out a sigh and actually getting up to go so the guys could get back to bonding. She wouldn't begrudge them, like, brother talk, but maybe not where she could hear it, especially when she was already transparently irritated, Diego. Of course, any plans Annie had of like, scoping out a bubble bath situation or maybe seeing if she could find something decent on TV were to no avail, since here came Viktor and Allison.
Diego	"Oh look at these two jabronies," Diego said. "Being all sibly. That never goes well for us." He did have a point there. Cabin in the woods, anyone?
Luther	Luther set aside his mixtape business yet again when Viktor and Allison came closer. "So what's the plan? What do we do when the Sparrows get here?"
Annie	Annie sank back into her seat, resigned and kind of getting a headache, honestly. She was also suddenly exhausted, which might been the pregnancy or the -- everything else. The ongoing irritation with her husband. The not being able to talk about what was actually going on with her. The whole, paradoxy, timeline-fucked situation at large. "It doesn't have to be a big deal," she offered, shrugging a shoulder. They weren't all her favorite people or anything, but she didn't see any reason to go out of their way to piss off the Sparrows.
Viktor	"It's not going to be a big deal," Viktor said. "Just follow our lead."
Diego	"Nuh-uh," Diego said. "We don't take orders from you."
Luther	"Yeah," Luther agreed. "We don't--oh shit they're early." Sure enough there were 5 Sparrows dressed in identical red leather outfits filing in. And Christopher, too, of course.
Annie	God, and here Annie had thought they all looked cool rolling up to Sissy's farm in matching black last year. Look at all those unique zippers on the Sparrows! "Shit," she agreed softly, getting up again and hesitantly starting over towards the Sparrows. He wasn't forgiven -- dude, especially not for almost bringing up her eye thing with Luther! -- but she brushed a hand along Diego's arm as they made their way over, just the usual quiet reassurance that she offered before they headed into a fight together. They had this. It was five-on-six, which wasn't the worst -- even if Annie knew better than to underestimate the cube, now. Though she really hoped it wasn't going to come down to a fight, for about a dozen reasons. Not the least of which being that she knew she had some very precious cargo, now. She didn't usually care if she got tossed around, but everything had changed.
Viktor	Viktor had said for everyone to follow his lead, so he guessed he should be the one to speak first. "Thank you for coming."
Jayme	"Oh yeah, super glad to be here," Jayme said. "Where's the rest of you?"
Diego	"You taking attendance?" Positive, open communication from Diego Hargreeves, everyone.
Allison	"Where's the briefcase?" Allison asked.
Ben	"Where's our brother?" Ben asked in return. So maybe Allison and Viktor had left out a detail when it came to how they convinced the Sparrows to come.
Annie	...this was the worst plan, you guys! Oh no. Annie's eyes widened, and she slanted a look sideways at Diego. Hopefully no one was looking at her, because it sure was all over her face that they still super-duper did not have Marcus. And -- okay, there was exactly one Sparrow who Annie had talked to longer than in passing, and that one Sparrow appeared to be mouthing something at Luther, too, when Annie noticed her. Annie squinted. 'Fun'? That didn't make sense, Sloane.
Luther	Better than Luther was doing. He thought Sloane was saying "bun" which extra didn't make sense.
Allison	"Maybe we try this again before I lose my temper," Allison said. "Hand over the briefcase, or no deal."
Ben	Ben smiled. "Yeah the thing is--the deal's off."
Luther	"Oh, run!" Luther shouted, finally getting it.
Stan	Diego had left the Molotv's sitting around. Just sitting around in the open, where anybody could grab them. Namely Stan, who saw his father being threatened. "Molotov this, bitches!" Stan said, holding a lit bottle up in the air.
Diego	"Stanley!" Diego said. "Not now!" He admired the chutzpah though.
Stan	Stan immediately dropped the bottle, which caused drapery to catch on fire. "Uh oh."
Annie	Fuck, fuck, fuck. "Stanley, honey, get back! Away from the fire!" Annie called to him over the noise of the now-ringing fire alarm, turning her attention away from the Sparrows and focusing on the newly-imperiled child in their midst. It didn't matter whose kid he was. He was still a kid, and he was going to take Annie's focus, and she was already taking a step back out of line with Diego to potentially get Stan out of here, if he wasn't already on it.
Diego	Diego knew from experience that the sound of Christopher whirring did not mean good things, especially after Ben said something like "Power up." It was all the warning he needed before he was grabbing Stan by the back of the shirt and forcibly throwing him over the reception desk. Whatever bruise he may or may not get from that would be nothing compared to what the cube could do.
Christopher	Moments later, that cube was indeed showing what he could do. Christopher turned a shade of red and zapped everyone on the Umbrella side of things.
Annie	Annie immediately fell to the ground with a shriek of pain thanks to the blinding pulse Christopher was sending through their heads, and while she couldn't even think, her body thankfully acted for her -- her knees came up, protecting her abdomen as Annie curled into a fetal position herself. She tried to reach out with her powers, to draw power out of anything -- ideally, Christopher himself, but the hotel was full of electricity, anything would do -- and all she managed was a sad, weak spark of her eyes.
Allison	Allison could hear the others struggling, but she couldn't tell if any of them had the ability to use their powers. Her voice shook as she tried to use her own. "I--I heard a rumor--"
Ben	"That you're about to die?" Ben asked. He nodded over at his other siblings. "Kill them."
Mystery Man	Everybody else in the hotel was watching what was happening with interest, some of them taking photos of the Sparrows excitedly. But nobody seemed to be doing anything. Except for one old man with headphones on. He approached the Sparrows calmly, not flinching even as Jayme and Alphonso approached. Then, after calmly taking his headphones off, he erupted into orange light, sending a violent blast towards the Sparrows.
Fei	Ben, Christopher and Fei, luckily, had managed to duck in time to avoid the blast. Slone would have taken the hit if it hadn't been for Luther's quick thinking, tackling her to the ground. Unfortunately Jayme and Alphonso got hit directly, suspended in the air for a moment while their bodies withered away like they had intense radiation poisoning. Then the orange light stopped, and the two of them hit the ground, dead. "Jayme! Alphonso!" Fei screamed.
Ben	Ben nodded at Fei and Christopher. "Pull back." The three of them quickly fled the lobby, leaving Sloane to her fate.
Annie	Annie unwound herself from her protective, balled-up state, and now that she could think, immediately looked around for Diego. "Babe? Diego? Are you okay?" She could see he looked fine -- particularly compared to the two Sparrows she couldn't bring herself to really look at when she could already tell they were dead -- but her hands were flying up to frantically grasp at his arm and face, anyway. Fuck being mad at him right now. That felt so far away, suddenly. They could get past anything, except being dead.
Diego	"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Diego said, looking her over to make sure she wasn't melting away or anything. "Are you okay?"
Annie	"I think so." She couldn't think about how that had been for the baby, because she had no way of checking on that right now, and worrying wasn't going to help anyone. But like...God, she hoped that it hadn't even reached the baby. Or babies. Couldn't think about that now. Annie looked over who was still standing, and who was still here. "What the hell was that?" Other than a really timely Hail Mary.
Diego	"It was a weird old man," Diego mumbled. "Stanley!" A look of relief passed his face when Stan popped up from behind the desk, looking to be in tact. "Upstairs, now!" Stan ran to do as he was told, scared enough to listen without giving sass for once. Before he hit the elevator though, he made sure to wrap his arms around Diego for a quick hug.
Annie	Oh, God. It didn't matter whose child that was, or how he'd come to be, or whether this all sucked for Annie on a personal, confusing level. Seeing Diego protect and then hug his son did something...complicated and warm to her chest. They could figure it all out later. Maybe she could be someone's stepmother, while she got used to all the rest of these changes. "Glad we're all okay," Annie noted, clearing her throat and looking around at the others, mostly to give Stanley a little space with...his dad, there. "We're okay, right?" Like. Other than those two on the floor, obviously.

Klaus	Klaus had missed all of this, having been back at the Sparrow Academy bonding with his father and trying to kick him off pills. When he came into the lobby to see two dead Sparrows, and Luther trying to coax a third Sparrow awake, he realized he had Missed Some Shit. "Heavens to Betsy, what happened here?" Klaus asked, turning to get a full view of the chaos. "Did Viktor go full Carrie again?"
Allison	Allison shot Klaus an annoyed look. "We didn't do this." Meanwhile, Viktor was trying to coax the old man into talking. He seemed like they knew each other, oddly enough.
Annie	"...do we know him?" Annie asked in an undertone, directing the question not only to Diego but also Allison and Klaus has he quietly sidled his way over to them. Annie had never seen that man before in her life, she was pretty sure. Like. The last time she'd come across a guy who fired explosions like that, he'd been so handsome as to almost be kind of a Hall Pass situation in her marriage. This guy was not that guy.
Klaus	"Yeah, who's the creepy grandpa?" Klaus asked.
Diego	Diego had been staring at the guys since he came in and rocked everyone's shit. The fact Viktor knew him narrowed it down considering, well, Viktor mostly kept to himself. Except in Dallas. "That's the kid Viktor saved in '63."
Allison	Allison smacked the back of her hand against Diego's chest. "Oh shit, you're right."
Klaus	"But didn't he get rid of all of the kid's mojo when he did that?" Klaus asked, glancing over at the dead Sparrows again.
Annie	"Doesn't look like it," Annie replied, her eyes going to Jayme and Alphonso as well. And while that had been real handy for their purposes...like, was the only thing standing between him and doing that again just -- Viktor? Because that wasn't great. Now they had one more, potentially-unstable thing to deal with.
Klaus	"What's he doing here now?" Klaus asked.
Diego	"Who cares?" Diego said with a shrug. "He saved us from the Sparrows."
Luther and Sloane	Luther had managed to get Sloane to come to. She was in pain, and confused, but at least she wasn't melted into goo. "It's okay, Sloane. You're all right." Which was all well and good to say, but two of her siblings were laying dead on the floor. So excuse her if her first impulse was to scramble away and take off running.
Diego	"You've got a live one, Luther!" Diego shouted, already taking off after the both of them.
Annie	"Sloane!" Annie yelled, taking off a half-second later than Diego in pursuit. Annie couldn't blame her for running, not one bit, but -- that didn't mean she wasn't going to help catch her. You also couldn't blame them for wanting to keep her close, right?
Diego	By the time Diego had caught up with Luther and Sloane they had ended up in the spa. Sloane had Luther in the air with her powers. Those powers were so cool by the way. Diego held a hand out to stop Annie when she caught up with him. Sloane was facing away from them which was actually kind of perfect. He pulled out a knife and looked at Annie for confirmation that they were gonna take care of this.
Annie	Annie gave him a short nod of confirmation -- much though she hated to do this, she kind of knew exactly how to handle Sloane. It was the easiest way to dispatch Annie herself, after all. How many different superpowered women, across different universes, relied entirely on their hands to use those superpowers, anyway? She stepped forward, moving in sync with Diego as she reached for Sloane's arms to pull them behind her back and hold her wrists together. Sorry, buddy. Just business, like when Sloane's brother had done virtually the same exact thing to Annie just the other day.
Diego	With Sloane held down it was easy for Diego to put a knife against her throat. "Drop him." Sloane, who was not an idiot, did what she was told. "You okay?" Diego asked, not pulling the knife away.
Luther	"I'm okay," Luther confirmed with a nod. "You can let her go. She's hurt."
Diego	"Are you kidding me?" Diego asked. "She's the enemy." The enemy who just tried to kill his siblings, his son, and his wife so excuse him for not wanting to trust her right away.
Luther	Luther stood up a little straighter, looking like he was prepared to take on Diego and Annie. "If you hurt her, I will bury you."
Annie	"Luther, stop," Annie cautioned, tightening her hold on Sloane but doing her best to make sure the other woman wasn't too uncomfortable. No need to manhandle her. "It doesn't have to be like that, okay?" And she wasn't going to say it, but unless he went and got Viktor on his side or something, Annie wasn't really gonna worry about him burying either of them. She didn't like thinking that, but she knew she was the only person in this building who could come close to matching Luther's strength, and she had both Diego beside her and a whole hotel of electricity to back her up.
Allison	And that was before Allison had made her presence known. Nobody wanted to mess with Allison on a good day, but it had not been a good day for Allison in a while. "You going to bury me too, Luther?" Allison asked.
Luther	Luther's shoulders slumped. "Just let me talk to her, okay?"
Allison	"Oh, she's going to talk," Allison said, nodding at Diego and Annie that it was okay to let Sloane go.
Annie	Annie let Sloane go, and she didn't really care if it earned her dirty looks from Diego or Allison -- she did it with a murmured, "Sorry." Not so sorry that she wasn't going to gently guide Sloane so that her back would remain against a wall, lest she get any ideas about the door. Being sorry didn't mean being dumb about this, and just because Sloane had been nice to her.... Well. Hughie had been nice, too. And Homelander, at first. And Wanda. Annie was kind of done taking 'nice' at face value.
Allison	Allison sat down on the edge of a tub, not needing to get close to Sloane to do this. "I heard a rumor--"
Luther	"Allison, don't," Luther said.
Allison	"--that you're going to tell me the truth."
Diego	"Let her do her thing, man," Diego said as he watched Sloane's eyes turn white for a moment. He hated being on the other end of this, but he had to admit it had its uses.
Allison	"Where is the briefcase?" Allison asked. Sloane started to shake a little as she tried to resist Allison's power, tears falling down her face. Allison stood up, getting in Sloane's space. "Tell me. Where is it? Where the hell is it?"
Sloane	"I don't know!" Sloane screamed.
Annie	"Allison, you're hurting her," Annie protested, a hand going to Diego's arm in horror. Like. This was pretty fucked up even if you didn't know Sloane from a hole in the wall, right? It wasn't just her? She didn't exactly blame Allison for her intensity, but -- that wasn't going to get them anywhere, and it didn't look...like it was good for Allison to be like that, either.
Allison	If Allison had heard Annie, she didn't show it, focused entirely on getting Sloane to answer the way she wanted her to. "We left it in your house and it's our only way out of this! Where is it?" Sloane's nose started to bleed, which jolted Luther into action, forcibly dragging Allison away from her. Sloane slid down to the floor, clearly hurt and exhausted.
Diego	Diego put his hand over Annie's knowing that couldn't have been easy to watch. But at least they knew now, for sure, that Sloane didn't know anything. "You need to decide whose side you're on," Diego said to Luther. Two of the Sparrows were dead; he knew it wasn't going to get any more pleasant from here. It was time to close ranks.
Annie	"I know this is hard, Luther," Annie offered, not exactly disagreeing but at least sympathizing. She was really trying to resist the idea that Luther had been intentionally honeypotted, because Sloane had seemed so genuine, but moreover...she just plain had never seen Luther the way he had been around Sloane back at the Academy. And sure, sure -- maybe it was all bullshit on Sloane's end. (She didn't think so, but Annie knew her instincts were historically bad here.) But it was real for Luther. And Annie couldn't blame him for how he felt, even if she did agree with Diego on this one.
Luther	"Would you all get out of here?" Luther said, hesitantly reaching to help Sloane up.
Allison	"Everybody get out," Allison ordered. She pointed at Luther. "Keep an eye on her. She doesn't leave your sight. You understand? This isn't over."
Annie	They were definitely helping nothing by being here themselves, though Annie really hoped Allison wasn't just trusting Luther to keep Sloane captive. Because...like. Annie would have suggested a different guard, if that was the case. But she knew their cue, and gave Diego's arm a tug. "Come on. Let's go find Stanley." And maybe she could find a moment to talk to her husband privately, too, in the midst of all of this.