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If the Handler is in any way intimidated by Allison's sudden prowl forward, she doesn't look it. She keeps the photograph extended, a straw-man of a peace offering held delicately between them.

"If I told you where she is, that would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?"

No sense in forfeiting the bait when she hasn't yet caged the lion, after all. But the protective look in her eye, matched with the danger and power? That is what she'd been hoping to see. After all, Allison Hargreeves has been an ebb and flow of confidence, the control over her ability always clouded by morals, by fear. But not now.

"And you can try to convince me to tell you, but you'll have no luck. Unfortunately, I don't know where she is, either. I would hate to underestimate your abilities, my dear." She sighs and takes a step closer to Allison. "But I assure you she is safe and protected from any possible harm that could befall her darling little head. She has the best nanny the Commission could find. So, are you still interested in ripping my face off, or shall we sit down and talk like very angry, very determined women who know exactly what they want?"

She smiles and tilts her head to one side, something dark behind her eyes. "We have all the time in the world."

There’s a sense of desperation that claws are her, that already puts her at her mercy whether she likes it or not. Whether she realizes it or not. Because Allison is desperate to find out more about her daughter. Because she just wants her safe, she just wants her back. It has been her number one priority long before she and her siblings went through the vortex, long before her father’s death.

Please, she finds herself asking, almost praying to a higher power that she doesn’t even believe in. Please, just let her be okay.

Externally she manages to hide the anxiety she’s feeling, that desperation, but that desire to keep her daughter safe in whatever way she needs to already prevents her from trying to hurt the other woman.

“Alright,” she says, her voice clipped as she attempts to stay controlled, not willing to let her emotions get the better of her yet. “I know what I want. What do you want, and why do you have my daughter?”

"I thought it would be obvious but I forget that the Hargreeves family has a particular lean to stupid questions," she sighs, turning the photograph around to look at it again and smile. "But we'll cut to the chase. I'm here to make a deal."

The probability that she could die here, that Allison could refuse and retaliate, is quite high. She's done the math a dozen times over, puzzled out every possible outcome, and it all comes down to the dainty little photograph in her hand.

It had been impossibly easy, collecting the little girl and finding a suitable nanny for her, all tucked away in the same year in the same place. Had Five not been so deeply planted in the Commission, had she not discovered the wonders of his abilities and the strange little family he was so partial to? Well. Things might have turned out very differently as she climbed to the top.

"You have an extraordinary gift that is being underutilized while you play house with your family here across timelines. Five has been unable to restore you to your daughter's timeline, so I thought I would do the legwork for you and bring Claire to you. Claire— french, bright, clear. Apt name for such a clever young girl."

If Allison knew more about the Commission, about the Handler, maybe this wouldn't be so surprising. Maybe she could guess what is coming, but everything she has heard and known has been indirect information, or through what Herb mentioned back in her house. This part... She couldn't have predicted this.

She obviously knows who she is, though, and it makes her feel overly exposed. She knows about her powers. Her weakness, considering the way she dangles Claire in front of her, and she hates that she can't just will her to stop breathing. Considering her daughter is on the line, she can't bring herself to actually try to call her bluff.

"My brother is trying to fix it and bring me to her," she says defensively, frowning. "Don't make it sound like you're doing me a favor. You're using her as a token, so cut the shit before I lose my patience. What deal? Claire in exchange for what? My 'gift'?"

"You do realize that your brother has been trying to fix it for the better part of fifty years? Things get a little nebulous in our line of work, so you'll forgive me that I don't have the exact figures for you."

She hums, thoughtful, drawing out the conversation simply because they have all the time in the world. She doesn't want to rush in to this, after all; she needs Allison to know exactly how high the stakes are.

"And for a man who could jump forward to the end of worlds, has murdered thousands of dangerously famous people, and has traveled all across time, he's not exactly made a strong effort to help you, has he?" She smiles, stepping closer to Allison and offering out the picture again. In the frame, there's a blond woman with her back to the camera, just at the edge, and she seems to be talking to Claire, making her laugh.

"If you want to see your daughter, I'll require use of your ability through the foreseeable future. I'm afraid your brother has proven to be quite a threat to the stability of all things, including the little world that Claire calls home. She could have been wiped from existence when your family decided to play God with the timeline, so I did do you a favor, you see."

"Yes, he has," she argues when she mentions that Five hasn't tried to help her, but at the same time she knows that the argument can be shot down easily. Five had gone back in time to save them and the world, but hadn't gotten the calculations right. Then he had gotten them stuck in the sixties, all throughout the last three years. She wants to believe that this will work now, that they'll go home and she can see Claire.

Whatever she could say next disappears, though, as she sees the picture and this time she takes it from her to see it closer. She hasn't seen her in so long, has missed her so damn much that she can't hide the longing in her eyes, the relief at seeing her, and at first it blinds her from the rest of the picture. She can only see her daughter's smiling face, trying to make sure with just this picture that she's okay. That she isn't hurt, she isn't suffering.

The rest of the picture comes into focus, though, and... No, it can't be. She can't know for sure who the blond woman is, considering the angle of the picture, but it can't be. There's no way.

Looking back at the Handler, she frowns at her words as she speaks about Claire no longer existing with the meddling they've done, and it's as if the air gets knocked out of her. She stays silent for what feels like a small eternity, her eyes shifting back to the picture in her hands before she swallows down the knot in her throat.

"She'd be safe? Completely unharmed?" She turns back to her, the anger in her voice diminishing slightly. "She would be okay?"

"I can guarantee her absolute safety and happiness if you agree to my terms."

The handler lets her hold onto the photograph and lets out a small sigh, as though all of this is really rather exhausting, but anything with the Hargreeves tends to be twice as much effort as its worth. In this case, she's willing to play the long game.

"You devote your skills and ability to me and I will use every resource in the Commission's power to ensure Claire will live a perfectly happy, perfectly boring little life. You would answer to me, no questions asked. There is corruption within the Commission and I have been tasked with pulling it out by the root. That, my dear, is where you would come in."

She smiles easily and strolls past Allison now to look at Luther, collapsed in the snow, and even takes a gander inside the house where Five has been tossed aside. She makes a mental note to praise Lila later, should she come out of this ordeal alive.

"I will ask you to make difficult decisions, and you can decline, by all means. But for Claire's wellbeing, I think you'll find a way to see things my way in time. The grass is always greener."

Allison doesn't know all the intricacies of the Commission, but she knows enough to guess where and how her powers will be allocated. She's not stupid. It doesn't help that the Handler reminds her of Reginald in some weird, twisted way with the way that she dangles Claire's safety in front of her, at the way she's manipulating her already, but it also does something for her own conditioning that she can't quite ignore. Reginald had taught them all well to respond to these things, after all.

She has always been the mouthy one of the group, though, and it's what keeps her from falling in line immediately.

"I want her safe and well," she says again, as if to confirm those terms, before she turns to her as she adds more. "And I want my family safe, too, and back home."

She lets the words linger for a moment, before she continues. "I know what I'm really bringing bring to the table. You think I'm useful to you, and you only know a fraction of my powers. You don't know how deep or how dark they go, but for my daughter and my family to be safe and unharmed? I'll use my power in whatever way will be useful to you. But they all have to be protected."

Despite the way her heart is pounding in her chest, she looks almost eerily calm and sure of herself. Mainly, though, it's because she is. Allison has always steered away from the dark corners of her mind, the parts where her abilities can take a deeper hold of her. There have been times when she has dabbled in them, of course, and every time that she uses her powers she can hear the whispers of temptation as she wants more, and more of that high that is intoxicating. She knows she can be extremely powerful, that she can bring the world to its knees with just her words. But...she doesn't want the world if her family is not safe. She doesn't care about the world, if her daughter doesn't exist or if she's harmed.

"Deal?"

Turning slowly, her heels crunching in the snow, she regards Allison across the distance between them for a few seconds before she tears her eyes away to pick at a piece of lint from her jacket sleeve.

"Home is relative, isn't it?" The Umbrella Academy that Allison knows no longer exists, thanks to the mess they made of the timeline, and while she knows full and well she could find some way to restore that little thread in space and time, that would be too dangerous. That would be giving them all the ammunition they need to stop her, and that simply can't happen.

"That much could be arranged, but their safety? That's another matter entirely. We're fortunate that most of your siblings err on the side of human error and stupidity more often than not, but I'm afraid your brother, Number Five? He's going to be a real problem. While I could certainly let your family walk away from this little wrinkle in time, I can't promise their safety beyond that."

Pacing back out away from Lila, Luther, and the busted siding from the house, she tips her face up into the cold winter sky, thoughtful. "They might try and find you. And when that happens, I need to know you'll be prepared to make a difficult decision. Tell me, out of curiosity, would you kill one of them if it meant saving your daughter's life?"

She doesn't look at Allison, keeps her back turned, resolute and purposeful. Her cards are laid out on the invisible table between them, and she's showing a royal flush.

She's not wrong, she knows that. About any of it. She knows that Five will be the wildcard. She knows that her siblings will try to find her, pull her away. Convince her that she doesn't have to do any of this, that they can get Claire to safety on their own.

But, she can't gamble with that. She can't walk away from this and risk Claire not even existing anymore. She can't wait and see if she and her brothers can fix it, because what if they can't? In an attempt to stop the apocalypse they had ended up in the sixties, and now they fucked up enough that her daughter's safety is on the line.

Allison knows that the Handler knows the answer to that question, that she doesn't even have to ask it. If it was a no, she would already be saying it. She wouldn't even contemplate it. But, instead, her eyes glance down towards the picture again. At her daughter's smiling face; at that little girl that she adores, more than anything in this world. She wants to say no, that she wouldn't kill any of them, because she can't imagine ever willingly hurting her siblings. Despite all their problems, all their fights, she loves them so damn deeply.

But...would she risk Claire's safety? Her life?

"Yes," she finally responds, the word leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. It feels as if she's already shutting the door to a part of herself, one that she knows there's no going back to after this.

The Handler considers for her for a long time, letting the silence pass uncomfortably between them. If time was in motion, the wind might be blowing, stirring up a snowstorm, but everything is as still as can be, the landscape utterly frozen.

"Excellent, then I think we can agree that this is the beginning to a delightful partnership. As you may know, you'll be working with Lila here who has been doing excellent work infiltrating your little family in case this plan went sideways."

She sighs, thinking about the way Lila had brought Diego with her to the commission. That's going to be a real problem later, considering she's just promised Allison she'd keep her family safe enough. But perhaps Lila's inevitable betrayal can be circumvented now with Allison in tow.

Curiouser and curiouser.

"The boy, Harlan. We need to collect him to spare this universe from its apocalypse. Do you think you can handle your siblings with Lila's assistance while I take care of the world ending problem in the basement, or should I call for a babysitter? Your brother, Five? He's going to be the biggest problem. If you don't want all of those agents to insure his head winds up on a silver platter, I suggest you get very creative. He murdered the Chair of the Board, after all. They're very upset."

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