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"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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