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Nova Rio Sage lived a very different life from Diego Hargreeves. Not easier, not harder, but different all the same.
Nova was early to everything, including her own birth. Nova wasn't born on the twelfth hour of the first of October like the other forty—three children across the world were, but instead, she came a day early on the thirtieth of September, making her a day older than the others. She also had gifts no one else did; the power to heal with the touch of her hand, the ability to hear up to five miles away, and the ability to form a force field around her or anything else she wanted. As far as she could tell, none of the Umbrella Academy members could do that.
A couple of blocks but figurative worlds away, the two couldn't have been more different, but they had one thing in common: a father that didn't want them.
Reginald Hargreeves only cared about Diego for his little lab rats science experiments, and Max Rio Sage only cared about Nova because his wife expected him to. He was the perfect husband, until one day he wasn't.
When Nova was six, he had an affair and ran away with the mystery woman one night, leaving Orion Rio Sage with not only Nova but her older brother Artemis. Artemis was the person Nova could go to for any and everything, and they were really close for being four years apart. About a year later, Nova healed Artemis when he cut open his leg with an old beer bottle in their yard. It didn't really surprise Orion, for she always had a feeling her baby girl would grow up to special.
The first time Nova met Diego face to face, she couldn't even see his eyes.
It's safe to say Nova Rio Sage was the only one who knew the identity of the man under the mask, except for Diego's siblings of course. After all, he saved her life when they were thirteen and the bank her mom had dragged her and her brother to was being robbed.
"Wait!" Artemis had called out to a young Diego (though at the time they didn't know his name) as he walked by. Nova took a deep breath, batting her eyelashes multiple times in disbelief at how much blood she smelled. She always hated the smell of blood. Diego turned and looked at them. Artemis gulped. "My sister..." he nervously trailed, pointing to Nova. "She can help you heal that cut."
You could tell he was thinking about it, even if you couldn't see the confusion in his eyes, you could see the way his eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean she can heal the cut?" he turned to Nova, holding out his arm for her and showing her the cut over his knuckles. "You can fix this?" Nova nervously nodded, reaching her hand out and gently touching him. By the time Diego had retracted his hand in fear, his cut was healed. He stared at her for a couple of long seconds before deciding, "you're like me."
Nova smiled shyly, as Artemis smiled proudly. "You can't tell anyone," she said in a low voice, watching how the other kids in suits started piling out of the building. News teams were outside and ready to interview the young heroes. Diego looked to them before looking back, his way of letting them know he was going.
