Chapter 4
They appeared in a dark alley, both of them stumbling and bumping into the grimy wall.
"Ew," Five said, wrinkling his nose, before he glanced worriedly down at his sister.
Her eyes still held that hollow look that it had adopted after Annalise died. Not that he could blame her. It had happened less than ten minutes ago.
Five frowned. They had to keep moving. If he kept her focused, she wouldn't have time to shut down. He wouldn't have time to lose her.
"Come on," he beckoned, grabbing her hand. "Let's go."
They emerged onto a busy street, cart vendors and café's lining its outside whilst people walked down the road, moving quickly but not urgently.
Five immediately led Vanya over to a newspaper stall, peering at the date and smiling when he confirmed that they had landed when and where that they wanted.
"Excuse me?" he asked in French that his father had forced them all to study and that him and Vanya had honed over their years alone. "Is it possible if you could please tell me the exact time and where we are? I'm afraid our watches are broken."
The newspaper vendor looked disgruntled, but answered him gruffly, grumbling when they walked away without buying anything.
"We're a few blocks East of the Eiffel Tower," Five informed his sister, who looked like she hadn't been listening to anything the vendor said, and instead was frowning as she looked at her hand. He hoped she wasn't pulling a Macbeth on him. "We have an hour before it goes down, so we should be in position."
Vanya didn't respond. Five stopped walking, turning to face his sister.
"Vanya? Vanya! Come on, we have something important to do."
Vanya glanced up sharply at him. "We're different."
Five frowned, examining his sister's features properly for the first time. She seemed just slightly off. Somehow younger.
"We're sixteen again," Vanya observed.
"How do you know?"
"Because you only wore your hair that stupidly when we were sixteen. And none of the scars from when I burnt my hand on our seventeenth 'birthday cake' are on my palms."
Five pursed his lips, his brain adjusting. "I'm sorry. I must have gotten the equations wrong."
Vanya shook her head. "Don't be. We can deal with this later. We need to go help our siblings."
Five nodded, and within the hour, they were camped out on a roof near to where Ben Hargreeves' final mission for the Umbrella Academy was about to take place.
Five had a coffee in hand as he watched the construction site on the street across from them through his pair of binoculars. The Eiffel Tower was less than a mile to their right and it all would have been very picturesque and romantic if he wasn't sitting next to his sister and he wasn't trying to stop one of their brothers from dying. Well, him being the one to do it was an overstatement.
Even if he could do high risk jumps in this state (which he couldn't, since he'd needed to chug a whole coffee before the one currently in his hand as well as consume a tooth-rotting amount of sugary pastries just to keep from passing out, and was still feeling the effects of sleep pull his eyes closed), they still didn't want to be found out by their father. So, the simplest solution was for Vanya to subtly shift the metal beam which had impaled Ben whilst he was distracted with trying to control the Horrors.
Their father's journal had strongly implied that he had been the one to somehow let Ben die, so it was Five's job to spot whatever schemes Reginald had in store.
"They're here," Five murmured, seeing Ben and Luther (the only two assigned to this mission) running into the construction site and confronting the building director, who had been trying to build a superweapon under the guise of a building, and use Paris as well as the five other weapon locations around the world, to essentially start World War 3.
Vanya did not tear her eyes from the area around Ben as he came to a stop on top of a sewer grate. Luther was already climbing the equipment, taking out goons as he made his way to the boss, who was on the top level, directing cranes to try and intercept his path, all of which Luther dodged effortlessly.
A little too effortlessly. Five leaned forward, and swung his gaze around to the boss, whose face was contorted in anger as he hit his controller much harder than necessary. Then his gaze swung down to the lavish van about ten buildings away, with an umbrella embellished on the side. Standing against the side, was Reginald Hargreeves, hitting buttons on his own device and looking entirely too smug as Luther dodged the beams that should have easily hit him.
"Reginald's controlling the beams, or at least fighting the boss's control," Five told Vanya, who nodded, but didn’t take his eyes off Ben.
Five watched as Ben let the Horrors out, allowing them to tear apart any guys who aimed their guns at Luther.
He watched as Luther tore the remote out of the boss's hands, immediately swivelling his head to face Reginald, who was watching the screen in front of them, deliberately counting out the seconds before he pressed one last button.
"Now!" Five warned, turning back just in time to see one of the cranes release its beam, allowing it fall in perfect trajectory to hit Ben right as he was most distracted - when he was containing the Horrors.
Five saw Vanya push her hand out, sending her powers out with a grunt.
Her powers rippled through the air, the wave getting weaker and weaker and only barely hitting the beam hard enough to have it change course, slicing through the ground in front of Ben instead of impaling him.
Vanya leant back, letting out a sigh of relief as Ben jumped away, the Horrors snapping back into his stomach quickly and making him double over.
Five relaxed as well, leaning into Vanya and closing his eyes.
However, oth of them sat bolt upright when the explosion rocked the scene in front of them. They saw a blur, and then Ben's body was crashing against a wall, sliding down it and settling on the ground, unmoving.
Vanya stared at it, horrified, too shocked to even say anything. Five however, picked up his binoculars and looked straight to Reginald. Who's face briefly lit up in triumph before it was replaced by a façade of worry.
Five growled as he swung his head back around to examine the seen, seeing the hole in the ground of the sewer grate that Ben had stepped off in his shock, probably saving his life.
A few moments later, ambulances arrived on the scene, loading up Ben, whilst Reginald dragged Luther over to the Umbrella van to follow, not even joining Ben in the ambulance.
"We failed," Vanya said, a broken, devastated note tinging her voice.
Five immediately dropped his binoculars, putting a hand on her shoulder. "He's alive, V. We didn't fail."
Vanya's lips wobbled and then she was flinging herself into his arms, tears spilling over his cheeks as she sobbed harder. Five patted her back, deftly glad that they had spent so much time training when they were in the apocalypse, or the buildings around them might literally shatter like he'd seen so many times in the early days after Vanya came off her meds.
"Shhh," Five murmured. "We'll get to the bottom of this."
(In the end Five had had to jump them to a remote location, whilst Vanya screamed and cried, the shockwaves she threw out sending up sand in whirlwinds and shaking the very Earth beneath their feet).
----
Exactly two weeks later, Five and Vanya found themselves in Canada, hiding in the shade of a tree near one of three banks that Reginald Hargreeves owned. They had their hoods drawn up and tinted glasses on their faces so that they would blend seamlessly into the crowd, which was all looking at the Umbrella Academy, who were standing behind Reginald Hargreeves on the steps of the bank.
"I regret to inform the world that Number Six has fallen into a coma as a result of his injuries obtained at the hands of Dr Sinclair. It is unexpected that he will ever wake up from it."
There was a gasp and some murmurs from the crowd before a look from Reginald silenced them.
"However, he will be staying in a protected room in my mansion, and I have ordered his life support to be maintained even after my death, just in case he returns to the waking world."
"Please show respect to his family and do not ask the Umbrella Academy any questions about his death."
With that he nodded, and turned around, the line of children parting for him and then following him up the steps of the bank.
Both Vanya and Five had wet faces after that.
They walked brokenly through the streets on the way back to the sketchy motel they had both been staying at, posing as a young runaway couple.
However, two blocks out from it, Five noticed a strange figure appear at the head of their street. There was nothing really distinctive about this person, except for the fact that they were carrying a briefcase, a badly concealed weapon and were staring straight at them.
Five grabbed onto Vanya's elbow.
"Temps Commission at twelve o'clock."
Vanya glanced up, quickly flitting her eyes away when she noticed the tall, imposing man.
They went to turn back, only to find another one coming from the other side.
Five pulled Vanya into a dark alley that ended up being a dead end. That didn't matter. He didn't plan to escape by running.
"I think we’ve overstayed our welcome," Five observed. "Are you ready?"
Vanya nodded, tightening her grip on her violin, which she carried with her constantly, and slipping the boa out of Five's backpack.
"Let's go join the Golden Generation."
----
When they jumped back into their timeline, one year had passed in their lives, whilst almost eight had passed in their siblings'.
It had taken longer for the Commission to find them in the heat of the front lines of World War 1, and Five and Vanya had efficiently and mercilessly assassinated the team that had been sent to retrieve them before returning to their next stop on the timeline. And this time, they were determined to get it right.
They both walked in through the front doors of the ominous lab, knowing from Reginald's report that Luther would have already cleared out the front half of the building.
When they entered the building, they found alarms blaring around them. They didn’t have much time.
They wound their way through the building, taking out any men they found with either guns or Vanya's powers. They got to the main lab just in time for Vanya to hurl Luther away from the explosion, and the chemicals that would have forced Reginald to inject him with the serum.
Five walked over to his body whilst Vanya focused on keeping the chemicals contained.
He checked it for a pulse, humming in satisfaction when he found it going strong, and ensuring that no, Luther had not been too stubborn to press the help button when he knew the chemicals could possibly kill others, but had pressed it too late to save himself. He nodded in approval as he heard the bangs of Reginald's black ops retrieval team burst through the building.
He was just about to think about leaving when a shot rang through the room. Five spun around to see Vanya collapsing to the floor with a pained yell. His head swivelled to the source of the shot and he dispatched the man with a bullet to the brain thoughtlessly as he ran over to Vanya, who was pressing a hand over the wound in her leg.
"Time to go," Five announced jumping her out of the building to the alley where they'd stashed their stuff, before teleporting them again to an abandoned building, far away from any other life.
"I'm fine," Vanya assured him, hissing slightly as she pushed herself into a sitting position. "The bullet went straight through, and I'm not bleeding enough for it to have hit anything important."
Five crouched down to examine her leg before noticing a growing dark patch on her abdomen.
"You've pulled your stitches as well," he scowled, quickly pulling the first aid kit out of his pack.
Vanya cried out as soon as he touched her leg, flinching back, which caused another moan of pain to escape her throat.
Five pursed his lips. "I think I should give you the pain killer."
Vanya screwed up her nose. "No."
"I know you don't like it. But it will make the next few hours much easier, V."
Vanya glared at him, her eyes turning white, but Five stayed firm, meeting her gaze evenly. Eventually, Vanya acquiesced, nodding with a sigh as she pressed her eyes shut.
Five let his lips twitch into a satisfied smile before he administered the opioid loaded pain-killer he'd been saving since he'd traded with the doctor. From there, he made quick work of patching up his sister, making sure the wound was properly cleaned and stitched and letting her use his pack as a pillow. Then, he pulled out one of Vanya's favourites, 'Pride and Prejudice', which Five surprisingly didn't mind, and read it to her, whilst she dozed in and out of consciousness.
A few hours passed when he noticed Vanya start to shiver.
Five frowned. They needed to get somewhere warm and safe. An idea sparked in his mind and Five skimmed through his notes before he found an address.
He packed up their stuff and helped Vanya up.
"Come on, cannon fodder, I have an idea."
Vanya snapped a glare at him, his insult fully waking her up, before he jumped, not giving her time to snap back a reply. His aim was perfect as (almost) always, and they arrived on the front steps of a nice suburban house. Vanya was leaning heavily against him, her arm slung around his shoulders and her head resting on his arm as he helped her towards the door. Injuries always took more out of her when she used her powers a lot, and between Luther, the battle the day before they left (which gave her the shrapnel wound) and the skirmish with the Temps Commission, Vanya was bound to be exhausted. Five even felt himself crashing and he wasn't even wounded.
He leaned forward to knock, hesitating when he heard yelling from inside.
"Jesus, Diego, I could deal with the vigilante shtick. I know it's your form of therapy or whatever, but getting kicked out of the police academy? For fighting? What the hell were you thinking?"
Five winced. The woman's voice was very clear, as if it was coming from the hall right behind the front door, like Diego was about to leave. Five knocked before Diego could reply, and probably say something stupid and needlessly antagonistic.
The door in front of him was practically torn off its hinges.
"What?" Diego asked fiercely, in a leather clad outfit that was impossibly more atrocious and fetishy than the one Five remembered finding him in.
Number Two stopped when he saw who was at his front door. "Five? Vanya?"
Five swallowed. "We need your help."
----
Eudora Patch saw the moment all the fight went out of Diego, and he opened the door, letting the two people inside, leaning down to scoop up one of them into his arms.
Diego pushed passed her to get to the living room, but the look in his eyes was desperate as he carried a dark haired girl, practically sprinting to put her on the couch. The boy closed the front door behind him, carrying a violin case and a backpack. He paused in front of Eudora, rearranging himself so he could stick out a hand at her, which she took automatically.
"Hi, I'm Five Hargreeves. Diego's brother. I'm assuming you're Eudora Patch."
With that, the boy strode into the living room, dumping the pack on one of the chairs and setting the case gently down on top of it before he bustled over to the girl on the couch.
"I-Is she okay?" Diego asked, staring between Vanya and Five with wide eyes.
The boy nodded. (And really, he was still a boy. He couldn't have been older than eighteen at the most, far too young to be Diego's long lost brother).
"She's fine. It's just the painkillers."
Eudora walked into the room, making sure she kept her eyes on both of the newcomers at all times.
"Those must be some heavy-duty drugs," she observed.
Five snorted. "They better be. I traded a weeks' worth of rations for them."
Eudora frowned. Things weren't adding up.
"What's going on here?"
The boy hesitated, as if choosing his words carefully, but, before he could answer, the girl jerked up with a gasp.
"Five!" she yelped, her hand immediately shooting out to clutch her brother's.
Her gaze swung around until it locked on Diego. She stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Diego? You're alive?"
Eudora's frown deepened at the girl's confused, vulnerable tone.
Five reached out to squeeze the girl's shoulder. "We're in 2012, Vanya. They're all alive."
The girl blinked, rubbing her head as her eyes started to focus. "Oh, yeah. I remember now."
"Hang on. What's happening? Why wouldn't Diego be alive?"
Five and Vanya shared a look, before the boy took a deep breath.
"I was successful when I tried to time travel," he admitted and Diego jerked.
Eudora looked at her maybe-still-boyfriend and saw the almost imperceptible shake in his hands. She went over and stood behind his kneeling form, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Vanya, the little stowaway, managed to hitch a ride with me as I jumped forward. I didn't realise so I kept jumping and jumping until I hit 2019."
Five broke off from there, squeezing his eyes shut and the girl - Vanya - (who had hit him at the stowaway comment) reached out, rubbing his arm, before taking over. "It was…bad. As in like everyone on Earth was dead bad. We…uh… found your bodies."
Diego visibly swallowed when she made their confession.
"It took me nine years to figure out how to go back in time. But I overshot, planted us in 1943 when a scientist called Dr Henderson was inventing Britain's first time machine. We were there for seven months before we were found by the Temps Commission, an organisation dedicated to preserving the timeline. They destroyed our work and then killed Dr Henderson and one of the codebreakers."
Five added the last few words hesitantly and Eudora didn't miss Vanya's reaction to them. The girl squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her hand around a long silver chain around her necklace.
"We jumped around a bit, avoiding the assassins they sent after us, until we eventually got to here."
Eudora frowned. "That doesn't add up. Why do you look so young?"
Diego stiffened, shooting a glare up at her, but Eudora didn't budge. She had always known that Diego had never had a proper perspective when it came to his family, holding the lost ones - Vanya, Five and Ben - on an almost impossible pedestal (the sweet one, the genius and the calm one) whilst condemning the ones remaining. And fucking Reginald Hargreeves (she refused to refer to that man as Diego's father, despite what her boyfriend might say) had traumatised Diego so much that he steadfastly refused therapy, despite Eudora's many suggestions. But Eudora couldn't help Diego when he didn't want to help himself, she refused to do that to herself.
Five pursed his lips and looked like he was about to argue, but Vanya reached out and hit him gently on the shoulder.
"You took us here. We at least owe them the truth," Vanya said, her soft voice firm.
Five glanced at her, visibly hesitating before he nodded.
Eudora listened as Five and Vanya unwound their story of finding their Reginald's journal, of deciding that they would prevent many of the events, of trying (and mostly failing) to save Ben as well as actually (mostly) succeeding in saving Luther.
There were a few beats of silence before Diego shot to his feet.
"I'm going to kill him," he growled.
"No!" Five said, standing as well. "We can't. The Temps Commission will know if we do. They'll change it or do something worse to balance it out."
"Then why did you try to save Ben? And Luther?"
Eudora smiled, unable to contain her pride. Despite what most thought, her boyfriend wasn't an idiot. He was damn good at solving mysteries. Just not at following the rules.
Five huffed in frustration whilst Vanya looked vaguely uncomfortable.
"Luther's not important to the apocalypse timeline. Reginald is," Five insisted. "If we mess with him, they will know. We have to let him die naturally, which knowing him, will be alone and miserable."
Diego still didn't look convinced and Vanya slowly swung her legs off the couch, gripping Five's arm and pulling herself up. Five immediately turned to her, adjusting his arms to steady her.
"We managed to leave one alive the last time the Commission found us. The survivor told us about the ones we can't change too much without them coming after us. We didn't know about how crucial Ben is to the apocalypse before we tried to save him."
Diego stared at his sister, who was meeting his gaze with pleading eyes, shooting him a wounded puppy expression that made even Eudora's heart twist. Damn, she was good.
Diego sighed, looking at the ceiling before he leant forward to hold some of Vanya's weight.
"You should sit back down," he murmured, helping her back onto the couch whilst Five flashed a smirk of triumph.
Vanya nodded, her eyes fluttering.
"You should go to sleep. You need to recharge. You've used your powers too much in the last few days."
Diego snapped his head towards Five. "Powers?"
Five sighed. "I knew there was something we forgot."
Vanya rolled her eyes, and Eudora saw the edges of her eyes become ringed in white as the couches around them rose a few feet off the air for a few seconds before crashing to the floor.
Diego gaped at them, opening and closing his mouth. That's when Eudora decided to step in. It was too late for this, and if they didn't stop dropping more bombshells on him, Diego was going to spontaneously combust.
"We can deal with this in the morning," Eudora said. "I'll call in sick and we can decide what we're going to do moving forward."
She didn't say why Diego would be free. Now wasn't the time to return to that, though the subject wasn't dropped. At least he wouldn't be going out tonight.
"Why don't you help Vanya into the bedroom, Di?" she suggested. "I'll help Five get their stuff in there."
Diego nodded, shooting her a grateful look as he carried out her orders. He always fell back into that habit when stressed.
There were a few moments of awkward silence whilst.
"Ah… We heard your fight," Five confessed, reaching up to rub the back of his head.
Eudora's cheeks warmed. "Oh, yeah. I guess it doesn't surprise you that Diego dropped out."
Five shook his head, smiling wryly. "We didn't realise that was today. Reginald didn't mention the date, just commented about his stubbornness and aggression. It was the last entry about Diego."
Eudora ruminated over that information, whilst Five's eyes cut towards the door, waiting for a second before going on.
"Though, I do wonder why it was today."
Eudora frowned. "What? Diego's always getting into fights. This one was just too big for the academy to ignore."
Five pressed his lips together. "I think it was more than that. I know Luther would have been on the news, and I'm sure that didn't go over well with the recruits. The few scrapings of newspaper I could find revealed that the police never liked us."
Eudora furrowed her eyebrows, and Five went on when it was clear she hadn't gotten her message.
"You know, Reginald was a real ass, but he was right in some of his observations. The only thing that could get Diego more riled up than comparing him to Luther is if you threaten or insult one of us. That's about the only thing we could agree on. I remember Diego getting into fights with civilians whenever they so much as looked at one of us wrong, and the old bastard always used the threat of harming Vanya or Klaus to motivate Number Two."
Eudora froze, looking at the seventeen-year-old.
"You know, you're not what I expected. Diego always described you more…"
"Assholeish?" Five supplied.
Eudora glanced down.
"It's alright," Five chuckled. "He would have been right. I had no patience for anyone that couldn't keep up with or refused to agree with me. 'One track mind' Vanya calls it. Actually, it's Vanya that you can thank for my lack of general dickishness. She wouldn't stand for that sort of treatment. Especially after she came off those drugs. And nine years of waiting could teach anyone patience."
Eudora examined him for a few seconds, suddenly awash with the strong urge to hug the younger-looking boy.
Instead she just nodded, picking up the pack whilst he carefully lifted the violin case.
"I'll keep that in mind."
----
Diego felt numb. He had ever since about five minutes into his conversation with Five and Vanya, when all of the emotions had crashed inside of him, cancelling each other out and leaving him hollow.
He helped Vanya onto the guest bed, hovering around her worriedly as she relaxed into the headboard.
"It makes me sad to see you like this," Vanya informed him.
Her voice was as soft as he remembered it being, but it held an underlying power and demanded a sought of attention that it had never held before.
"To see me like this?" he asked, his tone hardening defensively as he straightened to loom over his smallest sibling, momentarily forgetting his crippling worry. "You're the one with a literal bullet wound."
Vanya continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I don't think the police academy was the right fit for you. You'd be better working on your own terms as something like a private investigator. I always pictured you as some sort of cross between Sherlock Holmes and Mission Impossible."
Vanya smiled momentarily at her joke and Diego felt his resolve soften.
"But Eudora is the right fit for you," Vanya continued on seriously. "She loves you, but she's too smart to stick with you if you keep being a dick."
Diego didn't question how she knew all this like he wanted to. Instead he watched as Vanya clutched the at the chain around her neck, holding the key and pie symbol tightly in her fist.
"Don't take her love for granted. You never know what might happen," Vanya told him gravely, staring off into the distance. "Make sure you deserve her."
She roused herself out of her stupor enough to look at him, holding out her hand.
"I know why you ignored me now," she informed him, squeezing. "I'm sorry for what Reginald did to you."
Diego's mind flashed to being locked in dark, cold tanks for hours, and Dad threatening to make him use Vanya as target practice.
"But you can't let him rule your life. Let people help you move on. You don't have to be defined by the person he manipulated you to be."
Diego swallowed, squeezing Vanya's hand as Eudora and Five entered the room.
That night, he held Eudora close to him as they drifted off to sleep.