The Umbrella Academy
Luther stumbled out of the house, eyes wide and slightly glazed other. His dæmon stayed at his side, trying to help him recenter himself but her tiny size in comparison to him didn’t help. Dynami used to be able to keep him upright, to give him a solid form to lean on. Now, with his stupid, simian body, she could try to nudge him but he would flinch away, too scared of hurting her.
Eventually, he crashed. They reached an alleyway, away from prying eyes and he just…crashed. Dynami jumped out of his way and he fell down, back against the wall, face falling. The Labrador waited for him to settle before moving forward, lying down and resting her head on his leg.
‘She’s married, Dy. Allison is married.’
‘That’s good though, isn’t it.’ She said, trying to keep her voice calm. ‘She was happy, she wasn’t alone…’
The two of them were shaking now, trying not to freak out. It was good, they knew that but they couldn’t seem to settle that in their brain. Luther put his hand next to Dynami’s head, thumb brushing her neck. He wouldn’t touch here much more than that. Dad had said he could hurt her if he did.
They stayed like that a while, shaking and trying to figure out what to do.
‘We have a fight.’ Dynami muttered, as if that solved everything.
Luther nodded. A fight could be just what they need. ‘We do. Let’s go get beat up.’
‘I can’t believe she did this.’
Diego had already read the book but something was making him read it again. The first time, he’d been so angry, he’d barely taken anything in. Now, he was going slower and the words, the secrets Vanya had shared, were making his blood boil.
‘Well, she di-did it. Li-little we can do now.’
Diego tilted his head up to look at Sikkina, draped across the back of his chair. The wildcat had always struggled with their lisp more than her human, with their father even forbidding her from speaking in his - or anyone else’s - presence. Sikkina was only allowed to talk to Diego. Which Vanya had helpfully written down in her book.
‘She shouldn’t have done that to you. To anyone of us. The next time I see her…’
Sikkina just looked at him as he trailed off, apparently thinking that created a suitable threat.
‘What? Wh-what will you do?’ She said, tail swishing slowly. Wildcats couldn’t smirk but Diego’s dæmon was doing a damn good impression of one. ‘Going to hit her?’
Diego raised an eyebrow, scooping up his dæmon and the back page of the book. ‘Of course not. Whatever she’s done, she’s family.’
‘Doesn’t stop you hitting Luther.’ She chuckled, twisting her way onto his shoulders. ‘What are you doing with that?’
Diego stepped into the gym, grabbing some tape and his boxing gloves. ‘I won’t hit Vanya. But I’ll hit her face.’
Sikkina laughed, ready to fight.
The first thing Allison noticed was Vanya screaming. Nimic was screaming as well and Allison wasn’t sure if she was hearing that through her ears or Gandas’. Vanya’s mouse dæmon had scrambled after the macaw as he hit the ground, trying to help him make his way to Allison.
The second thing she noticed was the pain. It took her a second to collapse, hitting the ground after her dæmon. The slash had gone through her neck but had clipped Gandas’ wing, forcing him to the ground with a scream. She could feel his pain as well, in her arm but couldn’t focus on it properly. As if their connection was weakening, somehow.
Allison only slightly noticed Vanya being dragged away from her, still screaming. The noise continued to echo in her brain as she turned her head towards her dæmon, dragging himself along with one beautiful feather. She’d always been proud of the way he looked, the colours of his plumage and the curve of his beak.
She noticed Luther holding her and wondered how she hadn’t noticed him enter. There were others around, she could tell by their dæmons crowding hers but she wasn’t focused on them, eyes only for her beautiful Gandas, still on the ground in front of her and barely breathing. As his wing shifted slightly towards her, she tried to notice if the colour had changed, dulled at all.
The last thing she noticed was how beautiful the golden Dust surrounding her dæmon was.
Umoya would like to point out that he thought running towards gunfire was a bad idea. But, even if he said it, Klaus would still run into the theatre, barely remembering to put a hand up to steady the stoat on his shoulder.
‘Guys!’ He said, running into the theatre with a jump and Umoya wanted to scream at him, scratch at his face for being so stupid but he could only cling to his jacket. ‘It’s Cha-Cha! It’s Cha-Cha, she-’
‘Klaus, get down.’
The gunfire was much louder inside, even as Klaus ducked behind a row of chairs. Umoya began to panic, building into a frenzy in Klaus’ lap, barely able to concentrate. They had been sent back, somehow they were back in the war and they were going to lose Dave all over again. Everyone shouted around them and Klaus spotted Five jumping onto one of the goons back, putting himself in harms way.
‘No.’ Umoya muttered. ‘We can’t lose another brother. Klaus, do something!’
Klaus nods, clenching his fists and trying to focus. Umoya knows the feeling he’s reaching out for, the pull in their gut they’d felt when Ben had punched them and again when he’d saved Diego at the house. They’d never done this before but now they had to, otherwise their siblings were done for. Umoya focused as well, adding his strength to Klaus’, watching as his man’s fists began to glow.
They couldn’t do much but they knew someone who could.
They landed together, they always did, but Ixesha had changed. Five leapt away from the creature pressed to his side, eyes wide and hands up in preparation to fight. The creature, in turn, whipped its head around to face him, snarling. It took Ixesha only a moment to remember that Five looked different now and Five only a second more to remember she had started to change again since he had.
She’d Settled before, in the apocalypse. He’d barely been there a few days, having just finished burying their siblings, when he turned to see her stuck, a tiny cockroach to forever remind him he was the only human to survive the End of the World.
When they made it back to their family, they’d only realised Ixesha could Shift again when she instinctively jumped towards the other dæmons. She’d landed as a cat, looking back at Five with pure shock on her face.
Now they’d jumped through time and lost their siblings. Again.
Explosions caught their attention and they moved out of the alley. There were tanks and soldiers and…armageddon.
‘This can’t be right.’ Ixesha muttered. ‘What the hell did we do now?’
‘Change into a bird.’ Five said, eyes wide at his siblings jumping about and stopping enemy soldiers. ‘Anything, get a better view.’
‘I can’t. Sorry, Five, this is it.’
He looked at her, taking in her wolverine shape, her Settled shape, for only a second before looking away. They needed to stop the apocalypse. Again.
Ben looked down at Klaus, half unconscious and slumped against their siblings. The energy spilling out from Vanya had seized Umoya, throwing him back and away from Klaus. The Stretching of their bond had knocked Klaus back as much as the energy itself. Ben turned to face the oncoming surge, unaffected. Of course, he no longer had a dæmon to be pulled away from him.
Each step he took, he imaged Geomel was back with him, somehow. The journey was taking his strength and he wondered, not for the first time, if other ghosts, those without Klaus, felt this weak. The Geomel he imagined on his shoulder told him to stop wondering and help Vanya.
Each moment he felt weaker, as his form almost slipped away from him, he felt closer to his dæmon, who he hadn’t even gotten to hold before she burst in a cloud of Dust. The bearded dragon, once Settled, hadn’t been allowed on missions and had been far from him, screaming, as they died. He realised that was probably how Vanya found out.
‘The past can wait, Vanya needs us.’
The voice, almost a whisper, surged him on and he made it to Vanya. He paused briefly but a clawed touch on the back of his head and he moved on. When he landed, seeing their home, the touch got stronger and he knew, if he looked, Geomel would be there. He didn’t need to look yet, though. He would be joining her soon enough.
‘Then do something about it.’
Vanya was crying, she couldn’t stop herself. Nimic was on the bed, writhing in pain. Vanya didn’t feel the pain, just the fear but Nimic seemed driven by it. She couldn’t tell if the voice was hers, or his, or someone else’s. Maybe it was no ones, just a voice in her head.
‘Embrace who we are. Who we’ve been all along.’
‘I can’t-‘
But she could. She could do it all She could feel, could hear, her heart thumping, matching the beat of Nimic’s writhing. As she looked at him, a small part of her brain realised he had changed in the last week. Her sweet little mouse had grown, teeth longer and body larger. The brown rat on the bed was not her gentle grey Nimic but that didn’t stop him being her dæmon.
Her heartbeat sped up and she focused on it, ignoring her dæmon’s screams. She wondered - as the air shifted and intensified around her - if she’d need a new name for him now, but the thought was gone as she caught the sound and the door - the whole wall - flew away.
The dæmon hissed, jumping onto her arm and scuttling up to her shoulder. Vanya turned, feeling the power moving through her and the creatures by her ear screaming for her to take revenge, to bring their precious Academy crashing down around them.
Vanya smiled, happy with her new dæmon. He seemed to have better ideas than Nimic ever did.
‘This isn’t going to be enough.’
Hargreeves tilted his head at his dæmon, wondering when it had learnt to think for herself. The machine, shaped to look like an eagle, was nothing more than a prop, a ruse to convince those around him they could trust him. It wasn’t designed to think.
‘And what do you consider to be enough?’
‘More.’ The machine’s eyes, really small cameras, scanned over each of the infants in front of them. Reginald had attached probes to each one and was making notes on the responses. ‘Seven won’t be enough.’
‘Seven was all I could get. It will have to be enough.’
The machine’s head tilted and Reginald heard the whirring of its circuits, running through numerous calculations of probabilities, considering how likely they were to succeed with these seven. Without knowing who the children would become, these calculations were estimates at most and Reginald didn’t care for them. His eyes scanned the tiny creatures pressed up against their humans, weak and helpless, tiny and frail little things. He’d have to make sure there was no dependence between child and dæmon, stretch them apart at the earliest convenience.
He turned his head to the machine. He’d given it a name, of course, for when they were in public but an automaton’s name didn’t matter. Neither did the names of the dæmons in front of him. They were simply One through Seven, as their humans were. No need to separate them.
He had work to do.