Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

On the first day of October, in 1989, 43 women, all around the world gave birth. This was unusual, only in the fact tha5 none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.

He got seven of them.

Believing them to be special, he located them separately, from all corners of the globe, and named them accordingly.

There was Number One, born from a prim and proper boarding school girl in a large English city where the girl’s parents were all too happy to send him away. After a few years, and countless tests, it appeared he had the ability to bend reality, with just a few words.

The second child, Number Two, was found in a small Mexican city, with his mother, a poor woman who was overjoyed at the sum of money Reginald Hargreeves offered her. His power appeared over a heated argument between one of his brothers, when octopus-like tentacles protruded from his stomach.

The third child, and one of the two girls, was collected from a small orphanage in Africa, where she had been left just a few days after her birth, and the employees all feared she wouldn’t make it. Number Three’s power manifested during a game of hide and seek, when one of her brothers leapt out, and in her panic, she teleported herself across the room.

Reginald then travelled to Germany, to collect the fourth child. His mother was reluctant to give him up, but after convincing from her husband, she obliged and handed him the child. Number Four’s powers were made apparent by the frightening accuracy he would throw the ball, during a game.

The fifth child, Number Five, adopted from the heart of a large American city, would grow up believing he was powerless, but in reality, he was the most powerful of them all.

Number Six was adopted from a woman in a small Chinese city. Although mystified and wonderstruck by the birth of her son, she knew she had to get rid of him, in order to stick to the law, and readily accepted the sum of money. Number Six’s powers emerged over time, as he would often pick up, and carry around the house, items that would otherwise be much too heavy for a small child of his age.

Number Seven, the final child, was found in a Russian city, born to a young mother who was all too happy to give her up. Her powers were a little more difficult to discover, than her siblings, and were only discovered by the eerily correct facts she could spout about Reginald’s ancestors. Number Seven could see the dead.

As he discovered each child’s power, he recalled them in his thick, carefully bound notebook and began to bide his time.

He created intense training programs, each catered to the child and their individual power, determined to bring his newfound ‘Umbrella Academy’ to fame.

And so, training began as the children turned four.

“One! One!” Three called, as she raced down the hallway, her schoolgirl stocking sliding on the polished floor boards. “Nanny Lisa says we need to get up and have breakfast quickly, ‘cause we’re doin’ something fun with dad today!”

“With dad?” One clarified, sticking his head out of the doorframe.

Three nodded, her curls bouncing on her forehead. “Everyone else is down there already. I had to come and get you.”

“I’m coming!”

He tugged on his blazer, and followed her out of the room, his untied shoelaces bouncing along the wooden floor as they rushed towards the kitchen.

Five faces glanced up at them as they dragged out their seats and sat down, waiting patiently for their breakfast.

“What does dad want with us?” Two asked, grumpily. “He never wants to talk to us any other time.”

“Nanny Lisa said he was doing something fun with us.” Three recited.

“Do you think he’ll let me throw something at the annoying neighbour?” Four asked.

“He’s not annoying, Four.” Six chided. “He’s nice.”

“He always smiles at me through the window.” Four complained. “It’s creepy.”

“It’s ‘cause he lost his son.” Seven said. “He died when he was our age, so you must remind him of him.”

“Oh.” Four said, sheepishly looking at the table. “Sorry.”

Seven shrugged, glancing at the empty space beside her. “He says it’s fine.”

Nanny Lisa came into the dining room, a tray with seven bowls balanced on it in her arms.

She made her away around the table, placing the bowls in front of them.

Five groaned, as she placed a bowl in front of him. “Oatmeal?”

Nanny Lisa nodded, donning a big smile. “It’s what makes you grow big and strong.”

Five huffed, and picked up his spoon, turning it around and around in his bowl.

“Oatmeal’s not that bad, Five.” One said, as he ate a big spoonful of it. “I think it must be dad’s favourite.”

“Why?” Two asked, probably just to annoy him.

“‘Cause we always have it whenever we do something with him.” One said, seriously.

The others nodded. It made sense.

There was a clicking of heels on the hardwood floors, and their father appeared in the doorway. He nodded seriously at them, and they waved back.

“Children.” He said, sternly. “If you would please follow me, to the library, we shall begin.”

They quickly scraped the last of the oatmeal out of their bowls, and clambered to their feet, scraping their chairs backwards along the floor.

They raced each other up to the library, chattering excitedly amongst themselves,and fought over the chairs when they arrived. Once they had finally settled down, and were staring, wide-eyed at their father, he began to speak.

“We will be starting our training today.” Reginald explained, hands clasped around his cane, monocle in place. “You will each have an allocated training day, and we shall train from 8am to 12pm, and study or group trainings in the afternoons. Each evening you will be allowed reflection time, in one of the drawing rooms, and you shall be allotted half an hour of recreational activities on a Sunday. If it is not your training day, you are expected to work on your studies or engage in another productive activity. Is this clear?”

They all nodded up at him.

“As today is a Monday, we will begin with Number One’s training.” Reginald announced, and One puffed his chest out with pride. “The rest of you, shall report to Pogo, and he will give you a task to complete.”

They all nodded, again.

“Go on, then.” Reginald said, raising a hand to shoo them out of the library. They all got to their feet, except for One, and scattered.

Reginald lead him to the backyard, where One looked up at him, awe and excitement glimmering in his eyes. He’s never got to spend time with just his dad before, normally he had to share that time with his siblings, but this was special! He was special!

Outside, the weather was nice, a light breeze rustling the branches in the trees, and a man stood under the large oak tree. They crossed the courtyard towards him, and Reginald introduced him as his friend. One said hello, politely, just like his mother had taught him, although he tried not to act weirdly, they didn’t get to meet many other people. But, this wasn’t about his siblings, it was about him. They wouldn’t get to meet dad’s friend. That made him special!

One’s training started out simple enough, he just had to make dad’s friend do things.

“I heard a rumor you did a star jump.” The man did a star jump.

He could do that.

“I heard a rumour you sang a song.” The man sang a song.

Easy as pie.

“I heard a rumour you did a handstand.” The man did a handstand.

He could do it, right?

“I heard a rumour you clucked like a chicken.” The man clucked like a chicken.

Oh, maybe he was getting tired.

“I heard a rumor you juggled those stones.” The man juggled the stones,

Yeah, he was really, really tired.

“I heard a rumour you ran a lap of the grounds.” The man ran a lap of the grounds.

Maybe he should stop, dad would understand.

“Dad, I’m getting tired.” One said, looking up at his father.

Reginald sighed, and One could feel the disappointment radiating off him.

“We’re finished when I say we’re finished, Number One.” Reginald snapped.

One kept rumouring the man until he passed out.

One wasn’t at dinner, that evening.

Two had his training the next day.

Two stayed in bed all day the day after that, with a hot water bottle pressed firmly on his stomach.

Three’s training was next.

Three spent the next day throwing up.

Four had his training on Thursday.

Four’s arm was wrapped in a sling for the next week.

Five’s training was on the next day.

Five spent time in bed, a wet cloth on his forehead.

Six had his training on Saturday.

Six was sick in the infirmary, eating nothing but watery soup, for the rest of the week.

Seven had her training on the last day of the week.

Seven was shaky and flinched at the slightest noise for the rest of the day and that night, she slept with her bedroom light on.

And then Monday rolled around again, and the cycle began again.

They had a lot of nannies, over their lifetime.

First, there was Nanny Lisa, who was replaced by Nanny Rosie, who was replaced by Nanny Paula, who was replaced by Nanny Sarah.

When they asked their father about it, he didn’t say anything much, just gave them a vague ‘they moved on, and you need to too’ and waved them away.

Pogo wouldn’t tell them anything, either. He just gave them a sympathetic smile, and tiptoed past them.

They all said they didn’t know anything, but whenever it was mentioned, Five would stare at the ground, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes, and Seven would glance at a seemingly empty space beside her, but only for a split second.

But, then they got Grace, their mum, who was kind and knew just what they liked. She was willing to help One, with all the fiddly parts of his model planes, she was patient with Two, when he stammered through his words, she was always interested in Three’s fashion designing, made from cut-outs from the magazines, she was kind, whilst stern, as she took whatever Four’s newest dangerous interest was away from him, she understood all of the maths equations and sums Five would spout, she would listen to Six talk about the book he was reading for hours, and similarly, would sit on the edge of Seven’s bed whilst she played the violin.

Eventually, they grew to forget Nanny Lisa and Nanny Rosie and Nanny Paula and Nanny Sarah, because they had their mum.

And maybe that’s what Reginald wanted all along.

But their nannies weren’t the only thing they grew to forget.

Eventually, they forgot the few weeks, just before their seventh birthday, when dad told them that Five was very sick, and had to be kept in quarantine.

They forgot about the time that dad walked around the house, his monocle cracked and a cut under his eye.

Seven forgot the dead nannies warnings, they mixed into the others ghosts screaming and shouting, and the whispers of ‘Five has powers’ dissolved into nothing.

One forgot about the time he was marched down, through the elevator and along the long, dark corridor, to the soundproofed room with the big spikes lining the walls. He forgot that dad made him stand in front of his brother, sitting meekly on a hospital bed, and use his power on him.

Five forgot about the weeks he spent in the dark room, idly wasting the day, waiting until his father and mother would appear.

Five forgot why he was taking the pills his father had handed him, and only knew that it was a thing that had to happen.

Five forgot that he had powers.

When they turned ten, their mother gave them names as a birthday present. Well, she tried to. Five refused a name. He said that he didn’t want one, because their father couldn’t be bothered to name them and that it was his responsibility. The others all gratefully accepted theirs.

Mum said the names were all to do with their heritage or their meanings. They didn’t really care, they were going to be special either way.

They were no longer known as One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven Hargreeves, instead Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben and Vanya Hargreeves.

Their father refused to call them by these names, instead referring to them by their numbers, despite their complaints.

They got tattoos at eleven. All of them, except Five.

Little umbrellas, etched into the insides of their wrists, their number displayed just under the curve of the handle.

It hurt a lot, and they all cried, even Diego.

None of them caught Five, standing on the staircase, as he drew an umbrella on his own wrist, in a thick, black marker.

When they were twelve, they got to go on their first mission.

They’d been practicing for years, their father occasionally ringing their ‘mission alert’ and they’d hurry to get ready, but this was the first time it wasn’t a drill.

They rushed down the hallway, grabbing their domino masks and zipping up their black mission suits. The suits looked really stupid, in reality, but it made them feel special, made them feel like real superheroes.

They didn’t notice, or perhaps they just didn’t care, as Five shut his door and pulled out one of his maths textbooks.

They piled into the shiny black car, in, as Reginald had ordered, number order. The excitement levels, mixed with a little bit of fear, in the car rose, and soon they were loudly chatting over the top of each other.

“Enough.” Reginald had snapped, from his place in the front seat. They all shut up. “This is serious. This is your first offical mission, and you’re actions will determine the safety of many.”

The quickly sobered, glancing at each other.

“It’s a bank robbery.” Reginald continued. “And your first priority is to ensure the safety of the hostages.”

“There’s hostages?” Luther asked, nervously.

Reginald nodded, sternly. “I expect you to rescue them and deal with the criminals.”

“Deal with them… how?” Allison asked, carefully.

Reginald looked back at them. “I think you know, how.”

They exchanged nervous glances, as the driver pulled up to the curb and they clambered out of the car.

Reginald didn’t get out of the car, instead nodded at them through the window and they set off towards the bank building.

The front was lined with police tape and cars with flashing lights and sirens blaring.

“We’ll have to go in around the back.” Luther declared, taking charge as usual. “Follow me.”

“No.” Diego argued, elbowing him out of the way. “F-Fo-Fo-Follow m-me.”

“Stop fighting.” Allison cried, rolling her eyes. “People are in trouble, we don’t have time for your stupid pettiness.”

Allison pushed past them, leading the way towards the back entrance of the bank. They all scurried into position behind her.

“I’ll go from the roof.” Ben said, glancing up at it nervously. “I can get a head start on them that way.”

“Okay.” Luther said. “We’ll get in through the back. Klaus, you can go in first, see if you can hit any of them. I’ll go in afterwards, see if I can get close enough to rumour them. Allison can jump around and get the guys we miss, and then, if you can corner them, Diego, you can release The Horror.”

They all nodded, even Diego.

“What do I do?” Vanya asked.

“Uh, you can look out.” Luther said.

Vanya groaned. “I’m always lookout!”

“We don’t have time for this, Vanya.” Luther hissed, as they moved towards their positions.

“Okay, fine.” She muttered, crossing around to sit against the wall. “Be careful.”

They moved into their positions, and Klaus reached for the door handle, swinging the bank door open with a slight creak.

There was four of them, in the main room, all men with broad shoulders and guns, either strapped to their hips or grasped in their hands. They was a crowd of hostages, wrists taped, standing along one of the sides of the room, varying expressions of fear painted over their faces.

They leapt into action, just as the door shut behind them.

The bank robbers looked up with a start, at the noise.

“Hey, you, kids.” The bald man shouted. “Get back with the others.”

“Or what?” Allison grinned, as Luther snuck up behind him.

“I heard a rumour, you shot your friend in the foot.” Luther cried, as he reached the man.

The man’s eyes glossed over and he pointed his gun at the man standing by one of the vaults, firing a run of bullets into his foot.

The man cried out in pain, as he fell to the ground, leaving a smudged trail of blood along the shiny bank floor.

There was a loud crash, and the sound of breaking glass, as Ben crashed through the glass ceiling, landing in a crouch and lifting up one of the men by his collar. He hesitated for a moment, before catching Luther’s stern glance and squeezing his eyes shut, tightly, and tossing the man through one of the thick glass windows.

Klaus came out from the side of the room, pulling a knife out of his belt as he ran. He aimed it at the third man, letting out a shout as he threw his arm back, and released the knife. It hit its target, stabbing the man in the chest and slamming him into the far wall.

The first man, the one Luther had rumoured, had climbed onto the counter and was aiming his gun at Diego, Luther and Klaus.

“Get away from me, you freaks.” He shouted, frantically switching his gun between the three of them.

They shouted taunts at him, distracting him just enough for Allison to phase herself onto the bench in front of him.

“Hey, asshole!” She cried, waving at him before disappearing again in a flash of blue. The man turned to where she had been standing, shooting the gun a few times at the empty bench.

As he turned back around, Allison was behind him. He lifted his arm, and prepared to shoot at her, but soon realised he was holding a stapler.

He stammered at it, for a few seconds.

“Nice stapler.” Allison remarked, before pushing forward a hand and shoving it into his forehead. The man fell backwards, off the bench and Allison hopped down, wiping her hands together.

Ben opened up the front doors, and the hostages all ran for freedom.

Diego was practically buzzing at the chance to use his power, when Luther gave him the command to get into the vault, and deal with the remaining thieves.

He’d never really had a chance to use it, beyond the rabbits and cats he was forced to kill in the training sessions, so using it on a person would be a lot more fun.

He stepped into the vault, shutting the door behind him and letting The Horror out.

It wasn’t as fun as he had hoped it would be. It wasn’t fun at all.

When he stepped back out, he was entirely drenched in thick, red blood.

Diego thought he was going to be sick.

His siblings gasped as he came out, the blood dripping from his matted hair. He couldn’t let them know he was upset, though, so he just shrugged and wiped his nose.

Don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry don’t

“Sh-sh-shou-should we get V-v-va-van-vanya?” He asked, instead, his stammer worse than ever.

Klaus went to get her, while Ben found an old towel and led Diego towards the ‘staff only’ bathroom just off the side of the tellers.

Allison went up to peek out the window, and gasped in happy surprise. “There’s tons of people out there. Oh, and there’s the news, like tv reporters!”

“Do you think they’re here for us?” Luther asked, following her over to the window.

“Well, duh.” Allison said. “We just stopped a bank robbery!”

Klaus appeared back in the doorway, Vanya just behind him.

“We stopped the robbery, Van!” Allison said, happily. “And now the tv people are here to interview us!”

“We don’t know if they’re here to interview us.” Luther said, quietly.

“Oh, uh, well done, I guess.” Vanya said, distractedly. She kept glancing at a seemingly empty space and flinching.

Allison went on to explain every second of their heroics, only exaggerating a tiny bit.

Thankfully, Ben and Diego came out of the bathroom halfway through her long winded explanation, so she shut up.

Diego looked much better now, the blood was mostly gone from his hair and his face only had a tiny streak of blood left on it.

Klaus was about to point it out, when their father entered through the back of the building, holding their uniforms and heavy looking coats and scarves.

He handed them out, and gestured for them to get changed.

They did, quickly, peeling off their mission suits and pulling on their skirts and shorts.

“Well done, children.” Reginald said, but his voice didn’t show any pride. “If you’ll follow me, we must address the press.”

So they did, standing outside in the cold wind, their hands shoved firmly in pockets, as their father paced around them, talking about the end of the world and hopes for an augural class.

Then, they were shoved back in the car and driven home again.

Training started again the very next day, this time more fierce than ever.

At thirteen, things were going okay for the Hargreeves children, well, at the very least, okay as they got.

Training was still hard, and the punishments were even fiercer, worse for some than others.

Missions were just as bad, but were at least a chance to get out of the house.

Sometimes, if they were lucky, they’d all sneak out of the house, Five included, and race each other to ‘Griddy’s’, a shitty donut shop on the edge of town, where they’d order a ridiculous amount of food and drink, and eat until they were sick.

So, things were just peachy, up until a week after their thirteenth birthday.

Allison wanted to time travel.

She’d wanted to for ages now, really, but had never had the courage to ask their father about it. She did now, though.

Reginald said no. Of course he did.

But Allison didn’t like that, so she ran, despite Luther’s cries for her to stop, and she left.

Looking back at it, they should have all done something about it, hell, they probably should have run with her, but at thirteen, and still living under the light of their fame, it didn’t seem like an option.

Allison wasn’t back by the end of the week, or the month, or the month after that.

That year, when they had their portraits painted, minus Five, Reginald had a seperate one done, of her.

It hung above the fireplace, a sick warning to all of them.

And so, the Umbrella Academy began to fall apart.

They were sixteen when the shit really hit the fan.

Diego died.

On a mission.

At an art gallery in the heart of town.

Along the once clean hallways and squeaky clean floors.

It was ironic, really. His own power, the one thing that had killed dozens over its time as a crime-fighting superhero finally killed him.

Only five of them went on missions, at that point, after Allison had disappeared three years ago.

And as Diego lay, dying, on the shiny floor, there was someone holding his hand, maybe both hands. Someone was shouting, and there was crying, someone else was murmuring things into his ear. Oh, maybe his head was on someone’s lap. There was a pounding of footsteps, and was that gunshots he could hear outside? Maybe. But they sounded far away, really far away.

“Hey, hey.” Someone was saying, their voice low and comforting. Maybe it was Ben. “It’s going to be okay.” Yeah, it was Ben, and his voice was all crackly, maybe he was underwater.

“You're safe here, okay?” Someone else said, from his other side. It sounded like Vanya, but her voice was all sad and breaking too. Was something wrong? “You’re going to be okay.”

Someone was stroking his hair, and, oh, maybe it was mum, mum did that when he was young and couldn’t sleep. Maybe he was home, and little again. “We love you, okay, Diego?”

Oh, it didn’t sound like mum, it sounded like Klaus. But why was Klaus touching his hair? Why were Vanya and Ben holding his hands? Where was he?

He tried to say something, maybe ask one of the questions, but he couldn’t, his voice wouldn’t work and oh, and also, his stomach really hurts, like, really, really hurts.

Oh, he realised suddenly, I’m dying.

There was another set of pounding footsteps, and Luther’s voice cut in.

“Is he...okay?”

No, he thought, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Then he stopped thinking.

And he was suddenly aware of it, of his body, lying mangled and lifeless on the gallery floor and why could he see his body? Why was he floating?

Oh, he thought somewhat peacefully, I must be dead.

His siblings were still murmuring things, and then Vanya was shaking his shoulder, but it wasn’t really his shoulder, and Klaus let out a strangled noise, that might have been a cry or a scream, and he clutched at Ben’s arm, and Ben was crying too, and so was Vanya, and, oh, so was Luther. Tough, leader Luther. Diego cried too, but they couldn’t hear him, didn’t hear him.

They sat there for ages, until their father came and found them, and Diego cried harder, because he didn’t care, didn’t react to his own sons body, lying lifelessly on the floor.

Instead, he sighed deeply, as if Diego had disappointed him one last time, and order Ben to pick up his body.

Ben tried to, but his legs were too shaky and he was still crying, they all were, so Reginald just sighed again and sent them out of the room, told the, to wait around the back for the car.

Diego didn’t want to see them upset anymore, so he didn’t follow them out of the room. Instead, he shut his eyes and willed himself home.

It worked, somehow, and he drifted around in the foyer for a while, before floating up the stairs.

He could walk through the walls, apparently, so he did, ducking into Five’s room, right through the closed door.

It was funny how quickly he adjusted to it, being a ghost, that is.

Five was sitting at his desk, bent over a book.

He must be lonely, Diego thought.

And it was funny, that it took him dying to realise that. He might have laughed, if his realisation wasn’t so sad.

He couldn’t stand it in there, Five didn’t know he was dead, how could he? So he left, and floated back to the foyer. His mum crossed through it, and he started to cry again.

She didn’t know he was dead, either. No one had told her, and he hadn’t said goodbye before he left.

He hadn’t said goodbye to Five either, or to Pogo.

The last thing he did was probably argue with Luther.

Argue with his brother, the last thing he’d ever do.

It wasn’t fair.

They arrived back home soon, and they were oddly silent, faces red and blotchy, at least they weren’t crying, anymore. Vanya and Ben were carrying something wrapped in a blue tarpaulin between them, his body, Diego realised, but Ben dropped his end, halfway to the house, and started to cry again, and that made Vanya drop her end, and she started to cry again, too. Reginald sighed again, that stupid disappointed sigh that Diego never wanted to hear again, as his siblings sobbed.

Five stuck his head out of his room as he heard them in the foyer. As he saw their faces his face fell, to a worried ashen colour. Diego watched as he did a quick headcount, his eyes glancing over all of them.

“Diego?” He said, but he sounded hopeless.

Vanya and Ben were still crying, and Klaus started again. Luther just looked at the ground and shook his head.

At least Luther wasn’t crying anymore, Luther never cried.

Five gasped, and he started to cry too, and Diego had to leave, he didn’t care where just had to go, couldn’t stay home while his siblings cried over him.

They had the funeral, just small and in the front yard.

Reginald didn’t want them to have one, wouldn’t let them, he said it would distract them from their purpose.

Luther nodded sadly, not wanting to upset his father any further, but Klaus screamed and shouted at him, until he said they could hold one, but only on a non-training day.

He wouldn’t answer any of their questions, about his body, only shut the door in their faces, so they didn’t have a body, nothing to bury, so they just stood around in the courtyard and said a few things.

It wasn’t much, but it was the best they could do.

They started to refuse to go on missions.

Klaus started it, and Ben and Vanya quickly caught on.

He screamed at them, and punished them, but they wouldn’t go, no matter what he did.

Vanya would spend entire nights in the mausoleum, and by the morning would be exhausted, her voice hoarse from screaming, and the tips of her fingers raw and bloody, from scratching at the stonewalls.

Reginald would force Ben to carry things, much to heavy for even him, by threatening to drop them onto poor, helpless Five, if he refused. So Ben lifted the things, even if he spent days in the infirmary afterwards, with Klaus and Vanya feeding him watery soup.

Reginald would find innocent people on the street, and drag them inside, only to have Klaus kill them. He did it, because otherwise he’d have to throw them at his siblings, and that would be worse.

Luther still went on missions, and he remained true to their father.

They grew further and further apart.

Diego had been dead for a few weeks when Vanya first spotted him.

She’d screamed, at first, before breaking down in tears, barely managing to get more than a few words out.

Diego didn’t think he’d be noticed ever again, so seeing Vanya made him cry, too.

Vanya had gotten more and more hysterical, crying turned to shouting, and eventually, Reginald had her sedated for fear she’d gone crazy.

But, when the painkillers wore off, Diego was still there.

She wasn’t crazy, and maybe her power could still be used.

They got out, as soon as they turned eighteen.

Klaus, Ben and Vanya had planned to buy an apartmentment since the day Klaus had screamed at their father, and they’d banded together.

They’d asked Five if he wanted to come with them, because they knew he’d left behind, otherwise, but he declined. He said he had his own plans, and sure enough, on the day of their eighteenth birthday, he left alongside them.

They’d caught the train into the city, into one of the apartments they’d seen for sale and had paid for, in full with stolen cash, for. Although, as Klaus had said, they were allowed to steal from him, because he was a complete and utter dick.

Five had bought his own apartment, in a nearby block, and they spoke a little, but eventually, that connection dissolved.

Luther never left.

They haven’t heard anything about their father for years, and so when they find out that he had died, they felt obliged to meet back up with their estranged siblings for his funeral.

So they all go.

Luther leaves the moon,

Diego follows Vanya,

Allison travels back from the apocalypse,

Klaus gets off his shifts at the nearby coffee shop,

Five leaves his teaching post,

Ben gets time away from his job at the library,

Vanya informs her conductor that the third chair violinist will be missing for a few days,

And all seven of them return home.

Chapter Text

Even after they’d left together, Vanya, Ben and Klaus had drifted apart over the years. They’d stayed in touch, but had moved off to their own apartments and moved on with their lives. In the few times they spoke, they’d never mentioned the few years they had been practically inseparable. And although they still see each other occasionally, they haven’t spoken to any of the others for years. They’d read snippets of things in newspapers and magazines, who eat up any news they can get about the former child stars, but hadn’t heard anything from them, personally.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Luther stuck around at the house until adulthood. Even after his siblings left, all on the same day, he continued to do missions and train fervently. He remained true to their father, somehow still believing that his own dad wouldn’t do anything to hurt him, even after all they’d been through. Rather blindly, he had followed his father's orders years after the man had no power over him, and that had landed him in a body that wasn’t quite his and a four year round trip to a small shed on the moon.

Diego couldn’t do much, other than wander aimlessly. He’d wanted a job at the police academy, since as long as he could remember and some times, if Vanya, the only person he could speak to, was busy, he would find himself at the police academy, just sitting in the very back of the room, learning the skills, just in case. There was a pretty girl there, too, who Diego personally thought he’d get along fine with, so that was just a bonus. He wasn’t really that close with Vanya, growing up, but after he died, and she was the only one he could talk to, he realised what he’d been missing out on. 

Klaus has always had a bit of a problem. Since he and Ben and Vanya started to refuse to go on missions, and Reginald upped his punishment game, he’d started to sneak in alcohol and drugs. He wasn’t even sure how he’d managed to get his hands on them, in the first place, but being forced to kill people was stressful. At the start, Vanya had joined him, trying to catch a break from the constant screaming and crying of the ghosts, but she’d given up, after a few weeks. It wasn’t that simple, for Klaus. But he was doing okay, he had a stable(ish) job, a home and sometimes spent time with a few of his remaining siblings.

Five had been doing just fine. He’d grown up and away from his siblings, and their up-themselves-super-powers, he didn’t need them. He was fine. You know, after the money he’d spent on therapy and the great measures he’d gone to distance himself from his past and his quite possibly emotionally abusive father, but that was all in the past. And going to this stupid funeral for his stupid dead father and catching glimpses of his stupid siblings wasn’t going to change anything. He’s fine, and not bitter or anything.

You could probably go as far to say that Ben was happy. He had a nice job and a nice house but, he wasn’t that happy to be going back to the house where he had spent a really miserable and danger ridden childhood to see some of the siblings, for the sake of his mental health, it would probably be better if he steered well clear of. But, his dad had died, and not that he’d be crying over it, he had an obligation to fulfill, and so here they were.

Vanya had an okay seat in her orchestra, she had written a pretty successful book in which she dragged her abusive father through the mud and she was coping pretty well with the while ‘seeing the dead’ thing. She’d tried to block it out, a short time after Diego’s death when it all became too much, with some of Klaus’ pilfered illicit substances, and for a while, it worked. But it was hard to swallow, and made her throw up, most of the time. So, after the nagging from Diego, and the physical interventions from Ben, she gave it up, and started to drown out her powers by playing the violin, as loudly and violently as she could.

Five stood on the dirty, leaf-littered pavement outside the front of his childhood home. It looked almost exactly the same, albeit the faded bricks and slightly rusted front gate, but the glass was still as shiny as it had always been. Mum probably kept it as shiny as they did when they were children, she probably still thought they lived there, Five thought, rather sadly. He stepped forwards, and took a deep breath before opening the door. 

Hopefully he wouldn’t be that last to arrive.

He was the last to arrive.

As he stepped carefully through the foyer, he saw his mother, sitting in one of the couches, looking up at the portrait of thirteen year old Allison.

“Mum?” He called out, straightening his suit jacket. 

She didn’t turn around, or even react to the sound of his voice, so he moved on with a heavy sigh. Maybe he could see what had happened to his bedroom, in the years he’d been gone.

He made his way to the stairs, trying to keep as quiet and unseen as he had as a child, slinking through the big, empty halls.

“Oh, hey, Five.” A voice came, and he swung around to see the source of the voice.

Vanya.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d come.” She continued, before backtracking, stumbling over her words. “I mean, not that I didn’t want you to, it’s just I didn't want to some, and he was at least nice to me occasionally, so, oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t mean that to come out like that, I didn’t mean anything, just like ‘good riddance’, if you know what I mean.”

Jesus. He really hadn’t drunk enough coffee for this.

He smiled, weakly. “Yep, I came.”

Maybe he did miss her.

She smiled, softly, back at him, before turning to the air beside her and hissing a quick, “no, shut up.”

Nope. He didn’t miss that.

There was a set of footsteps, and Klaus stuck his head into the room, quickly followed by Ben.

“Oh, Five!” Klaus cried, happily. “I missed you.”

Five shot him a confused look, but can’t help noticing the thin paper wristband on his wrist. He’s just out of rehab.

“It was good of you to come.” Ben prompted.

“It was better of you.” Five shrugged. “If he’d done some of the shit he did to you guys to me, I probably wouldn’t have come.”

Klaus let out a short, humourless laugh. “My god, he really sucked, didn’t he?”

They all nodded their agreement.

“What have you been up to?” Ben asked, and it really seemed as if he was interested.

(Maybe he’s just a really good actor don’t fuck it up or they’ll take back their apologies)

“I teach maths at the local college.” Five said, shrugging.

Vanya exclaimed in delight. “That’s so cool! Well done.”

Five shrugged again. “Did Luther come?”

Klaus exhaled deeply. “Yeah.”

“He’s upstairs, snooping around.” Ben said. “I spoke to him earlier, he thinks someone murdered dad.”

Klaus rolled his eyes. “Of course he does. Precious daddy couldn’t have just passed on normally.”

Five fought the urge to laugh. “Oh, Vanya, I read your book.”

Vanya grinned. “Did you think I painted dad in the right light, or was I too heavy on the abusive-father-bit?”

Five smiled too. “I honestly think you can’t have enough abusive-father-bit.”

“Luther hates her for it, though.” Klaus added, tactfully.

“Well, thank you, Klaus.” Vanya said, sarcastically, but there wasn’t any bite behind her words. “How encouraging.”

Klaus blew her a kiss, and she hit at his shoulder.

Sibling banter, Five realised, with a rueful smile.

“Well, shall we go mourn our poor deceased father?” Klaus asked, offering his arm to Ben.

“We shall.” Ben said, his voice posh and put on as he took Klaus’ arm. 

Vanya fell in to step behind them, rolling her eyes as Five followed along after.

They moved towards the lounge room, where they sat in front of the raging fire, waiting for Luther to join them.

Pogo came into the room, after a while.

They all stood to greet him.

“Pogo!” They all cried, as they rushed toward him for a hug, as if they were four years old again. 

“Ah, Miss Vanya, Master Five, Master Klaus and Master Ben.” Pogo smiled, warmly as he wrapped them in his arms. “It’s good to see you, all.”

“It’s good to see you, too.” Ben smiled.

“How have you been keeping?” Pogo asked, kindly. “I trust that you’re well?”

They all nodded.

After a few more polite niceties, they fell into an awkward silence.

“How long has it been since Allison disappeared?” Vanya asked, breaking the eerie quiet.

Pogo sighed. “It’s been 16 years, 4 months and 14 days.” 

At the odd looks he received he added, “your father insisted I kept track.”

“You wanna know something stupid?” Five muttered, pulling at a thread on the side of the couch. “I used to leave the lights on for her, I thought she’d come home and the hose would be dark so she’d leave again. So every night, I’d make a snack and turn on all the lights.”

Pogo chuckled, quietly. “I remember your snacks. I think I stepped in half of those peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches.”

Klaus laughed, quietly. “I forgot you used to like them.”

Five shrugged, a small grin in his face. 

“Your father always believed that Number Three was out there, somewhere.” Pogo continued, a sad expression on his face.

“Yeah, well, look where that got him...” Klaus trailed off.

Pogo shot him a regretful look, before trudging off down the hall.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching as the flames flickered and licked at the logs.

After a few seconds, there was a set of heavy footsteps and Luther made his way into the lounge room. 

Klaus hissed through his teeth as he saw his bulking figure. “You really filled out over the years, didn’t you?”

Ben hits at his shoulder, because Luther already hated them enough, for leaving.

Luther only frowns in response, and moves to stand in the middle of the room. “I thought we could have a sort of memorial service, in the courtyard at sundown. Say a few words, just at dad’s favourite spot.”

“Dad had a favourite spot?” Klaus interjected.

“You know, under the oak tree.” Luther prompted. “We used to sit out there all the time. None of you ever did that?”

Ben coughed out something that might have been a laugh.

“Oh, uh, right.” Luther said.

“Will there be refreshments?” Klaus asked, probably just to annoy him. “Tea? Scones? Cucumber sandwiches are always a winner.”

“What? No.” Luther said, shaking his head. “Are you wearing a skirt?”

Ben and Vanya shared a look.

Klaus rolled his eyes. “Yes, Luther. I am wearing a skirt.”

Luther shook his head again. “Well, there’s still some important things to discuss, all right?”

“Like what?” Five asked.

“Like the way he died.” Luther explained.

“I don’t understand.” Vanya said, slowly. “I thought they said it was a heart attack.”

“Yeah.” Luther said. “According to the coroner.”

“Well, wouldn’t they know?” Vanya asked, squinting up at him.

“Theoretically.” Luther answered.

“Theoretically?” Ben said, sceptically.

Luther sighed, “I’m just saying, at the very least, something happened. The last time I spoke to him, he sounded strange.”

“Strange how?” Klaus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He sounded… on edge.” Luther continued. “Told me I should be careful who to trust.”

“Luther,” Ben said, trying to be as polite as possible, “he was paranoid, and bitter and he was really old, and he was starting to lose what was left of his sanity.”

“No.” Luther argued. “He must have known something was going to happen.”

He shook his head, as if fighting an internal battle before turning to Vanya. “Look, I know you don’t like to do it, but I need you to talk to dad.”

“No.” Vanya said, firmly, sitting up straight with her arms tense.

“Oh, come on, Vanya.” Luther complained. “That’s your thing.”

“No, no, it’s not.” Vanya said, quickly. “It’s never been my thing, I can’t just conjure him. It doesn’t work like that, and you know it.”

“At least try, Vanya.” Luther whined. 

Vanya shook her head, firmly. “He couldn’t stand the sight of me in life, I’m not trying to summon his ghost.”

Luther shook his head, exasperatedly. “Fine. But we still need to sort out the issue of his monocle.”

“What monocle?” Five asked.

“You know, dad’s monocle.” Luther prompted. “He wore it all the time.”

“So why do we care about it?” Klaus asked. “It’s worthless.”

“Exactly.” Luther said. “So, whoever took it, I think it was personal. Someone close to him, someone with a grudge.”

“What are you talking about?” Ben asked.

Five gasped, suddenly. “He thinks it was one of us. He thinks one of us killed him.”

Luther didn’t deny it, instead glanced at the ground. 

“You do.” Klaus accused, his face falling.

“How could you think that?” Vanya asked, shaking her head.

Ben didn’t respond, instead just stared at his brother with a dismayed expression, before standing up and leaving the room.

Klaus and Vanya were right behind him.

“No, guys, wait.” He called after them.

“No, sorry, Luther.” Klaus called back over his shoulder. “I’ve just got to go murder mum.”

Five stood up after a second and followed them out.

Luther sighed, as he was left alone in the large room.

Vanya sighed, as she stared down the photo of her father, along with the canister containing his ashes.

She glared at it, focusing all her attention on it.

Nothing changed.

She groaned, placing her head on the bench.

“You don’t have to do it, you know.” 

Vanya looked up.

“Luther’ll be pissed. At least I can say I tried.”

“I like pissing off Luther.” Diego argued.

Vanya laughed, dryly. “Yeah, but I’m the one who has to deal with him.”

Diego shrugged. “Dad sucks anyway, why would you want to talk to him?”

“We just went over this.”

“Yeah, but, we know he wasn’t murdered, it’s just Luther’s paranoid bullshit.”

“You’re right.” Vanya sighed, sliding off the bar stool. “Wanna go scope out our childhood bedrooms?”

They were all spread around the house, doing their own things. 

Luther had retreated back up the stairs, to his old bedroom and was inspecting it carefully. The thumping of a record rang out throughout the house.

Diego and Vanya had done the same thing, visiting each of their rooms and peering at all their childhood knick-knacks.

Five was in the lounge room, still sitting in front of the fire, lost inside his own head.

Klaus had gone to the kitchen and rummaged through the pantry, (definitely not looking for any drugs he had hidden when they were younger), and slapped together a sandwich.

Ben had visited the library, running his fingers along the dusty spines of the books he had read as a child.

They’re all lost in their own thoughts, when the weather outside changes dramatically and the once chilly and breezy autumn day turns into a heavy storm, the wind begins to howl and the rain falls in heavy drops. Lightning flashes through the window and thunder booms overhead.

They all jump up, with a start, at the dramatic change and race each other outside, throwing on coats and huddling together.

“Oh my god.” Klaus muttered, as they gathered together, the wind howling past them, as they stared forwards, with fear and apprehension, watching the glowing blue light, hovering in front of them in the courtyard.

“What is it?” Vanya shouts, over the wind.

“Don’t get too close!” Ben warns.

“Yeah, no shit.” Diego mutters, and normally Vanya would acknowledge him, but this isn’t normal.

“It looks like some sort of temporal anomaly.” Luther muses. “Either that, or a minute black hole. One of the two.”

“That’s a pretty big difference!” Klaus shouts, turning back to the house and returning a second later, the fire extinguisher in his arms.

He ran forwards, and hurled into the glowing blue portal-like thing, it disappeared.

“What is that gonna do?” Ben cried.

“I don’t know!” Klaus cried, stepping backwards carefully. “Do you have a better idea?”

There was a loud noise, almost like the crackling of electricity, and a figure appeared in the air, their hands out in front of them, as if bracing themselves for something.

The wind seemed to grow fierce, and there was a loud scream, from the portal, and a small figure fell to the ground in front of them, onto the dirty cobblestones. The blue flash disappeared, and the thunder and lightning faded, as the figure, dressed in an overly large black pantsuit stood up.

They all blinked back at her in disbelief, as she revealed her face.

“Does anyone else see little Number Three?” Klaus asked, his voice shaking slightly. “Or is it just me?”

Allison looked up at them, before glancing down at her body and swearing.

“What’s the date?” Allison asked, laying a chopping board and plate on the kitchen table.

“Uh, 24th of March.” Vanya said.

“Good, okay.” Allison murmured, softly.

“What just happened?” Luther asked, his voice soft.

Allison took a deep breath in, and took a slice of bread out of the bag with shaking hands.

“It’s been seventeen years.” Ben prompted.

“More.” Allison injected.

“Sorry?”

“It’s been longer than seventeen years.”

“Where did you go?” Vanya asked.

“The future.” Allison sighed. “And, it’s really bad… I should’ve listened to dad, time travel is really hard.”

She sighed again, jumping across the kitchen to fetch a jar of jam before jumping back. She glanced up, notching Klaus’ skirt and smiling softly. “Nice skirt.”

Klaus smiled back.

“How did you get back?” Five asked.

“I had to project my consciousness into a suspended—, actually it’s complicated.”

“How long were you there?” Ben asked.

“Uh, forty-five years?”

“So you’re… you’re 58?” Luther asked, disbelief spreading over his face.

“Technically, yeah.”

“I- how does it work?” Vanya asked.

Allison shrugged. “Delores said the equations were off.”

“Who’s Delores?” Diego hissed into Vanya’s ear, and she voiced the question.

Allison only shrugged again, her gaze catching on the newspaper on the dining table. “Have you had the funeral yet?”

“How— how did you know about that?”

“The future.” Allison prompted. “Heart failure?”

“No.” Luther said, at the same time as the others all said, “yes.”

Allison smiles softly. “Still the same, then.”

She picked up her sandwich and left the room.

“Where are you going?” Vanya called after her.

“Things to do.” Allison only responded with.

Vanya entered the lounge room, and Allison, now dressed in her old uniform, glanced up at her.

“It’s nice to know you didn’t forget about me.” Allison murmured, as she shifted her gaze from the portrait of her. “Oh, I read your book. Found it in the library that was still standing. It was good, was… was, dad really that bad?”

“Yeah.” Vanya sighed, deeply. “Luther hates me for it.”

Allison shrugged. “Worse things have happened.”

“Like… like what happened to Diego?”

Diego swiveled around, listening carefully.

“Was it bad?” Allison asked.

Vanya only nodded, biting her lip and glancing towards him.

The wind had subsided slightly, but the rain was still bucketing down, as they stood outside with umbrellas.

“Did something happen?” Mum asked, gently.

“Uh, dad died.” Ben said, quietly. “Remember?”

“Oh, yes, of course.” Mum said, unsurely, shaking her head slightly.

They stood in silence, glancing around at each other as Luther stood, the rain falling heavily around him, the urn of ashes in his arms. 

“Whenever you're ready, dear boy.” Pogo prompted.

Luther nodded, and twisted the lid off the urn, tipping it upside down as the ashes fell onto the wet ground.

It was underwhelming, and he knew that.

“It probably would have been better with some wind?” Luther tried.

Diego laughed, and Vanya glanced at him, and tried not to smile.

“Would anyone like to say anything?” Pogo asked, gently.

They stayed silent.

“Very well.” Pogo sighed. “In all aspects, Reginald Hargreeves made me who I am today. He was a dear friend—”

“He was a monster.” Diego scoffed, and Vanya glanced at him. “A terrible person and a worse father. The world’s better off without him.”

“Amen.” Vanya whispered.

“Miss Vanya?” Pogo asked. “Did you say something?”

Vanya flushed. “Uh, yeah, I said ‘amen’, about all the nice stuff you were saying, yeah, all that stuff.”

Diego scoffed again, and Vanya shot him a glare.

Luther glared at Vanya, and she sighed.

“I’ll just head inside, then, shall I?”

“Why?” Luther asked. “We haven’t finished here.”

Vanya only hissed through her teeth, shaking her head and heading towards the door.

Ben shook his head, tugging on Klaus’ elbow, and they shared a look before following her inside.

“Come on, guys.” Luther said, desperately.

Five glanced after them, before looking back at Luther and finally turning inside.

“Why did you even come?” Luther snapped, after him. “It’s not like he’d want you here.”

Five sucked breath in through his teeth before walking faster.

Five sighed, digging around in his pocket for his pills, before pulling one out and dry swallowing it. 

“Master Five?” Pogo asked, quietly walking up behind him.

“No, don’t waste your time.” Five sighed. “Luther’s right, I shouldn't have come.”

“This is your home, and always will be.” Pogo assured him. “Should I get you a taxi?”

“Already called one.” Five sighed.

A horn honked from outside.

“That’s me.” He sighed, shrugging and turning towards the heavy door. 

“I hope you know, your father loved you very much.” Pogo added.

“Could’ve fooled me.” Five scoffed, yanking open the door and stepping out into the still miserable weather.

“Where’s Five?” Vanya asked, stepping into the kitchen.

“Uh, he left, I think.” Ben sighed, glancing up from his book.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” Allison sighed. “Do we have any coffee?”

“Dad hated it.” Ben said. “So,no.”

Allison groaned. “Okay, I’m taking the car.”

“Hold on.” Vanya said, sticking out an arm. “You literally cannot drive.”

Allison scoffed. “Wanna bet?” She shut her eyes and blinked out of the room. A second later, there was the sound of a car starting and driving off.

There was a second set of footsteps, and Klaus came into the kitchen. “See you guys in like, ten years, when Pogo dies, then?”

“Not if you die first.” Ben jabbed.

“Love you too.” Klaus said, miming blowing a kiss, as he picked up the keys and left the house.

Five sighed, digging the keys out of his pocket and sticking them into the lock, opening the door and entering his apartment. 

“Hey.” Allison said, looking up.

“Jesus.” He swore, clutching at his chest as he shut the door behind him. “How did you get in?”

Allison looked at him, pointedly.

“Oh, right, yeah, okay.” Five sighed, placing his keys on the side table and moving to sit on the couch. “Is—is that… blood?”

Allison glanced at her collar. “Oh, yeah.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ve decided you're the only one I can trust.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re ordinary.”

Five shifted uncomfortably.

“Because you’ll listen.”

Five stood up, and left the room, before returning with disinfectant and a cloth.

Allison allowed him to pull back her sleeve and wipe at her wound.

“When I jumped forwards, and got stuck in the future, do you know what I found?”

“No.”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. As far as I could tell, I was the last person alive. I never found out what killed the human race, but I did find the day it happens. The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it.”

“I'll put on a pot of coffee.”

Chapter Text

“What—how did you survive?” Five asked, his voice soft and eyes wide.

“Scraps.” Allison sighed, tugging at the side of her collar. “Cockroaches, sometimes. Anything I could find. Oh, and Twinkies do not have an endless shelf life.”

“I… I can’t imagine.” 

Allison shrugged, careful not to upset the coffee cup in her hands. “I had to do whatever I could to survive.”

Five sighed, placing his head in his hands. 

“Could I have some more?”

He started, nodding and taking the cup from her hands and walking towards the kitchen, his head spinning. When he returned with the full cup, she sighed and shook her head.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“No, no.” Five stammered. “It’s just… it’s a lot to take in.”

“What bit don’t you get?” Allison sighed.

“Why didn’t you just travel back?”

“Wish I’d thought of that!” Allison scoffed. “You think I didn’t try everything to get back to my family?”

“No, no, I—, it’s just, if you grew old there, why do you still look like a kid?”

“I went over this. The equations must have been wrong.”

“I mean, dad always used to say that, you know, that time travel could mess up your mind.” Five tried, slowly, as Allison sipped her coffee. “Maybe that’s what’s happening?”

Allison sighed, placing her cup on the bench and standing up, and making to leave. “This was a mistake, you're too young. Too naive.”

“No, no, Allison, wait, Allison!”

She stopped, just as she reached the door and looked back over her shoulder. 

“It’s just, I haven’t seen you in a long time and I don’t want to lose you again.” Five said, quickly. “That’s all.”

Allison froze, her face softening.

“And, it’s getting late.” Five continued, moving towards the couch and pulling out a blanket. “I’ve got to teach tomorrow, and I’m sure you’ve got something to do, as well. You can sleep here, and we’ll talk more in the morning, okay? I promise.”

Allison nodded, slowly, moving towards it and sitting down.

“Okay, good,” Five sighed with relief. “‘Night.”

“‘Night.” Allison said.

Five turned towards the other door, entering his bedroom and moving towards the dresser. He sighed, digging out the tube of pills and dry swallowing one.

Allison, on the other side of the door, sighed, reaching into the pocket of her pinny and pulling out a handkerchief. She unwrapped it, carefully, revealing a glass eye. She turned it over, looking at the back, where a brand and a serial number were printed. After a second, she wrapped it back up, placing it in her pocket and standing up quietly. She moved towards the front door, gingerly turning the door handle and leaving the apartment, silently.

“Aww, come on Vanya!” Diego complained, pointing towards the police radio he had insisted they needed. “We have to go, come on! People might be in trouble.”

“The police are there.” Vanya sighed.

“The police are shit, I’ve been there all week, and half of them are useless.”

“Okay, well, I’m not an officer, and what would I do, anyway?”

“I don’t know.” Diego said, rolling his eyes. “Help.”

“Oh, no shit.” 

“Come on, please.”

“Fine.” Vanya snapped. “Only because I’m taking pity on you.”

Diego rolled his eyes again.

“Do you want me to go, or not?”

“Fine, fine, sorry, jeez.”

“This is a once in a blue moon type of situation, I’d say.” Detective Eudora Patch mused, inspecting one of the bodies with a gloved hand. 

“I’m inclined to agree.” Her partner, Detective Chuck Beaman sighed. “So, it’s the same gun on every vic, all M4s. Casings are .223s.”

Eudora hummed, thoughtfully. “Know what I think? I reckon these idiots all shot each other.”

“And stabbed!” Beaman cut in, with a dry chuckle. “One in the throat, one in the eye, and this guy’s neck has been snapped. All quick and efficient kills. These guys were definitely professionals. Dumb, but professionals.”

“Any witnesses?”

“Just the one.” Beaman sighed. “Happened during her shift.”

“Well, that’s lousy luck.” Eudora sighed, before making her way over to the woman. “Ma’am, I’m Detective Patch.”

“Agnes.” The woman, dressed in a pink uniform said, shakily. “Agnes Rofa.”

Eudora took a seat opposite her, as Agnes began to explain.

She had been out the back, when she had heard the gunshots, and had only crept back to the front desk after everything was silent. It had been a slow night, the only customers were a man and a young girl, his daughter, probably adopted, and he had had a donut- no, an eclair, and the girl had had coffee. Black coffee. While she was out the back, he started up his tuck and the two of them must have driven away. Then she heard the gunshots, and when she came back, they were gone and everyone was dead.

“Look, I’m so sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, because you seem super sweet.” Agnes said, as Eudora scribbled on her notepad. “But… do I have to go through all this again?”

“Again?”

“I already told everything to the other detective.” Agnes said, slowly.

“What other detective?”

“The woman, small, blue jacket?”

Eudora furrowed her brow, standing up and walking towards the exit. “Thanks.”

She exited the restaurant, cutting around the corner to the woman, matching the description leaning against the side of the building, having an animated argument with seemingly no one.

She strode over, pulling the taser out of her belt as she went.

As she approached, the woman looked up, a look of worry crossing her face, before Eudora pulled the taser on her, buzzing her.

The woman screamed, folding in on herself.

Eudora only sighed, pulling the woman’s arms behind her back and handcuffing her.

“Why were you talking to my witnesses?”

“Shit, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” The woman stammered. “I’m really sorry, sorry.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Sorry, sorry, uh, I heard something had happened on the radio, and I thought, thought I could help.”

“What radio?” Eudora snapped.

“In my pocket.”

Eudora patted her down, pulling it out. “I’m taking this.”

“Okay, sorry.”

“Right.” Eudora sighed, grabbing her elbow and putting her into the police car.

“And your name is?”

“Vanya Hargreeves.”

“Right.” Eudora sighed, scribbling the name down.

“Tell her it’s not a robbery.” Diego hissed.

Vanya ignored him. 

“And the tow truck guy, Ishmael.”

Vanya still didn’t respond.

“Okay, so, I’m not sure if you know this.” Eudora began, seriously. “But, you cannot interfere with police investigations, and if it happens again, I’ll have to charge you with obstruction of justice. That might result in jail time.”

“Why— why aren’t you now?” Vanya asked, nervously.

Eudora sighed. “Because you seem like an okay person, it’s just a simple mistake. As long as you were only just trying to help—”

“I was, I was.”

“And, also because I know your past.” Eudora continued, and Vanya sighed. “And I can understand why you’d have that whole ‘hero complex’ bullshit.”

“Oh, woah.” Vanya said, lifting her hands up. “Woah, woah.”

“But, let me tell you, next time I will not let you off, you hear me?”

“Yes.” Vanya sighed. 

“And, saying that, you kind of seem like a cool person, so…” She paused, to scribble her phone number down. “Call me?”

“Woah, woah, woah.” Vanya said again, taking the slip of paper. “Aren’t I being arrested?”

“You’re free to go, but I just need some new friends.”

“Okay, sure.” Vanya said, obviously confused. “Bye?”

“Why didn’t you tell her?” Diego hissed, as soon as they were back in the street.

Vanya ignored him.

“Vanya.” Diego complained. “Why are you ignoring me?”

“Because you got me tasered, and arrested, shit, mate, that goes on my permanent record.” Vanya snapped.

“It can’t be that bad.” Diego said, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, well, it fucking hurt.”

“At least you’re not dead.”

“Nope. I’m not letting you win this.”

“Well, at least you made a new friend.”

“Yeah, well, I was also arrested, so…”

“Oh, by the way, that’s the cute girl from the academy.”

“No!” Vanya gasped. “Oh my god, really?”

Diego nodded, sheepishly.

“Ohh!” Vanya gasped. “I could totally see you two together, oh my god.”

Diego rolled his eyes, but she could tell he was proud.

“I guess I have to call her, then.”

“What are you doing?” Ben asked, poking his head into the study, where Luther was bent over the desk.

“Uh, looking for dad’s monocle.”

Ben sighed. “He died because his heart gave out, Luther.”

Luther shook his head. “There was something odd about—”

“Don’t turn his death into a mission.” Ben continued.

“Is that what you think this is?” Luther asked, defensively.

“I think there’s a reason why you never left.”

Luther didn’t respond, instead shook his head and kept searching. Ben only sighed, turning on his heel and leaving. 

Klaus was asleep on the couch, downstairs, muttering to himself.

Ben entered the room, taking a seat on one of the other couches and watching the fire.

After a few minutes, Klaus stirred, turning on his side and glancing up at his brother.

“You know you talk in your sleep.” Ben remarked.

“Oh, really?” Klaus sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Say anything interesting?”

Ben only snorted.

Klaus groaned, getting to his feet and digging out his coat, rummaging through the pockets.

“You’re out of drugs.” Ben said, gently.

Klaus hissed. “Shut your pie hole, Ben.” He paused, before smiling back at him and blowing a kiss. “Said with love.”

Ben sighed. “I’ve got a crazy idea. How about starting your day with… a glass of orange juice or some eggs?”

“Can’t smoke eggs.” Klaus snapped.

Ben sighed. “Come on, I’ll make you something.”

He stood up, making his way to the kitchen and Klaus followed, begrudgingly.

Klaus sat down at the table, as Ben moved towards the stove, collecting pots and pans.

They were silent, for a while, the clanging of pans and the sizzling of the stove the only sounds.

There was a light set of footsteps, and Pogo cleared his throat behind them.

“Christ on a cracker!” Klaus exclaimed, clutching at his chest as he turned around.

“Pogo?” Ben asked.

“My apologies.” Pogo said. “But, I do have a query for you.”

“Oh?”

“Items from your father's office have gone missing. In particular, an ornate box with pearl inlay.”

Ben turned around, and shot Klaus an incredulous look.

“Really?” Klaus said, with feigned interest. “You don’t say.”

“Any idea where it went?” Pogo continued.

(In the dumpster, outside, I threw it in the dumpster outside, yesterday, I took it from the office and threw it in the dumpster outside, thought it would have money, but it didn’t, so I threw it out, in the dumpster outside, threw out the books and sold the box, used the money to buy drugs, but they’re gone now)

“No, no, no, no idea.”

The contents of that box are of utmost importance. They’re priceless.” Pogo continued. “And, were they to find their way back to the office, whoever took it would be absolved of any blame or consequences.”

“Oh, well, lucky bastard.” Klaus said.

Pogo clicked his tongue, before turning and leaving. “Indeed.”

As soon as he was out of earshot, Ben turned to his brother.

“Klaus, what the hell?”

Klaus waved him off. “It’s fine, we’ll go find it.”

“We?”

Klaus nodded, standing up and walking out of the kitchen.

Ben sighed before following him.

Five woke up to the sun streaming through the crack in the curtains. With a jolt, he remembered the events of last night and sat up with a start. He climbed out of bed, throwing the covers off and cracking open the door.

Allison was gone.

“A-Allison?” He called. 

There was no response.

“Oh, shit.” He swore.

Allison lingered in the foyer, her hands jammed in her blazer pockets, glancing around at all the passing people, the glass eye clenched in her closed fist.

“Uh, can I help you?” A man, dressed in a white lab coat asked, looking over at her.

Allison nodded. “Can you please tell me who…” she paused, to dig the eye out of her pocket. “This belongs to?”

“Where did you get that?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

The man stared incredulously back at her. “I— found it at a playground, actually. Uh, yeah, must have just… fallen out. Yeah, I wanna return it to its rightful owner.”

“Oh, what a thoughtful young woman.” The lady, sitting by the desk, said, fondly.

Allison pursed her lips. “Yeah. Look up the name for me, won’t ya?”

“I’m sorry.” The man said. “Patient records are strictly confidential… that means I can’t tell you—”

“Yeah, I know what it means.”

“But, I can take that eye and return it to the owner.”

“You’re not getting your hands in this eye.” Allison said, shaking her head.

The man’s face shifted. “Now, you listen here, young lady—”

Allison’s face shifted into a snarl and she leapt forwards and grabbed the man’s collar. “No, you listen to me, asshole. I’ve come a long way for this, through shit your brain couldn’t even comprehend, so just give me the information I need, and I’ll be on my way, oh and if you call me ‘young lady’ one more time, I will put your head through that wall.”

“Oh, dear.” The secretary said, reaching for the phone.

“Call security.”

Allison hissed, shaking him one more time, before letting his collar go and stepping back, and walking away.

“Allison?” Five asked, stepping inside the foyer of his childhood home. “Allison, are you here”

There wasn’t a response, and he continued in through the house, up the staircase. “Allison?”

He rounded the corner, to see Allison, staring out the window.

“Oh, thank god.” He sighed. “I was worried sick.”

“Sorry I left without saying goodbye.” Allison said, weakly.

“No, look, I’m the one who should be sorry.” Five sighed. “Yeah, I was dismissive, and I guess I just wasn’t sure how to process what you were saying. And, well, I still can’t.”

“Maybe you were right.” Allison sighed. “Maybe it wasn’t real after all. I mean, it felt real, but like you said, dad did say time travel could contaminate the mind.”

“Then, maybe I’m not the right person for you to be talking to. I used to see someone, a therapist. I could give you her information.”

“Thanks, but… I think I’m just gonna get some rest.”

“Okay.” Five sighed, turning and leaving.

After a few seconds, she crossed the room and shut the door, just as there was a thudding from the closet.

The doors swung open and Klaus tripped out, his feet getting caught on fallen coat hangers.

“That was so sweet.” He gasped. “All that stuff about family and time and dad!”

“Shut up!” Allison hissed. “He’ll hear you.”

Klaus waved her off.

“What the hell are you wearing?” She asked, glancing at his shirt. “I said ‘wear something professional’.”

“This is my nicest outfit!”

“We’ll raid dad's closet.” Allison sighed.

“As long as I get paid.”

“When the job is done. ”

“Okay, but just so we’re clear in the finer details, I just have to go into this place and pretend to be your dear old dad, correct?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“So, what’s our cover story?” 

“What?” Allison asked, raising her eyebrows.

“I mean, was I really young when I had you, like, 26? Like, young and… terribly misguided?”

“Sure.” Allison sighed, disinterestedly.

“Your mother, that slut! Whoever she was, we met at… the disco. Okay? Remember that.”

Allison nodded.

“Oh my god, the sex was amazing.”

“Okay, okay.” Allison said, walking ahead of him down the stairs. 

“Don’t make me put you in time-out!” Klaus cried, behind her.

“Look, sir, I’ve already told your daughter, all our information is strictly confidential, and without the clients consent, I cannot help you.” The man explained.

“Well, we can't get consent, unless you give us a name.” Allison snapped.

“Not my problem.” The man said, shaking his hand. “There’s really nothing more I can do—”

“What about my consent?” Klaus interrupted, standing up.

“Excuse me?”

“Who gave you permission… to lay your hands on my daughter.”

Allison furrowed her brow.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“I didn’t touch your daughter.”

“Well then, how did she get that split lip then?”

“She doesn’t have a split li—”

He was interrupted by a loud slap, as Klaus brought his hand down Allison’s face.

She grunted, her head snapping back with the force of the blow.

The man gasped.

“I want it. Name, please. Now.” Klaus demanded.

“You’re crazy.”

Klaus chuckled. “You got no idea.” He glanced down, noticing a snow globe on the desk. “Aww, peace on earth, how sweet.” He let out a shout, and jammed his head into the glass. It smashed, water and glitter spilling everywhere, as the glas cut into his forehead.

“God, that hurt!”

The man gasped, panic over his face, as he grabbed the phone from the cradle, with a cry of, “I’m calling security.”

Klaus grabbed the phone out of his hands, and cried into it. “There’s been an assault, in Mr Big’s office, and we need security, now!” He sighed, dropping the phone back onto the desk and turning back to the man behind it.

“Now, here’s what’s going to happen, Grant—”

“It’s Lance…”

“In about a minute, security is going to barge through that door, and they’re gonna see a whole lot of blood, and wonder what happened, we’ll tell them that you beat the shit out of us.” He sobbed, dramatically, a smile on his face the whole time. “You’re gonna do great in prison, Grant, trust me, I’ve been there. Little piece of chicken like you, oh my god, you’re gonna get passed around like a… you’re just—, you’re gonna do great, that’s all I’m saying.”

“Jesus, you are a real sick bastard.” Lance said, sounding shaken.

Klaus only smiled. “Thank you.”

Lance sighed, and turned and opened the drawer, flicking through the files before finally settling on one and flicking it open.

“Oh, that’s… weird.”

“What?” Allison asked.

“Uh, that eye, it hasn't been purchased yet.”

“What do you mean?” Klaus asked.

“Well, our logs say that the eye with that serial number… no, this can’t be right, it says it hasn’t even been manufactured yet.” Lance said, slowly. “Where did you get that eye?”

Allison froze, shaking her head slightly, before standing up and stalking out of the office.

“This is not good, shit.” Allison swore, placing her head in her hands.

“I was pretty good, though, right?” Klaus asked. “‘Yeah, what about my consent, bitch?’” He smiled.

“No, Klaus, it doesn’t matter.” Allison snapped. 

“What? What?” Klaus asked. “What’s the big deal with this stupid eye, anyway?”

“There is someone out there who’s going to lose an eye in the next seven days. They’re gonna bring about the end of the world as we know it.”

“Yeah, uh, great.” Klaus shrugged. “So, can I get that 20 bucks now, or what?”

“Your 20 bucks?” Allison asked.

“Yeah, my 20 bucks.”

“The apocalypse is coming, and all you can think about is your money?”

Klaus shrugged. “I mean, I’m pretty hungry.”

“Please, please, don’t be useless.” Allison practically begged. “I really need your help, come on.”

Klaus sighed. “Loosen up, Grandma.”

Allison hissed at him, and he chuckled.

“Hey, you know, I’ve just realized why you’re so uptight. You must be horny as hell!”

Allison threw him a disgusted look. “This was a waste of time.”

She blinked out of sight, spatial jumping to who knows where.

“Can I still get my 20 bucks?” He yelled.

Five was packing away things in his office, when there was a knock on the door. He sighed.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and a man, around the same age as him stood in the doorway. “Uh, hi. I had a maths question?”

Five nodded, pausing with his organisation and sitting down.

“What was it?”

The man chuckled. “I guess I must be older than your other students, right?”

“By a couple of decades, yeah.” 

“It’s easier to learn things when you're young.” The man said, nodding.

“Right.” Five said, furrowing his brow. “Did you have a question?”

“I’m Leonard.” The man continued.

Five only nodded.

“And, yeah, so maths…” Leonard said, digging around in his bag and pulling out a binder folder. “Could you help me with this?”

Five took the binder folder from his hands and unzipped it, squinting at the problem scrawled on a piece of paper. After a minute he sighed. 

“Yeah, I know what you’ve done wrong. You put the decimal in the wrong place.” Five said, pointing it out. “It should be… here.”

“Oh, right, well, thanks.” Leonard said, taking it back. “Looks like I found the right person to ask.”

“Oh, no.” Five said. “Most of my students could probably lecture me on what I do wrong. Some of them are basically prodigies.”

“I’ve never been a prodigy at anything.” Leonard shrugged.

“Well, that makes two of us.” Five scoffed, raising his eyebrows as he started to pick up the pens scattered over his desk.

“Yeah, well I’m sorry to bother you, I was just trying to get a better glimpse into my dad’s mind.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he passed away a couple years ago.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine we had a… complicated relationship. Just didn’t really get each other, you know. I mean, family… it’s never easy, right?”

Five only nodded.

“Uh, sorry for getting all heavy. It was stupid, shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“No, no, believe me, I get it.”

Leonard smiled, gathering his things. “Uh, I’m a woodworker, have a shop out in Bricktown, you should come by, sometime, if you want?”

Five was silent for a moment. “Uh, I’m busy this week—”

“It’s fine, I understand.” Leonard said, awkwardly. “Another time.”

Five nodded, slowly.

“Uh, bye.” Leonard stood up, his bag in his shoulder and left the office.

Five shook his head, slightly, before turning back to his desk.

Ben sighed heavily, looking up at the dark sky, the stars and moon shining brightly.

There was a soft creaking of light footsteps, up the old stairs.

“Ah, Master Ben.” Pogo said, looking up from where he had entered the attic room. “I was looking for you.”

“How did you know I was up here?” Ben asked, moving his legs in from outside the window and glancing over at him. 

“Oh, it wasn’t hard.” Pogo said, fondly. “This is always where you used to come when you were upset.”

“Who told you I was…”

“Master Klaus.”

Ben furrowed his brow.

“He asked me to make sure you were okay.”

“Yeah, I was a bit pissed, sorry, upset, with him.”

“He’s your brother.” Pogo sighed. “He knows you didn’t mean it.”

Ben shrugged. “Hopefully.”

Pogo looked at him.

“It’s just— been a while, since we’ve all lived under the same roof.”

“Almost 13 years.” Pogo nodded.

“How did you do it?” Ben asked. “Alone in this huge house for so long.”

“Well, one grows used to things, even if sometimes… one shouldn’t.”

Ben sighed.

“Come with me.” Pogo continued. “I want to show you something. It might just cheer you up.”

“Your father stopped recording years ago.” Pogo explained, passing him a VHS tape. “But I still come here from time to time. When I’m missing you kids.”

Ben nodded, taking the tape and inserting it into the player. The small screen crackled to life, with a buzz of static, before clearing.

“Pogo, this is…” He sighed, his gaze focusing on a young Klaus, mixing margaritas at the bar. “Most families have home movies to look back on. We have surveillance footage.”

“I hoped it might cheer you up.”

“It does.” He laughed, slightly, watching a grainy Luther and Allison argue.

He turned to another screen, where he was sitting beside Diego.

“Oh, Diego and I. I miss him, so much.”

He turned towards another screen, where Five was sitting, alone in his bedroom.

“And Five… why did we leave him out?”

Pogo sighed. “You were only children.”

“Yeah.”

Pogo smiled, gently, gesturing behind him. “If you’re not in a hurry, the rest of the tapes are in that cabinet.”

Ben nodded, his gaze still fixed in the grainy footage.

Pogo placed a key on the table in front of him. “Make sure you lock up when you leave. Things have been disappearing, lately, and these are to important to lose.”

Ben chuckled, softly.

Pogo turned, and left, leaning on his cane, and Ben stood up, while his younger self laughed on the recording, and reached for the tape on top of the television sets.

He picked it up, inspecting it, before inserting it in one of the tape players and pressing play.

He squinted at the recording, his brow furrowed, and gasping at what he saw.

He stood up, quickly, and raced out of the room, glancing around wildly.

He ran through the corridors, checking each room, before finally coming across his brother. 

“Luther!”

He turned around, at the sound of his name. “Yeah?”

“Pogo, he showed me this—”

“Hang on.” Luther interrupted. “I just wanted to apologise, about accusing you of, well, you know, I was wrong. Wrong about dad’s death.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I was wrong to accuse you all, I mean you’re my family, and to accuse my own brothers and sister about that, is just—”

“No, I know, I get it, but—”

“Seeing you all here, and well, being back, it’s just… I should be the one who”s trying to bring us back together, not tear us apart—”

“Luther, just shut up.”

“What?”

“You were right, about dad.”

Luther blinked back at him.

“Come on, I gotta show you something.”

As they climbed the staircase, they came across Allison, a duffel bag over her shoulder, her hair ruffled and sleeves bloody.

“Allison?” Luther said.

“What the hell happened to you?” Ben asked. “Are you okay? Can we help?”

“There’s nothing you can do.” Allison snapped. “There’s nothing any of you can do.”

(If they try they die, you found their bodies remember, all of them, all except Five and Diego, and he’s already dead. They all die, can’t do anything about it, your lead’s rubbish. They’re all going to die, you probably will too, and you can’t do anything about it.)

She can’t do anything about it.

Chapter Text

Ben hit play on the grainy recording again. Their mother walked into the room, spoke to their father and handed him a cup of tea. A moment later, he fell on his back on the couch, and lay unmoving, as she exited, glancing over her shoulder but not reacting.

Luther sighed. “Play it again.”

Ben rewound it.

Mum - tea - dad - dead

“Again.”

It was Ben’s turn to sigh. “We’ve watched it over and over, Luther. It’s the same every single time.”

“But— but what’s she doing?” Luther sighed, turning to face him. “The tea? Did she poison him?”

“She wouldn’t have.” Ben said, unsurely.

“It’s right there… where did you find this?”

“Pogo— he showed me old footage. Of us as kids, and the tape was just sitting there.” Ben explained, leaning over the back of the chair.

“Dad must have started using the security system again.” Luther said, his eyes back on the many screens. “He was getting more and more paranoid. He thought people were out to get him.”

Ben sighed, holding back an eye roll.

“Well… maybe he was right?” Luther continued.

“But mum?” Ben asked. “She wouldn’t. I mean, she’s not capable of… is she?”

Luther didn’t say anything, instead kept staring forwards.

There was a sizzling, as the eggs in the pan cooked, and their mother hummed under her breath, a quiet, unrecognisable tune.

“Mum?” Luther asked, quietly. “We… need to ask you some questions. About the night that dad died. Do you remember anything?”

Grace turned around from the stove, an odd expression on her face. “Of course. Sunset, 7:33pm. Moon was waxing crescent, dinner was Cornish hen, wild rice and carrots—”

“No, no, uh…” Luther interrupted. “Later that night. In his bedroom. Did you go and see him?”

Grace chuckled, a forced sound, her smile as wide as normal. “I don’t recall.”

She smiled at the, one more time, before turning back to the stove and picking up the spatula and beginning to hum again.

Ben and Luther shared a look, and a silent discussion.

Eventually, Ben sighed. “Were you ever… I don’t know, angry with dad?”

There was a violent scraping sound, of an old plastic spatula against the bottom of the pan, and Grace turned around, the forced smile still on her face. “Your father was a good man. A kind man. He was very good to me.”

“Yeah, but after we all left, it… it must have been difficult.” Ben prompted. 

“Oh, there were days.” Grace continued, still smiling the same forced smile. “You kids kept me oh so busy, and then…” she trailed off.

“What?” Luther asked.

Grace just smiled back at them, blinking softly.

“What were you gonna say?” Ben asked.

Grace smiled, shaking slightly. “Eggs are ready!”

They shared a look, as their mother served up a plate of eggs, with a bacon smile, to each of them.

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Now, eat up! Both of you.”

They couldn’t help but notice that her voice and manner seemed forced, and her words couldn’t help but sound a little like a threat.

Vanya walked briskly down the street, her head lowered against the cold wind, adjusting the set of broken headphones in her ears. She had bought them a long time ago, after she realised walking down the street talking to seemingly no one might make her look just the tiniest bit insane, at least with the headphones she could at least pretend she was on the phone, and not talking to her dead brother.

She had just come from the cafe, after meeting Eudora for coffee, where she had been told about the shooting at a department store on the edge of town. Apparently, Eudora had told her because she “needed a fresh outlook, and a lot of caffeine.”

“So, you heard what she said.” Vanya shrugged. “What do you reckon?”

“Well, she said the ballistics were nine-millimeters, but apparently they haven’t been manufactured since 1963.” Diego mused.

“Which is weird.” Vanya interjected.

“And she said they were matching casings found at a murder scene, from last night.”

“Yeah, the Ishmael towing guy.” Vanya added. “He was found hanging from the ceiling, in his workshop.”

“So, maybe he did know something, after all?” Diego said, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe, if someone had told her to go and interview him.”

“Hey.” Vanya said, defensively. “I was tasered, I had every right not to listen to you.”

Diego rolled his eyes. 

“Okay, so in the span of 24 hours, there’s been attacks in three different places all over town.” Vanya continued. “At Griddy’s donuts, that towing workshop and now the department store.”

“So, whoever this is, they're not slowing down.” Diego added.

“And, she’s looking for new leads, about that guy’s daughter.” Vanya continued. “She’s tracking any extended family, in case someone’s after her.”

“Did she say anything about surveillance footage?”

Vanya shook her head. “There’s none, and even if there was, we wouldn’t be allowed to see it.”

Diego sighed. “So, the first unit saw two?” Vanya nodded. “Two shooters leaving, right?”

Vanya nodded again. “Wearing creepy kids masks.”

Diego sighed. “This city is going to shit.”

“Lucky you don’t have to live in it.”

“Ooh, low blow.”

Vanya rolled her eyes.

Allison hissed through her teeth as she pulled the needle and thread through the cut on her arm, before reaching for a box of bandaids and a pair of scissors. 

She tied a knot, and cut the thread, before sticking almost the whole box of bandaids  the cut. She stood back up, shrugging on her shirt and pulling her argyle vest and pulling on her blazer, before digging through her duffel bag and pulling out the half of a mannequin, her head bald and spotted blouse dirty, with bullet holes.

She smiled at her, for a moment. “Hey, Delores.”

Delores didn’t say anything.

Allison nodded, as if she had, and placed her back into the bag, whispering a quiet “sorry”, before zipping it up and placing it over her back.

She crossed the room, opening up the window and climbing backwards out, down the fire escape.

She sighed, as she made her way down, as she noticed her brother, digging through the dumpster at the bottom of the stairs.

“Damn it, where’s dad’s stuff?” Klaus muttered, as he threw bags out.

She clambered down the rest of the way, dropping onto the pavement beside him.

“What are you doing?” Allison asked, raising an eyebrow, her hands on her hips.

“Hey!” Klaus laughed, looking up with a start and casually leaning against the side of the green skip bin. “You know there are easier ways out of the house, right?”

Allison shrugged. “This one involved the least amount of talking… or so I thought, at least.”

She adjusted the bag on her shoulder and continued to walk away, past him.

“Hey, hey, hey!” He called, and she stopped. “Do you need any more company today? I could, uh, you know, clear my schedule.”

“Pretty lonely, huh?”

Klaus nodded. “Ben’s pissed at me and Vanya’s somewhere and Five’s somewhere else, and we hardly speak anyway, and Luther’s, well, Luther’s Luther.”

Allison shrugged, gesturing to the bin. “You seem pretty busy.”

“No, no, I can— I can do this anytime.”

Allison sighed. “Fine, lets go.”

Klaus clapped his hands, gleefully, vaulting himself out of the bin and landing on the pavement beside her. “So, what’re we doing?”

Allison smiled, deviously, looking at the van at the end of the alleyway. “Stealing a car.”

“Oh, my favourite!”

Allison nodded. “Hold on.”

She shut her eyes, raising her fists and blinking out of sight. After a second, there was a roaring of an engine and the lights flickered on.

The window was wound down, and Allison stuck her head out of the window. “Hey, get in!”

Klaus blinked slightly, before coming to his senses and running up to the passenger seat door, wrenching it open and vaulting himself into the seat.

“Can you even drive?” He asked, sceptically.

“I can do everything. ” Allison smirked, putting her hands on the steering wheel. “Seat belt.”

Klaus obliged.

She smiled, stamping her foot on the accelerator and pulling the car out of the alley with a squeal of the tyres.

They drove in silence, for a few minutes, before Allison wheeled into a parking spot opposite a tall building.

“Is this the eye place again?” Klaus asked, squinting through the front windscreen.

Allison sighed. “Yeah.”

“What is your deal with this place?” Klaus asked, un-clipping his seatbelt and leaning back against the leather seat and propping his feet up on the dashboard. “Why did you need to find that guy’s eye?”

Allison exhaled sharply, hissing through her teeth. “We went over this yesterday. Someone is going to lose this eye,” she paused, to dig out the eye and brandish at him, “in the next seven days, someone is going to lose an eye, and that person is going to bring on the end of the world as we know it.”

Klaus dropped his feet, leaning forward with a start. “Wait, you were serious? I thought it was some ‘hey Klaus, get sober ‘cause we’re all gonna die soon’, or something’.”

“Not everything revolves around you, Klaus!” Allison snapped, before sofening her tone. “And yeah, I was serious.”

“Wait, how do you know?”

“I—… when I ran out, I time-travelled.” She sighed, leaning her head against the headrest and keeping her gaze straight ahead, not daring to look at her brother. “I went to the future. And… there was nothing… just fire and… and rubble. I had to survive on scraps.”

“I—”

“And,” Allison continued, speaking over him. “I found the eye, the glass one, in…” she trailed off.

“What?” Klaus asked, carefully.

“In… Luther’s hand.”

“Oh, so we were there?” Klaus asked. “That’s good, so you weren’t alone then—”

“No, Klaus, listen.” She sighed again. “Luther’s dead hand.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. ”

“Shit, Allison.” Klaus sighed. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t have any idea, sorry you had to deal with that.”

Allison shrugged. “Help me. Help me stop it this time.”

Klaus paused for a moment, in thought. “Okay.”

Allison sighed in relief.

“What do we do?”

“Watch the building.”

“For?”

Allison shrugged. “Got a better idea?”

“Look, I don’t like this either.” Luther sighed. “But she’s hiding something.”

“Hiding something?” Ben asked, sceptically. “She just sounded… confused.”

“Well, you saw the tape.” Luther said. “Grace knew what she was doing.”

“Grace?” Ben asked. “This morning, she was Mum.”

“She’s a machine, Ben.” Luther said, emotionlessly.

“Who read to us and cleaned up after us and put us to bed!” Ben cried. “And then we left her here, alone, in this house for 13 years. I mean, no wonder she lost her mind.”

Luther sighed. “I think… I think we should shut her down.”

Ben stepped carefully along the hallways of the fancy university, checking the numbers on the doors to one scrawled on the small scrap of paper in his hand. He eventually came across the right number, knocking on the door.

There was a quiet, “come in,” and he swung the door open.

Five was sitting at the desk, and another man, a stack of papers in front of him, was sitting at the desk in front of him.

“Ben?” Five asked, gathering papers in front of him.

“Hey.” Ben said.

The man at the desk turned around, and glanced back at him, a confused expression in his face.

“Oh, Leonard, this is my brother, Ben.” Five prompted. “And, Ben, this is my student, Leonard.”

“Oh.” Leonard said, nodding. “You were in that Umbrella thing, weren’t you?”

Ben’s face fell.

“But, you weren’t in that, were you?” Leonard asked, glancing back at Five.

“Oh, uh, no.”

“Right.” Ben said. “Uh, are you super busy, Five, or can you come back to the house? We need to have a family meeting.”

“A-and you guys, you want me there?” Five asked, shock written all over his face.

“Well, you’re part of the family.” Ben shrugged. “And, it’s about… Mum.”

Five furrowed his brow. “Has something happened?”

“You could say that.” Ben sighed. “Can you come?”

Five nodded, turning back to Leonard. “Look, I’m so sorry, could we pick this up tomorrow?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, no problem.” Leonard shrugged, gathering his things and placing them in his bag. He shouldered the bag and headed for the door.

Allison groaned, hitting her head against the dashboard as Klaus began yet another story.

“Oh my god.” She interrupted. “I can’t believe that the world ends in seven days, and I’m going to spend my last week listening to you tell me about how you waxed your ass with chocolate pudding.”

“It was so painful!” Klaus complained.

Allison only groaned, pulling out the eye and flipping it in her hand again.

There was a sudden knocking in the window and they both jumped.

Luther was standing there, waving sheepishly at them.

Allison sighed, reaching forwards to wind down the window.

“How did you find us?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh.” Luther said, glancing quickly over at Klaus.

Allison scoffed. “Oh, great, thanks, Klaus.”

Klaus winced, mouthing ‘sorry’

Allison groaned, grabbing a pair of sunglasses from the glove compartment and pelting them at him. He whimpered, batting them away.

“Can I get in?” Luther asked, and Allison sighed. “Fine.”

Klaus groaned. “Guess I’ll get in the back, then.”

Luther nodded, opening the door and climbing in, with difficulty, and Klaus clambered back, shoving things out of the way.

“So, what did you want?” Allison asked.

“Uh, so Grace may have had something to do with dad’s death.” Luther said.

“What!?” Klaus cried.

“No, Luther, you’re paranoid.” Klaus scoffed. 

Luther only shook his head. “I need you to come back to the academy, all right? It’s important.”

“I don’t think you have any concept of what’s important.” Allison said, whilst rolling her eyes.

“What the hell are you up too?” Luther asked.

Allison scoffed. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.” Luther said, sternly. “Last I checked, I’m still the leader of this family.”

“And last time I checked, I’m 28 years older than you.” Allison snapped.

Klaus bit his lip.

Luther was silent for a moment. “You have a problem.”

“Oh, really?”

Luther nodded. “You think you’re better than us. And, look, I didn’t want to go here, but you kind of always did. Even when we were kids, before we left.”

“He’s… got a point.” Klaus interjected, almost regretfully. “Why… why didn’t you take any of us with you? You— you ran out, and it just… got a lot worse.”

“You think I didn’t have it bad?” Allison scoffed.

“I didn’t say that.”

Allison only sighed. “You go ahead. I’ve got a few more things to do.”

“Would Mum really do anything to hurt him?” Five asked, sceptically.

“You haven’t been home in a long time, Five.” Luther said, sternly. “Maybe you don’t know Grace anymore.”

“Mum.” Ben muttered, under his breath.

“If he was poisoned, it would have shown up on the coroner's report.” Vanya said, her arms crossed over her chest. “I saw the report.”

“When?” Klaus asked.

“I’m friends with a police officer, but that’s not the point.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes.” Luther snapped.

Diego, hovering behind Luther hissed a warning to Vanya. “Tell him that all the low gravity on the moon must have messed with his vision.”

Vanya shot him a look.

“No, look.” Diego urged. “Watch the monocle.”

Vanya nodded. “Uh, can you rewind the tape?”

Luther reminded the tape, and she watched the monocle. He had it, then their mother stood up and the monocle was gone.

“No, Luther.” Vanya said, tactfully choosing to leave out the insult. “He has the monocle, and by the time Mum stands up, the monocle’s gone.”

Luther rewound the tape, and they all watched it intensely.

“So she wasn’t poisoning him.” Klaus said. “She was taking his monocle.”

“To clean it.” Vanya added.

“Then where is it?” Luther asked. “I've searched the house, including all her things. She doesn’t have it.”

Ben sighed. “That’s because I took it from her.”

“What?” Five asked.

“After the funeral.” Ben continued.

“So you’ve had it this whole time?” Klaus asked.

“Give it to me.” Luther demanded.

“Son of a bitch.” Diego hissed, shaking his head at Luther.

Vanya held out a placating hand.

Ben shook his head. “I threw it away.”

“You what?” Luther scoffed.

“I knew that if you found it on her, you’d lose your shit.” Ben said, defensively. “Just like you're doing now.”

“Look, I know dad wasn’t exactly an open book.” Five spoke up. “But I do remember something he said. Mum was designed to be a caretaker, but also a protector.”

“I don’t follow.” Vanya said.

“She was programmed to intervene if someone’s life was in jeopardy.” Five continued.

“So, her hardware must be degrading.” Luther argued. “We need to turn her off.”

“What?” Diego cried, reaching out to clutch at Vanya’s arm, his hands going straight through.

The rest of them froze, staring at their brother.

After a second, they all spoke up at once.

“You can’t do that!” Vanya cried.

“No, Luther.” Five said.

“What the hell? We’re not doing that!” Klaus cried.

Ben only shook his head.

“She’s not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet!” Diego cried, growing more and more frantic. “Vanya, you can’t let him do it.”

“I won’t.” Vanya hissed, not reacting to the odd looks her siblings gave her.

“She feels things.” Klaus said, his voice wavering. “You can't just kill her.”

“She stood there, Klaus.” Luther said. “And watched our father die.”

“I’m with Luther.” Ben said quietly.

Klaus shot him a betrayed look. “Well, I say no.”

Luther looked to Five, waiting for his opinion.

“No.” Five said. “We can’t just turn her off.”

“Vanya?” Luther asked.

“No way.” Vanya spat. “She’s our mother.”

Klaus smiled, triumphantly. “So, that’s three versus two.”

“Four.” Vanya added, quietly. “Four versus two.”

They all looked at her weirdly, but Diego smiled at her thankfully.

“It’s not final yet.” Ben said.

“What?” Vanya asked.

“Allison’s not here.” Ben continued. “We all have to vote. We owe each other that.”

“Right.” 

And just like that, the conversation was over, and they began to collect their things, moving off to some other part of the house, as if they hadn’t just been discussing their mother’s fate.

Vanya stayed the longest, collecting up her coat, before noticing her mother standing in the doorway. She crossed the room quickly, Diego on her heels.

“Hi, Mum.”

Grace didn’t respond, instead she kept staring into space, until Vanya laid a hand on her arm.

“How long have you been here?”

Grace looked up, slowly, a sad expression on her face.

“You all seem upset.” She said, a forced smile crossing her face quickly. “I’ll make cookies.”

Vanya watched her go, sadly, before turning to Diego.

“Do you… do you ever wonder… all those moments with mum, all the things she said…” She sighed, pausing for a few seconds. “Like, was it her, or was it really dad?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, he built her.” Vanya sighed, as if her words were a heavy weight. “And he programmed her to be a mum. To be our mum. It’s just, sometimes when I look at her, I just see him.”

“Maybe that was true at first.” Diego said, after a moment, almost regretfully. “But she evolved.”

“How do you know?”

“Because dad only loved himself.” Diego hissed, bitterly.

Their mother couldn’t have killed him. She couldn’t have even stood around and watched. Not their mother, the one who fixed up their domino masks after they got ripped and dirty, not their mother who would gently prompt them to get ready, not their mother who would always find things when they were missing, not their mother who was so caring and engaged in all of their interests, not their mother who would put out fires (literally and figuratively) and help them with their uniforms, not their mother who had been so patient and gentle with his stutter (just picture the word in your mind). Not their mother, who, despite their father's sternness made up for it, by sheltering them as much as she could. Not their mother.

And so, this wasn’t his mother. And he had to do something about it.

“Vanya.” He said, urgently. “We have to do it.”

“Do what?” Vanya asked, absentmindedly.

“Shut her off.” Diego said, his voice wavering.

“What? Why?”

“It’s not her.” Diego practically cried. “You heard Five, she’s supposed to protect and she didn’t. There’s something wrong.”

“So let’s fix her.”

Diego shook his head. “We can’t. It’s the only choice.”

“I—I, we… no, Diego… we can’t, I can’t.”

“We have to Vanya, please.”

Vanya took a deep breath in, her voice shaking. “Okay.”

They walked along the picture gallery, to where their mother was sitting, busy with her cross-stitch.

“Mum.” Vanya said, nervously. “We— we need to talk.”

“Okay, but only for a minute.” Grace said, gently. “I need to finish this cross-stitch.”

Vanya sighed, averting her gaze. “Everything you did for us, when we were kids… why’d you do it?”

“Because being your mother is the greatest gift of my life.”

Vanya’s heart leapt into her throat, and she moved towards her. “Is that you saying that?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I mean, our father, he… made you.” Vanya sighed. “When you think something, is it like he’s telling you what to say?”

“Your father isn’t here, silly.” Grace smiled.

Vanya felt like crying.

“Did I do something wrong?” Grace asked.

“No, no, no.” Vanya said, quickly. “It’s… its… it’s not… look, it’s okay.”

Vanya realised, with a jolt, something she should have realised a long time ago. She sat on the couch beside her. “If you hated him, I mean. He was terrible to you. To all of us.”

“Don’t say that.” Grace scolded, gently.

“Why not?” Vanya asked, bitterly. “We were nothing but tools in an experiment to him. Nothing more. So, I guess what I’m saying is, I would understand if…” She paused, turning to look over her shoulder at Diego, who nodded. “If… you wanted to hurt him.”

“Now, now.” Grace said, gently. “Mr Hargreeves was a great man. Industrial, inventor—”

“Make her stop.” Diego whispered, throwing his hands over his ears. 

“—Olympic gold medalist.” She stood up, with a smile. “He made the world a better place.”

“Vanya—” Diego whined.

“Stop it!” Vanya cried, violently, before softening as she saw her mother’s reaction. “Do you hear me? Stop trying to defend him!”

Grace didn’t react, she only looked startled. 

“Mum, come on.” Vanya prompted, desperately. “You gotta feel something. He—he treated you worse than anyone. You worked for him for 30 years. And, he— he didn’t even give you a room to sleep in.”

“But I’ve got such beautiful views here.” Grace said, grandly, waving her arm around over the paintings on the wall. 

“Mum… Mum, they’re just paintings.”

“Of course they are.” Grace sighed, but it was a happy sigh. Her gaze flitted to one painting, with a woman staring out into space. “What a wonderful world she lives in. Sometimes I wonder if she’s lonely.”

Vanya shook her head. 

Night had fallen, as Allison shook her head, her eyes still fixed firmly on the Meri-Tech building in front of her, as the man, Lance or Grant or whatever made his way out of the building.

“That’s our guy.” She whispered, to the mannequin, sitting over the cup holders.

She watched, as he said something to someone, pulling up in a car beside the curb, before driving off. 

She shook her head, blinking out of the van and landing in his car.

For a whole family of crime-fighting superheroes, trained to disarm, stop and possibly kill the supposed ‘bad guys’, with superpowers, ranging from super strength to speaking to the dead, they were unremarkably unobservant. 

And so, as the trained assassins made their way through their house they were lost in their own tasks.

Vanya, locked in a serious discussion with Diego, about their mother, was the first to spot them.

Two people in freakish kids masks, one tall one short, were standing in her house. With machine guns. That were pointed at her.

She swore, turning down the corridor and running, quite literally, for her life, ducking into one of the bedrooms as the machine gunfire echoed out behind her.

“The guys in masks!” Diego panted, as if he was the one running. “From the department store!”

“Yeah, no shit.” Vanya snapped, feverishly glancing around the corner. “Fuck. Where’s Ben or Luther, or someone with useful powers?”

“I don’t know.” 

“Go check!” Vanya cried, desperately. “Go phase through walls or whatever! Hurry!”

Diego nodded, and disappeared.

Luther, from where he was gazing out at the moon, started to his feet, at the first sound of gunfire, and raced down the staircase. 

Ben dropped the book he was inspecting, where it fell to the floor with a thud and he froze, before coming to his senses and tentatively heading up the staircase.

Klaus, in the bath with his headphones on, blaring music at an obnoxiously loud volume, didn’t hear the gunfire.

Vanya knew she had to get out of the room, because otherwise she would be cornered, so she took a deep, steadying breath and squeezed her hands into fists by the side of her body. She moved from where she was backed against the wall and pushed forwards, out of the room, back in the hallway.

The people in masks started up the machine gun fire again, as she ran down the hallway, her head down. She had never been that good at hand to hand combat, and she decided that fighting against some obvious,y well trained fighters, with machine guns, no less, was probably not the smartest idea, so, ignoring all her fathers lectures about ‘fight or flight’ and how to ‘always choose fight’, she fled, screaming, partly from fear, partly to let her absolute idiot siblings know that there was some, well, assassins, in their house.

She, luckily, so very, very, luckily, made it around the corridor, and she vaulted herself down the staircase, ducking down behind a desk and the gunshots rang out behind her.

In her panic, she didn’t notice, her mother, sitting, completely oblivious that one of her children was running for her life.

The people with guns followed her, shooting at the ornaments on top of the desk she was cowering behind.

Vanya had her eyes shut, and was practically preparing to be shot, when there was a heavy set of footsteps, and a loud thump, as Ben threw one of the ornaments from the mantelpiece at them.

The gunfire momentarily stopped, before restarting again. 

The fight passed in a blink of an eye. The people in masks fought hard, they’d obviously been well trained, and the Hargreeves siblings struggled to hold their own against them. 

They managed to work out that one was a man, and the other a woman, from their voices, but the masks stayed on the whole time.

To make things worse, halfway through, Five arrived home again, and they had to change their plans again and again.

Right at the end of the fight, the chandelier was pulled down over the top of Luther. He shouldn’t have been able to survive it. But, as his shirt was pulled off, his chest was revealed, wrinkly, hairy and dark, and larger than should be humanly possible.

In their shock, no one noticed that one of their brothers was missing.

They stood around in the foyer, blinking at each other, panting heavily. 

Diego noticed their mother, walking up along the balcony and pointed it out to Vanya.

Vanya nodded, and raced up the staircase to find her. 

“Mum.” Vanya said, carefully, laying a hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

“Of course I am.” Grace said, cheerfully.

“You… you didn’t hear the noises?” Vanya asked, fearfully. “The guys in masks that just shot up the house?”

“What are you talking about, silly?” Grace asked.

Vanya felt her heart sink as she sat down next to her mother. He gaze flickered down to the cross-stitch, noticing her she had sewn through her hand multiple times. She didn’t seem to notice, instead kept humming as she attempted to stitch what looked to be the moon with a chunk taken out of it.

She took a shaky breath, reaching down and touching her arm, glancing up at her brother who nodded, through the tears in his eyes.

“Vanya?” Grace asked. “What are you doing?”

Vanya gritted her teeth, peeling back the flap over her fake skin, revealing a glowing blue tangle of wires. There was a faint beeping, as it was rolled back. She furrowed her brow, determined not to look at her, as she placed her fingers in the wires.

Grace looked up at her, and the expression on her face almost made Vanya stop. She turned over her shoulder, one more time. 

Diego nodded, slowly, his eyes watery. “Tell her— tell her…” (just picture the word in your mind, it’s just like we practiced) “tell her I-it’ll be o-oh-kay.”

Vanya noticed the stutter, but didn’t say anything, even though he hadn’t stuttered for years.

“It’s going to be okay, Mum.” She said, crying softly.

She took another breath, placing her fingers in the wires and twisting them. The whirring faded, and Grace slouched over slightly, the cross-stitch falling from her hand. There was a soft whirring and she slurred out one last word.

“Vanya.”

Vanya finally let herself cry, turning back towards Diego, who was crying too, and wished, not for the first, or last, time, that she could hug her brother.

Five and Ben had a fight, ending up with Five storming out and Ben retreating back to his bedroom.

They still didn’t notice that Klaus was missing. No one noticed that he wasn’t home and no one knew that he was trapped in the car boot of the very people who had shot up their home.

Chapter Text

“We need to talk to Luther about it.” Vanya sighed. “Did you know?”

“No.” Ben sighed. “Who’s going?”

“Me or you.”

“Why?” Ben asked.

“Because you drove Five away, Klaus is probably off buying drugs and Allison is somewhere doing things that someone who looks thirteen should definitely not be doing.” Vanya snapped.

Ben raised his hands defensively. “Okay, fine.”

Vanya nodded, and waited until he rounded the corner before dropping her head into her hands.

“What have we done?” Vanya asked, quietly.

“Killed mum.” Diego said, his voice watery.

“Fuck.” Vanya exhaled.

“Fuck.” Diego echoed.

There was a sudden shout, from upstairs. Ben.

Vanya leapt to her feet, with a start and raced up the staircase to find him. She stopped, as she realised what he was looking at.

“Vanya, oh my god.” Ben said, breathlessly.

“What? What’s wrong?” Vanya asked, trying to keep her face straight.

“It’s— Mum, she…” Ben trailed off.

“Oh, god.” Vanya said, trying to ignore the horrific twist of guilt in her stomach. “Ben— I” (I killed her it was me) “I’m so sorry” ( that I killed her please forgive me it wasn’t for me it was for her own good something wasn’t right Ben I’m so so sorry)

“What do we do?” Ben asked, his voice quiet.

“We— we have to tell the other’s.” Vanya said.

“How do you think it happened?”

“I—” ( me Ben it was me and Diego she didn't even notice the guns Ben something was really wrong maybe she did kill dad I don’t know) Vanya started, before stopping abruptly.

“The guys in masks.” Diego hissed in her ear.

“Masks.” Vanya said, lamely. “The gunmen in masks.”

Ben nodded. “We have to tell them.”

Vanya nodded. “I’ll call Five. And maybe Eudora. Do you know what happened to Klaus or Allison?”

Ben shook his head, still in a daze.

“Go wake Luther.” Vanya sighed. “Just, be… gentle.”

Ben nodded, and Vanya squeezed his arm, reassuringly, before heading down the staircase to the phone.

Luther lay awake, rolled over on his side, his eyes on the wall, his mind turning.

They knew. Knew his deepest, darkest secret. He— he had been by himself in the house, for years. One last mission, for Number One. And it had turned deadly, well almost. Maybe it would have been better if he had died. His siblings probably wouldn’t care. Diego was dead. Allison only just got home from the future, for god's sake. Klaus was probably hopped up off his head. He’d never connected with Five. Ben was distant, even if they agreed sometimes. And Vanya had written that book, the book about their father, he was barely mentioned, and not by name, but it still felt like a personal attack. If he had died, then he wouldn’t be stuck, getting his house shot up by a pair of psychopaths, looking for his sister. If he had died he wouldn’t—

“Luther?” 

It was Ben. 

“Luther?”

Luther glanced over, briefly.

“Luther, something’s happened.”

“What?” Luther asked, gruffly.

“It’s—” He paused to sigh. “Let me show you.”

Luther groaned, but got up.

Vanya sighed, as she picked the phone of the receiver, tapping in the numbers on the keypad.

She held it to her ear, waiting.

It rang out, three times, before finally being picked up.

“What do you want?”

“Okay, hi favourite alive sibling.” Vanya said, dryly.

“Hi. What did you want?”

“A few things.” 

“What?”

Vanya sighed, leaning up against the back of the staircase. “Are you okay, I mean, after last night?”

“Like, the actual near-death experience or the ‘get out of the house’ bit?”

“Both?”

“Fine.” He paused. “Is that what missions were like?”

Vanya laughed, dryly. “I don’t know.” 

“What?”

“I was always the lookout.” Vanya sighed. “The only time I was actually in on the action was… well… the time Diego died. And that was only because one of the ghosts, being useful for once in their lives, no, deaths?, anyway, told me.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” Vanya sighed again. “I’m sure Ben didn’t mean it.”

“I think he did.”

“What did he say?”

“That this stuff is ‘dangerous’ and that I shouldn’t be around, because I don’t have powers.”

“Hey, well I almost died too, so…”

“That should not be a good thing.”

“Okay, uh, so, on a way more serious note.” Vanya said, carefully. “Uh, so after, well, last night, we think, Ben and I, that the people in the masks…”

“What?”

“...killed mum.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, god. What are we doing?”

Vanya sighed. “I don’t know. Can you come around later, so we can work it out?”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll be over later tonight.”

“Okay.” Vanya sighed. “Wait, before you go. Have you seen Klaus?”

“No, why?”

“I haven’t seen him since last night. Do you know if he left after we talked about Mum?”

“No, sorry.”

“Okay.” Vanya sighed. “Well, see you later then.”

“Yeah, okay.”

She hung up.

Picking up the phone again, she tapped in another number. 

This time, there wasn’t a response and she got the answering machine.

“Uh, hi, ‘Dora. It’s Vanya.” She started, talking as quickly as she could. “So, can we talk? A lot has happened, and… okay, I’ll briefly go over it, but this is super important, so please, please, call me back when you get this. Uh, so, last night, those guys in the masks? Well, one’s woman, and they broke into my house last night, with machine guns. It was pretty wild, I almost died, and now my brother is missing? I mean, it’s probably no big deal, he’s missing like 90% of the time, but if you get a call about a scrawny junkie can you maybe let me know? And, also maybe my sister? I don’t know, anyway call me ple—”

Despite her best efforts, talking ten to the dozen, the time ran out and the message clicked over.

“I— can’t believe they did this to her.” Luther sighed. 

“It must have been the guys in the masks.” Ben said. “It has to do with Allison, somehow. They were looking for her.”

“I know I was arguing to turn her off,” Luther sighed. “But it doesn’t make seeing her like this any easier.”

“We have to find Klaus and tell him.” Ben said, dejectedly.

Luther nodded, dismissively.

“A-are you okay?” Ben asked.

Luther set him with a stern gaze. “I don’t want to discuss it.”

Ben nodded, dropping his eyes. “Wait. What happened?”

Luther’s eyes hardened. “Dad sent me on a mission. You’d all left, I was by myself. I think you can tell how it went. I almost died. He saved my life.”

“You could have told us. Any of us.”

“I’m fine.” Luther said, shouldering past him. “Leave me alone.”

Ben winced, watching him as he made his way down the corridor. He sighed, cutting across the room and down the staircase, into the kitchen.

“How did it go?” Vanya asked, looking up from the mug in front of her as he entered.

“As expected.” Ben sighed, dropping into the seat across from her.

“Pretty badly?”

“Pretty badly.”

Vanya barked out a laugh, short and humorless. “This family is a nightmare.”

Ben sighed.

“I’m going to go over to my police officer friend’s house.” Vanya said. “She’s been looking for those mask guys for a while, and maybe this can help her catch them.” She paused, to sigh. “I don’t know, maybe she could find Klaus or Allison?”

“Okay.” Ben sighed. “I might go around to Five’s apartment. I should probably apologize for what I said.”

“Good idea.” Vanya groaned. “Good luck.”

“You too.”

“Five?”

Five shook his head, snapping himself out of his trance. “Sorry, rough night.”

Leonard smiled sympathetically. “You don’t need to apologize.”

“Sorry, force of habit.”

Leonard looked at him.

“When I was a kid, I felt like I had to apologize for everything.” Five sighed. “But anyway, what did you want to go over?”

“Tell me about it.”

“Sorry?”

“My dad, I don’t think he ever forgave me for being born.” Leonard prompted.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, and my mum was never in the picture.” 

“Oh, well, sorry.” Five said, trying to seem as interested as possible. “Look, sorry, but I’m pretty busy, did you have some maths to go over?”

“Oh, right, yeah, sorry for unloading on you.” Leonard chuckled, awkwardly. “Yeah, it was just this question…”

Five glanced over at it, nodding. “I’ll look over it and email it to you later?”

“Yeah, that’d be great, thanks.”

Five nodded.

Leonard smiled, and began to gather his things.

As Five turned his back, he didn’t notice Leonard taking the keys off his desk.

“Well, thanks.” Leonard said, shrugging, as he exited.

Five nodded.

Klaus woke up, his head fuzzy, squinting through his puffy eyes at his surroundings. Glancing to his side, he could see a bed, with a brown plaid cover, with an identical twin beside it. The room was plain, with dirty cream coloured walls, hung in a few places with ugly floral paintings. There was a small side table and what looked like a mini-fridge sitting on the floor. 

Where was he? 

He struggled to move, to no avail. It was then he realised that his wrists were shackled behind him, attached to the metal chair, his ankles similarly tied. He shivered, noticing with a jolt he was wearing nothing but a towel.

Oh, he realised, the people in masks— with the machine guns — how did he not notice them before?

“Oh, look.” The woman in the pink mask said, dryly. “He’s awake.”

Klaus’ eyes widened as he spotted her and began to try to drag his chair back towards the door.

She only laughed, crossing the room towards him, pulling out a thin, red, shoelace as she crossed the small motel room.

“No, please…” Klaus tried, weakly, as she wrapped the string around his neck.

“Where is Allison Hargreeves?” She asked, letting the string out.

”I don’t know, please, I don’t know.” Klaus begged, as she began to pull the string tighter and tighter, cutting off his air supply little by little. “Stop… please…”

As his face began to grow a pale grey colour, she let go of the string and he gasped in a breath, coughing loudly.

He laughed slightly, trying to trick them into thinking he wasn’t rattled. “Nothin’ like a stranglin’ to get the blood flowin’, am I right?”

“What is so funny, you asshole?” The man in the blue mask asked, reaching up to slap him across the face.

Klaus groaned, slightly, before chuckling again. “It’s just that you kidnapped me, tortured me.” He stopped to laugh. “You haven’t learnt anything, and you’re not going to, because nobody tells me shit ! I’m the one person in that house that nobody will even notice is gone. You kidnapped the wrong guy!”

“Make him shut up.” The man groaned.

“Let’s waterboard him.” The woman suggested, snatching up a facecloth from the table and laying it over his face. The man picked up the jug of water and poured it over the cloth, as Klaus gasped for breath.

Vanya groaned, laying her head against the twisted iron of the balustrade, her hands fidgeting against the cold cement staircase.

“What are we doing here?” Diego asked.

“Talking to my friend.” Vanya said. 

“We need to find Klaus.” Diego said.

“And we need to find Allison.” Vanya listed. “And we need to do something for mum, and we need to tell Pogo, and we need to—”

“Okay, I get it.”

Vanya raised her eyebrows.

“What?”

“Well, we could get things done a lot quicker, if you helped out.”

“How?” Diego scoffed. “How do you want me to help?”

“Do your ghost phase thing.” Vanya suggested. “You’ve done it before.”

“What?”

“You know, like Allison’s spatial jump, but the ghost version.”

Diego rolled his eyes. “What are you on about?”

“Oh my god!” Vanya cried. “It’s not that hard—”

She abruptly stopped as the door clicked behind her and Eudora walked out.

“Vanya?” Eudora asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Uh, hi.” Vanya groaned, looking up at her. “Sorry, I called you?”

“Oh, I haven’t checked my phone.” Eudora said, adjusting her handbag on her shoulder and handing Vanya the thermos. “Rough night?”

Vanya took it, gratefully. “You could say that. How’s your case coming along?”

“Real page-turner.” Eudora said, raising her eyebrows as she sat on the step beside her. “Adults in children’s masks, rare bullet casings, a random fingerprint from a 1930s cold case, and… oh, and this is the best bit, that Ishmael towing guy, he didn’t have any kids. No daughter, no nothing.”

“Oh.” Vanya sighed.

“The kid’s our only witness and she’s a complete mystery.”

Vanya hissed through her teeth, taking a sip of the scalding hot coffee.

“What’s going on with you?” Eudora asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Somethings obviously up.”

Vanya sighed. “Lots of things.”

“I’ve got half an hour before I have to go.”

Vanya took a deep breath. “Well, last night, after we got home, all of us, except my sister, we were home, and… so, I found your guys in masks.”

“Vanya, what the hell?” Eudora cried. “You went looking for them?”

Vanya shook her head. “They came looking for us, my sister to be honest, and they shot up the house.”

Eudora hissed through her teeth, worry in her eyes. “Are you okay? All of you?”

Vanya shrugged. “I almost got shot, it was pretty crazy.”

Eudora stared at her. “Only you would describe almost dying ‘pretty crazy’.”

Vanya smiled, softly. “Also… they killed.” She paused to sigh, the smile dropping off her face. “My mum. They got her.”

“Oh god, Vanya, I’m so sorry.” Eudora said, her voice low and sympathetic. “Were you close?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Vanya sighed.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“I just… I don’t know…” Vanya sighed. “My sister, she’s missing… and I think my brother might be too, but I don’t know, he disappears a lot. Could you see if you could… I don’t know, look for them?”

“Oh, of course.” Eudora said. “Do you have photos?”

Vanya shook her head. “I can give descriptions, though.”

Eudora nodded, digging through her handbag for a notepad. “Shoot.”

Ben glanced down at the scrap of paper in his hand, Five’s address hastily scrawled on it. Looking back up at the doors, he read the numbers and continued in down the hallway. 

Finding the correct number, he knocked on the door, only for it to fall open. He frowned, sceptically, and quietly stepped into the apartment.

“Five?”

He stepped further in, shutting the door behind him and glancing around. The small room, a small table and a small couch, was empty. He made his way in, further still, and noticed, with a jerk, a shadowy figure further back, presumably in his bedroom. He gasped, quickly backing against the doorframe, hiding his body from view. As the figure made their way towards him, he jumped out, kicking his legs and knocking him to the ground.

His father’s hand to hand combat trading had really paid off.

At least until he noticed who it was.

“Leonard?” He cried.

“Sorry, sorry.” Leonard said, quickly, raising his hands in front of his face to protect himself. 

“I thought you were an intruder.” Ben sighed, placing the heel of his hand against his chest. “Uh, where’s Five?”

“He’s teaching a class.” Leonard said, causally. “His keys ended up in my bag, somehow.” He paused to laugh, awkwardly. “So I thought I’d return them.” He dug around in his pocket, placing the, up on the dining table.

Ben sighed.

“I’m sorry if I scared you.” Leonard apologized.

Ben nodded, sceptically. “But why are you inside his apartment?”

Leonard froze for a second, before recovering quickly. “It’s kind of embarrassing. I had to use the bathroom.”

“Ah.” Ben said, dryly. 

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, no, it’s just… from what I heard, you had a fight last night?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Yeah, right, yeah.” Leonard chuckled, awkwardly, brandishing the keys. “I guess I’ll just drop these off to him back at the college.”

“I’ll take them.” Ben said, nodding, as he reached forwards to grab them from his hand. 

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Leonard shrugged, backing away towards the door. “Whatever’s easiest, right?”

Lance crossed the road, quickly, pulling on the blue knitted beanie on his head. He readjusted the dog in his arms, reaching out with one hand to open the car door and place it on the leather seat.

He then reached for the drivers side, opening the door and sitting down. As he reached for his seatbelt, there was a blue flash on the seat beside him, accompanied by a whooshing noise.

Before he could blink, there was a knife against his throat and a familiar looking thirteen year old girl stared him down, her eyes dark with determination.

“One chance. That’s all you got.” Allison threatened. “Tell me exactly what’s going on in that lab.” 

Lance gulped, before opening his mouth and rushing his words. “I… I manufacture prosthetic devices for fake patients. I bill the insurance companies and then sell them for cash on the black market.”

“Including eyeballs?” Allison asked.

“Yeah, they’re my biggest seller.” Lance said, carefully. “I mean, they sell like hot cakes. There’s a wait-list, probably 20 buyers.”

“So, that serial number?”

“Uh, yeah, could’ve already been bought, off the books.”

“I need that list, Lance.” Allison sighed, digging the knife deeper into his collar. “The names and numbers, I need them now.”

“I don’t have it, not on me. It’s in my safe at the lab.”

“Well, you’d better start the car then.”

Klaus had been sitting, tied to the chair, with the man and the woman in the masks torturing him for at least 12 hours, he thought. It was hard to tell, as they kept the blinds drawn at all times and he might have drifted in and out of consciousness, although he wasn’t totally sure. 

Not only did he ache all over, but he could feel his head reeling. His last high was wearing off, and he hadn’t been this sober for as long as he could remember. His body didn’t like it, even though it probably should, and he felt like he was going to be sick any moment. Withdrawal symptoms. He’d only had them once or twice before, when he decided to use his small amount of money to buy food instead of drugs, but Vanya had talked about incessantly, in the years before they left. In the years when she drowned out her powers with him, drink after drink after drink, pill after pill after pill, before gritting her teeth and finally quitting. 

Klaus didn’t find it that easy.

His siblings hadn’t found him — hell, they probably didn’t even know he was missing (maybe they do and they just don't care) , but he supposed that made sense. He was off the grid a lot (and they don’t care, don’t love you) and they barely had any contact anyway. Maybe they were coming, but maybe he was by himself. Maybe he had to get out of this one on his own.

“Vanya, Vanya, Vanya, Vany—” Diego pestered.

“What?” Vanya snapped, turning towards her brother.

“I thought about what you said, the ghost-phase-thing.” Diego explained. “And I think I know what you mean.”

“So you can do it?”

“Maybe.” Diego said, thoughtfully. “I can try, at least.” 

“Do it.”

“... torturing works best when you know who you’re torturing.” The woman, in the pink mask, was saying as she crossed the room to his coat that they had somehow gotten their hands on.

She walked up beside him shaking the coat and beginning to dig through the pockets.

Klaus balked. “No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait.” Then, “What are you doing?”

“Ooh!” The woman cooed, digging something out.

“No, no, that’s mine, that’s my personal stuff.” Klaus begged, glancing back and forth between them frantically.

“What do we have here?” She said, and Klaus could practically hear her smirk. 

Klaus saw exactly what it was, the small packet of drugs he had used the last of the money that he got from selling his father’s stupid ornamental box. They had been expensive, and now he was in trouble with Pogo and Ben, so they couldn’t take them, he needed them, they just couldn’t—

“Let me see.” The man said, reaching out and taking it. 

“No, no, no, be careful with it, please, no, no.” Klaus cried, desperately searching for an excuse, no matter how lame. “It’s my asthma medication!”

“Ah, now we’re getting somewhere!” The man cried, dropping the small plastic bag on the floor and stomping his big, black shoe on it, grinding them into the carpet.

“No, hey! No, hold on! Hold on!” Klaus tried, jerking his arms back and forth in an attempt to free them from their bonds.

The man didn’t listen, instead kept going, pouring more of the small pills, a colourful array of red, blue, green, yellow onto the carpet, brown, brown, brown, brown, the small pieces crunching and crunching, ruined, all gone, destroyed.

Klaus kept crying, begging, thrashing around, the rope creating burns around his wrists. He offered them everything he could think of, anything to get them to stop, just stop!

They didn’t stop, instead pulling out some of his chocolate (drugs, they’re drugs) and passing it between them, eating large bites.

Klaus screamed, until his throat was raw, but they didn’t stop, wouldn’t stop.

He cracked (sorry, sorry), but they wouldn’t stop, kept going, and going.

“I don’t know where Allison is, I wasn’t lying.” Truth. “But I think— think she said something about the museum.” Lie. “Yeah, the museum. Something about testing her powers out, I don’t know.” Lie. “And something about that eye place, the Meritech Lab.” Truth. “She’s been acting weird, like, crazy.” Truth.

“This lab,” The woman asked. “What did you say it was called?”

Shit. “Uh, M-meritech.”

They burnt down the lab. Klaus doesn’t want to know what they did to the museum.

Allison, a look of determination set on her face, dragged the man, Lance or Grant or whatever down the street by his elbow. She didn’t care what the public thought.

It wasn’t until they were fifty metres away when she saw the smoke.

She swore, letting go of Lance/Grant/Don’t care’s elbow and breaking into a sprint, towards the source of the smoke.

The lab was burning, and with it all her hopes of stopping the apocalypse.

She had no choice now. She’d have to tell them all.

Ben sighed, leaning up against the side of the small newsstand. He glanced over at the rack of magazines, a loud headline of ‘The Umbrella Academy; where are they now?’, in thick, red, bubble letters, catching his eye. He sighed, reaching over and taking it off the clip.

He flipped over the cover, not bothering to read the story about some celebrity’s dramatic weight loss or heartbreaking breakup or whichever poor woman was currently being accused of falling pregnant, to page 10.

There, in a large font, above their childhood press photos beside hurried photos taken by conspiracy theorists and obsessive fans, were their numbers and a quick description.

It was the usual, ‘Number One, the former leader, has he fallen into a spiral of self-doubt?’, ‘Number Two, died years ago’, ‘Number Three has been missing for 16 years, and no one knows why. Did Reginald finally snap?’, ‘Number Four was spotted leaving rehab’, ‘Number Six and Seven are doing what they do best; being inconspicuous and unimportant’, along with the all time favourite of, ‘is there a child five?’

The answers, in order: Probably. Well, duh. Yeah, but he didn’t kill her. Gosh, what a surprise. Lovely to be noticed. And, yeah, nice of you to notice.

He rolled his eyes, placing the magazine back on the rack and glancing up, just as he spotted his brother crossing the campus.

“Oh, hey, Five!” He called, waving across the lawn at him.

Five furrowed his brow, and sighed, making his way over. “What do you want?”

“Can’t I say hi to my favourite brother?” Ben chuckled, awkwardly.

“Hmm, Vanya tried that trick earlier.” Five said. “What do you want?”

“Did she tell you about Mum?”

“Yeah.”

“Also, I wanted to say sorry—”

“No, no, no, it’s fine… don’t, don’t worry about it.”

“No, no.” Ben said. “Let me apologise, okay?”

Five nodded, slowly.

“I’m really sorry about what I said last night.” Ben sighed. “It wasn’t fair, and we were all stressed and I shouldn’t have driven you away. It’s your house as well, and we’re still your family, so…”

“Did Vanya put you up to this?” Five asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah, but I wanted to apologise.” Ben said, quickly.

“Alright.” Five smiled, a small, nervous smile.

“Oh, also, I have your keys.” Ben said, digging around in his pocket.

“Why do you have my keys?” Five asked, taking them with a confused glance.

“It’s a… long story.” Ben sighed.

“I’m on my lunch break.”

“So, you know your ‘good friend Leonard’?”

“I wouldn’t say he’s my friend—”

“Yeah, well, he was in your apartment.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Yeah, he had your keys and… I don’t know what he was doing, but it was weird.”

“Wait, why did he have my keys?”

Ben shrugged. “He said they turned up in his bag, and that he was just returning them.”

“So, maybe he was?”

Ben winced. “I don’t know, he seemed, off.”

“And was this before or after you tackled him?”

Diego shut his eyes, and concentrated hard. He took a metaphorical deep breath and balled his hands into fists beside him.

It’s a funny thing, death. It’s simultaneously a second chance at life, at least for him, but it’s not fully. Sure, he can talk to Vanya, Vanya and only Vanya, but he can’t touch the ground, when he walks his feet don’t leave footprints and no one else can see him.

There’s a place, like a large, empty void, and it’s dark, and it’s fully and completely death. Once, there was a light, right at the very end, but it’s gone now and Diego doesn’t question it, he only knows that it’s meant to be. Death is meant to be.

The darkness was overwhelming, a thick, heavy blanket, knitted together by some obscene force, with giant knitting needles and a big ball of yarn. 

Memory yarn, flashes of the past, of life before death and life in death and life after death, melting together in a single thread, a small piece in a bigger universe, a big dark blanket.

It’s in this dark place, the large, dark quilt, that he can go and see things, see people, and they can’t see him, and it’s weird, and he doesn’t understand it but it’s death, so what is there to understand?

And so he goes, goes where it’s dark and silent, and he thinks, thinks of his brother, his missing brother.

It works, it always does.

With a sickening spin, he is pushed forwards, through time? Through life? Through death? It’s one of them, and he can see the whole scene, like he’s there, and maybe he is, but they can’t see him, no one ever can (except Vanya)

Klaus is in a motel room, he’s strapped to a chair, oh shit, he’s captured. It must be those people in the masks. Diego walks around to get a better view, and he can see them, it is the woman and the man in the masks, and they’re hitting him and hitting him and, and it’s too much to watch, so he runs for the door, straight through it. He can see the motel now, properly, the name of it and everything. 

He’s done it, and it’s tiring, so he closes his eyes again, and when he opens them he’s back, back in the city with Vanya.

Back home.

Eudora finished up at the crime scene, some lab in the middle of town burnt down, and crossed the street to where a van was parked.

Something on the windscreen caught her attention. In a white powder, maybe flour?, the words ‘your brother says hi’ were written.

There was a flyer for a motel stuck under the windscreen.

“My sister, she’s missing… and I think my brother might be too, but I don’t know, he disappears a lot.”

Vanya’s brother. 

The woman and man are back, Klaus doesn’t know where they’ve been and he’s beyond caring. 

They don’t have their masks on this time, and Klaus has been taught enough to know that kidnappers never reveal themselves unless they’re killing that person. 

But that’s okay, maybe it’s meant to be this time. 

“Vanya.” Diego gasped, “Vanya, I found him, I found Klaus.”

“Where is he?” Vanya asked, quickly.

“The masked people. They got him.”

“Shit.” Vanya swore. “Where?”

“Motel, edge of town.”

“I’ll call Ben, and maybe Luther.” Vanya said, already moving towards her coat. “And Eudora.”

Diego nodded, feverishly. “Hurry.”

Vanya threw her coat over her shoulder, and moved towards the phone, leaving a quick message for each person.

They were all basically the same, “hey, Luther/Ben/Eudora, I really need you to stop whatever you are doing, because I promise you it is not important as this. You really, really, need to get your asses to the motel on the edge of town. I found Klaus, and the masked people got him. Hurry!”

“Look, I didn’t want to tell you like this, Luther, but here we go.” Allison sighed. “The apocalypse is coming. Like, end of the world as we know it, kind of apocalypse. In seven days, we’re all going to die unless we can stop it. And you do, you die. I’ve seen it. All of you. I found your bodies.”

“Oh my god.” Luther.

When they first arrive, Vanya is pleasantly surprised to find Eudora’s cop car parked out the front. She practically sprints down the bus stairs, tripping over herself in her haste to get to the car.

“Eudora, oh my god, thank you so much for coming, I really need your help.”

“Your brother?”

Vanya nodded. “I called you.”

Eudora winced. “Sorry, I barely check it.”

“That’s fine, I’m so glad you’re here.”

“You know which room he’s in?”

Vanya shook her head, feverishly. “I called my brothers, but I don’t know if they’re coming.”

“That’s fine, we can go ourselves.”

Vanya nodded, and they moved towards the hotel, walking quietly through the covered walkways.

They had hidden themselves, ready to shoot whoever came through the door.

Glancing through the thin blinds, Klaus could see two shadowy figures walking down the undercover walkway. He dragged his chair towards the table, and began to hit his head against it. It was painful, so, so painful, but at least he could make some noise, and maybe, just maybe, they’d hear him and he'd be saved.

Eudora and Vanya, walking around the side, heard a thumping sound, and quickly got the attention of the cleaner, taking the key card from her and swiping it against the lock.

They entered, silently, and Vanya almost cried when she saw her brother, tied against the chair, his chest bloodied and his hair sweaty. She quickly set about untying the bounds, as Eudora stood in front of her, gun out, out of the way of the door, which Vanya shut and locked behind her. 

With her gun up, Eudora called out to the voices, two of them, coming from the bathroom, and there was an eerie silence. In a minute, they both came out, hands above their heads.

Time seemed to slow down.

The woman moved, a quick movement, grabbing her gun and aiming it at them.

Shots were fired one two three four and more more more.

They ducked, shrieking, and scrambled to their feet, things went sideways.

Vanya and Eudora managed to sneak out, back through the door, running and ducking from the raining fire of bullets.

Klaus got out through the vent, the briefcase clasped in his hand.

He opened it in the subway and then he disappeared.