Chapter Text
Diego paced the alley with his hands behind his back, raising his wrist to check the time, then huffing in frustration because he didn’t actually have a watch. “What the hell is taking him so long…” he said to himself, looking up at the fire escape. They should’ve decided on the amount of time he’d spend, damn it. He’d just assumed Five wouldn’t keep too long. Or was he just overthinking and the wait was stretching the time?
He looked up at the fire escape again, his leg jittering anxiously. He was longing to do something; he hated waiting around while someone else got all the action.
He paced a bit more, trying to calm himself down. All I gotta do is trust Five, he thought. He’ll be fine. He always is.
After some more pacing back and forth, he glanced at the fire escape again, then made his decision determinedly. “Screw it. He can yell at me later.” He walked over to the fire escape and began his climb up, landing opposite the window of Five’s former room. Diego knew Five had a separate room on a different floor because according to him, and he quotes(he can never forget what he’d said since they’d shit on him about it behind his back for weeks), ‘I need to move because being in the same vicinity of you all more than I need to is physically hindering the development of my intellect. You all suck,’ he had said with his back to them, stuffing clothes and other odd items in his bag as he was preparing to leave, with Diego and Klaus silently mocking his annoyingly condescending tone in the doorway. But as he recalled Five walking past them, Diego observed that his face was slightly pinched with what he thought was...regret? Reluctance? It was a very subtle and concealed expression, but it’d made Diego think twice for a few seconds. However, his siblings had just continued to tease Five about it, and he’d joined in mindlessly without hesitation; Five’s ‘maybe’ expression disappearing from his brain.
But now an adult, more aware of just how shitty a father Reginald was, and the image of Five’s expression becoming clearer in his brain, he couldn’t ignore the possibility that Reginald forced Five to have a room up here on the third floor by himself just because he could spatial jump. Five never told them, and neither did Reginald, but there was obviously a lot of shit they hadn’t told each other in that family.
They still don’t, he suspected.
He put his back against the wall and slowly leaned to his right, peeking into the room. It was bare; the walls were painted white, with matching white tiles covering the floor. He frowned, puzzled. There were hardly any empty rooms when they lived here; his father literally bought the surrounding buildings to put them to use. Well, that was good for him, then. He could sneak into the mansion unnoticed. And then what? A small part of his brain asked. What are you going to do when you find Five and see that he’s alright? Give him the opportunity to diss you again?
Pff. He had no idea what his brain was talking about.
He quickly walked across the room to the door, opening it slightly and glancing outside. He was on the third floor, and if he were the one sneaking into the academy, he’d head to Reginald’s office first, solely because of the fact that they were absolutely forbidden to prowl around that goddamn corridor. Getting there? No problem. Getting there unnoticed ? Yeah, that was going to be difficult. Did he really sneak in here ignoring the fact that he couldn’t blink like Five?
Whatever. He didn’t want to turn back now.
He walked to the stairs and tiptoed down quickly, trying his best to keep the wood from creaking. He reached the bottom of the stairs and observed that he was on the second floor; the familiar corridor on which Reginald’s office and bedroom could be found giving that away. He put his back against the wall and walked slowly and stealthily, but he heard footsteps. Immediately, he crept back to the staircase, trying to stay hidden from the open hallway, and peeked from there.
It was Reginald.
He instantly whipped out one of his knives, holding it like he was about to charge in stabbing. He knows he told Five that they weren’t here to engage, but seeing that bastard always invoked a fight or flight response in him, and he was definitely feeling more of the ‘fight’ right now. He watched Reginald take out his key and unlock the door to his office, itching to just storm in and cut off his balls. Shit. If Five was in there, he hoped he had the good sense to blink out in time. But now that Reginald was inside, the office was definitely a no-go area. At least he had a higher chance of getting through the second floor unnoticed, since Reginald always had a habit of locking himself up in that stupid room for hours on end. If he was lucky, he had enough time to get the hell off this floor without having to encounter him. But it didn’t end there. There was still the Sparrow Academy, Pogo, Grace…
Grace…
“Holy shit,” he said aloud, the knife slipping out of his hand and hitting the floor with a sharp clank. He probably should be more careful about the noise since he wasn’t even supposed to be here, but right now he didn’t care. He may very well have gotten human Grace in deep trouble with Reginald, and as a result erased Mom from existence. He remembered when he spoke to Grace after that shit dinner about suspecting her so-called boyfriend, planting ideas in her head to tarnish Reginald’s image out of spite. If she had listened to him, taken him seriously and maybe even dumped his ass… who knows what Reginald may have done to her. For all he knew, he could’ve created Mom in their timeline because he missed her. But if human Grace dumped him and his attitude toward her completely changed as a result...well, with the way he treated Mom when they were living in the academy, he wasn’t particularly hopeful.
Well, to be more accurate, his chest felt incredibly tight and he wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Why was he so stupid?
He tried to shake himself out of this stupor, picking up his knife from the floor unsteadily and slipping it back into its harness. He stepped out from behind the wall and looked down the corridor, taking a deep breath. He ventured quietly down the hall, remembering why he was here. By going this direction of the hallway, he was going to end up on the balcony.
He ended up on the entrance to the balcony and glanced outside, scoping out the area. There wasn’t anyone prowling around. Good. He needed to be especially careful here, as it was out in the open. He prepared himself to walk quickly across the landing, but he stopped in his tracks. Where the hell was he actually going? He suspected Reginald’s office first, but Reginald was inside, and he wanted to believe Five had tailed it out of there to another wing of the academy. There weren’t any other rooms he could think of that Five would go to gain intel, rooms that wouldn’t get him caught immediately. Then it hit him.
The training ground.
It had to be there; as kids, they would practice there for hours, while Reginald watched them relentlessly like a psycho. He’d imagine Five thinks he could spy on them without getting caught, because they’d likely be hyper-focused on their training. If he could find him there, see if he was alright and work with him, he imagined they’d get out of here faster than how long he was waiting for. There was one problem with that, though: to get to the training ground, he had to cross this big-ass courtyard smack dab in the middle to get to the opposite building, where they’d had their awful father’s funeral. He snorted to himself; he might as well wear a sign on his back that said, ‘I’m here! Come get me!’ Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea.
No, wait. That would mean Five was right.
He marched quickly across the balcony to the main staircase, painfully aware of how exposed he was. There was absolutely no strategy to what he was doing, and he hated to think that he was leaving it all to luck to get through this unseen; which his entire family was miserably in lack of. He sauntered over to the red staircase that led to the basement floor and climbed down quickly, a sudden sense of urgency coming over him. If he could just get to the kitchen and use the back entrance to get to the courtyard, he could find Five.
That’s a lot of 'ifs' and ‘coulds’ there, buddy , a small part of his brain commented unhelpfully.
At the bottom of the stairs, he walked to the entrance of the large kitchen and peered in from the side, which was thankfully...empty. He used this opportunity to run over to the back entrance and burst through the door, his eagerness to find Five expelling whatever common sense he had left from the second he decided to enter the academy.
Holy shit, he was right; he could see Five at the entrance of the building of the training ground, with his back to Diego. What’s more, the courtyard was empty. He grinned, then immediately tried to conceal it to rein in the satisfaction. Now what he needed to do was get to Five. As he steeled himself to walk over, he noticed Five was just...standing there? Not moving? That was odd, what the hell was he doing? Was he scared? Hurt?
He ran across the sides of the courtyard, at the same time calling, “Five!” No reaction. He would’ve expected Five to look back at him angrily and come storming over.
“Five! What the hell are you doing!” He was getting closer to him, so he made his voice quieter, which was a relief. Diego stopped and watched him for a few moments, completely bewildered. What the fuck?
“Five! Snap out of it, goddamn it! C’mon!” This was really troubling him. Was he captured? Immobilized? He finally reached him and placed a hand on his shoulder, a little out of breath.
“FIVE!” He said a little louder than he needed to.
With that, Five looked back at him, and Diego almost staggered. He was amazed to see how pale Five’s face was; his expression was that of pure fright, eyebrows scrunched together, corners of his mouth turned down, and his eyes wild like a cornered animal. Before Diego could say anything else, Five grasped his arm and blinked with him, then blinked them to the surveillance room, then back to the alley, where the argument had ensued.
Now, he was walking behind Five on the bustling street, trying to keep up with him. How the hell could his short legs take up such long strides? Diego thought back to their argument. He admits that coming after him wasn’t...the smartest move, but what else could he do? Just wait around? Come on, that was ridiculous. Five could’ve been captured, or dead in a ditch somewhere, and he would’ve spent all day waiting outside, anxiously oblivious. Besides, he helped him! He didn’t give a shit what Five said, he knows he got him out of a sticky situation. That asshole was just a prideful old man who liked to lord it over everyone else that he didn’t need anyone’s help.
And yet, Diego couldn’t forget his haunted expression when he looked back at him and that irritated him. Was he worried about what happened to Five? Yes. Was Five going to tell him no matter how much he pressed? Obviously not. So what the fuck was the point of worrying?
They had finally ventured back into the secluded, run-down section of the city where they resided. Diego groaned inwardly; he hated this area, mostly because of why they were staying here in the first place. Five was still walking ahead of him, and Diego jogged a little to catch up to him. Once they reached the entrance to the motel, Five blinked inside wordlessly, leaving Diego standing there in the slight breeze.
“Dick,” he muttered, fully aware he would’ve hated blinking with Five anyway. He pulled the door open and walked inside.
* * *
“Great, Diego, You’re here! We can finally start the meeting!” Klaus cried excitedly as Diego walked into the room, clapping his hands like some 5-year-old. “You will not believe what we found! We- ”
“That’s the thing, Klaus! We didn’t find anything!” Luther interrupted, exasperated.
“Woah, woah, woah, backtrack. What the hell do you mean by that?” Five demanded, getting up from the bed to stand in the middle of the room.
Diego looked around and saw the whole gang was here, with the motel looking as musty as ever. Luther sat with Klaus on the couch, Allison and Vanya were on the bed, and Five had now gotten up to stand at the centre. Last time they were in a similar situation, Five had informed them of his suspicions of Reginald and they had insulted each other ruthlessly in an argument of typical Hargreeves fashion.
Oh, yeah. Good times.
Luther and Klaus exchanged glances. Klaus shrugged flippantly. “We mean, there wasn’t any important information open to the public about the Academy. Turns out, Reginald controls what leaks to the public, apparently; he pays news outlet companies not to report anything,” Klaus answered, leaning back on the couch. “We did ask a few lovely people what they thought of the Sparrow Academy, though. They didn’t know much, and they actually seemed happy that way? Blissful ignorance, if you will. All they seemed to know was the Sparrow Academy are a bunch of superpowered freaks who always manage to save the day when the police can’t. Woo-hoo!” Klaus laughed lightly. “Imagine entrusting your safety to a group of abnormal bitches you don’t even know. Hilarious.”
Five had a hand on his chin, scowling fiercely, then shook his head. “No, that’s bullshit. If they save people publicly like we did, someone should know or have seen something. Anything!”
“I personally wouldn’t hold it above Reginald not to do something like this,” Vanya piped up thoughtfully. “I mean, he always believed in control, didn’t he? What if this is his own attempt to control the public as well as the Academy? It could benefit him in the long run.”
“No , what would benefit him is positive propaganda, good publicity! Not just bribing every news outlet in the city. What, did he make a deal with the government or something?” he insisted, fidgeting with his fingers. “Listen, there has to be something out there.” He narrowed his eyes at Luther and Klaus and remarked accusingly, “I bet you two morons didn’t search hard enough.”
“Hey, if you want to go out for yourself to find shit about fuck, be my guest,” Klaus said, unbothered by Five’s accusation, sinking into the couch further. Diego could never understand how he actually enjoyed sitting on that nasty thing. “As I said earlier, I was actually excited to find some gossip.”
Luther sighed. “Five, we went to the library and did some research. It’s the truth. Him bribing news outlets is public knowledge that the government allows, apparently. It’s been like this for years now.”
The group was silent as they pondered over that. Five looked like he was itching to say something, battling with himself, his jaw clenching and twitching irritably. However, Diego suspected he knew they were beat; Reginald could do this with his power and money, and apparently he did. But what the fuck kind of government just allows this? Just how powerful was Reginald in this timeline?
“How...how is that even legal ?” Allison wondered, voicing his thoughts.
“Hell if I know. What a difference to how things were when we were in business,” Diego mumbled, recalling all the interviews, press meetings and promotions they had to do when they were kids. Reginald really made sure to advertise them, make them his brand.
“Exactly! What the hell made him change his mind now? What’s he hiding?” Five thought out loud, cracking his knuckles restlessly.
Klaus shrugged again, offhandedly, “Maybe it’s nothing.”
They all glanced at him, surprised. Well, except for Five. Five’s face held the expression of someone who clearly thought they were unfortunate to know someone this dense in their lifetime. “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.
“I mean , if things were like this before we got here, then maybe it’s got nothing to do with us,” Klaus replied, sitting forward. “I, for one, am not really interested in going around poking the bear. Too much stress and hassle, if you ask me.”
Five stared at him for a good few seconds, his face twitching as if he didn’t know what to feel or say. Eventually, he settled for snorting derisively and shaking his head at the ground, repeating Klaus words to himself, “ ‘Poking the bear…’ ” Then to Klaus, he said bitingly, giving that little condescending smile that Diego would love to smack off his face some day, “You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about.” Five continued to glare at Klaus after that, and Klaus stared back at him passively.
Klaus held up his hands in defeat and leaned back, “Alright, alright, whatever. Do your thing, then.” But actually...Diego got the feeling Klaus was onto something. However strange things were over here, it wasn’t because of their arrival. If that was the case, why were they going around looking for trouble? Reginald was a weird bastard who appeared to be doing things differently in this timeline. Is that really something they should be worrying about?
Yeah, okay. He hated to admit it, but he was glad he didn’t say that out loud.
He looked around at the others and could tell they were mulling over Klaus’ words as well, their expressions contemplative and thoughtful. Five zeroed in on Allison and Vanya, asking, “What about you two? What did you find out?”
“Well,” Allison began, leaning forward on the bed, “We’re one of the FBI’s greatest unsolved cases.” The room was quiet for a few moments as they allowed that to sink in.
“What?” Luther broke the silence, clearly horrified, eyes wide.
Allison pointed a finger at him. “Exactly my reaction. Apparently, as top suspects for Kennedy’s death, our sudden disappearances really set them back in finding the culprits. They assumed we ran away and hid ourselves so well until we died, or we just...disappeared. No records could be found of us. Nothing. Because of that, there are several conspiracy theories surrounding us too.”
“Wait, wait, hold on,” Diego said, holding up his hand in a ‘stop’ gesture, “So they never figured out it was Lee Harvey Oswald? They were only fixated on finding us ?”
“Oswald was a suspect, too. But Kennedy’s death went unsolved,” she replied, pursing her lips pensively.
Diego dropped on the bed. “Well...fuck,” he said, staring at the floor in a daze. All he wanted, literally all he wanted , one of the most important factors driving him in the 60s and keeping him sane, was to save Kennedy from death, become the hero. And to this day, he’s still considered a suspect?
Oh, the fucking irony.
Klaus suddenly burst out laughing. “Well, can’t say I’m surprised! We wouldn’t be the mighty Umbrella Academy if we didn’t screw up in some timely fashion, would we?”
Five sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes for a few seconds. “Actually, that’s irrelevant right now. What did you find about ourselves ? Our identities?”
Vanya snorted, “Nothing. We tried to look up Allison’s celebrity status, but nothing came up. And if that’s the case, then obviously there aren’t any records of the rest of us. We don’t exist.”
Five nodded tersely and bit his lip, running a hand through his hair, “I was expecting that.”
“Oh, also…” Vanya added, a bit sheepishly, “Apparently I was uh, public enemy number one for a while? Back in the 60s. It was eventually rescinded when they could never trace me.”
“I assume it was because of the FBI agents you killed?” Five asked.
“Yeah, probably,” she replied quietly.
Another bout of silence came over them. Diego couldn’t really say he was surprised about any of this. Slightly distressed? Yeah. A bit panicked? You fucking bet. But surprised ? Nah. With hardly any luck and a chaotic family, how could he possibly be surprised?
“What about you, Five? And Diego?” Allison asked, breaking the silence this time.
Five gazed out of the window for a few moments with his hands buried in his pockets before answering, frowning. “Well,” he started, glancing at all of them, “I found blueprints for a device Reginald is building, called the ‘Televator’. Apparently it teleports the user to any location at any point in time.”
Luther asked, bemused, “Like a briefcase? Like what you can do?”
Five clenched his jaw. “At first, I thought it could do what I could. But I’ve got a feeling Reginald’s building it with a lot more range than I have. He’s also building something called ‘Hotel Oblivion’.”
“What?” Klaus laughed, amused. “A hotel ?”
“Weird, right? But it’s more than that.”
“And how do you know?” Diego challenged.
Five shot him a withering look. Diego wondered if he was still pissed at him for infiltrating the academy and arguing with him about it. Yeah, he probably was. “I just do , alright? I’m assuming the worst.” Diego stared at him expectantly, trying to ask him silently if he was going to tell them about what happened with him in the courtyard. Five only replied with a threatening, dark look, eyebrows and lips pulled down, a look that only said one thing: Shut it.
And what did Diego do after that? Yeah, he pushed his buttons. Because how this five-foot-nothing asshole managed to annoy him to this extent was beyond Diego.
“The key word there, being ‘assume’,” Diego remarked, standing up to face him. “Stop making assumptions, Five! And y’know what, I agree with Klaus. We are going around poking the bear, there’s nothing to fight! For all we know, looking for trouble could be more dangerous than whatever you think Reginald is planning in your head!” And well, that was true, actually. He did agree with Klaus; Reginald may or may not be building a hotel, so what? He was building a machine, so what? Reginald is a world-renowned inventor, of-fucking-course he’s building a goddamn machine. What are they actually supposed to be preparing themselves for? Why is he stressing them all for nothing?
Klaus gasped, “You agree with me?”
“Shut up,” Diego snapped.
“Do you even hear yourself?” Five demanded, getting all up in his face again, scowling viciously, “I know your puny brain may not understand basic shit, but come on, Diego. This is Reginald we’re talking about! You should know him!”
“Exactly! We know him! You left!” Diego said spitefully.
They all became quiet again after that. Five stood in front of him, seething, his fingers twitching at his sides. Diego had a feeling he shouldn’t have said that, but Five really needed someone to knock him down to size.
“That was so unnecessary, Diego,” Allison said disapprovingly.
“That obviously means nothing ,” Five hissed at him.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. He burst out laughing, loudly and proudly, bending over and holding his chest.
Five squinted at him like he’d lost his mind. “What? What the fuck is so funny?”
Diego stood up straight and looked him in the eyes, folding his arms and resisting the urge to laugh again. “My, my, how the tables have turned. Because I distinctly remember you telling me to forget about how Reginald had something to do with Kennedy’s death? How we didn’t have any proof? How I was ‘jumping to conclusions’ ?”
Five clenched his fists at his sides and gritted his teeth, saying in a low voice, “That’s obviously not the same.”
“Oh, isn’t it?”
“Of course it isn’t, you imbecile! We’re actually planning ahead, something you obviously never thought of doing! And he literally tried to kill me!”
“Oh, so now you want to bring that up,” Vanya muttered, looking away, which made Diego smile at Five smugly.
Five whirled on her, incredulous, “What, you too?”
Luther cut in thoughtfully, “Listen, both Diego and Klaus have good points. Reginald is an inventor, it makes sense for him to be building something. And from what you told us, it does seem he’s been planning that for a while, from before we got here.”
Five blinked at him, then rubbed a hand down his face. “I can’t believe how dense you all are. He literally said he knew we were going to show up.”
“So?” Diego demanded.
“So , you’re fools if you think he’s just gonna let us roam free! We’re threats to the timeline!” Five yelled.
“And he’s been living in it! Adjusting! What the hell do you expect us to do, Five? Huh?”
“If I may,” Klaus cut in charmingly. Five fixed his sharp glare on him, and he shrunk back a little, then cleared his throat nervously. “Uh, if I may, I believe Five is experiencing what you would call a...withdrawal, of sorts. Five, dear, remember what we discussed in our 2019?” Five’s glowering expression faltered, and he glanced from Klaus to Diego quickly, drumming his fingers against the side of his legs skittishly. Then he scowled; but it was too late. Diego knew that look on Five. It was the expression or behavior of someone planning to defend themselves to the grave, someone putting their walls up.
When Five didn’t reply, Klaus shrugged. “You know what I think? You’re just trying to find another obsession, Five, consciously or unconsciously. There’s no apocalypse, so you don’t know what to do with yourself. That’s why you’re holding this so-called ‘battle’ with Reginald with so much passion, because if you don’t, you’ll break. You may not know it yet, or you may deny the shit out of it, but it’s the truth. Addict’s experience.” He leaned back on the couch and folded his arms behind his head, closing his eyes. “This thing we’ve apparently got going on with Reginald? Yeah, it could be one-sided, could be not. Just saying.”
Oh, shit.
The room was silent after that, with some tension in the air. Everyone waited with bated breaths on what Five was going to say, who was staring at Klaus, dumbfounded, his lips slightly parted and eyes holding barely-concealed alarm. Which was understandable: Diego wasn’t sure what he expected Klaus to say, but it sure as hell wasn’t that. Shit, he didn’t expect Klaus to make any relevant contributions to this discussion at all . Him lounging on the couch and occasionally dropping in insignificant funny comments at points during their conversation would’ve been more in character for him, Diego decided. Has he really changed that much? Could it be because of Ben? Or has he always been like this given the situation, and Diego just had no idea?
Five sighed shakily, staring at the ground, trying to school his expression. He looked back at Klaus and said, “I’m not...I’m not an addict, Klaus,” he said haltingly, but with no doubt a hint of determination. “I already told you that, so stop spewing shit like some lunatic. What I’m trying to do is survive, which apparently, none of you want a part of!” He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair, looking around. “I...I need a drink. Or coffee. Whatever.”
“Okay, okay,” Allison piped up, holding her hands up in a placating gesture, “Why don’t we all just take a break? A breather? We can come back to this after we’ve all had some time to cool down? How about that?”
“I’m not coming back to this if I can help it,” Diego mumbled, exchanging glances with Luther.
Five looked like he wanted to argue, but stopped himself. “Fine, whatever. I’m going out for coffee,” he said, before pointing a stern finger at Diego, glaring daggers at him, “This isn’t over.” Then he blinked out of the room.
“The last time he went out by himself, wasn’t he almost killed?” Vanya asked worriedly.
Diego scoffed, shaking his head and sitting on the bed. He was beginning to feel a little guilty about what he said to Five now that the argument was over, especially since it started partly because he wanted to be petty. But as he and Five yelled at each other, he realized he was actually making some good points; right now, it really did seem like they were looking for trouble. And he could tell he wasn’t the only one in the room who felt that way. He could tell from their expressions that they were second-guessing...everything. On the other hand, this was another opportunity to get back at Reginald; the whole JFK situation didn’t do Diego enough justice. And he really did understand where Five was coming from. He was just sick of his brash, overbearing personality: always thinks he’s right, stubborn as shit, and hardly likes to listen to anyone else.
So the question was, what the fuck do they do next?
“Okay!” Klaus suddenly exclaimed, clapping his hands once. “Now that Mr Grumpy-Pants is out of the room, I’ve got something to show you all.” Diego couldn’t believe how calm he was being when he psycho-analyzed Five just a few minutes ago. Klaus whipped out something from his pocket and held it up for them to see. “Ta-da! I found it at a bus stop when Luther and I went on our little trip!”
Diego leaned in to take a closer look, and it seemed to be a flier for a fair they were going to hold tomorrow, a few blocks away. There were going to be games, food stalls, vendors and many more! Diego looked at him and said dryly, “A fair? Really?”
“Oh c’mon! It’ll be fun, and I think we all deserve some sort of break!” He lowered the flier and whispered ridiculously, “Especially Five.”
The group fell silent as they considered that. Even if Five did deserve a break, Diego knew their obnoxious brother well enough to say there was no way in hell he’d agree to go when he believed Reginald was secretly plotting against them.
Luther snorted, “Yeah, I think Five would rather sit and wait to see pigs fly before agreeing to go to that tomorrow.”
“I mean, obviously,” Allison agreed, her arms folded, “But we should go. Klaus is right. Maybe we can extend the breather to at least half a day?”
“Okay,” Vanya said, shrugging, “Then how are we gonna convince Five?”
Allison smirked knowingly, “Leave that to me.”