Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Five stands up in the middle of lunch on a Tuesday when they’re all thirteen.

Klaus watches absently, more focused on the blunt he’s rolling under the table rather than the familiar routine of Five’s superiority complex battling against their father’s iron clad fist.

Looking around the table only Vanya seems to care about the disruption, watching her favorite brother with her wide eyes, shaking her head to discourage him.

Luther is looking at Allison and Allison is looking at her nails. Diego is digging his name into the wood of the table and Ben is reading the newest book Pogo had given him just that morning.

Klaus rolls his blunt and watches lazily as Five storms out of the room and out the front doors of the Academy, ignoring their father’s shout for him to come back and Vanya’s quiet little whisper of his name.

Five doesn’t come back after that.

A month passes, then two, then three. The rest of them pretty much have to accept that wherever Five went he was gone for good.

A painting of his smug little face gets hung up over the mantle in the living room and Klaus shoots it the bird every time he passes.

Vanya seems to be the only one holding out hope that he’ll come back. Klaus wakes up often in the middle of the night- usually to nightmares of the screaming dead clawing at his face- and when he wanders around he finds brightly lit rooms and overly sweet sandwiches by all the doors.

It’s kind of depressing, really.

Around month seven- and isn’t that fitting- Vanya doesn’t come down for dinner, and their father informs them all in his cold, impassive voice that little Number Seven has fallen ill, and will be quarantined until she’s better.

This isn’t strange, they usually spent sick days quarantined in their rooms, and Vanya got sick a lot. She was so frail, it seemed. Klaus remembers a solid week of her being gone when they were four.

(Something about that tickles at the back of his brain, a steady itch, a shiver of feeling or memory. Remember, it whispers, remember before).

That night they all wake up to the whole house shaking for one brief, terrifying moment. The stolen bottles of nail polish on his desk fall and shatter, the clothes in his wardrobe fall to the floor, the frames on his wall swing back and forth.

They all rush down to the living room, passing broken glass and felled portraits the whole way through the house.

Luther’s suit is only half on, pulled up to his waist and his boots on the wrong feet. Allison’s still in her pajamas, only wearing her mask while she yawns. Diego is the only one fully suited up, though instead of one of his knives he’s wielding an uncapped marker. Ben, still entirely in his pajamas, looks like he’s fallen asleep while standing up.

Klaus drops onto the couch, as prepared as Ben is, and lets himself doze quietly until their Mom, and Pogo come in and assure them it was only a minor earthquake. So they all go back to bed and forget about it.

Vanya still isn’t back by the end of the week, and Klaus is kind of starting to get worried.

None of them have ever been dangerously sick before. At least not to warrant so long away.

Klaus has never spent much time with the littlest one of them. The only one that had ever hung around her growing up had been Five, but he’s also the only one who never really seemed to care what dad thought about what he was doing.

But Klaus did like Vanya. She was quiet and nice and she was very good at the violin.

He liked to sit against their shared wall and listen to her play for hours, the sound so much louder than the ghosts that scream at him.

Sometimes he thinks he’d like to learn an instrument too, to play alongside her, start a little band and do that instead of whatever dad has planned for them.

A week turns to two, and still no sign of Vanya.

Allison, one of the braver of them all, asks their father one night before bed if she’s alright. She doesn’t really get an answer, and that makes something inside of Klaus twist nervously.

Seventeen days after Vanya was quarantined Klaus finally sees her.

Her door has been open since she left, and Klaus is passing by at the end of the day, on his way to his room to get changed for bed when he hears her sobbing.

He peers in cautiously and finds her curled up in a small ball on top of her bed, back to the door as she hugs her knees to her chest and cries.

Klaus looks around the hallway before stepping in, closing the door halfway behind him, “Vanya?” he whispers, “You ok?”

That just makes her cry harder, “Klaus… I’m sorry.” She sobs, repeating the phrase over and over like a mantra.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

“Hey it’s ok. What are you sorry for? You didn’t do anything.” He sits on the end of her bed, a careful distance from her, not sure if he should reach out and hug her.

Vanya shakes apart before his eyes, “I don’t know where else to go….” She chokes out

Klaus frowns at her. Where else to go? Where else would she go? Why would she be anywhere but here?

Vanya slowly uncurls and finally turns to face him.

She’s still in her pajamas, though they’re dirty now, like they haven’t been taken off in weeks. They hang loose off her frame now, sagging drastically instead of perfectly tailored. She looks at him, tear tracks stained into her skin, eyes red rimmed and blood shot, sunken into her face. Her skin is pale and stretched paper thin over her bones, from her hollow cheeks to her protruding collar bone to her clearly visible wrists. She’s emaciated, like she’ hasn’t eaten in weeks.

There’s blood trailing down the side of her face, from a crack in her skull that splits apart the tangled, matted mess of her unwashed hair.

Vanya was dead.

“Number Four.”

He turns around and Reginald Hargreeves is standing in the doorway to Vanya’s room, face twisted in a scowl.

Klaus stares at him and then at Vanya, at the way she flinched back and clenched her fists. “You killed her.” He says, and it comes out as barely a whisper.

The old man sneers, “Come with me. We need to talk.”

He doesn’t wait, he just reaches in and grabs Klaus by the wrist, yanking him out of her room and through the house to his office, slamming the heavy door shut behind them. Vanya has followed them, standing quietly in the corner, glaring black death at their father.

Their father who had killed her.

Klaus knows the man doesn’t love them, that he never has, and that he never will. But this, the fact that he could kill one of them….

“You killed her…” he says again, louder this time, and clenches his fists behind his back.

The old man sits at his desk, hands clasped together, scowl firm as he looks down at Klaus, his greatest disappointment. “What happened with Number Seven was… unexpected. And as I am sure you are to hear of it eventually, your sister has abilities, just like the rest of you.”

Klaus looks over to Vanya who has slowly moved forward to stand beside him, fists clenched and shaking. “He made Allison rumor me….” She hisses, and Klaus gasps.

Their father, not hearing this, continues, “She was… uncontrollable. Her emotions got the best of her, so I saw fit to have her abilities dampened.”

“He drugged me!” She says, mouth twisting in a snarl

“And with Number Five’s absence I thought it high time she finally learn to control them. She was however, still emotional.”

“I was scared!” she screams at their father’s impassive face, though he can’t hear her at all, “I was confused and angry and you- you just drugged me again!”

Klaus remembers the whole house shaking that first night. Was that Vanya? Was that her power?

“I had thought perhaps more time alone would calm her childishness, but she remained unwilling to cooperate. She attacked Grace.”

“He made her force those pills down my throat! What was I supposed to do?” Vanya shrieks counterpoint

“And then she refused to eat.”

“He wouldn’t bring me food!”

“Finally, this afternoon, she tripped, and due to the hunger was weak, and hit her head.”

“He hit me.” She snarls, “Because I refused to become one of his little soldiers. And I fell into those stupid spikes.”

Klaus feels like he might throw up.

“Now, Number Four, is she here now?”

Klaus looks to Vanya, crying beside him with eyes full of rage. He swallows and nods.

“Good.” Hargreeves says, pulling out his notebook, “I am sure that as we progress with your abilities you will able to summon her and make use of her own powers.”

Klaus’s heart stops. He wants him to… control Vanya? Even though she’s dead? He looks to his sister, her eyes wide, horrified.

“Please Klaus… please don’t…” she begs, shaking again, “I don’t want to…”

Klaus swallows, closing his eyes sharply and digging his nails into his palm. He lets out a deep breath, and snaps his eyes open, forcing his face into an expression of surprise, “Vanya!” he shouts, trying to sound startled, confused.

“Klaus? What are you doing? I’m right here!” Vanya yells, shaking harder.

Klaus makes a production of looking around the office, “Vanya? Vanya?”

“Number Four? What is the meaning of this? What’s happening?” Reginald snaps, sitting up straight, eyes narrowed.

“It’s Vanya she… she just vanished in some- some kind of light. I think she moved on.”

He makes direct eye contact with his sister and winks. She relaxes, and a look of wonder takes over her face.

“What do you mean? Summon her back!”

Klaus grits his teeth, “No.” he snaps, “If she wants to leave this stupid Academy and get as far away from your ugly, evil face then good for her!”

Reginald Hargreeves stands suddenly, storming around his desk to grab Klaus by the arm, “Insolent boy. Perhaps you need additional training to remind you of your place.”

Klaus pales, twisting and writhing as his father drags him out of the office and down the courtyard, tossing him bodily into the mausoleum so that he lands in a heap, “You will spend the rest of the night here, Number Four. And you will not speak of this to your siblings. One word and I can guarantee you much worse than this.”

Then the door slams shut and locks, and Klaus is alone.

Or, not alone, as a moment later Vanya appears beside him, curled up with her knees to her chest as she stares at him, horrified, “He locks you in here?”

Klaus nods, slamming his hands over his ears as the screaming starts up. Ghosts start crawling out of their graves, literally crawling in some cases, the ghost with his legs ripped of dragging himself across the floor to get to Klaus.

“KLAUS!” they scream, “HELP US!” they start to press in close, gory faces stretched wide in horrible screams, wailing and sobbing around him.

“They’re so loud…” Vanya whimpers, “Are they always like this?”

“Yeah…” he whimpers, flinching back when Screaming Susan flails her arms through his body and keeps screaming.

“Stop it!” Vanya says, standing quickly to shove at the woman. Screaming Susan backs up a few steps, and then starts screaming at Vanya, “Leave him alone!” she yells back, and she stands in front of Klaus, as if blocking him from the other ghosts.

Klaus looks up at her, eyes wide. A harsh wind is blowing Vanya’s hair all around her, the ghosts too, all of them backing up rapidly. He doesn’t feel so much as a light breeze.

“Vanya…”

“Go away!” Vanya demands, stomping her foot. The wind around her forms into a barrier, a flash of light that pushes out of her and into the horde of ghosts, forcing them backwards, all of them scrambling away from her, pressing into the far corners of the mausoleum, the weaker ones vanishing in a blink.

Klaus gapes, eyes wide, “How did you do that?” he asks, looking up at his little sister standing over him.

Vanya stares at her hands, “I… I think that’s my power… It has to do with sound.” She comes back to sit by him, pressing so close that her knee passes through his, a spike of cold where the touch should be.

He swallows, staring out at the ghosts. They’re still there, they’re always there, but now they’re quiet, distant. Afraid.

“Thank you.” He whispers, starting to shake.

Vanya stares at him, eyes so wide, and it’s hard to look at her, to see her so thin and skeletal. Vanya had always been a chubby-cheeked kid, all round and soft, her big eyes fit perfectly on her baby smooth face. But now she’s all sunken and frail looking, her eyes practically bulging out of her skull. Blood is still oozing down the side of her head.

“You’re welcome.” She says softly

He breathes slowly. He’s never been able to breath in here before. For the first time the walls don’t feel like they’re closing in, like he’s suffocating.

“Wanna play I spy?”

++

He’s finally let out the next morning, bright and early, the sun just starting to rise. It’s one of the longest nights he’s ever spent in the mausoleum but definitely the best.

Vanya had kept the ghosts at bay all night long, and they’d talked quietly about how awful their father was and about what had happened downstairs in the basement for the last nearly three weeks.

By the time old man Reginald finally lets him out to go change and get ready, the rest of his siblings are already at the breakfast table, eating their morning oatmeal quietly.

Klaus sinks into his seat, shoveling food quickly into his mouth. Vanya stands awkwardly in the corner of the room, watching their siblings eat and their mother mill about the kitchen cleaning up dishes.

A moment later their father steps into the room and they all freeze.

Breakfast was the one meal they had to themselves. It was still meant to be eaten in silence, but it wasn’t heavily enforced. Their father usually didn’t come down from his office until eight am for their first training session of the day.

He looks around slowly, eyes narrowed, and glares for an extra second at Klaus before he clears his throat, “Children. Last night Number Seven ran away. Let this be a warning to you all, that I shall not tolerate any more foolishness from the rest of you. Understood?”

They all gape. Klaus ducks his head and glares at his oatmeal.

“Ran away?” Allison finally gasps, standing halfway from her chair, “Where did she go?”

“Unimportant.” The man snaps, glaring at Three, who drops back down into her seat. “I expect you all to be on time to training despite this.” Then he turns and marches out.

Everyone starts talking at once, whispering quietly about Vanya and Five and running away.

Klaus stays silent, refusing to look at the others or at Vanya, hunched in on herself in the corner.

++

Life goes on for all of them except Vanya. Klaus watches his siblings carefully, wondering when they’ll figure it out themselves, but keeps his mouth firmly shut on the matter.

He’s not going to bring his father’s rage down on him again.

Allison seems to be taking their sister’s ‘disappearance’ the hardest, which Klaus finds strange because she never much spent time with Vanya before. Maybe it was a girls thing, now that Allison was the only one, but Klaus often found her staring into Vanya’s bedroom with such sad eyes, or whispering quietly to Luther about going to find her when they were older.

Diego isn’t too happy either, though Klaus suspects that’s more due to the fact that he blames himself for Vanya running away. He was never nice to Vanya, not because he didn’t like her but because he was afraid that letting her get too close would get her hurt. Dad had already made Diego throw his knives at Mom and Klaus and Ben for practice, he didn’t want quiet, unprotected little Vanya in the line of fire either.

Luther pretends nothing is wrong, same as with Five. That this is all part of Dad’s plan and the two ‘runaways’ were imperfect, lazy and worthless to their grand goal.

Ben mopes around for a little while, reading his books slower than usual because he keeps getting distracted. He’d said some harsh things to Vanya, they all had, but Ben had always appreciated how quiet she was in this madhouse. Ben is allowed three new books a week, courtesy of Pogo, and he’s always hoarded them. After Five disappeared he got two books for himself and the third on something their brother would like, leaving them in stacks on his floor. Now he only gets one for himself, one for Five, adding to the ever growing tower, and now one for Vanya, musical theory and history and sheet music that starts stacking up on her bed.

Klaus watches them all and he watches Vanya, her eyes too wide on her sallow face, so sad and angry all at once.

It isn’t fair.

++

He tries, exactly once, to tell someone about it.

He goes to Ben one afternoon after their lecture, the both of them headed towards the upstairs library to do their homework.

He hesitantly brings up Vanya’s disappearance, what Ben thought about it, where he thinks Vanya would go, especially since she wasn’t prepared.

If she was sick for so long, how could she run away?

Ben frowns, considering, but before he can answer Pogo appears in the doorway with his deep frown and informs them that their father has summoned Klaus to his office.

He goes.

He’s not sure how the man found out about it, if he’s watching him on the cameras of just has some kind of ESP about this, but he knows.

He isn’t happy.

Klaus’ jaw doesn’t break like it did when he took his tumble down the stairs two years ago, but the ugly black bruise oozing blood hurts like a bitch every time he moves so he’s not sure this is much better.

He doesn’t even get pain killers.

Vanya cries miserably as he sits in his room- sent there without dinner as a second part to his punishment- and Klaus stares at his reflection.

Who knew a walking cane to the face could hurt so much?

++

Klaus wakes up one morning and finds Vanya hovering in the doorway to her room, staring at her violin with such a desperate longing it makes Klaus himself ache.

The house had become so quiet without her playing to fill it up. Klaus hadn’t really realized just how big and lonely this house was until it was silent.

He stands behind her and looks over her shoulder into her bedroom, at the little violin leant against the wall and the small stack of books on her bed.

“Think you could teach me?” he asks quietly, face carefully turned away from the cameras.

Vanya spins quickly to stare at him, wide-eyed, “What?”

“Violin. I think I’d make a decent player.”

A tiny smile lights her face, and she nods emphatically.

That afternoon, during their thirty minutes of allotted free time, Klaus and Vanya sneak up to the attic, where there are no cameras or microphones and where the sound proofing is marginally better, and they stand by the window.

Klaus holds Vanya’s violin as carefully as he can as his little sister directs him on how to position it on his shoulder, under his chin, where to put his fingers and how to hold the bow. Then she teaches him how to tune it, teaches him the chords and the difference between strings, how to move the bow to get new sounds, how best to maneuver his fingers.

They don’t end up playing that afternoon, or the next two either. They just stand there, in the dimly lit attic, as Vanya teaches him the basics until he can recite them from memory. They both know they only have one shot at this turning out right.

On the fourth day Klaus finally puts bow to string in an awful, screeching noise that makes Vanya wince and Klaus grin madly.

“Hey, you did the same when you first started!” he reminds her, “We share a wall! I heard!”

She giggles a little, shaking her head, and starts telling him what to do.

Five minutes into their little practice session the door bursts open and Reginald Hargreeves stands there, glaring at him.

“What is the meaning of this Number Four?” he snaps, eyes narrowed on the violin.

Klaus just smirks, setting the instrument carefully back in its case next to the stacks of books he’d brought up as he turns fully to face his father, “I thought I’d learn to play. No one else is using it after all.”

The old man’s eye twitches. “You will cease this nonsense at once. You are not permitted-“

“I could always tell the others why Vanya didn’t take her violin with her.” Klaus cuts in, glaring at the man though his smirk doesn’t so much as shift.

There’s a very small chance this actually works, and honestly even if it does he’ll still probably spend the night in the crypt but… But he’s going to do this. For Vanya.

The two of them stare each other down, the old man stern and furious and Klaus determined and firm.

At length the man straightens his spine, “Very well then. Perhaps music lessons will help to focus you, Number Four. But remember this boy,” he snarls, “Do not threaten me.”

Klaus does spend the night in the mausoleum. But Vanya is there, grinning wider than he’s ever seen her, keeping the ghosts at bay with the happy, excited wind swirling around her. So that’s ok.

++

Their music lessons continue, but now the old man has given him a set time and a room to practice in. Right before bed, while the rest of his siblings are reading books of their choosing, Klaus gets to learn the violin.

Sometimes Pogo or Mom will join him, Pogo’s eyes full of guilt and sorrow as he offers critiques and helpful advice, giving Klaus a physical hand in tuning the instrument that Vanya can’t provide. Mom is always happy to listen, praising him endlessly for each little improvement and making sad little comments about how beautifully he and Vanya would have played together.

His siblings come by, occasionally. Ben mostly, whose lip wobbles when he demands to know why Klaus is doing this. Klaus only tells him that he wants to impress Vanya and Ben refuses to meet his eye and comments on her liking it when she ‘gets back’. Klaus keeps his mouth shut.

Allison yells at him the first time, for touching Vanya’s violin and stealing her thing. She refuses to speak to him for weeks. But she’s also the one he always finds sitting outside his practice room, listening attentively with her eyes closed, like she’s still listening to Vanya.

Diego winces whenever he hears the sound, even when Klaus starts getting good enough that it no longer screeches. But he does compliment Klaus’ talent and promises to make sure dad doesn’t take the thing away.

Luther says nothing. He just frowns, glares at Klaus, and moves on.

Vanya loves it. She’s so happy now, teaching Klaus to play. She laughs a lot more than he can remember her doing their whole lives, as he cracks jokes through practice and makes silly faces at her. She still misses being able to play on her own, he knows, but just hearing the music has her dancing happily around the room, wind blowing her hair around her, and she laughs.

++

Klaus is sixteen the first, and last time he overdoses.

He’s shaking and tired and the ghosts are screaming and he feels bad, so bad, that little Vanya is stuck with him, is stuck watching him, that she’s dead and he’s alive and he’s worthless and nothing and stupid and-

He takes a pill in the bath that night. And then two. And then five. Around pill eight Vanya disappears along with the others.

Around pill twelve he blacks out, head slipping under the water as he floats in that hazy, perfect place of nothingness.

He wakes up the next morning in the infirmary hooked up to an IV with mom’s worried face hovering over him. Luther had been the one to find him, having burst open the bathroom door when water had started leaking under the door.

He’d also told their father, so Klaus expects another mausoleum trip is in his future.

Mom leaves the room to get him something to eat and Klaus turns slowly to find Vanya standing next to his bed, tears streaming down her face.

“Don’t do that again.” She begs, hands shaking. She’s still fourteen, she’ll always be fourteen, always skeletal with her eyes bulging and blood pouring down her face.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers, voice hoarse

“Don’t leave me.” She begs, hands reaching out as if to touch him but they pass through his arm, leaving cold patches in her wake.

“I won’t.” he promises, and closes his eyes.

“I’ll keep the ghosts away.” She cries, “I’ll work harder so… so please….”

He can’t leave Vanya. She needs him. He needs to stop this.

“It’s ok Van. It’s ok.”

++

Klaus is sixteen and he’s been sober for four months now, since his overdose.

It’s… not fun. The ghosts are so much louder and angrier than when he was a child, but with Vanya around at least it’s easier to push them away.

It’s bedtime now, and Klaus is changing out of the baggy lounge clothes he’d gotten himself instead of the stupid uniform when he notices Vanya hovering the in the corner of his room.

She’s still in her pajamas, the ones they wore when they were younger, that awful blue and white, perfectly tailored monstrosity that hangs off her skeletal frame.

Klaus looks down at the sweatshirt he’d thrown on the floor, sadness rushing through him. She’d be so much more comfortable in it, so much happier in something soft and warm. It’d probably be more of a dress on her small frame, would practically swallow her up. But she’d love it.

He lays down, closing his eyes. And that’s all he can see, little Vanya smiling, all wrapped up in his baggy sweatshirt and sweatpants. He falls asleep thinking of slumber parties and makeovers and Vanya.

He wakes up to Vanya screeching in his ear, “Klaus! Klaus wake up!”

He groans, rolling over slowly to fix his sister with a grumpy glare, “What?” he whines

Vanya is grinning, eyes so wide, “How did you do it!” she asks, more excited than he’s heard her since they started learning the violin.

He blinks blearily at her, still half asleep, “Do wha?”

She stands up straight, spinning in a circle and gesturing to herself dramatically- a gesture she’s very much picked up from him.

Klaus blinks a few more times and then shoots up in bed because Holy Shit!

Vanya is in his sweatshirt and sweatpants. The ones he’d been thinking about last night. One look confirms both articles of clothing are still crumpled on his floor but… But Vanya is definitely wearing them now.

“How’d you do it?” she asks again, grinning.

He shrugs, “I have no idea….” He frowns staring at her, “Van, come her, I wanna try something.

She jumps up onto his bed, the sheets not even ruffling under her as she sits criss-cross in front of him.

He mirrors her position, hands on his knees, taking a deep breath as he closes his eyes.

He thinks of Vanya before, of Vanya and her chubby cheeks, her round little face, her big dark eyes and her hair framing her face. Her fingers wrapped around the violin, the way she swayed to the music, the soft little smile whenever anyone spoke to her.

Vanya gasps, “Klaus..”

The way she glared whenever they had oatmeal for breakfast. The pout on her lips that puffed her face up. The way she shuffled her feet when she was nervous and dug her bare toes into the carpet. The longing on her face when they went out on missions, the peanut butter on her cheek when she made Five sandwiches, the indignant anger when any of them ended up in the infirmary after practice. The tiny little laugh she let out when Klaus was being dramatic.

He opens his eyes slowly, hoping, half-afraid.

Vanya sits across from him, the Vanya he used to know. The Vanya he remembers being alive. She grins, cheeks full and round, hands lost in the fabric of his sweatshirt. Her hair is smooth again, not matted and dirty, the blood gone, the crack in her skull closed. She looks alive.

“Vanya…”

She reaches out to him, her hand phasing through his shoulder, comforting in its cold familiarity, “You did it… Thank you Klaus.”

He grins at her, wishing desperately to hug her, and he laughs.

++

Of course nothing good ever lasts. Not for them.

Klaus and the others are nineteen, Vanya is still fourteen, and everything is crumbling.

Diego had left a few months prior, had just packed up all his things and gone to join the police academy under a fake name with a fake ID Klaus had gotten him when they were sixteen.

Thing had been rocky for a while, shaky. Luther had been lording over all of them without Diego to get in his face. Allison was already pulling away. Ben and Klaus were sitting in silence, trying to ignore their father’s harsh words.

And then Klaus wakes up one morning to Vanya sobbing miserably, curled up in a heap on his floor.

She hasn’t sobbed like this since the first year she died so Klaus immediately jumps up, legs tangling in the sheets as he rushes to her side.

“Van? Van what’s wrong?”

“Klaus?”

His head snaps up, eyes widening.

Ben is standing in his room. Ben who was supposed to be in London on a mission with Luther. Ben whose uniform is ripped and bloody, whose hair is plastered to his face with sweat and blood, whose chest is ripped open in an awful, gory mess of guts.

“No….” he gasps, dropping heavily onto the floor, “No Ben…”

Ben stares at him, and then at Vanya, and then he starts to sob.

Vanya is still wailing, and with Ben’s cries Klaus can hardly hear himself think. That old urge to be numb again is crawling under his skin, the urge to lose himself, but he doesn’t. He just closes his eyes, slams his hands over his ears, and screams.

++

Klaus leaves the Academy two weeks later. After a week in the infirmary being sedated to calm him and another night in the mausoleum for screaming at his father when they return.

Luther had been so still and quiet, eyes wide and pained and guilty. He doesn’t speak to Klaus, doesn’t look at him. Just sits in his room, blaring his music through the house, and does nothing.

Allison is already packing her bags when Klaus gets to leave the infirmary. He’s sure she’ll be gone within the week as well. She got a job offer as an actress in LA and Klaus wonders what she had to say to get it.

Klaus doesn’t take the time to think about what he’s going to do. He packs up his comfiest clothes, the violin, and as much cash and shiny objects as he can get his hands on between his room and the front door.

He’s lost three siblings now, though he’s pretty sure Five at the very least is alive.

He’s lost quiet little Vanya and shy little Ben and he can’t… he won’t die for that man.

“Where are we going?” Vanya asks, trailing nervously behind him. She’s never left the house, not even after her death.

“Don’t know. We’ll figure it out.”

Ben is still staring silently at Vanya. He’d been furious, when he’d found out the truth, and then he’d cried some more. Once Klaus had managed to make him look less like a walking horror movie monster he’d immediately pulled little Vanya into a hug and held her tight.

Klaus is glad. Finally, Vanya has someone to hold her. He’s never been able to figure out how to do it.

He wanders the city until he’s far enough away from the Academy to get a hotel. His fake ID says his name is Clyde Harris, and that’s who he’s going to be from now on.

They’re going to be ok. He’ll figure out something.

Chapter Text

Klaus’ powers grow slowly. He’s sure that if he were to stay at the Academy and actually work with his father it’d be faster but… he much prefers this way.

Sure it might have taken him two years to make his siblings able to touch the living world but that’s ok.

Ben and Vanya weren’t in any rush for him to develop his powers. They were dead, they didn’t exactly have anything pressing to attend to.

So whenever Klaus could, when he was calmest and the day was brightest, he’d sit in their apartment, hands on his knees, eyes closed, meditating like their father had taught him. It was the one good thing he’d learned in that hell house.

And slowly, so slowly, they begin to feel.

It’s not much. The shift of a book on the table. The twitch of his blankets when they move around him. The scratch of a chair against the floor. The tv turning on when he’s not in the room. They start being able to touch the world around him, to interfere.

They can’t touch him yet, but Klaus hopes that maybe in a few years…

One day he’s going to hug Vanya so goddamn tight she’ll forget every awful thing their father ever did.

For now they follow Klaus around like the worlds most annoying poltergeists, banging his pots around the kitchen when he’s asleep and turning the water cold when he’s showering.

Ben’s fondness for pranks did not die with him. And he seems to be making up for lost time with Vanya, including her in every scheme he enacts on their poor, living brother.

Klaus would be a lot more upset if it wasn’t so freaking cute hearing Vanya giggle whenever she hid in the refrigerator waiting to scare him.

And he hasn’t seen Ben so relaxed and happy in so long…

He wished they didn’t have to die to find this kind of peace but well… they were never meant to have nice things. They were never meant to find happy endings.

Klaus has his, solely because he’s done every possible thing to distance himself from being Klaus Hargreeves, the Séance, Number Four. Because he knows the second he goes back to being that soldier it’s over for him. Because there’s only one end for a child hero and that’s a grisly, miserable death.

So he’ll stick with being Clyde Harris, the weird guy in the second floor apartment who talks to himself and who makes a living playing violin in the city and picking up odd jobs around the mall.

He’s happy. He’s ok.

++

Klaus’ back slams into the front door as soon as its closed, moaning appreciatively as hands slide up into his hair and pull softly, lips pressing hot and harsh to his.

Just because he gave up drugs does not mean he’s giving up partying or meaningless sex.

His hookup for the night is smoking hot though Klaus honestly cannot remember his name for the life of him. Something stupid with too many vowels.

“Ew.” Ben says, covering his eyes from where he’s sitting on the couch with one hand, the other draped over Vanya’s eyes, “Get a room.”

Klaus shoots him the bird over the guy’s shoulder and drags his date back into the bedroom.

A few hours later, after his fling has delivered upon some very nice, very satisfying sex and fled, Klaus pouts and goes to the kitchen.

“I wanted to cuddle.” He complains to his siblings, dropping onto the couch.

Ben sighs.

++

Klaus gets a job.

He’d always planned to get one eventually, their crappy little apartment wouldn’t survive on busking tips and odd jobs alone, but he hadn’t actually intended to right now.

It’s been two and a half years since he left the Academy, he’s barely twenty, he’s honestly not sure anyone would even want to hire him.

Here’s how it goes. Klaus doesn’t really like coffee. Too bitter. Whenever he does drink the stuff its usually about ninety percent cream and sugar or, as Ben calls it, ‘a monstrosity of sweetness’.

But a coffee shop opens up right across the street from their place, small, quaint, super cute. And way cheaper than the big chains too.

So Klaus starts dropping in regularly. The owner, Tai-Li, is a middle-aged Vietnamese-American woman with a spine made of steel and the pure determination to keep this shop running no matter what.

She starts chatting Klaus up on his fourth visit, and apparently she likes his charisma and his unwillingness to take any shit from anyone because she offers him a job.

He’s pretty sure she thinks he’s too skinny and sad looking and she wants to feed him desperately.

And well, its not like he was doing much else with his days, and he could use more consistent cash flow.

What the hell. Why not?

He becomes manager eventually, watching over everything whenever she’s gone, training the newbies, flirting with customers whenever he’s on register.

He loves it.

It’s his sixth month working when an absolutely gorgeous woman strolls through looking tired and angry and she slams a ten on the counter, “Give me as much caffeine as this can buy.”

Klaus blinks at her slowly, “Ok, but I’ll warn you hon, I have had that much caffeine and it will stop your heart for like, ten seconds.”

She shrugs, “Fine. Coffee. Now.”

Klaus snickers as he rings her up, “Boyfriend?” he asks and she groans.

“That obvious?”

He nods, “Only men can be so absolutely awfully stupid to make people this angry.”

“Experience?”

“Too much.”

She snickers, “It’s a long story. My boyfriend, he’s a sweetheart but also… god he has the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

Klaus giggles in delight, “Oh now you have to tell me more!” he turns “Charlie! Take over for me I’m going on break!” He throws his apron on the counter, grabs the woman’s drink once its ready, and ushers her to one of the booths, “Well, go on!”

They spend the next hour shit talking men, specifically her boyfriend, and by the time she leaves Klaus has a new number in his phone and a date set up for him and Eudora Patch to get mani-pedis this weekend.

In all fairness, not even Klaus could have seen this coming.

Apparently Eudora’s boyfriend is his brother Diego.

He finds this out because Ben likes to go ghostly stalk their siblings to make sure they’re alright and he saw them making out in an alley behind a crime scene.

Ben also informs him that Diego has become a vigilante and is now wearing an all leather getup.

Eudora has… such bad taste.

He doesn’t end up telling her about it. He doesn’t want to, half because he thinks Eudora will get mad and half because he doesn’t want Diego to find out.

Eudora still thinks his name is Clyde Harris. He’s not going to tell her otherwise.

He just grins, lounging back on his couch with Eudora giggling madly next to him as he paints her toenails. Princess Bride plays in the background and Ben is sitting on the table reading and Vanya is staring at all the nail polish colors and Klaus smiles.

He’s ok with this life.

++

“Klaus!” Vanya bounces excitedly up and down in the middle of the sidewalk, “Klaus look!”

He stops walking and turns, yawning around his bagel as he backtracks to get to his little sister.

She’s stopped outside the big theatre, the classy one for plays and music and shit, and she’s pointing eagerly at a flyer on the front door.

They’re holding auditions for musicians for the orchestra.

Vanya looks up at him, eyes wide, “You can try out!”

Klaus blinks, unsure, but faced with Vanya’s big puppy eyes he’s always going to cave.

He grabs a flyer and heads home.

He does end up auditioning, and though he’s nowhere near the skill Vanya would probably have if she’d continued playing he’s pretty decent.

The actual audition goes well enough, he plays, he chats up the others, jokes around with the performers and the judges and whatnot, seems to make a pretty good impression.

The results come out the day after his twenty-fifth birthday- another year getting older while his siblings stay depressingly young- and he stands at the theatre doors wide-eyed long after the others have left.

His name is on the list.

He’s going to be third chair violin.

He never thought he’d be excited about the life he lived, not when he was a little boy sitting scared in a mausoleum with the dead screaming at him. He always thought he’d just be miserably complacent, sadly content.

But now he’s… He’s happy.

Vanya beams the whole way home, chatting excitedly about performances and crowds and different compositions.

Klaus grins, watching her.

He’d do anything for Vanya.

++

Klaus wakes up slowly, rolling over in bed to blink at his alarm clock as it screams at him.

He’s like, ninety percent sure he didn’t set an alarm last night before bed.

“Wake up asshole.” Ben calls from where he’s phasing his hand into the machine, grinning sharply at his brother, “You’ve got shit to do.”

Klaus glares up at him, “I’m going to exorcise you.” He mutters petulantly, but does get up, groaning as he shuffles shirtless around the bedroom in search of his fuzzy slippers.

By the time he makes it to the kitchen of their shitty little apartment Ben has already gotten comfortable on the couch with a book from his little ghost library, reading slowly aloud as Vanya sits at his side in rapt attention.

Klaus yawns and gets himself started on breakfast. He makes pancakes, because they’re faster than waffles, and sets out three plates on the table before he tucks in, not waiting for his ghostly entourage to join him.

“We have practice today!” Vanya grins, dropping into the chair he’d pulled out for her, bouncing excitedly.

Vanya loves the orchestra, loves listening to them practice and see what real, professional musicians are like. Ben just likes the peacefulness.

“First we have work.” Their brother reminds her, watching Klaus shove food into his mouth in disgust, “Dude, use a napkin.”

Klaus opens his mouth while he chews.

Vanya giggles, kicking her feet under her chair, “Do you think Eudora’s gonna be there?”

Ben smirks, “I hope she has more dirt on Diego.”

Klaus smiles at his lap. It’s kinda sad that the only news he gets of his favorite living sibling is from his ex-girlfriend that doesn’t even know they’re related.

Klaus hasn’t spoken to his family since he left the Academy eleven years ago, since Ben’s funeral. The last he heard Allison was living it up in LA and Luther was on the moon.

He’s not sure what his family thinks about him. Probably that he’s a homeless drug addict living under a bridge sucking dick for cash. They never quite believed that he’d gotten sober in their teens, always making snide comments at him that had Vanya’s hackles raising. She was very protective of her big brother.

Diego had walked into his coffee shop once, when he and Eudora were apparently back on. Klaus only knew he was coming because Ben had been chilling by the door reading a magazine and had shouted a warning.

And yes, maybe Klaus doing a running dive over the counter to get to the back room was a little excessive, but Klaus really, really didn’t want to see any of his family.

He’s been doing good. He’s… Well he’s happy now. He has Vanya and Ben, and the orchestra and the coffee shop, and a few reliable friends he sees every now and then. He’s doing ok with his life. He doesn’t want his family ruining what he’s worked so hard to build.

By the time Klaus makes it to work it’s eleven and the early birds of the lunch rush are already starting to enter. Some call out to him in greeting, someone compliments his new skirt and earrings that totally match shut up Ben.

Klaus greets the people he knows, kisses his boss on the cheek as he ties his apron and makes it to the register just in time for Eudora to drop her elbows on the counter and groan.

“I need so much caffeine.”

Klaus snickers, already marking up a cup for her with her usual plus an extra two shots of espresso. “What’d he do this time?”

She snorts, “Not Diego. This stupid case I’m working. I’m going to rip all my freaking hair out Clyde.”

Ben, lounging on top of the pastry display case reading a completely different book from this morning, rolls his eyes, “Klaus…” He warns

Klaus grins, “Spa night?” he asks her, and Eudora nods quickly.

“Yes please. I need you to work your magic on my nails.” She shows off her frankly sad looking cuticles and Klaus tuts in disappointment.

“What did we say Dora? Manicures are our friends.”

Vanya giggles from where she’s sitting on the floor by the staff room, “I want a manicure!”

Klaus has taken to changing her nail color using his powers whenever he and Eudora have a spa day. She loves it. It’s adorable.

He winks at her over his shoulder as Eudora pays, “Thanks Clyde.”

“You need to tell her who you really are.” Ben says, because he’s a killjoy.

Klaus hisses at him. Eudora, already used to his oddities, doesn’t comment, “Tomorrow night?”

He claps his hands excitedly, “It’s a date!”

Eudora laughs, shaking her head as she goes to collect her coffee from Tammi-with-an-I at the pick-up counter and heads back to her job.

Ben sighs, “She’s gonna shoot you when she finds out you’re related to Diego.”

Klaus hums, “Probably. Next!” he grins to the pair of girls that come up to the register, “Good afternoon lovely ladies!”

They giggle, Ben sighs again, and Vanya braids her hair as Klaus gets on with his work.

By the time Klaus finally gets off work and starts heading to the theatre it’s nearly seven o’clock. They don’t usually do rehearsal this late but with the Spring Show just over a week away they need to be prepared.

Klaus waves hello to everyone, blowing a kiss to Helen, the first chair, who rolls her eyes at him. Jeffery, the other violinist next to him, gives her a wide eyed, lovesick look as she goes to sit.

“Please hook us up.” He begs, not for the first time.

Klaus sighs, “My guy, my friend, my partner in music, Helen is the gayest lesbian you will ever meet. Give up.”

Jeffery frowns, “She could be bi…”

Klaus shakes his head and pulls out his violin. Vanya is sitting on the floor right next to him, eyes wide a she soaks in every little thing. Ben, out in the audience with his feet up on the row in front of him- like a heathen- closes his eyes and relaxes.

Klaus loves playing the violin for probably the same reason Vanya had. He can lose himself in the music, in the sound and the melody, in the movement of his fingers on the strings and the bow sliding back and forth. He can put all his focus into it, all of himself, and when he plays he can’t hear the ghosts screaming or see them reaching for him, can’t see their deathly, horrible faces glaring at him.

He’s always a little reluctant to stop playing, but when he does he’s always greeted with the biggest, happiest smile on Vanya’s little face. He smiles down at her, winking playfully before he goes about putting up his things.

The whole walk home Vanya talks excitedly about practice, telling Klaus what she’d noticed about the other performers’ playing styles and how he can best work on his own. Ben doesn’t know all the technical jargon they use and hasn’t attempted to make sense of it, but he comments now and then with the parts he liked- using such words as ‘the really fast bit’ and ‘the bumpy part’.

When they finally make it home it’s almost eleven and Klaus is exhausted. He puts his violin carefully on the kitchen table, turns on the tv for his ghosts, throws all his clothes on the floor and then flops face first into bed.

++

Klaus wakes up to a blood curdling scream. This isn’t unusual, he usually wakes up to screaming, though the scream isn’t usually so familiar.

Klaus nearly falls on his face in his rush to jump out of bed and into the main room, slamming into the wall in his haste as he sprints into the living room.

Vanya is standing behind the couch, pale as a sheet, eyes wide, screaming with her hands slammed over her ears, wind whipping her hair around her.

Ben is in front of her, face twisted up in a snarl, screaming insults. He’s gripping the back of the couch to keep standing in the force of Vanya’s power. Two of his tentacles have crept out of his stomach, writhing around him as they phase through Klaus’ furniture and shiver in anticipation.

Their father is in the middle of the room, Reginald Hargreeves struggling to stay upright as Vanya’s wind pelts him, pushing him around in a whirlwind, face still twisted in his familiar scowl.

“Stop this at once Number Seven!” he yells

Klaus, pale at the sight of his father, doesn’t feel even a breeze.

Then it hits him.

Their father is dead.

“You asshole!” Ben is screaming, “We were just kids! Little kids!” One of his tentacles wraps calmingly around Vanya to soothe her, the wind settling slightly.

Reginald scoffs, “You were never just children. You were meant to be more.”

“Leave us alone!” Klaus snaps, fists clenching.

Their father turns to him, one eyebrow raised, “Number Four. I should have known you were hiding your sister from me. You always were pathetically weak. No matter, now that I’m here we can continue on. I expect that with some proper training you’ll be fully able to utilize both Number Six and Number Seven’s abilities. Hurry up, we have things to do-“

Vanya snarls in rage, eyes flickering white. Ben starts to shake. Klaus’ fist clench tighter, rage burning in him, “NO!” He screams, and a blue flash of light erupts from his palms, pushing outwards, “Go away!”

Reginald Hargreeves is blown backwards by the force of it and vanishes. Vanya and Ben waver, but steady quickly. Vanya’s wind dies down quickly as her anger and fear is replaced by confusion.

“Where… Where did he go?”

Klaus stares at his hands, eyes wide, “I… I think I banished him.”

That ability would have been much more useful as a child when he was hiding from the ghosts but…. Better late than never.

Ben’s monsters retreat slowly back into his stomach as he looks around cautiously, “So…. Dad’s dead.”

Klaus sighs, wrapping his arms around himself to substitute the hug he really, desperately wants right now, “Yeah….”

“What now?” Vanya asks, eyes wide as she goes to cling to Ben’s hand.

Klaus shrugs, “I guess we have a funeral to attend.”

++

Klaus enters the Umbrella Academy for the first time in nearly twelve years and feels a shiver run down his spine.

Vanya and Ben hover behind him, both clearly feeling as anxious and uncertain as he does.

“I feel like this place got creepier.” He mutters, looking around the main hall, waiting for the ghosts of his childhood to come crawling out of the woodwork. A surprising amount of people had died in this house, beyond Vanya of course.

“Klaus?” Diego is standing at the top of the stairs, still in his leather vigilante getup, eyes wide as he looks down on his ‘youngest’ living sibling.

Klaus smiles up at him, “Hey Diego.”

Diego hurries down the stairs, the smallest smile on his face as he claps a friendly hand on Klaus’ shoulder, “It’s good to see you man. How’ve you been?”

He’s looking at Klaus like he’s going to collapse in a heap on the floor, like he’s some fragile little creature. Like he’s high.

Klaus forces one of his sunniest smiles up on his face, “Never better mein brudher, never better.”

Ben sighs behind him, Vanya glares at Diego.

“Master Klaus…” Pogo enters the room slowly, the tap of his cane echoing in the empty house. His eyes are filled with pain as they wander the empty space behind Klaus, “It’s good to see you again.”

Vanya snarls at the chimp. Klaus isn’t feeling too much better about him. He can understand, at least, that Pogo was trapped just as much as the rest of them, but the monkey did nothing to help them. Never fought their father’s cruelty and abuse. Never comforted them beyond a kind touch or an understanding nod. Never spoke ill of the man, of the monster their father was. Always firmly insistent Reginald Hargreeves was a good man.

He’d watched him kill Vanya and said nothing.

Klaus offers their childhood professor a thin smile, “Hey Pogo.”

“Is that Klaus I hear?” Grace comes into the room, smiling wide as she holds her arms out.

Klaus practically throws himself into them, hugging the woman tight, “Hey mom.”

“Hey darling.” She kisses the side of his head, “You’re so skinny, have you been eating enough?”

Ben and Vanya stare at mom with longing, wanting one of her hugs too.

They’d all had those doubts about mom, about the reality of her love, about her programming and her kindness. But she wasn’t just their father’s machine. She frowned at his back, found the loopholes in every order to comfort them and make them happy, always apologized when she was ordered to hurt them in some way. Always tried to suggest alternatives when their father wanted to torture them.

Vanya says she’d shaken when forcing pills down her throat, her hands hesitating.

Mom cared about them, beyond her programming she loved them. And she always gave the best hugs.

“You know, I could use some pancakes.” He smiles, and Grace smiles back, patting his cheek.

“Coming right up. Any special requests?”

Klaus glances back at Ben and Vanya, “Three plain, one blueberry, and one chocolate chip.”

Her smile wavers slightly but she nods, “Coming right up. Come on down whenever you’re ready.” She turns and heads back to the kitchen.

Diego sighs, “God I forgot your stomach was bottomless.”

Klaus grins, “Aw, are you jealous Diego? I can always share my pancakes!”

Diego snorts, rolling his eyes, “I don’t eat that crap. You need to take better care of your body Klaus.”

He’s clearly not just talking about the pancakes.

Pogo clears his throat, “The service will be held at noon. Your siblings have already arrived and are getting settled in their rooms.”

Diego’s nose wrinkles, “Great.” He turns and heads back up the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Klaus asks, eyebrows raised.

Diego doesn’t look back, “Exploring. Now that the old dick isn’t around I can finally check out his room.”

That gives Klaus a wonderful idea, so he grins and skips up the stairs towards the old man’s office.

He’s probably been in here more often than his other siblings, usually because he was getting yelled at for being a disappointment.

It hasn’t changed since the last time he was here, still a mess of old trinkets and massive books.

“How much do you think we could get if we sold all of this?” he asks his siblings.

Ben shrugs, “Stupid amounts.”

Vanya glares at the room in general, “I say we burn it.”

Klaus sits down in the big chair behind the desk, looking across at his siblings, schooling his face into a scowl, “Ah, Number Six,” he says in his best impression of their father which is far too high pitched.

Ben snorts, rolling his eyes, “Put more disappointment into it.” He suggests, leaning up against the far wall.

Klaus snickers, relaxing his posture as he begins poking through the drawers in the desk. He comes across an ornate silver box and he pulls it into his lap, fiddling with the lock via pens and the pocket knife he keeps in his jeans until finally the thing pops open. His face pales.

“Klaus?” Vanya asks, hesitantly moving further into the room and closer to him.

The notebook is in the box. THE notebook. The red one with the old man’s initials that he used to document their torment in. Hesitantly, he takes it out, flipping slowly through a few pages.

Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four, Number Five, Number Six, Number Seven.

Their powers and their training written down in their father’s careful script. His hands start to shake.

He swallows, “So Van, what were you saying about burning?”

He starts the fireplace in the man’s office, ripping pages out of the book without looking at them as he throws them into the fire.

Vanya glares as they shrivel up, shaking so badly that Ben has to grip the desk to stay upright as her powers rage, “He’s a bastard.” She hisses.

Klaus tuts, “Language young lady.” But his face is pale.

When the last of the pages has been burned he turns, looking at Ben and Vanya, “You ok?” Ben asks.

He shrugs, “Let’s see if those pancakes are ready.”

++

Luther has gotten even bigger. Klaus knows, of course, what is under the trench coat. Ben had told him after one of his little spying on their siblings sessions. Apparently a mission gone wrong that had nearly lost Luther his life if Dad hadn’t intervened to give him some kind of serum that’d turned him into Pogo’s nephew or something.

Allison is still just as pretty as the last time Klaus had seen her, which had been on the silver screen a few months ago when her new movie had come out. He hadn’t been invited to the premiere, but he also hadn’t been invited to the wedding so he wasn’t surprised. She hadn’t even told him she had a kid, no they’d had to find that out in the tabloids, blurry shots of a very pregnant Allison on all the covers. Vanya had been really excited to find out it was a girl.

Klaus stares at his siblings from his place on the couch, cigarette hanging limply between his lips. Luther is standing over them all doing his best impression of the asshole he was when they were kids. (Actually, it probably isn’t an impression, he probably hasn’t changed all that much since they were thirteen). Allison is sitting too casually in the seat next to him, glass of whiskey held perfectly in one hand, smile just this side of too soft to be real. Diego sits stiffly in the other seat, farthest from Luther, arms crossed over his chest as he glares at Number One.

The four living members of the Umbrella Academy and they can’t even look at each other. Whoopee.

Vanya and Ben sit on either side of Klaus, Ben leaning back comfortably as he soaks in the sight of his siblings. Vanya curled in on herself, eyes wide, looking at the other three with longing.

Klaus bites his lip. He could tell them now. Dad was dead, he couldn’t do anything anymore. He could tell them what really happened to Vanya.

Of course as soon as he has this wonderful idea Luther is asking him to summon dear old Dad so they can talk to him.

“Yeah, no.” he says, a hysterical laugh burning in his throat that he barely chokes down. He thinks of the old man in his apartment, glaring, the flash of blue, “I don’t think that’s happening.”

“Oh my god are you high?” Allison accuses, eyes narrowed, head tilted so she’s looking down at him, on him, like he’s some nasty little cockroach that dared scuttle into her space.

Klaus ignores Vanya snarling on his left and Ben glaring on his right, the dead pissed off on his behalf, “Nope.” He says, but the living just roll their eyes.

And then Luther accuses one of them of killing the old man, which does actually make Klaus laugh.

Diego stomps out of the room, probably to go love on Mom. Klaus follows, his ghosts joining him on their quest back to the kitchen. Allison trails behind, shooting one last glare at Luther before she goes back up to her childhood bedroom.

Klaus sits at the kitchen table, remembers years of silent meals and the way the empty seats used to stand out so much.

“You know, “ he starts, looking to Vanya, “We can tell them you’re dead now.” He says.

Her eyes widen, “We…can?”

Ben nods “The old fuck’s not here. He can’t take it out on Klaus anymore. They deserve to know. What he did to you-“ Ben’s hands shake. He never did like talking about what happened to Vanya.

Klaus smiles at his little sister, “How about later? When Luther’s being less of a judgmental dickhead.”

Vanya giggles, and she nods happily.

Music starts drifting in then, from Luther’s room. An old favorite he used to play whenever Dad was out for the day. Once they had a dance party, when they were all twelve or so, all squeezed into Number One’s bedroom and smacking each other every time they moved.

It had ended with Luther and Diego brawling in the hallway of course, but the twenty or so minutes of peace and joy had been… nice.

Klaus snorts, jumping to his feet as he starts to dance, wild spinning movements, the full use of his arms, of every part of himself. Like the few times he goes out to raves, losing himself in the music, eyes closed so nothing else matters.

Ben stands beside the table, smiling softly, foot tapping, one hand held out which Vanya is holding as she spins herself around in vibrant, dizzying circles like a princess.

And for just a moment, Klaus is twelve again, dancing in Luther’s bedroom, and nothing else is happening.

But then the sky outside opens up with a crack like thunder, and the present comes crashing back down on him.

Chapter Text

Five is standing in the kitchen, scowling, as he makes himself a sandwich.

Klaus is, for once in his life, speechless.

For years he’d tried to summon their brother’s ghost, hoping against hope that he’d never find him. To find out he actually was alive all that time, that he’s as ok as someone like them can be, it’s a lot.

“Where have you been?” Allison demands, hands clenched around her elbows so they stop shaking.

“The future. It sucks by the way.”

Klaus lets out another hysterical giggle, “Called it.” He tells his ghosts.

Vanya can’t look away from Five, standing right next to him, hand hovering over his shoulder like she wants to touch him. She was the only one ever allowed to do so.

Ben sits on the counter and bites his lip to keep from screaming, staring at Five with so many emotions flickering through his eyes.

Five looks around at the four of them- that he can see- eyes narrowed, “Where’s Ben?”

Klaus’ giggles cut out just as quickly as they started.

Five didn’t know.

“Oh Five…” Allison says, eyes filling with fresh tears.

They’d never talked about it, before Klaus had left. No one had seemed willing to bring up the elephant in the room.

“Ben he…” Luther starts, stops, closes his eyes in pain, “He died. About ten years ago.”

“Twelve.” Klaus helpfully supplies, fingers shaking as he pulls out another cigarette and lights it.

Five’s face spasms for a second- confusion, fear, pain, grief, anger- before settling back to neutral, “I see… I’m… sorry I wasn’t there.”

Diego sighs, “I-It sucked.”

Five nods, looking around them again. This time, he seems almost afraid when he asks, “Where’s Vanya.”

They all look at each other.

Diego shrugs, “We don’t know. She ran away right after you did.”

“She what!”

Klaus opens his mouth finally, finally ready to tell them the truth but-

“Klaus no!” Vanya yells, jumping closer to him, “Don’t say anything.” She pleads, eyes wide. He tilts his head questioningly. She shuffles nervously, “He just found out Ben died. At least… At least give him some time before you tell him I’m dead too.”

Klaus closes his eyes against a well of pain. He shouldn’t have to have conversations like this with his dead sister.

He keeps his mouth shut.

“Well where did she go?” Five is demanding when Klaus zones back into the conversation, waving his hands angrily

Allison sighs, “I don’t know. I even hired a private investigator to track her down a few years back. Nothing. It’s like she just… disappeared.”

Klaus didn’t know about that. He also didn’t know where Vanya was buried, if she was buried. Maybe the old man cremated her and stuck her ashes somewhere.

He bites his lip to keep from screaming.

Five vanishes again before they get any more answers out of him. Luther sighs, shoulders sagging. Allison’s lip wobbles, eyes wet with tears she won’t let herself cry. Diego smashes his fist onto the counter before stomping out of the room.

Klaus moves silently back into the main hall, “Let’s go home…” he tells his ghosts.

It’s been a long day. He just wants to sleep.

“Maybe we should stay here?” Vanya suggests, looking around the old house like Five might reappear at any moment.

Klaus sighs, looking to Ben. His brother shrugs.

“Ok… I guess.”

He’s not staying in his old room. Too many memories, too many nights curled up sobbing or smoking. He’s pretty sure he still has some pills in there.

Instead he goes to the guest rooms, the ones on the opposite end of the house, the ones never used, and sets up shop there.

He doesn’t have anything with him, no extra clothes, no toiletries, not even their violin. He’ll have to stop by the apartment after work tomorrow to pick some stuff up. He’s not sure how long exactly he’s going to be staying in his childhood home but he has a feeling it’ll at least be until Five calms down enough to have a decent conversation with.

They still have to have the funeral. Still need to deal with the bastard’s will and what will happen to Mom and Pogo and the house. But for now Klaus lays back on the bed, closes his eyes, and listens to Ben and Vanya read together on the end of the bed.

++

Klaus wakes up in the morning to Vanya’s face pressed close to his, her eyes wide.

When he was younger this used to cause him to wake up screaming, but he’s gotten used to her utter lack of personal space.

“Wha times zit?” he mumbles, sitting up slowly.

“Ten am. Five is on his way up.”

Klaus blinks, looks down at his sister, “What?” and then Five appears on the end of his bed in a flash of blue.

This time, Klaus does scream.

“It’s me.” Their brother says, eyes narrowed.

Klaus holds his blanket to his chest to preserve his dignity, “I can see that!” He screeches, looking the boy up and down, “What do you want?”

Five just rolls his eyes, “I need a favor.”

Klaus narrows his eyes at him suspiciously, “A favor?”

When they were kids Five’s favors usually involved Klaus making a fool of himself to distract their father- which resulted in a trip to the mausoleum- or convincing the others to do something- which Luther usually tattled on -and resulted in a trip to the mausoleum.

“Yes. I need you to pretend to be my father.” His lips twitch in a scowl, clearly not happy with whatever predicament he’s found himself in.

Balanced precariously on the wardrobe, Ben snorts, “Oh this should be good.”

“We have to help him.” Vanya says, eyes so wide, pleading. God she’s using the puppy dog eyes again. Klaus needs to have a talk with her about those.

Five takes his silence for reluctance, “I’ll pay you twenty bucks.” He says, shoulders stiffening.

Like he has to pay Klaus to help him. It’s been nearly twenty years, of course he’s going to help his brother.

“I don’t have actual adult clothes on me right now.” He says in lieu of an appropriate answer, which is true. All his clothes are at the apartment and the clothes he has here are all ten years out of style and size range.

Klaus may have put on a few pounds in the last ten years- not a lot, he’s always going to be skinny and bean-polish, but with the combined forces of Eudora’s mother and his boss he’s been steadily eating better, more filling food.

Five grins, sharp like a knife, “I’m sure some of the old man’s clothes will fit you.”

++

A few hours, one threatening conversation, and a minor concussion later Klaus and Five sit outside the office building as Five stews angrily over his lack of information.

Klaus was very impressed with his performance, he hasn’t let himself go over the edge into full on crazy psycho in a while, it was fun. He should talk to the Icarus about acting.

Vanya is peering at the little cut on his forehead with intense concern, Ben is shaking his head and calling him an idiot.

At least they’d both been pleased by Five’s smug little grin in the office during Klaus’ shebang, at the easy way he’d let Klaus do his thing.

Maybe it was a sign that things would be ok for them.

“So, you got that twenty dollars?” he asks, grinning, hoping to lighten the mood with a joke.

Five just scowls, “Are you serious? It’s the end of the world and you’re just thinking about getting drug money!”

Klaus was not, actually. He hadn’t bought drugs since he was sixteen. He hadn’t been high since he was sixteen.

Good to see his siblings gave Five the ‘Klaus is a drug addict’ talk last night. Good to see he so readily believed it.

Ben glares at the back of Five’s head, “I forgot what a little shit he was.”

Vanya frowns deeply at her favorite brother, “That wasn’t very nice Five… Why would you say that?”

Five, of course, doesn’t hear her.

Klaus doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have anything to say. He doesn’t know why he’s surprised that this is how his siblings are always going to view him.

Klaus turns briefly to shoot Ben a tired smile, and when he turns back Five is gone.

Klaus sighs, “Come on, we’re gonna be late for work.”

They are late to work, ten minutes or so, but based on the looks Jane and Tai-Li are shooting him he probably looks as shitty as he feels.

Eudora stomps up to the counter a few minutes later, lips thin, “So, manicures huh?”

Klaus sighs, scrubbing his hands over his face, “Shit, I forgot to call you. I’m sorry.”

Her expression softens, “You ok?”

He shrugs, “My dad died last night.”

Eudora gasps, “Shit Clyde! Are you ok?”

Jane scuttles over immediately, “Go, break now.” She shoves Eudora’s usual into his hand and he hands it across the counter before shuffling after Eudora to the comfy couches.

He flops down gracelessly and puts his head in his hands, groaning, “Everything sucks.”

Eudora pats his shoulder comfortingly, “I thought you hated the guy?”

“Oh believe me, I do.” Eudora probably would to, if she knew about him, “No the sucky thing was my siblings.”

She makes a sympathetic noise, “How long has it been since you talked to them.”

“Twelve years.”

She winces, “Geez… I guess the reunion wasn’t…. happy?”

He snorts, “They think I’m a drug addict despite me getting clean when we were sixteen. I have literally been sober for half my life but not to them.”

She pulls him into a little hug, warm and firm. Klaus leans into it. He doesn’t get many hugs.

“I’m so sorry. But hey, your siblings sound like assholes anyways. Besides,” she smirks, going sly, “My mom is like, two seconds away from making you a Patch.”

Klaus snorts again, this time full of more humor. He can see it. He wouldn’t mind it.

“You should tell her the truth.” Ben reminds him

Klaus hisses at him.

“So,” Eudora continues, “What’s the plan now?”

Klaus sighs, “I finish my shift. I get boatloads of therapy. And then we reschedule our girls night. Hopefully, between all of that, my siblings forget I exist again and we can all go on our merry ways.”

That’s a lie. Klaus would like nothing more than to hang out with his siblings again. To go shopping with Allison on weekends. To rile Luther up over breakfast. To play games with Diego that leave them both wrestling on the floor.

To bothering Five into helping him read a book. To sitting side by side with Ben playing cards. To play violin with Vanya, their instruments singing in beautiful harmony.

Eudora pets his curls gently, face sad, “Sounds good. The manicures will have to wait though. We just got a nasty new case in, diner massacre, it’ll probably keep me busy for the week.”

She stands, hauling Klaus up with her. He whines, “But my nails!”

She shakes her head, smiling again, “I’ll call you later. We can bitch some more over the phone.”

Klaus squeals excitedly, “Shitty take out phone date?”

She nods, “Shitty take out phone date.”

It had become a thing, when Eudora was busy with cases. They’d both separately order food and talk over the phone for hours while Klaus painted his nails and Eudora worked.

Eudora grabs her coffee and goes. Klaus hesitates before heading back to the counter.

Vanya, sitting on the pastry case looking glum, smiles sadly at him. Ben, hovering at his shoulder, nods at him.

Klaus reroutes to the phone in the backroom.

First he calls the theatre and tells them he can’t make practice.

Then he calls his therapist.

He wasn’t kidding when he said he needed so much therapy.

++

Dr. Emilia Francis has been Klaus’ therapist since he was twenty-one. Ben had been guilting him into seeing someone and one of the ghosts had recommended her highly.

She had taken the news that he was a Hargreeves and could speak to the dead in stride, working that into their sessions slowly until Klaus had finally told her everything Daddy Dearest had done in the name of ‘training’.

And then she had started giving unofficial sessions to Ben and Vanya, via Klaus’ translations.

Klaus talked about the training and the mausoleum and the screaming dead and Daddy Dearest’s sharp slaps. About breaking his jaw and all his siblings being happy about the silence. About Vanya’s death and her haunting, about Ben’s gruesome death. About the drugs and the withdrawal and trying to get his life on track.

Ben talks about the horrors in his stomach, never knowing if he was in control. About that big house and the silence and the competition and never feeling good enough, feeling like his monsters. About dying, awful and painful and alone. About finding out his sister was dead all this time. About watching his family fall apart slowly and drift away.

Vanya doesn’t talk much but when she does she talks about being invisible, about being alone. About being ‘ordinary’ and ‘useless’. About the little white pills and the cell and the fear. About the anger, simmering under her ghostly skin.

Emilia really wants to hug the three of them, though that is both unprofessional and mostly impossible.

Klaus stalks into her office as soon as his shift is over and throws himself down on her couch, “Emmy you are not gonna believe this shit.” He groans into the overstuffed pillows.

Emilia raises one perfectly plucked eyebrow at him, “I saw the news. How is the family?”

Klaus groans again.

Emilia sits up in her chair, clasping her hands together in her lap, “Is this a Klaus session or a family session?”

She’d tried to keep a notebook their first session until Klaus had told her about his father’s scrutiny and constant note-taking, at which point she’d promptly handed it over to him and let him throw it out the window.

Very cathartic.

Klaus looks to where Vanya and Ben have made themselves at home on both ends of the couch, as opposed to hanging around the waiting room to give him privacy, “Family.”

“Ok then. Hello Vanya, Ben, glad to have you both back. It’s been awhile.”

Klaus has cut his sessions back to once a month since he’s been doing so well. He should probably ask his siblings if they want more frequent sessions again.

“My family is a bunch of assholes.” He mutters into the pillow before he rolls onto his side, clutching the thing to his stomach and pouting heavily.

Emilia smiles sympathetically, “Were they all there?”

“Yup. All the living members of the Umbrella Academy, back together again. Even little Fivey showed up.”

“Five? Really? How is he?”

Klaus shrugs, “Alive. Fifty-something years old in his thirteen-year-old body apparently. Still an asshole.”

Emilia nods, “And how do you really feel about having him back?”

He sighs, “Happy…. I missed him and… and I’m just so glad he isn’t dead.”

It’d been his greatest fear, as the years went by. One day he’d wake up and little Five would be there, his ghost staring at Klaus with the same little face as Vanya’s. That Five had jumped himself into the future and died and for Klaus it was just a waiting game until he got to the right day.

“Have you been able to talk to anyone about your father yet? What about your friend, Eudora right? Have you finally told her who you really are?”

“Yeah Klaus.” Ben grins, all teeth, “Have you?”

Klaus hisses at him.

Emilia sighs, “I’m gonna take that as a no. Klaus we talked about this last time, having a healthy support system to fall back on only works if you can trust them.”

“I know! And I can trust her but… Look can we not talk about her right now. I know I need to tell her. And we both know why I don’t want to.” He crosses his arms and tries to pretend he isn’t sulking.

What if she hates him? What if she wants nothing to do with him anymore? What if she thinks he’s only hanging out with her to get dirt on Diego?

Emilia sighs again, shaking her head, “Ok, but we will come back to this later Klaus. Ben, Vanya how do you both feel about all of this?”

Vanya twists her hands together in her lap, looking intently at her bare feet, “I’m glad he’s dead.” She says, a dark, cold undercurrent to her voice.

Klaus passes this message along. Emilia’s face sours.

She had been insistent after Klaus had come clean about his sister’s murder that they go to the police but they’d both conceded that nothing would have come from it. Reginald had money that talked louder than little dead kids, and besides, Vanya legally didn’t even exist. No birth certificate, no adoption records, hell they didn’t even have any photos of her. There was nothing to prove that she was even a real girl that had been killed at all. As far as the world was concerned Reginald Hargreeves had only six children.

“And that’s perfectly alright. What he did to you was awful and unforgivable, it’s ok that you don’t feel sorry for him, or even that you wanted him dead.” She looks to Klaus to make sure Vanya hasn’t said anything else before continuing, “And Five, you said you and he were closest before he disappeared, how is it to see him again? Have you spoken to him?”

Vanya shifts, and Klaus sighs, “We didn’t tell him she was dead. He’d just found out about Ben and… and Vanya wanted to wait.”

“He’s not like I remember him…” she says softly

Emilia nods, “Whenever we lose a loved one we tend to only remember the good things, to put them up on a pedestal. But the truth can sometimes be hard to see. And from what I understand, for Five it’s been decades, he’s grown up quite a bit from the boy you knew.”

“Yeah but now he’s an even bigger jackass.” Ben grumbles

Klaus passes this along dutifully.

Emilia purses her lips, sits up straighter, and they get down to business.

By the time their session is up an hour later, Klaus’ mascara is running down his cheeks and he’s snotted all over his favorite sweater.

Ben and Vanya are quiet as they trail behind him, towards their apartment, not saying a word as they get home and Klaus immediately goes about packing a bag.

He still really, really doesn’t want to go back to that house.

It’s just a few days though.

What’s the worst that could happen?

++

Klaus has his headphones on as he dances around the guest room. Ben and Vanya are downstairs stalking the others so he’s free to move around in his towel without fear of offending his ghostly brother’s delicate sensibilities.

It’s been a long day. Between work and trying to avoid literally every member of his family he’s dying to just lay down and relax with his ghosts.

Of course Vanya’s gone off to shadow Five and Ben is getting a kick out of watching Luther and Diego argue in the living room downstairs so Klaus is left to his own devices.

He doesn’t hear the gunshots or the shouting downstairs, the running footsteps or the screams or even the crash of the chandelier to the floor.

He does notice the bedside lamp crashing to the floor and when he turns, ripping his headphones off Ben is standing, wide-eyed.

“There are psycos with guns in the house!” He yells, like he’s probably been yelling for the last several minutes.

Klaus dives for his suitcase, pulls on a pair of pants, and just gets one boot on his foot when his door is kicked open and a man in a blue mask hefting a shotgun marches in.

Klaus’ scream is cut short by the butt end of the gun slamming into his temple, and then he only sees darkness.

++

Klaus wakes up slowly, eyelids fluttering weakly against the truly spectacular concussion headache he can feel pounding away in his skull.

He slowly takes stock of his body, shirtless, skinny jeans, one shoe, wrists duct taped to a cheap motel chair and mouth covered.

Great.

Of course, this is the high point of his evening, everything goes downhill after that.

Klaus honestly doesn’t remember much of what happens in that little room between the concussion and the blood loss and the pain.

So much pain.

There are cigarette burns on his forearms and knife slashes across his chest. The indent and bruising around his neck from the shoelace the chick had squeezed around his throat- from his own boot no less.

He’s hungry and thirsty and his everything hurts.

He can’t focus, and it’s clearly affecting his abilities too. Ben keeps fading in and out with every new torture tactic, voice warbling like a bad phone connection, phasing intangible through everything he tries to touch.

There are other ghosts in the room, quieter, distant things, more shadow than ghost, whispering quietly from the darkness as they watch with gruesome intent as Klaus is interrogated.

He finally gets the chance to clear his head when he’s freshly duct taped to the chair and dragged across the room, pain starting to lessen, thoughts becoming clear.

And then he’s thrown in the closet.

If he were more aware of himself he might crack a joke about his sexuality.

As it is his mind just gets thrown back to the mausoleum, to being eight, small and afraid, begging his father for help, only to get locked in the dark. He screams against his gag, tears streaming down his face, blood pooling underneath him. He can’t think, can’t feel anything, can’t hear anything, not even Ben’s quiet, calming whispers.

Dad please. Please. Dad. Please let me out. I’ll be good. I’ll try harder. Please. It’s dark. It’s cold. Please. Please. Please.

No one lets him out of the closet, just like no one let him out of the mausoleum. Not until the psychos get back and they’re not exactly a welcome sight.

He does manage a crack about their faces, which they’ve finally showed. He knows enough about this situation to know that means he isn’t getting out of here alive. Kidnappers only show their faces to the ones who’ll be dead soon.

It’s then that Vanya finally arrives, eyes wide, tears streaming down her face, “Klaus!”

“Van….” He whispers, “Don’t watch… don’t…”

He doesn’t want her to see this, not this.

Ben puts a hand on her shoulder, squeezing tight, “Come on Klaus, focus, we can get you out of this.”

Klaus shakes his head, not sure if he’s saying no or trying to clear it. Everything hurts.

Vanya’s harsh winds start blowing around her and the shadowy ghosts back up, unsure. Klaus feels nothing.

“Stop hurting my brother!” she screams at the assassins’ backs, fists clenched.

Ben holds her tighter, “Please Klaus, please, they’re gonna kill you.”

Klaus takes a deep breath, holds it, closes his eyes. Focus, focus.

A woman appears in the room, one of the ghosts arrived at last, and she paces angrily back and forth, gesturing to the two in the corner and muttering in angry Russian.

“They killed you, didn’t they?” Ben asks her, but she ignores him, “Come on Klaus, focus more, make us tangible.”

Klaus lets out his breath in a rush, “Can’t…” he breathes.

“Shut up!” Cha-Cha shouts, reaching over to slap him over the head.

More ghosts start rushing in, other victims, all pointing and yelling angrily in a variety of languages.

“Talk to them.” Ben suggests, “Maybe they can help.” His voice cracks with his own desperation. He’s afraid, Klaus knows. So is he.

Klaus takes another deep breath and looks to the Russian lady, “What’s your name?”

Later, after a dozen or so rounds of ghostly ranting about century old murders, when Cha-Cha has dragged Hazel back into the bathroom for some good old-fashioned shouting, Klaus finally lets himself sag.

The ghosts all filter out, save for his ghosts of course.

“Klaus…” Vanya whispers, “Come on…”

Klaus grits his teeth, clenches his hands into fists, and starts scooting his chair across the motel room towards the door.

Maybe he can scoot far enough down the hallway he’ll run into someone else who’ll help him. Maybe he can throw himself off the balcony and break the chair. (Or his neck, but that’s a bad thought and he promised Emilia not to listen to the bad thoughts)

Vanya disappears and is back again, eyes wide, “Eudora’s here!” she says, pointing eagerly through the window. Klaus peers between the curtains and can just make out his friend, gun raised, as she approaches.

He closes his eyes, regrets the absolutely killer headache he’s about to give himself, and starts banging his head against the table.

“Eudora!” Vanya screams, banging ineffectual hands against the glass, “In here!”

“Come on…” Ben whispers, “Come on…”

The door creaks open moments later, Eudora’s eyes widening in surprise, “Claude?”

Klaus nearly sobs in relief, might actually start crying as the gag is finally removed and Eudora starts stripping duct tape off his wrists, “I’ll explain… gotta go…”

Eudora raises her gun, looking further into the room, “Bathroom?” she asks

Klaus nods, “Two….” He says, then ducks down behind the bed.

“Klaus!” Ben hisses, pointing to the air vent.

Klaus opens it as Eudora approaches, “Police!”

There’s a briefcase in the vent, and Klaus grabs it, pulls it to his chest.

Hazel is coming out of the bathroom, hands raised. But where’s-

“Behind you!” Vanya screams

Klaus turns, sees Cha-Cha stepping into the doorway, raising her gun, aiming right at Eudora’s exposed back.

“NO!” he screams

“Eudora!” Vanya yells, the wind whipping so harshly around her that it nearly sends Klaus toppling back onto his ass.

Wait… What?

The power rushes out of Vanya and hurls into Cha-Cha, sending the woman flying backwards and over the railing. Hazel flies back into the wall and falls still.

Eudora looks around, at Klaus on the floor, and then to Vanya, standing over him, her eyes widen.

Vanya gasps, “Can you see me?”

“Who are you?” Eudora asks, then looks to Klaus, “Who are you?”

Klaus swallows, “Klaus Hargreeves.”

Eudora blinks slowly, looks across the room to Hazel’s slumped form, and then nods, holstering her gun, “Right…You and I are going to have a very long discussion when we get to the station.” She reaches for her radio, “Detective Patch requesting medical at the Motel on Sears St. Two armed perps in custody. Civilian wounded in need of medical care.”

Klaus winces as he gets to his feet, only just now noticing the blue glow coming from his hands that is likely the cause of the blue glow around Vanya and her sudden corporealness.

Eudora jumps forward and helps him to sit on the mattress, the briefcase settled in his lap.

“Sorry…” he hisses through his teeth, whimpering when Eudora’s hands graze over the burns on his arms, “I was gonna tell you.”

She sighs, petting a gentle hand through his hair, “I guess I can’t blame you for lying. From what Diego’s told me, your family is a mess.”

Ben snorts, “That’s an understatement.”

Eudora’s head whips around to stare at him, sitting on the table by the door, “And you are?”

Ben’s eyes widen, “You can… You can see me?”

Klaus lets out a giggle, “Better late than never, huh Ben?”

Ben laughs, looking awed, “Yeah…yeah…”

The blue glow fades suddenly from Klaus’ hands and from around his siblings, and Eudora looking around suddenly is enough to tell him that the both of them have vanished from her sight.

“Where did they go?”

“Still here. You just can’t see them anymore.”

Eudora purses her lips, clearly wanting to ask more questions, but instead she stands, “Stay here, I’m gonna check on those two.”

Klaus sits and watches as she goes over to Hazel’s prone body, pushing his arms behind his back and cuffing him before she goes about checking his vitals. Then she hurries out into the hall to presumably check on Cha-Cha.

He closes his eyes, breathing deeply, exhausted beyond belief. He needs a shower and a nap and so much food. Not to mention another session with Emilia.

It’s been over twenty-four hours since he was kidnapped.

None of his siblings probably even know he’s gone.

When Eudora comes back into the room his hands are shaking and tears are burning in his eyes.

“I’m sorry…” he croaks out, “I’m sorry….”

She sighs, sitting beside him and petting his hair gently, “I’m not mad Cly-Klaus.” She corrects herself, smiling softly, “I promise. We’re gonna get these two put away and then we’re gonna go back to my place and get you taken care of. Then we’ll talk.”

Klaus is so glad to have her in his life.

“The police cars are here.” Vanya says, standing in the doorway, blue and red lights flashing in from outside.

“Just a little longer Klaus.” Ben whispers softly, “Then we can sleep.”

Klaus nods, grip tightening on the briefcase.

Eudora stands, peering out the window, “They’re here.” She looks at him again, then frowns, “What’s that?” she taps the briefcase.

Klaus shrugs, “Theirs. Found it in the vent.”

She hums, “Evidence then. Could have something dangerous inside.” She moves towards the door, waving out in the hallway “Over here!”

Klaus looks at the case, fingers tracing the seams until he finds the latches.

“I hope it’s money.” He grumbles, “These hospital bills won’t be cheap.”

Eudora snorts, shaking her head as she looks back at him, “You’re a Hargreeves right? Your dad was a billionaire.”

“You’re crazy if you think he left me even a penny.”

Ben rolls his eyes, “Oh come on, he probably left you at least a dollar, that way you can’t claim he forgot to add you.”

Klaus fiddles with the clasps on the case, and Eudora frowns, “Hey don’t open it-“ too late as he flicks open the latches and a flash of blue envelops him.

“Klaus!” Vanya yells, but he closes his eyes against the light, clinging tighter to the briefcase, and then doesn’t hear anything.

Chapter Text

Six hours and ten months later Klaus sits on the same motel bed, hands shaking and coated in blood that isn’t his, wearing a military vest two sizes too big and a pair of cargo pants cinched at his waist with a rope tied in a knot, his heavy boots coated in mud.

He holds the briefcase in his lap, clutched to his chest as he looks around, taking in the motel room he had been tortured in so long ago and yet only hours before.

There is still police tape over the door and blood on the carpet.

Then the damn breaks and Klaus curls up on the bed and sobs, tossing the briefcase carelessly on the floor as he claws at the sheets and screams in agony.

He isn’t sure how much time passes- minutes, hours, it feels like years- before a gentle voice break through his sobs and he finally opens his eyes.

Vanya is kneeling next to the bed, eyes filled with tears, one hand pressed into his chest, a coldness seeping through him at her touch.

“Klaus… Where did you go? We couldn’t find you anywhere.”

Klaus clutches at the blankets where her wrist should be, shaking worsening, “Van….” He hiccups, “I missed you.”

Ben appears over Vanya’s shoulders, worry clear on his face, “Klaus….” He looks his living brother over, the clothes, the blood, the age suddenly showing in his eyes. “Oh Klaus…. What happened?”

Klaus just sobs, wailing in misery as he tries to tell them everything. Tries to tell them about Vietnam, the war and the death, the awful noise of gunshots and helicopters and screams. About Dave, so kind, so warm, his big hands pressed into Klaus’ back to keep him steady, his lips so soft against his own. About ten months, afraid to go on but afraid to open the briefcase and find something worse. About dreaming of a life with Dave, a future after the war, a farm and chickens and kids and two old men breaking into the Academy to steal the children of the Umbrella Academy away. And then Dave’s blood hot on his hands, his eyes cloudy with death, the awful choking gasps of his last breaths.

Vanya and Ben hover over him, whispering nonsense calming words until his shaking lessens and his sobs cease.

“Let’s go home.” Vanya whispers, “Come on Klaus, let’s go.”

He’s not quite sure how they manage it. He honestly doesn’t remember getting up and leaving the motel or getting home. He’s not sure if he walked the whole way or if they caught the bus. But suddenly he’s in their apartment, staring into the sink as the hot water runs red as Dave’s blood rinses off his skin.

He’s vaguely aware of Ben starting the water in the tub, the hisses of his frustration as he keeps phasing uselessly through the handles. Of Vanya, messing with the radio and urging him to pick out his favorite color bath bomb.

He moves on autopilot, numb, as he strips off his boots, bloody water dripping down his body and leaving red splatter on his bathroom floor. He leaves his clothes on the floor, stepping into the tub wearing only his dog tags.

There are two now, his and Dave’s, which the love of his life had shoved into his hands as he lay dying.

He sinks into the water, hands grasping at the worn metal, shaking anew as fresh sobs wrack through him.

The dead are whispering in the corners of the room, hissing at him, begging and pleading for things he cannot give them.

“Go away!” Vanya hisses back, a burst of power pushing all the ghosts out of the room. Klaus doesn’t feel it.

He sinks under the water, deep until his head is under and he can’t hear his siblings whispering or see their concerned gazes.

Then he screams.

++

There’s a knock on his door sometime the next afternoon. Klaus hasn’t left his cocoon on the bed since he got there, hasn’t bothered to get dressed or dry his hair, just wrapped himself up and collapsed.

He doesn’t move, doesn’t even twitch. Between one blink and the next Five is standing over his bed with a scowl.

“Where is it?” he demands

“Five stop!” Vanya cries, shoving her hands into her brother’s chest as if to push him away

“Where’s what?” Klaus asks, his voice cracking from all the sobbing

“The briefcase!” he snaps, “Diego’s detective friend said you took it!”

Klaus honestly has no idea. He thinks he may have left it in the motel. Maybe he dropped it on the way back. He turns his head to look at Ben, who shrugs.

“I think it busted. It was smoking.”

“Broken.” He mutters to Five, whose face twists in a snarl of frustration

“You idiot! I could have used that to fix this! God you are so useless!”

Then he turns and vanishes.

“Five!” Vanya yells after him, fury pulling her little face into something ugly. She spins to face Klaus, “Don’t listen to him! You’re the best Klaus!”

He shrugs, burrows back under his blankets, and closes his eyes.

Maybe Five is right.

He sleeps fitfully all day, not moving from his blanket to even eat.

At some point Ben sighs, “I’m gonna go check on the others.” And drifts away.

Klaus doesn’t move, just watches the shadows twist around his room and listens to Vanya hum peaceful songs in his ear.

Night comes, the room is quiet and Vanya is sitting on his pillow, imitating the position as if he could have his head in her lap, her fingers moving through his hair though they don’t touch.

“Klaus…” An achingly familiar voice calls and he shoots up in bed, tears falling as he lays eyes on the most handsome man he’s ever seen.

“Dave...”

Dave Katz stands in the doorway to his bedroom, smiling wide as that first day on the bus, blood oozing from the hole in his chest not seeming to bother him in the slightest.

“Hey there sunshine.”

Vanya stares at him wide-eyed, then she smiles, “You came.”

Dave nods, “I’ll always come for him.”

Klaus throws the blankets off of himself, struggling out of the bed and jumping to his feet, not caring that he’s buck ass naked as he moves as fast as possible.

“Dave!” he runs towards the door, arms outstretched, intent on kissing the life out of his man and his powers will make it happen so help him-

The world freezes.

And then resets.

++

He sleeps fitfully all day, not moving from his blanket to even eat.

At some point Ben sighs, “I’m gonna go check on the others.” And drifts away.

Klaus doesn’t move, just watches the shadows twist around his room and listens to Vanya hum peaceful songs in his ear.

Ben reappears suddenly sometime in the evening, eyes wide, “You need to get up, now!”

Vanya sits up quickly, “What’s going on?”

“It’s Luther. He just found out he went to the moon for nothing. He’s having a breakdown.”

Klaus grumbles, “I’m having a breakdown.”

Ben kneels beside the bed, tilting his head so he’s looking Klaus in the eye, “Please Klaus, Luther needs someone before something happens to him. He’s not doing ok.”

Vanya frowns, “Neither is Klaus. Luther’s always so mean to him.”

Klaus sighs, “Ben is right though. Luther doesn’t know how to process his human emotions. Not like Daddy-O ever taught us.” He stands, digging around his floor for his comfiest sweatshirt. He’s not in the mood to look nice right now.

By the time he makes it to the Academy Luther is well and truly on his way to absolutely shit-faced, stumbling around the living room as he pours himself drinks from their father’s personal bar- that Klaus had helped himself to happily in his teens.

“Hey there big guy.” He greets, smiling as best he can around his own sheer exhaustion.

“Klaus…” Luther slurs, shambling over in all his hulking glory, overbalancing as he tries to grab at Klaus’ shoulder and ramming his whole body into the wall, resting his face against the wood, “Dad… He sent me to the moon for nothing… he lied… he was…such a bastard.”

Klaus sighs, “Yeah buddy, I know. Believe me. I think you’re the last person on the Reginald-is-a-dick train. Welcome aboard.”

“Choo-coo.” Vanya chimes in, unheard

“I wanna be like you Klaus!” Luther insists, dropping onto the couch as his brother’s urging, “I wanna be carefree and happy!”

Ah, back to the drugs.

“You know I’ve been sober for like, sixteen years right?” he asks softly, but sighs, “And anyways, the drugs didn’t give you that. They don’t make you happy. They just make you…. Numb. And believe me, you don’t want that. You really don’t.”

“I do!” Luther nods rapidly, “I really do! I wanna be like you!”

That’s not him anymore. That was never him. That was just the mask he put on to hide how he was breaking, how he was drowning in everything around him. An act he hoped someone would save him from.

No one ever did. Not until Vanya died.

Luther jerks suddenly to his feet, looming over Klaus with all his bulk, “Summon him! Dad! He needs to answer for what he did to me!”

Klaus stands too, rubbing at his face, “I can’t big guy. He’s gone. Bye-bye. Sayonara. Off in the great beyo-“

He chokes off in a gasp as Luther’s big fist wraps around his throat and squeezes, “Do it!” he screams

“Luther stop!” Vanya screams

“Luther!” Ben yells, banging useless fists against their biggest brother’s back.

Klaus chokes, “Lu…ther…Please….”

Luther throws him aside like he’s nothing, tossing Klaus to the floor like a piece of trash to be discarded.

His head hits the floor and then everything goes black.

++

So, God is apparently an angry little girl on a bicycle who hates his guts.

Figures.

Dave isn’t waiting for him in the quaint little shop on the hill. Instead Reginald ‘Father of the Year’ Hargreeves is standing in his little Sweeney Todd hell shop, sneering down on his biggest disappointment same as he had in life.

He gets quite the earful about keeping his dead siblings hidden.

And then he finds out the old man killed himself.

Maybe he expects Klaus to feel bad. To cry over him.

This monster murdered his little sister.

Klaus feels nothing.

The bastard deserves to rot.

++

He wakes up on the living room floor with blood drying on the side of his skull.

Ben is sitting over him, his knees on either side of Klaus’ head as he cries miserably and screams for help.

He can hear the distant sound of Vanya’s powers raging around them, the ghosts screaming in fear as she rails against them.

“Ben….” He whispers, a headache pounding in his skull

“Klaus! You… You were dead!”

“Klaus!” Vanya appears over him, tears streaming down her face

He sits up slowly, “Hey it’s ok, I’m ok.”

Vanya sobs, “He killed you…He…”

“I’m fine. Look see,” he gestures to himself grandly, “All good. Not dead.”

At least not anymore.

Better not to think about that.

Vanya sinks down to sit beside him, sniffling as she wipes at her face, “I thought…. And then you weren’t here and… And I… Don’t leave me Klaus.”

“I’ll never leave you Van.” He promises, “Never.” He rubs at the back of his head, feeling for a crack that isn’t there. He sighs, “Let’s just… go home.”

Ben doesn’t bring up Luther needing them. He doesn’t say anything as they make their slow way home to the apartment.

There’s a message blinking on his answering machine. A lot of messages actually, more than he’s likely ever had before.

“Clyde where the fuck are you!” Eudora’s voice yells through the machine, and he can hear the fear and the worry in it, “I am on my way to your place right now and I swear to god…. Fuck… Answer your fucking phone!”

“Cly-Klaus- Whatever the fuck your name is- where are you? I swear if you’re just sitting in your fucking apartment painting your goddamn nails- You were fucking kidnapped! I don’t know what the fuck that briefcase shit was but if you don’t call me right the fuck now- Shit!”

“Hey Klaus….” That’s Diego, soft and unsure, hesitant in a way that’s unfamiliar, “Eudor- Patch!” he corrects himself sharply over the sound of an agitated hiss that must be hers, “Patch gave me your number. She said that those psychos had you t-tied up and t-t-tortured y-y-y-you. Look, I just… I need you to call me bro, or come to the Academy or something ok? I’m worried about you.”

Vanya snorts angrily, “He wasn’t so worried when you were missing.”

Klaus sighs and sends the machine to silence. He picks up the phone and calls Eudora.

“What?” she snaps, sounding agitated

Klaus finds himself relaxing at the sound of it. He really has missed her. “Now is that anyway to talk to someone detective?” he asks, hoping the humor will cover up just how tired he is.

“Clyde!” she sighs, “Thank god! Where are you, asshole? What happened back there?”

“My place. And it’s a… long story.” He rubs his free hand over his face, refusing to turn and see Ben’s sympathetic face, “Sorry to worry you.”

There’s a long moment of silence before she speaks, “Hey, I’m…. Well I’m still dealing with these two nutjobs but stay put ok? I’m coming over as soon as I can. Ok?”

He nods, then remembers she can’t see him, “Yeah…yeah that sounds good. I missed you Dora.”

“It’s only been a day.” She says, confused

He lets out a dry chuckle, “Not for me. Not for me….”

“Are you sure you’re gonna be ok? I can have Diego go over.”

“No… I’ll be fine. I’ll see you later.” Then he hangs up.

He plops down on the couch, lays his head over the back, and sighs for as long as he can.

“Klaus…” Vanya settles next to him, her cold touch going through his wrist, “I’m sorry…”

“Not your fault V…”

Her lip wobbles, “I should have protected you. From them. From Luther. From this.”

“That’s not your job kiddo.”

“Klaus.” Ben leans over the back of the couch, looking at him like he’s going to break, “Maybe we should make an appointment with Emmy. Talk to her, to anyone?”

Klaus stares up at the ceiling, “I’m tired Ben… I’m so tired.”

He wants to be numb. He wants to forget everything.

Funny how an addiction he kicked so long ago can come crashing back in so suddenly. So urgently and desperately.

He wants to be numb.

Vanya’s touch turns frost cold on his arm, almost burning, “Klaus…”

“Let’s just go to sleep.”

++

Early the next morning there’s a knock at his front door. He sighs, groans, then rolls off the couch and shuffles to open it.

He’s hoping Eudora is here to hug him and hold him and let him cry into her shoulder all day.

It’s not Eudora.

It’s Allison. Five too, scowling up at him.

His sister purses her lips at him as she looks him up and down, from his rumpled, day old clothes to his messy hair to the bags under his eyes.

From her limited experience with the druggies in her movies she probably thinks he’s high.

“What?” he snaps, leaving his door open for them to do whatever they want as he stalks over to his kitchen to make himself something to eat.

He’s not really hungry. He feels pretty sick to his stomach, actually. But he needs to eat. He promised Vanya not to starve himself whenever he was upset.

“Klaus, we need to talk.” Allison says, standing with her arms crossed as she watches him meander around his kitchen

“Talk away.” He says distractedly, looking through his fridge and mentally calculating if he has enough to make a batch of waffles.

“This is serious!” Five growls, teleporting in front of him and slamming the fridge shut, “Clyde Harris.” He hisses

Klaus blinks slowly, “Yes?”

Five looks about two seconds away from maiming him with a fork.

Allison hurries over and puts a hand on their smaller brother’s shoulder that he jerks away from. She looks to Klaus like she’s talking to a small child, “Diego’s friend said that’s the name you go by, right?”

He nods, shrugging, “Yeah, why?”

“Five brought back some information from his time travelling friends.” She shoots him a look, “According to them Clyde Harris is somehow tied to the end of the world.”

Klaus blinks, looks at Allison, and then Five, and then over to the couch to Ben and Vanya.

They both shrug.

“Yeah I think you have the wrong Clyde Harris.” He finally says, opening the fridge once more and deciding to just go with cereal.

Five snarls angrily and slaps the carton of milk out of his hands. Klaus lets out a whine as the stuff puddles on the floor.

Only it isn’t milk. It’s blood, and it isn’t his ceramic kitchen tile it’s the thick heavy mud of the jungle.

Dave is lying next to him, gasping, choking. Helicopters zoom by overhead and gunfire echoes all around him and there’s screaming. So loud, everywhere, and he can’t tell if its coming from the living or the dead.

“Klaus!” Allison snaps, “God can you stay focused for once! This is serious!”

“We’re going to the Academy.” Five hisses, “To figure this shit out. Come on.”

Klaus’ hands shake as he blinks around at his apartment, at Vanya hovering next to him suddenly, her hands pressed into his spine. Ben stands by the couch and looks concerned.

They don’t even let him protest. Allison grabs him by the wrist, her nails digging into his skin as she drags him out of his apartment and to the car.

He’s thrown unceremoniously into the backseat, his ghosts sitting anxiously on either side of him as the living argue up front.

He tunes them out.

“It’s gonna be ok Klaus.” Ben says softly, shooting concerned glances at the other two, “It’s probably just a mix-up.”

“I won’t let them hurt you.” Vanya says seriously, face filled with determination.

Up front, he can vaguely hear Allison making snide comments about how he got that apartment and Five scowling about how he can’t sober up for five minutes.

They don’t know him.

When they finally get to the Academy Diego is prowling the front hall with his usual scowl in place, which deepens when he sees them.

“What took so fucking long?” he hisses, stomping closer

Allison pushes Klaus onto one of the couches and crosses her arms again, “You could have helped get him.” She snaps back at him

“Shut up!” Five growls, “Where’s Luther?”

“Here.” The big guy shuffles into the room, obviously hung over as he drops into one of the chairs.

“What the hell happened to you?” Diego asks, malicious glee shining in his smirk

“Shove off.” Luther hisses, glaring fiercely, “What’s going on?”

Five paces quick lines back and forth in front of the mantel and his ridiculous portrait.

“Klaus has something to do with causing the apocalypse. The Commission was about to send out an order to have him protected that I intercepted.” He waves the little slip of paper about in one hand, snarling when Diego snatches it out of his grasp.

“How in the hell can Klaus of all people cause the apocalypse?”

Five scoffs, “Clearly he doesn’t. Are you stupid, what could he do? Cry at some ghosts?”

Vanya snarls next to him, “Five!”

Ben sighs, “God they’re all such assholes.”

Klaus stares at his feet, still bare, Allison never gave him a chance to grab his shoes.

He’s tired.

He wants to be numb.

He zones back into the conversation when the yelling starts.

“-that’s fucking stupid!” Diego is yelling, waving his arms about

“Do you have any better ideas?” Five yells back, standing in Diego’s personal space and getting right up in his face

“What, that don’t include locking our brother up? Yes!”

“Stop yelling!” Allison yells, defeating the purpose

“If Klaus has some kind of connection to the end of the world keeping him contained is our best option!”

“You can’t just lock people up Five!”

“Please stop yelling.” Luther mutters miserably, clutching at his head

“Our other option is murder! I would think you’d be happier with this one!”

“Jesus fucking Christ!”

“Five!” Allison snaps, “We aren’t killing anyone.”

Klaus blinks slowly.

Oh, they’re talking about him.

Vanya is standing in front of him suddenly, shoulders stiff and breathing heavy. A harsh wind is blowing around her, sending all the ghosts scurrying.

Ben grips onto the back of the couch, “Van, calm down. They’re not going to actually do anything to Klaus.”

Luther stands suddenly, interrupting the new bout of yelling, “Alright shut it!” Everyone falls silent, glaring up at their big leader, “Look, I think we can all agree that we don’t want to lock Klaus up. But Five is right, for the sake of the world we need to do something. I won’t be permanent, just until the second, right? That’s just today and tomorrow. The next morning we can let him out and then figure things out from there.”

Diego scowls but Allison puts her hand on his shoulder to keep him from arguing, “Where would we even put him? It’s not like we have a secure room on hand.”

“Actually…” Luther says slowly, “We do. I found it, just before I left. There’s this little box in the basement.”

Vanya’s wind cuts out all at once.

Klaus holds his breath.

They can’t mean…

“What kind of box?” Five demands

Luther shrugs, “I don’t know. There’s an elevator in the hall that leads down to it. It’s underground, reinforced steel. Even looks soundproofed. I figured dad had it made for someone’s training.”

Klaus pales.

They’re gonna lock him up in the dark.

“No!” Vanya cries, “No Klaus… No they can’t… I won’t let them.. No….” her wind starts picking up again, but Klaus can hardly notice it, not with the way his hands are shaking and his breathing is going panicked.

Not the dark. Don’t lock him in the dark.

Please dad…

There’s a sudden crash, all his siblings standing quickly and turning about as antique vases start shattering on the floor, books flying off the shelves as a harsh wind starts blowing through the room. The curtains all sway violently, the stuffed creatures on the wall crashing down to the ground.

“What’s happening?” Diego yells, knives in hand

Klaus stares at his bare feet, oblivious to all of it.

Vanya kneels down in front of him, eyes glowing white, a smile on her face, “I won’t let them kill you too.” She says, and then she reaches for him, through him, “Come on Klaus.” She whispers, “Let’s go home.”

Klaus feels cold all over, a terrible burning cold for one brief moment.

Then he feels nothing.

Nothing but beautiful numbness.

He sleeps.

Nothing matters anymore.

Chapter Text

Ben watches in horror as the living room falls apart around them.

Luther puts one big arm in front of Allison, shielding her, as their sister looks around wildly for the source of the destruction.

Five teleports himself from spot to spot, never settling long in one place as he watches the chaos unfold with increasing annoyance.

Diego clutches his knives and starts backing towards the door, eyes sweeping up towards the stairs where mom is probably busy cleaning.

He looks down to Klaus and his unbeating heart freezes.

Klaus’ eyes are unfocused on the floor, breathing coming fast in an oncoming panic attack.

Vanya is kneeling in front of him, hands inside his chest, her eyes glowing unnaturally white and a mean smile on her little face.

He watches as Vanya sinks into Klaus, her spirit melding into his body until she’s gone.

Klaus’ shaking stops.

The room stops shaking as well.

“What the hell is going on!” Five yells, standing on the bar

Klaus stands slowly, but Ben can tell by the way he moves that something is wrong.

Klaus moves like a dancer, gracefully chaotic, all sweeping limbs and dramatic gestures, a slide in his step that’s just a little too fast.

Now he moves slow, measured, short little steps as he crosses the living room and heads for the front door. His arms stay close to his body, a little bounce in his step, a sway he doesn’t usually have.

“Klaus…..” Something is wrong.

“Klaus! Where the hell do you think you’re going!” Luther demands, reaching for him

His hand is a centimeter above his shoulder when Luther jerks suddenly off the ground and goes flying across the room.

“Luther!” Allison screams, running to his side as he crashes into the bookshelf on the opposite wall

“Klaus!” Diego barks, eyes wide

Klaus turns slowly to face them, a small, dark smile on his face. His eyes glow white, “You don’t get to touch him anymore Luther.” He says, but there’s an echo in his voice, another voice underneath his, barely a whisper, small and angry and familiar.

“Vanya?” Ben gasps, watching wide-eyed as his sister puppets their brother towards the door

He looks at him and smiles wider, and that’s certainly Vanya’s timid little smile on his face, “Let’s go home. They’re not worth our time.” Then she turns, in Klaus’ body, and walks slowly towards the door.

Five teleports in front of their brother, unaware of what is really going on, snarling, “What the fuck!” and then he reaches out for Klaus’ wrist

Vanya won’t let him touch a single Klaus. With a flick of Klaus’ wrist Vanya’s power rushes out and into Five, sending him crashing to the hall floor with a thud.

“Five!” Diego yells, running into the room, “Klaus stop!”

Vanya stops, tilting Klaus’ head in question as they look back at Diego, standing in the doorway.

“What do you want?” they ask

Diego may be an ass, but he always was softer with Klaus when they were kids. Always putting a hand on his shoulder or ruffling his hair. They’d been hearing about him for years, from Eudora, so Vanya is willing to listen.

Just for a moment.

Diego looks to Five, sprawled out on the floor and back to Allison and Luther, slowly getting up.

He swallows, “L-look man, I don’t know what’s going on with you right now but we’re gonna figure this out, ok? Let’s just c-c-calm down and talk this out. We can help you Klaus.”

The moment ends.

The whole building starts shaking suddenly, violently, cracks spider-webbing in the ceiling, the fancy portraits shaking off their hooks on the walls. Pottery shattering on the floor. The stairs groan and creak as they start to splinter apart.

“Help him?” Vanya hisses, their voices low and dangerous. Her fury practically tangible in the air despite the way her voice is barely a whisper under Klaus’, “You never wanted to help him! Not when he was kidnapped! Not when he was missing! Not when the ghosts were terrorizing him! Not now! You’re just like him! You’re just like dad!”

There’s a spike of power on the last word, a wall of energy flying outwards from the two of them and sending pieces of the ceiling falling to the ground.

Allison and Luther, huddled together, shamble into the room, ducking to avoid debris. Five stands shakily, clutching his side, wobbling.

“Vanya stop it!” Ben yells, trying to force his way closer to them

Klaus’ hands glow blue suddenly, nearly as bright as his white eyes, and then the ghosts arrive.

They huddle in the corners, blood dripping from all over the place, bodies twisted and broken, mouths open in terrible screams.

Allison slams her hands over her ears. Luther and Diego stare in horror at the beings surrounding them. Five winces and staggers closer to the others.

“This is what you do!” The pair continues, “You lock us up! You break us down! You murder us! I won’t let you kill him!”

“Stop it!” Ben screams, staggering backwards when Vanya’s powers rush outwards again

“Ben?” Diego gasps, eyes wide, all his siblings are looking at him.

Ben looks down at himself, glowing blue, visible. He grimaces. Not now. Now he needs to focus on Vanya.

“Vanya!” He yells, and sees his siblings’ eyes widen, “They’re not going to kill Klaus! Please! You have to let him go!”

“No!” They scream, petulant, furious, “I can protect him! I can keep him safe! I won’t let dad kill us!”

“Dad’s not here!” Ben says, dropping to his knees to keep from blowing away, “He’s dead. Klaus banished him, remember? He’s gone. He can’t hurt you again, or Klaus. Please Vanya…”

The wind dies down minimally, the glow in Klaus’ eyes fades from blinding to a dull glow.

“Ben…” she says, and it’s her voice on top, Klaus’ nothing more than a whimper.

Ben smiles, holding out his hand to her.

Only for Luther to rush past him, towards Klaus, fist raised.

“Luther no!” Ben warns, too late.

Klaus’ face twists up in a snarl, the wind rages up in a terrible arc and slices, like a knife, right through Luther’s arm.

Luther screams in agony, dropping to the floor and clutching at the bloody stump of his wrist.

His still clenched fist drops to the floor with a sickening thud.

“Luther!” Allison screams, jumping forward only to fall back onto her ass when another burst of energy ripples outward.

The house starts shaking all over again, ten times stronger than before.

Vanya wearing Klaus’ face snarls, then turns on their heel and stalks out the front door, slamming it behind them with such force that the ceiling overhead comes crashing down.

Ben gapes between the door and Luther, bleeding, then at his own hands. He’s still blue. They can still see him.

“We need to get out of here!” He yells, as the house shakes apart around them, “Run!”

Diego rushes to Luther’s side, helping Allison support Luther as they get the big guy up and standing.

Five teleports ahead and then back, face pale as he stares at Luther, “The kitchen door, go!”

Ben reaches out to stop him before he teleports again, his hand phasing uselessly through his brother’s shoulder. Ok he can’t touch, he’ll just have to work with being visible. “Five, you need to find mom and Pogo, get them out.”

Five stares at him for a long moment before nodding and then disappears.

Ben stares at the front door where Klaus and Vanya had been, the two siblings he’d spent the last decade and a half with. The brother he’s always been closest with and the sister they’d all failed.

He doesn’t know what to do to fix this.

He doesn’t know if he can.

He turns and runs after his siblings.

They burst into the alley behind the house, Diego and Alisson half dragging Luther between them as they rush towards the street, the Academy falling to pieces behind them.

They stop on the sidewalk and turn, watching in silent horror as their childhood home comes crashing down to the ground.

Five appears beside them in two quick bursts, dropping Pogo and then mom on the sidewalk beside them.

“My god…” Pogo gasps, “What happened?”

“Luther sweetheart! You’re hurt!” Mom rushes to his side, lifting up his suddenly amputated arm and pressing the edges of her skirts over the wound, “Diego, help me set him down over here.”

They all shamble over to the other side of the sidewalk, leaning Luther up against the neighboring building as Mom kneels down and gets to work patching up his arm as best she can.

Allison holds his other hand, shaking miserably. Luther squeezes back in a way that must be painful for her, crying silently through the pain as mom works on him.

Diego stands quickly and spins to face Ben, “What the f-fuck was that!” he demands

Ben raises one eyebrow, “Good to see you again too Di.”

“Fuck off you know I’m fucking happy to see you!” he snaps

“Language.” Mom calls over her shoulder

Luther pants heavily, shifting against the wall, “How…How did Klaus…do that?”

Allison pets his hair gently, “Shh, just rest. It’ll be ok.” She looks up at her brothers and Pogo, “You… You were talking to Vanya? Why?” she looks at Ben, eyes wide.

Ben sighs, “You know why Al. She didn’t run away.”

Everything is still. Even Luther is quiet.

“What….” Diego whispers, “What are you saying?”

Pogo sighs deeply, “I am afraid that Master Ben is right. Miss Vanya did not run away all those years ago. She died.”

Ben snarls, “Don’t you dare!” he turns on the chimp, pointing one finger harshly at his chest, “He murdered her! Don’t pretend he didn’t.”

“Murdered….” Allison chokes out, eyes wide

Mom’s hands falter where they are tying up Luther’s arm.

Five goes deathly still.

Pogo looks down at the ground, hands clenched tight on his cane, “I suppose I can’t deny it any longer, can I? Yes, Master Hargreeves murdered your sister, for refusing to properly utilize her powers.”

He tells them, quietly, regretfully, everything about those seventeen days of her imprisonment. Their father’s plan to awaken her powers- taken by the pills and hidden by Allison- and use her on the team as Five’s replacement. He tells them of her fear, her confusion, that resulted in a lashing out of her powers. How she was immediately put back on her pills, this time by force, until she agreed to comply. How their father refused to bring her food until she started doing what he wanted. How he watched her wither away but did nothing as long as she remained defiant and angry. About that fateful day, her fury rising up in a final act of rebellion that had gotten her backhanded. Her weakness, from weeks of hunger, causing her to stumble and fall, cracking her skull open on the soundproofed walls of her cell.

He then tells them about their father’s plan to utilize Klaus, a conduit for Vanya’s powers, an easier way to control her. Klaus’ defiance, his punishment, and his threat. The close watch they’d kept on him those few years to make sure he kept quiet.

Ben finally chimes in when he’s done, telling them about how Vanya never left, haunting Klaus for all these years, keeping him company, protecting him from the ghosts, encouraging him to get sober, getting him into the violin. The life they’ve lived, all these years, happy and thriving, just the three of them.

Ben stares at his siblings, wondering what they have to say to this.

Luther is silent, wide-eyed, mouth gaping open in horror as he finally realizes the depth of their father’s depravity.

Allison has her hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her cheeks and shoulders heaving with sobs.

Diego is frozen solid, unable to meet Ben’s gaze as he glares harshly at the street as if it had personally had some involvement in this whole mess.

Five teleports suddenly in a flurry of movement and blue light. He’s by the crumbling remains of the house, then standing over Luther, then he’s by the wall punching it so hard his knuckles split and bleed. And then he’s collapsing on his knees on the street and letting out an absolutely soul shattering wail.

Suddenly he truly does look thirteen, so small and broken and lost.

Ben wonders what it must feel like, to have the last hope of one living sibling ripped away from him so suddenly.

He remembers watching Five running around the mansion with Vanya trailing after him, little smiles on both of their faces as Five chattered on and Vanya listened. Sometimes Ben would catch them both in the library, Five reading a book twice the size of his head with Vanya sitting next to him, her head on his shoulder as she napped, their hands linked together.

He wonders if Five is blaming himself for her death.

Ben knows he had, for a little bit.

If Five hadn’t left their father would have left her alone. He never would have wanted her to utilize her powers. She would still be alive.

But that’s a stupid thought. Five had no way of knowing this would happen. As far as they were all concerned Vanya didn’t have any powers. There was no reason at all for their father to have done anything to her.

Ben takes a deep slow breath that he doesn’t need.

“Look, I know this is a lot but we need to find Klaus and Vanya. The world is going to end tomorrow night and I’ve got a pretty good guess as to how.”

Five makes a miserable choking noise somewhere between a whine and a sob.

Diego moves suddenly, lurching into movement as he goes to stand over Five’s crumpled form, putting one heavy hand on his shoulder, “F-Five… Five come on we…” he swallows, “We c-c-can figure this out.”

“What can we do?” Luther whimpers, face ashen as Mom wipes uselessly at the blood coating his shirt. He’s still breathing heavy, likely in enormous amounts of pain, “How… how do we stop them?”

Ben shrugs, “I have no idea.”

“Can’t Allison just rumor him-her-them, whatever.” Diego grits his teeth and clenches the hand not on Five’s shoulder into a shaky fist.

“No!” Allison gasps in horror, eyes so wide they look like they’re gonna pop out of her skull, “No I won’t… I can’t…. That’s what started all this in the first place. If I’d never rumored Vanya….It’s my fault…”

Luther reaches his good hand up to her face, pulling her attention down to him, grounding her, “Allison…”

“You were four.” Ben paces back and forth through the alley, “And Vanya never blamed you. If we’re gonna be playing the blame game let’s put that issue on dad. Everything else, however…” he shrugs, “That’s entirely on you all being assholes.”

“Hey!” Diego snaps

“We didn’t know this would happen!” Luther grits out, struggling to sit up straighter with Allison’s help

“We never meant for anything to happen to Vanya!”

Ben turns a sharp glare on his living sister and feels the squirming of his monsters in his stomach, “What about Klaus!” he snarls, “All of this is because of what you’ve done to him!”

They all fall silent.

“We didn’t know…” Diego insists quietly, back to glaring at his feet, that particular frown on his face that means he’s feeling guilty but would rather die than admit fault.

“Of course you didn’t know. None of you have bothered to check on him since he left. You all just assumed you knew what was going on and decided to just abandon him. And what if he really had been a junkie, huh? What if he had been a homeless addict selling himself for a hit? You all thought it was true and you did nothing. You thought you were leaving him to rot and you were fine with that! You didn’t care! He could have been dead too and none of you would have given a fuck!”

He’s started screaming. He can’t remember the last time he ever yelled at anyone. The last time he ever felt this all-consuming fury.

His stomach churns and shifts and the monsters have arrived, slithering out of the portal within him, the same ghostly blue as him as they writhe through the air, feeding off his anger, looking to maim.

His siblings all flinch.

“Ben…” Allison whispers fearfully.

“Shut up!” he snaps, “All of this is your fault. All of you. Ever since we came back here you have done nothing but belittle Klaus. Talking down to him and insulting him and treating him like dirt. You’re no better than dad was! He was kidnapped in our own fucking house and none of you even noticed! None of you came to save him while he was being tortured! He time travelled to the fucking Vietnam War and served for ten months and he lost the love of his life and none of you can ever understand that, I can’t even understand the pain he was feeling. He was broken! But he pulled himself up because I told him you needed him, Luther. I told him you were suffering and he got up and he came to help you and you killed him! You choked him out and then you left him there on the floor!”

Luther somehow gets even paler, “I… I didn’t…I-“

“Shut up!” Ben roars, “The only reason any of this is happening is because despite everything, despite how fucking awful all of you are Klaus loves you, Vanya and I love you. And we thought you had at least the bare minimum of affection for him. But you don’t. None of you care for anyone but yourselves. And you know, I can’t blame Vanya for wanting to kill you right now because if I could touch you right now you can bet I’d do the same.”

Silence falls over them all. No one moves, no one makes a sound over the heavy breathing.

Grace stands gracefully, her heels clicking on the pavement as she moves to stand by Ben, “Hello sweetheart.”

Despite himself, Ben finds himself relaxing, shoulders losing their tension as he looks up at his mother, “Hi mom.”

Her hand comes up to hover over his cheek, so close she would be touching if he were corporeal. He closes his eyes and leans into her hand, through it, remembering the warmth of her touch after hard missions, after she’d scrubbed blood off his cheeks and out of his hair.

“You’ve certainly got quite the mouth on you, now don’t you?” she chuckles, eyes full of sadness, “You know how I feel about that foul language Benjamin.” Her voice catches, a robotic static borne from her overwhelming emotion.

“Sorry...”

“No, don’t be sorry. You deserve to be angry. All of you do.” She looks behind her at her assembled children, the living she has watched fall apart from a distance. She looks back to the son she had failed to protect, “This life has not been fair to you my little lamb. But you can’t give up here. You are a family, no matter what this is your family. Klaus is your family.” She looks to the others again, expression turning stern, “You need to fix this.”

“Mom…” Ben whimpers, his anger failing him, leaving an exhaustion he’s been holding onto since he first drew these creatures from his stomach as a child.

He wants a hug.

“You are the Umbrella Academy, but now you all get to decide what that means, not your father.”

Five teleports with a flash of light, standing beside Ben, face streaked with tears but expression firm, “We can fix this. If we work together, like a team.”

Luther grunts as he struggles to his feet, Allison attempting to support him as she goes up with him. He wobbles briefly, amputated arm flailing to grip the wall but not being able to.

“You’re right. But how do we do this? How do we find Klaus and Vanya?”

Diego scrambles in his pockets for his mobile phone, “Eudora!” he hisses, “Her and Klaus are close right? Maybe he’ll reach out to her?”

Ben nods, “Yes! Especially if Vanya is still in control, she loves Eudora.”

Allison grips onto Luther tighter, “You need a hospital.”

“I’m fine.”

“No Master Luther, you are not. Grace’s ministrations will only work temporarily and you are clearly in tremendous pain.” Pogo hobbles closer to the group, expression grim but determined, “I am not sure how much help I can be in this, but I shall do what I can. At the very least, Miss Vanya’s attention will likely be captured should I assist.”

“She’ll kill you.” Ben says, emotionless. He feels nothing for the chimp anymore.

Pogo nods solemnly, “It would not be undeserved. And if my death could in the slightest slow down the end of the world, well, that would certainly be penance enough for what I have done.”

“Right, Diego, get your cop friend on the lookout for Klaus. Allison, you and Mom need to get Luther to the hospital. Pogo, you and I will keep an eye out for unusual activity.”

Ben nods, “I’ll help with lookout. Just… if you find them, don’t engage. Vanya is in the middle of a breakdown and she’s pissed. She won’t hesitate to attack.”

Five’s hands shake as he runs them through his hair, “Right, ok. We’ve got a plan. We need a rendezvous point.”

“The concert hall?” Mom suggests, “Klaus does have a performance tomorrow night after all.”

Ben should probably ask how she knows about that but figures that can wait until after they’ve saved the world.

“Right, the theatre then, tomorrow night, seven o’clock. Let’s do this.”

Ben follows Five and Pogo out of the alley, tentacles still pulsing in the air around him.

He’s not going to lose anymore family.

He’s not going to lose Klaus.

++

Eudora Patch is roughly ten seconds away from committing a murder.

The last two days have been shitty, to be sure, but this just takes the fucking cake in her opinion.

First her annoying ex shows up asking for help finding his little brother.

Then she discovers her best friend is actually the little brother of her annoying ex and has been hiding his identity from her for years.

Then her best friend disappears in a literal fucking puff of smoke and doesn’t answer any of her calls.

And finally, after getting in contact with him and heading over to his place, he is not in his goddamn fucking apartment like promised.

She loves Cly-Klaus, whatever his name is like he’s family but she swears she’s going to shoot him in the foot if she doesn’t get her hands on him in the next hour.

She drops onto her couch with a groan, back sore from the last twenty-four hours of being bent over her desk dealing with the paper work of those two psychos.

She needs food, a drink and a nap, potentially in that order.

But now she can’t stop thinking about Klaus.

Diego had asked her for Klaus’ phone number when he’d met her at the motel and he’s seemed pretty concerned about him.

But then he’d immediately run off talking about some other brother- Five? Who names their kid Five?- and he hadn’t asked her to keep an eye out or promised to help look for Klaus so…

Maybe Claude hadn’t been lying when he’d said his family didn’t give a shit about him.

There’s a quiet knock on her door and Eudora practically leaps off her couch, hurrying across the room to her front door, her exhaustion forgotten in favor of throwing it open.

“Claude…” She sighs in relief, shoulders sagging, and doesn’t hesitate to pull him into a bone-crushing hug, “Don’t scare me like that again.”

“Eudora….” He says quietly, barely a whisper, his voice full of pain and sorrow. Also echoey, which is strange.

She grabs his shoulders and pushes him back gently to get a good look at him and barely manages to swallow down her scream.

His eyes are glowing.

Not super brightly, just a dull white shine around the silver iris. It’s still very disconcerting though, especially compared to his usual green eyes.

“Are you…. Ok?”

He stares at her for a long moment, blankly, before nodding, “You’ll protect him. I’ll keep watch.”

Then his eyes roll back into his head and he slumps forward, Eudora barely managing to keep him from slamming into the floor.

She drags him slowly over to the couch, laying him across it as gently as she can and then just staring at him.

There are dark circles under his eyes and his skin is a few shades darker than it was last she saw him, though that could have just been how pale and sickly he had ben then. His hair is shorter, still a curly mess but not quite as ‘rats nest’ as he usually likes it.

There are scabs and scrapes that had not been there before and the injuries from the motel have already become scars.

“What happened to you….” She asks of no one in particular, running her fingers through his hair in hopes of keeping nightmares at bay.

His eyelids flutter suddenly, and when they open it is his usual green staring up at her.

She lets out a little sigh of relief.

He looks up at her, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion, “Eudora?” his voice is barely more than a croak and she’s not sure if it’s from strain or disuse.

He looks tired, broken down. It breaks her heart.

“Hey you. How you feeling?”

He blinks slowly at her, looking around carefully, “I… I don’t know… What happened?”

She swallows, “I don’t know… but we’re gonna figure it out, together.”

His eyes water, then close, and he nods.

She leans down to hold him, pressing the softest kiss to his temple.

She has no idea what’s going on right now.

But she’s going to take care of him, no matter what.

They’ll figure this out.

She’s Eudora fucking Patch, and she’ll be damned if she can’t save her best friend.

Chapter Text

Eudora had looked up the Umbrella Academy after her and Diego broke up.

She’d always known about them of course, everyone had. It’s pretty hard to miss the literal superheroes in your city growing up. (She may or may not have had a poster of Number Five on her wall in middle school).

But she hadn’t looked too closely into them, not past what their powers were. She had never gone to stand outside the Academy like other kids or collected every magazine cover and news article like her high school bestie Karen.

And then Diego had come into her life, scarred and broken and angry and she’d wondered, obviously, when she’d found out his identity but she didn’t want to pry.

All bets were off once they broke up though.

She’d spent a solid week cooped up in her childhood bedroom the week after graduation doing research.

Some things she had already known, like their powers- strength, curving projectiles, rumors, seeing the dead, teleportation, death tentacles- and the disappearance of Number Five, Six’s death.

Those two had been all over the papers. Six’s funeral had been broadcasted on tv.

At the end of her search she really hadn’t found all that much that wasn’t already known. The robot mom was new, as was the monkey teacher and the smaller, secondary powers some of them had.

She’d really just thrown it all out and tried to move on with her life, forget it all, forget Diego.

Which is why she doesn’t notice when a few years later Clyde appears in her life.

If she’d looked a litter harder she probably would have found the uncanny resemblance between him and Number Four, Klaus Hargreeves, the Séance, the boy who could see the dead.

Looking at him now, asleep on her couch after what has obviously been a very rough week, she wonders what she would have done if she’d recognized him right away.

As a kid she’d thought Number Four’s powers were cool. If she could see the dead she’d be able to see her Grandpa again, her Aunt Maria who died of cancer, the Grandmother on her mother’s side she never got to meet.

But looking at him now, she really sees the toll it had taken on him. The dead constantly around you, always wanting, always waiting. What must it be like to be between two worlds? To know what comes after this life?

She busies herself making Klaus dinner while he sleeps fitfully on her couch, tossing and turning under the ugly green knit blanket he’d given her three Christmases ago.

She doesn’t know what she’s going to do, but she’ll be damned if she does nothing.

First order of business is feeding this boy enough carbs and proteins so that he no longer looks quite so skeletal. Potentially squeezing a shower- more likely a bath- in between meals and try to wrangle him into the soonest appointment with his therapist. She wonders if the woman would consider letting her join in, for moral support. Or maybe she can just go punch Diego until she feels better.

Either or.

Her cell rings and she answers it without looking, setting the pan of cooking chicken aside.

“Eudora?”

Fuck, speak of the asshole.

“What do you want Diego?”

She checks the clock on her kitchen wall while she goes to pull the garlic bread out of the oven. It’s been just under an hour since Klaus showed up on her doorstep.

“I’m sorry for bothering you so late but is Klaus there?”

She looks over to her best friend, fast asleep still, finally looking to have settled down.

She has a feeling adding Diego to this mess would be the last thing he needs.

“No. I haven’t seen him all day, why?” she lies, biting the inside of her cheek to keep her voice even and measured. Diego had always been able to tell she was lying.

Maybe she’s gotten better at it, or maybe- more likely- Diego has had such a long shitty day that he’s too tired to notice, but he buys it.

“Fuck… Listen, if you hear from him at all, please call me. I’m really worried about him. He’s not himself right now and… Please.”

A part of her wants to snarl at him. Wants to yell about how he didn’t care before. About the nights she’d held her best friend close as he whispered vague stories about a brother that was never there for him when he needed him.

“Sure.” She says, clipped, then hangs up.

Klaus is her brother now, she’s decided. The Hargreeves can eat a dick.

She slams her phone on the counter and turns back to the living room, not able to stop her scream in time when she sees she’s no longer alone.

The little girl from the motel is standing over Klaus’ slumbering form, eyes glowing that eerie white as she stares at Eudora.

“You didn’t tell Diego we were here.”

Eudora swallows and moves cautiously closer, standing behind the couch, Klaus between them.

“He’s not what Klaus needs right now.”

The girl nods, “Thank you Eudora.”

“You know my name?”

She nods, the tiniest smile turning up her somber little face, “I’m Vanya, Klaus’ sister. I’ve always been here.”

She does the calculations in her head. Hargreeves children, all born on the same day, same age. Sister. Little girl. Fuck.

“How old are… were you?”

Vanya’s lips purse, “Thirteen.”

“And how’d you die?”

“Our dad killed me.” She says, looking up at her without expression, like this is a totally normal thing to say.

Eudora sucks in a breath through her teeth, feels the little ball of rage she’s had building against Klaus’ family all these years grow exponentially.

“God I wish that bastard weren’t dead. I wanna beat him to death with my bare hands.”

Vanya laughs, a bright sound, vibrant, and her eyes glow brighter, a strange wind swirling her hair around, ruffling Klaus’ curls.

He shifts in his sleep, muttering under his breath, rolling onto his side. Eudora leans down to tuck the blanket higher up under his chin.

When she looks again Vanya’s expression has darkened.

“They were going to hurt him. Like they hurt me. They were going to lock him up. You won’t let them, right?”

Eudora swallows, “Of course not. I’d never let anything happen to him.”

Vanya nods, watching Klaus as his nose twitches, as his eyelids flutter, wakefulness slowly coming.

“Thanks Eudora.”

Then she vanishes, and Eudora is left staring blankly at her coffee table for a solid minute.

Fuck it, she needs vodka.

What the hell did she get herself into?

++

Klaus had always been a beacon to the dead, they always knew exactly where he was even when he didn’t want them to.

For as long as Ben had been dead he’s always known where Klaus was. It had been easy, following that pull in his gut to wherever his brother was messing around, him and Vanya orbiting Klaus their whole undead lives.

Now he feels nothing, that pull inside him gone still, no direction to follow.

There are ghosts in the streets. There are always ghosts in the streets really but now they are visible.

People run by, casting these silent bloody specters terrified glances. His siblings stare wide-eyed, perhaps never knowing before now just what it was Klaus was always able to see.

The dead are silent, watching, waiting, and that is even more unsettling than them being visible.

Something is coming, they can feel it, Ben can feel it. Something big and bright and all consuming. Something to appease even the restless dead.

“Fuck!” Diego curses, kicking over the flowerpot on the front stoop of their apartment building.

Ben doesn’t protest, it’s their neighbor’s flowers and she was mean anyways.

Five teleports from the apartment to the street, scowl firmly in place, “Nothing. Looks like he hasn’t been back since earlier.”

“Where else would they go?” Diego asks, pacing angry lines back and forth

They’d checked the whole apartment building, the roof, the café, their boss’ apartment, the theatre, called Eudora.

Ben didn’t know where else they’d be.

The things inside him shift eagerly, anticipating. Whatever is coming they are excited too.

“Maybe the park down the street. Vanya likes when we have picnics.”

It’s a stretch, but maybe… He can’t give up hope. He’s going to find them, both of them.

They’re going to make this right.

++

Klaus shovels a spoonful of Eudora’s famous chicken alfredo into his mouth and moans appreciatively.

The last meal he’d eaten had been rations, huddled up next to Da-

Don’t think about that. Don’t. Too painful, too fresh.

Eudora sits across from him and watches him carefully, not so much eating as drinking like the world is going to end.

Huh, that sounds familiar. Is the world going to end? He has vague memories of his siblings saying as much.

How did he get here? What happened? Why can’t he remember?

He was in his apartment, then he was at the house and then….

They were arguing. He remembers that much, but it’s all fuzzy, static in his brain where words should have been. Ben had been upset, so had Vanya.

He blinks, looking around slowly.

Neither of his dead siblings are currently present.

That can’t be good.

“So…” he says slowly, and his voice cracks pathetically from the crying earlier- maybe from screaming, he has vague memories of screaming but he’s not sure if it was him-, “What now?”

Eudora sighs, knocks back the rest of her drink, and then scrubs her hand over her face, “I have no idea. So you don’t remember what happened?”

“Nope. Not really.”

“Cause your sister said your siblings tried to hurt you.”

He blinks slowly, “Sister?”

“Vanya.”

“You…You can see her?

“I could. She’s been coming and going since you got here. Also, the news says there are dead people everywhere.”

“Huh…”

He looks at his hands, they feel colder than usual but there isn’t anything unusual about them. Usually when he uses his powers in extreme ways they glow. They aren’t glowing now but…

Vanya…. Maybe she’s…

He closes his eyes and pictures his sister. He’s never done this before, tried to summon someone, but he tries anyways.

“Klaus.” Vanya stands in the kitchen now, hands clasped at the small of her back, head tilted curiously.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Eudora curses, jumping at her sudden appearance

“Vanya… what happened?”

Her eyes are glowing, that white color that means she’s losing control, that awful curve of her mouth that means her powers are taking over, her anger consuming her.

Klaus has only seen her like this once, on one of his trips to the mausoleum when he was fifteen, when he’d been bleeding and sick from a mission gone wrong and brought there instead of the infirmary. He’d been cold and shivering and dying and Vanya had been furious, had been lost to the angry little thing inside of her that pulsed her power in angry waves that sent all the ghosts shrieking away.

It had taken her hours to come back from that, to awaken from her fury, and she had not remembered any of it.

“What happened?” he asks her again

Vanya looks at him, her white eyes filled with rage, that smile too sharp, “They were going to hurt you.”

“They wouldn’t have hurt me Van.” He protests, weak

She shakes her head slowly, “They were going to lock you up. Just like they locked me up. They were going to leave you in the dark to die.”

Eudora’s hands clench into fists and Klaus sighs deeply, that exhaustion settling back into his bones.

“They were what?” she snaps, standing quickly

Vanya stares at her, smiles, “They were going to kill him like they killed me, because they can’t control us. Because they do not care.”

“They wouldn’t….” Klaus whispers, isn’t sure if he means that

“They already have. Luther killed you Klaus, I saw it. You were dead for fifteen minutes.”

“What!” Eudora screams, slamming her hands on the table with such force Klaus’ fork goes flying to the floor, “I am going to kill your family Klaus I swear to god….”

“I met her…” he says absently, quietly, “She’s not as nice as they all say.” He laughs, a quiet chuckle that is just this side of hysterical.

Eudora moves to kneel beside him, taking his hands in hers and squeezing, tight, almost painful, grounding.

“Klaus, it’s gonna be ok. I’m here and I’m gonna take care of you now.”

He lets out a wet laugh, tears blurring his vision, “I don’t think even you can help me now Eudora….”

One hand leaves his to cup to his face, thumb stroking gentle across his cheeks, fingernails scratching lightly under his ear. He closes his eyes, lets the tears fall.

The TV is playing quiet in the other room, Vanya is humming one of her favorite pieces, and Eudora is whispering soothing nonsense.

He does not think he can ever be fixed now, he has been broken irreparably.

There is a pounding on the front door.

They all jump.

“Fuck.” Eudora curses, standing, going to open the door

Vanya’s hackles raise, eyes going whiter, brighter, hair whipping a storm around her.

“Klaus!” Ben yells, phasing through the wall just as Eudora opens the front door and reveals Diego and Five.

“Klaus!” Diego echoes

“Vanya!” Five gasps

Eudora tries to close the door again, “You need to go! Now!” She orders

“He’s my brother!” Diego hisses, not taking his eyes off of Klaus, huddled up small in his chair, “He needs me!”

“No he needs someone who actually gives a damn. Now. Get. Out!”

Five teleports suddenly, standing in front of Vanya who watches him with cold eyes, head tilted cruelly to look down on him.

“Vanya….” He says softly, reaching out as if to touch her. His hands phases through her wrist and he shivers, tears building in his eyes, “I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry.”

“You’re too late for that.” She says, mean, snarling at him, “You’re fifteen years too late.”

He flinches back as if she’d struck him “I’m sorry…” he repeats, doesn’t seem to know what else to say

“I cried for you.” She says, “I begged for you to come back. To save me, to take me away with you. Klaus was the only one who cared. He was the only one there for me. And now you’re trying to kill him. Just like you killed me.”

He flinches again, letting out a pathetic little whimpering noise, “Vanya…”

Diego and Eudora are still screaming at each other by the front door, arguing about who cares more, a fight that Diego is clearly losing.

Ben approaches Klaus, kneeling in front of him, “Hey Klaus, come on buddy, let’s get out of here.”

Klaus stares unseeing at his feet, not even processing that Ben is really there, “I’m tired…” he says, “I’m so tired…”

Ben chokes on a sob, “I know… I know you are. And you can rest Klaus, you can sleep now. Let’s go home and you can sleep, yeah?”

Klaus shakes his head slowly, eyes drooping shut, “I don’t want to sleep… I just… I don’t want to do anything anymore… I don’t want to exist anymore…. I just want it all to stop… Please make it stop….”

Five has fallen to his knees, sobbing at Vanya’s feet, breaking apart at every seam.

Vanya ignores him, turns instead to Klaus, moves slowly closer, “Klaus…”

“Vanya no!” Ben pleads, “Vanya….”

“He’s hurting Ben… I can make it stop.”

She puts her hands into his chest again and Ben can do nothing but watch as they merge once more, Vanya taking control again.

Klaus eyes blink open, that awful unsettling white back. He smiles at Ben, but it is Vanya’s smile.

“You promised to protect him Ben.” They say, voice echoing, and that draws everyone’s attention.

Eudora gasps as she looks at him, Diego curses. Five whimpers.

“Vanya, you can’t….”

They reach out, Klaus’ hand landing solid on Ben’s shoulder. He gasps in pain, something burning cold shooting through his body, “Protect him.” She says, and then everything goes black.

Klaus and Vanya stand slowly, and then rise, until Klaus is levitating a good foot off the floor, his bare feet walking on air as he moves towards the door.

Ben stands there, eyes glowing white, moving mechanically after them, limbs jerking.

“Klaus!” Eudora says softly, mobbing into his path. They don’t stop, “Vanya?” she tries, and they pause, head tilted, listening, “I need you to let Klaus go please.”

They laugh, something cruel and dark, “No. I don’t think I will. We can protect him. We can keep him safe.”

They move towards the door again and Diego throws himself between them and it.

“I c-c-can’t let you do this.”

They stare at him for a long moment before their head jerks sharply and Diego goes flying backwards, into the front yard.

“Diego!” Eudora cries

Klaus’ head turns back to stare at Five, still crumpled on the floor. Their smile turns sharp.

“This world will burn because of you.”

Then they walk out, and Ben follows, and the house falls still.

“What have you done?” Eudora whispers

Chapter Text

Vanya goes home because she does not know what else to do.

The apartment door is still open and unlocked from when her siblings came charging in before.

(How long ago was that? Yesterday? It felt like a lifetime.)

The living room is a mess. Ben’s books are out of place. The cabinets all open. Klaus’ clothes are scattered in even more places than usual.

Five, she thinks, was certainly looking very hard.

Their violin is untouched in the corner, carefully clear of the detritus in the rest of the room.

She picks it up slowly, relishing in the feel of its weight in her hands and the sting of the strings on her fingertips.

It is not the violin of her childhood, fifteen years ago, that had been thrown out years ago when they’d finally had enough saved up to buy something of their own.

Klaus had picked this one, white wood and black strings, because it had made him think of her.

She can hear him now, in the back of their shared head, blissfully numb and calm in a way the drugs of his teens had never quite been able to give him.

She can give him that. This peace is because of her. This quiet calm. She is finally helping him, finally protecting him. Just like she promised.

Ben stands like a statue in the middle of the room, watching them with his eyes whited out and cold.

A part of her feels bad, guilty, but it is drowned out by the overwhelming anger burning in her chest.

He was supposed to protect Klaus too.

But Klaus is safe now, calmed and quiet here in their mind. It’s all ok now.

And now, for the first time in fifteen years she holds a violin again and brings it to her chin, drawing the bow slowly across the strings for her first notes.

The phone rings. She jumps and the flower vase Eudora had given them last year for Christmas explodes on the windowsill.

She stares at the ringing phone, anger building, and waits until it goes to voicemail.

“Kl-Vanya…” It’s Eudora. She sounds panicked. “I don’t know if you’re there but…. Please, I need you to stay put ok? I’m coming over. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” There’s muffled voices in the background, indistinct and full of pain, “Shut up!” Eudora hisses, and then softer, “Twenty minutes. I have to take Diego to the hospital first. You broke his arm.”

She should have broken his neck.

She doesn’t process the rest of Eudora’s message, staring blankly at the calendar above the phone.

Today is April First. It’s the Spring Showcase. They are expected to perform in only a couple of hours.

She gets dressed quickly, putting on the stylish black suit Klaus had hung up carefully in the closet.

It’s beautiful, all glittery vest and smart tailcoat, a brilliantly blue bowtie. The theatre costumer had really been thrilled to spice up the usual formal attire to match Klaus’ vibrant personality.

And Vanya had spent so long with her big brother that she loves it too, the flamboyance and the drama. All eyes will be on them tonight.

As it should be.

Ben stands exactly where he had been when they arrived when they step back into the living room, watching blankly as they reverently put their violin into its case.

There’s a knock on the door.

She opens it and everything goes still and silent.

Pogo stands in the doorway, hunched over his cane and looking up into Klaus’ emotionless face with pain in his simian features.

“Miss Vanya…” he says softly, and his voice catches, “I am deeply sorry for what has happened to you. For everything. You did not deserve any of it. And I… I should have been there for you. Protected you. Saved you from… You were only a child.” He looks to his feet, hands clenched tight on his cane, “A child and he… I thought that not even Master Reginald could be so cruel as to do such a thing. He-“

“Say it.” She snaps, and Klaus’ face contorts with rage, “Say what he did to me. He killed me. He murdered me.”

Pogo flinches, and the gray in his fur is stark now against the absolute regret in his eyes, “He murdered you Vanya.” He says softly, “You were a child and he ended your life too short. And it was not just you. I was a witness to all of it, all of your tortures. Master Klaus as well, was tortured at your father’s hands and I did not help him. And I apologize to him as well, if he can hear me. And I know it may be too little too late my dear, but I am truly, deeply sorry. It was my duty, as an adult, to have shielded you from harm, and instead I was party to it. I have many regrets, but you my dear Vanya, shall always be the one I regret most. And if nothing else comes of my apology, perhaps the chance for closure shall help. I cannot give you revenge against your father, I killed him myself, at his orders. And so I give you revenge against me, your overseer, your prison guard, and all that I have not done for you.” He holds out his arms, his cane dropping with a clatter to the hallway floor, “I shall not protest what I deserve.”

Vanya stares at him, and in the back of her head feels Klaus stir, curious, but she pushes him down.

Instead she thinks of every time Pogo put his kindly hand on her shoulder to pull her away from her siblings’ games. Every warm smile as he ensured she took another pill. Every regretful look as he passed down a lecture her father had been too busy to give her but still wanted her to have. Every day he shut the door on her cage in the basement and did not look back. Every moment he stood in the doorway of Klaus’ room when he tried to tell their siblings the truth.

She can feel a storm building inside of herself. All of her rage and her fear and her childish hope clashing and swirling and screaming to get out.

Behind her Ben wavers, form shimmering. The couch tips over. All of the books fly off the shelves and the windows all shatter outwards.

She reigns it all in like she never has before, focusing her fury and her pain into one singular bundle of energy and force and she pushes it out of herself, out of the apartment, and straight into the monkey’s chest.

Pogo flies backwards from the force, hitting the wall behind him, his head hitting with a loud CRACK. And then he falls in a heap on the floor and does not move again.

Out of the corner of her eye Vanya sees a flash of blue.

Let Five warn the others. Let them come to her.

She picks up their violin and heads for the bus stop.

She will be ready for them. The Umbrella Academy’s last stand.

They will crumble, she’ll make sure of that.

++

Eudora is about to drop Diego’s stupid ass in the lobby of the hospital and then burn rubber to get to Klaus’ place when the very pretty actress from that shitty romcom Klaus loved so much rushes up to them.

“Diego! What happened?”

Right, yeah, Hargreeves. Fuck why are there so many of them?

“I don’t know.” Diego grits out, arm clutched close to his chest, limping slightly as Eudora lets go of him, “Vanya she… I think she possessed Klaus. And she’s pissed.”

“Of course she’s fucking pissed.” Eudora snaps, “You all treat her favorite brother like garbage.”

“Who are you?” Allison demands, looking her up and down with narrowed eyes.

“Eudora. My ex.”

“Klaus’ best friend.” She clarifies, glaring at the idiot who is not so subtly edging his way towards the exit, “You’re seeing a fucking doctor asshole.”

Diego scowls, but looks back to Allison, “How’s Luther?”

Allison sighs, suddenly looking so much older, “The doctors have handled it. They couldn’t sedate him though so they had to stitch him up while he was awake. It wasn’t pretty.”

“What happened to who?” she asks, curious despite herself. She really should just tell them to fuck off and go find the Vanya/Klaus hybrid.

“Luther, Number One,” Diego tells her, still scowling, “Kl-Vanya cut his hand off.”

Eudora blinks slowly. The little girl that had been standing in her kitchen had cut off someone’s hand. Ok… This day sure was happening.

“I don’t have time for this. I need to go find them.” She decides.

“Don’t.” a sudden burst of blue to their left and Eudora reaches automatically for her gun, only Diego’s quick reflexes grabbing her wrist in time to stop her from shooting the teleporting little asshole from earlier.

“Five!” Allison gasps, “Where were you?”

Five looks miserable, even worse than he’d been in her house, and then he’d been sobbing on his knees. Now he looks dead inside, eyes cold and full of misery, face streaked with tears.

“I went to Klaus’ apartment. Pogo….. Pogo got there first.” A long moment of silence, “She killed him.”

Ok. So a murderous thirteen year old ghost currently possessing a medium with a buttload of untapped power is now on the loose.

Allison chokes on a noise that sounds like it might be a sob. Diego lurches forward like he can’t decide if he wants to run to his siblings or away.

“What do we do now?” He asks quietly, but no one has an answer.

Suddenly blue light fills the waiting room, and ghastly figures fill the room.

“Shit not again.” Allison hisses.

The ghosts, all of them ghastly horrible things with bullet wounds and knife slashes, broken limbs and necks and dripping oozing organs, stand in place and watch everyone.

“What the fuck!” Diego curses, jumping back. This time Eudora does draw her gun.

“They’ve been coming and going ever since we got here.” Allison tells them, “And not just here. Looks like this is happening all over the city, maybe even further out.”

“What do they want?” Eudora asks, stepping marginally closer to a couple whose throats have been slashed.

“No idea. They just… stand there.”

“It’s Klaus.” Five finally speaks, staring darkly at the mass of flickering blue spirits, “Vanya is amplifying his powers.”

“But why?” Diego asks, pale-faced as he refuses to look at the gory specters.

Suddenly the ghosts open their mouths, every last one of them, and start to scream.

Allison jumps, wide-eyed. Clearly this is new.

Five steps forward, taking charge, “Allison, get Luther, we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“For what?” she demands, hands shaking, “What’s going on?”

Five’s hand shake as blue energy pools around him “She’s going to destroy the world.”

++

Klaus has been here before, in this quiet peaceful place where nothing is wrong.

It was a lifetime ago, before Ben had died, when he was sixteen and in the beginnings of a drug addiction.

He’d overdosed in the bathroom they’d all shared, sitting in the empty bathtub as he swallowed pill after pill.

Vanya had been crying, begging him to stop, but he hadn’t. He was so tired, so scared. The ghosts had been so loud. She hadn’t quite gotten the hang of banishing them yet, not every time, and so most nights he’d still been curled in on himself as they screamed at him.

He had just wanted everything to stop.

This place is where he’d been for the ten-odd minutes he’d been dead.

It’s empty, an endless white expanse of nothingness. Most people would probably find it awful, horrible. Klaus felt at peace.

It was quiet here. So unbelievably quiet.

There are no bodies here, no gory things in the vague shape of humans, no bloody guts spilling on the floor, no dead eyes staring after him.

No Vanya. No Ben.

Nothing.

It’s peaceful.

Everything he had ever dreamed of.

…………..

Something was wrong.

He could feel it. Something tingling in his fingertips, at the nape of his neck, something burning in his stomach.

Something was coming.

He’s pretty sure he knows what.

But it’s so hard to think here. So hard to focus on anything but the peaceful, quiet calm.

‘Close your eyes’ something inside of him thinks, ‘Sleep’

Instead he wanders, aimlessly, through the void.

‘Safe’ it says, ‘Don’t worry’

Why would he worry? What was there to worry about?

‘I’m here’

Who is? He’s alone.

No, never alone.

Something’s not right.

He closes his eyes, shakes against that calming, sweet voice until he sees a flash of light.

The void lights up around him.

He’s in the theatre, walking through the lobby. His violin in hand.

There are people around, tech hands darting this way and that, the director yelling, ushers loitering by the concession bar gossiping.

Ben is there, but something’s wrong with him too. He’s moving wrong, all jerky limbs and stiff body. His eyes are white.

He catches sight of his reflection and turns.

It’s Vanya in the mirror, wearing his suit, holding his violin, her eyes blazing bright and a cruel smile on her face.

She looks at him, locks eyes in the mirror.

‘It’s ok.’ She says, and whiteness starts to creep back in, dissolving the world around him until he’s back in the void. ‘Just rest.’

“No!” he shouts, turning this way and that, “Vanya!”

Already his mind is going hazy again, her quiet voice whispering soothingly in his brain.

Just rest. Rest sounds nice doesn’t it?

No… No he had to stop this.

Something was happening, something was coming, and they were at the forefront.

He clenches his fists, feels them burning hot, concentrates as hard as he can, and pushes.

“Vanya!”

The void explodes into color and then everything goes black.

Chapter Text

The show has already started by the time they make it to the theatre, and they all stop on the sidewalk.

Eudora should probably call for backup, reinforcements, anything really. But what would she say?

The homicidal ghost of a thirteen-year-old girl had possessed a medium and was planning to destroy the world?

Yeah that’d go over real well with her boss.

So instead she stands among the Umbrella Academy- plus Grace- and tries to come up with a game plan.

The big one, Luther, is incredibly pale and holding his injured arm close to his body like that will do anything to hide the fact that he’s down a hand. It’s certainly not stopping him from barking orders like an asshole.

“We need to get in there and stop them!”

Diego is pacing frantic lines back and forth, running his hands through his hair as he argues back.

“They’re too powerful Luther! We need a plan!”

Allison taps her foot and bites her nails and looks between her brothers and the door like she’s about to make a break for it.

Five is silent, bouncing with a nervous energy that doesn’t show on his blank face.

Grace is frowning and swaying back and forth, seeming lost and unsure.

Eudora sticks two fingers in her mouth and whistles, “Shut up!” she demands, “Unless you all want the world to end I suggest you get your shit together and act like a team for once.” They all stare at her, wide-eyed. She takes a deep, steadying breath, “Klaus is my best friend, I’m not losing him because none of you can act like decent fucking human beings. Now, are you going to help me or stay out here and argue like little pissbabies?

Diego’s spine snaps up and he glares at Luther one last time before nodding at her, that same fiery determination in his eyes that she’d once fallen in love with a long time ago. Luther shuffles nervously but nods. Allison and Five are staring at her, waiting, and Grace is smiling.

Eudora takes another deep breath.

“Grace, I need you to go activate the fire alarm, we need to evacuate the building first. Luther, I want you around back, keep an eye on the exit in case Vanya makes a break for it. Do not engage with her.” She orders when it looks like he may argue. He shuts his mouth with a click. “Diego, Allison, with me. We might be able to distract her long enough to talk her down. Five….” She remembers Vanya’s reaction to him in her kitchen and winces, “You stay out here. Keep watch.”

Then she turns and hurries into the theatre, not looking to see if the others are listening.

She enters the auditorium and begins making her way cautiously up the aisle towards the stage. She can see Klaus, in his usual spot in third chair, face too serious to be normal. He’s playing intently, eyes closed, but they open slowly as she gets closer.

He smiles when he sees her, eyes still that same white color from before. Eudora waves softly, and that smile widens.

The fire alarm begins to blare, the musicians all drop their instruments as whispers and groans break out across the room. Klaus continues to play.

Energy is building around them, a pulsing white thing that ebbs and flows as it begins to swirl around him.

Eudora waves away the few musicians that try to speak to Klaus and they exit with the rest of the crowd. She jumps up on stage.

“Vanya?” she calls quietly, “Vanya I need you to stop playing now.”

Diego and Allison hover at the edge of the stage, watching.

Vanya’s eyes are on her still, eerily blank. It’s strange to see Klaus’ face so empty.

“Eudora….” Diego calls warningly as chairs begins to rise off the stage and into the air, abandoned sheet music fluttering wildly in the stream of power emanating off of them.

“Ben!” Allison cries, and Eudora glances over to see the ghost boy from earlier hovering in the wings, eyes glowing bright as he spreads his arms.

Something is starting to emerge from his stomach.

Eudora remembers, suddenly. Number Six.

“Vanya please.” She begs, reaching out slowly until her hand is resting on Klaus’ knee, “Stop. Klaus wouldn’t want this.”

The violin screeches an off note, and then resumes.

Eudora ducks a clarinet case that hurtles by her head.

“The Commission is here!” Five shouts, teleporting into the room. Gunfire starts up outside.

They’re out of time.

Eudora reaches for the violin bow in Klaus’ hand, but something solid and cold and harsh hits her in the stomach and she goes flying backwards across the stage.

“Eudora!” Diego screams

But then the theatres doors burst open and gunmen charge in and the monsters emerge from Ben’s stomach and chaos takes over everything.

++

Klaus opens his eyes to another void, but this time its black and he isn’t alone.

There are people spread out before him, in a line, staring at him, watching him wander slowly forward in the abyss.

The first is a woman with slit wrists who holds out her hand to him, smiling, her curly hair stuck to her face with sweat and her green eyes full of tears.

“My darling…” she says in German, “Forgive me….”

He swallows, skirts around her hand, and keeps walking.

Beyond her is three woman he remembers from his childhood, nannies Liza, Clarise, and Emma, their necks all bent at harsh angles, limbs twisted, bleeding.

They look at him, all of them with their plastic smiles that had never felt real and watch him pass.

Faces he does not recognize but who look at him like he is a hero. Riddled with bullet holes or faces melting from fire. All of them from missions they had not won.

Josie in her too big clothes, sleeve rolled up and arm littered in track marks. The needle that killed her was still stuck in her. She smiles at him. “Hey ghost-boy.” She was only seventeen.

Reginald Hargreeves sneers at him, opens his mouth to likely berate him for all manner of things, but Klaus keeps walking. He doesn’t look back.

And then his breath catches.

Scooter. Just a kid really, barely twenty, half his body blown to bits from a mine. The half of his face intact is smiling. He doesn’t try to speak.

If Scooter is here- and as he starts to pick up his pace the others too- if Jojo and Greaser and Buggy and Screwball are here….

“Dave…”

Dave is waiting for him with a smile, the hole in his chest is nothing compared to the way he laughs when Klaus throws himself into his arms.

“I’ve got you sunshine.” He whispers into Klaus’ hair, arms strong around him, “I’ve got you.”

“Take me away Dave. Please… I can’t… Please.” He babbles, crying into the man’s shoulder.

Dave rubs his back soothingly, shushing him, “You can’t sweetheart. You can’t leave her. She needs you.”

“I don’t wanna fight anymore Davey. I’m so tired…”

“I know sunshine, I know. I’m sorry. This is your choice Klaus, if you want to stay….”

He could stay. Stay with Dave in a place with no more hurt, no more pain, no more death. He could stay with Dave and be happy and at peace forever.

The tears start falling harder, “This isn’t fair.” He cries

No more Vanya. No more Ben. No more Eudora.

“It isn’t baby. But you have to choose now.”

“Will you be upset if I choose to stay?”

“No baby, I could never be upset with you.”

“But you want me to.”

“I think you want to. You love her, you don’t want her to destroy herself like this.”

“I hate when you make sense.”

Dave kisses him then, and Klaus cries against his lips.

“I love you.”

“I love you too sunshine. Go save your sister Klaus, we’ll see each other again someday.”

Klaus steps back out of Dave’s arms even though he desperately wants to stay there.

Dave watches him go, smiling encouragingly with each step Klaus takes backwards.

“You can do this Klaus.” He calls.

The boys all clap him on the back as he goes back by them.

His father sneers, “You must control your power Number Four.”

Josie shrugs, “Good luck Ghost-boy.”

The dozens of faces of the victims all smile, hope and faith and heroism.

The nannies keep up with their plastic smiles.

“Don’t be afraid Number Four.”

His mother reaches out for him again, and this time her bloody hands stroke against his arm.

“Be brave my little one.”

Klaus passes all of them and stares off into the inky abyss, breathing deeply.

He can feel them behind him, the ghosts that shaped his life, the ghosts that never haunted him.

He looks within himself, looks for his little sister, for the place she’s hiding.

Vanya appears in front of him.

Vanya, forever thirteen and emaciated, her skull bashed in and blood trickling down her forehead.

She stares at him with her white eyes.

“They just keep hurting us.” She says softly, her voice barely above a whisper, “Why shouldn’t they suffer? Why shouldn’t they die too?”

He swallows, “Because we care about them. As much as it hurts, we still love them. We’ve always loved them. Even when they were being unfathomable assholes.”

She doesn’t smile. Just keeps staring at him.

“I just want to protect you Klaus. Like you protected me. I just want you to be happy.”

He wants to reach out and touch her, but he’s not sure if he could right now, and that would just break both of them even more.

“Do you really think I could be happy like this Vanya? A passenger in my own body, not even aware of what was happening.”

She frowns now, eyebrows furrowing, “No… But you’d be safe. Nothing would hurt you.”

“But I’d be alone. Didn’t we promise to stick together?”

Her lip wobbles, “Am I monster?” she asks, “I want to hurt them. I did hurt them.”

“You’re not a monster Vanya.” He wants, more than anything, to pull her close and hold her until everything is ok. “You’re my little sister. And right now you’re angry and scared and that’s ok.”

“I…. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

His eyes water and his hands shake.

“Let’s go home Vanya. Go back to how things were before. We can forget about all of this. About the Umbrella Academy and Dad and the others.”

“But we love them…. We wanted them to be with us again….. That’s why we came back.”

Yes. Yes it was. Because as much as Klaus liked to pretend otherwise, he had missed the others so much. Had missed Diego and Allison and even Luther. Had missed Five for so long. They were his family.

But he’s starting to see that maybe they didn’t all agree on that sentiment.

“Fuck them.” He says, voice hoarse, “Right now, the only family I need is you and Ben and Dora. Let’s go home Van, please, let’s go home.”

Finally the white begins to fade from her eyes and the tears begin to fall. Her shoulders shake with sobs as the black void begins to swirl around them.

++

Klaus opens his eyes with a gasp, electricity crackling along his skin that fizzles out slowly.

He looks around the theatre slowly.

Ben is standing center stage, blinking away the confusion as the beings retreat back into his body. He’s glowing a faint blue, and wobbling slightly as he turns around.

Diego and Allison are in the aisles surrounded by bodies of armed and masked men.

Eudora is laying on the stage, hand pressed to her forehead to stop the blood that’s pouring out.

“Eudora!” he cries and runs to her side

“Klaus? Is it really you?”

He wraps his arms around her middle and buries his face in her neck, “I’m back. It’s me. We’re ok.”

“Klaus?” Vanya is standing behind him, arms wrapped around herself, lip wobbling, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok Van, it’s not your fault.”

She doesn’t quite look like she believes that. “Can we go home now?”

Eudora stands with a groan, “You three are coming to my place, I’m not letting you out of my sight for the next week.”

Klaus smiles, “Thanks Dora.”

She reaches over to take his hand, squeezing, before cracking her back and turning away, “God I need a nap. I’m asking for the rest of the month off. I just stopped a fucking apocalypse, I’m owed it.”

Klaus snickers.

“Klaus! Vanya!” Ben hurries over, eyes wide as he looks them both over, “Are you ok?”

“Ben I’m sorry…” Vanya says, voice so very small.

“Vanya-“ he reaches for her but she backs away. Ben’s hands fall limp to his sides. “I’m not angry Van, I promise.” He holds out his hand to her.

Vanya backs up another step, and she’s right in front of Klaus now, so close he can feel the cold radiating from her.

He frowns. That’s new, he usually can’t feel anything.

Slowly, so very achingly slowly, he reaches out one hand.

He touches her shoulder.

They both gasp, Vanya spinning to face him, and they stare at each other for a long, charged moment…

Before Vanya throws herself into Klaus’ arms and Klaus wraps his whole body around her, both of them sinking to the floor as they cling to each other. And Vanya wails, burying her face in Klaus’ shirt and Klaus sobs, smushing his face into her hair.

Ben sinks down beside them and wraps his arms around both of them, and the three of them just hold each other, sitting and crying and feeling, and let the rest of the world fade away.

++

Klaus hums as he sets down the last of the boxes, looking around the room with a frown.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something…”

Ben walks through the door with what might actually be the last of the boxes, sets it down, and kicks Klaus in the back of the knee in quick succession. (He’s really liking this whole being able to touch thing and he’s an asshole about it)

“Of course you are, you’d lose your head if it wasn’t screwed on.” And then he walks through the wall to go back downstairs.

“I’m going to banish you! I mean it this time!” he calls after him.

He can hear the raspberry Ben blows even though he’s already downstairs. Asshole.

Eudora and Vanya enter the apartment together holding hands and Eudora frowns, “God I swear movers charge so much nowadays. Ok, we’ll take the kitchen boxes, you deal with this… hot mess. I want to get as much of this unpacked before tonight as possible.”

“Tonight? But Dora-“ he whines

“Nope, I am not going to be living with your shit all over my floor for weeks. It’s all getting unpacked as soon as possible and if I see any of your underwear in my kitchen Klaus I swear to God-“

“Message received. I’m going to be the very best roommate you’ve ever had.”

He throws his arms around her neck and kisses her cheek noisily. She scoffs but doesn’t comment, choosing instead ruffle Vanya’s hair before she goes back downstairs.

Vanya reaches out to grab his hand and link their fingers together. Klaus uses his other hand to ruffle her hair even more. She sticks her tongue out at him.

“I’m glad we’re moving in with Eudora.” She says after a moment, “It’ll be fun, like a sleepover all the time.”

“Exactly. Which means,” he leans in close to whisper, “You can prank her at night whenever you want.”

Vanya giggles. Eudora peeks back around the corner to throw a spoon at him, hitting him with unnerving accuracy in the forehead.

“Ouch! How did you even hear that!”

“I have spies now Klaus.” She grins at him, all teeth. Diego was a bad influence on her.

Ben pokes his head around the corner too and sticks his tongue out.

“You were my ghost first!” Klaus whines, “You can’t take her side!”

Vanya throws her head back and laughs, the paintings rattle slightly and the boxes float up an inch or two.

Eudora shakes her head, “Come on munchkin, we’ve got unpacking to do.”

The girls head downstairs. Ben reluctantly starts opening boxes, gagging exaggeratedly at the contents of Klaus’ wardrobe.

Klaus smiles, hearing his brother mutter about his fashion taste. Hearing Eudora sing off-key downstairs along to the radio. Hearing Vanya shriek laughter.

The phone rings downstairs, but its ignored. Another apology, another olive branch, another hopeful reconnection. All of it decades too late.

Klaus has all the family he’ll ever need right here, his twin brother, his big sister, and his little sister.

Vanya laughs again, and Klaus lets that sound drown out everything else as he gets to work.