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To say that dinner was tense, would be an understatement.
Like at lunch, Allison and Ben had switched their assigned seats; not as much because Allison wanted to sit next to Vanya, which she did, but more so because she didn’t want to be across from Luther, at least right now.
The tension between Allison and Luther’s unresolved ‘discussion’ kept building as Luther would send Allison pitiful glances while Allison would send him glares or eyerolls in return.
While Diego and Ben kept shooting Klaus some concerned looks, which, like when in the office, he was ignoring for as long as he could.
“Five,” Vanya softly said, pulling him from his thoughts and observations of his idiotic siblings.
“What?” Five asked back, a bit harsher than he intended, but still softer than he was normally with his other siblings.
Vanya looked down at the table, what would normally cause her hair to block her face, but since it was still in, looser now, braids, Five could still see her bashful expression. “I was just wondering what you guys did all day. I heard Klaus screaming really random things all day.”
Not wanting to get into anything in front of Grace and their siblings, and where Pogo could be lurking in the shadows, as well as knowing that Allison was supposed to be talking to Vanya later that night, Five told her, “I’ll tell you later.” and when Vanya’s face dropped a bit Five added, “When we’re alone.”
Their mother soon after, with some help from Diego, served them dinner. Light conversation filling the otherwise tense room at the absence of their father while they ate. As their dinner came to an end, Five kept thinking about the new package their mother had mentioned they’d gotten. Wondering endlessly what could possibly be in it.
Finally, their mother handed them the package, Five jumping from his seat to grab it. Five tore open the package, finding a note and another VHS tape inside it. Five read the note from whoever was still impersonating their father aloud for his anxious five siblings and his confused sister, “Hargreeves children, I seem to have forgotten to include this last bit of your work for today in the previous package. Please see to it that you find time to watch this together, all of you, as soon as possible. I will accept no failure from you. -H”
“Who’s H?” Vanya asked.
And while Five tried to think of a reasonable way their father would sign the note ‘H’ instead of ‘R. H.’ or some variation, Allison lied, “Dad, he must’ve just been busy and didn’t have time to add his name. Whatever he’s doing in England must be super important.” That seemed reasonable enough, and when Five snuck a glance at Grace, she didn’t seem to be suspicious of anything outwardly.
“Can we go mom?” Klaus asked, practically bouncing in his seat, “Don’t want to disappoint dear daddy.”
Grace nodded and six of the seven moved out of their seats, Vanya remaining with their mother, presuming she wasn’t to be included, again. “Come on Vanya.” Allison called from the doorway, her and Five staying back while the others went back to the office.
“Are you sure?” Vanya asked, standing from her chair and looking between her siblings and their mother.
Their mother got an odd look on her face briefly, as she replayed the note in her head. “Well Vanya dear,” Grace said, “your father did say ‘all of you’. Just make sure to take your medicine.” And at her daughter’s hesitance, Grace gave her another nod, and gently pushed her towards Allison and Five.
As Allison, Five, and Vanya walked together towards their father’s office, Vanya quietly told her brother and sister, “Thanks for including me, you really didn’t have to.”
Rather than trying to argue with her sister about how they should’ve always included her in things, Allison told her, “Well I’m happy you decided to come with us. I like spending time with you Vanya, and I hope we can have more together.”
When they reached the office, Klaus was waiting for them outside of the office with a barely contained panic. “What’s wrong?” Five asked jumping over to his brother.
“They’re gone.” Klaus said.
“What?” Five asked, “What’s gone? Who’s gone Klaus?”
“The,” Klaus stopped himself, looking at their sisters before continuing, “the other tapes. The other tapes are gone, so is the box and the note.”
Five marched into the office, Klaus, Allison, and Vanya following close behind him. And true to what Klaus had told him, the box, the note, and the tapes were gone. “Where the hell did they go?” Five hissed, none of his siblings wanting to say anything or having any answers for him.
“Don’t you have the new one?” Vanya asked, breaking the tensed silence, “The one you just got after dinner?” The VHS tape that Five had temporarily ignored suddenly felt like a brick in his hands. Whatever was on the tape, would likely change everything in The Academy, hopefully for the better.
“Right.” Five moved towards the formidable and familiar screen, sticking the tape in as his siblings returned to their seats, Allison having Vanya sit next to her.
When the screen first turned on, the first thing they were shown was Five standing in an alley, looking up at the vortex from The White Violin.
“What is that?” Vanya asked, looking and sounding, reasonably, quite confused.
“Um, Five made a time vortex.” Allison told her.
“What?” Vanya asked, “When?” before turning to Five, “I didn’t know you could manipulate time too. I thought it was just space.”
“It’s a, new development.” Five said.
“Luther!” Five yelled, “Diego!” the vortex above him closed, soon after Five could hearing yelling coming from the street behind him. And when he turned to find the source of the noise, only to find Soviet soldiers running down the street, charging at someone or something. “This can’t be right.” Five breathed, in almost shock, “What the hell did we do now?”
“Better question,” Klaus said, “where the hell is Five?”
“Or when.” Ben added.
“What are you guys talking about?” Vanya asked, “What is going on?”
Allison told her, “We have as good of an idea right now as you do Vanya.”
The screen jumped to Klaus, Ben, Vanya, Luther, Diego, and Allison looking at some bright light, a nuclear explosion, as the fallout got closer and closer before passing over them.
“Please tell me we did not cause another apocalypse.” Klaus pleaded.
“Apocalypse?” Vanya asked, “Another?”
And in yet another flash, everything was fine. No nuclear fallout, as Five asked an older looking Hazel, “What was that?”
“Who is that?” Vanya asked.
“Hazel.” Klaus answered.
Vanya then asked, “Who’s Hazel?”
“A friend of Five’s.” Allison said.
“Oh, okay.” Vanya replied. Based on the short answers Vanya was getting from her siblings, she figured she should just wait until what ever they were watching was over to get answers to all of her questions.
“The end of the world, November 25, 1963.” Hazel told him.
White numbers reading ‘1963’ as Five asked, “And where am I now?”
“Dallas,” Hazel answered, “ten days earlier.” flashes of a store, a hair salon, and various other places, filled with people going about their lives.
“How the hell did we get to Dallas?” Allison asked.
“And in the 1960’s no less.” Klaus added.
Luther asked, “Five, how is that possible?”
“Well, this” Five started, waving a hand towards the screen, “seems to be an alternate universe or timeline of the jump back in time. But instead of landing together in 2001, they all landed at separate times, in Dallas, in the 60’s.”
“What are you talking about Five?” Vanya asked, “What jump back in time?”
Five waved her off, telling her, “I’ll explain later Vanya.”
“I need to find my family.” Five said.
“Aww,” Klaus sighed, “he really does care about us Ben!” getting a glare from Five.
The screen jumped to Klaus surrounded by a mass of people all wearing similar clothes.
“Who are all those people?” Ben asked, turning to Klaus, “What did you do?”
Klaus gasped, “Me?! How dare you accuse me of doing anything! It’s not like I formed a religion or a cult or anything. They probably just realized how awesome I am and wanna be like, best friends, or something. Not that anyone could replace you Benny.”
Followed by Klaus, standing in water, in only some underwear and a flowered necklace, with a few people looking to be praising or worshipping him, with his name in the same white text ‘1963’ had been.
Then the screen jumped to Allison, sitting with a man at a counter, her name shown on screen, as men behind them yelled at them.
“It looks like you’re at a sit-in Allison.” Vanya said, “I mean, if this thing’s accurate,” Vanya continued, waving her hand at the screen, “you, or that version of you I guess, is in the deep south in the 60’s, on the cusp of the civil rights movement, so it makes sense, to me at least, that you’d try to be a part of the movement.” A blush spread across Vanya’s face when she realized all of her siblings were looking at her, and listening, “Sorry.”
“No, no, no, don’t be sorry Vanya.” Allison assured her sister, taking hold of her hands, “I appreciate it, thank you.”
Jumping to Luther, exiting some underground boxing or fighting ring, his name on screen as well.
“What the hell?” Luther asked aloud, wondering what this alternate Luther was doing.
The screen jumped to Ben getting out of a smoking car, his name on screen, and a smirk on his face.
“Now what did you do you little shit?” Klaus asked, turning to give Ben a smirk.
“Probably something stupid with you.” Ben countered with his own smirk.
The screen then switched to Diego and some woman, sitting together in what looked like a psych ward of some kind, his name on screen.
“Who is she?” Ben asked, even though none of them would know.
Allison jumped in, “More importantly, is Diego locked away in a mental ward?”
“Diego got thrown in the looney bin!” Klaus gasped, “And got a girlfriend!”
Then it jumped to Vanya driving a car, her name on screen, with a woman in the passenger seat watching her and a young boy in the back seat.</p>
Vanya asked, “Who’s she? And who’s he?” watching what must be her future/alternate timeline/reality self.
Before moving back to Five in the alley, his name on screen as he looked up at something. Five then jumped into a building, the rest of the Hargreeves siblings waiting inside. “All right,” Five said, “first off, I wanna say, we brought the end of the world back here with us.”
“Of course we did.” Diego huffed, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, my God, again?” Klaus asked, turning from pouring himself a drink to face Five, “My cult is gonna be so pissed. I told ‘em we had until 2019.”
“Klaus!” Ben yelled.
“Holy shit.” Klaus gasped, “I totally had a cult. This blows.”
“We have until Monday.” Five replied.
The screen switched to Diego looking at a tv as he said, “Everything in our new lives is connected to a plot to assassinate the president. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“Of course it is.” Diego muttered.
It jumped to Allison holding the man she’d been sitting at the counter with’s hands as he was in some cell.
“Aww, Allison’s got a boyfriend!” Klaus gasped, “Allison’s got a boyfriend! Allison’s got a boyfriend!” only stopped when Ben covered his mouth, until Klaus licked it.
“That is so gross.” Ben said, wiping his hand on Klaus’s shirt.
“None of us are supposed to be here, right?” Vanya said, as the screen showed Five looking through the scope of a gun, then Vanya looking to be getting questioned by people dressed in all white.
Allison was concerned for whatever her sister was going through in the alternate universe, holding a bit tighter to her sister’s hands in the present.
“We know something changes the timeline.” Five said, shots of Diego looking at various screens showing nuclear fallout and Five sneaking through some set as his voice continued, “I have to make it right again,-” Three men were shown in an ice cream truck holding various guns and weapons, “-before everyone and everything we know is dead.”
“Who the fuck are they?!” Klaus yelled, “This shitty thing just gives us more and more questions! That don’t even effect us!”
One of the men from the ice cream, dressed as a milkman, placed some glass milk bottles on a desk before pulling a shotgun out from behind him.
Following the bang of the milkman’s gun, the screen switched to the three men from the ice cream truck barging into some maintenance room with their guns readied. Then the were in some underground tunnel as alarms blared around them.
Then Diego and the woman he was with earlier were running through a hallway, narrowly avoiding getting shot by the three men. “Who are those guys?” The woman asked.
“Diego’s on the run from the freaky guys with his girlfriend!” Klaus yelled.
“Stop calling her my girlfriend!” Diego yelled back, “We don’t even know her name.”
Then the screen was at Allison opening a door to reveal two of the men holding vacuums as she told the same man from before, sounding quite annoyed, “They’re not here to sell vacuums.”
The screen then switched to a fish in a tank on a person’s body while Five said, “The Commission will hunt us down, wherever and whenever we go.”
“Carmichael.” Five hissed at the sight of the fish.
Klaus started, “Um, Five, dear brother of mine-”
“Get to the point Klaus.” Five hissed.
“Is that fish’s name Carmichael?” Klaus asked.
Five answered, “Yes.”
“You know a fish?” Vanya asked.
“We’re not talking about this!” Five declared.
It showed Klaus, looking to be running from his ‘cult’, then Diego and the woman he’d been with, maybe dancing at some party. Then someone being blasted back from a blue light. Vanya in the car from before, now alone, as the milkman approached her car.
The screen switched to Diego fighting someone, throwing a knife at them, and they ducked, dodging the knife. Diego missed.
“Holy shit!” Klaus yelled, practically jumping out of his seat, “I didn’t even know that was possible. Diego missed!”
“I didn’t miss.” Diego hissed, “They dodged. Completely different.”
“Is it though?” Klaus asked.
“Yes!” Diego exclaimed, “Completely different!”
It jumped to Klaus dancing down an aisle full of various liquors. Then Allison, Klaus, and Vanya in the hair salon from before, also dancing.
Then the screen switched to Five talking to Luther, “I need a spotter.” Five told him.
“What is that?” Luther asked, “Like, a wingman?”
“Luther, you do know what a spotter is right?” Diego asked.
Luther replied, “Uh, yes.”
Then Ben was winking at some woman, who may or may not have seen him. Before switching to Diego and the woman arguing in a car, “You don’t know anything about me!” Diego yelled at her.
“I know everything.” She hissed back, “You are an open book written for very dumb children.”
“BURN!” Klaus yelled, extremely loudly.
The screen jumped to Klaus tackling Ben and the two smacking each other in the middle of the road.
“You’re both idiots.” Five muttered, shaking his head.
Then Five was asking Klaus, “Klaus, is Ben here?”
And Klaus, lying through his teeth said, “No, unfortunately, ghosts can’t time travel.”
“Liar.” Ben said.
“Drop dead.” Klaus hissed back.
Ben gasped, “Low blow.”
“Wait,” Vanya said, “Ben died?”
“Um, we’ll explain later.” Klaus said.
Vanya, tried not to look disappointed, and concerned, as she noted, “You guy are saying that a lot.”
Ben, sitting in a nearby chair yelled, “Are you kidding me?”
The screen flashed through several shots, the three men were back with their guns, Luther was smashing through the wall of a house, then Luther was falling from the blue vortex onto a dumpster, then Allison and the man dropped a rug while Klaus and Ben were on the couch when a flash of blue appeared, Ben standing in a hallway, a man in an alley walking away with a monkey, Diego beating up and getting the shit kicked out of him with two of the three men.
The screen showed Five holding an axe while the fish from before hissed at him, “You!”
“I see Mr. Carmichael remembers you fondly Five.” Klaus teased.
Then Luther was getting punched in the face, not by a Hargreeves, followed by Diego jumping off a wreaked car in a spin, dodging bullets and throwing knives, then they were all walking into a tiki lounge.
“All right,” Five said as they sat around a table with a younger looking version of their father, “quick rundown. Luther, super strength. Klaus can commune with the dead. Allison can rumor anyone to do anything.”
“Except she never uses it.” Diego muttered. Allison glaring at him for that remark.
Allison stopped sipping on her drink and said with a tight smile, “I heard a rumor, you punched yourself in the face.” followed by Diego punching himself in the face, getting an annoyed look from Five, a small smile from Vanya, and a slightly scared look from their father, followed by a black screen. When the tape came out, the film must’ve gotten caught on something because when it popped back out of the player, the film was unraveled, ripped, and some parts were just gone. The tape was unusable. Fuck.
When Five retrieved the VHS tape from the player, and opened the little plastic part at the top that the tape was currently falling out of, Five saw there was another note taped to the inside of the tape. Ignoring his siblings’ surprise at yet another note, Five read it out loud, “Hey old timer, it’s Hazel. From the Commission. In case you and your siblings haven’t figured it out, I’m the one who sent you the tapes, this one and the other five. Hopefully these will help in your task of stopping the apocalypse. If you need help, I’ll be there, anytime, anywhere. -Hazel”
“Is this the same Hazel that’s Five’s friend?” Vanya asked.
“Probably.” Klaus said with a shrug.
“And why did he call Five ‘old timer’?” Vanya asked.
Klaus looked between his siblings for guidance, getting none, and replied, “That is a bit of a loaded question, um, Five?”
After sending a glare towards Klaus, Five vaguely and quickly explained, “My first time jumping, I got stuck in the future. Started working for a place called the Commission. Found a way back to you guys, only in 2019 not, earlier. Then the apocalypse happened a week later, so I jumped us all back here. But apparently, your consciousness didn’t come back with us.”
“Wait, so how old are you supposed to be?” Vanya asked.
“58.” Five replied.
Vanya then asked, “What about the rest of?”
“The rest of you were almost 30.” Five replied, “Except Ben.”
“Well did you ever find out what caused the apocalypse?” Vanya asked, “So you guys could stop whatever it was.”
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room briefly, none of them wanting to tall their sister that she was the one who caused the apocalypse. “Well, Vanya,” Allison started, sounding nervous, “you kind of, caused, the apocalypse.”
“How could I cause the apocalypse?” Vanya asked, “I don’t have powers. I’m just ordinary.”
“But you’re not.” Klaus said, followed by getting hit by Ben.
“What?” Vanya asked, looking between the siblings, hoping one of them would clarify whatever Klaus had just said.
Klaus gasped and started digging through their dad’s desk, clearly looking for something as Allison said, “You do have powers Vanya. Dad made me rumor you when we were four that you thought you didn’t have powers and that you thought you were ordinary, because he couldn’t control you and your powers. And none of us knew or remembered you having powers until you were about to cause the apocalypse.”
As Klaus continued to search, moving into the lower compartments of the desk, Vanya mumbled quietly, “You don’t have to make fun of me you know. I just wanted to know.”
“No, Vanya, we’re not making fun of you!” Ben said, “We’re telling you the truth!”
“Seriously?!” Vanya yelled, surprisingly, pushing herself out of her seat, “If I had powers, I’d be a part of The Umbrella Academy, but I’m not, and I don’t.”
As Vanya got closer and closer to being in tears, Five realized that Vanya likely hadn't taken any of her medication since breakfast that morning. “Hey, Vanya, calm down.” Five said, noticing the slight flicker of the light and the objects on their father’s desk moving a little.
“Don’t tell me to calm down Five!” Vanya yelled at him, “I thought you were my friend, but I should’ve known you’d pick them over me! You’re just like-” the light bulb above them exploded, cutting off Vanya’s rant as she, and a few others, screamed in fear, plunging them into darkness.
Silence filled the room again for a moment before Vanya asked, “What was that?”
“You.” Allison replied, as Ben flipped the lamp on their father’s desk on, slightly illuminating the room.
“Me?” Vanya asked and Allison nodded.
Klaus then popped up from behind the desk, holding their father’s journal, calling “Found it!” Klaus flipped through several pages before he found whatever passage he was looking for, then he slid across the desk and shoved the journal into Vanya’s hands.
Vanya silently read the pages Klaus had flipped the journal to, then flipping through the following few pages, reading them in silence as well before quietly, and sadly saying, “I have powers. And Dad knew. And Pogo knew too. My medication, was a lie too.”
There was a knock on the door and their mother’s voice filtered through, “Children, are you alright in there? I thought I heard something break and some yelling.”
“Um, we’re fine mom!” Diego called back, “A, a light bulb broke and it, it scared us.”
“Oh, alright, I’ll clean it up once you’re finished in there.” Their mother replied, “Just be careful of the glass.” Soon after the sound of their mothers heels clicked as she walked away, tending to other things.
After wiping away any stray tears, Vanya asked, “What do we do now?”
“Next, we need to get you to be a part of The Umbrella Academy.” Five said.
“And how would we do that?” Vanya asked, “It’s not like Dad’s just going to let me be a part of The Umbrella Academy. There’s a reason he didn’t let me be in it in the first place.”
Allison grabbed one of Vanya’s hands again as she said, “That’s why we have a week to help you practice your powers before Dad gets back and prove to him why you should be.”
The seven of them carefully left the office after that, avoiding the glass on the floor, Klaus ensuring to leave the journal nearly where he’d found it. Allison and Vanya walked towards Allison’s room as Five pulled Ben away, saying he need to talk about something with him, leaving Luther, Diego, and Klaus just outside the doorway of the office.
Klaus started, “You guys wanna-”
Diego quickly said “Absolutely not.” while Luther said “No.” and the two walked off in opposite directions, Diego going back downstairs while Luther walked back towards his room.
“Fine!” Klaus yelled after them, “I’ll have fun on my own!”
Just as Klaus was about to walk off, finding his own thing to do, an achingly familiar voice called behind him, “Klaus?”
“Dave?”