Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Six members of the Umbrella Academy entered their newest and final timeline at 11 pm on April 3, 2019, just as Ben was getting a glass of water for himself from the Academy’s kitchen. He promptly dropped the cup and pitcher in surprise and splattered all their feet with cold water as Klaus tackled him in a bear hug.

“Bennie boy!” Klaus yelped. “You’re alive! And you don’t seem to be emo!”

“What?” Ben asked weakly.

“Ignore him, we’re just happy to see you,” Five said wearily.

That’s when Ben finally glanced at him and shrieked a little in shock, backing away from Klaus. “Um, does anyone want to tell me why Number Five suddenly looks like a little kid?!”

“This body is thirteen, which is a young teenager actually,” Five sniffed. “But fine.”

After cleaning up the spilled water, they all sat around the table and explanations were swapped. Ben was told a revised version of their exploits with the Sparrow Academy, and their escape to a timeline in which the Umbrella Academy again existed. Five gave him a clipped version of his past 45 years and why he looked like a tween, which left Ben more confused than anything.

The others learned from Ben that their new timeline was altered from the one they had known growing up. Namely, in this world, Five had never gone missing and Ben had never died.

Ben tried to absorb the news of his Timeline #1 death as gracefully as he could, only saying, “Well I guess that explains why you all keep tearing up when you look at me. And,” gesturing to Klaus, who sat in the chair next to him scooted as close as he could get, watching Ben delightedly with his chin propped on his hand. “This.”

“I need more explanation,” Five said, raising a hand. “If I never went missing, does that mean I aged along with the rest of you? I was a 29-year-old in this timeline?”

“Well yes, you are...or were? Are there two of all of you now?” Ben asked, looking concerned.

“No, no,” Five said. “It’s complicated and I know three fourths of you don’t have the IQ points to understand this, but basically we replace our other selves, because they’re not really our other selves, they are ourselves because we changed the timeline, we didn’t create a new, separate one. But our consciousness remains that which has known the first timeline, much like I kept my 58-year-old consciousness in a 13-year-old body. Capeesh?”

“No comprendo!” Klaus said cheerfully. “But I’m ok with that!”

“Where’s Dad?” Luther piped up.

“Um,” Ben said. “Dad died a couple years ago now. He was killed by one of the other - well, one of the other 43.”

“The 43?” Diego asked. “Who?”

Then began Ben’s explanation of the 43 super-powered individuals scattered around the planet, seven of whom sat at this table and one of whom had disappeared from a London apartment in 1993. Of the other 35, some were benevolent and some were...not so much.

“It’s a mess,” Ben said. “Some of them are seriously fucked up. We don’t know which one killed Dad - we only know they left a calling card with “43” written on it. We’ve been trying to figure it out ever since.”

“Huh,” Luther said, sitting back in his chair. “No Dad again. Is it bad I feel almost...relieved?”

“Not at all,” Diego said resolutely. “Sucks about the murder, though. Old man could have gone in his sleep and saved us the drama this time around.”

Ben stared at him in dismay, until Vanya asked, “Is Pogo alive?”

“Yes, of course,” Ben said. “He’s not here, though. He’s been traveling for the last couple months, going to see some of the other scientists he knew when he was little, seeing more of the world than dad ever let him. He sends postcards sometimes.”

Klaus poked him in the arm. “And what about you, Bennie boy, how did you not die this time?”

“Oh,” Ben said. “Well the mission you say I um, was brutally killed during - I almost died that day, but Vanya and Five saved me. I had lost control and my monster was about to tear me apart, but Five did this thing - he slowed down time, or stopped it for a second, long enough for Vanya to send these shockwaves that closed my portal. I actually, uh,” he looked down and cleared his throat, “I actually haven’t been able to use my powers since. I think whatever Vanya did to my portal - it closed it for good.”

“Oh,” Vanya said. “I’m...sorry?”

“Don’t be,” Ben said. “It was actually a huge relief, even after Dad kicked me out.”

“He kicked you out!?” Allison said.

“Yeah, I wasn’t special any more,” Ben said, shrugging. “To him, anyway. That’s really when the Umbrella Academy fell apart. Diego and Vanya left right after me - Diego was so pissed at Dad. And Vanya never had a good relationship with him anyway. It was after you moved out and stopped taking your meds that you discovered your powers, Vanya. Then shortly after that, Klaus left to come live with me, and then Allison left for California. It was just Luther and Five for a little while before Five went to college - against Dad’s wishes, of course. And then it was just Luther until he got in his accident, got his operation, and was sent to the moon for a couple of years until Dad died.”

There was silence for a moment after this. Then:

“Wait, I still got sent to the moon?!”

“What college did I go to? Ivy League at least?”

“Do you know if I still have a daughter in California?”

“Wait, wait!” Ben said. “I can only answer so many questions at once.” He pointed at Luther, Five, and Allison in order and said, “Yes, Princeton, and yes, her name is Claire.”

“Oh thank god,” Allison and Five said in unison, sagging back in their chairs.

“Guys, it’s late and I am beyond confused,” Ben said. “Can we table this discussion until tomorrow morning? Your rooms are all ready for you and everything, I guess.” he trailed off worriedly. “I think we’ll have a lot to figure out in the next few days.”

***

Thus began the Hargreeves’ process of starting their new lives. Again.

For some of them, not much had changed. Allison and Luther realized they had each taken much the same path as they had the first time around in 2019. Allison still had therapy to complete for custody after her divorce with Patrick. Luther still lived in the Academy but had, according to Pogo, started taking classes at the local college and was volunteering at a couple of nonprofits. He also, he was surprised to find out, had been considering remodeling the building so he, Pogo, and Grace lived in only a third and he could sell the rest to a school or children’s home. No one man needed 43 bedrooms, after all.

Diego had still been kicked out of the police academy, but apparently in this timeline, he had become a private investigator instead of a vigilante. He had an actual, upgraded apartment in an actual apartment building, paid for with his chunk of Reginald’s inheritance. And after a hasty phone call, he discovered the best and biggest change of all: Eudora Patch was still alive. Hanging up once she realized it was Diego who was calling, but alive.

Vanya’s life was similar too - but better. She was still in the orchestra, but now first chair. She also had a larger, nicer apartment. And, based on the types of messages saved on her answering machine, she seemed to only date women.

Klaus lived sometimes with Ben, sometimes with Diego, sometimes with Luther at the Academy, and only a fraction of the time in his own apartment also paid for with his inheritance money. It depended on his mood that day, and his brothers all learned to keep at least a couch at the ready. He left Vanya alone only because she preferred quiet when she was home to make sure her powers stayed calm. He also had a job as a psychic.

“Well, it is the one thing I’m good at besides looking good in a severe v-neck,” he said.

“Just don’t turn it into a cult this time,” Allison said. He stuck out his tongue.

Ben was a free-lance writer and journalist for the local newspaper. He had published a small book of poetry last year. He lived with his girlfriend, an economics professor. They had a cat together.

“You sound extraordinarily well-adjusted,” Five said, blinking.

Ben shrugged. “It’s the whole no-powers thing. That and so much therapy.”

“I’m glad you’re the writer in the family this time around,” Diego grumbled. Vanya pointedly ignored him.

“I don’t know what that means,” Ben said wearily.

The biggest change of course was for Five, who yesterday had been a 29-year-old biophysicist in Boston and now was a 13-year-old/58-year-old ex-time assassin without a job or even proof he’d graduated from the eighth grade.

“Shit,” Five said, sounding impressed with himself. “Biophysics, huh?”

Ben shrugged. “I guess. That’s what you’ve told us anyway. The last time I studied physics was for a science credit as an English major so don’t ask me anything about it.”

“Don’t worry,” Five said, “I wasn’t going to.”

“Of course, now this could be a problem,” Ben said, gesturing to Five’s skinny body. “I mean your 29-year-old self is...gone. You can’t step back into your life like the others.”

“Hmm,” Five said regretfully. “True. And I can’t exactly announce the truth to the world. I shudder to imagine the American government learning about the possibility of time travel. I think we’ll have to come up with some other identity for this me,” he said, gesturing to himself.

“Well Five, I know you hate when I give you Commission advice, buuuut,” Diego drawled, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. “I know a certain temporary Commission Director by the name of Herb who could probably help you out with that.”

“Okay, Diego,” Five said, grinning wolfishly, “Why don’t you call up your little best friend so you can paint each other’s nails, gossip about boys you like, and plot how to fake an alternative identity for me?”

And so within two weeks of their arrival in the new timeline, Five had a fake birth certificate proclaiming him the biological son of the brilliant physicist Five Hargreeves, who had unfortunately gone missing. The birth date proclaimed that he was born on November 1, 2006, as -

“Fievel Hargreeves?!” Five seethed one morning, clutching the certificate. “Fievel?” He slowly glanced over the paper at his brother, murder in his eyes.

“You’re the one who left it up to me!” Diego said, laughing. “Herb and I thought -”

Five vanished in a burst of blue and Diego bolted before he could reappear, his chair clattering to the floor in his wake. The others could all hear muffled thwaps and yelps from the next room as Five caught up with his prey.

“It was nice to have us all together and alive again,” Klaus said mournfully. “Too bad that’s over now Diego’s going to be murdered.”

“But what are we going to do now?” Ben asked. “He might have an identity, but now it looks like he’s a newly orphaned thirteen-year-old on his own.”

“I have an idea on that, actually,” Allison said. “But Five’s not going to like it.”

***

“You what?!” Five seethed at their next family meeting.

“I think one of us should adopt you,” Allison said matter-of-factly. “You need a guardian before anyone starts asking questions.”

“I do not. Need. A parent,” Five ground out between clenched teeth.

“You do in the eyes of the law,” Allison said staunchly. “Someone’s going to notice an unsupervised thirteen-year-old who’s not going to school. We need to get our ducks in a row before you get taken in by CPS.”

“I would just escape,” Five scoffed.

“And then they’d come after you again and you’d escape again, and so on,” Allison said, rolling her eyes. “This is just easier. And I bet the - Commission? - would help us get together some authentic-looking adoption paperwork, right?” She turned to Diego.

“Oh yeah, I think so,” Diego said. “Herb loves us, he’ll do -”

“Why are you asking Diego?!” Five hissed at Allison. “He worked there for all of thirty minutes!”

“And I still managed to make friends,” Diego said. “You could take some pointers from me on likability, bro.”

Five spluttered, too overcome to even give that a response, but Vanya snorted.

“Well, Five?” Luther asked. “Will you think about it? I agree with Allison. This way we make sure you can still stay with us without any problems.”

Five clenched and unclenched his fists. He knew they were being sensible, knew he needed a legal guardian of some sort if he was going to start building a permanent life in this thirteen-year-old body.

“I'll think about it,” he gritted out. Then he zapped away.

Chapter Text

The morning after their family meeting, someone knocked on the front doors of the Academy.

Five was the closest, coming down the stairs for breakfast with his hands in his shorts pockets, so he went to answer it. He whistled a little tune, thinking of Mom’s pancakes he was about to eat smothered in Nutella. He was in a surprisingly good mood. He had slept a grand total of six hours in a row last night, for the first time probably since he’d quit the Commission.

He should have known something would come along to bring him back down to earth.

He pulled open the door to find a blond person in scrubs and a rain jacket. They wore glasses and squinted in confusion at Five when they saw him.

“Oh, hi,” they said. “Um, is Luther here?”

Five crossed his arms. “Who’s asking?”

“Sorry...who are you?” The person asked. “I didn’t realize any children lived here.”

“I didn’t realize I’d have some stranger asking me personal questions before breakfast, but here we are,” Five said.

“Brooks!” Ben said, hurrying down the stairs behind Five. He took Five by the shoulders and gently shifted him aside so the stranger could come into the house. Five allowed it, scowling.

“Sorry about him,” Ben said. “He hasn’t had his coffee yet. Five, this is Dr. Brooks Asher. They’re one of the 43, like us.”

Brooks glanced at Ben sharply. “Did you say Five?” they asked. “Surely this isn’t…”

“Number Five Hargreeves, in the flesh,” Five said, giving them the sharp smile Klaus called his “murder gremlin” look.

“Five, retract the claws please,” Ben said drily. “Brooks is one of us. We can trust them.”

“I have to talk to Luther, Ben,” Brooks said, tearing their eyes from Five. “He asked me to tell him if I caught wind of any others coming to town and, well - I have.”

“Oh,” Ben said. “Well shit.”

***

Brooks joined them for breakfast. It was only Ben, Luther, Klaus, and Five that morning.

“So…” Brooks said. “You all look like yourselves but your memories are completely different because you originated in a different timeline.”

“That about covers it,” Luther said.

“That’s interesting,” Brooks said. “I knew Five was capable of time-travel, but he told me once he tried to contain it to only traveling by minutes or less. So I didn’t realize this was even possible.”

“It wasn’t just my powers that enabled us to go back and forth in time,” Five said impatiently. “But never mind that. What did you mean earlier when you said one of the others had come to town?”

“One of the 43, one of the people with...abilities like us,” Brooks said.

“And what exactly are your abilities?” Five asked.

Brooks shifted in their seat. “Well, mine are a bit hard to explain,” they said. “But essentially, I can take human memories and convert them into life force.”

“What?” Luther asked. “How does that work?”

“I can take a memory, or several memories, out of your head and use them to heal or otherwise use it as energy. I can heal almost anything with memories,” Brooks said. “I can also read memories, which is a bit like reading minds.”

“Are you reading our minds right now?” Luther asked.

“No, it doesn’t work like that,” Brooks said. “I can only vaguely sense them until you bring one to mind and then it’s a bit like I’m watching a movie with you.”

“And you can take memories, permanently?” Five asked.

“Yes,” Brooks said. “But I don’t like to.”

“Could you go back and tell us about another one of the 43 here in the city?” Ben asked. “Do you know who it is?”

“No,” Brooks shook their head. “I don’t know them, I don’t even have proof it’s one of us. But it almost couldn’t be anything else.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, bodies have been popping up,” Brooks said. They turned to the others to explain, “I’m a surgical resident and I like to keep tabs on goings on at my and other hospitals in case anything...unusual starts happening. And this - this is unusual.”

They pushed their empty plate away and folded their hands in front of them. “These bodies are all found in a state of metamorphosis. That is...they’re all partially made of something else. One’s torso and arms were entirely made of wood, or metal. And an autopsy revealed that even their internal organs had begun to turn into those materials. In fact that’s what killed them - their heart transformed and stopped beating.”

“Oh dear,” Klaus said, stirring his coffee absent-mindedly.

“Yes,” Brooks said tightly. “Another, her head was entirely made of tin. Including her brain.”

“Fascinating,” Five said.

“Five, please,” Luther said, raising a hand. He asked Brooks, “You said I asked you to come and tell me about others you came across? Why would I do that?”

“Well, my understanding is that you’ve picked up where your father left off,” Brooks said. “Keeping tabs on all of the super powered individuals born on October 1, 1989 like us. And you’ve been searching for your father’s killer as you do.”

“What about your father, Brooks? Your parents, are they batshit buggy like Sir Reggie?” Klaus asked.

“No, my parents are accountants in Toronto,” Brooks said. “You guys were just very unlucky.”

They pushed themself up from the table and zipped up their rain jacket. “Listen, I have to get to work. I just wanted to let you all know that there’s another dangerous person in town. I don’t know what they’re here for, but well - when one of the 43 shows up in this city, it’s usually something to do with the Umbrella Academy. Everyone knows Sir Reginald was the only person to know anything about the phenomena, and a lot of us want answers.”

“What answers did you want, Brooks? What are you doing in this city?” Five asked.

“I came here to ask Reginald for help controlling my powers,” Brooks said. “Three years ago, before he died. And he did help me, as much as he was capable of helping anyone. So now I don’t take memories by accident any more, or take too much. I owe him a debt and here I am warning you that someone dangerous may be coming, to help pay that off.”

They smiled slightly. “I also kind of like you guys. So don’t end up with brains made of tin, okay?”

***

“So basically, someone’s running around turning innocent people into raw materials,” Luther relayed at the family meeting later that night. They had a “family meeting” almost every night, because it basically just meant a dinner where they were all together.

“What...are we supposed to do with that information?” Vanya asked.

“I can start looking into it,” Diego said. “Did this Brooks person give any details about the victims?”

“No, but they left their number,” Luther said, nodding to a piece of paper stuck to the fridge. “You can call them and get more details, or they’ll point you in the right direction at least.”

Diego nodded and kept on digging into his steak and potatoes. “I’ll call tomorrow, see what all they know. Maybe Eudora knows something about this too.”

Vanya cleared her throat and turned to Five.

“Five,” she said in her gentle voice. “Are you free tomorrow?”

He looked up from his plate in surprise. “Yeah, I guess,” he said. “Why?”

“I thought we could go shopping,” she said. “For you.”

Talk around the table suddenly hushed as this conversation kicked off. They’d all discussed this with each other behind Five’s back, but had yet to actually bring it up with him.

“I don’t need to go shopping. My closet is chock-full of these,” Five said, pinching the edge of his uniform blazer sleeve between his fingers.

“Right,” Vanya said. “But Five, you don’t have to wear a uniform all the time any more. You’re not even actually 13, don’t you want new clothes that don’t make you look quite so…”

“Schoolboy-ish?” Klaus interjected. “Oh little Number Five, I’ve been waiting to burn those socks for weeks now.”

“Yeah Five, don’t you want clothes you can relax in?” Allison asked. “Some comfortable sweaters, maybe even a pair of jeans or two?”

“Jeans?” Five asked. “Jeans aren’t flexible, they restrict movement!”

“So what?” Diego asked. “I don’t know if you got the memo old man, but you’re retired now, and there’s no longer an apocalypse looming over our heads. It’s time to relax a little bit, and time for you to stop looking like an extra from the set of Dead Poets Society.”

Five bristled, but Vanya interjected before he could say anything, “C’mon, Five. You know it’ll be nice to move on with some new clothes.”

He looked into her patient brown eyes and sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Let’s go shopping.”

Klaus cheered.

***

So late the next afternoon, Vanya took Five shopping. Klaus had wanted to come but Five had flat-out refused to have more of an audience than he had to.

“I’ll go with Vanya and Vanya only. The rest of you will only be embarrassing assholes about it,” he said.

“Aw fine, be that way,” Klaus sighed. “MY favorite sibling died and then came back as a ghost and then died and then came back and now doesn’t really remember me, but don’t feel bad for me or anything.”

“I don’t,” Five said.

So he and Vanya departed and Klaus wandered through the house, bored. He didn’t have any clients that day; no one to ask him to summon their dead grandmother or best friend or former dominatrix or what have you.

He meandered aimlessly to Luther’s (once Dad’s) office and poked around a box of photographs for the amusement of looking at images of a Five in his twenties. He’d been right in that 1963 salon - Five did grow up to be relatively hot. Still thin, still with a sharp smile and bright eyes. He ended up being the second shortest sibling overall after Vanya, which Klaus found delightful.

Eventually, he abandoned the photos and found Diego in the kitchen making dinner with Mom.

“Do you want to help, Klaus?” Mom asked over her shoulder where she stood at the stove. “We’re making salad, garlic bread, and spaghetti and meatballs.”

“Hmmm that sounds absolutely enticing,” Klaus said. “To eat, not make. Sorry Mom, but I would just make a big old mess of it.”

“No problem, dear,” Mom said, smiling serenely. “Your brother is already an enormous help.”

“No, it’s not ok,” Diego said, coming to the table and aggressively plopping lettuce, tomatoes and a cutting board in front of Klaus. “Any idiot can make a garden salad, Klaus. I’ll start the garlic bread.”

Klaus shrugged good-naturedly and poked at the lettuce with the knife. “Is everyone here for dinner again tonight?”

“Yep,” Diego said, popping the “p” sound. “Allison and Ben are already in the house somewhere. They’re helping Luther take down some of dad’s creepy wall art and knick knacks in the part of the building he wants to sell. And Vanya and Five will be back from their little shopping trip soon.”

“Ah yes, our teenie bopper brother will finally discover the joys of not wearing a tie,” Klaus said.

Diego snorted. “Yeah, that’s…” he turned his head sharply, as he was interrupted by a faint noise. “Did you hear that? Someone’s come in the front door.”

“Maybe it’s Five and Vanny,” Klaus said.

“No, they just left half an hour ago,” Diego said.

“Well, I don’t know then. I’m sure it’s - aaaand he’s gone,” he said, as Diego darted out of the kitchen. Klaus got up and followed him to their enormous living space, which they found empty.

“You’re probably hearing things,” Klaus said.

“No, I don’t just hear things,” Diego said.

Klaus rolled his eyes. “I forgot, your body is a temple, your senses are perfect, blah blah blah,” he said, waving a hand. He was about to return to the kitchen before he heard it too. It was someone walking nearby, maybe in the entryway, in a gait he definitely didn’t think belonged to one of his siblings. It was a thump shuffle, thump shuffle - like they were dragging one foot behind them.

“Hello?” he asked, inching closer to Diego while keeping his back to the wall. His brother was already clutching his knives.

“Hello,” a raspy voice whispered, directly behind Klaus. He whirled in time to see a man’s face seemingly peel itself from the wood paneling of the wall. Half of it was skin, and half of it was frozen, stiff and gnarled - like it was carved out of wood itself.

He was too taken aback from the half-face to notice in time the hand darting for his neck. All it took was one sharp jab, and he was out.

***

“Surely this is enough,” Five said, emerging from Vanya’s car with two shopping bags hanging from his arms.

“It’s barely three outfits, Five,” Vanya said, juggling her keys as she locked the car behind them where she’d parked in the street a little down from the Academy. “And I could barely get you to pick anything out that wasn’t business casual.”

Five shrugged, unconcerned. “I think they all look sharp,” he said.

“Sharp,” Vanya said, laughing softly. “You sound like such an old man sometimes.” She opened the front door and Five followed her in as she dropped the one shopping bag she had on the entryway table. He dropped his two down next to hers and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Where is everyone?” he asked absentmindedly, wandering towards the doorway to the living room.

“I don’t know,” Vanya said, glancing towards the stairs as she followed him. She stopped when she collided with his jacket-clad back suddenly, as he had stopped walking.

She peered over his shoulder and felt the air sucked from her. She brought her hands up to her face.

All five of their siblings lay on the floor of the living room, lined up next to each other like they were asleep at a sick slumber party. But they weren’t only asleep, they were -

Five made a pained noise and blinked himself the few steps it took to reach Ben, the nearest sibling. He grabbed Ben’s hands where they lay resting on his chest and shook them.

“Ben,” he said roughly. “Wake up. Wake up!”

Vanya crept to Luther, who lay beside Ben. “Five,” she said.

He ignored her, blinking his way to Diego. He patted his cheek roughly.

“Five,” she said again.

“What?” he snapped.

She said nothing, but pointed at Luther’s cheek. A dark stain seemed to be slowly, slowly seeping from below his shirt. It was a dark, swirling brown, almost as though it were -

“They’re transforming,” Five said in a strangely flat voice. “It’s wood. It’s what Brooks told us about.”

Vanya looked around and realized each of their siblings had creeping, dark wood seeping across their skin. Ben’s fingers were already covered, Allison had a dark splotch taking up her entire upper arm.

“Oh god,” she whispered. “Oh god!”

“Vanya,” Five said calmly. “Go to the kitchen and get the piece of paper off of the fridge that says “Brooks” above a phone number. Call them. Tell them to get here as fast as they can.”

She nodded and didn’t stop to ask anything else. She bolted to the kitchen.

After a panicked conversation with Brooks, she came back to the living room to find Mom kneeling by Diego’s side, a hand on his chest.

“I don’t understand,” Mom said, looking up at her. “I didn’t hear anything. I was just making dinner.”

"I know, Mom, it's okay," Vanya said. She looked around for Five, who was nowhere to be seen, but Vanya could hear the sound the fizzing zaps of his rapid-fire blinks not too far away.

“Five?!” she called, stepping into the foyer. “What are you doing?”

He appeared at the top of the stairs, peering down at her with a grim face. “Making sure they’re gone. Making sure I kill them if they’re not.”

He zapped away again and Vanya resigned herself to sitting next to Allison, and holding her hand as they waited for Brooks.

They came, finally, after what felt like hours but couldn’t have been twenty minutes. They crashed through the front door and leaned heavily against the entry way to the living space when they saw the siblings all lined along the floor.

“Oh god,” they gasped. “Fuck, fuck.”

Five appeared before them, and Brooks gasped again, “Fuck!” clutching their chest. “Five, what happened here? How did this happen?!”

“I wish I knew,” Five said shortly. “Can you heal them?”

“I - I don’t know,” Brooks said. “I haven’t tried healing this kind of - all the people like this at the hospital were already…”

Dead, they’d meant to say. Vanya sighed shakily, clutching Allison’s hand tighter.

“Try now,” Five said fervently. His voice, Vanya thought, was strangely flat, his face closed off. “Take a memory, try. I don’t care which one.”

Brooks stumbled to the nearest sibling, Ben. “I need to be touching both of you,” they said, reaching back towards Five. After only a moment of hesitation, Five clutched their fingers.

“Any memory preferences?” they asked.

“I have decades of shit to choose from,” Five said. “Just don’t erase anything about my family.”

Brooks nodded, and closed their eyes. A soft, warm orange light glowed around their hands, but otherwise nothing seemed to obviously happen, until Ben breathed in raggedly. His fingertips, which had been entirely brown and gnarled like the rest of his hand, began to clear.

But otherwise he remained unconscious as the orange light faded and Brooks dropped Five’s hand.

“I was afraid of this,” Brooks said, dropping their head in their hands wearily. “This will take an enormous amount of memories - more than I could take from you two. I’m not sure this is -”

“Take mine,” Five said suddenly. “You need enough memories to save five people on the brink of supernatural death, well how does 45 years’ worth of memories sound?”

“Five, what are you doing?” Vanya asked, standing at last.

Brooks stared at Five. “You...you have that much?”

“Take a look,” Five said. “You told us you could read memories, well take a look at,” he waved a hand around his temple.

Brooks sat quietly for a moment with their eyes closed, perfectly still and straining as they peered into Five’s mind. Vanya grabbed Five’s elbow as they did. “Five,” she whispered. “You can’t do this - this is -”

“You can’t get them back,” Brooks interrupted her, opening their eyes and looking solemnly at Five. “It’s not like amnesia. I use your memories to heal, and then they’re used up and gone, forever.”

“I know that!” Five snapped. “I know! But what else am I supposed to do? Vanya doesn’t have enough memories, Grace isn’t human, and I’m assuming you can’t use your own! They have to all come from me. 45 years’ worth will be enough, won’t it?”

“Yes,” Brooks said, nodding slowly. “I’ve never worked with that many memories at once before, but I can only imagine it will give me the energy source I need. Where do you want me to stop? What date?”

“March 5, 2003,” Five said immediately. “The day I time-travelled to the apocalypse.”

Vanya gripped his elbow tighter. “Five, are you sure?” she asked, in distress. “You’ll lose everything from your adult life, your time in the apocalypse, the Commission -“

“Not exactly warm and fuzzy memories, Vanya,” Five said gently, finally looking her in the eye.

“But they make you who you are!” Vanya said. “Trust me, I know how it feels to walk around with only half of yourself.”

“I know. Trust me, I do,” Five said, removing Vanya’s hand from his arm. “But ever since I can remember, all I’ve done, all I’ve turned myself into, has been for my family. How could I not do this? How could I let all of our siblings die?”

He gazed at her steadily for a moment when she didn’t reply. Her head felt heavy and thick - this was all happening too fast for her. But Five looked so calm.

“I can’t,” he said. “There’s no other choice.”

He turned to Brooks. “Do it now, before I lose my nerve.”

Brooks looked up at him from where they knelt next to Ben. “Come here. I need to touch you.”

Five moved to kneel next to them, but then doubled back to Vanya. He slid a small, white envelope from his pocket and handed it to his sister.

“These are notes I was taking the other day,” he said. “They might help my younger self.”

He knelt next to Brooks then and swallowed. For once, Vanya’s unshakable brother seemed scared. Vanya knelt with him and gripped his hand, tears shining on her cheeks. He looked at her.

“I know this isn’t really goodbye,” he said. “But goodbye, Vanya.”

Brooks gripped the side of Five’s face in one hand, and reached their other hand out for Ben. And began.

Chapter Text

Five didn’t have to open his eyes to know he’d woken up in his bed at the Academy.

The pillow smelled like home and his sheets felt the same as he remembered, and the weight of his comfortable blanket and the softness of his mattress were exactly what he’d been dreaming of every single day for the last 88 days he’d been stuck wandering the apocalypse. Alone.

He savored it for one moment before the wrongness of the situation hit his sleepy brain and he shot up, glancing around himself wildly.

How had he gotten here? He was in his room, he assumed in the mansion he had just seen the blasted smithereens of months earlier. The night before, he had been curled up under a still-intact picnic table in a decimated old park and now he was alone in his room -

Wait. Not alone.

He noticed now a man sat slumped in a chair in the corner of the room, sound asleep. He was an enormous man, with strangely puffy arms stuffed into a jacket. He had shorn blond hair and was so tall - and so familiar -

Five shuddered involuntarily, reaching his hand to his hip where he had been keeping the synthetic eyeball in his pocket, the one he’d found in a dead Luther’s hand. He realized now - the sleeping man could only be Luther, the grown up Luther he’d found dead outside the blasted mansion. But the eyeball was gone - and, Five noticed as he glanced down, bewildered - he wasn’t wearing the grimy cargo pants two sizes too big he’d had on when he’d fallen asleep. He was instead in an Umbrella Academy uniform, minus the jacket and shoes.

“What the hell?!” Five asked, his voice shaking despite himself as he scrambled out of bed. “What the hell - Luther! Luther, is that you!?”

Not-dead-Luther jerked awake with a small snore and stared at Five, baffled.

“Five?” he asked. He blinked and that seemed to bring something back to him. “Five!” He said. “You’re awake!”

It was strange to hear the deep voice of a grown man come from someone who Five’s mind told him was Luther, but who he couldn’t reconcile with the teenager whose voice squeaked every other sentence that he remembered. For Five, that had only been a couple of months ago - hadn’t it?

Luther got up and hurried to the door, never taking his eyes from Five. “Vanya!” He called to the hallway. “He’s awake! Come quick!”

“Vanya’s here?” Five asked, his heart beating fast and hard. He’d never found Vanya in the rubble, even after days and days of searching. “She’s alive? Is Ben here?”

“Yes, Five, he’s here,” Luther said. “Ben is alive.”

Five felt weak enough to lay a hand on his bedside table at that. He looked down for a moment and blew out a breath.

“But how?” he asked, looking up. “I read about, in Vanya’s book - Luther, what’s happening? Why am I here, why are you - old? I was trying to get back to 2002! What year is it?”

Luther didn’t have time to answer before a very small brown-haired woman appeared in the doorway beside him. She was breathing hard like she’d run all the way down the hall to get to them. She was older than the 13-year-old sister Five knew, of course, but he still recognized her immediately. He’d stared at her frozen face on her book’s dust jacket every day since he’d found the thing in the mansion’s rubble.

“Vanya?” he breathed.

“Hi Five,” she whispered. She stepped towards him, hesitant. “I know you must have a lot of questions right now -“

Five reached out and touched her hand, and then gripped it like it was about to disappear. His chest was starting to feel tight. His siblings were alive - his siblings were old - Luther looked the same as he had in the rubble so that must mean - “Vanya, the apocalypse. I know it sounds crazy, but the world is going to end soon. What’s the date, right now?”

Vanya shared a look with Luther, then covered his hand that was clutching at hers. “The apocalypse was stopped, Five,” she said slowly. “It’s May 26, 2019. It’s been almost two months.”

“What do you mean it’s been stopped?” he asked. “How am I here?”

“Is that Five, is he awake?” A new voice sounded from the hall, followed by the arrival of another man in the doorway whom Five had only seen once before in the rubble of the blown-apart mansion. It could only be Diego. Diego, as he had looked in the rubble, with the scar. Diego, but not dead.

Five let go of Vanya’s hand and stepped back once. The air in the room felt like it was seeping out now, with four people filling the space. “How is this possible?” he asked, his voice getting higher. “Last time I saw you, you were dead. I tried to bury you. What the fuck day is it? It can’t be May 26 - the apocalypse happened in April!”

“So Brooks was right,” Diego said, looking at Vanya. “They didn’t take all of them.”

“What?” Five snapped.

“Sorry, sorry,” Diego said, raising his hands. “It’s May 26, we swear, Five. We stopped the apocalypse.”

“Oh yeah?” Five said. “How’d you even know about it? The only person alive that knew an apocalypse had happened was me! And I happen to also be the only person alive capable of time travel and I sure as hell didn’t-“

“Well, that’s not true,” Diego said. “You’re not. The only person capable of time travel, I mean.”

“What!?” Five said again.

“Ooooo, he’s awake!” A man wearing a shimmering purple tank top and no shoes fell into the room behind Diego. Five knew right away it was Klaus. The air thinned further. He stepped back as far as he could so the edge of his nightstand was jutting into his hip. He clutched it. Ben was alive. The apocalypse was - over? And his siblings were adults. And where was Dad?

“For God’s sake - we said we would keep it just two people at a time so we didn’t overwhelm him,” Luther said, raising his arms in exasperation. “Anyone else remembering this?”

“Five,” Diego said over him. “How long were you in the apocalypse? Two months, three?”

“Brooks said it would only be a couple months at most,” Vanya interrupted.

The chatter was too much, too many people, too many questions. Five wanted to cover his ears, he wanted to get back in bed, he wanted to run. He made a split-second decision and - popped away in a sizzle of blue.

“That was fast,” Klaus said cheerfully. Luther moaned.

***

Five appeared in the mansion’s entryway, where he knew Mom kept the newspaper folded neatly on the hall table. Or at least she always had, and he figured robots wouldn’t change their habits even after - how many years again? But sure enough, there it was and -

“How. The fuck,” Five whispered, snapping the paper out in front of his nose with trembling fingers so he could read the black typed “May 26, 2019” even more clearly.

“Five?” A voice asked behind him. He whirled to see a man in a black sweater, brown corduroy pants, and socks get up from the couch in the room next to him. He had a book set on the cushion beside him.

“Ben?” Five whispered. He dropped the paper back on the table.

“You’re awake,” Ben - this man - said, smiling. “Are you feeling okay?”

Five couldn’t respond. He was mortified to realize he was about to cry. His throat was tight and his thoughts were stuck in the same loops, over and over. His siblings, the apocalypse, Dad. His siblings, the apocalypse, this house, Pogo, Mom -

“Prove you’re Ben,” he snapped. “Tell me something only I would know.”

“Um,” Ben hesitated. “Well. Well, we didn’t tell any of the others about it. But you and I had a kind of book club together - we’d read the same stuff once in a while and meet up to talk about the books late at night in one of our rooms. And the last book we read before you disappeared was -”

“Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Five whispered. “Jules Verne.”

He wrestled with himself for one moment and then jumped to Ben and jostled his brother back a step as he hugged him. Hard.

“I read you died,” he said into Ben’s sweater. “In Vanya’s book.”

“I didn’t,” Ben said, sounding like he was about to cry too. He laid his hands on Five’s back and squeezed a gentle hug back. “Well - not really anyway. It’s a long story.”

Five stepped away after a moment and turned his back to Ben, clearing his throat. He turned back around when he’d gathered himself.

“I’ve seen almost everyone now,” he said. “But where’s Allison? And…” he steeled himself. He almost dreaded seeing the man again, but: “Where’s Dad?”

Ben hesitated. “Allison is with Mom in the kitchen,” he said. “As for Dad...I think we should gather the others. We have a lot to talk about.”

***

“So Dad is dead,” Five said, repeating what Allison had told him moments ago. “He died two months ago. Or in this timeline...three years ago.”

He was seated at the head of the block table in the kitchen, his hands folded together in front of him. Over the last hour, his siblings had explained that he now found himself in a different timeline than the one where he’d lived and suffered in the apocalypse. Here, there was no end of the world. Here, Ben was alive. Here, he had never disappeared into the future. They had been very fuzzy on how he found himself here and how he'd gotten out of the apocalypse, saying that yes, he had managed the time travel jump at last, but that no, he couldn't remember it.

"You suffered a memory loss," Allison had said shortly. "We don't know a lot about it."

She was leaving something out, clearly. But considering Five had thousands of questions about other things besides, he had let it go for the moment. His mind was still reeling from the fact that they had learned about the apocalypse - that they had averted it. And that he would never find himself there again.

Personally, he thought he was doing a pretty good job of taking all of this in, considering he’d been a homeless teenager with two cans of beans and a packaged Twinkie to his name just last night. But the adults around him were all watching him like he was going to erupt any moment. It prickled at his nerves.

Allison nodded at him. “Yes, Dad is dead.”

“And he’s not here as a spirit, he can’t talk to us,” Five said, looking over at Klaus. “Right?”

Klaus glanced around at their siblings, clearly surprised to hear the question, before meeting Five’s eyes again. “As far as I can tell, little hombre,” he said. “He never came when I called. I haven’t seen him in this timeline. Never say never, but…” he spread his hands, shrugging a little. “I mean - do you want to talk to him?”

“I don’t know,” Five said. He felt curiously emotionless at the news of Dad’s death. He wondered idly if he was just reaching his limit on information intake. “I just always knew I would have to explain myself to him when I came back. Every day for the last few months, I’ve imagined what he’d say the minute he saw I’d made my way back here. He’d say -”

“I told you so,” Diego cut in. Five swiveled his head to stare at his brother, surprised.

“How did you know that’s what I was thinking?”

Diego flushed, fidgeted in his seat. “I knew Dad,” he said. “Not a huge stretch of the imagination.”

Five shrugged a little. “Well you’re right. There’s also the fact that I’m an orphan now, I guess, in this timeline. That’s interesting.”

Allison shot a worried look over at Vanya, as Klaus let out a weak giggle.

“Interesting?” she said. “Five, it’s alright to grieve for him. Even if he wasn’t…”

“A good father in any way,” Luther grumbled.

Five raised an eyebrow. “Wow, Number One. That’s the most surprising thing I’ve heard from you all morning. I thought you kissed the ground he walked on?”

Luther flushed. “Allison is right,” he said, ignoring Five’s comment. “You can feel sad, if you want, about not seeing Dad again.”

“Well, I will see him again,” Five said, matter-of-fact. “When I go back to my own timeline, back to us when we’re all kids. So he’ll still have a chance to say I told you so.” He nodded at Diego, who wouldn’t meet his eyes. In fact - no one would. They were all shooting looks at each other, communicating something they clearly didn’t want to spit out. As strange as it still was to see his siblings as adults - he couldn’t get used to it - he could still read their emotions. They were nervous, avoidant.

“What?” he asked.

“Well, Five…” Vanya said, speaking up at last. “You can’t go back there. This timeline already has a young you there. You going back, there being two of you...”

“Would not be good,” Luther finished. “Two of you can't exist close together in the same timeline, believe me. I know. You would die.”

Five bristled. “I'll find a way,” he snapped. "And who the hell made you an authority on time travel?"

"I had a good teacher," Luther said wryly. "Besides that - Five you just can't reliably time travel years at a time. When you did, you got stuck. What makes you think you wouldn't just get stuck some time else again?"

The thought of that - being stuck again - filled Five with an icy fear, but he struggled to push it down. “I have to get back, I don’t belong here!" he said stubbornly. "You’re not the siblings I left, I mean, you’re all, you’re all -“ he floundered, gesturing at them wildly. “Old!”

“Oh my god,” Diego muttered. “How the tables have turned.”

“You’re all, what, 30?” Five asked.

“Technically, I’m 34,” Klaus said. “Because, you know, time travel. I'll explain later," he said, waving a hand at Five's confused glare. "Does that make me - oh wow.” He looked around at everyone else, delighted. “I’m the oldest now!”

“As if,” Diego snorted.

“Respect your elders, young man!” Klaus said.

“Guys,” Allison said, putting up a hand. She turned to Five. “We may be older than you remember us, but we’re still your family. We’re the same people you left behind, Five.”

“No you’re not!” He said. “I left behind a bunch of teenagers!”

He stuck his hands in his hair and gripped at it. “This isn’t happening,” he said, hunching forward in his seat. “This is reversible. I can fix this.”

Luther looked around nervously at his siblings. “Five,” he said. “We finally have a timeline where Ben is alive. We can’t go back in time and risk messing that up. And like I said, there’s already a Five there. In the past.”

“Five,” Ben said gently. “If you were able to go back successfully, or were meant to...I’d remember you doing it. But...you don’t, buddy. You don’t.”

“But I’d take over, right, I mean you all said you became the Luthers and Allisons etc. of this timeline when you came here, so I would - no I wouldn’t, it’s a paradox,” Five rambled, interrupting himself, getting up from his seat to pace, still clutching his hair. “If I go back, I’m not entering a new timeline, I’m simply skipping back in the same timeline so if I did that...if I did that…”

He stopped walking suddenly and stood still and silent, not facing them. They looked at each other nervously.

“So this is it,” Five said. “I kept myself alive for three months, thinking about how I’d reunite with all of you. Picturing what day it would be, where I’d find you, what you’d say. But instead I miss out on 17 or more years of your lives!?”

He rounded on them. “This is the deal that I get?!” he asked, voice raised. He gestured around at all of them. “Look at all of you, adults, who grew up together - well, except for Ben, kind of, but Ben gets to be happy! Probably happy, I don’t know! At least alive! And I’m the one - the smartest one in the family - I’m the one who has to be 17 years younger than all of you?!” He laughed. “This has to be a joke!” he said. “This can’t be the actual, real end of the stick that I get, out of all of us!”

“Five,” Vanya whispered. “I know. I know it’s hard -”

“Oh you do?!” Five sneered. “You do, Vanya? You know how it feels to have six siblings, all your age, who are in it with you, and then three months later to be completely alone? No, you don’t. None of you do, I - oh, fuck this!”

And he blinked away in an angry flourish.

Diego sighed. “It’d be great if the emotionally unstable teenager wasn’t the one who could do that.” He heaved himself out of his chair. “Well, let’s go look for him. I guess. Jesus Christ.”