Chapter Six: What Did You Say?

THE TRIO OF SIBLINGS SAT IN A pristine, white, glass-walled office with the doctor that Five had talked to earlier in the day in front of them. Klaus and Jemma sat in chairs while Five stood behind them and paced every once in a while. He may have tried to hide it, but Jemma could easily see the young-looking boy was worried beyond belief. She wasn't sure what it was, but it obviously had something to do with why they were at Meritech. 

"Like I said to your son earlier, any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential." The frustrated doctor tried to explain calmly, "without the client's consent, I simply can't help you."

Five growled lowly at that, "well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name."

Jemma glanced at her brother in slight concern and confusion. The way Five gritted his teeth and glared at the doctor obviously indicated that he was angry and frustrated, but she didn't know why. Yes, the doctor wasn't giving Five what he wanted… but what was so special about a prosthetic eye? He had been arguing with the man for over twenty minutes now about getting the name of the owner to the eye. Jemma was slightly weirded out to find that her brother had been carrying it around for some time now, but she let that thought go. They've been in far weirder situations for a prosthetic eye to seem strange.

"Well, that's not my problem." The doctor scoffed, breaking Jemma out of her thoughts, "sorry. Now, there's really nothing more I can do, so--"

"And what about my consent?" Everyone's head snapped to face Klaus who had been sitting quietly during the whole argument. He had been calmly slouched in his chair with his hands clasped before him. 

"Excuse me?" The doctor asked in confusion.

Klaus just stared at the man and stood up while leaning his hands against the desk, "who gave you permission to lay your hands on our son?"

"What?" The three others in the room asked in confusion.

"You heard me."

The doctor gritted his teeth at the blatantly false accusation, "I didn't touch your son."

"Oh, really?" Klaus scoffed, "well, then how did he get that swollen lip, then?"

"He doesn't have a swollen--"

Klaus then wound his hand and slapped Five across the face. Jemma cringed at the sight and hoped that her junkie brother wouldn't try to do the same to her. Five turned back around with a split lip and a scowl on his young face. "I want it." Klaus demanded leaning against the pristine desk, "name, please. Now."

"You're crazy," the doctor breathed out in panic as he realized how far these three were willing to go in order to get the information they wanted.

"You got no idea," Klaus then noticed a snow globe idly sitting on the doctor's desk and picked it up, "'Peace on Earth.' That's so sweet." Without any warning, Klaus slammed the globe into his face and shattered the glass on to his face. Now he was soaked and his forehead was bleeding. "God, that hurt!"

The frightened doctor reached for the phone on his desk in a hurry, "I'm calling secur--" Jemma then used her speed to grab the phone out of the man's hands. He didn't notice her speed as he was far to focused on the group of insane people sitting in front of him. "What are you doing?"

Jemma tried to make herself sound as hysterical as possible, "help! My son and husband have been assaulted, and we need security, now!" She slammed the phone down back into its receiver and smiled sweetly at the frightened doctor with her ruby lips. "Now, here's what's gonna happen, Grant."

The doctor gulped in fright, "It's Lance."

"In about 60 seconds," Jemma ignored him and continued, "two security guards are gonna come through that door, and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood, and they're gonna wonder, 'What happened?'" She freighted fright, "and we're gonna tell them that you hurt us." 

Klaus smiled proudly at his blonde sister, "you're gonna do great in prison, Grant. Trust me, I've been there. Little piece of chicken like you. Oh, my God, you're gonna get passed around like a--" Klaus waved his hand dismissively. "You're just You're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying."

Lance gaped in horror, "Jesus, you are some real sick people."

Klaus stared at him blankly as Five and Jemma stood off to the side with creepy smirks, "thank you."

---

The frightened doctor led the three siblings to the filing cabinets in order to get the information that they wanted. He eyed them warily as he sorted through the files and pulled out the correct one. However, when he stared at the designated serial number of the eye that the young boy had, there was something completely off about it. "Oh, that's strange."

Klaus jumped off of the cabinet he was previously sitting on and moved to stand uncomfortably close to the doctor. "What?" 

"Uh, the eye." He tried to ignore the three psychos burning gazes and tried to keep his focus on the papers in front of him. "It hasn't been purchased by a client yet."

Jemma's eyebrows furrowed as she leaned on the doctor's other side to catch a glimpse of the paperwork. "What do you mean?"

Lance glanced at them and started to explain, "well, uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number- This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet." He, Klaus and Jemma looked up to stare at the one who was adamant about finding out about this prosthetic eye. "Where did you get that eye?"

Five just clenched his jaw in frustration.

---

The trio of siblings came out of the building after getting the information that they wanted. Well, the information that Five wanted, and it certainly wasn't what he was looking for. If anything, the fact that he now knew that the eye that he has from the future hasn't even been made yet was certainly off-putting. "Well, this is not good," Five sighed.

"I was pretty good, though, right?" Klaus asked excitedly, "'Yeah. What about my consent, bitch?'" Jemma laughed along with him as he started to imitate himself from only a few minutes away. She had to admit that it was quite impressive how Klaus was able to manipulate the situation and get what he wanted. Though it isn't really anything new. She and Klaus had to do quite a bit of manipulation to get what they wanted and usually teamed up to do it. Whether it be drugs or alcohol, they could say that they were skilled at getting what they wanted. 

Five abruptly turned to his two siblings with an irritated scowl, "Klaus, it doesn't matter."

Jemma stopped laughing and stared at him with an inquisitive stare. "Why are you so interested in a prosthetic eye, Five?"

"There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days."

Jemma blinked at him slightly disturbed, "that's oddly specific, how do you even know that?"

"They're gonna bring about the end of life on this Earth as we know it." Jemma continued to blink at him in confusion as she tried to absorb his words. 'End of life on the Earth'... she played around with that statement in her head for a few minutes as Klaus and Five started to bicker.

"Yeah, can I get that 20 bucks, like, now, or what?"

Five scoffed, "Your 20 bucks?"

"Yeah," Klaus said as he had yet to pick up on Five's words and the fact that Jemma seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, "my 20 bucks."

"The apocalypse is coming, and you can think about is getting high?"

"Well, I'm also quite hungry." He patted his stomach still unfazed, "tummy's a-rumblin'."

Jemma ignored Klaus for a moment and stared at Five with wide, questioning eyes, "Wait, did you say apocalypse?" If she had been drunk, Jemma would have laughed at Five and found this hilarious. The apocalypse? Ha! Then she'd just ignore him and continue to drown herself. However, with a clear mind, she could see the seriousness in Five's young face and hear the determination in his voice. She believes him when he said that the apocalypse is coming. It's just going to take her a few moments to process it. Maybe about two dozen shots will also help her.

Five ignored her and became beyond frustrated, "you're useless. You're all useless!" He turned and plopped himself down on the stone stairs. Jemma and Klaus followed suit, one in exasperation and the other with wobbly knees.

"Oh, come on." Klaus whined, "you need to lighten up, old man." A thought then struck him, "hey, you know, I've just now realized why you're so uptight. You must be horny as hell!" 

Jemma cringed, "Klaus!" She definitely didn't want to think about that in any way. Especially about any of her siblings. The blonde didn't need to hear about the activities her brothers or sisters got up to in a private setting.

Klaus just brushed her off and sighed, "all those years by yourself. It's gotta screw with your head, being alone." 

They were silent for a moment as they took that in. There would have been nothing for Five there, in the future. The world must have been in ruins after the apocalypse. Everyone must have been dead and gone when he arrived there. It must have suck being stuck in the future by yourself with no one to talk to. Jemma was actually surprised that Five wasn't batshit crazy after all of that. She certainly would have lost her mind after the first day. 

"Well, I wasn't alone."

That piqued his siblings' interest as they turned to him. "Oh? Pray tell."

"Her name was Delores." His gaze turned wistful as he started to reminisce in the past about this woman. Jemma was actually surprised to see that her brother was somewhat enamored by someone. "We were together for over 30 years."

"Thirty years?" She questioned in astonishment and awe. Delores must be a special lady for Five to stick around with her for three decades.

"Oh, wow! God, the longest I've been with someone was-- I don't know, three weeks. And that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep. He did make the most fantastic osso buco, though. It was--" He cut himself off when he noticed that the small boy was gone from the stairs. "Five?"

As Klaus rambled about on of his past relationships, Five had grown irritated, like always, and spacial jumped into a taxi that had been driving past. "Don't stop." He had told the startled driver who was completely surprised to find a boy who magically appeared in his back seat. "Just keep going."

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey," Klaus jumped up enraged as he stomped in place. Five past in the cab and sarcastically shot both of his siblings a half-ass salute as he was driven away. "what about my money?!"

Jemma gulped. Her nerves were on high alert "C-come on, Klaus. Let's head back to the academy," Her eyes shined with a false eagerness, "I'll make something for lunch if you want..." She needed a distraction at the moment. She was definitely going to hit the bottle when she got home. Plus, since Klaus was obviously hungry, she would cook him up some lunch. At least then she would be somewhat useful.

With that Jemma and Klaus started to make their trek back to the academy. Klaus talked all the while about how annoying Five was and Jemma half-listened to it. The lingering thought of the apocalypse was in the back of her mind and weighing heavily on her. What the hell was going on?

---

Vanya swayed as she allowed her music to take control of her. She was in need of some sort of distraction after her interaction with Allison and practicing her violin was a good way of doing that. Just as she was about to start another measure in her piece, there was a knock at the door. "He's not here, Mrs. Kowalsk," she called out before continuing to practice her piece. Yet she paused once again when the knocking continued. Growing fed up, Vanya sighed in frustration and stopped playing to open her door. "Mr. Puddles isn't here." Instead of being faced with her elderly neighbor, there was a young man standing in front of her. "Can I help you?"

The man that was at her door was a bit taller than her. He had dark brown hair on his head and a slightly round face. His eyes were a dark brown color that looked down at her with confusion and kindness. "I'm Leonard." He introduced himself, "I'm your four o'clock."

"Oh, my-" Vanya gasped, "I forgot. I am so sorry."

The man raised his hands in surrender and chuckled, "I swear I had nothing to do with Mr. Puddles."

"Oh, no Sorry, it's, uh, my neighbor, Mrs. Kowalski. She--" the ordinary woman sighed, "well, she has this cat that always goes missing. She thinks I know where it is. I don't. She's older. And I should stop talking. I'm so sorry." The two of them laughed lightly, though Vanya's was more out of embarrassment. "Please come in."

Leonard walked into her apartment and turned to her once the door was shut. They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment before he started to take off his jacket. "I'm guessing I look different than your usual students."

"Um, yeah, you can just," she motioned for him to put his jacket down, "Yeah, 20 years or so different." She does mainly teach kids from seven to twelve with some teenagers every once in a while. Though it wasn't like Vanya had never taught someone closer to her age. It wasn't that strange, but Vanya would say she works easier with kids.

"Well, the ad didn't say anything about age limits," Leonard said with a smile.

Vanya nodded her head and avoided eye contact. "No, no, of course not. It's most of my students are kids. Easier to learn music when you're young. You know, like a second language."

"Ich verstehe!" The man suddenly shouted which caused Vanya to stare at him in confusion. "That's German for "I understand." I took three years of that in high school. And that's all I can remember."

"Mm. Well, it's right over here. If you wanna-" she said and pointed towards her violin, "Let me just Sorry-"

Her newest student waved his hand, "Oh, it's fine."

She started to shuffle through her papers to find the pieces that she needs to start teaching him. "-get organized for a second."

"Mm-hmm." Leonard hummed and picked up the instrument. "Ah." He glided the bow across the strings harshly which caused a cringeworthy sound to stick their ears.

"Oh!" Vanya exclaimed and cringed at the sound, "You're really just going for it."

"Yeah."

Vanya walked over to him, "Um, no, I'll actually take that." She took the violin from her new student, "and we're just gonna start with the basics." 

---

At the gym, Diego waltzed through the door after being released from the police precinct. Even though Detective Patch had given him a warning about not getting involved, there was no way in hell that he was going to do that. Call it stupidity or curiosity, but Diego wanted to find out what was going on. The knife-thrower greeted many of the people who were working out which was reciprocated with smiles and waves.

He approached the back room that he has been living in for a while now and stopped when he noticed that the door had been open. There was someone in his room. He pulled out one of his many knives and subtly opened the door a small sliver. He threw the knife and sent it soaring through the air towards the intruder. It embedded itself in the wood right next to the trespasser and may or may not have skinned his ear. Diego just wanted to scare him a bit.

"Ow!" Luther exclaimed and check on his ear that he knew had a cut on it thanks to Diego, "what the-" 

The knife thrower scoffed and closed his door while his jaw tensed at the sight of his brother, "I could smell it was you."

Luther looked pissed, "what the hell? You could have killed me."

"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead." Diego bit out and walked down the stairs.

The tense atmosphere was obvious between the two brothers as Diego approached Luther and held his hand out for his knife. He got his knife back and started to settle down

"It's a nice place." Luther's attempt to make small talk was met with a cold response.

"I like it."

"So why didn't you tell me?" Luther cut to the chase.

Diego already knew what he was referring to but didn't see a point in talking about it. "Tell you what?"

Luther held up a poster that he found earlier that displayed the match that Diego fought in. "That you were fighting the night that Dad died. I checked with the guys out there." Proof when the proof was needed. Luther's suspicions about Diego were finally snuffed out with this piece of evidence. 

The knife-thrower scoffed at his revelation. Why did it matter? "Well, I shouldn't have to prove my innocence to you or anyone else in this family."

"Yeah, you're right." Luther sighed. "But, I just thought that-"

Diego cut him off with a small sneer, "Yeah. I know what you thought." He was angered by the fact that Luther was quick to accuse him and the rest of their siblings for killing Hargreeves. Yes, Diego was the most outspoken about how much he hated the old man, but he would never go as far as to kill their father. Diego wasn't going to let that go. Not any time soon. "Now you have a nice day, brother."

Seeing that Diego wanted nothing else with him and was still upset about his accusations, Luther decided that it was time to leave. "All right." He lumbered up the stairs, around his brother, and exited the room. Diego barely turned to watch him leave.

---

Klaus lounged across the basement table as he groaned in exhaustion. His stomach had been thoroughly filled to the brim full of quite a few different foods. For some reason, Jemma had started to cook far more than just making one meal for them. It was like she was trying to feed the entire family for thanksgiving. Yet Klaus ate it all and was unsure if he should regret that or not.

Jemma was still pretty shaken up by what Five had revealed to them. Unlike Klaus who didn't seem to care or believe Five, Jemma was starting to worry. The sudden reappearance and his insistence to stay away from them started to add up in her mind. So she ended up stress cooking. She usually did this when she was nervous or stressed, plus, Klaus insisted that she make him some lunch. It was either this, or she tries to drown herself.

Her throat was already starting to burn at the thought of chugging at least ten bottles of alcohol or as much as she could find in the house. Sobriety was a pipe-dream anyway. She had been sober for far too long anyway. Though she was somewhat proud of herself! She has gone at least four hours without having a drink, a new record. 

"Jem," Klaus broke her out of her troubled thoughts as she leaned over the sink. Hewas changed out of the clothes he used for his disguise and was in a more comfortable outfit. "You're going to break that plate." He commented lazily as he rested his hands on his stomach that was filled to the brim with his sister's wonderful cooking. He looked up to watch as Jemma paused in her vigorous scrubbing of a plate that she was cleaning up. She hadn't even noticed that she was using her superspeed and nearly broke it.

The blonde set the plate down before she accidentally shattered it due to how fast she was scrubbing it. With a large sigh, Jemma placed her wet hands on the edge of the counter as she closed her eyes in contemplation. Having superspeed had its advantages, but having super thoughts, as she dubbed it, wasn't one of them. The expression of "racing thoughts" was not just an expression to her. She literally could think over ten times faster than anyone else, which could cause her a lot of anxiety. Alcohol usually helped with slowing down those thoughts. A glass of the burning liquid didn't seem to bad at that moment.

Seeing the conflicted look on his sister's face, Klaus sat up on the table. He watched how she controlled her breathing and her hands were shaking. He could easily recognize the signs of her anxiety and withdrawal. He knew that she had gone a while for drinking and she needed it bad. Though besides the need for a drink, there was something else bothering her.

"What's wrong," He asked her with furrowed brows.

Jemma glance at him over her shoulder with large eyes as she watched him moved to sit on the edge of the table to get a better look at her. She could tell that he was curious about her behavior but most likely had an idea about what was causing her to be so fidgety.

She turned around completely and leaned against the sink. Her head was turned to the side so she didn't have to stare at him. Jemma wasn't sure if he would still look at her with disappointment and sadness. Ever since they were teens he usually had that expression whenever he was around her. Of course, it developed after she had gained her alcohol addiction and she knew it was for that reason. Though, isn't it hypocritical? Klaus had an addiction longer than she did, why did he get to judge her or feel bad about what she did to herself?

What she didn't realize was that he was upset with how much she had taken after him. When they were kids, it was always Klaus, Jemma, and Ben. They were thick as thieves, far more than they were with any of their other family members. So when Jemma became depressed as a teenager, Klaus tried to help her any way he could. That included introducing her to some bad things, like alcohol. She used to be this innocent little girl who had such an optimistic look on the world. Jemma always found a way to brighten everyone's day but now she's just a shell of her past self. Klaus wasn't disappointed in her, really. More so himself for playing a part in making her like this.

Jemma clicked her tongue, "I can't get what Five said out of my head..."

"What about the apocalypse?" Klaus put as much sarcasm behind his words as he could. Obviously, he didn't take what Five had said as serious as Jemma does. "Come on, Jem. The old man's crazy. You can't believe everything he says, you know."

"Why not?" She asked softly and crossed her arms over her chest. "He's our brother, and yes he may not be all there. But why would he lie, especially about something like this?"

Klaus pretended to think with a hand on his chin, "Because he thought all of this up in his insane little mind while he was by himself."

Jemma bit her lips as her anxiety was still high, "But what if he didn't?"

"Then I guess we best party hard because it's the end of the world!" Klaus cheered.

The blonde couldn't help herself but laugh lightly at him. Even in this situation where she was worried beyond belief, Klaus somehow got her to smile for a second. Yet her lips dipped downward again as her laughter died. 

"Well," she licked her lips and turned to rummage through the cabinets. "Partying sounds fun." She cheered softly when she grabbed the cool bottle on one of the highest shelves. "Which means drinks, right?"

Klaus sighed now that Jemma had the bottle of poison in her hands. He also didn't like the look in her eyes. She seemed so willing to drown herself now, so upsetting. Of course, he wasn't the only one upset about her behavior.

"I guess."

Jemma took the cap off of the bottle and downed about half of it in one gulp. Her throat burned for a moment, but it satisfied her quite a bit. It was going to take her at least ten to twelve bottles of hard liquor to get her slightly buzzed, she knew that it would be worth it though. Being able to escape reality was always a good thing.

"If you need me, I'll be in my room, okay?" Jemma said as she started to shuffle out of the room. Klaus watched her go reluctantly.

Once the blonde was gone, Klaus turned his gaze to the man who sat in the chair at the head of the table. He could see the sadness in his dark eyes that were still glued to where Jemma had gone. Klaus didn't like seeing him like this, upset about Jemma. However, there wasn't much that he could do to help the ghost. "She'll be fine, Ben." Klaus said and let out a heavy sigh, "She usually is."

---

Leonard had the violin in his hands as he continued to play a slow and shaky rendition of Frere Jacques. "That's coming along." Vanya complimented his progress.

He chuckled and placed the instrument down, "Looks like I chose the right teacher."

"Oh," Vanya looked away a Leonard chuckled slightly. "I don't know about that. My next student could probably lecture me on what I'm doing wrong. She's- She's a bit of a prodigy."

"Well, you can relax." Leonard nodded his head, "I have never been a prodigy at anything."

Vanya sighed, "Well, that makes two of us."

There was a beat of silence between the two that was becoming slightly awkward. The intense stare that Leonard had on Vanya was causing her to become slightly uncomfortable but she chalked that up for the fact that they just met.

"So - So, I will see you next week, and, uh, practice the bow hold," she took her violin from him and place it on the couch, "uh, and maybe - get a violin."

The two of them chuckled slightly "You can be honest. Do you think it's weird wanting to learn violin this late in life?"

"No, no. Monet didn't really start painting until his forties." She shrugged her shoulders, "He did all right for himself. No, if you love music, then you're in the right place."

Leonard let out a breath, "I'd say you're describing my dad more than me. He was the music lover. It's kind of why I'm here. He passed away a while ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Leonard waved her off, "Oh, no, it's fine. We had a complicated relationship. Didn't really get each other, you know?" Vanya was able to draw a parallel between herself and Leonard at just that statement. "But he loved violin, and that was not my thing. So I guess I'm here to understand him better, if that makes any sense. Family. It's never easy, right?" The man chuckled, "Sorry for getting heavy on you there." He stared at her intensely for a moment, as if he knew she could understand where he was coming from. "Um, stupid, I know."

Vanya shook her head and brushed off the strange feeling she was getting from him, "No. No, stupid is not knowing. Believe me, uh, I get it."

She really did understand where he was coming from. Considering she grew up as the only ordinary child from a group of superpowered kids with a father who valued her less than the others, she knew how bad family could be sometimes.

"Mm-hmm." Leonard hummed and pulled on his jacket, "Well... thanks. Guess I'll see you next week."

"Yeah."

Before leaving the apartment, Leonard paused and turned to her with a smile. "Uh I'm a woodworker. I have a shop in, uh, Bricktown." The woman stared at him in confusion, "You should come by some time. You know, check it out."

Vanya froze for a second and blinked. He was inviting her to his shop? After they'd only just met. A moment of silence passed before Vanya found her voice again. "This week I'm busy, but-"

"It's fine." Leonard said with a small trace of disappointment in his voice, "I understand. Another time. See you next week."

"Bye." Now that Vanya was alone with her thoughts, her chest started to swell with an unsure feeling. She had only known Leonard for about two hours. Should she go to his shop? She wasn't sure.

---

The city skyline was bright as shining lights brightened up streets and buildings now that it was dark out. As the moon shined down on the still bustling city, Allison stared up at the sky. Her thoughts ran rampant about what she had done during the day. What she said to Vanya was haunting her slightly. She shouldn't of said those things to the ordinary woman. Allison had no doubt that she may have hurt her sister's feelings. She took a drag of her cigarette and continued to debate how badly she treated Vanya.

"Ah, Miss Allison." Pogo said as he approached the sulking woman, "I was looking for you."

Allison quickly tried to hide her cigarette, not that discreetly and turned to him. "How did you, uh, How did you know I was up here?"

Pogo walked closer to the woman, "Oh, it wasn't hard. This is always where you used to come when you were upset."

"Who told you I was-" Allison sighed, "Luther."

Pogo shook his head, "Actually, it was Miss Vanya. She called to make sure you were okay."

"Yeah," Allison said as it was clear she was upset with herself, "I, um I said some pretty unkind things to her."

Pogo shook his head, "She's your sister. She knows you didn't mean it."

Allison scoffed, "Doubt it. She doesn't know anything about me, which is fine 'cause I don't know shit about her either."

"Language."

"Sorry." She apologized, "It's just it's been a while since we've all lived under the same roof."

The chump reminisced for a moment, "Almost 13 years."

"How did you do it? Alone in this huge house for so long."

"Well, one grows used to things, even if, sometimes one shouldn't." A beat of silence passed between them as they digested the sad truth behind his words. "Come with me. I want to show you something. It might just cheer you up." He started to walk out of the attic with the woman following him. Though he called back to her, "And make sure you fully extinguish that cigarette. Wouldn't want to start a fire."

Allison cringed slightly at being caught smoking. She shuffled back over to the windowsill and made sure that her cigarette was extinguished completely before following after chimp. She wasn't sure what he had in mind to cheer her up, and she was quite curious about it.

---

Pogo lead Allison through the house to a small room that she hadn't been in before. In the room, there were about a dozen screens of old televisions with cabinets that seemed to be full of VCR tapes. Some screens had nothing but snow on them, others had the happy faces of the children apart of the Umbrella Academy. The shouts and laughter from years ago caused Allison to stare in shock as she was overwhelmed by nostalgia. "Your father stopped recording years ago." He explained, "But I still come here from time to time. When I'm missing you kids."

"Pogo, this is--" she stammered out in astonishment, "Most families have home movies to look back on. We have surveillance footage." She watched a clip of young Klaus getting himself a drink at the bar. It was upsetting to think that a child was getting involved in something as addictive as alcohol or drugs at only age thirteen, but it was normal for Klaus at the time. She watched another screen of Jemma and Ben in the living room reading together. A bittersweet smile crawled on Allison's face at the sight.

The chimp smiled slightly at the expression on the woman's face, "I hoped it might cheer you up."

She smiled, "It does. Oh, my God, look how little we were." She watched each screen that had her and her siblings from years ago. "Oh!" She pointed at one of them, "Ben and I? I miss him so much." Then she caught sight of the only ordinary family member playing her violin by herself. "And Vanya. Why didn't we include her? I mean, if anybody ever treated Claire like that, I can't even imagine..."

"You were a child, Miss Allison," Pogo argued.

"Yeah but I'm not anymore." Allison bowed her head slightly, "And neither is she."

"If you're not in a hurry," Pogo started and gestured behind them, "the rest of the tapes are in that cabinet. Make sure you lock up when you go. Things have been disappearing lately. These are too important to lose."

Allison nodded her head and took the keys from him. Mesmerized by the screens with videos from her past, she barely noticed Pogo leave the room. She certainly didn't notice the meaningful glance he gave her right before he left the room.

Allison soon started to rummage through some of the other tapes to see what they were. There were a few that piqued her interest, however, she paused. She caught sight of another tape that was resting on top of the screens. Its label had been torn off unlike the others that had been carefully labeled with the dates. She picked up the tape and stared at it for a moment before deciding to put it in.

She sat down in her chair and watched as the tape played. "Oh, God." Allison gasped out as she stared at the screen in shock, "Dad."

---

As Allison was watching the troubling tapes of her father's death, Jemma plopped down onto her plush bed. A bottle of whiskey was tightly held in her small hands as she leaned against her headboard. 

She leaned against the plush, soft pillows of her childhood bed and took another gulp from the bottle. The liquid burned her throat in such a satisfying way that she felt almost content. Her mind was slowly starting to numb, but she's going to need more to fully let go of reality. It's a good thing she brought another bottle with her which waws currently glaring at her from her desk. Of course, right next to it was the picture that caused her so much heartbreak at the nostalgia and reminders it brought up.

She tried to get as comfy as she could on her bed, but she couldn't. There was just this uncomfortable feeling that wouldn't leave her alone. No matter how she sat or rearranged the pillows behind her, there was no way that she could get rid of the heavy feeling in her chest. 

Jemma sighed and took another small swig of her drink. Though she paused after she took one last sip. She looked at the bottle and seemed to have a staring contest with the inanimate object. For a moment, she thought that the bottle would start to taunt her. She thought that it would start teasing her about how much of a failure she was, how she disappoints her siblings, or how she lost the one person who truly understood her.

Her small hands gripped the bottle tightly like she was about to break it. Though that would only make a mess and waste some perfectly good alcohol. She needed to calm down. All she was doing at the moment was causing her anxiety to fester even more. Jemma didn't need to psych herself out any more than she already had. 

Five's foreboding of the end of the world may just be something he thought up like Klaus said. Or not. Either way, drinking could help her cope with it.

Yet for some reason, she felt like there were eyes watching her every move. Perhaps they were the reason that she had this heavy feeling in her chest. Her eyes floated over to the only possible source of the feeling of being watched. It was the picture of Ben.

Her lips puckered and her eyes narrowed at the image of the past. The happy image caused her lip to quiver slightly. "You'd be so disappointed in me," she softly said. "I know you would hate how I am now. I hate myself." Her voice, laced with remorse, cracked as she stared at the picture of her best friend. She rolled her eyes as she started to cry slightly. "I can't do anything right! I'm an alcoholic coward now who is scared of just about everything!" 

Through her self-loathing and thinking that she was alone she never thought that the one person she wished she was talking to was actually watching her with sad eyes. He raised his hand and tried to lay it on her shaking shoulder, only for it go through her. 

She shivered slightly as a chill traveled down her spine but ignored it as she wiped her eyes. "I'm pathetic," she chuckled humorously, "here I am, talking to myself like you're actually here."

She gave one last look at the picture with watery eyes before downing the rest of her drink. Yet she had no idea that Ben had been listening like he usually did. Always listening but unable to talk back. So he watched as she curled up on her bed and started to cry. His frustration with the situation was evident from the way his brow creased. He desperately wanted to contradict her, tell her that she was wrong. However, she couldn't hear ghosts like their brother. The two of them were separated by the thin veil that kept the living from interacting with the dead. What an unfortunate predicament.

---

While a light rain painted the empty parking lot of the Grimble Brothers clothing store, Five spacial jumped through the locked doors of the shop. He was determined to find who he was looking for, there was no way that he was going to leave without her.

He grabbed a flashlight from a bin and used it to navigate through the aisle of clothes. He looked at just about everything with his hands shoved in her pockets as usual. Soon enough, he saw exactly who he was looking for.

"Delores." He let a small smile crawl on his face, "It's good to see you." Of course, Delores didn't respond because she was a mannequin. "I've missed you... obviously. Well, It's been a rough couple of days." Just as he was having a heartfelt reunion with the inanimate object, the two assassins who had been following the boy came into the shop. They put on their masks and readied their weapons. The boy saw them coming a little too late, "No!" Bullets were soon shot at him. Five easily recognized the colorful masks, "Oh, shit! It's them." He made quick work of making sure that Delores was out of danger and held her with care, "I'll be right back for you." Then he rushed off through the racks of clothes.

Cha-Cha and Hazel looked for the time traveler and shot at anything that appeared to move. At one point, Cha-Cha was able to catch sight of the kid only for him to disappear into thin air just as she fired her gun. "You see that?" She called over to her partner.

Hazel shrugged his shoulders, "You said he was special. So now what?"

"You start over there, I'll go to the other end." The pink rabbit told him, "Meet in the middle. Shoot anything that moves."

For the next few minutes, Five weaved through the racks of clothes and hide from the assailants. Showers of bullets rained down on him as he spacial jumped from one part of the store to another in order to find the duffle bag he needed. He certainly wasn't going to try and leave just yet. He had to get Delores! He ended up finding a bag and quickly made his way back to Delores to put her into it. Okay, now he could try and getaway.

"Elastic wrist splint." Hazel cheered as he held them, distracted from their mission. "Yes!"

Five tried to spacial jump again but found that he couldn't. He must have exhausted himself to the point where he could no longer use his power. "Shit!" The boy cursed as he tried to jump again but got the same disappointing result. "Come on!"

The boy continued to run through the shop before jumping over a display shelf. The two shooters followed after him and suddenly had him cornered with nowhere to go. "Got him!"

However, they were distracted by the sirens and police lights that came from outside. Their little shoot out had definitely caught the attention of law enforcement. When Cha-Cha and Hazel looked back at where the young-looking killer had been, he was gone. "The bastard jumped again," Hazel said in frustration.

The two assassins sighed in defeat. They were so close to getting this job over and done with, but now they had to find that little asshole again. "Come on, let's go." As the two assassins left, Five was huddled up behind a cash register with Delores tightly in his grasp. That was certainly a close one for him.

---

Back at the academy, before Luther could get into his childhood room, Allison followed after him. "There you are." Allison gasped as she walked up to the bulky figure of Luther, "I've been looking everywhere for you."

The dirty blond furrowed his eyebrows at the woman's appearance. "What are you doing here? I thought you were gone." He wasn't really upset about that. If she stayed longer, it just meant that he could see her more. 

"No," she shook her head, her curls swaying slightly, "I was gonna go, and then Pogo showed me this-"

The large man cut her off, "Well, listen- I was wrong about Dad's death."

Confusion painted Allison's features, "What?" After what she had just discovered, she could say that Luther may not be wrong about their father's death.

"Yeah, I was wrong about Diego." He clarified and let out a sigh, "You know, to accuse my own brother of that is just-"

"No," Allison nodded her head and tried to get out what she knew was extremely important. "I-I know, I get it-"

Luther just continued on, "Seeing all of you and being back here I should be the one who's trying to bring us back together, not tear us apart."

"Would you shut up?" Allison exclaimed in frustration.

Luther was stunned, "What?"

"-You were right about Dad. Come on, I gotta show you something." As Allison started to lead Luther towards the room filled with screens and tapes, they saw that one of their other brothers was coming up the stairs. "Five?" The actress gasped at the disheveled state of the time traveler. His clothes were ripped and he held a large duffle bag in his hands. "What the hell happened to you?" 

See his crescent fallen expression, Luther turned to him and spoke softly with concern lacing his words. "Are you okay?" Luther reached out a hand to place it on the boy's shoulder, "Can we help?"

Five grabbed his arm before Luther could get close to touching him. "There's nothing you can do." His aged eyes stared up at the bulky man with no emotion as he reminisced in a painful memory. "There's nothing any of you can do."

---

In the apocalypse, Five walked through the remains of a building and came upon a strange sight. Through the rubble, a hand jutted out from under layers of bricks and concrete. It held a bloody prosthetic eye. He grabbed the eye from the cold hand and stared at it in confusion. Then he looked up to see who the hand belonged to. It was a large blonde man who was covered in ash and blood. There was an eerily familiar look to the man that Five was scared to admit. It had to be Luther. Even though he was older, Five had a feeling that it was Number One. Panic seeped into his chest as he realized where he was. He rushed towards the next body that he could see.

It was Diego who was laid out on his stomach. Five shook his brother's shoulder to try and get a response but obviously didn't get one. Not too far away, a woman with bushy hair was also covered in rubble, dead. Allison. Three of his siblings were dead, fear struck his heart. He stood up to look around some more and came to find another man, Klaus, laid on the ground. His lifeless eyes staring in his direction. 

Now, it would be hard to identify his siblings who would be significantly older than the last time he saw them. He did travel into the future, after all. Perhaps these people weren't his siblings. They all had superpowers which could mean that they may have survived this. There was a small possibility that these people were just strangers to him. Despite his want and need for these dead people not to be his siblings, the umbrella academy tattoo on Klaus' arm glared back at the young boy. There was no denying it. All of these people were his family.

He gulped and just about nearly burst into tears. Though it would be okay for him to do that. There was no one around to see him cry because everyone on the planet was dead, as far as he could tell. However, as the sound of his blood pumping through his ears and the crackling of the fires burning, he could hear a subtle gasp coming from a pile of concrete.

Someone was alive. 

From the sound of the gasps, Five could tell that this person was barely alive. They were struggling for their next gulp of oxygen and most likely dying quite slowly. He wasn't sure how this person could have survived since everyone else seemed to be dead, but he didn't care for that right now. All that mattered was seeing who it was that had miraculously survived. 

He rounded a large pile of rubble and found a petite body stuck underneath the concrete. A hollow gasp came out of their mouth as Five quickly approached them. He saw the matching tattoo that he had on pale skin which could only belong to one other person since he found his other siblings.

"Jemma?" He knelt down to her side and started to move some of the rubble off of her broken body. She grunted in pain as he lifted some off of her chest to allow her to breathe. "Hey, hey." She stared at him with half-lidded eyes, pale cheeks, and severe cuts all over her face. It was quite obvious that she was critically injured. Sections of her blonde hair were painted in an ugly red hue because of the blood that stuck to her face. "Jemma, it's me. It's Five," her head lolled to the side, "no, stay awake!"

She had the strength to turn back to him and tried to keep her eyes open as long as she could, "F-F-Fi-Five." Her cracked lips split from her effort to speak. Five could only think that the reason she was still alive was because of her superspeed and how her body is able to recover quickly from certain injuries. That meant that she would survive this. He would have her, so he wouldn't be alone after all. She couldn't just leave him. He knew that she wouldn't leave him, she didn't do that to people.

Five didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to sob at the sight of his sister. Not only was she far older than the last time he saw her, but she was near death. He certainly didn't like seeing her in this state and knew that he only had moments with her. "What happened? Jemma, what happened?" He held her hand as delicately as he could to make sure he didn't cause her any more pain, but he wanted to make sure that she knew he was there. He also wanted to assure himself that this was real, that his sister was dying right in front of him.

She started to tear up as she stared at her long-lost brother with a mix of relief, pain, and contentment in her blue eyes. "H-Har…" Her voice cracked and sounded like a scratchy record player, "H-H-Har-Har-." She was putting so much effort into saying one word that she felt like all of the energy had been drained. Her electric blue iris' started to dim as the hold that she had on his hand started to weaken.

Five started to panic, "no no no no no. Jemma! Please, stay awake!"

Jemma was gone.

The blonde's large, round, vacant eyes stared up at him. The haunting dull blue iris were no doubt going to sear themselves into Five's brain.

Now, he was alone. All alone.